Quote from: thedungeondelver;676086https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GPGQoR6f6w

My favorite part of that is when they break into the TARDIS so that they can hack their way into the holodeck.

Quote from: James Gillen;676103The 80's: When every man had sunglasses, every woman had a perm, and EVERYBODY wore spandex.

The peak of Western civilisation!

A lot of the flavor assumed by 2ed is based on a sort of fantasy novel that a lot of people are sick of and that doesn't sell anywhere near as well as it used to.

Gamma World's junk tables - I'm thinking in particular of 4th Ed ('92) but I wouldn't be surprised if the earlier ones likewise - in amongst the conversion beamers and black ray rifles you find lots of tape-decks and similarly now-anachronistic items.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;676118Gamma World's junk tables - I'm thinking in particular of 4th Ed ('92) but I wouldn't be surprised if the earlier ones likewise - in amongst the conversion beamers and black ray rifles you find lots of tape-decks and similarly now-anachronistic items.

Indeed. However, I think some of those old things will survive, in landfills and thrift shops of the future--while our modern tech may just be burned out junk.


As to the Balkanization of the U.S: Scary thought, I run into the idea of secession a lot in Texas, and I've heard people talking about the idea that  (conservative) rural people in some places (Colorado) are tired of their liberal city dwellers, making most of the political decisions because of their power base, and they to desire secession--but only from their own state.

So, its not quite so far fetched when you realize some people are just a might bit off the reality train.

In a world where Monsanto buys Blackwater, it's not the politics of cyberpunk games that is the problem.

Most of the classic cyberpunk games just suffer from some dated style and pop culture elements, as well of course as the dated computer tech and VR-era assumptions, but a lot of the rest isn't a problem because it's unrealistic but because it's too realistic while at the same time exaggerating the consequences of it.

CP style megacorps already exist, but it doesn't take dismantling the government to do it, because the government is an incredibly useful tool when properly manipulated.

Like all speculative fiction, some of it's not quite right, but a lot of other stuff got a lot closer than people are comfortable admitting and so it does wind up feeling almost a little squicky at times to think about.

Quote from: J Arcane;676153In a world where Monsanto buys Blackwater, it's not the politics of cyberpunk games that is the problem.

Most of the classic cyberpunk games just suffer from some dated style and pop culture elements, as well of course as the dated computer tech and VR-era assumptions, but a lot of the rest isn't a problem because it's unrealistic but because it's too realistic while at the same time exaggerating the consequences of it.

CP style megacorps already exist, but it doesn't take dismantling the government to do it, because the government is an incredibly useful tool when properly manipulated.

Like all speculative fiction, some of it's not quite right, but a lot of other stuff got a lot closer than people are comfortable admitting and so it does wind up feeling almost a little squicky at times to think about.

Yea. Sadly the dystopian aspects of Cyberpunk aren't the parts that have become dated.

On topic, I'm not a real Mage afficiando, but my impression is that M:tA really went in for 90s style postmodernism in way that might make it feel dated now.

Dark Conspiracy, as it turns out the greys and the tentacled aliens and the demons were all co-opted by Monsanto and the IMF and have been reduced to spraying chemi-trails and producing fake birth certificates for American presidents.  Sigh...conspiracies ain't what they used to be no more.

On the other hand, its bleak future of ecological collapse and corporate democracy where welfare is run by corporations in exchange for votes, is still the scariest part of the game.  Cyberpunk's all chrome and style.  Dark Conspiracy's ragged paper coveralls and no running water.

Quote from: David Johansen;676158Dark Conspiracy, as it turns out the greys and the tentacled aliens and the demons were all co-opted by Monsanto and the IMF and have been reduced to spraying chemi-trails and producing fake birth certificates for American presidents.

Sigh...conspiracies ain't what they used to be no more.

X-Files and conspiracy theory stuff becoming widespread online during the 1990's, and later along with the 9-11 attacks, pretty much turned all that conspiracy crap into something pedestrian "mundane" and not scary at all.

Something that is "defanged" becoming a parody of itself.   :rolleyes:

Classic Traveller hasn't aged well; its age started showing decades ago. Actually, the setting hasn't aged at all. Thirty-five years on, nothing has changed. In the OTU, nothing is allowed to change, forever and ever, amen. I've lost count of how many editions ported the OTU setting word for word into a different rules set.

*shrug* I don't know. I'm still enjoying Cyberpunk 2020 as a sort of alt-universe with weird science and tech, like say, I'd enjoy steampunk, or Ravenloft, or Castle Falkenstein or whatnot. I don't see a problem with it not being "realistic". It emulates its own universe well enough, It gained its own "retro" feel with time, which I find is a plus, not a minus, and games can be a lot of fun. That's all I need.

Quote from: Xavier Onassiss;676163Classic Traveller hasn't aged well; its age started showing decades ago. Actually, the setting hasn't aged at all. Thirty-five years on, nothing has changed. In the OTU, nothing is allowed to change, forever and ever, amen. I've lost count of how many editions ported the OTU setting word for word into a different rules set.

Mt, TN:E, T4 (Milieu 0), T20 (M: 1000); 4th imperium
nuff said and to the ignorelist with you!

OP: For some weird reasons, 2300 AD has aged worse than T:2000. Not entirely sure why.
4th Edition has also not aged well either, along with Sorceror.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;676086especially Shadowrun.

And just so we've covered anything, any game that has characters ramming 3mm mini-DIN connectors into the sides of their heads to interface with computers ('cause yeah the human brain - so much faster than a sixteen-core cheap-enough-to-be-disposable hobby board with a touchscreen running Android...), and pits them against "neo Soviets" or "Japanese Megacorp private cops" or that constant chestnut of all Gibson's bastard children of the RPG hobby, the US broken up into tiny nation states that would make the most jaded randroid cackle with glee.  I think that pretty much handles the "cyberpunk" game genre.

You know, nowadays I just consider Shadowrun its own, "past´s future", genre, instead of sci-fi. Thus I continue having fun with it.

Gotta agree with all the posters who mentioned Delta Green and Over The Edge. Two of my absolute favorite games, but they don't feel right for this and age. Mobile phones for all, and that are actually mobile, alone can dramatically change the premises of these games!

That is why I generally do, like Jonathan Tweet suggests in his essay "Circa 1985" in the 20th anniversary edition of OtE, and sets the scene of these games in the time they were written; early to mid 90s generally. As this is also the years me and most of my friends started playing, it not really a stretch - we can relate to this period.

But I also look very much forward to, what they will do with the up coming and updated version of Delta Green. It will be very interesting to see what will happen with this 90s zeitgeisty conspiracy and how they'll change it.