Cyberpunk 2020 General: Holy shit we need a second thread Edition

I can also recommend this: mega.nz/#F!6kkFkLaa!6EZSzqCRAasDWlkLeo9ibQ

It's even more complete.

New designs for some CP2020 corporate logos I found.

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A test I had done in Photoshop.

Should have gone with this PDF. The idea was to set Night City between Portland and Seattle, in the Oregon River delta.

I wanted a city that looks like pic related. The island would be the rich, corporate area. The bridges connecting it to the mainland could be retracted, the tunnels closed to isolate the island in case of an emergency.

i like this idea

btw. what do you guys prever for a type of futuristic city in your cyberpunk campain? BGC-Like citys or even more futuristic like pic related?

Anybody looked at the Datafortress 2020 supplements (Conflict, Nomad Markets, NCPD, etc.)? Are they any good?

I like to get a bit of contrast. Your pic in the swanky central areas, where people can afford to build new shit, then stuff that's older, more dated in places where you can't just pull buildings down because they're not in style, fading all the way to the shittiest hovels and crumbling disrepair of the slums.

Damn... why do all the Cyberpunk RPGs have such a fucked up Hacking-System? Shadowrun was shit, CP2020 is unplayable and dont even get me started about GURPS... why isnt there a simple and reasy but useful Hacking-System in any of them? I mean does the developers even have an idea of the internet and how hacking even works?

>why does something that makes one character operate in a completely different realm to everybody else require the GM to run two worlds at once?

The enclosed document would give a brief overview of aesthetic elements I had chosen, when I started designing my own Night City.

I have never been a huge fan of placing my setting too far in the future. Therefore cities are not hugely different from what they are now in term of geography and demography. Flying cars (AVs) are rare, mag-lev is only used between corporate areas (the riffraff has to use old and shitty public transportations from the 20th century), there are hologram advertising, but they are costly and fairly rare, etc. Slums would most likely be either areas covered with old and dirty housing projects or burnt down industrial areas, while corporate areas are modern, combining harmoniously concrete, steel, glass, green spaces and lighting.

this plus why do such a thing like hacking even need a "world"?! Its just hacking, dosnt they ever saw how hacking realy works? Why dos it have to be so complicated like a "game in a game"... hacking in reality: people running programs on a monitor and entering a little bit of commands in boxes, fishing datas and inject trojans and so on by easy commands. hacking in cyberpunk-RPGs: entering a 3D-Labyrinth full of "monsters" and using programs like a mage casting spells and so on... i mean what the heck is it with illogical stuff like that?

Are you serious right now nigger?

The game with the best hacking system would be, IMO, Ex Machina's classic hacking system.

1. You can either purchase a backdoor from some dealer and get instant access, just pray that the backdoor is real and isn't a honeypot.
2. You do the hacking by yourself, selecting how much time you invest in the hack, if you want probe the system beforehand or not, and if you want to go the stealthy way or go full-out. The system's security level will give you a penalty to the roll. If you succeed you're in, if you fail, you're not in and some bad shit might happen (check corresponding chart).

>Dirty Pair
What an absolutely wonderful show.
>the OVA with the woman taking the muscle-growth drug
>the episode with the businessman losing his shit over his son wanting to marry a transgender woman
The movie was probably the best one.

No problem, glad I could help.

Oh wow, that's a lot of shit. I'll be adding that to my own collection and organizing things when my autism kicks in.

Also, just added the adventure "When the Chips Are Down" for that one user. It'll be in the mediafire in a few minutes.

Im realy new to CP2020 what kinds of campains do you run guys? Runner-Campains? Cop-Campains? Netrunner-Campains? other kind of cool stuff?
I never played another cyberpunk game then SR so all i ever did was playing as a runner and do runner stuff but i would be very interested to do many other stuff as well

Obligatory 1990s to 2000s soundtrack:
Orbital - P.E.T.R.O.L.: youtube.com/watch?v=oS-eh6GM9AY
Photek - Seven Samurai: youtube.com/watch?v=XRNekaCgtpc
Future Sound of London - Dead Cities: youtube.com/watch?v=__QF9QZHs94&list=PL21C5247EC7743947
Psilonaut - Third from the Sun: youtube.com/watch?v=rRGy_E6sXWc
Haujobb - Nature's Interface: youtube.com/watch?v=95fXVuEVF0c
Suicide Commando - Hellraiser: youtube.com/watch?v=atPuDuvpCJo
Imminent Starvation - Lost Highway (Exit): youtube.com/watch?v=sQ_NKc07sjY
Synapscape - 7th Sect: youtube.com/watch?v=jVpOT3T96OQ
Sonar - Tone Loc: youtube.com/watch?v=CPWc9mwN_Sc
Atari Teenage Riot - Destroy 2000 Years of Culture: youtube.com/watch?v=bivsP_h6l0s

I mostly ran the classic runners' campaign, though I can imagine that a cop campaign would be extremely cool, too.

i would love to do a Netrunner-Campain but Hacking in CP2020 is the same like in Shadowrun or in Gurps... horrible bullshit...

If everyone's netrunning, then it shouldn't be that bad.

The worst part of netrunning is that the non-netrunners have to wait for the runner doing his stuff. But if everyone's involved then it should be ok.

Its not about the "now wait until your decker finished his part of the evening" but about that hacking is boring bullshit that looks like they tried to play DnD in a Cyberpunk universe and disguise it by using "hacker" for "mage", "matrix" for "dungeon", "ICE" for "monster" and "programms" for "spells"

Are you the joker who was posting about how hacking was all about running programs and inputting lines of code to break into secret databases?
If you want that, you can just say you want Hollywood hacking. Real hacking is closer to social engineering mixed with some knowledge of encryption and specialized software/hardware knowledge, because in the real world, encryption technology is far ahead of decryption to the point where the CIA can't actually crack encryption a skiddie can make with a free program.
Real "hacking" is about finding a way to get the person to reveal the password or the information, entering the workspace during use hours and nick/memorize the data, using keyloggers and employees' absent-mindedness to filch passwords and many other things that don't require more than a face with Computer 2, or even just the fucking background knowledge.
If you want "real" hacking, leave it to the face.
The hacking in cyberpunk games is inspired by Gibson's novels and captures the idea of the unexplored frontier of cyberspace very well, as well as lending some actual danger to the act of hacking and, you know, creating a whole archetype with their own culture and fluff that would never exist if hacking had to be "real".
Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the D&D formula if you use it properly. If your GM is just pitting you against ICE right away instead of using logic puzzles, putting in some interaction with other deckers, having Matrix hangouts and otherwise spicing it up, it's not a problem with the games but a gripe with your GM.
Then again, I very much doubt you've ever played one of those systems, just setting up strawmen because reading is scary.

I plan to do a campain with a lot of netrunning... i hope it will do well because i hear so there are so many problems with it... maybe i should shorten it to a few skill checks? ive no idea about the system but i would love to give it a try as long as my other players dont become bored...

To be fair, when CP2020 and Shadowrun 1st Ed were written, no one had any idea how hacking in the matrix should look like. Heck, not even the definition of the matrix was clear - and it still isn't.

very nice, are these leaked from 2077 or something?

Found them a while ago on deviantart.

When I run campaigns, I like to focus on a general question and extrapolate. My 2020 campaign lasted two years and was focused on what it means to be human. AI rights, things like that. Felt like a blend of things, from whodunit to gun and runs.

Black Trenchcoat or Pink Mohawk?

Nice forced dichotomy meme

No dichotomy here. Depends if the character has more a new wave/punk, metal or gothic/industrial inspired look. The Matrix movie was where the aesthetic shifted clearly from new wave/punk/metal to goth/industrial. Now we see a shift back with the synth-wave aesthetic.

But the Matrix wasn't cyberpunk

Doesn't matter. It created a new visual code for cyberpunk. A code that would roughly last until 2005-2010.

By the way, the katana and coat combination wasn't popularized by Morpheus but by Highlander's Duncan Mcleod.

Cyberpunk wasn't around in the 2000s. It died off almost completely analogous to the cold war. It tried to keep going through the 90s, but ultimately died sometime in 95-ish.
Just like the cold war.

whenever somebody says cold war all i hear is screaming fist...

Cyberpunk was still very there. Cyberpunk had its golden age in 1994/1995 and then started to fade away, becoming what some call post-cyberpunk.

The last CP2020 sourcebook came out during that time, Shadowrun had its 3rd edition, you had movies like Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, Ghost in the Shell that all came out during the middle of the 90s. And then with the middle of the 90s also came the democratization of Internet. Websites like the Black Hammer and Cyberfortress started. Cyberpunk was far from dead.

since im realy new to this, can you please give me a short example what exactly is cyberpunk and what exactly is post-cyberpunk? Because ive no idea if it is cyberpunk i love or if my imagination comes up with post-cyberpunk whenever i think about cyberpunk

not the same guy but these threads get bogged down with what is and isn't cyberpunk, you should try not to worry about it. whatever makes you happy. I was OP of last thread and some people said my setting wasn't cyberpunk, doesn't mean I'm not gonna run it. Also that thread was garbage because of people getting upset about the definition of cyberpunk

Post-Cyberpunk picks up where Cyberpunk left off. Whereas cyberpunk is/was a Darker and Edgier riposte to older Science Fiction, intended to portray what might happen if we don't all destroy ourselves, Post-Cyberpunk is intended to present a more optimistic and more realistic vision. Where Cyberpunk is anti-corporate and anti-government, Post-Cyberpunk is willing to give both parties redeeming features. Where Cyberpunk portrays the future as a Crapsack World, Post-Cyberpunk posits society will probably be about the same, just with cooler gadgets. Where Cyberpunk is futuristic, forward thinking and on the cutting edge... so is Post-Cyberpunk.

(quote from tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PostCyberPunk )

Absolutely use series of skill checks unless your players are married to Gibson.

This post isn't very cyberpunk

Can someone better explain the armour layering SP system from 2020 to me? it says that you subtract the larger SP from the smaller SP, find the difference on the table, and add that to the larger SP. This doesn't make sense to me because the table says that the smaller the difference, the larger the bonus. this would mean that if you say had 1 week's treatment of skinweave for 6 SP, and wore a heavy leather Jacket over it for 4 SP, you would total 11 SP instead of 10. Am I misreading it?

No, you have it correct.

Okay but, I get why this works with heavier armors, but why would I ever get an armor bonus larger than the two combined?

Do you want a mechanical answer, or a real-world answer?

both I guess

Mechanical:
There is some leeway with it because if there wasn't, you'd need a lot more complex of a calculation for layered armour. It doesn't break the game at all, having 1 extra SP from what the addition would be, and if you did really just hate that, you could say the two armour values added together with the proportional rules can't exceed SP#1+SP#2.

Real-world:
I'm no expert on man-portable armour (Tanks are more my speed) but to my knowledge, armour doesn't exactly 'stack' and it works in funky ways. Most armour to begin with is some sort of laminate, so hypothetically layering it together could be more efficient than whatever? And as you get heavier and heavier armour, it gets less and less efficient. But that's mostly me speculating about something I don't know much about, again, I know armour, not... Armour.

Thanks a lot dude, I think I'll use that rule of no armors being able to exceed the combined value.

>The last CP2020 sourcebook came out during that time,
Achchually, the last CP2020 sourcebooks are the Chrome Compilations from 2000.

It's basically a matter of more stuff to dissipate energy into - anything hitting the armor underneath the leather jacket has already lost some of its energy going through the jacket, so the armor underneath is basically dealing with a slightly slower, slightly less energetic impact, and so protects against it better htan it would otherwise.

Plus there's possible spellation and fragmentation of projectiles as they pass through the first layers that can further weaken the final impact.

Yeah that is more or less what I do. I let them use programs still, and they do need to take down data walls and the like, but I take out the grid like elements. It makes things nice and fast. I also take out the grid in regular combat as well though, since that slows things down too much as well. Just guesstimate the range and how hard landing the shot ought to be and then make them roll that high to land the shot. Fuck grids in general.

I do a "low-life but ultimately victims of circumstance criminals/outlaws accidentally get involved in large scale government conspiracies and have to come out alive somehow, and hopefully make some money on the way". I have a Fixer, a Nomad, a Techie, a Med Tech and a Runner ( they mostly focus on hacking into cameras, cars and a bit of data retrieval as opposed to fighting off other hackers and the like). Their actions mostly run the story. There is a decent amount of intrigue between different gangs, governments, and corporations - and I do my best to bring in elements of their back story to make them immersed.

The best way to run a C2020 game is to have the players contribute to the world with the lifepath they make up. Make a vague setting, and then have your players help populate the world in a session zero.

C2020 is about calling in favors, navigating between different groups and their goals, your connections to factions in the city, solving mysteries, making cash, gaining status, and keeping yourself alive while faced with overwhelming forces that would crush you if you gave them the chance. Throw in some socio/political and philosophical commentary into the greasy exploits of your dystopic world and you have a good C2020 game.

bump

Actually the last sourcebooks came out in 97 (Firestorm serie). But it's still during that 1995-2005 period.

Level IV plates should be around SP60. Level 3 should be around SP30. Level 3A should be in the 18 to 20 range. Level II should be SP14 or 12. Level IIA, finally should be somewhere between 8 and 10.

That would be realistic values of modern day armor.

Of course it would imply that firearms do straight damage.

>removing the combat grid
Im a total fan of this idea, but what exactly do you use the "MA" value for then?

For my group i removed the "LK" value because i hate luck-checks in RPGs and replaced the value with an attention value which, in my opinion, is totaly missing.

Not that user. What you call the attention value would be INT - it covers intelligence and perception (not very logic, but not everything makes sense in CP2020). LUCK is a fairly useless and boring stat if it's used like suggested. I can recommend this house rule to improve it: ambient.ca/cpunk/luck.html

I just keep track of the player's MA, and guestimate how far/fast they will be moving in combat in comparison to others based on it. I just treat it in a much more loose and abstract sense. An MA 5 is going to take allot more time to get into a melee than an MA 8 would, but I forgo any strict grid and just focus on keeping fights engaging and thematic instead of worrying too much about crunch. I do the same thing with weapon range and difficulty to hit in gun fights. Having a higher ref and being in motion, being under cover, etc of course will help, but I don't bother considering exact distances to determine to hit difficulty.

Players who want to "master the system" and make the ultimate min maxed combat character would probably hate the way I run things. Which is fine because none of my players are like that at all and love the way we do combat.

The way I use Luck is by giving them a pool of extra points to add on to their rolls once per session.

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Is it just me, or is his face weirdly small?

Streamline '80s dub or Pioneer '00s dub?

Yes, his face is a tad too much compressed. Keep in mind that it's difficult to be 100% anatomically correct in a hand drawn anime.

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Its the cars and the clubs
And the drinks and the girls and the drugs
I get lost in the life
I get lost in these Night City night
Night City nights nights
I get lost in these Night City nights

When the sun fall and the night rise
And the freaks coming out in the night time
Getting wasted, look into your eyes
Taking shots to the head like its suicide
Swallow a pill, sniff some endorphines
In the car doing 90 down Pacifica
All your vices come with prices
Pay the price and get lost in the life

It's the cars and the clubs
And the drinks and the girls and the chips
I get lost in the life
I get lost in these Night City night
Night City nights
I get lost in these Night City nights

All the bright lights are so pretty
I can feel energy in the city
An addiction, my prescription
Is the liquor and drugs and the women
I cant help it I'm an addict
Guaranteed that I leave with a bad bitch
Intuition and decisions
Are thrown off when your lost in the life

It's the cars and the clubs
And the drinks and the girls and the drugs
I get lost in the life
I get lost in these Night City night
Night City nights
I get lost in these Night City nights

The sun rises, staying up all night
Its just us two and it feels so right
Driving so fast, feels like i could fly
I love this place but i don't know why

It's the cars and the clubs
And the drinks and the girls and the drugs
I get lost in the life
I get lost in these Night City night
Night City nights
I get lost in these Night City nights

- Trevor Something (CP2020 Remix)

How could I work this system into cyberpunk 2020?

Roll Interface vs. TN. Modify TN based on time spent researching.

I had once tried to convert Ex Machina's netrunning to my homebrew version of Cyberpunk 2020. Maybe it can give you some ideas.

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Bamperino!

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So I have never even run a RPG campaign, but I really want to try my hand at CP2020, how do I start?

Like in every other RPG.
Read the rulebook, group up with some frieds who are interested, watch some inperatonal material (Ghost in the Shell, Bladerunner, etc... in this case) to get an idea for a short meeting where your characters can come together for the first time and look what happens.

For start you can have the players make one or two missions from the rulebook. The one with the Night City Stalker and the on with the truck are both pretty easy to DM with new players.

It's a lot easier than you'd think. The Internet has given a lot of people the feeling that they need to read hundreds of pages of GM advice, memorize the rules and have experience playing in dozens of games to even think of GMing, but it's really not that hard as long as you keep to a few main tenets.
1) Don't get fucking full of yourself, but don't forget you're the GM. You have no duty to change the game for the players or to go easy on them in spite of their own fuck-ups, but you have a duty to listen to them, deliberate their suggestions and explain to them why you do what you do.
2) Congruence, congruence, congruence. Have, or at least try to have, a reason for everything you do that makes sense in-universe. If you have to say "because that's how it is" or make up an explanation you don't believe in yourself, you've gone wrong somewhere.
3) You don't need to remember all the rules - just the basic check systems, the chargen process and enough of the lingo to be able to understand and look up anything you don't know.
4) Describe, detail and dive into the setting. Think up places, people and groups, work with the ones that are already in the setting and don't be afraid to butter the mood on a bit thickly - players usually like that kind of shit, and it's easy to tell the GM off for being flowery as compared to so many other things. Make it feel like a setting and not a battle map - and even if your thoughts are "wasted" by impatient players, thinking it up taught you something.
5) Above all, don't sweat it. Players are at once criminally insane and usually reasonable people - they'll knock the plot out under you one moment and then love your patch-up impro plot the next.
If you grasp how not to be an asshole, you already have one of the most important basics down.

This.

Also, run some combats with NPCs before DMing. It will greatly improve fluidity during combat as you know where to find which important chart.

is there a list of 'status effects' for 2020? They are mentioned in the book, stuff like sleep, disease, poison, etc, but I can't find a table of them or anything anywhere

Poisons are in the combat section. There's nothing about sleep and I don't remember diseases.

I would add:
Dont write big storys. 99% of the time players will not react like you thought they would. Write a lot of small fixpoints and key-szenes for your plot and try to use them on the right time to get a acceptable outcome.

If you don't know how to run a mission, watch Ronin. You see everything a team needs to do - get together, find a safehouse, get gear, run the mission, etc.

Notbad but lazy/10

thanks guys

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