Cyberpunk thread

I'm preparing short (about three sessions) Cyberpunk campaign.

I'm scrapping most of retrofuturism, so extensive net exists and wireless technology does not suck dick. As players will be down-on-their-luck cops sent to rot in a corrupted hellhole, I thought letting Neuromancer-like hacking go. Do you have any mechanic that strikes balance between real life boring hacking and fun? I mean one that still gives player meanigfull choices without devolving into neon karate on the walls of AI's fortress.

Also, cyberpunk slice of life scenes. I need fair bunch.

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>I thought letting Neuromancer-like hacking go.
An easy way to explain it away is a neural computer add-on that basic makes use of the sheer technical computing power of the human brain through some sort of hardware that translates brainpower to computing power.
In effect the character hacks at the speed of thought, which while technically slow for a computer is actually fairly handy when you consider that a computer is faster the way a drag racer is faster; it goes entirely in straight lines and cannot deal with course deviations.

>Do you have any mechanic that strikes balance between real life boring hacking and fun?
Depends on if you have a system in mind or not.
I’m running Interface Zero (the FATE version of the game, though the Savage Worlds version is still fun), and it basically uses a version of Shadowrun 4E’s mix of full VR and AR hacking, but without the revolting rules bloat of Shadowrun being involved.

>I mean one that still gives player meanigfull choices without devolving into neon karate on the walls of AI's fortress.
This is something that is really important for experienced GM’s to know in the long run: the more mechanical “options” there are in any given situation that use different mechanics, the more the rules are going to be fatter then the fattest kid in high school and the less nearly 90% it all players are ever going to want to bother with them.

So do you mean “most meaningful choices spelled out directly in the rules system itself”’or “has flexible system that allows easy construction of challenges using simple existing rules”?

>Also, cyberpunk slice of life scenes. I need fair bunch.
And no worries, I got chu covered since I was collecting for my own game.

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Personally, I'm not above putting some almost "minigame" mechanics in my games as some of my players simply need such "crunch" elements to feel involved. That's why I wouldn't be against CP2020 netrunning if not for it's absurdness for my players, some of who are actually involved in IT.

When has cyberpunk ever been related to real IT?

>I'm not above putting some almost "minigame" mechanics in my games as some of my players simply need such "crunch" elements to feel involved.
Unless you’re designing your own rulesystem from scratch then you’re pretty much fucked. Interface Zero (the example I used) does have slightly unique rules for hacking, but fundamentally they use the exact same task resolution mechanics as meatspace rules, just translated to virtual space.
After that you have rules where cyberpunk hacking is bloated and unwieldy or just a vague thing using story-based mechanics. There is no middle ground there, and trust me when I say I have fucking looked.
With cyberpunk traditional games you’re going to either need to make some compromises, do a shitload of the work for yourself, or just give up and go back to D&D.
>That's why I wouldn't be against CP2020 netrunning if not for it's absurdness for my players, some of who are actually involved in IT.
Yeah, what said.
Most basic IT stuff as we know it barely existed when Gibson wrote Neuromancer, and he wrote his novel in ignorance of even that shit.

My suggestion?
If you’re totally unwilling to bend on this then either have computers and computer-related stuff as a non-thing for mechanics purpose or have it handled by magical hacking fairy NPC’s the likes of which you hear over radios in FPS video games.

>if not for it's absurdness for my players, some of who are actually involved in IT.
Explain that outside of rubber hose cryptography, which will likely work as long as there are humans in the IT department, there's very little relation between modern IT and the IT of the cyberpunk future - applying current techniques would be like Napoleon trying to plan D-Day, or, if Moore's law is really kicking in, getting Charlemagne to plan D-Day.

I'd say as a general rule, have hacking help from some NPCs, have a lot of big stuff be on the software (a la Burning Chrome, remembering that getting THAT working is a challenge in and of itself), but have some easier stuff be easy, like the early days of bluetooth and whatnot - convenience > security a lot of the time, after all

What sort of Slice of Life stuff are you after?

>I mean one that still gives player meanigfull choices without devolving into neon karate on the walls of AI's fortress.
Look at GURPS Cyberpunk and i'm not even a GURPSfag. It has rules for both netrunning as well as hacking.

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In a retro-style game, is a brick phone with an aerial that can extend into a very thin and sharp blade a great idea or a stupid one?

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I never found any netrunning system that convinced me 100%. The best one IMO is ExMachina's non-VR system. It's fairly simple, yet offers quite a few options.

1. Locating the system (contacts, streetwise...)
2. Probing (yes/no)
3. Hacking (brute force/subtile)
4. Doing stuff inside the system (looking for information, crashing the system, rebooting the system...)

If the character uses a neural interface, the hack will take seconds or minutes. If he uses stuff like keyboard and mouse, it will take hours.

Note that this system is mostly skill based. You don't need the latest cyberdeck and black market software to hack systems.

Something that gives a player an incentive to use an expensive, fragile and possibly plot-relevant item as a melee weapon is probably a bad idea. You can fit a knife or a shiv into pretty much anything if you try hard enough.

youtube.com/watch?v=c4ZpyKSmgdE&t=21m32s

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Man, I have a lot of these.

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>Hey, did you catch that Lilly Oval 'cast yesterday, man? No? Oh man you have to see this, she rips into that whole Dave Redd conspiracy theory he posted the other day.

>Have you been tracking this Binring Biomedical shit? The media says that the feds raided their research compound. I have a buddy in the army, I hope he wasn't involved in that.

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Nice

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Yo.
I'm looking to DM a campaign in a cyberpunk city with the cast of players being in the police organization. It's going to have a few corporations that dominate separate industries, with a lot of the names of things being based off of many mythos. The footsoldier-types will be called Bastet units, for example. Or there will be a special unit called the Odin unit, with females being Valkyries and males Einherjar; besides the top leader of the unit, the leadership will be mostly female. I imagine there being mutagen drugs on the legal market for people that want to look a certain way, and that plastic surgery is something that's relatively cheap and common + doesn't make monstrous-looking people [I'm looking at you, Pete Burns].

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cont.
Cybernetics will be a thing, too, definitely, but concealed augmentations are expensive. I don't honestly imagine hacking to be that big of a rampant issue, additionally. Crime, however, will be rampant, especially in poorer districts where there is more social disparity.
The real thing I'm meaning to get out of here is this: what system would be most effective for this? I already have a few ideas, like GURPS or d20 Modern with some d20 Future additions, but I wanna know if there are any better systems to consider.
Thanks.

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D20 Modern is like the worst system around. About any other system will be better.

Well, I'm fetching suggestions. Have you any?

>an expensive, fragile and possibly plot-relevant item
It's just a phone.

Like I said - everything else. Even Pokecthulhu would make a better cyberpunk system than D20 Modern.

Since you already mentioned GURPS, I figured there was no other point adding other systems. If you want a few examples of better systems: Cyberpunk 2020, Traveller, D6, Mini Six, Savage Worlds, BRP, ExMachina, Gumshoe, Stars Without Numbers, FATE, Sprawl, Remember Tomorrow, TechNoir, Fuzion, Mekton Z, SilCORE, SLA Industries, Feng Shui, Heroes, Kuro, Twilight 2000, Aftermath!...

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CP2020 can do it easy. Break out some of the weirder modifications from Chromebook 2 and use the hell out of Protect & Serve.

Interface Zero, The Sprawl, The Veil

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this is a good thread

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>As players will be down-on-their-luck cops sent to rot in a corrupted hellhole
Sound like they're going to play Brazilian, Venezuelan, Filipino cops. Patrolling huge slums in beat up patrol cars, fighting crazy drug addicts, brutal narco-gangs, bloodthirsty psychokillers, and corrupt cops, while the corporations play their dirty game in the background. Misery is everywhere (people dwell in landfills looking for food or stuff that can be scrounged, kids forced into drugs and prostitutions, gangs of street kids living in sewers, adults marked by exposure to pollution...) and vice is cheap.

GURPS console cowboys

Show, the players how tough things are.
- Street kids are vicious. Most of them are addicted to some destructive drugs. They are used to begging, lying and steeling in order to survive. Many have also killed. Lots of street gangs also employ kids as killer, since many people do not suspect kids or underestimate them. The few who will reach adulthood are all deranged from the horrors they suffered and their drug addiction.
- Most adults cannot be trusted, either. Their survival instinct took over, making them act sometimes irrationally. Drug, alcohol abuse and daily violence don't help either. Cops always have to be careful not being lured in an ambush (their equipment and organs are worth a lot on the black market).
- But nonetheless, there are some good and innocent people who deserve to be protected.

Possible sources of inspiration:
Elite Squad 1 & 2
City of God
The Raid
Dog Bite Dog
Slumdog Millionaire
The Yellow Sea
Escape from New York / Los Angeles
Babylon A.D. (just the beginning)

Girls and boys who still look decent will be sold to crime syndicates (triads, yakuza, russian mob...) for working in one of the city's many red light districts.

Other source of inspiration:
Rank Xerox

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>Not the pimped version

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This.
You think switchboard operators who know the insurance and outs of switchboard communications like the backs of their hands could intercept cell phone communications? Do you think someone operating a punch card based system the size of a small house could crack even basic 32 bit encryption?
Of course not. Modern technology and methods have nothing to do with computers that plug into your nervous system directly and run on crazy future protocols that are often robust enough to host true AI even on moderate commercial equipment.

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Never knew I had a fetish for transparent plastic clothes, user. Thanks.

No probs.

Okay, so:
>every second punk has weaponry to good eunough to one off cop
>some have weaponry good eunough to anihiate entire party in seconds
>players are used to puting stuff on the swords edge, because fantasy
>at the same time they are against hundreds of competent criminals, who are not above using all those dirty tricks from our favourite CP2020 books- like claymore-stuffed matress

How to show them that fight is really dangerous without killing the fuck out of them ten times (shit's bad for storytelling)?

Well, still it seems to be quite pointless to put people in absurd allegory that only obscures decision-making process.

Unless you want to make point about some petals of holographic rose or something like that.

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Even google translate couldn't decipher your gibberish.

Cyberpunk 2020 is a deadly system. They'll probably will go through a few characters until they wise up. You can have the players create their character and then DMing a training fight against a competent enemy. This should temper their excitement for combat.

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