Cyberpunk 2020

Here's the simple but effective stuff netrunners can do, without having to hack dataforts.

Many people play Cyberpunk 2020 as an action game. In my opinion Cyberpunk 2020 should rather be a stealth/tactics game. The PCs should carefully plan their raid in a corporate facility rather than replay The Matrix's lobby shootout (youtube.com/watch?v=Lus_uww3iaM).

Limit the equipment that is available to PCs and NPCs - this will reduce the tendency players have munchkining. The characters cannot just go in a gun shop and purchase a fully-automatic Kalashnikov A-80 heavy assault rifle. They need a fixer with good contacts and it will cost them quite a bit of money. Same goes for armor. Most people will just have access to kevlar t-shirts and light jackets. MetalGear armor is reserved for elite corporate security units. People cannot walk through corporate areas with a heavy SMG in the hand, wearing a doorgunner's vest and a kevlar helmet - without having trouble with security. Most important locations will have weapons and cyberware detectors at the entrance, limiting the amount of firepower the characters can have. Corporate areas are full of security cameras with face recognition software that need to be avoided, fooled or hacked, etc.

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Would be helpful if you'd give us some information about what kind of game you intend to run. Are you going for the old CRT TVs and neon lights cyberpunk, or are you going for something more modern like Deus Ex? Will it be some kind of crossover (cyberpunk/post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk/horror...)? Who will the character be? Traditional street operatives, cops, gang members, cultists? Defining and fleshing out your game universe will help you choose adapted house rules.

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I'm looking for urban subcultures/tribes name. Punks, goths, rappers, that's so 1980s. Does anyone has some new ideas?

>Nu-punks, Neo-goths, country-singers

For the most part I plan on keeping it like CRT TVs, or how I've been describing it to my friends like playing blade runner pnp but with the dialog of an 80s action movie

That's pretty lame. Just taking existing subcultures and just adding Nu, Neo, or Cyber in front is pretty lazy.

GURPS Cyberworld was good in this regard. They made up a new subculture, the spook. They described their fashion and music in detail.

Then you should be fine with the standard system.

Thanks Anons, I appreciate all your tips. When I start playing it would you guys want a greentext thread?

If the game is interesting, yes.

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Oh by the way, has anyone watched Critical Role? I've been watching Matt Mercer and his GM tips because I've never GMed before. Do you think he's a good GM of have any other GM tips?

Is it your first time GMing?

Yes

Not OP, but thanks user. One of my players created a character that has a 10 in handgun, 9 in stealth, and a 9 in awareness. I'm either going to nerf the Fuck out of him before the session and make sure he has some people skills, or have him be a wild-card for the group during role-playing.

He said that no-one knew who he was even though he was a master gunslinger because of his stealth numbers...

Don't overthink it. It's your first time. You're most likely going to make some mistakes, but you'll improve as you continue GMing.

To start, get to learn the system. Create some characters beforehand, run some combats, check out the netrunning system if you plan letting the characters be netrunners. Check . It allows the netrunner to do some cool stuf even without going through the whole minigame thing.

Be prepared, have stats for NPCs that show up regularly (cops, security agents, streetpunks...), have stats for important NPCs (ex. BBEG and his henchmen, the PCs' allies, etc.), and have maps for locations that will show up. Know the rough lines of your adventure, don't go too much into details and improvise.

Make combat exciting. Don't stay sitting on your chair. Stand up, speak loud and fast, put pressure on the players by giving them only a few second thinking time (count to three, if no answer from the player, his PC is hesitating)... The more you DM, the more combat will become natural and fast.

Don't fiddle with music during your first sessions. If you absolutely want music, put some dark ambient playlist (I recommend Space Ambient or Sabled Suns from Cryo Chamber) in the background, put it on repeat and don't touch it during the game.

One problem of Combat Sense is that it works also on Awareness/Notice. A guy with 9 in Stealth is like a fucking ninja, but in the end the average solo with 4 in Combat Sense and 5 in Awareness/Notice can detect him without much problem (Stat + 9+1d10 vs. Stat +9+1d10).

Personally, I don't accept skill levels higher than 7 at character creation. 7 is already very high and indicates a lot of training and experience (the average cop has handguns at +5, a SWAT will have the same skill at +6, while the SWAT sniper has rifles at +7, the NCPD's best SWAT sniper will maybe have a score of +8, an exceptionally well trained special force sniper will be at +9, Jerry Miculek would have Handguns at level +9 or +10 - only a handful of people on the planet have this level).

Ill definitely knock his character down a few pegs then. Thanks user.

Thanks user, I have already been creating some of the NPCs which I think are going to be fun. I don't wanna give anything away cause I do have friends that are apart of the campaign that browse tg. I'll be working on a playlist for different moods, using music from 80s movies and Hotline Miami.

You're setting your game in Night City or somewhere else?

Different user, but might I suggest the artist Carpenter Brut as a potential music selection?

>modern "cyberpunk"
>cg rendered cars, generic 3rd world shantytowns and NIGGERS, NIGGERS, NIGGERS

nah

The US and European slums would turn quickly into shanty towns if all social programs got cut by lack of funding. Housing projects would become ruins, so people would build shacks or live in sewers.

I love that tile that just falls at the end

Correction: Neon Glow-in-the-Dark Niggers.

Easier to shoot, I hope.

>The US and European slums would turn quickly into shanty towns if all social programs got cut by lack of funding.
The ones populated by third-worlders would, yes. The ones by Europeans would do fine.

I'm not saying "this is the future". I'm only depicting how cyberpunk futures are imagined at a given period.

The concept cars of 1990 are how people imagined the cars of the future to look like. The 3D concept cars of now are how we imagine them to look like in the future. Same goes for the people. During the 80s Asians were seen as cyberpunk. Nowadays, we see more African/Middle Eastern and South American people in recent movies and video clips (Children of Men, Dredd, Elysium, District 8, M.I.A.'s Borders...).

There needs to be a new term for this modern nigger-fied cyberpunk. It's so different from the classic sleek neon-lit true cyberpunk of the 90s and earlier.

Play The Sprawl instead.

The slums are populated in vast majority by "third-worlders", being them Africans and Arabs in Europe, Gypsies in Eastern Europe, or blacks and Latinos in the USA. That's why they're slums.

For now we don't really have shanty towns in Europe - apart of Gypsie and refugee camps. The "ghettos" are still taken care of by the government. Therefore it's difficult to say how "white" ghettos would look like. South African white squatter camps and US trailer parks don't look that good - some of those people are still working and governments are still keeping an eye on those areas. How would they look like, if there was no electricity, no running water, no sewers, no police, no foodstamps anymore? How would they look like once gangs from other slums start raiding?

>new term
"Diverse Cyberpunk" aka no-whites cyberpunk.

Niggerpunk

Cyberfunk

That was how junkies stayed in Switzerland during the late 1980s. Not that much cleaner than your average African slum.

And that's the kind of apartment they stay now in Zurich. Even African refugees clean their stuff better. That's why I'm not so sure about the whole "white slums would look better".

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Underrated post

You're comparing junkies to people who are merely poor. Not a valid comparison.

You're welcome. You could limit the players 2d6 dmg handguns but allow a few sub machineguns to make their way in that do 3d6/4d6. Then just give a fair ammount of the enemies decent armor, where by the handguns often won't do it, meaning he'll have to use called shots in order to make the shots land in unarmored spots, giving him a -4 to each roll.
I find it a bit back handed, but having op characters sucks for the rest of the party.

>Personally, I don't accept skill levels higher than 7 at character creation.

I should have mentioned this in my post. That is what I did with my most recent group as well. I admittedly have some NPCs who go higher than 10, but my world is a bit more of a hodgepodge of western and eastern influences, in some cases I wanted it to go over the top like in Ghost in the Shell and other anime cyberpunk.

Fuck yes.

youtu.be/SVf7NBncUy0

With this campaign I'm definitely going for a Blade Runner vibe, but I want my players to feel vulnerable. I don't want them to be invincible gun gods at the beginning of the campaign.

I fucking love Carpenter Brut

youtube.com/watch?v=DY1s9SmrQRE

Definitely nerf that guy then. I hope that player has an actual character beyond " I'm a gun God" as well. I think the lifepath system does wonders for making real characters and not just " edgy gun god man" or " hacker with a funny voice".

I'm building a map with super cities in the top 25 largest cities in the United States. I'll give them a choice of where to start.

I've never heard of them but I'm down to check it out.

Is it possible to run a game that's centered purely on social interactions and doesn't involve violence and highly criminal activities?

Like, running a model agency for chromegirls?

How will your nice little poor area look like once it cannot pay for garbage and waste collection? How will it do once running water and electricity gets cut? Heck, even the sewer system could get cut off?

What distractions apart of drugs, booze and free TV will they have? Drug abuse and alcoholism will be even more widespread. Things were already like that in the slums of London, Manchester, and Liverpool during the industrial revolution.

I don't find Perturbator or Carpenter Brut to fit Blade Runner specially well. Blade Runner uses often more aetheric sounds like Vangelis, Kitaro or Oöphoi. I can recommend Lustmord. If you like synthwave then another band to check is Noir Deco.

Cyberpunk 2020's long skill list has a purpose. It allows you to create any kind of characters. So, yes, you could run a model agency. The agency manager would be a corporate, the talent scout would be a fixer, there would probably be one or more solos acting as drivers/bodyguards, a reporter could be the PR manager and have contacts with fashion media and fashion designers. Heck, if the agency is organized they probably also have a netrunner taking care of the agency's social media and cyberspace appearance, and they will probably work with a meditech specialized in biosculpture. Then, you'd have to create the Fashion Model character class (modeling/posing, athletics, wardrobe, personal grooming, seduction, social, performing, dancing, fast-talk & persuasion).

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This whole video could have been shortened down to:

It's hard to play with hackers because Shadowrun and Cyberpunk2020 make it two different games and the whole "speed of thought" aspect.

Solutions:

A) one NPC does all hacking, eliminating it.

B) One generalized computer roll, eliminating it.

Has he thought about:

A) Everyone has a cyber-space character/persona

B) Fuck that "speed of thought" crap.

C) SR4's wireless shit where there's really no cyberspace, just them fucking with nearby shit.

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not a fan

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There's nothing to be fan or not being fan of. I just showed how the cyberpunk aesthetic changed over the years. Probably new codes will arise as the GitS movie and Cyberpunk 2077 come out.

Anyway, setting up an aesthetic, or a mood for a game, is the job of the DM.

Honestly, Lazerhawk can also fit too.

It would fit an 1980s-inspired cyberpunk setting pretty well. It goes for synthwave in general. Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Noir Deco, Megadrive, Power Glove, Gunship, Tokyo Rose..., they all fit this kind of setting, but wouldn't fit a modern take on cyberpunk like for example DeusEx: Human Revolution.

Honestly, i dont know which music artist can fit into "modern" cyberpunk. Both are quite different at themes and "colours and shades".
And i dont want include into modern stuff a dubstep or similar music, because its a fucking atrocious kind of noise.

Kode9, Burial (most Hyperdub stuff, really), Brian Eno, El-P, Cannibal Ox, Deltron 3030, Tangerine Dream, Flying Lotus.

For a cyberpunk settings I like stuff like this in the background:

Access to Arasaka: youtube.com/watch?v=C1bJugdBmqI, youtube.com/watch?v=tw6D9OFHilw, youtube.com/watch?v=cn9ZdB95kaA
Scorn: youtube.com/watch?v=gQgf4Vkmw70, youtube.com/watch?v=fRfqNhoFnUY, youtube.com/watch?v=Ahq6bS5GUcg, youtube.com/watch?v=zFyCWaeT7yA, youtube.com/watch?v=ATMkIWBn94c
Gridlock: youtube.com/watch?v=t7IFPI1aulY
Ambient Music: youtube.com/watch?v=Tn2-3BlZGBE, youtube.com/watch?v=cVrUb3xuzrs, youtube.com/watch?v=KzFDVBRZjUA

M.I.A is so cyberpunk I find it odd people never ring her up when talking cyberpunk.

She's like the novel "River of Gods", a perfect blend of modern culture and cyberpunk

For modern cyberpunk I could see Access to Arasaka, Gesaffelstein, Volcano MC, different Witch House artists, Space Ambient stuff, the Urban Legend album by Raskolnikov's Dream, Die Antwoord, Dredd OST, Michael McCann, Biohazard's State of the World album, and other stuff.

Yeah, she's pretty good.

For people who like more industrial and noisy stuff there are Ministry (American industrial-metal), Combichrist (American aggrotech), Baal (Japanese industrial), Suicide Commando (Belgian electro-industrial), Synapscape (German Powernoise), Hocico & Dulce Liquido (Mexican electro-industrial), Velvet Acid Christ (American electro-industrial), Feindflug (German electro-industrial), Sonar (Belgian industrial), Xotox (German powernoise), KMFDM (German industrial), Atari Teenage Riot (German digital harcore), Imminent (Belgian noise/industrial)

Added a few more recent tracks to my largely Detroit techno cyberpunk playlist.

hahah oops
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWKtoJ9YdCx-CpiR5k4WOWCrBxN8JCzA2

That would be a cyberpunkish playlist I made: youtube.com/watch?v=DSx_N18TWjs&list=PLiqFJNjZR4Sb8DpBZVkugfyrxe7GZnkn9
This one's for the Totentanz: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiqFJNjZR4SaJVdDMNwqdYfzVAlqDvyEC
This is the Night Owl's playlist: youtube.com/watch?v=pn1riJSHhkY&list=PLiqFJNjZR4Sbh9cXY892XMKAdaboKTvhe

I'm still looking what to put for Rainbow Nights and the Abyss.

You're a fucking moron who's clearly never read the fucking manual.

>buy this fucking trash tho
Kill yourself

haha guys i said niggers about a genre that is explicitly anti capitalist and anti fascist

Wow! You posted anonymously a racial slur on a Mongolian image board.

I'm thrilled. Now, go hang yourself, faggot.

How would you do Cyberpunk in a Martian colony City?

United States Mars Base 13 (Night City)

On a terraformed Mars or in a domed/underground city?

I was actually kind of thinking about having an underground city in the Rocky mountains

>C) SR4's wireless shit where there's really no cyberspace, just them fucking with nearby shit.

The problem with SR4s system was that it left dedicated hackers feeling like dopes, while the hacker archetype is a staple of the genre.

It would be pretty oppressive and claustrophobic. There's not much food, there's not much air, personal space is extremely limited. People are 100% depending on space agencies and corporations.

Could also imagine that convicts could be used for dangerous work. Mars would be like 19th century Australia. Next to the convicts you have the colonists (skilled workers, scientists, managers, engineers, doctors...).

Well in thinking of a backstory for it, such as something like nuclear fallout scared a lot of people in the 60s so they made this civilisation under the rockies but the fallout never happened. But they continued to expand under the rockies.

Thanks for the playlist, this would be awesome to use in my campaign

One style of gaming that is pretty cool, is to have the PCs start as gutter punks. They have very few cyberware, if any at all, they only have access to unreliable plastic guns, having a Colt-AMT Model 2000 is almost like owning Excalibur, etc. Have them start at the bottom of the feed chain and watch them move up.

Is it me, or is Night City's history the story of True Detective Season 2? A planed new city in California, corrupt officials, organized crime, gangs, a visionary planer that gets killed...