I had a blast running Cyberpunk Red. ❤ I never played 2020, but have the books. So, I have used some of the stuff that I had from 2020 in my Red game. Either way we still had a blast and the things that I would love to see more of from Red, is expansions beyond Night City.
Cyberpunk was very difficult for me to get into, for the exact reasons that you mentioned in your video. I lean much more towards fantasy TTRPGs, but since I recently fell in love with the Call of Cthulhu table top game, I thought that I would give a couple of other non-traditional fantasy settings a try: Shadowrun and Cyberpunk. Shadowrun was a blast, but not my cup of tea. Cyberpunk's setting overwhelmed me, and I ended up running my game by leveraging my experience with the movie, Blade Runner.
Cyberpunk 2020 has been a favorite of mine since it came out in 1990 (I acquired the 2013-set 1st Ed. later out of curiosity). Sadly, I've had very little experience with getting it to the table, beyond running a short, 4 or 5 session mini-campaign 20 years ago. I picked up Cyberpunk Red because I've had such a love for R. Talsorian's setting, and I've heard the netrunning rules are a big improvement over previous editions. But I haven't even cracked my book open yet, and have no expectations of bringing it to the table anytime soon, sadly. The main thing that's kept me from reading the book is its graphic design. For me, personally, I thought the book interior was ugly and sterile, looking like a college text book and the idea of sitting with it for hours upon hours of reading just hasn't felt right. I'm more in love with the setting than the system, having been a Cyberpunk junkie since I was a little kid in the early 80s. I've thought of using a more rules-light game for it if I do bring the setting to the table. I love that it has become a sort of "retro-future"/alternate timeline. There are some other games that I love that also take place in retro-future timelines, like Space 1889 and Tales from the Loop, but those started out meaning to be alternate timelines. It's fun to see Cyberpunk become one as time moved forward. I don't know how international markets work with NetFlix, but they did do a pretty good tie-in anime called Edgerunners if it's available to you. I'm not a big anime fan, and it definitely had some stuff that felt like it was being edgy for its own sake. But the story was pretty good, and I thought it captured the sadness of the setting well. I think it's set closer to the Cyberpunk 2077 video game era, but still features a lot of stuff that works with Red. Funny enough, Cyberpunk has it's own alternate timeline with Cybergeneration, which was sort of an anime-inspired, X-Men like future of Cyberpunk 2020. If I remember right, the premise was that the corporate war happened and the world was shattered. In the aftermath, the children of the 2020 generation developed mutations, so it was a world rebuilding in the aftermath of global war, with slightly superpowered teenagers. I never picked it up, in part because it seemed very anime, and I've never liked anime. But I'm tempted to grab it and read it sometime.
I think Netrunning as a 'game within a game' is pretty challenging I think. Would be interested to see how this plays out on the table. I know there are some supports that to help this. I'm running CY_BORG - which is lore/rules light. I'm not sure what would prompt me to make the jump to running Cyberpunk Red....but I would totally play if some else did!
Red lost something compared to the old Cyberpunk 2020. 2020 had the late '80s exaggerated future-punk attitude which was a bit over the top and fun for being so. It also had some humor ingrained within and didn't take itself too seriously. Red just seems so sanitized, like a big mush of many parts all coming out looking like a vat of baby food in the end. It lacks a lot of the previous edition's personality which was it's best selling point. Even the equipment in the core Red book got the sanitized treatment, unfortunately. I was disappointed with the new one. It has lost something. 😔
I had a blast running Cyberpunk Red. ❤ I never played 2020, but have the books. So, I have used some of the stuff that I had from 2020 in my Red game. Either way we still had a blast and the things that I would love to see more of from Red, is expansions beyond Night City.
I’m a big fan of cyberpunk as an aesthetic but yeah something about this game isn’t quite pulling me. Great vid like always though
Cyberpunk was very difficult for me to get into, for the exact reasons that you mentioned in your video. I lean much more towards fantasy TTRPGs, but since I recently fell in love with the Call of Cthulhu table top game, I thought that I would give a couple of other non-traditional fantasy settings a try: Shadowrun and Cyberpunk. Shadowrun was a blast, but not my cup of tea. Cyberpunk's setting overwhelmed me, and I ended up running my game by leveraging my experience with the movie, Blade Runner.
Cyberpunk 2020 has been a favorite of mine since it came out in 1990 (I acquired the 2013-set 1st Ed. later out of curiosity). Sadly, I've had very little experience with getting it to the table, beyond running a short, 4 or 5 session mini-campaign 20 years ago. I picked up Cyberpunk Red because I've had such a love for R. Talsorian's setting, and I've heard the netrunning rules are a big improvement over previous editions. But I haven't even cracked my book open yet, and have no expectations of bringing it to the table anytime soon, sadly. The main thing that's kept me from reading the book is its graphic design. For me, personally, I thought the book interior was ugly and sterile, looking like a college text book and the idea of sitting with it for hours upon hours of reading just hasn't felt right.
I'm more in love with the setting than the system, having been a Cyberpunk junkie since I was a little kid in the early 80s. I've thought of using a more rules-light game for it if I do bring the setting to the table. I love that it has become a sort of "retro-future"/alternate timeline. There are some other games that I love that also take place in retro-future timelines, like Space 1889 and Tales from the Loop, but those started out meaning to be alternate timelines. It's fun to see Cyberpunk become one as time moved forward.
I don't know how international markets work with NetFlix, but they did do a pretty good tie-in anime called Edgerunners if it's available to you. I'm not a big anime fan, and it definitely had some stuff that felt like it was being edgy for its own sake. But the story was pretty good, and I thought it captured the sadness of the setting well. I think it's set closer to the Cyberpunk 2077 video game era, but still features a lot of stuff that works with Red.
Funny enough, Cyberpunk has it's own alternate timeline with Cybergeneration, which was sort of an anime-inspired, X-Men like future of Cyberpunk 2020. If I remember right, the premise was that the corporate war happened and the world was shattered. In the aftermath, the children of the 2020 generation developed mutations, so it was a world rebuilding in the aftermath of global war, with slightly superpowered teenagers. I never picked it up, in part because it seemed very anime, and I've never liked anime. But I'm tempted to grab it and read it sometime.
I didnt know there was a cyberpunk ttrpg! Thanks for the review
I think Netrunning as a 'game within a game' is pretty challenging I think. Would be interested to see how this plays out on the table. I know there are some supports that to help this.
I'm running CY_BORG - which is lore/rules light. I'm not sure what would prompt me to make the jump to running Cyberpunk Red....but I would totally play if some else did!
Red lost something compared to the old Cyberpunk 2020. 2020 had the late '80s exaggerated future-punk attitude which was a bit over the top and fun for being so. It also had some humor ingrained within and didn't take itself too seriously. Red just seems so sanitized, like a big mush of many parts all coming out looking like a vat of baby food in the end. It lacks a lot of the previous edition's personality which was it's best selling point. Even the equipment in the core Red book got the sanitized treatment, unfortunately. I was disappointed with the new one. It has lost something. 😔
I've Cyberpunk 2020 and this new edition is anodyne and sanitised from my skim reading.