MGibster
Legend
I went down to my friendly local game store yesterday and saw a shiny new copy of Cyberpunk Red. I always had a great time with the original Cyberpunk games back in the day, 2013 and 2020, and couldn't resist the siren call and happily made my purchase. The first thing I noticed when I opened the book was the font on the table of contents. I don't typically notice something like fonts but it looked so much like the font used in Cyberpunk 2020 that it really brought back a flood of memories. I haven't read through the entire book yet so this isn't really a review so much as thoughts I'm having as I do read through it.
So let's talk about Humanity, it's loss, and cyberpsychosis. For those of you who are new to Cyberpunk, characters have a statistic (attribute) called Empathy which is the "ability to relate to and care for others, and take others into consideration. Particularly important as it offsets the effects of cyberpsychosis, a dangerous mental illness common in the Dark Future." A character's Empathy will determine their starting Humanity which is a "measure of how well you interact with the world and other people in it" which seems rather redundant now that I think about it. Every point of Empathy a character has translates to ten points of Humanity. i.e. If a character has a 5 Empathy they have a Humanity of 50. If they have an 8 Empathy they have an 80 Humanity.
The primary loss of Humanity in Cyberpunk will come from the installation of cyberware (mechanical arms, eyes, or the Mr. Studd Sexual Implant). Each implant comes with a random cost to Humanity. For example a cyberarm will cost the player 2d6 points of Humanity. So when the character gets their arm replaced if they roll a 7 on 2d6 they would subtract that from their Humanity. This might have an impact on their Empathy as well. If they have 70 Humanity and need to subtract 7 for that arm they'd have a 63 Humanity and their Empathy will have gone down from 7 to 6. And of course the lower your Empathy/Humanity gets the more disconnected you feel from other people until the problem is so severe you're in a cyberpsychosis situation.
Cyberpsychosis, or Depersonalization Disorder, is characterized by "feeling detached from one's life, thoughts, and feelings, People with this type of disorder say they feel distant and emotionally unconnected to themselves...they may perceive their body to be a different shape or size than usual...cannot recognize themselves in a mirror." In game terms, a cyberpsychotic character is often, but not always, violent, lacking remorse or guilt, impulsive, and characterized by callousness and a lack of empathy. (These are also traits common among PCs in general, right?)
Cyberpsychosis was always something I had questioned about Cyberpunk even when I was a snot nosed kid who didn't look too deeply at the implications of game mechanics in the games he played. Should a soldier who lost his foot to a mine have his Humanity lowered because he uses an artificial foot? Would an implant designed to correct a damaged nervous system result in the loss of Humanity? According to the rules of Cyberpunk 2020, so far as I can remember them, the answer was yes. But that's changed with Cyberpunk Red.
"Developing cyberpsychosis is not triggered merely by putting in cyberwear. It is the voluntary removal of a functioning body part to replace it with a machine." I'm not quite sure how to work that in from a narrative point of view. In the past, if my character had cyberlimbs I had always figured he had replaced his natural limbs which were damaged beyond repair. But overall I like this a lot better than cyberwear resulting in a loss of Humanity regardless of the situation.
Cyberpunk Red also has the possibility of Humanity loss through mental trauma such as torture, witnessing a horrific death, imprisonment, etc., etc. While I kind of like the addition, I'm not sure how that fits into the game itself. I see how it could fit into the genre, the the game really emphasizes style over substance so this seems like an odd addition in some ways. I wish they had done a little more with it. Perhaps doing some edgerunning for a good cause instead of money might give PCs a boost to their Humanity? Food for thought I guess.
So let's talk about Humanity, it's loss, and cyberpsychosis. For those of you who are new to Cyberpunk, characters have a statistic (attribute) called Empathy which is the "ability to relate to and care for others, and take others into consideration. Particularly important as it offsets the effects of cyberpsychosis, a dangerous mental illness common in the Dark Future." A character's Empathy will determine their starting Humanity which is a "measure of how well you interact with the world and other people in it" which seems rather redundant now that I think about it. Every point of Empathy a character has translates to ten points of Humanity. i.e. If a character has a 5 Empathy they have a Humanity of 50. If they have an 8 Empathy they have an 80 Humanity.
The primary loss of Humanity in Cyberpunk will come from the installation of cyberware (mechanical arms, eyes, or the Mr. Studd Sexual Implant). Each implant comes with a random cost to Humanity. For example a cyberarm will cost the player 2d6 points of Humanity. So when the character gets their arm replaced if they roll a 7 on 2d6 they would subtract that from their Humanity. This might have an impact on their Empathy as well. If they have 70 Humanity and need to subtract 7 for that arm they'd have a 63 Humanity and their Empathy will have gone down from 7 to 6. And of course the lower your Empathy/Humanity gets the more disconnected you feel from other people until the problem is so severe you're in a cyberpsychosis situation.
Cyberpsychosis, or Depersonalization Disorder, is characterized by "feeling detached from one's life, thoughts, and feelings, People with this type of disorder say they feel distant and emotionally unconnected to themselves...they may perceive their body to be a different shape or size than usual...cannot recognize themselves in a mirror." In game terms, a cyberpsychotic character is often, but not always, violent, lacking remorse or guilt, impulsive, and characterized by callousness and a lack of empathy. (These are also traits common among PCs in general, right?)
Cyberpsychosis was always something I had questioned about Cyberpunk even when I was a snot nosed kid who didn't look too deeply at the implications of game mechanics in the games he played. Should a soldier who lost his foot to a mine have his Humanity lowered because he uses an artificial foot? Would an implant designed to correct a damaged nervous system result in the loss of Humanity? According to the rules of Cyberpunk 2020, so far as I can remember them, the answer was yes. But that's changed with Cyberpunk Red.
"Developing cyberpsychosis is not triggered merely by putting in cyberwear. It is the voluntary removal of a functioning body part to replace it with a machine." I'm not quite sure how to work that in from a narrative point of view. In the past, if my character had cyberlimbs I had always figured he had replaced his natural limbs which were damaged beyond repair. But overall I like this a lot better than cyberwear resulting in a loss of Humanity regardless of the situation.
Cyberpunk Red also has the possibility of Humanity loss through mental trauma such as torture, witnessing a horrific death, imprisonment, etc., etc. While I kind of like the addition, I'm not sure how that fits into the game itself. I see how it could fit into the genre, the the game really emphasizes style over substance so this seems like an odd addition in some ways. I wish they had done a little more with it. Perhaps doing some edgerunning for a good cause instead of money might give PCs a boost to their Humanity? Food for thought I guess.