For countless generations, adults have thought they could talk around the juves and they couldn't hear or understand. They were wrong; kids always eavesdrop (this, of course, is how they get most of their information). But things have changed an awful lot over the last decade. Parents spend a lot less time around their kids in 2027 than they used to. A lot of juves are now raised in corporate creches. It's a little harder to eavesdrop than it used to be. A kid's got to hunt down opportunities...

That's why you became a Vidiot, the yogang equivalent of a pirate media, gathering information and disseminating it to the yogang culture. You're the natural evolutionary step from gossips and rumormongers, with the technical wizardry and creativity to compile sounds and images in a compelling and artistic fashion. You get to the truth, and take it to the Street. The tag "Vidiot" spans the whole gamut of the yogang media circus, from the air duct-crawling field correspondent who listens in on boardroom meetings, to the vid-splicing editing technomage, to the freewheeling techbasher who distributes chips to the other kids and breaks into the local mallboards and reprograms them to run the new show. There aer a million stories in the big city, and your Vidiot pals intend to hunt down each and every one.

What You Look Like

You and your Vidiot goboys prefer utilitarian clothing, like colorful jumpsuits with lots of pockets for pens, shotgun mikes, taps, probes, discs, chips, and microcams. Most of you also carry a utility belt or military web harness to handle thier bulkier tools and kits. You consider yourself an artist, and display your creative bent by decking out your jumpsuits with flashy logos, patches, and stencils. You wear your hair wildstyle, the more bizarre the better. Pierced body parts and tattoos are also common.

Subculture

Each Vidiot gang has its own name and particular tag with which it identifies itself to other Vidiot gangs. Your Vidiot gang has its own jumpsuits and logos, and you delight in showing them off any chance you get. Most Vidiot gangs have a specialty or bent: a certain category of story they preferentially cover. Your fellow Vidiots have developed a secret language of gestures with which you can all communicate secretly. This language can be concealed in fancy handshakes or artistic gesticulations, and is essential for communicating secretly in front of the Dead Boys, and in coordinating recording without interrupting the soundtrack. You can carry on two conversations at once: one a meaningless but colorful banal verbal dialog, the other with your hands.

Belonging

Although you got in, you've since found that the Vidiots are one of the hardest groups to join in yogang culture. To gain entrance, you had to convince them that you had the artistic creativity, the predator's insight, and the technical know-how. Once in, a Vidiot is in for life. The only exception is if a Vidiot turns coat to the authorities. In all other cases, the worst that can happen in a Vidiot dispute is that the parties involved will do a barrage of attack vids against each other.

Your Allies and Enemies

The true nemesis of the Vidiots is the ISA, which is the target of your most devastating exposes. It's thanks to the ISA corporate persecution that the gesture language was developed, and also why Vidiot gangs are not more uniform in appearance. Regular police, on the other hand, have no problem with the Vidiots, because the average cop on the street loves nothing better than to see CorpSec hung out to dry every so often.

You and your Vidiot friends often stop on the toes of the Golden- and GlitterKids, smearing their pristine noses in the mud of their lifestyles. These yogangs more than other have reason to hate you, although every yogang has been on the receiving end of a Vidiot story more than once. Since everyone else gets their turn on the hotseat, and since the most common target is the corporate government, other yogangers still treat the Vidiots with respect, if not friendship.

Slang

Cut: finished broadcast piece.

Dap: ritual handshake.

Go to tape: I got the story, let's leave.

Jive: the secret language of gestures.

60 Minutes: as a noun, a field reporter; as a verb, to infiltrate.

Rave: to film, to edit, to produce.

Wrap: it's over, finished.

Yogang Skill: Commo (TECH)

"Vast interwoven network of communications', my butt", you think. It's all just links and wires to you. You know the positions of every comsat in orbit at a moment's notice (Average); every land line, cell link, every V-Term location is at your fingertips (Easy). With your Commo skill you know how to set up hidden cameras, communications lines, secret radio links, coded message lines and data taps anywhere (Average). You know how to eavesdrop with special microphones and rig hidden video links to broadcast to the news networks; if it uses a phone or a camera, you can get a link up (Difficult). Live. Direct. And in your face! (Do you care to comment, sucker?)

If You're a Vidiot

1) Tell me your name, age and sex.

2) Describe what you look like.

3) Besides your V-Trodes, pick four different things from the list below that you are currently carrying:

3-D Field Microvideo (with V-Term links)

50 blank V-cards with V-programmer

DataTap (dataline wiretapper)

Snoopbox (personal privacy device)

Smart Goggles (visual enhancement goggles)

Smart Decrypter (lock opener)

Tech Tool Kit (assorted tools)

50 Datachips (pick what's on them now)

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