[Switch]

Any of you out there played the Cyberpunk PnP RPG .
I was just wonering what people thought in companrison to Shadowrun.

[Prime Mover]

CP2020?  Was a grandaddy of the Genre I've got a box with all but a a few of the books.  It was a great pure dystopian cyberpunk game and other games that followed took alot of the gear and concepts away from it. It's alot like SR but without the magic.  Edgerunners face off against similar threats.
Even to this day you still see it's influence popping up in SR usually with the names changed.

 I for one didn't care for anything post corp war2 V.3 has me scratching my head.

So for pure cyberpunk and a great learning experience got pick up a copy and try it out.  As for the newest version I can't recommend but it still has some high points.

[Doc Chaos]

I've had the core rulebook in my bookshelf for 15 years no. Never played it once due to lack of interested players...

[FastJack]

It's much darker than Shadowrun, in my opinion. There is a LOT less hope of doing greater good in the world, and most of the time you're just trying to survive to the next job.

By the way, anyone ever try Cybergeneration?

[Prime Mover]

Had a copy of cybergen for awhile.  It caught alot of flak and was retconned to be an alternate setting as opposed to the future of CP.  It had a different feel (new mutants as opposed to x-men kinda thing).  I think some of the concepts were carried into CP V.3.

Edit: Some of the abilities at the time really bordered on super powers...in tihs day and age not so much though, just really high end tech.

[Critias]

It's much darker than Shadowrun, in my opinion. There is a LOT less hope of doing greater good in the world, and most of the time you're just trying to survive to the next job.

That all depends on how you run your Shadowrun, doesn't it?   

[FastJack]

It's much darker than Shadowrun, in my opinion. There is a LOT less hope of doing greater good in the world, and most of the time you're just trying to survive to the next job.

That all depends on how you run your Shadowrun, doesn't it?   

That's true...

[Patrick Goodman]

It's much darker than Shadowrun, in my opinion. There is a LOT less hope of doing greater good in the world, and most of the time you're just trying to survive to the next job.

That all depends on how you run your Shadowrun, doesn't it?   

I tend to run mine with a bit of hope. Pure dystopian fiction both bores and depresses me, though not generally at the same time.

I guess I need to dig up my old "f___ing ray of hope" screed from back in the ShadowRN days and repost it. It's been a decade; probably everyone's forgotten what a crackpot I am....

[Critias]

There can be rays of hope in a "pure" CP:2020 game, too, though.  I'm just saying Cyberpunk isn't innately any more grimdark than Shadowrun. 

[Prime Mover]

I definitely kept my CP games dark and gritty.  I was always dark and rainy, the birds were dead, the air unbreathable and everyone wanted to shoot you.
I Played SR that way too for most of first and some of second edition but about 10 years into the game I figured life had to change, just look at the US in the 60's compared to say the 80's.  With 4th edition life is still hard and theres a great divide between the haves and have not's but the world has stabilized some and life is less dark and dangerous.  At least outside of the shadows.  That has become the major difference between my 1st ed games and my 4th ed games.  The sun does shine someday's, the bird clones can be heard chirping, you only need a breather on some days and only half the people want to shoot you.  In my old games a pink mohawk caused people to cross the street in anticipation of trouble, these days there more likely to hit there virtual panic button or give you a giggle.  Real life doesn't exist in a vacuum and neither do my games.  I'd like to think this was due to some incredible enlightenment on my part but I think it's more likely just a few thousand game sessions.  Experience really can be the best teacher.

[mortonstromgal]

It gathers alot of dust on the shelf but I actually prefer my cyberpunk without magic. I just always like the SR mechanics better and its set in Seattle (where I live) so it always won. Though I'm mighty tempted by Interface Zero Savage Worlds edition these days

[raben-aas]

Somewhere during SR2, I was very fed up with Shadowrun and played CP2020 for ten straight years. It's a great, flexible system. Very lethal, full of attitude, more cyberpunkish than SR (obviously), wonderfully pulpish/trashy and great for antihero action.

I esp. liked the "voice" of the game, the way it talked to the GM, offered help and ideas on every page and didn't care what was ingame and what was outofgame.

I always liked my Seattle sourcebook and the Street Sam catalogue -- in CP2020, you have similar books (Night City sourcebook and chromebooks), and they are like their SR counterparts on steroids.

However, what was good about CP was also bad: It was SO cyberpunk that you actually had to live in the 80ies/90ies to fully enjoy playing it. The more our real world moved on to "the age of Apple", the less fun CP2020 was (plus, we played the Stormfront campaign and blew Night City to shreds -- it was an epic finale of the campaign, but after it there wasn't left anything to say . Or to (story)tell).

I learned a great deal from CP2020, and when I run the shadoes now, there's a little nihilistic cyberpunk within me grinning maniacally 

THE FUTURE IS DISPOSABLE.
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.

[FastJack]

Cyberpunk is what would've happened if the Linux/Unix users won out and Windows/Apple faded into the background.

[raben-aas]

Like I said: Great game

[Krypter]

Cyberpunk was a very good game that unfortunately was never updated for the 1990s, let alone the 2000s. It was permanently stuck in 1988. For everyone who complains about forced edition upgrades (D&D 4E, SR 4E, etc.), look upon the counter-example and weep*.

I hope someone, somewhere does it a proper service by updating it for the modern world, with modern technologies. The core of the game system and the thematic dynamics are still excellent.


*cyberpunk v3 doesn't count as 1) I refuse to admit its existence and 2) it was no longer a cyberpunk game at all.