I was just wondering how many people still play CyberPunk 2020?
Our group plays it and we even have an on-line forum based game.
So are there any other Edgerunners about?
If so:
- What type of runs do you enjoy? (Espionage, Info gathering, Raid, etc. )
- Which Role is your favourite?
- Which Role is your least favourite?
I like to play gutter level Cyberpunk. Small time hoods (nomads, solos, techies and fixers) pulling small jobs like robberies, hijacking and kidnapping while avoiding the law, the mob, and bigger gangsters.
I like Fixers best. All that wheeling and dealing is very much the ethos of CP.
I don't think rockers, medias or cops work unless the campaign is designed specially for them.
I haven't played in probably 10 years. I think the game is too dated nowadays, and I haven't really looked into the new edition to see what's been done with it. Anyway, it was a good game in it's day. The newer cyber stuff gives too many ways to beat the system, though. I remember having a solo with speedware and some kind of splitter that let him aim his two guns independently. With good targeting, he was able to make multiple head shots in a turn. Wicked stuff.
I agree that rockers and media are fun in theory, but if the game isn't catered to them, all they do is a lot of nothing. Heck, even techies and wheelmen are left sitting on their thumbs much of the time. Solos and fixers are fantastic to play, and medtechies usually get a lot of work. Corps and nomads can usually find something useful to do; cops really don't tend to fit in with the rest of the group unless they are going vigilante. Netrunners are mandatory, but in our games they were always NPCs because it takes up too much game time doing one-on-one hacking while the rest of the players sit around bored...
We eventually got a little burned out on the lack of varieties for our missions: steal something, deliver something, kill someone, protect someone, yadda yadda yadda. It takes a creative GM to mix things up enough, and to make the inevitable double-crosses less predictable. But I guess that's pretty much the same for any RPG: it all hinges on what the GM brings to the game.
Netrunners? Yeah tell me about it! I played one under 2013 rules. But after that we just used NPCs too.
I'm burned out on betrayals too. I got to the point where I was considering taking the advance then wasting the Mr Johnson (yeah I know that's a Shadowrun term :) )
I think Cyberpunk worked best when it wasn't just about the mission. With some soap opera elements, or even just conflicting goals within the group, you get characters who don't just sit around waiting for missions.
Actually, one of my favorite CyberPunk campaigns was in an open format where the GM didn't always have missions set up. The characters were completely bloodthirsty and mercenary, and they were willing to do ANYthing to make a eurobuck. For example, they formed a temporary "organization" called Corpse Corps that delivered fresh bodies to ripper docs. In a particularly ambitious move, our netrunner diverted cyanide from the San Angeles county prison system (intended for death row executions), which then was used in the ventilation system of an entire arcology. With a few rented trucks and linear frame exoskeletons, we cleared all of the bodies from the entire place within a few hours in the early morning. Of course, our ripper doc customer wasn't prepared for so much "inventory" at once, and we ended up being paid with a bunch of counterfeit eb, but that's another story...
This is the kind of thing that can make for great games, just based on the plotting of the characters. Then it's up to the GM to roll with some improvisation and keep things moving, and to work in some snags to overcome. Of course, it also takes some motivated players who want to actually make up the story on their own, and sometimes it's hard to come up with that great combination.
Ya, we've also relegated the corps, netrunners, media and rockers to NPCs as well.
I find that the nomads/gangbangers, cops(P.I.s, corp cops that want to make a difference, etc), fixers, solos and techs (either type) can all function as a good team.
True to the original spirit of the game, we play it as "style over substance" and often they talk their way out of problems... in my game, when guns get pulled lots of people, and PCs, die.
We have augmented the game and tried to keep the tech bleeding edge, so that they play in the near future, we've added a lot of anime and sci-fi elements to the game as well... we've added occult stuff, but not magic, and we had a few games where quasi-time travel happened (the team got cryo-ed and were thawed decades later)
We have a great deal of fun with it and for when we can't get together we have the on-line forum based game!
I've looked over v3 and I'm not so impressed, it has the feel of a video game and not an RPG.
I'm surprised R. Talsorian hasn't done up a CyberPunk 2040 yet -- just clean up the 2020 system and refresh the timeline to meet up with modern day. All they need to do is compile all of the tech & cyberware, edit it for some friggin' game balance for once, and release it in a few thick sourcebooks. It wouldn't take much to revamp the game and make it appear fresh again. I've flipped through the v3 book, and thought it looked ridiculously lame with all of those photos of ACTION FIGURES instead of artwork. How on earth am I to take the game seriously? It's supposed to be about a dark future where technology replaces morality, where life is cheap and money only comes to the ruthless. And they have me looking at ACTION FIGURES on every other page?!?
The old system is great! It just needs a minor rewrite and some new artwork. Repackage the old material and clean it up a bit. Fix some of the classes we mentioned (especially the netrunner) to make them more playable. Make the prices work (I love the old cell phone costs particularly...) And voila! It would be beautiful and there would instantly be loads of people interested. Too bad they want to reinvent the wheel each time they re-release the game. Anyone remember the Fuzion with the Hero system? Or that Cyber Generations B.S.? Why can't they just stick to what works - just pull the old material together (like Paranoia did), and make it appealing to today's gamers?
I played Cyberpunk 2020 back in the day. Had a nomad tricked out with class stuff so he was basically a solo. Didn't have a lot of cyber either, but I leveled the playing field with a belt of EMP grenades and a Monokatana. When I can turn off your arms, legs, eyes and whatnot, then hit you with a blade that THIRDS, not halves, your armor, you're dead.
I never got to play cybergenerations, but I wanted to. I played a solo type briefly in v.3. I get a kick out of the old gamers that bitch about how they changed Cyberpunk. C'mon, it was the 80's view of the future. To update that with a nanopunk vision of the future as seen from now only makes sense. Cybernetics are an old idea compared to nano and bioengineering. Can you imagine a sci fi fan bitching because Star Wars and Star Trek had ships without fins, and rayguns without rings?
As for the action figure pics in the v.3 book, I too would've preferred actual art. However, I'm an action fig collector, and I appreciated what they did on a level that only a collector could. My biggest bitch about that book was all the typos and missing stats for guns that were listed. Even the errata on the official page didn't cover it all. I guess we should be glad Mike got the book out at all, considering how late it was.
I would love to play Cyberpunk Generations or v.3 if anybody is running anything around Sioux Falls, SD.