PDA

View Full Version : A good cyberpunk setting



Inhuman Bot
2008-04-23, 08:53 PM
So, ending one of our D&D sessions, two of our players asked if we could try something new and play a future, instead of fantasy based game. Our dm said he would consider it if we could find a good setting. So, here I'am asking. For modern or future are d20 moder and future any good? shadowrun? any other good ones?

DrowVampyre
2008-04-23, 10:37 PM
Shadowrun is pure awesomesauce. There are other good ones too, though: Cyberpunk 2020, Trinity, Alternity. D20 Modern's fun, although it doesn't come with a setting so you'd have to make one yourself (and frankly I like the other systems better, especially for future).

graymachine
2008-04-23, 11:14 PM
As Drow stated, what you are looking for is called Shadowrun and it is full of joy.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-04-24, 12:09 AM
Cyberpunk 2020 is extremely generic, and therefore both easy to get into and easy to use, but suffers from lack of depth (unless you give it some; focusing on interstitial communities, nomads/pirates, etc.; reading Gibson's Bridge trilogy and some Neal Stephenson first helps). Basically, CPunk 2020 is 99% Gibson's Sprawl trilogy.

Rules-wise, you must get the supplement Listen Up, You Primitive Screwheads! and use the alternative combat rules, or else people can become invulnerable to everything by combining light subcutaneous armor with a medium-heavy armored coat. LUYPS's combat rules keep combat lethal even if your players refuse to go unarmored like a bunch of idiots.

Also, the net rules are pure ****. (Amazingly, the net rules for Cyberpunk 2013 were better). And whatever you do, do not get Cyberpunk 203X (the new version). The internal art (photos of "modded" Barbie and Action Man dolls) is not even close to the worst part.


Ex Machina is a cool system with several awesome cyberpunk settings that are way out there in SF land rather than being all generic; it's just not very gritty, which I'd count as a big minus.


Shadowrun isn't so much cyberpunk as it is, well, Shadowrun. Fantasy-SF is a genre unto itself.


D20 Modern is a good system, generally. Just be warned, the pre-existing D20 Modern cyberpunk setting (Cyberscape, I think?) is awful, awful, awful. They actually managed to make net rules worse than CPunk 2020. (Hacking is a D&D dungeoncrawl. Argh.)

LibraryOgre
2008-04-24, 12:17 AM
As much as I love 2nd edition-era Shadowrun as a setting, the rules in the 3 editions I'm familiar with are crunchier than used diapers left on a heater... and in about the same fashion.

Attilargh
2008-04-24, 01:36 AM
If you want some cosmic horror with your cyberpunk, CthulhuTech is not a bad choice at all. There's even giant mecha if you like that sort of stuff - and hey, who doesn't?

Ascension
2008-04-24, 02:05 AM
If you want some cosmic horror with your cyberpunk, CthulhuTech is not a bad choice at all. There's even giant mecha if you like that sort of stuff - and hey, who doesn't?

Note that despite the presence of giant mecha in the background material, you can (easily, in fact) run a completely ground level game and keep the feeling of intrigue and conspiracy very high. It could definitely be run as a cyberpunk setting, although it doesn't quite fit the normal mold of the genre.

Ossian
2008-04-24, 02:11 AM
Shadowrun is nice, but if you are moving from D&D to futuristic setting, it's just...well...not a move at all. You just got rid of elves and trolls and what do you get? You arm them with shotguns and cyberware!

Cyberpunk is ok, but as said above it lacks depth. It's a quality, IMO, as it allows GMs to customize it and give it your flavor, but if you want a ready-to-go setting and ruleset it's just another D&D. A bunch of thugs (PC) meet in a tavern (bar) hired by a merchant (corporate CEO) to clean a dungeon (datafortress, underground lab) or retrieve a missing local expert (missing local expert). You have the tank fighter (.762 rifle, metal gear), the rogue (fixer, black leather trench), the bard (media operator, it is useless there too, replace lute with Nikon, sissy small .22 gun), the cleric (techie), the ranger (cop) and again the rogue/ranger (nomad).

You really have to work on the setting before geting anything good out of cyberpunk (which is also fairly lethal for your PCs). If you want something that will let them live long enough so that they get to hear the GM's story, go for something like d20 modern. If what you look for are a series of one-shot minicampaigns, cyberpunk is OK.

I suggest you players have a very good reason to band together. Thy normally should always have one,other than looting and dungeon crawling (read Fear the Boot, Chainmail Bikini), but that is all the more true in a futuristic story.

Know what? Go for Futurama! Make a Delivery Service (Our pilots are expendable, your package is not!) and have them roam from mission to mission. Deliver some freshly explanted organs in a god forsaken mining factory in the mezas of mexico! Go get that DNA sample from the lab in the outskirts of Detroit. Possibilities are endless! The steel sky is your limit!

Tsotha-lanti
2008-04-24, 03:57 AM
If you want some cosmic horror with your cyberpunk, CthulhuTech is not a bad choice at all. There's even giant mecha if you like that sort of stuff - and hey, who doesn't?

And, of course, there's the older GURPS CthulhuPunk.

Yeah, it was a bad idea then, too.

Incidentally, GURPS is made for science fiction, including cyberpunk. (And GURPS Cyberpunk is not only a cool sourcebook, but also the only RPG book that was seized by the FBI. I'm not kidding. And their hacking rules actually make sense.) Transhuman Space is freaking awesome. It's like Stephenson's Diamond Age, only with biotech instead of nanotech, and a RPG instead of a seminal neocyberpunk novel. I don't know how far along the newest edition is as far as sourcebooks go, but it's very compatible with the old sourcebooks anyway.

Lord Tataraus
2008-04-24, 08:37 AM
Personally, I like Cyberpunk 2020, it's an amazing system that is easy to use and fun to run, sure I do modify the rules a bit, but out-of-the-box is pretty decent. I highly recommend looking into it.

Zorg
2008-04-24, 12:39 PM
Another vote for CP2020. The basic book is quite generic, but when you add in the massive number of expansions, you get a huge depth to the world. Some of my favourites are (in no particular order):
Home of the Brave (USA guidebook)
Eurosource Plus (Europe)
Rough Guide to the UK (UK)
Deep Space (Near orbit, the moon, Mars - great zero-G and radiation rules)
Maximum Metal (Great vehicle rules, and a wonderful powered armour section - very believable giant robots)
Solo of fortune 1 & 2 (2 in particular has some great articles on low cyber games, the rest has heaps to chew on)
Chromebooks 1-4 (More gear to give to those boostergangs!)
The Corpbooks (details on some of the biggest and baddest corps about)
When Gravity Fails (an alternate universe, but a wealth of ideas)
Wildside (detailed streetlife)
Protect and Serve (Cops: Cyberpunk)
Live & Direct (media)
Pacific Rim is ok, but it trys to cram too much in with not enough space, but is decent enough.

Eurotour is a fun campaign and Night City Stories are some really good pre-packaged adventures. I'm also told Land of the Free is a good campaign

Listen Up You Primative Screwheads is a must for any Cyberpunk GM (and awesome for GMing in general), and helps to curb the maximum cyber / weapon loading and prevent what Ossian described above.

Even if you don't use the rules the ideas, art, equipment and whatnot are great.
The Net rules suck the big one unfortunately, so I tend towards a simplified netrunning system closer to a free-form magic style like Exalted or avoid it as much as possible.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-04-24, 03:26 PM
The Net rules suck the big one unfortunately, so I tend towards a simplified netrunning system closer to a free-form magic style like Exalted or avoid it as much as possible.

That works out fine, fortunately. I have yet to see any cyberpunk game where netrunning doesn't involve everyone but the GM and the netrunner's player going for a half-hour break.

Xuincherguixe
2008-04-25, 09:16 AM
I can't say enough good things about Shadowrun. I'll even go against the grain a bit and offer my endorsement of 4th edition. Making nearly everything wireless so it could be hacked was a bit of a questionable decision, but it makes them a lot more playable.

And if you don't like certain elements, a lot of it isn't that hard to adjust. It's funny but despite having a lot of detail, it's actually pretty flexible.

What this also means is that people have some very different ideas on what the game is like.

Leewei
2008-04-25, 09:33 AM
GURPS Cyberpunk is a personal favorite. GURPS Cthulhupunk on its own merits is so-so, but makes an excellent supplement for GURPS Black Ops. These are all 3rd Edition -- haven't looked into 4th Edition GURPS aside from the Basic book.