I know nothing of cyberpunk. I mean, I’ve seen Bladerunner, and some futuristic anime. That’s it. But, man I love running this game.
As far as “The Sprawl” versus other PBTA games, there’s something so palpable about all the “fronts” being Corporations who are disgustingly wealthy AND powerful AND borderline insurmountable AND also part of your everyday life whether you like it or not.
If this game is run right, (and I’m not saying I’m doing it. I’m working on it.) I think the excitement/tension can be so high. You can run a perfect mission and still screw up the world around you. You can betray trusted characters or blow missions for personal gain.
As much as you can MC this game as a one-shot or two-shot, if you have the time and willing players, definitely run a slightly longer campaign. It is very satisfying to plan the missions and see how players react, corporations move assets, threats arise, and PC’s develop.
Try Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex and try the (cancelled) TV series Almost Human
If you need the hard/fast education on contemporary cyberpunk, read the aptly titled “Sprawl” trilogy by William Gibson (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) and you will immediately see where a lot of Hamish’s inspiration came from for the game.
I would recommend just reading most of Gibson’s work for cyberpunk inspiration and familiarization (At least up to All Tomorrow’s Parties, everything after that has been more modernist futurism, which is still really good, but a very different flavor of cyberpunk).
I haven’t had a chance to watch Almost Human yet, or that would probably be in the suggested media at the back of the book.
Hamish Cameron Some episodes of Almost Human are great, others, just so-so. But the theme and look is very very good.
It’s reminiscent of an older series called Total Recall 2070, which you can’t get on DVD (I think you can in Canada?) which was also cancelled and very good (that one was a mix of the themes of Total Recall with Blade Runner look)
Yeah, I’ve found that giving individual characters sub-goals that tweak the mission is a lot of fun. In a protection mission, having one character’s directive-referenced group ask him to bring in an assassin alive was lots of fun. I need to work in more owned NPCs seeing hunted PCs…
Charlie Vick That’s what Directives are there for. I would be a bit more flexible with the players and help them make up their own if they wanted to have more role playing material without sounding overly generic.
S’true, but some are a bit more self-directed, like Violent. 3/5 of my players picked that one 🙂
If your game is online, I’d love to get into it.
Eloy Cintron Holy Cow! I had completely forgotten about TR 2070; I used to love that show.
Here’s a couple that didn’t make the list at the back of the Sprawl. They aren’t strictly cyberpunk, but they do explore the effects of advanced technology on humans (especially The Quantum Thief)
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
River of Gods by Ian MacDonnald
Lock In by John Scalzi and Kiln People by Cory Doctorow are good in that regard too, but not really cyberpunky
Also, I would have never guess you hadn’t read Neuromancer. I’m reading it right now and can identify elements from it in the fiction at the table – of course that may be a byproduct how deeply its etched into the soul of The Sprawl.
Lovely art…but it’s missing the obligatory mini-fridge full of Hot Pockets.
Pierre Savoie I think one of those server bays is fake 😉
Also read ‘Voice of the Whirlwind’ by Walter Jon Williams. Rarely mentioned but we’ll worth the read. Neuromancer, of course, defines Cyberpunk. Most more modern books don’t quite capture the essence of the ‘punk’ bit.