Cyberpunk is a dystopian tabletop role-playing game written by Mike Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games. It is typically referred to by its second or fourth edition names, Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red, in order to distinguish it from the genre after which it is named. The game was designed by Pondsmith as an attempt to replicate the gritty realism of the 1980s cyberpunk novels.
About Cyberpunk (role-playing game) in brief
Cyberpunk is a dystopian tabletop role-playing game written by Mike Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games. It is typically referred to by its second or fourth edition names, Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red, in order to distinguish it from the genre after which it is named. Cyberpunk exists within its own fictional timeline, which splits from the real world in 1990. The main location for Cyberpunk is the fictional Night City, situated on the west coast of the United States between Los Angeles and San Francisco. With a population of five million people, it presents a stratified society of gang warfare, corporate rivalries and political machinations in which the players have to survive. There are ten key roles, each with their own special abilities. For successful play, players are awarded points to be spent on improving their characters’ skill sets. The combat system is called Friday Night Firefight, and emphasizes lethality. The destruction of the global NET in later editions of Cyberpunk turns the attention of Netrunners to local private networks. Netrunners engage in the virtual world with interface plugs, cyberdecks, and the Interface special ability. Combat and other actions in the NET are fast, taking place second-by-second, as opposed to three second combat rounds in the physical world. Closer integration with other activities was a choice to ensure all characters have a part to play during a scene.
The acquisition of cyberware— cyberoptics and implants—carries a Humanity Cost. Every ten points of Humanity Cost causes the loss of an attribute that measures how well people relate to other people. An Empathy level of zero represents the complete loss of humanity, a state known as cyberpsychosis; in the case of players, their non-player character becomes a non- player character controlled by the gamemaster. Another key influence was a key influence, Walter Williams’ novel Hardwired, and helped play a key role in the game’s development. In particular, the game was designed by Pondsmith as an attempt to replicate the gritty realism of the 1980s cyberpunk novels. The game was a success, and was later adapted into the film Hardwired and the TV series Hardwired. It was also the inspiration for the film Blade Runner, starring Tom Hanks, which was released in 1998. The rules of Cyber punk are built on R. Talsorian’s Interlock system. A core game mechanic is the concept of Difficulty Values, used to gauge whether a player succeeds or fails at any given task. A player takes the value of their most appropriate character attribute, adds the values of any relevant skills or modifiers, and then finally adds thevalue of a ten-sided die roll. In order to succeed, they must beat the Difficulty Value assigned to the task.
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This page is based on the article Cyberpunk (role-playing game) published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
