Cyberpunk RPGs

Cyberpunk 2020
>fun, tuned up from 2013, and has all the actual intent of being what it's title is in every way, so that's pretty quintessential. it actually delivers on it's promise of "fuck you be ready or die bitch" so that's good fun too

Shadowrun
>CP2020 except for idiot fucking losers who can't drop their tolkien shit for two seconds. the 3.5 of cyberpunk games with a few good ideas blender-scattered into a trough of shit. like 3.5, undeservingly the most popular

Eclipse Phase
>good but absurdly specific and huge on the idea that tabletops were perfected in the 80s, meaning things like "streamlining" are bad/wrong to them, it looks like. still good, save for the absurd amount of studying you need to do to learn to run it

And one time I ran a BASH!UE game set in a Batman Beyond-type future where literally the first enemies encountered out of the wormhole were Cyber Punks. but that's not really even a rulebook that mentions cyberpunk as a thing anyway

I really like Interface Zero, but I am a fan of the Savage Worlds system, the game does good hacking, drones and cyberaugmentations without slowing the system and leaving just enough space to homebrew stuff.

My major complains are the random adittions of psychics that a lot of sci-fi stories do.
The fluff of the world its made from people that where really inspired from shadowrun, with the random major characters talking and spreading rumors in the fluff section, but I tend to get really bored with it, they tend to focus too much in the story of how the world came to be and what major players are in the area, but they lack in the best stuff that shadowrun did when explaining a new zone: creating a shit ton of hooks and story seeds to make interesting campaigns in those zones.

OP here, I am currently thinking about hacking Barbarians of Lemuria. I'll call it Pink Mohawk until I find a better name for it.

Any ideas for Cyberpunk games *names*?

Interface Zero is my favorite cyberpunk rpg and probably my favorite setting for Savage Worlds (at least until Rifts is released). It's definitely one of the deepest settings for the system, the core book is huge and there is plenty of supplemental material being released. Savage Worlds is known for being a rules simple system ("rules light" is the wrong phrase to use because it's not really light on rules), but Interface Zero really overclocks it; the rules can be pretty deep and gritty if you want it to be. Also extremely easy to create your own content for the system once you're familiar with it.

youtube.com/watch?v=MKWif8TXgTM

This is a very helpful list for someone trying to homebrew their own cyberpunk rpg. Thanks OP

You're welcome. Right now I'm discussing aesthetics with my art student buddy, we found a neat site with great ressources called Neondystopia.

I've been trying to find a cyberpunk game to run for my group, but have been finding issues with everything I come across

I want to avoid retrofuture (CP 2020 out of the question) and instead go for a more modern idea on the future
I'd also like to avoid needing to house rule a fuck ton (Not entirely opposed to this, but it's the main reason I'm hesitant on Gurps)
And I'd like it to be less narrative focused and more mechanically focused. I'm not against a more rules light system, but I'd like there to be enough options for the players to feel like it's a bit more realistic/they can be a bit more tactical

Is there anything that fits the bill?
I was thinking of Shadowrun without magic, Gurps CP, just started looking at Kuro but as OP said it seems very metaplot driven

True story: SLA industries does Dark Heresy better than Dark Heresy does Dark Heresy.

Not really on topic, just a musing I had some years back.

My hack of Barbarians of Lemuria :D
I'll have to start and finish it, and then translate it to engrish, but it should do the job well.

It sounds really dark and gritty, can you tell me more about SLA Industries?

>I'd also like to avoid needing to house rule a fuck ton (Not entirely opposed to this, but it's the main reason I'm hesitant on Gurps)
To be fair, you don't so much need to houserule anything, so much as pick and choose which optional rules you want to use. But hey, if you're not comfortable using GURPS, then who am I to tell you to use it. I like it, but that's me.

From what you're saying though, I'd hazard that Savage Worlds with the Interface 2.0 worldbook is probably going to hit the spot for you. The pdf is hard to find for free, but if you check the share/request thread you might be able to find it.

TL;Dr - GURPS is great for cyberpunk, but if you're not keen then that's cool and Interface 2.0 would probably do what you want.

Sounds like Interface Zero for Savage Worlds. It's a fast, simple system to learn and very easy prep for GM. Not quite as narrative driven as a system like FATE, but the mechanics are easy to wrap your head around. And Interface Zero is sorta like a Shadowrun clone minus the fantasy and magic.

>The pdf is hard to find for free, but if you check the share/request thread you might be able to find it.

>Savage Worlds/Settings/Interface Zero

mega.nz/#F!axkmmbKT!NKiex_659PAGOlaKBbukFA

Awesome, thanks you guys!
I'll definetly read up on it but that sounds good

Why do you prefer Gurps to savage worlds? I've seen some weird stuff on core mechanics with SW that make me a little unsure (initiative and bennies but I think there are work arounds)
I'm open to picking out rules but I'm mostly concerned with needing to rewrite the cyberpunk 3e book for 4e and that it may be a little dated in terms of fluff

Am I being a dumb fuck here or are these valid concerns?

It's been a few years since I read through it, but it's very dark and cynical.

The players are all basically corporate troubleshooters for SLA industries. They have to line up for hours at a time to get a job card, and then go and do the job, and maybe if they don't fuck it up and don't die they'll get to do another maybe slightly harder job.

The media is a big part of the setting, and part of doing the job well is doing it in such a way that it looks like you know what you're doing so the corporate propaganda can help reinforce the idea that all the little drones are safe and sound because they're protected by really competent people.

I like it a lot. Some people think it's too "edgy", but it's a product of its' time (the 90s) and the influence of the oWoD is pretty clear, although way less pretentious.

>I've seen some weird stuff on core mechanics with SW that make me a little unsure (initiative and bennies but I think there are work arounds)

There's different house rules for agility based initiative. This guy Zadmar has a lot of great stuff for the Savage Worlds system.

godwars2.org/SavageWorlds/rules_edges.html#AgilityBasedInitiative

But I've grown a lot of the card initiative. I didn't like it at first, but it lets you do cool stuff with edges when you pull cards like Jokers. Bennies are great too because it gives your players more agency and control rather than being screwed by the randomness. You could always limit bennies though.

I dig GURPS because it's a very clear system that you can change to suit your tastes. I like the way the rules work, and the fact that most things still come back to the core mechanic of 3D6 roll-under. It's pretty gritty at the core, but there's plenty of options for making the PC's lives easier or harder.

You don't need to update anything from 3Rd to 4th - cyberware is all covered between UltraTech and the Basic Set (core), and there's a cyberpunk issue of Pyramid (the GURPS mag) that updates all the hacking rules and makes it much simpler than 3Rd. You can still check out the 3E Cyberpunk book, but it's not a setting so much as a look at the genre. There's fuck all rules in it, and like I mentioned, all of them have been updated between UT, Basic Set, and one issue of Pyramid.

You're both quickly selling me on both, looks like I have a bit of reading to do

Thanks again

I love GURPS, it's an incredibly deep system and the books give you a ton of non-system specific information about the genre that you ideas that can be used in any system. My problem with it is that I have a job and classes to attend (as do my friends); it's very hard for me to find the time to set up and run a game using GURPS, so I prefer faster systems.

This sounds awesome. I don't care about edginess, remember Cyperpunk 2020 has characters like Ripperdoc and Savage Sam or something, and it's still cool.

Not him, but from what I've heard about SLA Industries, it's pretty much "edginess, the game", where as it's but one element of Cyberpunk 2020.

> Homme latino en Robes froufrous et sacs

oh wow, haha... I love French.

...

Out of curiosity, have you ever run anything in Ex Machina?

No, but I've read it. It's a series of 5 short mini-campaign settings, usually very dystopian, without much in the way of rules, systems or even adventures. It's fun inspiration but not what I would call a complete game.

My tastes and experience are quite similar to yours.

Gimme a shout at my email krypter --- hotmail dot dot com and I'll show you the cyberpunk setting I'm working on now.

Rolemaster is a game for rulelawyers. I absolutely hate the game. Every time I tried to play or run it players dug around the books looking up obscure bonuses and penalties to dodge damage. Ugh. The crit tables are funny but it is too much. MERP is a light version of it and works much better.

>47307654 here: it *is* pretty edgy, but it's not as bad as hyperbole would have you believe.

not to be an ass, but I've got to correct you. I ordered the book years ago before it was released, and it's sat on my shelf for well over a decade.

Ex Machina contains the Tri-Stat system (non-d20 version of BESM, without the mecha and anime stuff which doesn't fit the genre), and then four (not five) different settings.

"Underworld" - corporate owned and run 'prisons' which have evolved into corporate-feudalist slum/hive cities. Pretty dank as fuck. Kinda like Mega City One from 2000AD crossed with Alpha Complex from Paranoia (without the fun.)

Sparta/Icarus (Something like that. There's some reference to the maze Daedelus built) - very Mirror's Edge-ish setting; clean, 'utopian' civilisation, where everyone is within one massive 'state', although the 'state' is more conceptual than physical - some people choose to renounce their citizenship and leave, and the borders are redrawn around what they claim as their territory (house/apartment/bedroom). A bit like the first Matrix movie, but with 'the matrix' simply being where the border is drawn. Pretty cool, very different, very 'high-concept' cyberpunk.

I can't really remember the other two. The third involves an orbital beanstalk, and IIRC, lots of gene-modding and stuff. The fourth setting I've completely forgotten. I'd look it up, but the book's not on the shelf with all of my other RPG books, meaning I'd have to go digging around in some storage crates, and desu I'm too fucking tired right now.

Personally, I'm an oldschool player and dm. I like games with classic stats and skills and I have no aversion towards crunch, as long as I don't need to search through books to find the information I need. As such, my cyberpunk game of choice is:

Cyberpunk 2020
>Ran it for years. Very simple and fast system. Yes, there is crunch, but everything you need has clear stats and those stats are written on the character sheet. The background sucks, but you can replace it easily.

My next favorite cyberpunk game would be:

TriStat Ex Machina
>IMO, the only cyberpunk game that has a decent netrunning/decking system. It's pretty rule light compared to Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun, but many things are abstracted with edges and hindrances, which I'm not a big fan of.

Then comes my meh-tier:

Shadowrun 1e
>It was my first cyberpunk game. Ran it as dm and played it too. Compared to the following editions it could be considered as rule light. It has charm, but the system is relatively heavy and slow compared to Cyberpunk 2020 or Ex Machina.

Shadowrun 3e
>Only played it. For me Shadowrun started to lose it's essence with this edition. It tries to emulate Cyberpunk 2020 by adding tons of cyberware, bioware and gear, but this was a mistake. Because the system got even heavier, and coupled with more gear, more options it started to become a mess. Not a big deal if you're a player, but needs a good DM to be run smoothly.

GURPS 3e + Cyberpunk + Cyberworld
>Well, it's GURPS. The universe is pretty good, though.

Savage World - Interface Zero would probably be between Ex Machina and meh-tier. I'm not a fan of the game universe.

Lastly I tried narrative games like TechNoir and Sprawl, but my mind cannot apprehend this concept. Of the two, TechNoir is probably the one I could play as I got a vague idea of how to play it. Sprawl like all other Apocalypse-system game remain a mystery to me as how they are supposed to be played.

>GURPS 3e + Cyberpunk + Cyberworld

Everyone always forgets Cyberworld, and it's a shame. It's a really cool setting, with a much 'grittier' take on the cyber stuff - no Decks, but lots of wires-and-breadboards - which, for something written so long ago, is really quite refreshing.

E C L I P S E P H A S E
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Cyberworld is a much better cyberpunk setting than classic CP2020 or Shadowrun. It's very noir, and very dystopian (everything is controlled, you, your social status, how much money you're allowed to own and to spend, where you can live or not). It's high-tech, but it doesn't have the extravaganzza you find in a Cyberpunk 2020 or Interface Zero, and unless you use Cthulhupunk, there are no fantasy ingredients either.

Don't forget: Democracy *will* be returned Any Day Now ™

Pretty much ANYTHING is better than Shadowrun.

I realize I'm biased, but I really can't stand Shadowrun. I don't like the flavor of it at all, fantasy outside of a little bit of psi has no place in cyberpunk as far as I'm concerned, and it shows zero creativity in how it portrays the tropes and cliches that define the genre, coming across as uninspiring garbage meant to appeal to the most uninspired buyer. Even the way it's marketed bespeaks a subtle insult to the intelligence of anyone that would actually fall for their gimmicky generic narratives.

Yeah. It surely will. No doubt about it.

...

Well that sounds pretty cool. Anybody have the PDF of Cyberworld?

Even bigger list.

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Oh man, you put Underground on there. That is one messed up RPG, but the presentation is fucking A-grade.

Yeah, it'd give FATAL a run for its money. And it's about as edgy as Edgie McDanger from 1992.

Currently running a homebrew (more like a horrible mishmash of CP2020 fluff with straight Gibson) setting in Savage Worlds.
I don't get why people hate the system, it's easy to houserule and the fact combat is lethal makes it very well-suited to old-school CP2020-esque games where death is likely if you don't have great body armour and don't grab cover and think tactically.

My players were thrown for a loop when the corporate security forces they were fighting started firing tear gas at them, only a few of them had respirators or nasal filters

here, I dumped card initiative and used a d12+Agility roll instead. Natural 12 is a Joker, all edges work exactly the same.
And I quite like bennies. In the exact same fight the players got tear gassed, their ex-cop Solo-type burned through all of them to survive when a drone with a minigun smashed through the window and started blasting away at him when otherwise he'd probably be deader than flares.

Savage Worlds is not bad as a core system but I find it has too many gimmicks and metagamey elements - like bennies, mooks, scaling with die shapes, card initiative - that take me out of the game. Nobody likes rolling d4s and the die scaling is also wonky. I also don't like that it uses mini distances and battle mats. At least that's what I recall from reading it several years ago, I could be wrong on that one.

I also don't like that so many elements of the game - even skills - are edges (feats). It vastly over-complicates things.

>I dumped card initiative and used a d12+Agility roll instead
That sounds better.

>otherwise he'd probably be deader than flares.
He *should* be dead. Bennies make the game too pulpy for a cyberpunk setting.

What game would you use to do a Syndicate (1, Wars, New, whichever) campaign? Hardcore, enhanced agents working for The Corp, doing wetwork.

Friendly reminder that even CP2020 had a Luck stat, and I'd rather my players didn't die in the gutter just because the dice hate them that particular day.
Also I love the fact that it's designed with grid-based combat in mind, if I wanted a nomaps game I'd bust out Fate or FFG Star Wars. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

>skills are edges
...wat

Although it has to be said you can run SW gridless: the ranges translate into real-world figures very well, and templated weapons like grenades or flamethrowers have a suggested dice roll for how many people are caught in the blasts in the latest corebook.
Still, it feels good to get tacticool once in a while.

>Friendly reminder that even CP2020 had a Luck stat
True. And we never allowed it in our games. YMMV.

>Still, it feels good to get tacticool once in a while.
But that's the problem; SW isn't designed for tacticool, so having real-world ranges and positioning doesn't match the game's self-proclaimed simple pulp action style. GURPS is much better at realistic tacticool.

CORPORATION or SLA Industries. They're kind of based off of Syndicate 1/Wars anyway.

With your question you just showed that you a fucking noob. A real cyberpunk would have used his google-fu to find that pdf in the matrix and would have already saved it on a datacube. Because it's not like it's hard to find.

I'm not sure you deserve this PDF...

ftp://109.172.12.231/doki/gurps/GURPS%203rd%20Edition%20eBooks/GURPS%20Cyberworld.pdf

>gurps is much better at autistic tacticool
Fixed that for you. Savage Worlds does great for a Die Hard, action-movie-realism type of game, and scopes, suppressors and laser sights are available if you know where to look. Just use the houserule that every wound inflicts a temporary injury and watch the fun as your PCs all end up as much of a fucked up bloody mess as McClane.

I'm a corporate wageslave plugged into a Toshiba cyberdeck at work 8am-7pm every day of the week. Hard to find time to do a search of the undernet with my black ICE AI boss breathing down my neck to finish that Stimson report.

Thanks, omae.

>GURPS Cyberworld
>This paryen with the steel eye was holdin' forth on how the proles get drigged by ProGov, when the nerks joined the party. No surprise. When three streetfolk talk revolutseeya, it's an easy bet two are dreamin' and the third's a sneetch for the heat. The goons' matte-black combat suits seemed to soak up the light. Not local
heat. They was carryin' burners as well as the standard-issue pocket rockets. Only the nerks get that kinda bangbang to play with. A laser took out the gent with the steely glance and I was under the benches by the time the gyrocs started flyin', and wishin' the plast was a little thicker. I pulled my stinger and was glad to see the nerks were in monocrys, not plate. The needles made that whipcrack sound, and Gospodin Nerk by the window Gaussed out. By now, bullets and needles was flyin' everywhere, and between them and the throw weight from the nerks, the place was gettin' unhealthy. I clicked my teeth and the legs fired up, launchin' me on aflat trajectory through the glass. Two more flatblacks was posted outside the window. They was slower than me.

It's hilarious that they thought pseudo-Nadsat would be the slang o' the times. GURPS really just missed the collapse of the Soviet bloc and that aged it badly.

Still, Paul Hume was a great RPG writer.

It has a luck stat, but it's not a very effective stat. Luck is used before a roll to increase chances of success. Basically, 1 spent luck point = 1 point of bonus to the skill check, which is not much. To be effective you need to spend at least 3 points on a roll. As you have somewhere between 1 to 10 luck points, you can use this stat once or twice per game session.

In general, I would say that Cyberpunk 2020's greatest weakness is the character advancement system. Stats don't move unless they get affected by cyberware or injuries. The only thing moving are skill levels. To increase a skill by one level you need (skill level you want to reach)*10 XP's. How do you get XP's? There's a table indicating how many XP's you get depending on successfully the skill got used during the game session. You also get XP's by training. It might be realistic but it's a pain in the ass to keep track of it. Also, some skills have a difficulty multiplier, making leveling up even slower for those extremely technical skills... no wait... actually it's only for martial arts and languages. Because learning Muay Thai or French is so much more difficult than learning to fly a space shuttle or design a fusion reactor.

That's the perk of being an exec. I can find time to shitpost on Veeky Forums while working.

Right, the advancement was terrible, and some of the Chromebook weapons/armor really broke the game.

And that just leads right into people minmaxing to fuck at chargen, because REF is a fucking godstat in Interlock. Just dumping everything into INT+REF for those sweet free skill points is a no-brainer.

CP2020 is a classic example of things getting -too- realistic. Fuck making a save every time I get hit, that slows the game down

Also:
>modern/future game
>having fixed character classes
kek

Minmaxing isn't a huge deal as the game is very inspired by manga and anime. Most manga heroes are super nimble and very clever.

Rolling for save is also no big deal either. First roll for hit locations, then roll for damage starting with head shots. Usually rolling ends here. It takes less time than reading feats, counting squares, placing markers, etc. If you or your DM doesn't make CP2020 fast, then you're doing something wrong.

If I wanted a fucking anime game I'd break out OVA, and minmaxing is a big deal to me when every fucker wants to play a Solo with REF out the arse so he can instakill everything that twitches.

>rolling for hit locations and stun/shock every time you hit someone takes longer than knowing what an edge does
kek
I tried running CP2020 once. It was painful. Never again.

I totally agree with you, but there are many people here who will defend character classes.

All solos have REF 10, not only the PC's. So it evens out.

>I tried it once at it sucked
Most things suck or are awkward when you try them the first time. They get natural with practice. If I had to DM The Sprawl or TechNoir, I'd surely would find it painful for the first few sessions. It's normal.

Cyberpunk RPG's should be fast and furious. If you can do it with another system you like, no probs.

I dunno, I ran a Shadowrun hack of Apocalypse World with barely any issues whatsoever. Frankly if you find it hard to grasp the mechanics of a *World game like Sixth World or The Sprawl, I'd question which bus you took to school as a kid.

I hated the mechanics for CP2020, and I struggled for days trying to wrap my head around how shitty Mekton Zeta was because that was the only mech system I knew and I wanted so very much to run a Gundam game.
Interlock in general is not my scene.

My country doesn't have school buses. We walk to school. That's why we're not fat.

I guess, if I really wanted, I could learn Apocalypse stuff, but it doesn't appeal to me at all... like rucola, dried squid or getting by balls slapped by an angry bdsm penguin.

I'm pleasantly surprised by how good GURPS Cyberworld actually is. It may seem dated now because it missed the mark on things like China's growth and that weird Russo-Japanese Empire thing, but the writing is excellent and the understanding of real-world politics and economics is head-and-shoulders above that of any other cyberpunk setting I've read. They made some strange design decisions (the focus on occult suppression that underpins CthulhuPunk), but overall it's a very impressive piece of world-building.

As I understand it, ProGov suppresses everything that is "deviant".

Pretty much this:

Snake Plissken: Got a smoke?
Malloy: The United States is a no-smoking nation. No smoking, no drinking, no drugs. No women - unless of course you're married. No guns, no foul language... no red meat.
Snake Plissken: [sarcastic] Land of the free.

Except for bone-headed ideas like this:

>In the 2040s, Chilentina (Chile + Argentina) has become the principal source of technology in the New World. Although it can't approach the Russo-Japanese korps in terms of quantity, in most fields the quality of its products equals Eurasian standards. Chilentina is also becoming more and more a source of new ideas and innovations, beating the Japanese to the punch on several key developments of the last decade, sometimes by as much as two years. It's no wonder that Chilentina has become known as "the Japan of the West."

Take eclipse phase for the game mechanics, the weapons / cybernetics / hardware of shadowrun 2nd edition and mix the setting of gurps transhuman space with sprinkles of rifts and SLA. BAM. Cyberpunk.

Reminds me of Demolition Man

Seashells

Transhuman Space isn't cyberpunk. And if there's anything you should take from Eclipse Phase (which isn't cyberpunk either) it's most definitely not the mechanics.

Holy shit, are you me?

I've got the exact same problem. I want a better cyberpunk RPG. My complaints follow the same lines.

I've got more to bitch about Shadowrun 4/5
-There's STILL three-four different games going on in parallel if you've got riggers, drivers, general combatants, hackers, and astral crap. They don't mesh well together, but they're at least better than SR1-3.

-Crunchy is right. Just one round of 5 people shooting each other takes for FUCKING EVER. And there's always modifiers someone forgot. If only someone made a computer system to handle this. Oh wait, they boiled it down to a simple opaque percentage based system.

-It's not balanced at all. Anyone making any attempt at claiming balance hasn't done shit with the system outside of theoretical land.

>And Interface Zero is sorta like a Shadowrun clone minus the fantasy and magic.

... Ok. If the mechanics are shit, I'm there. Thanks dude.

>Chinese participation in world trade increased substantially between 1999 and 2006.

Not bad for Copyright 1992. Bit of an understatement though.

Then it says China had a "third revolution" and basically crashed. So close but not quite.

...

Anybody know the name of this artist?

Do any of you guys run cyberpunk in an anime style, ala Bubblegum Crisis, Akira or Cyber City Oedo 808? Or is it more real-world realistic and gritty?

Just curious, no bully.

Yeah. A lot of the grittiness is the setting honestly, there's plenty of bright and colorful places in cyberpunk anyway that are really shitholes, thanks to the advent of LED lighting.

Would a fractured USA after a Second American Civil War be a good setting for a cyberpunk game?

How to make it so that it avoids the old South/North cliches?

Have you read Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams?
I'd post it but I'm on my phone.
Pretty cool cyberpunk world, set in a Balkanised US. Snow Crash also has the US split, but that's more on the silly end

Yes it's good, and it's pretty easy. To avoid cliches, have it so neither faction is after secession, but instead control. Each claims to be the legitimate government, and occupy various cities and make proclamations and so on. The original government and capital may be so much ash or nanomachine shit or whatever. Semi-organized militias would be everywhere, manning roadblocks and (depending on your party's level of ability) being a nuisance or severe hazard. Look at various African civil wars for inspiration here.

Additionally, think of the Balkans. Think ethnic cleansing, foreign intervention, and drawn-out urban battles which consist of sniper harassment and shelling crowded neighborhoods. Take a look at Donetsk as well.

I don't remember the US being Balkanized. The earth nations got severely beaten by the orbitals (space colonies), who now control the earth through puppet governments.

If you find it hard to grasp the mechanics of a game I played when I was 14, I'd question which bus you took to school.

>the only mech system I knew
There were also Robotech RPG, Battletech RPG, Heavy Gear RPG? As you found Mekton Zeta too complicated, I cannot imagine what you would have thought of those three.

GURPS Autoduel has that, to an extent. The US is still mostly intact, but Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have broken away, each as its' own sovereign state, collectively known as the Free Oil States

I understand how to do it, but I can't think of a good reason WHY. Why would Oklahoma break away, for example? And how would it defend itself against a very strong federal military?

Why would different parts of the USA not just break away but descend into a bloody civil war, with each side trying to kill the other. During the first American Civil War, the states were practically independent and their cultures were very, very different. Today the US is a much more homogeneous culture unified by a strong federal govt.

That's not even getting nukes involved in the equation.

It's not hard to grasp, it's just they're shittily done clunky messes.
And I've looked over them all, they're dogshit too.
D6 Heavy Gear or Battle Century G/Chromestrike best mech games

Ah, ok. Well, in Autoduel there's a big oil crunch around 2000. The U.S.A. nationalises all the oil fields, which pissed off those three states in the biggest way possible. So they all choose to secede from the Union, and fight the US when it tries to recapture them. The US has already undergone some pretty bad shit - massive food shortages due to a 'grain blight, massive riots, an increase in anarchist motivated terrorism, etc. - so they really don't have the resources to push the fight to the end, and let those states secede. Later on, Alaska threatens the same thing, but the US Government decides that they don't really have the resources, so they choose instead to negotiate, and Alaska stays with the Union.

I don't see the USA losing a war and getting separated forcefully by an hypothetic victor. I also don't see states departing from the union willfully.

What maybe could happen, is the federal state abandoning some states for some reason. One could maybe be a catastrophe making those states inhabitable and too expensive to recover. Some major catastrophes are still pending in the USA. There's the Yellowstone Supervolcano that could errupt sending much of the USA in the Nirvana and disrupting much of the Earth's ecosystem durably. There's the New Madrid Seismic Zone that could generate a devastating earthquake in the USA's eastern part. In the west there's the San Andreas Fault that still has to generate the Big One, the earthquake that will devastate California.

Another option would be a global war destroying much of the world as we know it. Pockets of civilization survive here and there and build new states over the ruins of the old world (ex. Appleseed).