This interview with the creator of the original tabletop 'Cyberpunk' RPG is enlightening.
Psst @austin_walker
he confronted a guy in his front hard with his katana
Minor typo there at the end.
Mike Pondsmith seems like such a cool guy, really can’t wait to see how both the game and the new rule book turn out.
Really hope hacking in the game doesn’t turn out like hacking in every other game where it’s just a minigame that doesn’t have anything to do with hacking at all. I would love to see developers participate in some CTF’s so they get an idea of how fun and challenging it can be while not being this impenetrable topic so many people think of it as.
I can’t say how the hacking in the video game will work, but in the base tabletop game, it’s basically VR wizards like Shadowrun. The Hardwired supplement does feature an alternate take on hacking that’s more interesting IMO and really highlights the social engineering aspects of hacking (calling someone up, pretending to be tech support etc.).
Cyberpunk 2020 remains one of my favorite p&p rpgs of all time. I absolutely hated the matrix hacking bs. I always just replaced it with programming skills checks with various programs giving bonuses and abilities and such. I’ve always disliked any hacking system that put three player in a different adventure.
Man I just want to sit down and listen to Pondsmith wax poetic about technology forever.
And that’s unfortunately my biggest issue with both Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. I love the worlds both create but there’s no way I could keep everyone in the group entertained while having one person run a mini dungeon. I’ll be sure to check out Hardwired because that sounds like what I might be looking for.
If there’s a P&P RPG that can effectively address that issue of hackers getting their own dungeons while not making the entire game have to be about hacking, I think it’d get a lot of attention (if you’ve found one, please shout it out!). The first thing that springs to mind is some kind of troupe play, where the other players get to depict aspects of the Matrix/run. Or just move to really Conflict (vs. Task) resolution-oriented mechanics where the challenges are abstract mechanically so that the details are largely for fictional positioning and/or storytelling.
You should check out The Sprawl if you haven’t yet as it sounds like what you are looking for.
It’s not huge progress in that they haven’t cut the cord entirely with the whole VR wizard modality, but recent editions of both shadowrun and cyberpunk have moved some ways towards this in that location based AR interfaces are a thing so your hacker isn’t necessarily catatonic in the back of a van.
I picked up The Sprawl a while back, but this prompted me to dig it out for a deeper look. Thanks!