The Neon Beckons Me Beyond its Ghostly Light
Still in sort of a cyberpunky headspace.
I'm replaying Deus Ex: Human Revolution - though the "Director's Cut" this time. The main difference there seems to be a bit of building out around the boss fights to allow for use of some other skills to take them down. Originally (perhaps because the boss fights were outsources), they could seriously roadblock characters who focused on non-combat avenues. The redone ones have more options, though it is still rough for a stealth-hacker to deal with being dropped right in front of an enemy.
I also rewatched some clips from Bugglegum Crisis, remembering that series. It focused more on the man-versus-machine aspects of the genre than the blending of the two or socio-economics (though each is in there to some extent). It was also a nice display of advanced power armor well before the Iron Man movies brought that to more "mainstream" scifi.
Thinking of cyberpunk RPGs, I really only come back to two main ones. R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk (and the oh-so-futuristic later edition Cyberpunk 2020) manages to build the genre into a game, though the focus on style over substance always gives me pause when looking at things that make little sense from a balance/gameplay perspective. For my money, Shadowrun did a pretty good job, even if it crams magic/supernatural into the mix. The mechanics have varied wildly over editions, but I felt there was a good representation of the technological and social aspects of the genre. And the early splatbooks (Street Samurai Catalog and Shadowtech especially) were great at establishing flavor.
I've seen a lot of other game systems that can do cyberpunk (GURPS, Rifts, etc.), but they typically view cyberware through a lens of pure game mechanics that makes the technology equal to spells/skills/equipment in a way that robs it of flavor rather than making it feel unique and interesting on its own.
I'm replaying Deus Ex: Human Revolution - though the "Director's Cut" this time. The main difference there seems to be a bit of building out around the boss fights to allow for use of some other skills to take them down. Originally (perhaps because the boss fights were outsources), they could seriously roadblock characters who focused on non-combat avenues. The redone ones have more options, though it is still rough for a stealth-hacker to deal with being dropped right in front of an enemy.
I also rewatched some clips from Bugglegum Crisis, remembering that series. It focused more on the man-versus-machine aspects of the genre than the blending of the two or socio-economics (though each is in there to some extent). It was also a nice display of advanced power armor well before the Iron Man movies brought that to more "mainstream" scifi.
Thinking of cyberpunk RPGs, I really only come back to two main ones. R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk (and the oh-so-futuristic later edition Cyberpunk 2020) manages to build the genre into a game, though the focus on style over substance always gives me pause when looking at things that make little sense from a balance/gameplay perspective. For my money, Shadowrun did a pretty good job, even if it crams magic/supernatural into the mix. The mechanics have varied wildly over editions, but I felt there was a good representation of the technological and social aspects of the genre. And the early splatbooks (Street Samurai Catalog and Shadowtech especially) were great at establishing flavor.
I've seen a lot of other game systems that can do cyberpunk (GURPS, Rifts, etc.), but they typically view cyberware through a lens of pure game mechanics that makes the technology equal to spells/skills/equipment in a way that robs it of flavor rather than making it feel unique and interesting on its own.
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