Cyberpunk 2020 RPG Core Rulebook

With the rise in popularity of Dystopian fiction and the massive fanbases that comes from classic Science Fiction films like Robo-Cop, Blade Runner and Mad Max, it isn’t a surprise that the tabletop scene would get its own system to play out these stories in our own homes. With the releases of Cyberpunk Red, Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk Edgerunners over the years, it would make sense to go back and try out where the brand started, with the 1993 release of Cyberpunk 2020. This classic blast from the past has been lovingly played by a loyal community for over 30 years and has received almost a couple dozen expansion books providing new adventures, gear and cyberware to truly customise and chrome up your own player characters. Even with this, many fans have released rules, custom creations and other resources to help expand upon the world of Cyberpunk for many to discover. But do the core rules and concepts in the rulebook still hold up to the standard of modern games or is it more of a nostalgia trip for tabletop veterans?

Starting Simply, the Cyberpunk 2020 Core RuleBook is published in paperback, making it less expensive than other tabletop games printed in hardback by the likes of Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons & Dragons) with clear pages that appear to not fade quickly even after extensive use and play. However, it does suffer from the same issues as other paperback printed books; if not properly looked after the book’s cover and pages can be easily creased or torn apart, it is also easy to stain the pages of the book, but with proper care and management then none of this should be a problem for future use by Game Masters and players alike. Within the book, Cyberpunk 2020 has a collection of inspirational artwork across its pages; the book is full of images and representations of the characters, technology and iconic characters that bring the Cyberpunk 2020 world to life. Notable pictures in the book are the designs of the character classes, known as roles, that provide a clear understanding to readers what each role plays like in roleplay and a hint of the combat abilities they have. Other works in the book capture the moment to moment interactions of the worlds of Cyberpunk and truly sparks the imagination of a Game Master on what campaigns to run or to make their own world & Story from scratch.

Now the contents of the book, everything from making games of your own and how to run them, to character creation and enemy design can be found in the core rulebook making it a simple game to pick up and start learning how to play for everyone interested. In particular just under the first hundred pages of the book are a clear step by step guide for character creation; the introductory chapters of the book go over each step on creating playable characters with roles, skills and gear. This covers a wide variety of options for customising and creating player characters, ranging from tables of backstory ideas, cyberware and weaponry for all situations, there are even options for jobs & occupations with the possibility of your character starting off the game being fired. Enemy design and creation is also clearly laid out in the ‘Fast and Dirty’ system found in page 30 of the book providing clear guidance for Game Masters when generating NPCs ranging from street level thugs, all the way up to big time crime lords.

This system does make the overall process of creating unique encounters efficient and still relevant even when enemies are created in the middle of game sessions with players present.

In addition to this, the game boasts a realistic combat system that takes into account the many actions and weapons that players use throughout each game’s campaign and sessions. The ‘Friday Night Firefight’ combat system truly goes above and beyond to set up rules for players and Game Masters to have high stakes and deadly encounters in every combat scenario. From my research, the combat mechanics of other popular game systems can often be broken down into a game of making big numbers slowly go down. There are many systems that try to change up this formula by introducing abilities and attacks with effects that inhibit the performance of player characters in and out of battle, but the Cyberpunk 2020 combat system redesigns traditional combat to make all forms of danger equally bad for players and NPC characters.

As an example a character, both Player and NPC, can acquire and use a pistol that does an amount of damage equal to 2d6, two six sided dice, with an average damage score of 7 points.

There is also a guaranteed 10% chance that when the gun is fired, at a player or an NPC, it will hit the target in the head which takes double damage from attacks. The rules specify that any limb, including the head, that takes more than 8 points of damage from an attack after other calculations is automatically ‘exploded’. In the situation where this is your playable character, there is no reviving like in fantasy or coming back from the dead by any other means.

There are many other positive points that can be made about Cyberpunk 2020, such as its flavour text and creative narration that reads as if a citizen from the game world is presenting the rules to the reader. However, there are a few negatives that can be made about the rulebook as a comparison to modern tabletop games; Cyberpunk 2020 released back in 1993 and it shows in the layout and detailing of its rule system. Discussing combat further, the rules are spread out across a few dozen pages with no clear guidance to where and when to use each rule making it a nightmare for those who would be starting to play and learn the system difficult if they don’t already have experience with other tabletop games. The format in which the details are presented in the book are as mountains of text with little to no spacing or breaking to help with the digestion of the rules, leading to more confusion and complications as both players and Game Master attempt to understand how a weapon, such as a flamethrower kept in a cyber arm, would be able to do a continuous damage effect when there is no clear explanation of the effect anywhere else in the book. It is moments like this in the games rulebook that make it difficult to recommend to new players or fans of the Cyberpunk videogames and shows, it would be better to look at game systems that are more recent and have been updated regularly to accommodate for players that are starting out or are looking for a more streamlined rule system that can be easily learned and adjusted for each skill level.

It is also worth commenting on the rule system for one of the character classes in the game, The Netrunner, as it is possibly the most difficult and unique of the player classes to learn and utilise in sessions. To briefly summarise, the Netrunner is similar to that of a mage or wizard class in fantasy games; They act as the hacker of the group who is a specialist in operating complex security systems and accessing the games digital world known as cyberspace. There is a brief section in the back of the book dedicated to netrunning and how to use the character, but the abilities of the character run counter to what the rest of the roles and player abilities are capable of doing. This is then also compounded by the already difficult rule system of Cyberpunk 2020 that they also have to know how to use.

With that said, it certainly is a product of its time as many rule systems from this period in gaming were very focused on bringing across higher complexities of tabletop gaming, with many systems requiring you study several expansions and supplements to craft the perfect character. Cyberpunk 2020 doesn’t particularly feel like this in its character creation process, but many of the rules that are missing or somewhat required to make the game run are found in the other expansions, like Chrome Book 1 & 2 and Chrome Book 3 & 4. It is still thrustrating that such rules are scattered around like this without a clear way to locate or explain how it may apply to certain situations, particularly for Game Masters as they are almost required to either run one of the preexisting campaigns or make all enemy types from scratch while trying to source the rules for each detail of those characters.

With everything weighed up, Cyberpunk 2020 is still a great experience for tabletop gamers who want to explore a dystopian themed world and perfectly craft characters that fit into it, whether they be dark and sorrowful or the comic relief in an over-the-top campaign world. Game Masters new and old will find fun in navigating the rules, themes and guidance for creating and running campaigns due to the freedom that is provided in the book for experimentation and for creating custom content. There is also the community of fans that have played Cyberpunk for the past three decades that have shared their own experiences and knowledge on how to improve the game and the best ways to play, helping out both beginners and newcomers alike.

I would still only suggest this to tabletop gamers that are familiar with RPG systems similar to this or are comfortable with taking the time to learn the mechanics. Other than that, the popularity that Cyberpunk 2020 has and the dedication many of the fans show is very much warranted as it is a staple of both the tabletop community and all other forms of media it has entered into.