Let's talk cyberpunk

The chart was really handy when one of the characters started to prostitute himself.

archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/30601329
>invented

Was it necessary in achieving his goal, or did he just want more money fast?

And who the fuck do you think made this post?

It was for quick money to pay for his cyberware

I've been working on a story involving a runner and his background. During the temporary collapse of government in the continental US (usually referred to as the interregnum) he was part of a Texan Separatist militia. At this point he's basically the equivalent of one of the soldiers under Ratko Mladic. Having removed his tattoos, he now works for a medium-competent crew working in and around Houston. I could use some input.

Is intergalactic travel and aliens mixable with Cyberpunk?

What kind of stuff did he do as a soldier? Is he wanted? Does his family/friends know about his past? What about his old comrade? Some might have become traitors, other might hunt suspected traitors down, etc.

You know, that reminds me of a stroke of inspiration I got from, of all fucking things, the Independence Day sequel. In the movie, they make it clear while the First World leaped forward centuries by reverse engineering technology from the crashed alien invasion ships, the rest of the planet didn't fare so well. They actually visit a warlord compound in Africa run by people who spent the last twenty years fighting a guerilla war with survivors from the nearby crashed ship.

A post-apoc cyberpunk game focusing on fighting off the remnants of a failed but nevertheless devastating alien invasion would actually be really cool in my opinion.

The cyberware being the cyberdick?
Seems a bit circular, but it's always good to buy something that'll help pay for itself

What input are you looking for?

Consider: why did he join?
Was it just he was young, it looked fun, or did he have some stake in independent Texas?
Has he got a lot of bad memories?
Does he still keep up with some of the old guys, have some of them settled down various places?
Anyone who'd be angry at him for his actions?

>What kind of stuff did he do as a soldier?
Along with actual military actions against Federal forces, he participated in what could be called ethnic cleansing or attempted genocide.
>Is he wanted?
By both the ICC and the new US Government. The current Texas government is not seeking these men.
>Does his family/friends know about his past?
His friends suspect much of it, and the few surviving family members know.
>What about his old comrade?
Some are dead but most are living double lives.
>Some might have become traitors, other might hunt suspected traitors down, etc.
There are some who have been turned for money, but there are also one or two who are know to be carrying on the fight.

Forgot image.
Also, >Why did he join?
Youth, a desire to fight, being a native (anglo) Texan.
>Bad memories?
Some, self medicated with alcohol.
>Does he keep up with old comrades?
Some of the guys are still known to him, and many of them are working in the underground these days. Amusingly, his former superiors are involved in municipal and state government to an extent.
>Any who'd be angry at him?
Basically anyone with a conscience who found out.

So what help were you looking for.

By 'angry' I meant to the point of hunting him down

Just trying to make sure the concept makes sense, and isn't too edgy.

It's a little edgy, but unless he's all about lamenting that he didn't finish the job and wishing for the good ol' days of his youth when he went around shootin' [whichever ethnicity] you should be okay.

Isn't it still going to need serious surgery though?

Anyone got any fun cyberpunk settings?

FFG's Android universe is pretty great

>system agnostic

You want us to... profess to know nothing of any setting? Are you sure you don't meant 'settng nonspecific'?

>humanity loss 1d3
might need more than that, guy

True.

Still, we tend to think less of things when they're replaceable via money. Especially if we assume the person losing [insert item] has lots of money.

How many times have you seen a wealthy person lose something on a TV show, fictional or otherwise, and thought "oh boo hoo, I guess he/she'll just have to get daddy to buy a new one"? Quite a few times, I'd imagine.

Nyoom!

Cyberpunk action potential is huge, even with just a 20 year skip or something. Can't melt down the zeitgeist without starting some giant fires.

It's got the perfect music for huge action set-pieces too.
youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g

>FFG's Android universe is pretty great

Except it's not a cyberpunk setting.

youtube.com/watch?v=iQaJIw50_uo

let's engineer and reverse-engineer action set-pieces. I've got a 500+ cyberpunk song playlist, so post an idea and I'll match a song to it, or I'll post music when the thread is slow and spitball ideas for it. I'll also post images when I can from my cyberpunk folder.

Would you happen to have a leitmotif for This character?

Do you guys prefer settings where cybernetic enhancements and implants are still a recent development (5-10 years), or further down the timeline where people don't remember a time before augmentation?

Try this on
youtube.com/watch?v=H06Du7hXqtk

I'd base my decision on whether I wanted the players to be involved in some sort of contention over their use, ala Deus Ex. If Augs are in the background instead of the foreground, I'd just have them be ubiquitous.

Thoughts on Nova Praxis? It's sort of transhumany, but it comes off as too bright despite billing itself as cyberpunk.

Transhuman space sci-fi, not cyberpunk.

I prefer there to be some element of "should I or should I not" in regards to not only getting cyber implants and such, but also their use. Deus Ex's universe is typically how I like to play my campaigns.

Is there a particular system that does this well?

>Mike Pondsmith
Is he the most prolific and based black dude in the industry?

Augmentations were pretty central in Deus Ex Human Revolution. Nothing prevents you from doing cyberpunk with less cyberware but you'd have to replace it by something else like for example an omnipresent cyberspace, nanomachines, or incredible drugs.

Cyberpunk is more about techno-shock in general and rebellion, than it is about cyberware specifically. Cyberware is just one part of techno-shock.

What do you think, hmmm?

>2016
>STILL harping about Shadowrun
Get over it, faggot.

>Imagine if today, every furry could get their dicks replaced with synthetic animal replicas.
>dicks replaced
>he thinks the problem stops there
Somebody has never read Chromebook 2. It was published in 1992 and had 10 pages dedicated to "(full) cyborg conversion for furries" rules.

t. author of F.A.T.A.L.

recent. i like the whole pioneering shit.

I wonder what sort of exotics they'll have in CP2077.

Seduction is treated pretty badly in Cyberpunk 2020. The Mr. Studd implant is a perfect example.

First, there are no rules at all about seduction, even though sexual attraction/passion/love are the most powerful psychological manipulations that exist - people will lie, steal, kill, get jailed all in the name of love. This already hugely sucks.

Now, let's imagine that the average DM will houserule it. It will most likely get treated as a skill check. The rules indicate Empathy + Seduction + 1d10. Already the choice of Empathy as base stat sucks. Appearance and Coolness are just as important, if not more. I'd say that the stat should depend on what the person to be seduced wants (COOL for a macho approach, ATT for mad aesthetics, EMP for feeling and sympathy but in the end it'll most likely get you friendzoned).

Then, you compare this to what? A fixed TN ranging from 15 (horny and drunk German or British exchange student) to 35 (man-hating feminist nun)? A variable score of Empathy + Human Perception + 1d10 or COOL x 5?

Finally, we arrive at the modifiers. A seduction modifier should be something that works for the seducer. Pheromones, a Barry White vocal implant, real flowers will get you a bonus. Having eaten a kebab full of onions and drunk a protein shake will get you a penalty for fetid breath. Mr. Studd / Midnight Lady implants will only give you a bonus if there has been a previous sexual intercourse. Aphrodisiacs don't make you more seductive, they make your more receptive to seduction attempts. Therefore they shouldn't give a bonus to seduction but a penalty for resisting seduction.

>Seduction is treated pretty badly in Cyberpunk 2020.
as opposed to what? shadowrun? d&d? warhammer?

>lots of needless overthinking and whining
Empathy is charisma, therefore it's applicable. you can use Grooming and Wardrobe checks to lower the TN. use fixed TN.

>Mr. Studd / Midnight Lady implants will only give you a bonus if there has been a previous sexual intercourse.
UNLESS it boosts your confidence and therefore your charisma (EMP).

>as opposed to what?
It's treated like shit in most games. I cannot think of a game where is treated as it should.

>Empathy is charisma
No it isn't. It's a crappy stat, that mixes little bit of charisma and little bit of muh feelings and emotions. It would be totally illogic that cyberware designed to make you be more seductive ends up making you less seductive because you lost humanity. A cold femme fatale would be charismatic and seductive as hell, but have zero emotions.

>UNLESS it boosts your confidence and therefore your charisma (EMP)
Humanity loss is 2d6. Chances are that you're less seductive with it than without.

...

>10 pages dedicated to "(full) cyborg conversion for furries" rules.
That seems a little excessive... are they any good?

I honestly would expect it to be small and shunned. The negative effects of mutilation (even when you get a completely new and functional arm/dick/finger/etc to replace it) are pretty well documented. People who willingly self-mutilate are probably dealing with some pretty serious issues (see for instance real world transsexuals).

More realistically, plastic surgery might really blossom. People seem much more accepting of small, aesthetic operations that just buff up your looks a bit, so that might happen (see Korea).

Short answer: no. Long answer: no, they suck.

I'd have no problem with some kind of cyborg-mutants, medical experimentation gone wrong and so on, but having fucking humanoid bunnies, mice, dogs and sharks is too much for me.

The thing is that replacement limbs we have now suck. They look ugly, have limited functionality, no neural connections which means no sensations, etc. Cyberpunk's artificial limbs are better in every aspect than natural limbs. They are stronger, more durable, can be perfectly concealed with RealSkin, offer full sensory sensation, can incorporate equipment, etc.

I've believe there's been reports that people who have gotten functional finger, hand, arm and dick transplants also sometimes suffer mental issues (such as feelings of "otherness" towards their new limb). Of course the sample size for this isn't that big.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499956/

This is actually fairly common for organ transplants as well, particularly heart transplants. Patients sometimes will develop new interests, or have personality shifts after a transplant. It's a fairly interesting basis for Humanity/Essence/whatever.

I think that this was the idea behind the whole Humanity concept in Cyberpunk 2020, although it probably rather came from the AD Police anime, than real world data.

Clearly Cyberpunk 2020 is not for you then.

Dragonborn anyone?

I like the insekt one though.

That's pretty weird

Can't tell if it's trying to get some of the shadowrun crowd

The year was 1992, what do you think? It was a half-hearted effort anywho.

That's pretty much the worst thing that happened to Cyberpunk 2020.

user left out the best one

But you're definitely right, CB2 was a looong way from the mirrorshades and gritty street corner world of the original Cyberpunk style. That was the problem with the later CP2020 sourcebooks.

Chromebook 2 also had the full body conversions if Mechwarrior was more your thing

He's just a guy who made a moderately successful system with some other guys that faded into obscurity.

So yeah, probably.

I think this is what the furry people in Shut Up and Jam Gaiden were referencing. At least, that was my impression when I first played it.

It wasn't all bad though; CB2 had some nice gadgets among the silliness, including the "ebook" which immediately became a required item for players thanks to its basic usefulness. Combined with a cellphone it was basically a de facto smartphone.

And drones! Suddenly drones became a big thing.

>I have no mouth and I've been ordered not to scream.

these considerations have more of an impact in non-proximal situations where empathy is already impaired. Front and centre, functional empathy should prevent you from inflicting casual harm. You could argue that it might swing sensitive cases one way and you could also argue that it's a flavourful take of possible future culture, but in and of itself probably doesn't mediate empathy that much.

I've always liked it when cybernetics aren't as dextrus or quick as fleshy bits. It gives a bit of balance to the setting so everyone isn't some chromed out death machine.

Ah, that makes sense, if it was directly competing with 2nd Edition

Also, jeez that's terrible

That's pretty neat, though a bug being big enough for a bullet is pretty noticeable, at least inside.

I'd probably go for a fake bird if I wanted the drone to deliver more than data or an injection

It already got posted. Of all exotics, this one is the only good one.

>CB2 was a looong way from the mirrorshades and gritty street corner world of the original Cyberpunk style.
It was not the only supplement that threw the mirrorshades and gritty streets down the drain. The whole Cyberpunk 2020 line always had a identity problem. It never had a clear style, being a hodgepodge mix of 80's anime, 1970's to 80's movies, and cyberpunk literature. Shadowrun always had a more defined style with street samurai wearing dusters, evil corporations with Aztech symbolic, and warpainted Indians. Cyberpunk is a fucking mess between The Warriors, Black Rain, Appleseed, Dirty Harry, A.D. Police and Mad Max.

It would more be Macross or Appleseed than Mechwarrior and Robocop with their slow and clumsy mechs/robots.

>It would more be Macross or Appleseed than Mechwarrior and Robocop with their slow and clumsy mechs/robots.

Don't forget it also threw in Robocop and Terminator!

...

Also Blade Runner

I mentioned Robocop already

I'm of two minds about bladerunnah style flying cars - on the one hand they look pretty cool, and Blade Runner is a decent film that's worth a homage, but on the other hand they're very impractical unless 99.99% of cars are self-driving and fixed that way, and it makes a huge amount of existing tech essentially irrelevant - things like pic related.
It also adds significantly to the 'futureness' of the setting

On another hand it could just be a more car-like version of a police 'copter - something for the police, military and the fairly rich

Still liable to explode though

Or get stuck in traffic

Are these...peugeots?

What makes you think that?

Was talking about the cars in that pic, not the linked pic... and they look like a pretty lazy photo manipulation of a car that's a few years old now I look closer - the lights and bonnet (hood) vents especially scream peugeot 206

Indeed.

Holy snowcrash

The best in Family-style pizza

And, if you would remember the OP, who is working with CD Project Red on Cyberpunk 2077, you faggot. Yes, the guys who made Witcher 3. Now GTFO.

Of course he has no mouth, he's just brain plus spine. But you can be sure that he's a sufficient number of booming speaker boxes on his chassis.

>Shadowrun always had a more defined style with street samurai wearing dusters, evil corporations with Aztech symbolic, and warpainted Indians. Cyberpunk is a fucking mess between The Warriors, Black Rain, Appleseed, Dirty Harry, A.D. Police and Mad Max.
>WTFAMIREADIN.gif
do i really need to dig out all the goofy illustrations from SR1 and SR2???

vector-thrust vehicles are for corp execs, not for plebs like you

What about jetbikes?

steal one, if you can find a prototype. i'll have a malfunction table handy, nothing too lethal, unless you roll really badly.

Fair enough.
That one is probably stolen, given the character, but it may have been his ride when he was a courier

SR1 (at least the French edition) had most illustrations made by Tim Bradstreet. It definitely was waaaay better than the 91 edition of Cyberpunk. It's only in 93 that Cyberpunk made a decent republishing with illustrations from the Italian edition.

well, there is no doubting timothy motherfucking bradstreet. your qualification 'most' is a shameless exaggeration though. i wish most or all illustrations would have been done by bradstreet. shadowrun is not the same anymore since he left.

that said, SR1 was full of goof. do I need to do more than mention Sprawl Sites?

Ok. Checked the US version of SR1, and it does have some bad illustrations that got replaced in the French edition.

The illustrations of Alexander were pretty good, too. Probably the worst illustrations were the ones for the archetypes.

Sadly, I cannot find the 1990 or 1991 editions of Cyberpunk 2020. Only the 93 edition with the illustrations from Varanda is around. So, I cannot make a comparison of the two. But in regard of the French edition of both games, SR1 beats the shit out of Cyberpunk 2020. And I say this as a CP2020 fanboy.