Cyberpunk, the role play game of a dark future
So What’s it all about?
Cyberpunk is one of Talsorian Games creations in which the players are placed against a backdrop of huge sprawling mega-cities, full of corporate corruption and rule, roving gangs of thugs, wild eyed crazies, and heavy handed police, with the desolate wastelands full of bandits and assorted nastiness in between. The cities have the clean neat safe (?) Executive and Corporate zones, well lit and policed. These areas of the “elite” fade away to Combat zones full of booster gangs, lunatics, homeless, burnt out cars and crumbling neglected city blocks.
The whole background feel is life on the edge in the fastest lanes possible with no brakes, bars are not the place to see other happy faced adventurers in search of jolly japes, but a place to be seen and to scope out potential victims; without becoming one your self. There are none of the usual Role-play conventions hiding in here, where players are just as likely to slay the maiden and free the dragon as the other way around. It is more or less expected that parties will tear them selves apart over petty rivalry, or even the loot lying around after the firefight has finished. Characters can and frequently are in my games killed off by a bar brawl that breaks out before they meet their contacts, because one of the players has spilt the local cyber-psycho’s pint on his new threads.
The creators of this RPG have come up with a harsh environment to play in, it’s hard and fast moving, creating a place where paranoia rules. Here you’ve either got what it takes to survive, or end up being sold off as spare parts to the nearest no-questions body bank. The players are faced with a world filled with people who would like nothing more than to rip your arm off. (Because it’s a Wednesday and there is noting on the T.V. and in the G.M’s characters have not yet arrived as they are being done over by the local booster gang and so are running a bit late.) No one or where is safe here, there are no real good guys/ bad guys in this game, just the harsh rule of survival of the fittest, or the luckiest. It is where the main thing to remember is that who cares what you do as long as it’s done with style.
According to the 2nd edition rule book G.M’s should not be afraid to kill characters, to be constantly getting them in to fights, traps, betrayals and other soap operas. If players cache weapons go on and steal them, if they stop for a rest then mug them. Here they have devised encounter tables for when the action drags. Just roll the dice and hope for the best with these is all that I can advise. As sometimes these random encounters can screw-up your nicely devised campaign, but they can and do lead to new campaigns getting forced out of the streets, to tack on to the original if there’s any survivors.
These I enjoy and have come out with own sets for my party, but I take them slightly further by making the NPC’s have to endure them as well as all of the players when they are out and about. Which does make the challenge of “G.Ming” this system harder. As I feel that not even the GM’s own forces should be immune from “outside influences” to get the feel right in my games where no one is safe. Some of my players think it’s a brilliant sight to see when, the corporate hit squad they’ve been fleeing from all night, gets lynched by the Neo-Inquisition, instead of them.
Yes Cyberpunk is challenging to run, not because of over an over complicated rule system (theirs is fairly a straightforward one as RPG’s go) but owing to the realistic nature of this system. As they have done the research right, using ballistic reports, police data, FBI statistics, hospital reports, etc, all of which point out the pure and simple truths of gunfights, bar room brawls and car chases, i.e.-they are decidedly bad for your characters health. As well as this the authors actively encourage you to kill the odd character now and again, just to liven play up a bit, while all the time trying to keep the play fair, hard, fast and dirty, with everyone playing for keeps. (It does work out some how.) It is also far easier for players to come up with their own “campaigns” to further their characters own personal plans/ ambitions and act upon them. (One of my evenings has ended up with part of the party trying to take over a pimp’s patch for an extra income, while the rest went along for the ride.)
All in all Cyberpunk is far removed from many of the other role play games out there, the creators are right when they claim “Cyberpunk is not a world of happy elves and singing birds.” So at the end of the day, and most importantly, it’s a great deal fun to play.