So what are the common themes and things found in most cyberpunk systems/setting?

Pointed at

Well put user, this pretty much summarizes the setting. Would you be so kind to put the character tropes in a few words?

To expand on/add too points

1. The increasing concentration of power away from the masses towards an elite. This is ubiquitous in the genre. Almost always takes the form of corporate interests replacing the power of the state, or the state and corporations becoming increasingly merged.

2. Technology giving people new ways to have and exercise power. It can be social power (eg the internet enabling people to organize themselves in new/better ways) or it can be concrete power (eg widely available cybernetics that make people superhuman, widely available sci-fi weaponry etc). This is pretty common but not universal.
The power people gain from technology is almost always outweighed by what the elites have gained, usually by quiet a lot.

3. The power structures in society are increasingly authoritarian, but not totalitarian. For the most part the elite in society don't really care what you think or do so long as you don't challenge their interests or rock the boat too much. If there is an authority with totalitarian goals they will usually be the main villain of the story (eg Deus Ex).

4. The nature of labor has changed. How it has changed varies a lot but it will usually have gotten worse for the vast majority of people. Mass unemployment or the dominate forms of employment being unpleasant and poorly paid are common tropes. There will often be a highly sought after class of knowledge workers who live markedly better lives than the masses but do not have a fragment of the power or wealth of the elite. Things like massive black/gray market economies or some form of indentured servitude are also not uncommon tropes.

1/3

5. The technology in the setting is significantly impacting humanity. This can be presented at two levels. The work can look at the impact of technology on individuals or it can look at the impact of technology on society. Works can do either or both. Ones that look at the former tend to be concerned with questions such as 'what does it mean to be human?', ones concerned with the later tend to be concerned with questions about how society functions and how people relate to each other. The take away is usually ambivalent, with technology giving people new capabilities (as mentioned in point 2) but often extracting a steep cost.
Some works don't particularly bother with either question though and just include the technology without commenting on it.

6. Environmental degradation is usually presented as being extremely severe and widespread. Especially in older works pollution is often presented at an intensity that would probably make the environment uninhabitable in a realistic scenario. Those who are wealthy are often depicted as living in an environment that is far less polluted and more pleasant, even if they live in close proximity to places which are.

7. The social order is in an advanced state of decay. Crime and poverty are rampant. People may have turned to things like drugs and entertainment to distract themselves from the world rather than trying to improve it. This was a more prominent feature in earlier cyberpunk works before crime began falling in the West in the late 90's.

8. There will often be an extremely high level of cultural mixing present. Expect people of all different colors doing all sorts of exotic things speaking a cacophony of languages. Japanese and Chinese (or just vaguely east Asian) are the most common cultural influences present. Alongside this there will often be a large number of people who are extremely committed to strange subcultures, often with weird visually striking distinguishing features.

2/3

9. Cyberpunk is an extremely urban genre. It is mostly concerned with people who live in urban environments and the things which occur in those environments. Often the overwhelming majority of the population will live in urban environments.

10. The protagonists in cyberpunk fiction are very often not concerned with fighting The Man. There's plenty of notable cyberpunk fiction where the protagonist is working for The Man (especially if the setting features multiple, competing factions among societies elites). They probably won't be happy about it, but they'll still take the paychecks. Even the protagonists who do fight against The Man are as likely to be doing it for survival or to satisfy a desire for revenge as they are any noble purpose.

There are probably other major points I haven't covered, but I think that's is a good start.

Aside from all that is essentially right, cyberpunk is a reflection of our current anxieties, just taken to an extreme. Cyberpunk shouldn't really be though of as an isolated genre, but instead as part of an evolving tradition of near future dystopia written to reflect contemporary anxieties. Neither Fahrenheit 451 nor WALL-E are cyberpunk but they fit into the same broad tradition. For this reason (unless you are specifically looking to create a pastiche like Cyberpunk 2020) you should be less worried about closely adhering to established tropes rather than creating something interesting and relevant.

3/3

There's characters at all different levels, typical of any given setting.

Instead of presidents or kings, the big power players are the corporate suits, the fatcats, shareholders and executives who live in their gleaming towers, away from the problems from everyone else. They live a life of decadence and untold luxury, but they are always dealing with the machinations of their and other corporations, and they are often attractive targets for any sort of corporate espionage or other nefarious action.

There's the average citizen trying to get by in the world. What we know as the conventional middle class are almost inevitably corporate wageslaves: they live by the rules and submit to the rigors and exploitations of their parent corp all for the sake of a steady, safe life. As long as they're not in the gutter, they're satisfied, though you will inevitably have people who tire of the daily tedium or are beginning to pierce the veil of what's going on.

You have the dregs, the people who live in the rainy streets and dark alleys who get by on scraps and try to eke out an existence. There's any number of reason why someone would be here, but they're all going through some sort of hardship or struggle.

And then there's whoever inevitably passes as the PCs in these settings: the opportunists, the specialists, the so-called "shadowrunners" who will do jobs for money or other rewards and will typically do the dirty work no one else wants to do. As characters, they are known to exist on the spectrum we know as between "pink mohawk" and "black trenchcoat." The pink mohawks are the loud, obnoxious and unsubtle, while the black trenchcoats are the professional, discreet and careful.

The dregs and shadowrunners have a tendency to live outside the system, and while they may not have access to the conveniences of those in the middle or upper class, they are typically portrayed as their own master, in charge of their own destiny. It's an important distinction to make at times. Do you live comfortably but a slave to your patron and "society," or do you struggle in the shadows while living free? "Freedom vs. comfort/security" is a common topic to bring up.

Good stuff, thanks for taking a minute.

Does advancing technology inherently make society better?

Ehat would happen if our technology matured but our mentality stayed the same?

Is better technology really a benefit if the method of fistribution is so exclusive?

Can the pace of change be stopped?

That's not even getting started on the morality around A.I.

How technology kills the human

>you should be less worried about closely adhering to established tropes rather than creating something interesting and relevant.
In The Sprawl, part of the campaign set-up is getting everyone together and hashing out the themes and topics people want to explore. This is further reflected in the corporations they make (a communal effort), the playbooks (i.e. classes) they pick, and the complications they're willing to go through. In effect, you are hashing out an answer to the question
>What does cyberpunk mean to you?
and designing a campaign and its themes around the answers.

I don't care what anyone says: "magic" is not a bad word in cyberpunk.

I don’t mind magic either, but I like emphasizing the reagents and catalysts required for them are controlled by corporations too

My favorite cyberpunk topic though is the corporations themselves. I like making them big and imposing, but then you cut into them and there are irate people running the thing. It’s not big business after you, but just some angry dude in a suit. Trick the system, bribe a few dude/ttes, and you can take their place

>It's just a grimdark(er) version of the modern world with sci-fi elements.
Basically correct, but more specifically it's about how those particular sci-fi elements make our world grimdarker. It's not edge for the sake of edge.

RoboCop 3 literally has cyber-ninjas.

I wish there was more cyberpunk that focused on the guys at the top. It'd be cool to see the machinations of the elite navigating the halls of power.

To keep it interesting, you could interweave it with the exploits of your shadowrunner types; them doing the field work, while their employer manages all the behind-the-scenes stuff, like funding, equipment, bribes, etc, all while avoiding other ambitious power players.

Isn't the Corporation RPG sort of like this?

>Crusader Kings: 2049
Fund it

Wait this isn't /v/

I'm sure there's certain games that let you play as corp fixers, unless you mean playing as the suits themselves.

I'll add just one thing or two to a pretty good start

For some reasons gaming always stressed the "fight against the man". It's probably the most typical approach, but it's not a given. Take GITS: Motoko and the others ARE the man (and you might even say that the man IS the best choice in that world, as in the state is the only shield against the worst of corps bullshit). There's nothing wrong with the most common approach, but it's not a given.

It's not necessarily a grimndark fest like either. Especially, it's not necessarily an ecocide either. Again in GITS we see them going to drink innamountains and they aren't any different from now. Society isn't even coping THAT badly, apparently, tough there is a lot of growing pains and terrible things like immigrant children enslavement.

Oh, another very minor thing. I don't like it that much, but cyberpunk generally is confined to Earth while aerospace engeneering might have plausibly gone apeshit. Even in BR it's a distant counterpart to Earth.
I guess you could perfectly well have zany cyberadventures on Mars, but I suppose that the Almost Lovecraftian Megalopolis which is at the core of cyberpunk kinda works against this at first.

As long as there's a metroplex on Mars, I'm sure you could make something work. It did for Total Recall.