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Cyberpunk 203X Coming Soon
Pax00 writes "R. Talsorian released Cyberpunk 2013 and 2020 in the 90's, and it quickly became one of the most popular sf roleplaying settings of all time. There has been talk of a new version for years. The new version is almost out and there is a pdf preview from R. Talsorian, along with an interview with Mike Pondsmith on the forthcoming book." From the interview: "Shelf date is February (I hope). What you can expect: Cyberpunk with the gain turned up. Night City is now the largest City in the world. The Net has collapsed, but there are new net things even cooler. Rival groups (including the megacorps) are vying for world control. There are new cybertechnologies that reflect the changes in the genre. New weapons, new tech, new characters, new goals. Netrunners, rockers and solos will still be around, but in multiple forms depending on the altcult."
Cyberypunk2020 has a great back story. The world is dark and dangerous. The writers did a good job of capturing the feel of William Gibson's early cyberpunk works (Neuromancer and related short stories), elements of Blade Runner, and bits of Max Headroom. The world had most of the elements needed for a good RPG. Characters have to struggle against staggering opposition, but characters had the potential to become minor gods. There was one missing element that I will discuss below.
The mechanics of the game were not very good. I never had a chance to see the original rules, but I did have the v2 rules. I was told that the v2 rules were a major improvement, which does not bode well for original. The rules were combersome and as I recall some parts felt tact on. I will freely admit that I only played the game briefly. Perhaps experience made the mechanics work more smoothly. There was a "port" of Cyberpunk 2020 to GURPS.
GURPS is well refined set of game mechanics. However I am not sure it was an improvement. In all RPGs the game mechanics have a large effect on the style or feel of the game. The mechanics must be crafted to reflect the game world or the game won't work. All games I saw based on GURPS felt like GURPS. Some element of the game world was lost.
Despite the problems I don't think that Cyberpunk 2020 v2 mechanics were that bad. There are worse systems. As a game I think that Cyberpunk was only missing one element that prevented it from being a great game: Cyberpunk 2020 was not a fantasy RPG. Nearly all RPGs set in present-day and future worlds suffer from the same problem. It is hard to be a hero when anyone can pick up a Desert Eagle or equivalent and take the hero down.
The Cyberpunk 2020 game world was special. It captured the essence of the bleak cyberpunk dystopia. As a game Cyberpunk 2020 was not that special.