Looking for a Cyberpunk Genre Game

[Ralif Redhammer]

Of what you've listed, I'd go with Cy_Borg. It's recognizably cyberpunk, but incorporates enough of its own heavy metal thing into it to stand out.

 

[MGibster]

Ouch! Did you keep the old books?

I've got a physical copy of Cyberpunk 2020 and (legal) digital copies of pretty much the entire 2020 library. And, boy, was I surprised to find they published far fewer 2020 books than I remembered.

Yup. The future moves fast, especially in 2077. Try Modos 2, which has two features that would be great for cyberpunk, and one that isn't:

I'll check out Modos 2, thanks.

I find that funny because I bought RED all excited (based on CP2077) and decided never to play it because it looked like they didn't bother to make any changes from CP2020. It isn't 1990 anymore.

You end up in a funnny place when you're trying to maintain continuity of any kind. But I guess R. Talsorian Games could have used the advance as an opportunity to update the "future" in a way that combined what has already been published with advancements made since 1991. I don't really mind a retro future type game though. What I disliked was what I saw as a stupid economy that made no sense, the rules were poorly implemented, and I disliked some of the special abilities given to the various roles. The Nomad's special ability is they get a vehicle. Not even a good vehicle. Great, this is a game where looking cool is important and my special ability is to be the group's chauffeur.

 

[Reynard]

You end up in a funnny place when you're trying to maintain continuity of any kind. But I guess R. Talsorian Games could have used the advance as an opportunity to update the "future" in a way that combined what has already been published with advancements made since 1991. I don't really mind a retro future type game though. What I disliked was what I saw as a stupid economy that made no sense, the rules were poorly implemented, and I disliked some of the special abilities given to the various roles. The Nomad's special ability is they get a vehicle. Not even a good vehicle. Great, this is a game where looking cool is important and my special ability is to be the group's chachauffeur

I was talking about the rules. They needed a complete overhaul.

 

[MGibster]

I was talking about the rules. They needed a complete overhaul.

The rules were a major point of contention for me and my players. Friday Night Firefight from 2020 needed some work, but what they ended up with in Red wasn't it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The Nomad's special ability is they get a vehicle. Not even a good vehicle. Great, this is a game where looking cool is important and my special ability is to be the group's chauffeur.

That was one thing that I immediately had to tamp down when I started running Cyberpunk Red. I would ask driving-related questions, and immediately other people would start making decisions for the Nomad, treating the car like a communal item. Now I specifically ask that character what they are doing with their car when the party is driving around.

 

[MGibster]

That was one thing that I immediately had to tamp down when I started running Cyberpunk Red. I would ask driving-related questions, and immediately other people would start making decisions for the Nomad, treating the car like a communal item. Now I specifically ask that character what they are doing with their car when the party is driving around.

We didn't have a Nomad among my group of players, but they were just like, "Hey, let's steal a car. We're criminals!" Given the way the economy works, that you can sell used item for the full price it's listed as in the book, it makes more sense to be a car thief than it does to be an edge runner. I know on some forums, they say cars are so rare that stealing them is difficult but I can't reconcile that with a modern city. Anyway, it beats having the PCs use public transportation to move to and from their crime scenes.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

We didn't have a Nomad among my group of players, but they were just like, "Hey, let's steal a car. We're criminals!" Given the way the economy works, that you can sell used item for the full price it's listed as in the book, it makes more sense to be a car thief than it does to be an edge runner. I know on some forums, they say cars are so rare that stealing them is difficult but I can't reconcile that with a modern city. Anyway, it beats having the PCs use public transportation to move to and from their crime scenes.

The party has floated this idea, and I am so excited for them to try at some point. With the borked supply chain of the Time of the Red, the way I'm running it is that only corpos, well-funded gangs, and nomads have cars (or at least, cars worth stealing - someone might give you a few eddies for that junker Toyota Camry with the kludged CHOOH2 conversion). Even if the fixer can find someone to buy the car, you can bet that none of those three groups will be willing to just let it go if they find out.

 

[pablomaz]

I've heard a rather lot of people who think its the worst edition to date. Including people who disliked 4e and 5e.

I played a little 2e a long, long time ago, and I tried to get into SR again when the 5e Brazilian edition came out (2017, IIRC). I never played 5e, and I still haven't played 6e, but 6e looks better IMO. It was well received in the Brazilian SR community at least. Things could be much better though.

 

[pablomaz]

I do think Carbon 2185 is good for folks who have trouble getting their groups to play anything but D&D. However, you are very correct in the 5E mechanics making it feel like reskinned D&D. I even had a GM who said, "guys these punks are just the goblins of carbon 2185..."

Yeah, it didn't work for me. I participated in the KS, I read it, but I never played.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, it didn't work for me. I participated in the KS, I read it, but I never played.

Reworked 5e to other genres is one of those things that really works for the people it does, and leaves pretty much everyone else going "Uh, okay, if you guys like it this way, but..." I mean this isn't the first case of that kind of thing--it occurred with 3e and sometimes PF1e too, but a lot of the uses in those seemed, well, mighty odd too.