What do folks think is better for a cyberpunk feeling game?  Shadowrun?  Cyberpunk?  Others?  Thinking about picking up a book or two in this genre, but not sure where I should look.  I am interested in something with a Neuromancer by William Gibson feel or Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Exmachina is easily the best Cyberpunk game ever made. Check it out.

I always liked Shadowrun, myself.

My husband prefers low or no magic for this type of setting, so he hates Shadowrun and greatly prefers Cyberpunk. But he hasn't touched it since second edition and neither one of us has seen 4th, so take it with a grain of salt.

Edit: By "it" I meant Shadowrun. But we haven't looked at Cyberpunk forever, either.

Thanks for the replies do far.  Shadowrun looks to be a little too high magic for the image I have in my head.  Ex Machina looks really cool though!

Does it play well mechanics wise?

yes, the mchanics are pretty good and the rules for the cyber are great.

you can check out the basic mechanics here:
http://www.guardiansorder.com/downloads/

It was a very nice forward on cyberpunk that covers what cyberpunk is, reading suggestions, and cyberpunk history.

Exmachina is better that Talsorians new Cyberpunk that was just released.

I'm torn between Ex Machina and Cyberpunk myself. Like Cranberry's husband I have a strong dislike for magic in my cyberpunk (well, normally at least), so Shadowrun has always rubbed me the wrong way.
 
I don't know anything about the new Cyberpunk edition aside of what I read on the back of it. In the past, the skill/experience system felt flawed, and I don't know if they have done anything about that. But in play, it's a very nice, simple system. An advantage (for me at least) is that it feels very intuitive, you can see right away what's going on, and mechanics are easy to adjust if you don't like how they work in your game. I'll also say that Cyberpunk *might* feel a bit outdated today - I think our image of what the future will look like is a bit different than it was ten years ago. Ex Machina has the advantage of starting fresh very recently.

I would be very tempted to use something like Spycraft myself.  As for setting I much prefer a magic free setting for cyberpunk.  Shadowrun is a great game just not cyberpunk in my mind.

The best (and shortest) cyberpunk rules we have ever seen were in 2300 AD.  They made up the last 1/3 or so of the Earth/Cybertech handbook.  They were simple, sort of realistic, and easy to use.

Unfortunately, it is long out of print, and we are not familiar with any other cyberpunk besides Shadowrun.

I guess I should mention Millenium's End as well. It is Cyberpunk in spirit, even if they place the game in "a very near future". No technological progress, just a very dark version of our world where everything is pretty much going to hell.

Unfortunately, the game's "tomorrow" is year 2000, which makes it a bit dated now, especially since you can see how the world really developed compared to the game's "predictions", which were made I think around 1994-95.

But aside of that, it has the most realistic (and still very much playable) system I've seen. And has some of the best sourcebooks, too.

Quote from: Mcrowyes, the mchanics are pretty good and the rules for the cyber are great.

you can check out the basic mechanics here:
http://www.guardiansorder.com/downloads/

It was a very nice forward on cyberpunk that covers what cyberpunk is, reading suggestions, and cyberpunk history.

Exmachina is better that Talsorians new Cyberpunk that was just released.

having just picked up Cyberpunk v3 I will have to check out ExMachina for a counterpoint, free downloads are always nice.  

Thanks again for all of the input!  I am strongly leaning towards Ex Machina and will probably try to pick up a copy of that.  

Another question, does anyone know if it gets much play at the Cons (Origins and GenCon)?  Usually I play a D&D at cons, this year I am thinking about branching out.

Ok, so, since I'm a D20 whore at the moment, any good d20 Cyberpunk rules? I liked a little bit of what i found in D20 Cyberscape, but i'd really like a lot more...

D20 seems to ill suited for cyberpunk, but Mongoose has an OGL cyberpunk Game:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/rpg/detail.php?qsID=193&qsSeries=3

I haven't read through it or played it yet, but it is the only d20/OGL cyberpunk game that I could find on a quick search.


Also to add on to my coments for Ex Machina, the book IIRC, includes 3 different settings.

Quote from: McrowD20 seems to ill suited for cyberpunk, but Mongoose has an OGL cyberpunk Game:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/rpg/detail.php?qsID=193&qsSeries=3

I haven't read through it or played it yet, but it is the only d20/OGL cyberpunk game that I could find on a quick search.


Also to add on to my coments for Ex Machina, the book IIRC, includes 3 different settings.

so what you're saying is that there's an unexploited niche for the d20 market. hmm...

yes, there maybe. Like I said though the d20 system is not well suited for cyber.Sci-fi RPGs are  a niche product and cyberpunk is nche of sci-fi. There is just a very small market for cyberpunk, and that is why I think we havn't seen much d20 cyberpunk stuff.