Given that a few people (Seir, Rikku, Arc, and maybe Negative Polarity) have expressed some interest, and it's been a while, I figured I'd throw out the annual check for interest in a game.

Cyberpunk 2020 is a dark future RPG similar in some ways to Shadowrun but without the magic and, frankly, less optimistic. Solos get the drop on their targets (who yesterday may have been their employers), netrunners prowl the online worlds looking for a way into your information, medias bring you the truth (whose truth depends on who's paying the bills) from the streets, fixers have what you need (if you have what they need), and cops... survive.

Set in 2020, the US has suffered through a terrorist nuclear explosion in Rockefeller Center, a disastrous war in South America, the devastating impact of a lunar boulder 'accidentally' flung by a European-owned launch system on Colorado Springs (or Colorado Sprung, as it's now known), and the collapse of its economy at the hands of ruthless European and Japanese megacorps. The 'Net has grown almost into a world of its own, but woe to the weeflerunner who crosses the wrong corporate sysop. The streets are no better, and often worse; at least in the 'Net you don't smell the pollution all the time.

But there are those who have hope. They are those who have always carried on the struggle for freedom through subterfuge, sabotage, outright violence, or sometimes just the undying refusal to be cowed by the corporate profitmongers who would do anything to crush them under the heels of their 5000-euro Armani shoes. Often working as mercenaries, they look forward to the days that their grandparents remembered of a clean world where everyone got fair wages and you could eat real food, drink water without needing a filter, and sometimes just lay back and relax. Working for the corporations today may be distasteful, but it helps to make sure they're alive to fight them the next day.

So, choomba, you wanna slot in and go for it?

Sure, I'd love to, but I'd probably need more info...

Cyberpunk 2020 books are getting a bit hard to find (this seems to be happening with many RPGs that are not d20-based), but they're available on eBay for relatively little, like this auction of the base book and one Chrome Book (mostly cybernetic add-ons) closing in a few hours and currently at $9.99. Combine it with this one, and you'll have a very good core set.

This sounds interesting, I am in with more detail on story line.

I'm not too familiar with the rules. Is it a d20 system or like a d6 GURPS system? Also, would it be done here or in like a chatroom?

I'd like to do it in both here and IRC if possible, as combat may be prevalent and IRC would allow it to move quickly. The world of Cyberpunk 2020 is a violent one, and I lose about three times as many PCs as I do in any other game.

I'm borrowing (and editing) this from Wikipedia's entry. You can read more about it there for yourself if you wish, but there are spoilers to the storyline. The game itself uses a system called Interlock, one I'm especially fond of because it's able to move faster than any other I've ever played without getting too simplified.

The World of Cyberpunk 2020
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. 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 Japanese zaibatsu conglomerate whose megalomaniacal CEO wishes to realize his dream of Japanese world power.
• 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.
• 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.

Code: Select all

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.

"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".
• David Wyndham: The head of Arasaka's Night City division. He was personally responsible for Alt Cunningham's original death.

Chances are that one of the game stores around here might have a copy, I'll have to take a look.

Also available online through R. Talsorian's online store. Other books are also available.

I'm interested. I've always wanted to try something like this, but I'm not sure how I'll be.

I'll throw a timeline of major events in to help the mood a bit. Note that the timeline breaks off about 1990.

1990

• Start of first Central American Conflict. U.S. engages in interventionist actions in Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador. Military forces are sent to secure the Canal Zone from an ex-U.S. puppet dictator.
• West, East Germany reunited. Warsaw pact breaks up into separate nations.
• Breakup of Soviet mega-state. From this point, the USSR begins a new era of rapprochment with Western Europe; by the 2000’s, the Soviets are the Eurotheatre’s most powerful allies.
• Soviet president Gorbachev appoints party successor, Andrei Gorborev.
• Fall of South Africa. For the next 4 years, there is little or no communication, although terrible atrocities and genocidal wars are rumored.

1991

• Eurospace agency launches Hermes spaceplane
• Gorborev regime purges last of old hardliners
• CHOOH2 developed by Biotechnica
• First arcology built on ruins of Jersey City. 16 “arcos” begin construction over the next 5 years, until the collapse of 1997, leaving the huge structures half completed, filled with squatters and homeless.
• Artificial muscle fibers developed at Stanford Research Center.

1992

• The Treaty of 1992 establishes the European Economic Community. Zones of control and protective tariffs regulate the activities of member nations, France, Britain, United Germany, Italy. A common currency unit (the eurodollar) is established, based on average value in gold of all currencies combined. Trapped in paranoid isolationism, the U.S.. declines to enter.
• The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) develops and spreads several designer plagues worldwide, targeting coca and opium plants. Governments of Chile, Ecuador collapse.
• A savage drug war breaks out between Eurocorp-backed dealers and DEA all over the Americas.
• First use of high energy laser lift arrays in USSR.
• Simple massdriver established in Canary Islands by eight member Eurospace Agency.

1993

• First TRC biologic interface chips developed in Munich, United Germany.
• AV-4 aerodyne assault vehicle developed to deal with increasing riots in U.S. urban zones.
• Columbian druglords detonate small tactical nuclear device in New York. 15,000 killed.

1994

• World Stock Market Crash of ‘94. U.S. economy teeters, then collapses.

1995

• Kilimanjaro massdriver begins construction, under joint agreement between ESA and Pan-African Alliance.

1996

• The Collapse of the United States. Weakened by losses in the World Stock Crash, overwhelmed by unemployment, homelessness and corruption, many city governments collapse or go bankrupt. The U.S. Government, snarled in a staggering deficit and the machinations of the Gang of Four, is totally ineffective.
• Nomad Riots. By now, 1 in 4 Americans are homeless. Hundreds of thousands riot for living space throughout the US. Nomad packs spring up on the west coast and spread rapidly through the nation.
• First appearance of boostergangs.
• Lawyer Purge. Irate citizens lynch hundreds of criminal defense attorneys.
• U.S. Constitution suspended. Martial law established in US.

1997

• Mideast Meltdown. tensions in Middle East escalate to nuclear exchange. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Chad and the Arab Emirates reduced to radioactive slag. World oil supply drops by half.
• Toxic spill kills off most of salmon population in Pacific Northwest. Seattle economy crippled.
• ‘Rockerboy’ Manson killed in England.

1998

• Neo-Luddites re-established in Western Kentucky. Over the next ten years, The “Luds” are responsible for bombings of airports, factories, freeways and mass transit terminals.
• The Drought of ‘98 reduces most of the midwest to parched grasslands. Between agribusiness corps and drought, the family farm all but disappears.
• 10.5 quake shatters Los Angeles; Pacific Ocean inundates 35% of the city. An estimated 65,000 are killed.
• Nuclear accident in Pittsburgh kills 257. Cancer deaths soar over next ten years.

1999

• Federal weapons statute established.
• Millennium cults begin to appear, predicting an apocalypse on Jan.1, 2000. Thousands migrate to isolated communes & temples to “await the end”.
• Tycho Colony established. a massdriver is constructed to provide raw materials for orbital platforms.

2000

• Millennium cults run amok on Jan 1st in orgy of suicide & violence; most destroy themselves.
• First “extended family” posergangs established.
• Massive firestorms rage over northwestern U.S., destroying millions of acres of farm and grassland.
• Crystal Palace space station begun at L-5.
• Wasting Plague hits U.S., Europe, killing hundreds of thousands.

2001

• The framework of the Net firmly in place with construction of the Worldsat network.

2002

• Food Crash; mutated plant virus wipes out Canadian, Soviet crops. U.S. agribusiness crops survive due to new biological counteragent. USSR accuses U.S.. of biological warfare.

2003

• Second Central American War. U.S. invades Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela. The War is a disaster that costs thousands of American lives. Eventually, the remainder of the Gang of Four is swept away on a wave of reform.
• WNS media star Tesla Johanneson exposes secret NSA transcripts of the 1st Central American conflict.

2004

• First cloned tissue growth in vitro. Microsutures, sterilizer fields developed.
• Tesla Johanneson assassinated in Cairo.
• First Corp War. 12 multinats, (including EBM & OA) battle for control of Trans-World Air.

2005

• Cybermodem invented.
• EBM solos attack Tokyo office of Kenjiri Technologies, killing 18.
• End of 1st Corp War.

2006

• First Human clone grown in vitro. Mindless, it only lives for 6 hours.

2007

• Second Corporate War: Involving a number of firms including Petrochem, the dispute is over oilfields in the South China Sea.
• Braindance developed at UC Santa Cruz, California

2008

• U.S. assault on Soviet weapons platform MIR XIII. Eurospace agency intervenes. and Orbital War breaks out between the “euros” and the “yanks”, until Tycho colony massdriver drops a rock on Colorado Springs. An uneasy peace is reached.

2009

• Joint Euro-Soviet mission to Mars departs.
• Corporations eradicate mob rule in Night City.
• Abortive takeover attempt by U.S. “terrorist group" of Crystal Palace construction. ESA discovers Defense Intelligence Agency plot and drops 12 ton rock off Washington as a warning.

2010

• End of Second Central American Conflict.
• Network 54 now controls 62% of all media broadcasting in U.S.
• Food riots in Denver kill 52.

2001

• Crystal Palace is completed. ESA now has a permanent hold in High Orbit zone.
• ESA/Soviet mission reaches Mars.

2012

• Bioplague kills 1,700 in Chicago.
• Concert riot in Night City kills 18, wounds 51. Old Arasaka complex gutted.

2013

• Netwatch established by joint U.S./ Eurotheatre treaty.
• First true Artificial intelligence developed at Microtech’s Sunnyvale, CA. facility.

2014

• I-G transformations redesign the Net. During this time, renegade netrunner Rache Bartmoss plants the DataKrash virus into the architecture of the Net.
• “Metal Wars”begin in Night City as gangs battle for turf.

2015

• Rise of the cyber-mercenaries; Lithuania hires cyber-soldiers to repel invasions by Latvian nationals.

2016

• Third Corporate war is fought in the Net, as rival corps attack each other’s data fortresses.

2017

• First self-aware human clones created.

2018

• Brushfire Wars erupt in Eastern Europe.
• ESA mission launched to Jupiter

2019

• Orbital colony revolt at L-3.

2020

• Today.

I'd like to play, but I don't have access to the Cyberpunk 2020 sourcebook. Unless I can find one somewhere, I'm going to have to decline my spot in this one. Sorry, MB.

Is it necessary to have a sourcebook?

Negative Polarity wrote:I'd like to play, but I don't have access to the Cyberpunk 2020 sourcebook. Unless I can find one somewhere, I'm going to have to decline my spot in this one. Sorry, MB.

He already posted their store. It's there for $22 plus shipping.

There is also RPG Now, though I don't know how good or bad they are. Here's the main book for only US$11, and it's electronic media.