Is it Cyberpunk enough?
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The people demand! More cyberpunk tropes!
Edgerunners is /amazing/ and has given me the urge to chrome up until I need therapy. Mike Pondsmith’s theme and the setting is a masterpiece I’ve obsessed with for decades. I even made a run at creating a CPR game several times. But man, is it hefty coding to do right in a MUSH environment that may or may not take off.
This question was raised on MuHaven, and I thought I’d continue it here: If Pondsmith’s masterwork Cyberpunk ruleset is too chunky to turn into MUSH - what other rules do justice to the tropes we all love about what it means to play cyberpunk?
These have been my runners-up for a few years now:
Neon City Overdrive has to be my #1 pick. Its rules are loose, fast, and story-driven. My only fear with this masterpiece lies in its greatest strength - it may be too light for an arena where not everyone is working for the same goals. There’s a free edition of the rule-system the game is based on Freeform Universal, otherwise known as FU - PDF available here.
Utopia While not strictly the grim dark setting that we know and love - the rule system is interesting as it was designed to be played online, GMless and even solo (Which I read as staff lite, and automated in places).
The Sprawl Who doesn’t love PBtA?
I could keep going, but I’m more interested in what other systems/games are out there that would fit the tropes/environment.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to the discussion!
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@Kumakun I will admit I don’t know how easy/hard it would be to turn into a MUSH, but good ol’ Cyberpunk 2020 was my game standard for years for the genre. I’d love to see a game incorporate the character generator randomization options it has, and the lifepath generator is just fun. I haven’t gotten to try Cyberpunk Red yet what with all the delays and drama it had around its release.
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@Kumakun said in Is it Cyberpunk enough?:
what other rules do justice to the tropes we all love about what it means to play cyberpunk?
It comes down to what you want out of a game, really.
On the “code light” end of the spectrum - there are discords and play-by-post doing cyberpunk RP with no system whatsoever, and Storium games doing cyberpunk RP with a superlight generic card system. You could absolutely translate that to a traits-based MU similar to the way superhero games work, or use a light narrative system like TinyD6, Fate, or maybe FS3 (the combat probably wouldn’t be a great fit, and cyberware might be problematic if the tech level is too high).
On the “code heavy” end, there have been umpteen Shadowrun MUs that are super crunchy, more-or-less faithful recreations of the RPG, and various cyberpunk MUDs. No reason CP2020 or CP-Red couldn’t work too.
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Shadowrun doesn’t even need to be code-heavy, that just helps on the staff paperwork.
There is a Genesys… setting book? I dunno… it’s Android, Up the Beanstalk. In the same world as Android: Netrunner, that FFG had the rights to for a Living Card Game, which was where most of my attention for the setting originated. Also because it has this wholesome hacking computer:
It would probably have similar issues that the Age of Rebellion/Edge of the Empire/Force and Destiny games for Sgar Wars would have, given that they have the same dice.
… which is to say, no issue at all, make the game(s) already, you cowards!
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@Faraday said in Is it Cyberpunk enough?:
On the “code heavy” end, there have been umpteen Shadowrun MUs that are super crunchy, more-or-less faithful recreations of the RPG, and various cyberpunk MUDs. No reason CP2020 or CP-Red couldn’t work too.
Oh, without a doubt! I was just wondering what else people have found out there, if they /don’t/ have the time to dedicate to faithfully recreating the games for MUSH.
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@Kumakun said in Is it Cyberpunk enough?:
This question was raised on MuHaven, and I thought I’d continue it here: If Pondsmith’s masterwork Cyberpunk ruleset is too chunky to turn into MUSH - what other rules do justice to the tropes we all love about what it means to play cyberpunk?
I don’t want to detract from a discussion on alternative CP systems – that’s a topic I’m fairly interested in understanding folks perspective on, but that said… I don’t think the CP ruleset is too chunky to turn into a MUSH.
There’s nothing too tricky there – the sheet code isn’t really that particularly complex, and the dice code would just need to do an X + Y look-up against the sheet, then optionally add a modifier.
The hardest part would have been all the gear, except there’s a google doc floating around somewhere (not more than a google search or two away, think I came across it on reddit originally) that has everything all nicely formatted into a table that you could just download and treat like a little gear DB.
-r
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CP: Red is actually pretty easy to turn into a MU* system. I’m actually sort of working on this but haven’t gotten very far and had to reset my server a few times. But! I would happily work with someone who wants to help code stuff up. I even have ideas to take care of gear, xp, and other things that’d normally go to staffers/queues.
Feel free to reach out if you are interested, and I’ve currently got an Ares box running through digital ocean.
