To build a cyberpunk world, start with a technology people need, decide who controls it, then follow its benefits and costs into work, housing, public space, and personal relationships. Finish with a character who must make a choice inside that system. A skyline supplies atmosphere; a chain of consequences makes the world usable for a story or game.
This is a design exercise, not a checklist every cyberpunk work must satisfy. The subscription-body-parts city below is an original example created for this article. It is not a setting from Ghost Terminal.
Step 1: Choose one useful technology
Begin with a benefit rather than a threat. In our example city, replaceable body parts are available through a monthly subscription. A damaged hand can be repaired quickly; a worker can return to a job without waiting for a custom part. That benefit explains why residents accept the system.
Set a limit as well. Parts need maintenance and an authorization signal. Without those limits, the subscription has little effect on daily life. The point is not to invent every technical specification. It is to know which action the technology enables and which dependency comes with it.
Step 2: Give control to someone specific
A company owns the parts and the authorization service. A clinic installs them, but cannot change the contract. The city government accepts the company's access records as proof that a resident is fit for certain jobs. These three institutions have different powers; treating them as one vague evil would make the setting harder to understand.
Ask who can approve, refuse, repair, appeal, and leave. In this city, a resident can request a replacement part, but disputed fees go through the company that issued them. A competing clinic may offer repair yet lack authorization to run the part. Those rules create conflict without requiring every employee to act cruelly.
Step 3: Trace costs across the city
The subscription affects more than the body. A warehouse hires people with a current hand license because its tools expect that interface. A cheaper apartment is far from an authorized clinic. Transit gates reserve a fast route for workers whose employer pays for the premium tier. Private guards can see whether a license is current, but not whether a payment dispute is valid.
Now map who benefits. A well-paid employee receives immediate maintenance and can change jobs. A contract courier must keep taking shifts to cover the subscription. Someone who refuses the system may still find work, but fewer employers accept them. The same technology offers real help and distributes its costs unequally.
Step 4: Test a single day
Our courier's hand develops a fault before a delivery. The clinic can fix it, but the employer's last payment is under review. The warehouse gate rejects the courier's work credential while the hand still functions for ordinary tasks. A colleague lends a manual cart. At the end of the shift, the courier has to choose whether to accept a new contract that clears the fee but extends the employer's control.
This short sequence tests several rules at once: what the device does, who owns access, how a dispute is handled, and what alternatives remain. If the courier could simply walk to a free clinic with no consequence, the supposed system would have little weight. If every route were blocked, the character would have no meaningful choice.
Step 5: Leave room for people and change
Residents do not all respond alike. A repair cooperative might document faults and help people challenge fees. A clinic worker could quietly explain the appeal process. A manager may believe the subscription genuinely keeps employees safe. These positions make the city more than a diagram of oppression.
Before writing more lore, try these questions on your own setting:
- What useful problem does the technology solve?
- Who owns it, repairs it, and can withdraw access?
- How do its costs differ across jobs and neighborhoods?
- What ordinary task becomes difficult when it fails?
- What can one person realistically change, and what requires others?