Datafortress 2020: An Awesome Cyberpunk 2020 Resource

So, Datafortress 2020 has been floating around for years on the net, and I kept seeing the link in Wisdom000's signature on RPG.net for ages, but as I've been looking through the old Cyberpunk 2020  Chromebooks for inspiration for gaming and modelling, I thought I'd swing by and see if there were any new updates.

Luckily enough, Wisdom000 has just put up a massive update, collecting loads of older PDFs together, rearranging various items, and adding new stuff.

One thing I never realised - not only has Wisdom000 added new content, they've went back and totally rehauled the Interlock system to make it the universal system it was always touted as. One of the reasons I had been avoiding running Cyberpunk 2020 was that the system looked a little dense for my tastes - but the Interlock Unlimited update he's done is simply astonishing, rebalancing the rules, adding new ones, and stripping out the chaff the system has accumulated. He's even included tons of optional rules, new ideas, and all manner of cool stuff - but, in a flash of awesome, kept the all separated out. The basics are simple, then you pick and choose which extra books you use. It's like GURPS, only it doesn't make my head hurt (as much. It's still a pretty complicated system in parts, but I am getting it a lot easier that reading through the original books).

It also has one of the most comprehensive armouries I've ever seen. The volume of gun porn somehow manages to be even greater than usual in the Cyberpunk genre. I drool a the thought of unleashing a few of these beauties. Same with the cyberware - there's a ridiculous amount of cool toys for every occasion, from the cheapest, clunkiest Soviet Block roboarms, to the sleekest Raptor legs in town. It's all there, and it's all awesome.

It's actually leaving me itching to run the game. Rarely does a set of house rules do that for me, when I find the source material too much to swallow.

Touche, good sir.

Dredd: How To Game It

Pictured: THE LAW

So, because I was ill as fuck over the weekend, the girlfriend's flatmate picked me up a copy of Dredd on DVD to cheer me up.

I loved the movie. It managed to perfectly recreate the look of the comics - I wasn't all that convinced by the choice of South Africa, at first, but it turns out that Cape Town pretty much looks exactly like Mega-City One. It mixes ultra-modern, sleek aesthetics with junker vans and slums, and even has those wonderful mixes (like the futuristic flyover built from concrete, cutting through a regular "Americanised" street, with shanty houses on one side). It's awesome!

The casting was good - Olivia Thirlby makes a slightly younger-than-usual Psi-Judge Anderson, but pulls off the "badass rookie" pretty well, and Urban nails it. Lena Heady was a little take-it-or-leave-it as Ma-Ma - I can think of a lot of female actresses out there who could have brought more to the role. But, she wasn't terrible. Plus, movie-geek rage happened when her scar make-up couldn't stay consistent between shots.

The SFX were well-realised - they added to the scenes, rather than dominating them (a common problem in bigger-budget movies). Practical effects are used for most of the movie, with the real exceptions being the scenes powered by the perception-altering drug Slo-Mo - thus adding to the feeling of unreality (and, in theatres, most of the 3D elements were Slo-Mo scenes as well!).

But, the thing that stuck in my head was how much fun it might be to run a game in the setting.

The first thought was a skirmish-style game, as I've been wanting to try a little bit more wargaming recently. Necromunda is pretty much already a hab-riot on the tabletop, but the rules for playing as a smaller, elite force (like the Arbites) as versus a larger gang are a bit wonky. Plus, the Arbites in a campaign game have a few issues (like the system of replacements and hiring).

Inquisitor28 could be a good fit, particularly inspired by this post. A small group of Judges/Arbites, controlled by one player, and the inhabitants by another player (or multiple players). You could have simple survival as the goal, but it's always more fun to have a clear objective in Inquisitor (perhaps, similar to the movie, the Arbites have to protect a witness/perp, and the other gangs need to make sure they don't get out alive/they're the ones who kill the witness/they steal the witness away for their own nefarious purposes). I'd maybe consider modifying the rules to reflect ammo (even just price up clips, etc), and track wounds a little more "realistically" for the Arbites. Building a multi-level environment might pose a problem, but it surely can be done!

There is also a new Judge Dredd miniatures line and Skirmish Game from Mongoose Publishing, which are both pretty top-notch. The rules are a free download, for one thing, and the miniatures are sculpted suspiciously similar to the Wargames Foundry 2000AD Miniatures, and their Street Violence Range as well - meaning that you have a lot of options for this one.

I'll pop up a quick review of the rules soon.

I also thought about full-on roleplay in the setting. While there is a Judge Dredd system out there, I was never a fan. So, searching about, I thought MiniSix could make a good starting point. But, then I thought - really, the Warhammer 40k setting has borrowed so much from the Dredd setting, that it's time to give something back...

I'll pop up some conversion ideas for running Dredd in the WH40kRPG system this week - stay tuned!

Cyberpunk: What System?

There's a dearth of game systems out there, each tailored to their own particular style of game. I figure I can work out what I want from a cyberpunk game, and work it back from there.

• Action - it's got to be capable of holding a decently lethal firefight, hand-to-cyberhand combat, and possibly vehicular combat equally well.
• Tactics - with a lethal-ish combat system comes tactical combat - I don't want a miniatures skirmish game, but some level of combat crunch would be nice.
• Gear - you gotta be able to create (or nab) rules for weapons, tech, and chrome. It just wouldn't be cyberpunk without arm-mounted shotguns and subdermal armour.
• Setting - I really like the R. Talorisan Cyberpunk setting. It has just the right mix of Big Evil Corps, military interests, politics, and more "down to earth" stuff like social movements and cool little bits of fluff. However, many people I talk to are more interested in something like Shadowrun (despite being kinda dumb, it manages to have a real sense of fun to it). So I'd preferably like a system that can do both justice.

Hmm...

My normal standby, Risus, is a little bit too rules-lite for my tastes here, so no dice.

Shadowrun seems like a good choice - but its rules are incredibly linked to its setting. Excising the magical content can be done, but then you end up with half a system, and it doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

GURPS covers the first three - it's got rules for everything, after all. But, that's also its problem - there's rules for everything. I guess I can drop a lot of the additional rules, and just use GURPS Lite and add in the bits I need... it's modular enough to take it. Christ, if there's one thing GURPS can't be outshined on, it's modularity. But, in all honesty, I'm not a huge fan of the system. It feels... clunky.

D20 Modern could cover most of those, but it's mostly pants-on-head retarded. Though someone did make up a fantastic Ghost in the Shell conversion document... it ends up dropping a lot of the main problems with the system, such as "Hero Classes", the silly firearms rules, and some of the weird interactions of high-tech and high-levels (the classic level 10 Tough Hero who can be shot in the face and laugh it off). I'm reading through it just now, and I''ll probably post up something about it later...

Savage Worlds is pretty high up on my list. A good level of crunch, easy to learn rules (roll a 4. That's pretty much it), a pre-existing Cyberpunk book, decent lethality, and a lot of customisation value. Looking very good!

BRP is a great system, and it's pretty crunchy, and has sci-fi and cyberpunk resource books... plus, the advancement system is fun (you only advance the skills you use, so no "levelling up" and watching the Wizard learn new spells, get tougher, and somehow learn how to swing a sword better, despite not having picked up any weapon more lethal that a fork for his entire adventuring career). Plus, it means I can build up a huge arc to end up with a Cyberpunk/Call of Cthulhu crossover!

I mean, seriously - how cool would that be?

Cyberpunk 2020 - Why Do I Want To Run This?

The system's a clusterfuck of strange rules, heavy mathematics and "justified" brokeness ("Solos", the settings Fighter equivalent, always go first in combat. It's their special rule. And, as a rule, have the hugest weapons. Hello, Rocket Tag...)

But I love the bizzaro future-failures. Full-body cyborg prosthetics are available, but there's no wireless internet? Mobile phones cost $3000, and can't even text! And, apparently, Great Britain is the only country which still makes print newspapers. On average, they cost £3. But, for the princely sum of £6, you can have it faxed to you.

Read that again - faxed.

Oh, wow.

I'm eyeing up the setting, and trying to find a good system to run it... lethal, tactical, and fun - it might be Unknown Armies time.