So I've had a hankering to play me some Cyberpunk again. What gets your vote for best cyberpunk system, and why? (No poll; can't be arsed.) 2nd question - would you ever try running cyberpunk with a generic system, like a FATE hack or ORE or suchlike?

I love Cyberpunk 2020; it's probably the game after D&D that I've played the most. But it's a rubbish system. Minimum 10% failure rate guaranteed for any action no matter how skilled, munchkin martial arts, over-enthusiasm for the whole inner-city = warzone motif, and really odd role, skills and experience systems.

Shadowrun is a better system, although I haven't played it since 1st edition. I love rolling fistfuls of dice, but I'm one of those people who thinks mixing elves and orcs with cyberpunk just doesn't really work.

I've played a tiny bit of GURPS Cyberpunk, but encountered the same problems I always encounter with GURPS games - I'm just a casual player of the system, so have no idea of the best way to create characters, with the inevitable result that I'm always hopelessly outshone by the other players.

Well shadowrun ain't no cyberpunk game so you basically can only choose between the gurps and the original. I lean towards the gurps one, I don't like the rules, but it seems more mature (obviously, this is pure gut feeling).

I'd like to use SotC/Fate for a cyberpunk game as you could make some pretty unique and twisted characters with the help of aspects.

Quote from: Saphim;221693Well shadowrun ain't no cyberpunk game so you basically can only choose between the gurps and the original. I lean towards the gurps one, I don't like the rules, but it seems more mature (obviously, this is pure gut feeling).

I'd like to use SotC/Fate for a cyberpunk game as you could make some pretty unique and twisted characters with the help of aspects.

Yeah, FATE could really work nicely for that I think. Although a good cyberpunk game needs truly gritty combat, I feel. That's one of the really great things about 2020; the fact that even the toughest character can be fucked over by a .38 slug if he isn't wearing armour.

I'm not sure what makes you say Shadowrun isn't cyberpunk. It has all the hallmarks - people on the edge of an ubertechnological society rebelling against the system. It just so happens that they did a bit of a silly thing with it, i.e. introduced fantasy.

I really like A|State. It's cyberpunk with a few steampunk elements at the lower end of society - in brief, the gap between rich and poor in the society depicted is so vast that the poor live in Dickensian slums while the rich live a carefree almost-transhuman life with plenty of body mods and longevity treatments to go around. The system isn't great, but the system and the setting fluff are kept entirely separate, so applying another system to it is nigh-trivial. It does have some pseudo-supernatural elements in the setting, but it's more "cyberpunk as directed by David Lynch" than "cyberpunk as directed by Peter Jackson", and the designers are passionately committed to letting GMs choose their own answers to the setting's mysteries (to the point where they don't provide stats for the Shifted, the various entities which live hidden alongside man in the City, because they want to give GMs the freedom to decide whether the Shifted are fragile ghosts or powerful threats). And it's nigh-trivial to run a game that ignores that element entirely.

What I really enjoy about the A|State setting is that it really incorporates the sort of social commentary that many of the classic cyberpunk authors were known for (especially the likes of Sterling or Effinger), and which tends to fall by the wayside a little in other cyberpunk RPGs; for example, the gap between the rich and poor is a major deal in A|State, whereas in CP2020 it seems barely relevant.

The kit in 2020 is great but the system ...meh.
We scratch build our own Cyberpunk game  (in the olden days '88) based totally on Bladerunner, although I added additional features over the years including netrunning, hardwire and some space flight to the fabled but heavily under described 'Off World Colonies'.  
I recommend you scratch build your own system just take the skill system you like best , your favourite combat options then bolt in the 2020 corporations and equipment. Should't take more than a couple of days

Quote from: jibbajibba;221706The kit in 2020 is great

Yep - the gun-porn enthusiast in me really loves Blackhand's Street Weapons Guide.

I love Shadowrun, and I think it get's al of the elements right. The Fantasy stuff jut enough of a twist to make it REALLY appealing.

I was going to suggest GURPS...but there's already some bias against it. It's good for your really realist, William Gibson type stuff. GURPS really fits it mechanically. You might be able to pull off a similar deal with Traveller.

If you don't need such a strong fit... I'd bet BESM 3rd would work. You'd just have to prescribe some "cyber" attributes and call it a day.

Oh, and for Gonzo-Cyberpunk...I'll bet you can't beat Rifts.

If you don't like Shadowrun's fantasy elements, it's really easy to strip them out, keeping only the system and gear; some of our occasional GMs do this, with or without alternate histories, and it's quite fun.

I found 2020 way too easy to minmax, so easy that one had to consciously choose not to do so which I find a bit artificial.

Also, it had some bizarre attitudes, drugs were bad m'kay?  To the level that nobody would ever have taken them, much worse than the real negatives in the real world.  Hackers had to pay their phone bills on time or get in trouble.  Stuff like that.

Style over substance sure, but for me sometimes in that game there was too little substance.  The core book though overall wasn't bad, the supplements made it increasingly cartoonish IMO.

Otherwise, not sure, not sure there's ever been a good cyberpunk rpg actually other than possibly Gurps Cyberpunk.  But I agree with the criticisms of it in the OP.

Hm, Mongoose Traveller oddly enough could be a decent fit nowadays, it's actually quite flexible and includes some low key cyber already, as well as civilian type occupations that weren't in the original game.  I'd suggest MongTrav.

Quote from: Balbinus;221711I found 2020 way too easy to minmax, so easy that one had to consciously choose not to do so which I find a bit artificial.

Also, it had some bizarre attitudes, drugs were bad m'kay?  To the level that nobody would ever have taken them, much worse than the real negatives in the real world.  Hackers had to pay their phone bills on time or get in trouble.  Stuff like that.

Oh yeah, the potential for munchkinism was huge. I remember a character I had with a hydraulic cyberarm and Boxing +10; I was faintly embarrassed by how easy it was to kill people in a fist-fight. (One punch would do it every time.) In the end we had to make a gentleman's agreement not to take skills above +6 and not to reduce our humanity by more than 30.

In fairness, though, they did say that hackers would get in trouble for not paying their phone bills unless they were smart - which is another way of saying, give it a try and see if you're good enough to get away with it.

Quote from: noisms;221712Oh yeah, the potential for munchkinism was huge. I remember a character I had with a hydraulic cyberarm and Boxing +10; I was faintly embarrassed by how easy it was to kill people in a fist-fight. (One punch would do it every time.) In the end we had to make a gentleman's agreement not to take skills above +6 and not to reduce our humanity by more than 30.

In fairness, though, they did say that hackers would get in trouble for not paying their phone bills unless they were smart - which is another way of saying, give it a try and see if you're good enough to get away with it.

Quite, plus it was really easy to max out the key stat for your class and some of the stats were basically dump stats for a lot of characters.  

Still, I had some good times with it for all that, it's a flawed game but one I'd still consider playing.

My Cyberpunk game of choice is Cyber Hero. I have no idea if Hero System 5th edition has a Cyber Hero book out yet, but 4th edition Cyber Hero was a good book. I like using the Hero System since if I can imagine it I can build it, so the cybernetics and setting gimmicks are always doable.

Cyberpunk 2020 is fun as a beer and pretzel kind of game, since the system is kinda broken/crap but the setting, toys and background tables are fun as hell.

-=Grim=-

Most of the CP2020 equipment - the Chromebooks, specifically, among others - have been ported for use in Shadowrun, and are available via the NSRCG [iNterim ShadowRun Character Generator].

Ex Machina is easily the best CP game I've played. The system is pretty easy to learn but cinematic like I think a CP game should be and easy to mod and run.

Comes with 4 different settins, IIRC.

For a pure Cyberpunk game, I'd yet recommend CP2020. Just nerf Martial Arts (halved damage bonus) and Armor (halved protection value) a bit, and it works fine.
Sure, the balancing is shoddy, but I never found it outstanding among other point-buy games, and the quirks such as the guaranteed 10% failure chance never bothered me. YMMV, of course.

If the skill list is a problem for you, you might also consider to use the massively condensed Edgerunner skill list from the spin-off Cybergeneration instead. (You don't need the game for it, the CG Edgerunner character sheet should be all what you need to retro-egineer.)
In any case, I recommend to stick to core book and to ignore the many hyperfluous and redundant skills that crept in with the later books, even if you use the supplements.


The alternative are generic systems, and there you have to know which one fits your taste. I find it fruitless to discuss about The One Generic System To End All Generic Systems when there's such a mass of diverse games and tastes, and the only goal is to play in the cyberpunk genre.
Maybe if you would narrow down what you enjoy, I could be able to point you towards what might fit your style.