How is Cyberpunk 2020?

Shadowruns rules are arguably more garbage than CP2020 too.

Dated, yes, but super-crunchy? Completely wrong. CP2020 is medium-crunch. The rules are based around rolling a d10+Skill+Attribute.

It has tonnes of gear and cybernetics bloat int the Chromebooks but that's completely optional. The core rules are pretty straightforward, especially compared to games like Shadowrun or Interface Zero.

Except netrunning, which is complex and sucks ass.

I enjoyed it when I played it, but I think that had more to do with the GM/players than the system itself.

From what I remember, it's dated. Not just mechanically but obviously the in-game stuff. This is 80s cyberpunk at its core, and a lot of the gear reflects that (cellphones, for instance). Sometimes that can be jarring.

Combat was brutal, with one PC losing all of his limbs (but somehow surviving) within two sessions.

Classes had weird, unbalanced perks that a novice GM would undoubtedly fuck up. If your GM isn't very creative or good, chances are you'll want to pick the Solo class, as it has the best, most imbalanced perk in combat.

Hacking was dumb as shit, pulling all the other players out of the game while the GM/hacker did a stupid little mini-game.

Overall it's okay, but like it's already been said, there are much better alternatives. Probably.

>there are much better alternatives. Probably.
Not really, and I've played a whole bunch, from Technoir to IZ to Shadowrun. They all have much bigger problems or holes than CP2020.

true. i like it though. you got to approach it with a punk mentality aka some amateurish
>let's have fun and not give a shit.

untrue

way overblown. if CP2020 is too crunchy for you, you're literally a rule-light filthy casual. in truth it is somewhere inbetween D&D 3.x and D&D5.0.
Yeah, you're playing ina high-tech setting. of course specific gear will have specific rules. if you can't handle that complexity, play stone age, faggot.

bwahahaha, literally worst option. at least CP2020 is lethal

correct

also correct

>Combat was brutal, with one PC losing all of his limbs (but somehow surviving) within two sessions.

>one PC losing all of his limbs (but somehow surviving)

>surviving

>This but a scratch

>Just a fleshwound

It's cyberpunk: cybernetics, bioware, prosthetics and even full-body cloning are all things that work and even poor PCs can afford most of 'em. So losing four limbs is not the game-ender it is in ye olde medieval times.

Cyberpunk 2020 is much less crunchy than Shadowrun 5e or GURPS. It's about the same level of complexity as Savage Worlds. Personally, CP2020 is my favorite cyberpunk game.

The system isn't perfect but it's quite simple and modular - you can easily change stuff you don't like, convert real-life guns, create new cyberware, etc. If you want to make it a crunch heavy game, you can. And if you want to make it a dynamic action game, you can, too.

>How is Cyberpunk 2020?
Consider the following: Cyberpunk 2020s only other noteworthy competitor was Shadowrun, which has a shitton of fantasy thrown in which should turn a lot of people off, a game that has been mechanically broken for at least three editions and is owned by a company whose incompetence and anti-consumer practices make any other company in traditional gaming look like downright saints. Yet somehow 2020 is dead and buried and its adaption doesn't actually want to directly adapt it.

I started running a game with my group who usually plays pathfinder and we are all liking it so far. There have been some bumps though.

The combat is crunchy as fuck. All of the different rules for every weapon and special shit for cybernetics is a bit much to wrap your head around in the beginning. I'm still struggling with the combat mechanics and I handwave a lot. Keeping track of and trying to work with everyone's special abilities and augmentations is rough.

Other than that and the overly complicated netrunning, it's fucking sweet for everything else. The classes and character customization options make for sweet role playing and fun improv provided you don't play with boring faggots.

TL;DR
If complicated combat or dense character customization trip your trigger give it a go.

I enjoy it. Our group goes back to it every couple years.

My advice would be to run combat through Roll20 if you aren't already. Letting an app deal with the combat shit takes so much annoyance out of it.

if you do not making new adventerrs after every fight. Do not get me wrong death should happen. It just should not happen to some player every combat.

I like but of these. I add that pathfinder is making a space game as well

>And special rules for every gun.
>All of the different rules for every weapon

You're repeating yourself, buddy, and there aren't any "different rules for every weapon" you asshat.

Fair nuff, I haven't gone back to it in years, and I'm used to a game group that does not rtfm for the most part. :/

Any tips on how to run it, I got a couple of guys excited by 2077 and we want to play it, i alredy studied for about a month the books and other media but advice from people who have play it would be pretty cool.

Remember that the system supports a lot more play styles than just Shadowrun-like corporate mercenary shit.

Look through Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads, that's the GM advice book.

GURPS

Cut Skinweave rating in half and don't let player stack armor.

Also, don't let PCs walk around in combat armor with military grade weapons unless they're in the specific area known as the Combat Zone. Anywhere else and MAXTAC police will take them down fast. Cyberpunk cities are [generally] not war zones where everywhere can waltz around locked-and-locked for WW3.

Is it actually out-and-out illegal to wander about the central city in armour, or is it just going to result in half the local PD following you about all day and the other half finding any excuse they can to harass you?

thank you my dude i have read this tips too.

yes, corps do strikes covertly for a reason, concealed weapons are ok, it is pretty stupid to walk around with an ak on the shoulder and katana on the side

It's a blast. Great one shot game. Sort of like Call of Cthulhu, except you can actually win.

Still wouldn't want a campaign of it. System breaks with too much use. Advancement is bullshit. You are damn near as powerful as you are going to get, right at the start.

>waaah how come i don't have more health than everybody else

because the fucking game wasn't designed around hp bloat you fucking casual

LUYPS was useful in a time with no internet. Nowadays you can find better house rules on the net.

He wasn't speaking about HP, you twat. It's the skill advancement system that sucks. You'd have to keep track of how successfully skills were used and how their impact was during play. Then distribute XP's according to that. Needless to say that I never used this system. The only real option to get better is through contacts and equipment.

You could try to make a cop campaign. It would be a change from the classic street operative campaigns. Characters have to work in crime syndicate controlled slums and red light district, where life and vice are cheap. It's there that corp salarymen come to have fun (bars, clubs, brothels, casinos...).

Another novel one is to be highway patrol. They're detailed in one of the splatbooks, the officers that patrol the vast, lawless highways between cities. They're kind of a mix of Mad Max and Judge Dredd, and they seem very interesting.

>yes
Sauce? I didn't see that in P&S or any of the setting books, but I may have missed something.

Interface Zero with whatever generic system you prefer except Pathfinder, fuck that

One thing that is completely overlooked is that firearms are pretty heavily regulated in Cyberpunk 2020 (see page 180 in CP2020) - you cannot carry a gun just like that. You must have a carry license, which requires a background check, and then have your carry gun registered (including a ballistic printing) and serialized by the FBI/CIA. Automatic weapons are generally speaking illegal for civilians. Penalties for unlicensed/illegal gun carry are pretty harsh.
Then, there also comes the fact that carrying a rifle with you the whole day is extremely annoying. The damn thing is always in your way, you constantly have to be careful no one snatches is from you, you always have to move it when you want to sit, it always requires one hand to hold it or hold the sling... From this point of view handguns are much more comfortable.
In the Combat Zone gun laws are enforced by gangs. They are usually pretty simple, everyone with a gun that isn't a member of the gang is an enemy. If you belong to no gang then either you should go full grey man mode and pass unnoticed or you should pack heavy artillery.

Walking around in body armor isn't any more forbidden than it is now. But like the rifle, body armor is annoying in daily life. It restricts you movement, it'is heavy and hot. Let's not forget it compresses the vertebras. The helmet restricts your vision and possibly your hearing (depending on model). For this reason people only wear light body armor like kevlar jackets. Armor also doesn't make unkillable. Heavy weapons will punch through, grenades bypass it, EMP weapon will fuck up your cyberware, etc.

Nothing prevents you from converting GitS's high-speed or high-velocity bullets (something like armor is divided by 4, damage is divided by 2, reliability is lowered by one category unless the firearm was specially designed for this type of ammunition). This will make armor less useful while not increasing the gun's damage vs. unarmored targets.

I also just want to remind people that netrunner don't have to do the hacking minigame to be useful. A cyberdeck can locate any remote controlled devices in a certain area. With the correct control program the netrunner can hack and control those systems. You can use it to crash a robocab in a group of enemies, open or lock doors, deactivate cameras, control lifts, etc. The hacking minigame is only used to find data.

Forgot to mention that it's on page 149 and 150 of CP2020's rulebook.

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Space is criminally under-represented in cyberpunk settings.

Deep Space is one of the best splatbooks for Cyberpunk 2020. It details life in orbit from LEO to the colonies of Mars. Like some user one said: you can't be more cyberpunk than in space, where corporations control the air you breath.

Is it significantly better than its 2013 counterpart Near Orbit?

From what is written in Deep Space's foreword, the book is supposed to completely replace Near Earth Orbit (pretty much like Eurosource Plus replaces completely Eurosource).

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>Death is comes cruelly fast and cold on these blood and neon slicked streets.
wew

>and character creation is a time-consuming process
WHAT?!?!? Character creation takes like 10 minutes (5 without using the lifepath). With a lifepath generator like moosh.net/cp2020/ you don't even have to roll the lifepath.

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I ran a 2-year-long campaign using Savage World's version of Interface Zero 2.0. Include setting rules like skill specialization and gritty damage... shit gets nasty quick. The hacking rules are clean, easy, and is performed in real-time. None of that shit where the other PCs are sitting around waiting on the decker. The closest thing to "magic" in IF is psionics, but you can easily leave them out. Though, I think they did a really good job with it. Cybernetics, weapons, vehicles, world descriptions (including inter-stellar locations)... there's even mechs.

For a Savage Worlds book, the Interface Zero 2.0 book is a monster, but it's full of really awesome art and ideas. Amazingly well done game. It doesn't get near enough attention it deserves.

>It doesn't get near enough attention it deserves.
In every Cyberpunk 2020 thread there are guys shilling IZ2.0.

I wonder how much of a Frankenstein you'd end up as if you were a regular Body Bank customer but too poor/cheap to ensure skin tone/eye colour matching on the replacement bits.

Imagine a world where this is a trend.

Maybe because it's actually good?

I'm not enthusiastic about skill specialties, but rolling Swimming, Climbing etc into Athletics is brilliant. I once did a cyberpunk game that was parts of IZ2.0, converted chunks of CP2020 and a twiddled Sci-Fi Companion, it was pretty fun. Players were largely lucky/smart except for one guy who tried charging the cyberpsycho packing an AUG because rifles can't be used point-blank RAW.
It couldn't. The sawn-off shotgun on his belt could though.