Cyberpunk Genre RPGs

Len · Jun 20, 2019

LordEntrails said:
Really helps me narrow it to 2020 or SR 3 or 5. I'll have to read some setting materials to see if I'm comfortable with the races and magic in SR.

You can definitely have Shadowrun without the elves & magic, as long as you're not running adventures that require those elements. My group played a Shadowrun / XCOM campaign that started out with no metahumans (although they came in later via alien shenannigans).

Xaelvaen · Jun 20, 2019

I'll specifically add Shadowrun: Anarchy. My group liked it considerably better than Shadowrun 5E.

LordEntrails · Jun 20, 2019

Xaelvaen said:
I'll specifically add Shadowrun: Anarchy. My group liked it considerably better than Shadowrun 5E.

Ooh? What's this Anarchy you speak of?
(Google...) Ah, a rules-lite narrative based version.

Did you like SR:A better because of the setting or the narration basis or was SR5E too crunchy or...?

LuisCarlos17f · Jun 20, 2019

Cyberpunk is a clear example about how the sci-fi get old very bad. Today new generations miss a lot of current technology what doesn't appear in older works.

Cyberpunk isn't only about the bad use of the technology, but about the society and how we could go to a dystopian, but today people are changed their ideas about the true causes of this dystopia, and the great difference between Detroit in the Robocop movies and from the real life.

In the RPGs the "neopunk" is going to be replaced by the transhumanism, with the digital immortality and mind transfer, and that changes the gameplay very much. "Cyberpunk 2020" is going to be killed by Eclipse Phase, the game where the crunch is the wet dream of munchkins but this doesn't avoid an all-party-killed game.

* Were there rules about genetic engineering for "transgenic" humanoids in Cyberpunk 2020? Have you thought about the impact if we find the secret of eternal youth and the retirement by old wouldn't be necessary? To find a new job would be harder for just linceced, and the ascend in the company when the boss always will be there but if he want to create his own new businessmen.

* Shadowrun has got a better future because it adds fantasy, and this allows a "softer" style and more options for new adventures and plots.

* In the speculative fiction megacorporations can be antagonist factions, but if we abuse this cliché, then the settings become boring. We need different types of villains. And for God's love! I don't want that type of crazy characters like Dolph Lugren's one in the movie of Johnny Mnemonic. They are really annoying. When was the last time of a villain like Cuervo Jones in "Escape from L.A".

* Have you thought about stories set in arcologies (mega skyscrapers) as micro-states with their own laws and sovereignty (in the former region of a now failed state), created and controlled by megacorporations?

Bagpuss · Jun 20, 2019

LuisCarlos17f said:
* Were there rules about genetic engineering for "transgenic" humanoids in Cyberpunk 2020? Have you thought about the impact if we find the secret of eternal youth and the retirement by old wouldn't be necessary? To find a new job would be harder for just linceced, and the ascend in the company when the boss always will be there but if he want to create his own new businessmen.

Biotechnology was in some of the later Chrome books, same as in Shadowrun. But transhuman was mainly about going to full conversion 'borgs, brain-in-a-box type thing. The in scenario "Never fade away", in Cyberpunk 2013, Alt Cunningham, a netrunner and girlfriend of Johnny Silverhand, invented the Soul Killer virus that could create a digital version of somebodies mind. It was used on herself and she became the A.I. "Alt" which featured significantly in setting (a poster of her was on a wall in the original announcement movie trailer for Cyberpunk 2077).

LuisCarlos17f · Jun 20, 2019

If digital immortality and mind transfer are canon in Cyberpunk, this could open some doors for new stories. For example a penal colony, controlled by a micro-state (really a mega-corporation whose CEO are former politicians enjoying their revolving doors) where the prisoners has suffered a manipulation of their memories. Really they are innocent political prisoners, but they believe they are true criminals with blood in their hands. Somebody is blackmailed by a crime he didn't committed because it only was a virtual simulation in the space... or the memories are from a surrogate, a remote-control android leaded by other person, the true criminal. Do you remember the movies "Criminal" with Kevin Costner or "Self/less" with Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley?

In Cyberpunk 2077 the ectogenesis would be possible, but this isn't the best place to talk about this matter.

Ilya Bossov · Jun 20, 2019

As a person who has written my own PbtA hack for Shadowrun, I'll go ahead and recommend Shadowrun 3rd edition. It was the last "good one", arguably.

Although, Shadowrun in general is a bad fit for your needs. You're looking at cyberpunk themes with no magic, and Shadowrun's approach to vehicles and hacking is notoriously clunky.

Every Shadowrun game is house ruled. Prove me wrong.

Xaelvaen · Jun 20, 2019

LordEntrails said:
Did you like SR:A better because of the setting or the narration basis or was SR5E too crunchy or...?

Both, to be honest. We really loved the tinkering that came from 4th and 5th edition; upgrading guns, weapons, cars, etc. However, Anarchy still allows that with more player agency. It's not quite so hard and meticulous to do all the fiddling about. It also includes mechanics specifically -for- more narrative play, letting players alter the narrative in unique and interesting ways.

I'll openly admit, with all Shadowrun products, you have to thoroughly read the book because the layout is pretty bad. But between the rules of SR: Anarchy and the lore and flavor of Shadowrun, it really placed us in the setting.

Umbran · Jun 20, 2019

Ilya Bossov said:
As a person who has written my own PbtA hack for Shadowrun, I'll go ahead and recommend Shadowrun 3rd edition. It was the last "good one", arguably.

I have played a lot of Shadowrun in my day. And I'd say.. go either 2nd edition or 5th. Do not bother with 3 or 4. If you want a bit of retro-future - what the past thought future technology would be like, go with 2nd. If you want a game that does a nod to understanding wireless technology, go with 5th, but be ready for people to be so paranoid that they won't use the technology in question, because it makes them too vulnerable.

In general, don't play Shadowrun unless you are okay with 2 rounds of combat taking an hour or more. I'd also say that while you *can* use Shadowrun without its magical elements, that's kind of like going to Friendly's, but not getting ice cream. The magical elements are what make the system worth putting up with, IMHO. And removing the magic basically means you can't use most of the setting, or any of the published adventures...

At the moment, I'm thinking of doing a Savage Worlds port of Shadowrun, largely because the Shadowrun setting is top notch, but the system is a burden.