A Celebration of Cyberpunk: Day Two
“The quintessential ‘punk needs quintessential wazez. It’s a necessity, choombatta.” Gil Myxx as written in Chromebook 2.
Cyberpunk can be a harsh mistress. Compared to other games, the rules might seem crueler and harder to learn. Some people need help figuring out the ropes. Other players have got it down cold but they want more than what’s available even in the vast array of books R. Talsorian Games and other companies have produced for the game.
Don’t worry, choomba. We’ve got your back! Here’s a list of resources good for any cyberpunk.
The Official Stuff
The best place to start when looking for Cyberpunk data is the source.
R. Talsorian Games runs its own online store where Cyberpunk and Cybergeneration books can be purchased. These are all hardcopy, dead tree versions.
If you like your game books digital, we’ve got you covered there. A lot of our books are on sale over at DriveThruRPG. Anything there can be purchased as a PDF and some are available as Print on Demand.
The Not Quite Official Stuff
Talsorian Games isn’t the only company to produce material for Cyberpunk! Back in the day, several companies licensed the system and setting to make their own neon dreams come true. A lot of those books are on DriveThruRPG, too!
- Atlas Games put out a number of Cyberpunk Currently, All Fall Down, The Arasaka Brainworm, The Bonin Horse, Chasing the Dragon, The Osiris Chip, and Streetfighting are all on sale in digital form.
- Before they were known as Dream Pod 9, Ianus Games supported Cyberpunk both with adventures for the original and an alternate techno-horror universe known as Night’s Edge. Their non-horror books, King of the Concrete Jungle, Media Junkie: Take One, Media Junkie: Final Cut, Premature Burial, Remember Me, and Sub-Attica are all available. The Night’s Edge line includes the original sourcebook as well as Crashpoint, Dark Metropolis, Grimm’s Cybertales, Home Front, Necrologies 1 thru 3, Playground, and Survival of the Fittest. You can find them all on DriveThruRPG.
The Not At All Official But Still Wicked Awesome Stuff
It isn’t just the above companies who have produced material for Cyberpunk over the years. Any GM who has played for more than a session has bent their imagination to the task of changing, adapting, rearranging, spinning, folding, mutilating, and creating! Here’s a few places around the internet where a cyberpunk can find new material for their game.
- Datafortress 2020 might be the single biggest resource for Cyberpunk players out there. Deric Bernier has collected tech, homebrew rules, locations, and netbooks into a single archive. If you need it, there’s a good chance you’ll find it here.
- One of the first things some gamers do when coming across a new system is figure out a way to digitize chargen. Eric Dorsey’s done just that with the Cyberpunk 2020 Character Generator. It’s a nice way to make yourself a cyberpunk.
- Mockery’s Cyberpunk 2020 page is a solid example of the sort of site which many gamers love. A collection of new gear, new drugs, new corps, new places, and new characters. Many have been adapted from other games.
- Cybersmiley’s Datafort’s another such collection. There’s also some nice utilities for generating a Lifepath and figuring out the costs of your clothes and your ride.
- Need a goon but don’t have the stats handy? Mark Shute has you covered with his goon generator.
- Sometimes the best way to get inspired for a game is to see how other groups put together their campaign! Check out Cyberpunk Adventures, NuYork2020, and Guns for Hire.
- Neural Archive is a Cyberpunk-focused blog which has given a lot of attention to, among other things, city building. Their latest project focuses on Cape Point, a new city setting for the game.
- Want an interactive map of Night City? Citizen X has created one of both the Night City area and the City Center.
- View From the Edge is a forum for discussing the game. It has over a decade of life to it and is still a place where cyberpunks can come together to discuss how to make something new.
That’s Not All!
When it comes to Cyberpunk, this represents just a small sample of what’s been made and what’s still to come. The game’s now thirty years old and still growing, still changing, and still living by the four biggest rules of the game.
Style over substance.
Attitude is everything.
Always take it to the edge.
Break the rules.
That’s all for today, choombas. We’ll be back tomorrow with more of this birthday party. In the meantime, what resources do you use to inspire your games?
Stay safe in the streets!
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It probably counts as not quite official but the paranoia rpg did a three part crossover with 2020 which was an absolute riot to run. 😂
Indeed they did! And additional material was put out for Cybergeneration by Firestorm Ink. We stuck with books which could still be purchased, though, in this post.
What resources did I use. Anything an everything (with a twist or a polish).
Other genre game stuff modified to suit.
Architectural floor plans cribbed from a variety of sources.
In the post 2000 years, many of those plans were scanned and ported to my tablet (and use of instant messaging to contact players individually for the “secret” stuff.) but I also bought a pile of ebooks from DTRPG.
Additional CP stuff was the Interface series of zines by Chris Hockabout, Thaddius Howze and the boys of the back room.