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Cyberpunk Red (I didn't know it was out!)
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8228172" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>Sure, but in real life they're not routinely ordering cover-ups of mass-killings or malfunctions that killed thousands or sending corporate kill squads to kill people or having enemy corporate kill squads arrive to kill them and so on. When I look at the execs that have been involved in that kind of thing IRL (who are particularly common in petrochemicals and chemicals in general - as well as mining - that's who tends to get involved with mass killing and so on), they do skew considerably towards the sociopathic end of the scale. You also have your Elon Musks and Steve Jobses and so on, who definitely had significant social uh... issues... and do/did not act like normal people.</p><p></p><p>If I look at the multi-billion-dollar firm I work at, because of my odd role I sometimes interact with extremely senior people (and did at my previous firm though that was less than half a billion turnover), and it's all over the place - some of the most senior people are extremely personable, some are... eccentric...</p><p></p><p>But we're talking a massive exaggeration of that and massive stresses these guys won't be facing, and opportunities to screw yourself up that we don't have in the real world. IRL, if you don't speak a language, you get a translator or whatever, there's a limit to what you can do. In Cyberpunk, you can have a hole put into your skull and wires put into your brain so you can slot chips which override your brain so you can understand, which is a bit more extreme. IRL, fashion might mean buying from a specific designer, and you might need to work to keep in shape to wear it. In Cyberpunk, it might mean chopping off your arm or leg so you can have a cyberlimb by THE designer of the year. And so on.</p><p></p><p>People crack under the stress IRL, and go to crazy lengths to try and get some sanity - and IRL, you can step away from a corporation for a year, have a sabbatical, and at the high end, your job will still be there. In Cyberpunk? Hah, unless you're Saburo Arasaka, no chance. Even for people close to him in stature it's a big risk. So the opportunity to destress is way less.</p><p></p><p>And with a larger number of smaller corporations, you're going to have a lot more competition, which is good for business for the players, but is going to further boot stress into the stratosphere for the corporate executives. Sheesh, becoming an edgerunner might actually lower the stress you're under.</p><p></p><p>(As an aside, Cyberpunk 2077's Corporate start does a kind of great/amazing job of showing how high-pressure/terrifying that environment would be - I was genuinely impressed. It's kind of the shortest and least-involved start but also I think the most intense.)</p><p></p><p>I'm kind of talking myself into running Red now, I just need a system. I looked at Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE), which I've heard of people using, but oof, the official Sprawlrunner supplement is hopeless, 17 pages on magic (...in a cyberpunk setting book... I mean I know Shadowrun is a thing but like 6 of those pages are just over-long stats for elementals), 5 pages on cyberware. SWADE's priorities are messed-up there, like severely messed-up. Maybe Interface 3.0 would be better but I'm loathe to buy it given Sprawlrunner was so bad. Also I'm not sure SWADE is that much easier to run than Cyberpunk Red itself. I kind of think if I backported Friday Night Firefight into Red that might be better than that. Of course I'd much rather use a PtbA/BitD or Resistance-based game or something (maybe FATE but I love the idea and then the practice always rubs me the wrong way), but The Sprawl isn't the right tool for the job (it's cool but lacks the specificity to make it sing). Hmmm. One thing Red has going for it is I guarantee I could get my players to go for it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8228172, member: 18"] Sure, but in real life they're not routinely ordering cover-ups of mass-killings or malfunctions that killed thousands or sending corporate kill squads to kill people or having enemy corporate kill squads arrive to kill them and so on. When I look at the execs that have been involved in that kind of thing IRL (who are particularly common in petrochemicals and chemicals in general - as well as mining - that's who tends to get involved with mass killing and so on), they do skew considerably towards the sociopathic end of the scale. You also have your Elon Musks and Steve Jobses and so on, who definitely had significant social uh... issues... and do/did not act like normal people. If I look at the multi-billion-dollar firm I work at, because of my odd role I sometimes interact with extremely senior people (and did at my previous firm though that was less than half a billion turnover), and it's all over the place - some of the most senior people are extremely personable, some are... eccentric... But we're talking a massive exaggeration of that and massive stresses these guys won't be facing, and opportunities to screw yourself up that we don't have in the real world. IRL, if you don't speak a language, you get a translator or whatever, there's a limit to what you can do. In Cyberpunk, you can have a hole put into your skull and wires put into your brain so you can slot chips which override your brain so you can understand, which is a bit more extreme. IRL, fashion might mean buying from a specific designer, and you might need to work to keep in shape to wear it. In Cyberpunk, it might mean chopping off your arm or leg so you can have a cyberlimb by THE designer of the year. And so on. People crack under the stress IRL, and go to crazy lengths to try and get some sanity - and IRL, you can step away from a corporation for a year, have a sabbatical, and at the high end, your job will still be there. In Cyberpunk? Hah, unless you're Saburo Arasaka, no chance. Even for people close to him in stature it's a big risk. So the opportunity to destress is way less. And with a larger number of smaller corporations, you're going to have a lot more competition, which is good for business for the players, but is going to further boot stress into the stratosphere for the corporate executives. Sheesh, becoming an edgerunner might actually lower the stress you're under. (As an aside, Cyberpunk 2077's Corporate start does a kind of great/amazing job of showing how high-pressure/terrifying that environment would be - I was genuinely impressed. It's kind of the shortest and least-involved start but also I think the most intense.) I'm kind of talking myself into running Red now, I just need a system. I looked at Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE), which I've heard of people using, but oof, the official Sprawlrunner supplement is hopeless, 17 pages on magic (...in a cyberpunk setting book... I mean I know Shadowrun is a thing but like 6 of those pages are just over-long stats for elementals), 5 pages on cyberware. SWADE's priorities are messed-up there, like severely messed-up. Maybe Interface 3.0 would be better but I'm loathe to buy it given Sprawlrunner was so bad. Also I'm not sure SWADE is that much easier to run than Cyberpunk Red itself. I kind of think if I backported Friday Night Firefight into Red that might be better than that. Of course I'd much rather use a PtbA/BitD or Resistance-based game or something (maybe FATE but I love the idea and then the practice always rubs me the wrong way), but The Sprawl isn't the right tool for the job (it's cool but lacks the specificity to make it sing). Hmmm. One thing Red has going for it is I guarantee I could get my players to go for it. [/QUOTE]
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