View From The Edge
Before we ever stepped into the role of the mercenary, V, in Cyberpunk 2077, the dark future of Night City was played out between you and your friends on top of a dining table. Assuming the roles of various denizens of Night City, players battle against the megacorporations, gangs, and the relentless grind of a system designed to chew you up and spit you out.
Released in 1990 by Talsorian Games, Cyberpunk 2020 became one of the few RPGs of that era to still be relevant today. Inspired by works like Bladerunner, and Ghost in the Shell, Cyberpunks’ grim look at a corporate run America fueled by runaway technology remains incredibly poignant to this day.
I wrote this article because I like both Cyberpunk 2077, and RPGs. The main point is to point at the source material and highlight what I find interesting, so I won’t be diving deep into the mechanics of Cyberpunk 2020 – if you’re interested in that, I recommend checking out the core rulebook.
Fitted For The Future
Cyberpunk isn’t all bad vibes, however, it’s also stylish as hell. Everybody dresses like they are competing for the cover of a fashion magazine. Neon hairstyles, bulletproof chrome, LED jackets. Style is survival in night city, its identity, armor, and rebellion. In a world where megacorps dictate how far you go in life, how you present yourself becomes your strongest weapon. It’s also incredibly 90’s, and I love it.
Soul And The Machine
The character builder is split into two parts in Cyberpunk 2020, first you choose your class, skills, stats and modifiers, then you use the lifepath system to generate relationships, enemies, tragedies, and personal motivations for your character. First let’s look at classes, (Side note: It’s about to become very obvious that men in the 90’s made this game).
Rockerboys
“Rebel Rockers who use music and revolt to fight authority”. Rockerboys specialize in working people up, getting people in the street and fighting for your cause.
If you haven’t already guessed, this is the class that Johnny Silverhand belongs to, the major character in Cyberpunk 2077 played by Keanu Reeves.
Medias
“Newsmen and Reporters who go to the wall for the truth”. In a world of twisted lies, you alone can bring the truth to people, you, and your camera.
There isn’t much representation in Cyberpunk 2077 for Medias, only mentions that they exist.
Nomads
“Road warriors and gypsies who roam the highways”. This class is all about family, you belong to a tight group of road warriors, a group that will answer your call if you ever need them.
Nomads play a big role in Cyberpunk 2077, V can start his playthrough as one of them, and Panam, one of the love interests, belongs to the Aldecaldos, which have their very own ending where V joins them.
Fixers
“Deal makers, smugglers, organizers and information brokers” You make the criminal underworld go round. Connections means you know everything there is to know in Night City, if there’s a deal going on, you have a part in it. At least, if you want to make big eddies.
There are countless Fixers in Cyberpunk 2077: Rouge, Dexter DeShawn, Mr. Hands – almost every mission in the game involves a fixer, and they are all willing to betray you if it benefits them.
Netrunners
“Cybernetic computer hackers” Every good team has a netrunner. Night City is a giant web of computers, and it’s your job to traverse it. While netrunning, your mind is inside of the web, and you play a different sort of game than everyone else, where other netrunners are as deadly as opposing militants.
Cyberpunk 2077 is full of netrunners: T-bug, Songbird, and if you watched the anime, Lucy.
Cops
“Maximum lawmen on mean 21st century streets”. The most out-of-place class in the setting, the cop class is exactly that; you play as a cop. Most groups won’t have room for you unless you’re dirty.
Cyberpunk 2077 only portrays cops as minor characters, and mostly as antagonists.
Solos
“Hired assassins, bodyguards, killers, soldiers”. Everyone has a gun, but nobody can shoot it quite like you do. You’re the best of the best, and you’re going to make damn sure everyone knows it.
This is the class that V best fits.
Corporates
“Slick business raiders and multi-millionaires”. You have nearly made it to the top, but everyone now wants a piece of what you have, and they are willing to kill you to get it.
You’re no better than they are.
In Cyberpunk 2077, V can start their journey as a corpo, though they won’t hang on to it for long.
Techies
“Renegade mechanics and doctors”. While netrunners work the net, you work the hardware. Body mods, firearms, and deadly gadgets are your forte.
Ripperdocs in Cyberpunk 2077 are the closest we get to techies.
Skills
After you pick your class you build your character sheet, this works like most other TTRPG’s, where you assign statistics to your characters various skills, and those skills apply modifiers whenever you roll a skill check.
Lifepath
The Lifepath system is the last major step in the character creation process, besides arming yourself. Step 1 of the lifepath dictates your style and ethnicity. Both of these can be decided with a dice roll, but I imagine most people just chose what they wanted.
Next, step 2 dictates your family background, there is a sprawling table that walks you through this presented below, most of the steps use a table like this:
Step 3 is your character’s motivations: first you pick your personality traits, then a person and object you value the most, then your general attitude towards other people.
Lastly, step 4 is major life events. You decide how many life events you’ve experienced based on your character’s age, then roll a 10 sided die that many times.
Rolling a 1-3 sends you to a table called “Big Problems, Big Wins”. Rolling an even number means something good happens to you, and you roll on the good events table, rolling odd sends you to the bad events table.
A 4-6 roll sends you to “Friends and Enemies”. Once again, roll to determine if you made a friend, or if you made an enemy, then follow the subsequent table to determine the specifics of which.
7-8 is “Romantic Involvement”. Another table walks you through a romantic fling that ended in some manner, whether the lover died or still loves you.
On a 9-10 nothing happens.
Friday Night Firefight
The world and style is all well and good, but every good game needs gameplay, and this is where Cyberpunk 2077 and 2020 probably differ the most. While playing as V in 2077, you are akin to a superhero in terms of abilities. You can withstand a hail of bullets, punch and shoot like a hardened veteran, and kill everyone around you with a thought in late game. In 2020, a single bullet can spell your end no matter how long you’ve been playing.
Never Fade Away
This was just the smallest snippet of what Cyberpunk 2020 has to offer, I glossed over the history of night city, the major characters like Johnny Silverhand, the intricate combat rules, specifics about the Megacorporations, trauma team, drugs, careers, and on and on. Everything you need to play is in the core rulebook, but there are seemingly endless official and fan-made add-ons that make Cyberpunk 2020 an endless rabbithole. The new Cyberpunk RPGreleased in the real-world 2020, Cyberpunk Red, takes place in the year 2045, and continues much of what Cyberpunk 2020 is, while changing some fundamentals to make it more like Cyberpunk 2077. While I still think it’s a cool game, it is no replacement.
