D20 cyberpunk/fuuristic settings!

[IssakThePale]

Dead is Dead. Parts is Parts. Dead Guys is Parts.

Hi all-
Cyberpunk rules, including the PC history charts. That made for some excellent fun.
For current CP2020 Related fun you can check out http://www.geocities.com/groundtwenty/ for CYD20. This product, IIRC, comes from the well spring of ideas and concepts that came from the web cyberpunk groups that helped form Emancy - which died out. From everything that I've read, I'd say this a very good conversion. Now if some publisher would review it and decide that it is decent enough to purchase it, give it some editing, rules checking and so forth - you'd have the CP book of the Future.

I have all the Dark Quest CyberStyle rulesets. They have they Prime Rules - all based on the D&D PHB...which makes for some interesting concepts. I think it should be easily switched over to a d20M concept, however it likely didn't sell well enough to put more money into it. They published Net of Dreams (which was their first CyberStyle book - which made things difficult), Bang!Bang!, Grease Monkey, and Prime Rules. Each is $5 at RPGNow.com and for the twenty you'd at least get some ideas.

Living Room Games did Digital Burn. Read a review or two and see if you still buy it. My GirlFIEND bought it for my birthday when it came out. I wish she'd not bought me something I asked for.
I think it was poorly done and overly expensive. I mentioned this to them at GAMA and they said they were'nt going to be re-printing in that style again. I hope not.

Of course nothing in the d20M line currently has that dark and edgy feel to it that Cyberpunk brought forth. Five years later, each time I pass through the airport tunnel I'm reminded of the firefight that took place at the FAA building. There is nothing like placing your CP game in Las Vegas! [sorry..memory rant]
For my group we've just kept playing Cyberpunk 2020. I met Mike at GAMA and he said that he was coming out with CP203X - meaning the setting is sometime in 2030. I really don't think the year should be that soon and like how ShadowRun and CarWars have everything 50-60 years in the future. But I'd still like to see Cyberpunk V3 come out.

 

[Ranger REG]

Re: Re: D20 cyberpunk/fuuristic settings!

A good futuristic setting/game for d20? None, AFAIC. d20 does futuristic stuff very poorly, IMO.

I beg to differ. T20: The Traveller's Handbook (with the upcoming campaign sourcebook) does a d20 Sci-Fi good.

 

[tecnodemon]

Well I am trying to stay away from sapce travel though. Do not to deal with space combat at the moment.
Like I said before, i am looking published works, scifi, dealing with cybernetis and psionics, yet staying on Earth or one planet (no planet hoping). If it is D&D meets cyberpunk, like Shadowrun or something close, then that is for me.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I wish to heaven there were a d20 Shadowrun. I had high hopes for digital burn, but even I was horribly turned off by the reviews.

I think d20 Modern would work very well except for the total lack of cybernetics rules.

4 Color to Fantasy might be a set of rules that would allow you to add cybernetics to another setting. I've certainly found it useful for similar purposes in my own games.

 

[Ranger REG]

I had high hopes for digital burn, but even I was horribly turned off by the reviews.

What reviews? (Cite them.)

 

[IssakThePale]

Digital Burn Reviews

Hi all-
Ranger REG asks for a review? D20Weekly's Matt Pook wrote a review for ther Dec. 25th edition. If you're a member you can see it in their archive. Below is just the last two paragraphs of the review...
"What Digital Burn lacks is any real detail about the cyberpunk genre or how to implement it within a game. It also lacks the bibliography that would help a prospective referee and players alike to get a feel for what is cyberpunk. The experience of reading Digital Burn is underwhelming, and to describe it as "A Resource For A Cybernetic Future" is far from the truth. On its own it is woefully underdeveloped, lacking a fully realized setting and with rules that support both setting and genre in only a limited fashion. For the experienced referee with the time and familiarity with the genre, there is something to play with and develop here, particularly if they combine it with other games or settings. Those with less experience will find Digital Burn a difficult prospect, with no advice on how to run a cyberpunk campaign or how to set one up, no discussion of the genre, and a setting that few would be able to play in.

In the end, Digital Burn fails to deliver. Yes, it provides the promised new advanced classes, feats, and the hundred or so fully detailed cybernetic enhancements, but not the complete setting it promises, nor proper hacking and net running rules. These problems -- when combined with the brevity of the book and its hefty price tag -- should give the potential purchaser much pause for thought, especially if he is just after the few elements that can be extracted from the book: the classes, the cyberware, and the gang and corporation descriptions. With another 50 pages and more development time, it could have been all so different."

I think this is a clear example of what not to do in a Cyberpunk seetting book. It's only 155 pages, thin glossy pages, and costs $35. Not worth it. It really is the pages that make it loose whatever appeal it did have. Each time I do actually open the book - this is the first time since December - I'm afraid I'll rip the pages.

 

[Ranger REG]

That's one. Any more? (I did say reviews ... plural.)

 

[Desdichado]

Re: Re: D20 cyberpunk/fuuristic settings!

A good futuristic setting/game for d20? None, AFAIC. d20 does futuristic stuff very poorly, IMO.

Oh, c'mon! d20 is about a style, not about a time period. How in the world could d20 do futuristic poorly unless it also does medieval poorly?

 

[Arnwyn]

Oh, c'mon! d20 is about a style, not about a time period. How in the world could d20 do futuristic poorly unless it also does medieval poorly?

Easy, but I don't feel like arguing it with you, Dyal. It's just a "style" that doesn't work well, for a myriad of reasons when other systems do it far better, easier, more detailed, and more intuitively. *Again*, IMO (something you certainly aren't going to change).

 

[Desdichado]

Ok, OK, I came off a bit harsh. I don't want to argue either, but I don't understand what about d20 makes it ill suited to future. There's nothing in the rules that is inherently "fantasy medieval": assuming you come up with all new classes. d20 Modern shows a truly fairly generic system, IMO, as long as you assume that the game is going to be relatively action-packed and somewhat cinematic (although I think CoC shows that that can very severaly be toned down adequately.) What system would you rather use for futuristic settings and how are they more suited to those settings than d20?