Can we make Cyberpunk good again?

[misterecho]

[Rob Lang]

[tadk]

Of the first 4 systems suggested I vote JAGS

[SheikhJahbooty]

I would totally do mine with FATE, and replace stunts with the term Edges to make it more cyberpunky and so I could put cybernetics in that category. All respect to The Mr. Dr. Lang and Chainsaw's dad, but Sally Shears is cool as hell. In my game people will be able to get stuff like retractable finger razors, or monomol whips installed in one's thumb.

I think the things that should be kept are:

1. Cybernetics - It's not cyberpunk without the cybernetic implants.

2. VR - This is more cyber. It need not be useful for hacking in your game, unless the PC has created an avatar to con or seduce a network security admin.

3. Rebellion - The characters have to at least be against the grain somehow. It's not cyberpunk unless they're punks.

4. Idealism - I think the sentiment that things are screwed up but we can make a difference are what separates cyberpunk from transhumanism like Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, in which everything is wonderful and the characters can't make a big difference. Cyberpunk stories can be very personal, like Fragments of a Hologram Rose, but I think of cyberpunk heroes as being able to change the world for the better, free an AI, stop a virus from spreading, etc.

I think the things that should be ditched are:

1. Elective prosthetics and "humanity" - this wasn't in the source fiction (iirc), and it never made sense to me that someone would remove their flesh and blood and get machine stuff attached, and it never made sense that if someone did lose an arm or leg in a battle or accident that their prosthetic would make them less human or closer to being insane. Plus, chrominess is dated.

2. Toys - I think the cyberpunk focus on brand name gadgetry is not only dated but representative of a very ugly aspect of 80s values, crass consumerist materialism. It would be hard to find a contemporary audience for fiction and RPGs that focused, in a positive way, on the powerlessness of women in feudal society. I think having sentiments like, "The future is disposable," or characters that lust after or are awed by some super expensive brand name gadget, hurts cyberpunk in the same way. People don't get it and find it petty and ugly.

3. Megacorps - I think having multinational businesses and global access to information and ideas, jargon that borrows from other languages etc. is cool and futuristic, but the idea of corporate masters using the anonymity of their brand to conduct immoral business deals is dated. Threadless and businesses like Threadless, that operate transparently, that use crowdsourcing, businesses that want their customers to tell them what to do, that communicate rather than try to hide things, will always out-perform businesses that don't do these things, like Gap. I don't care if a company sells weapons. If it maintains a social network website where soldiers and police officers can follow the tweats of the CEO, discus their experiences, and design or help design the next generation of products, it makes that business a rather poor villain. The big baddies that aren't held accountable for their actions, that the PCs have to take down, have to be things other than corporations.

4. Stealing information - the idea of copyright is soon going to change drastically. We might even be around to see it. People don't relate to movies, music, books, etc. as events or physical objects. They relate to them as information, data, stuff that can be copied, shared, changed, etc. Privacy is an illusion, and one that kids are increasingly uninterested in. Even manufacturing practices cannot be kept secret. I like the idea of hoarding expertise. Organizations may be extremely jealous of certain employees or their crowdsourcing networks, and they may spread memes that a competing organization is evil in some way, or use even less wholesome methods to keep their expertise to themselves, so corporate extractions are still possible, but hacking into a corporate mainframe to steal data and selling that data on the street always seemed silly.

That's my two cents on how I'll approach it. I may also come up with some add-on mechanics for FATE to ensure more noir adventures, because Chainsaw was right that cyberpunk, at least literary cyberpunk was heavily noir in the plot and tone. The cyberpunk gaming I've done has been vastly less so, more caper oriented or action and thrills oriented. Caper stories and action stories aren't bad, but noir stories are really really cool. Maybe there could be a mechanic by which PCs could earn fate points for suggesting weird details about NPCs or for suggesting complications to a simple job. I'll have to tinker. The ideal end result would be for the GM to go in with little or no prep and by the end of the session, for the whole group to have made a simple McGuffin hunt into a horribly ornate caper, or for a simple job of tailing someone to turn into a jumbled mess of interpersonal relationships.

Do check out the link to the blog at the beginning of this thread. The Ted lecture that Rob sites is amazing, and I think may heavily influence what I eventually produce.

[misterecho]

Ok Its official. I'm going to run this competition. thanks for the encouragement. I really need to iron out the details, can anyone with a tad more experience help me with this?

[madunkieg]

You know, I've loved cyberpunk for a long time and really wanted to make a new, up-to-date cyberpunk game. Heck, I just finished an essay examining CP2020 and GURPS CP, but I'm going to have to think really hard before entering this contest. Aside from the one-more-project problem, I get the sense that what defines cyberpunk, what makes it cool, is very different for me than it is for you.

[tadk]

I am taking my tack on this already. I have an initial system idea, got my document outline done so I have an idea what to put where. Might not be totally cyberpunk but it is what is coming out first.

[misterecho]

@madunkieg
All the more reason for you to enter! We need to revive cp, new ideas are more than welcome!

@tadk
I'm glad everything's going so well.

[madunkieg]

By the way, what are your thoughts on the cyberpunk revival that happened in literature in the 00s (Stephenson, Doctorow, and the not-necessarily-futuristic, but still very much concerned with cyberpunk issues, works of Sterling and Gibson)? I mean, if we're going to update cyberpunk, make it cool again, hasn't it already been done in the literary movement and just needing transfer to RPGs?

[misterecho]

cyberpunk has always been very heavily reliant on literature. i.e. Neuromancer etc

Your insperation should make your entry interesting reading!