RPGnet Columns
12-17-2004, 09:49 AM
Post originally by Ian Sokoliwski at 2004-12-17 08:49:18
Converted from Phorums BB System
I've probably mentioned this in other posts here, but I thought I'd reiterate.
The original Cyberpunk game was something of a revelation for me. Prior to seeing it (back in '89), everything I had played had been obsessed with hit points, armour classes, all the standard tropes of RPG's. The combat/conflict system (from Friday Night Firefight) was the most inspirational thing I had ever seen. No HP! No AC! The rule that a gun put to your head and fired would kill you! (not to mention chainsaws :) )
Not to mention that this also introduced me to the Cyberpunk movement in the first place. Somehow, I had missed it (pre-internet Manitoba was a cold, desolate place), and within a year I had devoured everything on the film and books list in the rulebook (but 'Overdrawn at the Memory Bank'? C'mon, whose fault is that!?), and have been a William Gibson junkie ever since.
Much of the style of gameplay found in that first edition (and expounded on later, first in the supplements, then in C2020) really led me to change my approach to GM'ing, even assisting me in my move from 'plot' and 'reward' based play to more 'story' and 'character' driven games (at first with mixed results, but, as the years and games in various systems went by, the results smoothed out and became on the whole much better).
I've also found that the system itself to be very malleable, and open to multiple interpretations. I ended up running a Car Wars game for a long time using, instead of the 'recommended' GURPS Autoduel, Cyberpunk for the RPG aspects of the game. Very simple conversions, and the ethos of the game seemed to fit better for me rather than Autoduel (I noticed, however, as time went by that more and more Autoduel/Car Wars influences began to creep into the Cyberpunk design and supplements. There is a lot of Car Wars in Maximum Metal, for example...:) ).
Even my more White Wolf-centric campaigns of the late 90's had a lot of Cyberpunk influence on them (I, like a lot of other Storytellers, was obsessed with the Men In Black and other Technomages of the Technocracy, as well as the Sons of Ether and, far and away most importantly, the Virtual Adepts, and would hassle my Vampire players with Gibsonian technomages a lot). While I agree with the 'no elves in Cyberpunk' idea, the setting can adapt to a lot of 'influence' (again, the technomage idea from Mage as well as the earlier 'CyberCthulhu' issue of 'Interface' magazine). Heck, I even adapted the Antarctic Collective (again, from 'Interface') into a technocracy/Freak Legion short-lived game.
Beyond all the stats and conversions and 'hey, let's stick an encounter with some Kitsune in the Chatsubo'-style stuff, much of the style of play, the attitude of play from the Cyberpunk iterations is still felt in much of my GM'ing even today. I'm not sure if I can draw any clear parallels, but I know intuitively it is still there (and I doubt I would have gotten as far into my more 'improv' approach of GM'ing without having first picked up that game way back when. At least, it would have taken a lot longer to evolve). The (comparatively) rules-light approach to Cyberpunk really affected how I looked at what rules were 'necessary' after that, and really paved the way for my various Vampire/Mage/Hunter games after that (perhaps not Champions and D&D so much...).
So, yeah, Cv3 is something I'm looking forward to as well.
Converted from Phorums BB System
I've probably mentioned this in other posts here, but I thought I'd reiterate.
The original Cyberpunk game was something of a revelation for me. Prior to seeing it (back in '89), everything I had played had been obsessed with hit points, armour classes, all the standard tropes of RPG's. The combat/conflict system (from Friday Night Firefight) was the most inspirational thing I had ever seen. No HP! No AC! The rule that a gun put to your head and fired would kill you! (not to mention chainsaws :) )
Not to mention that this also introduced me to the Cyberpunk movement in the first place. Somehow, I had missed it (pre-internet Manitoba was a cold, desolate place), and within a year I had devoured everything on the film and books list in the rulebook (but 'Overdrawn at the Memory Bank'? C'mon, whose fault is that!?), and have been a William Gibson junkie ever since.
Much of the style of gameplay found in that first edition (and expounded on later, first in the supplements, then in C2020) really led me to change my approach to GM'ing, even assisting me in my move from 'plot' and 'reward' based play to more 'story' and 'character' driven games (at first with mixed results, but, as the years and games in various systems went by, the results smoothed out and became on the whole much better).
I've also found that the system itself to be very malleable, and open to multiple interpretations. I ended up running a Car Wars game for a long time using, instead of the 'recommended' GURPS Autoduel, Cyberpunk for the RPG aspects of the game. Very simple conversions, and the ethos of the game seemed to fit better for me rather than Autoduel (I noticed, however, as time went by that more and more Autoduel/Car Wars influences began to creep into the Cyberpunk design and supplements. There is a lot of Car Wars in Maximum Metal, for example...:) ).
Even my more White Wolf-centric campaigns of the late 90's had a lot of Cyberpunk influence on them (I, like a lot of other Storytellers, was obsessed with the Men In Black and other Technomages of the Technocracy, as well as the Sons of Ether and, far and away most importantly, the Virtual Adepts, and would hassle my Vampire players with Gibsonian technomages a lot). While I agree with the 'no elves in Cyberpunk' idea, the setting can adapt to a lot of 'influence' (again, the technomage idea from Mage as well as the earlier 'CyberCthulhu' issue of 'Interface' magazine). Heck, I even adapted the Antarctic Collective (again, from 'Interface') into a technocracy/Freak Legion short-lived game.
Beyond all the stats and conversions and 'hey, let's stick an encounter with some Kitsune in the Chatsubo'-style stuff, much of the style of play, the attitude of play from the Cyberpunk iterations is still felt in much of my GM'ing even today. I'm not sure if I can draw any clear parallels, but I know intuitively it is still there (and I doubt I would have gotten as far into my more 'improv' approach of GM'ing without having first picked up that game way back when. At least, it would have taken a lot longer to evolve). The (comparatively) rules-light approach to Cyberpunk really affected how I looked at what rules were 'necessary' after that, and really paved the way for my various Vampire/Mage/Hunter games after that (perhaps not Champions and D&D so much...).
So, yeah, Cv3 is something I'm looking forward to as well.