Cyberpunk

Big ass list of cyberpunk houserules coming through. Not all of them are fully fleshed out, or even tested, but whenever I get an idea on how to tweak the system, I note it down.

There's bound to be one or two good things in there.

pastebin.com/533RDDHn

>all the states are the same
What's the point in futuristic settings if you're not messing with borders?

They're not. The country lines end up being more like pic related, as the U.S. is more akin to the European Union at its conception than it is an actual country. In 2020 they mentioned that people refer to the United States in the sense of "The United States /Are/" instead of "The United States /Is/."

Pic related at the major sub-unions and areas of high autonomy (For all intents and purposes, all non-blue areas are not in the country of the United States.)

>In 2020 they mentioned that people refer to the United States in the sense of "The United States /Are/" instead of "The United States /Is/."
I thought cyberpunk was supposed to be dystopian not utopian?

It's a confederate's dream

Wall of texty?
Please read user.
If you want to be part of the conversation you have to listen to others.

Too much Russia.

Why bother when I can just ask someone else if he got to the point or not?

>Russia is balkanized
>Too much Russia
How remove Russia

>Swapping weapons as a multiple action requires a Diff 12 REF roll, and if failed, must be attempted a second time as the second action in the turn. If that is failed, you fail to draw the weapon and may attempt again next turn (Or use up your remaining declared multiple actions). On a crit fail, the weapon being drawn is dropped, and a Diff 10 REF roll is required to pick it back up. If you are just dropping your other weapon (or letting it hang from a sling) this lowers the Diff to 10.

Thanks, uhh, I think. I mean, wow, that's a lot of /k/ autism but I did indeed find some things I liked.

I took inspiration for that rule from GURPS' quickdraw skill, which is really a lot more simple, but it's hard to modify it for 2020's system.

Anyways, care to state what you did actually like of it?

Oh, and the pic you posted reminded me of a short OWoD conversion I wrote for 2020.

pastebin.com/PvkwqEVa

Losing it's Asian colonies isn't Balkanization. It needs to be truly Balkanized in the European part. It's not even as divided as happened in the real collapse of the USSR there.

>Ulster Irish
>Faroes British
This just gets worse and worse.

>Novosibirsk
>Omsk
>Colonies
Wow rude.

>This just gets worse and worse.
>Austrovenia
>Finland part of Scandinavia

Wew, lads.

>Anyways, care to state what you did actually like of it?

Explosives, microwavers and buckshot. It's all hideously overcomplicated for my taste though, sorry.

It won't stop

This isn't even the world map of 2020, I hope you all know that.

Are you putting Shadowrun in my Peanut Butter 2020?

I figured it would be for most. I do probably need to streamline a bit of it to actually put it in to play. Maybe.

No, I'm putting 2300AD in your 2020. Mexico took that land from the U.S. after NATO and the Warszawa Pact duked it out.

I actually think playing in the Twilight 2000/2300AD universe around the 2100s would be pretty cool for a cyberpunk setting

Earth itself as of 2300 would also be pretty cool.

It would, but it's maybe not as dystopic as I'd like.

It'd also be neat to have characters who fought in the Twilight war make appearances (Or, rather, people who lived through the devastation it caused, as even in 2050, WW3 vets would be about 80 years old.)

Ehh. I'm more of a post-cyberpunk kind of guy, so I like settings that are like 2016 in that they appear hopeless at the surface but there's some hope glimmering through like 2300. Besides, with advanced bio-tech, people from WW3 could still appear.

Egh, post-cyberpunk never appealed all that much to me, though I do really like the Transhuman Space setting, so I guess there's always exceptions.

2300AD is just too clean for my tastes, mostly. I could really only get down with Kafer war stuff. But something in, maybe... 2050 Japan? That could be interesting. I mostly just love my cyberpunk settings to have some Cold War gone hot stuff tossed in. It's surprising that cyberpunk setting written for RPGs actually ever had the cold war go hot (The Soviet-American orbital war in 2020 doesn't count).

I completely disagree with you.

>Those that think they have to modernize or re-work the system miss the point of the game completely.
Nope. They don't. They adapt the system to suit their needs and fit their gaming style. The Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads book is basically a collection of houserules.

>You're meat for a meat grinder and expect to be treated so.
Not more than in CoC, Delta Green, Runequest, Elric/Stormbringer, Pendragon, that all have brutal combat systems and quick character creation (you don't even roll for background in most of them). Old school dungeon crawls were pretty savage, too (miss the "spot trap" roll and you fall in a pit of acid, or get crushed by boulders, etc.).

> That's why there is a random generator background creator.
Mekton Zeta and Fuzion have it too and they are pretty heavily into cinematic/heroic campaigns.

>I have so many experiences talking with D&D players refusing to give it a try...
That's simply because many DnD players are retards.

>The tech level is retro-futuristic.
It wasn't retro-futuristic in 1990. The reason why the tech is outdated now, in 2016, is because CP2020's last reedition was in 1993 and the last supplements were published in 1996. By contrast Shadowrun had it's last updated edition in 2013 and the last supplements came out in 2015. Unless YOU want to play "retro-cyberpunk", there is nothing wrong updating the tech (which is not very difficult to do). You don't have to play retro if you don't want to.

>mexican texas
>british faroe
>independent siberian state
>korean japan
>no singapore
>confederation of palestine

why is this map making me so mad? Points for Scandinavian union though.

No Israel = shit world.

2100 is really the upper limit for a cyberpunk timeline. Playing in 2300 is sci-fi and not cyberpunk anymore.

>2100 is really the upper limit for a cyberpunk timeline
Tell that to When Gravity Fails, which takes place in 2190-2202.

I did, it's stupid.

Played it once. It's just realy oldfashioned.

I'd recommend fixing the random wound table. As it is, way too many people get shot in their fucking legs. Also, the "life path" thing is absolute bull, and I'd ditch it entirely. I'd probably also give players a flat amount of starting cash, because the random roll can leave some too poor to buy a decent gun, while giving others the best shit in the game.

Also, read the GM manual. The game is intended for fluid GMing, where you can't let players "get away" with making OP characters, because a guy strolling down the street with an assault rifle is intended to have the cops on him in two seconds. And if it's not the cops, it's the gangs.

Also, it leans heavily on 80's flavour. You should channel every ounce of 80's B-movie knowledge you have into this game.

Yeah, playing retro or updating to modern standards (in both world setting and game rules) is a choice, and both are valid. I prefer to update my game to make it more current to world events and the latest technological changes.

>Have you ever played Cyberpunk 2020?

Plenty. Was one of main games back in the day.

>How would you improve it?

Ah jeez, CP2020 really needs a full revamp. The game is dated pretty fucking badly to be honest, both in terms of the world and the mechanics. I would keep the d10 + stat(1-10) + skill(1-10) vs. target number mechanic because that's nice and simple. I would rewrite almost everything else from the ground up.

Skills list should be cut down drastically, to about 20-30 (currently there's about a hundred, including shit that no one has ever picked such as mathematics). Stats should be cut down to 5-7. The way guns and armor work together is nonsense and 97% of guns can't penetrate even the weakest armor at all, which doesn't lead to good gameplay. Special skills of the professions are unbalanced nonsense ATM and should probably be removed. Hacking rules are a nightmare and should be completely replaced. All of the technology and the backstory of the world needs to be updated.

I like the game, but fuck, time has not been kind to it.

>why is this map making me so mad?

It's hard to make predictions, especially about the future.

"48 MHz and mini-fax" aside, it actually baffles me how Pondsmith didn't look at that and go "hmm, this sounds kind of underwhelming in a world that has PERFECT VIRTUAL REALITY as standard consumer tech".

I'd go a similar route but I wouldn't cut stats. I'd change attractiveness to sex-appeal (for femmes fatales and suave motherfuckers). I'd add perception that would become the governing skill for shooting and spotting/searching. To balance that, I'd get rid of movement allowance and make running and jumping depend on reflexes.

I find that luck is kind of underwhelming. Therefore I'd replace the vanilla system by Black Hammer's luck deck (get one card per luck point).

For the skills, like I said in a previous thread, I'd make all special skills normal skills. Some could disappear (authority = intimidation), some could have a different meaning (streetdeal = networking, combat sense only applies to initiative rolls, medical tech englobes surgery and diagnose illness but not first aid, etc.), and some remain unchanged (resources, credibility, charismatic leadership, interface, jury-rig). I wouldn't necessarily change the skill list. CP2020 is an universal system, therefore it needs many skills. But some might be regrouped (SMG and rifle; brawling, dodging, melee and fencing under hand-to-hand combat; scientific skills don't need to be all listed, treat them as expert skills, etc.).

I'd change the wound system. Instead of adding wounds together, which is like hit points, I'd treat them separately. Characters can be covered in bruises and cuts and still be effective. A good wound on the other hand would take you out.

>I find that luck is kind of underwhelming. Therefore I'd replace the vanilla system by Black Hammer's luck deck (get one card per luck point).

Why not just get rid of it entirely?

In my group what we do is have certain points in a session come up where you might need to roll equal to or lower then you're current luck score. You could also spend the luck to reroll rather then just add it to a roll. It actually created a quite silly situation recently in one of my groups when everyone at the table showed up with 10 luck, with the exception of one player with a luck of 2.

>I wouldn't necessarily change the skill list. CP2020 is an universal system, therefore it needs many skills.

CP2020's skill list includes dozens of skills that literally no player character is ever going to need. Things that should be left entirely to the NPCs like

>Personal Grooming
>Wardrobe & Style
>Oratory
>Interview
>Perform
>At least four different skills for "talk people into doing things for you"
>Accounting
>Anthropology
>Biology
>Botany
>Chemistry
>Composition
>Diagnose Illness
>Education & General Knowledge
>Gamble
>Geology
>History
>Library Search
>Four different skills for piloting things that fly
>Mathematics
>Physics
>Stock Market
>Wilderness Survival in a 99% urban game
>Zoology
>Archery in a game with fucking guns
>Dance
>Fencing, are you kidding me
>Brawling and Melee, I don't even remember what was the difference between these two
>Operate Heavy Machinery
>Stealth and Hide/Evade as separate skills even though they're clearly synonyms
>Aero Tech
>AV Tech
>Basic Tech
>Cryotank Operation
>Cyberdeck Design
>A whole bunch of other redundant tech skills
>Paint or Draw, I'm not joking, this is real
>Photo & Film
>Play Instrument

Like, get these the fuck out of the game. No one's going to pick any of these.

what the hell happened with Austria.

What is your favorite music for a cyberpunk? Im planning to make a little street level game, but i need an inspiration for it. Less "gritty-nifty 90s" more "blastin shootin 80s"

Anyone can recommend good music and\or movies for an inspiration?

First, having many skills isn't a problem at all. What annoys you the most IMO is that they all are written on the character sheet. That is your problem with it. Then, simply make a character sheet where you leave 20 rows for skills. Problem solved. Also, by regrouping skills, like I suggested, you cut the amount of skills by 25 to 30%.

Why have wilderness survival? Because if your AV crashes in the Colombian jungle, it might be a useful skill to have. Why photography/film? Because you need it to take those pictures of the married corporate banging his secretary and hanging out in Redlight District when he should be at a meeting. Why are piloting AV's, helicopters, and planes different skills? Because they are very, very different to pilot.

Like I already said, CP2020 is a universal system. In Shadowrun you always play a mercenary-type character. With CP2020 you might play as anything ranging from the sociology student to a hard-core assassin.

>First, having many skills isn't a problem at all.

It's a HUGE fucking problem. It's pointless shit to read through that clutters the sheet, the rulebook, and your memory. All of these are fucking useless. No one's ever going have an RPG session where Fashion and Accounting and Botany are important skills because any possible scenario where those are important is fucking BORING.

>Why have wilderness survival? Because if your AV crashes in the Colombian jungle, it might be a useful skill to have.

Great. I'm not going to put points in it for the 0.00001% chance that that happens.

>What annoys you the most IMO is that they all are written on the character sheet.

No. That's great. Having the skills pre-written on your character sheet on the other hand is a good thing, because that's less shit for you to worry about during character creation. Leave a few blank spaces in case some fucking weirdo genuinely wants to specialize in zoology in a cyberpunk game, but don't waste space in the rules for it.

>Why are piloting AV's, helicopters, and planes different skills? Because they are very, very different to pilot.

Realistically yes, but for gameplay purposes the distinction really doesn't fucking matter. Just have one skill that says "Pilot" that's good for anything that flies, and put in an option to specialize in one of those options to get a bonus if you feel like it.

To continue with my changes, I'd do some changes to the combat system. Instead of basing the TN on the distance to the target, I'd base it on the situation. Either your sniping at an unsuspecting target, or you're covering an area ready to shoot at any target entering your field of view, or you get surprised and shoot instinctively without really aiming. Then, you'd have penalties/bonuses for distance, movement, aiming devices, etc.

MMA mostly replaced martial art styles. So instead of having lists of different martial arts (wing chun kungfu, white crane kungfu, tiger claw kungfu, cotton fist kung fu, drunken fist kungfu...) I'd let the players distribute the character's martial skill level in bonus points to key strikes (max. per move is skill level/2). The damage bonus gets reduced to skill level/2.

>Like I already said, CP2020 is a universal system. In Shadowrun you always play a mercenary-type character. With CP2020 you might play as anything ranging from the sociology student to a hard-core assassin.

There is literally no human ever who has played a sociology student in CP2020, and never will unless you do it yourself to spite me. Every CP2020 character that people actually regularly play is of the sort that kills people on a daily basis. They're mercenaries, hitmen, professional criminals, cops or corporate psychos. Maybe someone makes a Total Recall -type campaign of an everyman getting drawn in into some wild shit that he's not prepared for, but even he's not going to benefit from these joke skills.

If you didn't use Wardrobe & Style you should stop posting in this thread, because you completely missed the whole style/image thing.

I can argue that all spec op / ranger / scout sniper type character should have wilderness survival as it's a part of their job. It should be pretty useful for nomads, too. Cyberpunk isn't limited to Night City. Also, not taking skills that should be part of the PC's background is shameless min-maxing.

CP2020 makes the difference between piloting different vehicles. If you want a game with less skills, play Shadowrun. It has like 30 skills, but all characters of a certain type are almost all the same. It's a problem you encounter with Mini Six. All fighters will have the same skills. All rogues will have the same skills. And fighters and rogues have almost the same skills, too.

Accounting is very useful for an investigator.

But listen, if you want to play only heavy hitters limit the skill list to: shoot stuff, hit people, hide, move, make stuff go boom, drive anything, pilot anything, fix people, fix stuff, nerd skills and role play. 11 skills in total, you should like it.