What is cyberpunk

[sulky_uk]

shamelessy nicked form wilki

This role-playing game is based on the works of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and other authors of the "Mirrorshades group". The game includes a number of elements now associated with the 1980s[citation needed], such as the idea of "style over substance" and glam rock. The fictional timeline, trying to depict an early 21st century from a 1980s perspective, contains some anachronisms such as not foreseeing the adoption of cell phones as the preferred mode of communication.
The game tends to emphasize some aspects of the source material more than others. Much of the focus of the game is paid to combat, high tech weaponry and cybernetic modification; however, performance enhancing and recreational drug use is either played down or discouraged. Although Artificial Intelligence, genetic engineering, and cloning are barely mentioned in the core rulebook they are reintroduced in later add-ons such as the chromebook manuals.
The range of characters players can adopt is very diverse, ranging from hardwired mercenaries with psycholinked weapons and boosted reflexes, to Armani-wearing corporate mega-yuppies who make and break national economies with the stroke of a pen.
[edit]Cyberpunk 2013

Cyberpunk 2020 is the second edition of the original game, Cyberpunk 2013, often just called "Cyberpunk." It was originally published as a boxed set in 1988, and R. Talsorian released a few supplements for this edition, including Rockerboy, Solo of Fortune, and Hardwired, the latter based on the Walter Jon Williams novel of the same name.
The second edition featured rules updates and changes, and additionally moved the timeline forward by 7 years, to 2020. The game's timeline was also retconned to accommodate the German reunification in 1990.

Game mechanics

The basic rules system of Cyberpunk 2020 (called the Interlock System) is skill-based instead of level-based, with players being awarded points to be spent on their skill sets. New skills outside their expertise can be learned but in-game time needs to be spent on this. A large part of the system is the player characters' ability to augment themselves with cyber-technology and the ensuing loss of humanity as they become more machine than man.
Cyberpunk 2020 claims to lend itself to play in the street level, dark film noir genre, but certain aspects of the basic system can make game sessions devolve into a high body-count, 1980s action movie style.
Although each player must choose a character class or "role" from those given in the basic rules, there is enough variation in the skill system so that no two members of the same class are alike. Because Cyberpunk 2020 is skill-based, the choice of skills around the class-specific special ability allows a wide range of character development choices including non-combatants.
The combat system, called "Friday Night Firefight", emphasizes lethality. Several pages in the rules are devoted to discussing real combat vs. the illusions often seen on TV. Attempts are made to keep the combat as realistic as possible in a game setting. No matter who the character is, a single bullet can result in a lethal wound. This encourages a more tactically-oriented and sneaky game play, which is in accordance to the rough-and-gritty ethos of the Cyberpunk genre. Also, the amount of damage a character can sustain does not increase as the character develops. The only way a character can become more damage resistant is to either become better at not being hit, physically augment their body with muscle (trained or implanted) or cybernetics, or wear armor.

The world of Cyberpunk 2020



Location of Night City
Cyberpunk 2020, as the name implies, takes place in the year 2020. The game's default setting is the fictional Night City located between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the west coast of the United States (near San Jose, California). Later supplements to the game have contained information about the rest of the US and the world.
Following a vast socio-economical collapse and a period of martial law, the United States government has had to rely on several megacorporations to survive. This has given them a veritable carte blanche to operate as they will.

The megacorporations

Arasaka, a huge Japanese zaibatsu, megalomaniacal CEO obsessed with making Japan into a superpower. Likely nod to World War II arms manufacturer Arisaka.
Biotechnica, an Italian biotechnology, pharmacology, and cybernetics firm.
Euro Business Machines (EBM), an information technology corporation (an obvious nod towards IBM).
Infocomp, a commercial think-tank and information repository.
Kendachi, a Japanese armament company.
Merril, Asukaga & Finch, financial analysts. Quite probably an allusion to Merrill Lynch.
Microtech, a computer and electronics manufacturer.
Militech, American arms and mercenary contractor.
Mitsubishi-Sugo, a major transportation manufacturer.
Network News 54, an American broadcasting company.
Orbital Air, an African corporation with a monopoly on space transportation.
Petrochem, an energy company.
SovOil, a neo-Soviet oil giant, controlling a vast percentage of the petrochemicals market.
Trauma Team International, a private medical firm also dealing in medical insurance, prepaid disaster relief, prepaid CSAR, etc.
World News Service, a worldwide news conglomerate, similar to the Associated Press.
WorldSat Communications Network, a satellite communications giant.
Zetatech, a computer, cyberdeck, robotics, and cybernetics manufacturing company.

Roles

The Cyberpunk 2020 equivalent of character classes are Roles, of which the main rulebook contains 9, and later supplements have expanded the number considerably. Each Role has a special ability which gives a character a unique edge.
Role   Description   Special Ability
Cop   Maximum lawmen on mean 21st century streets   Authority
Corporate   Slick business raiders and multi-millionaires   Resources
Fixer   Deal makers, smugglers, organizers and information brokers   Streetdeal
Media   Newsmen and reporters who go to the wall for the truth   Credibility
Netrunner   Cybernetic computer hackers   Interface
Nomad   Road warriors and Gypsies who roam the highways   Family
Rockerboy   Rebel rockers who use music and revolt to fight authority   Charismatic Leadership
Solo   Hired assassins, bodyguards, killers, soldiers   Combat Sense
Techie   Renegade mechanics and doctors   Jury Rig/Medical Tech


Iconic characters

The game's backstory had a series of powerful characters that influenced the world of Cyberpunk.
"Good Guys"
Alt Cunningham: A brilliant Netrunner and programmer, she invented the beta version of Soulkiller, a program that would make a digital emulation or copy of a netrunner's mind. Arasaka kidnapped her, extracted the information from her, and made a more deadly version that would simultaneously fry the netrunner's mind after backing it up, allowing a Sysop to interrogate it at will. They then used it on Alt since she was of no further use to them, but her digital "ghost" broke free into the Net.
Johnny Silverhand: A famous and idealistic Rockerboy singer and guitarist with a silver-chrome cyberlimb arm who opposes Arasaka for a grocery list of personal grudges from the loss of his arm to the death of many of his close friends and family. He is Alt's ex-boyfriend. He was in the band Samurai with fellow famous rocker Kerry Eurodyne, and is most famous for the songs "Chippin' In" and "Never Fade Away".
Morgan Blackhand: A pragmatic Solo with an anodised black-chrome cyberlimb arm. Generally considered to be a "Solo's Solo", with years of experience and ops under his belt.
Rache Bartmoss: The most brilliant (and paranoid) hacker in the Net, he invented the Demon series of programs and was the "narrator" of the Guide to the Net and Brainware Blowout sourcebooks (posthumously edited by his rival/colleague, supreme hackerette Spider Murphy). Rache finally flatlined in 2021, either by a lucky Sysop or poor health due to repeated bouts of malnutrition and dehydration from surfing the Net too long. Fortunately he had top-of-the-line life support to maintain him. Unfortunately, he was too paranoid to trust anyone with his location or leave any means of recovering him. He spent his time deteriorating in a cryogenic freezer (disguised to look like a refrigerator) while still managing to be one of the best hackers in the Net prior to his death in the opening salvos of the Fourth Corporate War.

"Bad Guys"

Saburo Arasaka: The devious head of the diversified Arasaka Corporation, which not only dominates most of the Third World (including America), but also Japan. He has united factions of the Japanese government, the military, organized crime and various lesser corporations under his control. Some have begun calling this era in history the "Arasaka Shogunate"

online players manual link and character sheets to follow