Cyberpunk 2020 is a pen-and-paper role-playing game in the dark cyberpunk genre. Like its predecessor Cyberpunk 2013, Cyberpunk’s game world is based on William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer. The role-playing game by author Mike Pondsmith was published by R. Talsorian Games in 1988. Today it is published by Games-In.
Last update 2020-03-25 at 09:00
The game takes place in the not too distant future where hackers can connect to the network and use their talents, everyone can get cybernetic implants to improve their abilities, and corporations rule the world instead of governments.
Cyberpunk 2020 is based on the main works of the cyberpunk genre, with clear influences from William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and other authors, as well as films and television series (Max Headroom is a clear influence).
Like almost all role-playing games of the time, the game was very action- and combat-oriented, although in essence there was an attempt to value the attitude and style of the genre.
- Officially Licensed
- A Supplement For Cyberpunk 2020
- Soft Cover
- 250 Pages
- Pondsmith, Michael (Author)
Last update 2020-03-25 at 09:00
The game is set in a dystopian 2020, governed by ubiquitous megacorporations above the law. The game’s timeline begins to separate from the current one in the 1980s, leading to a hypothetical 2020 in which many technologies have been surpassed today.
In spite of this, the generalised environment is that of a society in decay, where the human being has become a destroyer of the ecosystem, reaching the limit of having instead of an ozone layer, a dense layer of toxic gases that impede the passage of light. In Cyberpunk 2020 it rains almost every day of the year, but when it is not, a dark sky covers the city.
Table of Contents
Gaming system
The game system of the 2nd edition is based on the ten-sided die and is known as Interlock. It is a fast system, in which the characters are described by a series of characteristics ranging from 2 to 10 and abilities dependent on each characteristic ranging from 0 to 10.
The characters in Cyberpunk 2020 have a basic value in nine characteristics, which can be between two and ten in each case. The better a value is, the more pronounced that trait is in the character. The nine traits are: Attractiveness, range of motion, coolness, empathy, happiness, intelligence, physique, reflexes and technical understanding. Sub-qualities such as racing, jumping, lifting and damage tolerance are derived from this.
In addition, each character has skills in varying numbers that build on the traits (swimming on physique, interviewing on empathy, dancing on reflexes, etc.). Here, too, points are awarded, with a higher value again representing a better skill.
To perform an action the player must add the characteristic together with the ability related to the action. To this total are added or subtracted points according to different modifiers that will increase or decrease the difficulty. Finally the player will throw 1d10 and add the result to the total previously calculated and will have to exced a difficulty level established by the game referee depending on the rules and the situation.
In the event that a 10 is rolled on the die, the player will roll the die again and add the new result. However, if a 1 is rolled, the action is considered to have failed.
Friday Night Firefight
- Officially Licensed
- A Supplement For Cyberpunk 2020
- Soft Cover
- 48 Pages
- English (Publication Language)
Last update 2020-03-25 at 09:00
The rules of the game focus primarily on action scenes, with a set of rules called “Friday Night Firefight”. Basically there are two trends in this game system:
Spin versus difficulty: in this case, the game director assigns a value to each action according to its difficulty. Very easy actions are assigned a value equal to 5 and very complex actions are assigned a value equal to 25.
Counter roll: in this case, each attack roll is counterbalanced by a defense roll that would indicate the difficulty that the attack must overcome to be effective.
In any other case, the player’s dice roll must be greater than or equal to the value indicated by the game director in order to be a successful action.
Character Roles
In the world of Cyberpunk 2020 the roles or professions that each player can choose can be of various types. In the original manual ten roles are described:
- Rockerboy: rebellious artists who use music and revolution to combat power and mega-corporate corruption.
- Solo: real killing machines that do it for money. Bodyguards without modesty who do their job at all costs. True guerrillas of the future.
- Netrunner: computer pirates emerging from a technologized world.
- Techie: renegade mechanics and electronic experts of the world who prefer their science to force.
- Med-Tech: doctors of the 21st century who make medicine a true cyber business.
- Media: large information traffickers who do whatever it takes to inform, under any conditions and at any cost.
- Cop: uniformed authorities and civilians in charge of enforcing the law in a world that does not want to respect it.
- Corporate: expert negotiators, money hounds, multimillionaires with time to devote to any corporation.
- Fixer: crime masters, traffickers and smugglers who can give you anything in exchange for a few credits…
- Nomad: wandering gangsters and urban warriors who dominate the highways.
In addition to the usual equipment and armament, technical implants, so-called cyberware, can be used to improve the performance of eyes, ears or reflexes.
Editions
Cyberpunk, best known for the title of its second edition, Cyberpunk 2020, is a role-playing game created by Mike Pondsmith and first published by R. Talsorian Games in 1988. As its title indicates, the game is set in a fictional universe of the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk.
2020 is the year in which the second edition of the game is set, so when this edition was released in 1990 it was renamed Cyberpunk 2013 to the original 1988 edition, set in 2013. Indeed in the 1980s the year 2013 still seemed distant and could serve as a backdrop for a hypothetical future.
The current edition of the game, the third, entitled Cyberpunk v3.0, is set in the 2030s. It appeared in 2007 and develops the game world further.
A computer game based on this game, Cyberpunk 2077, was announced in 2012 and is still in development, but is expected to be released on 2020.
The Firestorm series
Firestorm was supposed to be the link between Cyberpunk 2020 (the second edition) and Cyberpunk V.3 (the third edition). His goal was to shake up the campaign world and prepare players for the new version and its background.
Firestorm I: Stormfront
During the conflict, the old rivalry between Arasaka and Militech made them forget their customers and they embarked on a real war, provoking the Fourth Corporate War.
During the adventure, players are hired to hunt a netrunner who displeases their employer. They discover that their target is none other than the famous Rache Bartmoss, presumed dead. Regardless of their choice, their employer targets the apartment with a laser satellite and sprays the area.
- Officially Licensed
- A Supplement For Cyberpunk 2020
- Soft Cover
- 144 Pages
- Steele, Anthony (Author)
Last update 2020-03-24 at 16:40
Firestorm II: Shockwave
Taking place in 2024, the second part saw Arasaka mobilize the Japanese defence force to seize Militech and the American army in a series of local conflicts. The period is known as the Hot War.
Waves of cyber viruses corrupt global databases, leaving the isolated arcology of the Arasaka Towers of Night City as the only storage sites in the world.
Militech gathers its forces, the players find themselves in a special assault troop. Their mission is to blow up the arcology. They discovered that Alt Cunningham, who was previously captured by Arasaka, was trapped in the structure. The mission then turns into a rescue and then a glorious escape. Johnny Silverhand dies at the hands of the murderer Adam Smasher to allow Spider Murphy to spread Alt’s protocols on the net. Morgan Blackhand then competes against Adam Smasher at the top of the towers while the rest of the team is extracted. Finally, the bomb exploded, irradiating the suburbs of Night City.
- Officially Licensed
- A Supplement For Cyberpunk 2020
- Soft Cover
- 144 Pages
- Craig Sheeley (Author)
Last update 2020-03-27 at 11:49
Firestorm III: Aftershock
Aftershock promised to link the versions. The supplement was cancelled.
The Collectible Card Game
In 2004 Social Games launched a conversion of Cyberpunk 2020 into a collectible card game entitled Cyberpunk: The Collectible Card Game (literally “Cyberpunk, the collectible card game”). In Spain the translation and distribution company is Distrimagen, which has translated it keeping the original English acronym: Cyberpunk 2020 CCG (“CCG” corresponds to Collectible Card Game).
The game for mobile phones
Mayhem Studio has created an adaptation of Cyberpunk 2020 for a mobile phone, adapting the post-apocalyptic world of R. Talsorian Games in an action game. Its graphic appearance is clearly influenced by FlashBack, a classic action and platform game, even including very immersive cinematic scenes, despite being a mobile game.
Video Game
A video game adaptation is planned by the Polish studio CD Projekt, which had already produced the Witcher series, which proved to be a great critical and commercial success. The game called Cyberpunk 2077 should be played as its name suggests about 50 years after the events of the original role-playing game. It was announced by means of a teaser in computer-generated images (not from the game). The release date is scheduled for April 16, 2020.
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