Blast From The Past: Cyberpunk 2020

Ah, the 1980s. The Reagen years. When we all thought the Japanese would conquer the world. Not though military might, as they tried some forty years earlier, but though economic might. An era of massive technological improvements and advances. Pop music was changing, bringing in influences from the Punk movement. We knew the world was going to hell in hand-basket and we were all along for the ride.

In this era, authors like William Gibson and Rudy Rucker wrote about a future where the internet was completely interactive and that countries had been overshadowed by corporate entities. TV shows like Max Headroom shed light on the new ideas of ratings, companies running political candidates and the growing income disparity in the western world. Movies like Robocop blurred the line between man and machine, while movies like Escape From New York made us fear the increasing levels of violence in the country. And, as always, the violence of this grim, dark, and Dystopian future was front and center.

But, it never happened.

Maybe these things made us change direction, or maybe it was never meant to be. Either way, the Cyberpunk future never happened and the genre has made less and less sense to mainstream audiences. But, screw them. Let's harken back to those years of violence, net running, cybernetics, and anti-establishment sentiment.

CyberPunk 2020: Live fast, die young, and leave a cybernetically enhanced corpse behind.

Many years ago, when I first starting branching out from D&D, I was shopping for a gift for my best friend at a local used book store, searching the RPG section. I stumbled across a beat-up copy of Cyberpunk 2020, looked though it, checked the price, and bought it for him. My friend and I poured over the rules and we found our first Greatest Game Never Played. Because neither of us wanted to run it and nobody else did. I bought my own copy and, to this very day, I've never played a game of it. But, what was so good about this game?

In Cyberpunk 2020, you have a broad choice of classes to play:

Rockerboys: Putting the 'punk' in cyberpunk, Rockerboys (and girls) tell the tales of the street. While possibly one of the hardest classes to work in to a game, the Rockers have to be some of the most interesting to play.

Solos: Soldiers of Fortune in the early 21^st century. Full of cybernetics and usually some of the most damaged people, Solos are the combat beasts of the game. However, that means you'll probably have more than one in the group, if not a group full of them.

Netrunners: When it comes to the Net, these guys are gods. Using their 'Interface' special skill they rule the electronic world.

Techies: The doctors and cyberneticists of the world. Every group needs one of these. If they know it or not.

Medias: Clearly, this group was based on the world of Max Headroom. Out of all of the classes, Medias have the power to change the world at large.

Cops: Even in this dark world, there are still folks who are willing to help their fellow man. Of course, cops in 2020 are out-gunned, overwhelmed, and underpaid...

Corps: Wait, aren't these the bad guys? Maybe yes, maybe no. Surprisingly, these characters are easy to fit in to most campaigns. Got a Media? Great, the Corp is part of her company. Rockerboy? The Corp is his manager.

Fixers: The middle-men and general 'guy who might know a guy' characters. The Fixers take the role of fence, intelligence resource, and face for the party.

Nomads: In 2020 America, there's not a lot of jobs for folks. So, they travel around like caravans of old, usually part of family groups. Nomads are generalists, can be faces, good in a fight, and have the ability to call on some folks to help out in a pinch.

Night City was the original setting for the game

There were several things that made Cyberpunk 2020 different in its setting. For one, the European Union was the big economic driving force in the world, not Japan. They brought Punk to the fore, along with the Cyber. The world was dark and gritty, but not too far from our own world. Well, at the time it was written.

One of the more interesting things that the game did was how the handled the Net. They really went all in and allowed you to design whole worlds. Of course, people being people, there's some nasty things out there in the Net: viruses. That's how they handled combat in the Net. Now, as cool as the Net is, there's one major problem: If you have a Netrunner in the party, they're the only ones who will be using it. So, you'll have to run solo adventures for the 'runner while everyone else deals with stuff going on in the real world. It might be cool for some folks, but most people I know who have run the game either ban Netrunners or do nothing but Netrunners.

When it came to the cybernetics, Cyberpunk 2020 had a huge list and even expanded it in the Chromebooks they released. There was a cybernetic attachment, limb, or implant for any situation. Even in the bedroom. They balanced this with loss of 'humanity' and Empathy. Which means most Solos were really empathic... Before they started relacing perfectly good parts with chunks of steel and plastic.

When it comes to the game itself, the system is your 'standard' D10 system: Stat+Skill+D10=results, higher better. There's a good amount of stats, including Attractiveness which is always good to see as many people confuse 'charisma' with 'looking good'.

The skill list is fairly complete, I doubt anyone would have trouble not finding a skill they wanted. One cool thing they did in the game is you can get 'skill chips'. Want a skill but don't have the points? Just spend some money and you can have a few levels in it. Not bad, right?

The one thing that always stuck for me was the Lifepath the game uses. It's a random background generator for your character, but it provides so many ideas for what your character is like. Not sure of your character's style? There's a chart you can roll on. Want to know what socio-economic class your character came from? There's a chart for that. The only problem with the chart is that lucky rolls can give you extra money, which is critical for classes like Solos. Of course, if you really need money, you can get some by having a bomb implanted in your head or other worse things...

While the technology is dated (oh so dated), they did have some insight in to what we have now, like wireless internet connections. They also included organ banks and hover cars, but that is fine for sci-fi. Just, kind of a shame we don't have those yet.

So, the world moved on and left Cyberpunk 2020 behind. They tried a new edition, Cyberpunk 203X but I don't think it caught on with anyone. And, they did release (or were going to release) a new version: Cyberpunk 2077. I guess cyberpunk isn't dead but it sure has changed...

If you're looking for a flashback to the future that never was, put on your mirrorshades, put in Johnny Mnemonic, and jack in, choomba!

Haters gonna hate