Anyone playing Cyberpunk 2020?

Hmm... because Shadowrun is so bad of a system in any edition that even Shadowrun players will admit it's that bad. No, seriously, it's like this:

>GURPS Sucks
>Followed by long ranting shitposts and baits and arguments on why Gurps is Good, Bad, Hitler, SJW, or varying shades of blue.

>Shadowrun Sucks.
>"Yeah, But the lore is good so we keep playing anyway. You have a better system for this that isn't GURPS?

And here we are. Besides, I'm really just Abstracting most racial stuff, besides stat caps. Beyond that it's basically the Night's Edge mechanics.

Though actually, now that I think about it, the Stat Caps are a bad idea, and what I should really do is give two free points automatically allocated in relevant stats in order to keep within the system confines... and possibly give minor cybernetic boosts as racial abilities, and treat them as organic. Thoughts? How would you do races in Cyberpunk 2020, assuming you had to do it?

Honestly, I find Shadowrun 1st edition not bad at all - and it's not more complex than Cyberpunk 2020. That's the only Shadowrun game I ever DMd so I cannot speak about the later editions from a DM's point of view.

I played two or three times 3rd edition which seemed already much more complex. I went through the 5th edition and quickly put it down. 450 pages of rules, 20 pages of equipment, spells and shit - I wasn't going to do this to me.

Isn't SR1's matrix ruleset completely fucked?

Last time I played it it must have been almost twenty years ago and it wasn't the game I played the most. Giving you a detailed answer is difficult, but I will try. I remember that I found it to be better and clearer than Cyberpunk 2020's netrunning system.

Shadowrun 1st Ed.'s matrix system was like a mini dungeon crawl, where the netrunner would start at the entry port and would move it's way through the system, passing different kinds of nodes (entry port, memory module, CPU, slave modules...), until you found what you were looking for. Node could be protected by some kind of ICE. Visualizing the whole thing was much more easy than visualizing the interior of a datafortress in Cyberpunk 2020, as each node would be like a separate room.

Where it sucks, but that's from our point of view 20 years later, is the whole system is wire-based. Wi-Fi doesn't exist. You want to go in the matrix, you have to jack in.

I was meaning the actual rules content itself. /srg/ has it that the 1e matrix rules are actually broken, and don't work properly.

>/srg/ has it that the 1e matrix rules are actually broken
I've only ever heard it said that "Everyone else, go get pizza and come back while the decker does stuff" is terrible for play.

For what we used them, they worked. I didn't remember any blatant flaw. Maybe if we had been a diehard Shadowrun group we would have noticed something. What is sure, on the other hand, is that the rules, even flawed, are still much better than Cyberpunk 2020's netrunning system. And I say this as a Cyberpunk 2020 fanboy, which breaks my heart.

That said, there is no cyberpunk RPG that has a good netrunning system - they all fucking suck!

How else are you going to do it, though? You've gotta run a side session, limiting decking while the other players are about to just what you can get out of the Menu or your system's equivalent, or you've got to have it all resolved in a roll or two, in which case being able to deck properly should be a pretty small investment, otherwise you've put a bunch of resources into something that's going to be one or two rolls occasionally.

>You've gotta run a side session, limiting decking while the other players are about to just what you can get out of the Menu or your system's equivalent, or you've got to have it all resolved in a roll or two, in which case being able to deck properly should be a pretty small investment
Would you say the same thing about the street sam, face, or mage? I don't have a better system on hand, but you're stuck in a false dichotomy.

>you're stuck in a false dichotomy.
>he says, being unable to even suggest a way of getting out of it
Actually, the face is pretty similar. Either you're doing talk-man-stuff, in which case everybody shuts the fuck up and lets you get on with it, or you're doing I don't know, leadership or some shit in combat, but still not really contributing that much unless you built around doing so.

Mages can do all sorts of different shit, so it's totally different. Street Sam/Solo, unless you're Combat Autist you've probably got shit you can do outside of combat. And everybody else can contribute when you're doing combat stuff, if you don't murderblender everything before they get a chance to.

Really, it's a problem with SR encouraging really narrow specialisation.

...which brings us full circle to the fact that Shadowrun is indeed unsuitable to run Shadowrun with. Hence, why I'm trying out 2020 with a little finagling.

Have you tried looking at the bio-sculpting sit from Chromebook 2? The ones that let you turn yourself into a dog-person? There's literally an Ork one.

Will definitely take a look now.

See, 5e provides a third option, but I don't like suggesting it. Then there are other systems, like Corporation, but that's for playing the other side of the field to shadowrunning. So I'm unwilling, not unable.

In Cyberpunk 2020 it is exactly the same. Players wait for the netrunner to do his stuff (and it takes time). It's something you cannot avoid, and players simply have to accept it. If a group splits, one part will do stuff, and the other will have to wait their turn. RPGs work like this, they aren't MMORPGs.

By knowing the system and avoiding rule lawyering you can minimize those "downtimes" to a minimum. If your players are intelligent, they will use the time you spend with the netrunner or the party that split to evaluate clues, make strategies, etc. If they are just moaning: "It's boring, I want to shoot people..." like annoying kids, just send them to smoke a cigarette, prepare lunch or clean your kitchen.

>like Corporation
Which does not have cyberspace.

>5e provides a third option
No it fucking doesn't.

I used a very modified version of Cyberpunk 2020. Most mods came from the Black Hammer Cyberpunk Project's website. Mods got changed over time as my sources of inspiration changed.

Here's what I used exactly:

>Character Sheet
4-page character sheet: ambient.ca/cpunk/downloads.html

>Character
Classless character creation system (home made)
Strength stat: ambient.ca/cpunk/stats.html
Luck stat: ambient.ca/cpunk/luck.html
Humanity: ambient.ca/cpunk/change.html
Martial arts: ambient.ca/cpunk/martialarts.html (dropped it entirely for a modified system fitting better with MMA)

>Equipment
Armor: ambient.ca/cpunk/armorsys.html (used a modified version of it with lowered SP levels, finally dropped it for a simple armor list)
Drug production: ambient.ca/cpunk/drugprod.html
Drugs: ambient.ca/cpunk/drugs.html, ambient.ca/cpunk/drugs2.html, ambient.ca/cpunk/realdrugs.html
Cyberware: ambient.ca/cpunk/blackhammercyber.html
Ammunition: ambient.ca/cpunk/ammo.html

>Combat
Initiative: ambient.ca/cpunk/initiative2.html (used a modified version of it)
Firearm combat: ambient.ca/cpunk/firearms.html (used it, and then reverted back to a modified version of the basic system)
Used a modified version of Hit location: ambient.ca/cpunk/hitlocations.html (used it, then modified it, and finally reverted back to a modified version of the basic system)

I never went too much into detail with the background. It used the Cyberpunk 2020 background without much changes (USA going to shit, EU becoming the no. 1 world power, Middle East Meltdown, Lat Am Conflict...). In term of aesthetics it evolved from 1980-1990s cyberpunk (see file attached) to 1990-2000s cyberpunk (will attach it in next post).

The 1990-2000s cyberpunk is the one I played the most. My main sources of inspiration were gothic/industrial fashion and Japanese art (manga/anime). The characters moved from the Rick Deckard look, to the Neo look.

In all the excitement I uploaded a wrong file in . Here's the correct updated file.

In the Depths of karma, a Biotech research and development company the future of Combat awaits, grown in rows of tanks, the 313 "Malice" Stormer is ready for Security Market, and for the bidding of Karma's sinister master.
Maximum limits:
BOD10, REF9, MA9, INT5, TECH5, ATT5, EMP5, COOL10, LUK5
Skill:
Solo or Cop, though Karma also trains them to be Corporates and Media for their own bizarre reasons.
Extras:
Bioregeneration-Regenerates 1HP on everybody part per round
Claws-treat as Rippers: d6+3, AP=Knife
Requires x3 daily calories of adult human
Sterile and maximum lifespan of 20 years
Indoctrinated to serve Karma

I can't play CP2020 with a straight face anymore given its predictions versus how the world actually turned out only 3 years away from the game's setting.

So I don't. And the rules suck.

Then, get out of my thread!

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I like my cyberpunk set in a near future, so we still can have some reference to now. If it's set too much in the future and things are too different, immersion and techno-shock aren't as strong.

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Cyberpunk had a very tedious combat and chase mechanic. It wasn't fun in either of those regards.

The story telling component of it led to some truly great sessions though.

>Given how it was wrong for what happens in 3 years

Man, Blade Runner must really piss you off considering that took place in 2019.

I'm wondering if we're speaking about the same game.

>tedious combat
You must have played with a shitty DM. Because combat is definitely not tedious. There are a few rolls to make, but if the DM isn't a complete clueless moron and the players don't have the attention span of a gold fish, combat is fast and furious - even with multiple protagonists.

>chase mechanic
Where did you see chase mechanics?

Fuck off, don't mix gneras, Cyberpunk is perect without your fantasy bullshit

We're not too far of having robotic sex dolls: realbotix.systems

>bad spelling
>thinks bioengineered monsters aren't cyberpunk
Is this bait?
Am I been had?

>Fuck off, don't mix genres, Cyberpunk is perfect without your British horror-fantasy bullshit

In his defense I'd say that if it's genetic engineering, it isn't fantasy. Also, cyberpunk isn't hard science-fiction. Psy powers and weird stuff is often found in cyberpunk literature and art - especially in Japanese cyberpunk where it's almost the rule rather than the exception.

>British horror-fantasy bullshit
okay, the fantasy remark I could understand (monsters are a foundational part of it)
But what is he referring to here?

That's a playable race from classic early-90s British (Glaswegian in particular) Horror-Science fiction game SLA Industries.

The 313 'Malice' Stormer was a hideously unbalanced yet fun race of grown shocktroops for the titular evil corporation that employed the player characters, which could include them, Space magic/psychic elves, Evil pace magic/psychic evil, predators, cat-lizard people and drug-addled Scotsmen besides regular humans.

More commercial and focused on unexplainable body horror and conspiracies than Cyberpunk 2020

Can we get back to Cyberpunk?

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Speaking of biological monstrosities in cyberpunk, does anyone have any good pics of ones, especially dog-based ones? (ideally in an alley, or failing that, a lab)

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Nothing original

Apart of Resident Evil's dogs and lickers, I see nothing.

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