Cyberpunk 2020
The cover of Cyberpunk 2020 2nd edition
Designer:	Mike Pondsmith
Publisher:	R. Talsorian Games
Publication date:	1988 (Cyberpunk 2013) 1990 (Cyberpunk 2020) 2005 (Cyberpunk V3)
Genre(s):	Science fiction, Cyberpunk
System:	Interlock System

Cyberpunk 2020 is a cyberpunk role-playing game written by Mike Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games. Download high resolution version (624x812, 118 KB)Cover of Cyberpunk 2020, copyright R.Talsorian Games. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... Michael A. Maximum Mike Pondsmith is a roleplaying game and video game designer. ... 1. ... R. Talsorian Games, based in Renton, WA, publishes numerous role-playing game books and accessories. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ... Berlins Sony Center reflects the global reach of a Japanese corporation. ... The Interlock System is R. Talsorian Games proprietary role-playing system. ... Berlins Sony Center reflects the global reach of a Japanese corporation. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ... Michael A. Maximum Mike Pondsmith is a roleplaying game and video game designer. ... R. Talsorian Games, based in Renton, WA, publishes numerous role-playing game books and accessories. ...

Overview

This role-playing game is based on the works of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and other authors of the "mirrorshades group". The game includes a number of elements now associated with the 1980s, such as the idea of "style over substance" and glam rock. The fictional timeline, trying to depict an early 21st century from a 1980s perspective contains some anachronisms such as omitting the fall of the Soviet Union and not foreseeing the adoption of cell phones as the preferred mode of communication. For other persons named William Gibson, see William Gibson (disambiguation). ... For other persons named Bruce Sterling, see Bruce Sterling (disambiguation). ... The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... Glam rock (also known as glitter rock), is a style of rock and pop music, which initially surfaced in the post-hippie early 1970s. ... Motorola T2288 mobile phone A mobile phone is a portable electronic device which behaves as a normal telephone whilst being able to move over a wide area (compare cordless phone which acts as a telephone only within a limited range). ...

The game tends to emphasize some aspects of the source material more than others, with much attention being paid to combat, high tech weaponry and cybernetic modification, while both performance enhancing and recreational drug use is either played down or discouraged, and Artificial Intelligence, genetic engineering, and cloning being barely mentioned in the core rulebook, albeit being reprised in later add-ons such as the chromebook manuals. “Fights” redirects here. ... Cybernetics is a theory of the communication and control of regulatory feedback. ... Doping drugs on display at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland In sports, doping refers to the use of performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids, particularly those that are forbidden by the organizations that regulate competitions. ... Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational rather than medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. ... AI redirects here. ... Kenyans examining insect-resistant transgenic Bt corn. ... For other uses, see clone. ...

The range of characters players can adopt is very diverse, ranging from hardwired mercenaries with psycholinked weapons and boosted reflexes, to Armani-wearing corporate mega-yuppies who make and break national economies with the stroke of a pen. For other uses, see Mercenary (disambiguation). ... Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer (born 11 July 1934 in Piacenza, Italy), particularly noted for his menswear. ... Yuppies (young urban professionals, or less commonly young upwardly-mobile professionals[1]) is a market segment whose consumers are characterized as self-reliant, financially secure individualists. ...

Cyberpunk 2013

Cyberpunk 2020 is the second edition of the original game, Cyberpunk 2013, often just called "Cyberpunk." It was originally published as a boxed set in 1988, and R. Talsorian released a few supplements for this edition, including Rockerboy, Solo of Fortune, and Hardwired, the latter based on the Walter Jon Williams novel of the same name. Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Walter Jon Williams (born 15 October 1953) is an American writer, primarily of science fiction. ...

The second edition featured rules updates and changes, and additionally moved the timeline forward by 7 years, to 2020. The game's timeline was also retconned to accommodate the German reunification in 1990. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the 1990 German reunification. ...

Game Mechanics

The basic rules system of Cyberpunk 2020 (called the Interlock System) is skill-based instead of level-based, with players being awarded points to be spent on their skill sets. New skills outside their expertise can be learned but in-game time needs to be spent on this. A large part of the system is the player characters' ability to augment themselves with cyber-technology and the ensuing loss of humanity as they become more machine than man. The Interlock System is R. Talsorian Games proprietary role-playing system. ... A skill is an ability, usually learned and acquired through training, to perform actions which achieve a desired outcome. ... Look up level in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Cyberpunk 2020 lends itself to play in the street level, dark film noir genre, although certain aspects of the basic system can make game sessions devolve into a high body-count, 1980s action movie style. This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

Although each player must choose a character class or "role" from those given in the basic rules, there is enough variation in the skill system so that no two members of the same class are alike. Because Cyberpunk 2020 is skill-based, the choice of skills around the class-specific special ability allows a wide range of character development choices including non-combatants.

The combat system, called "Friday Night Firefight", emphasizes lethality. Several pages in the rules are devoted to discussing real combat vs. the illusions often seen on TV. Attempts are made to keep the combat as realistic as possible in a game setting. No matter who the character is, a single bullet can result in a lethal wound. This encourages a more tactically-oriented and sneaky game play, which is in accordance to the rough-and-gritty ethos of the Cyberpunk genre. Also, the amount of damage a character can sustain does not increase as the character develops. The only way a character can become more damage resistant is to either become better at not being hit, physically augment their body with muscle (trained or implanted) or cybernetics, or wear armor.

The World of Cyberpunk 2020

Location of Night City

Cyberpunk 2020, as the name implies, takes place in the year 2020. The game's default setting is the fictional Night City located between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the west coast of the United States. Later supplements to the game have contained information about the rest of the US and the world. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

Following a vast socio-economical collapse and a period of martial law, the United States government has had to rely on several megacorporations to survive. This has given them a veritable carte blanche to operate as they will. For other uses, see Martial law (disambiguation). ... Diners Club International, originally founded as Diners Club, was formed in 1950 by Frank X. McNamara, Ralph Schneider and Alfred Bloomingdale. ...

The Megacorporations

• Arasaka, a Japanese zaibatsu conglomerate whose megalomaniacal CEO wishes to realize his dream of Japanese world power.
• Biotechnica, an Italian biotechnology, pharmacology, and cybernetics firm.
• Euro Business Machines (EBM), an information technology corporation (an obvious nod towards IBM).
• Infocomp, a commercial think-tank and information repository.
• Kendachi, a Japanese armament company.
• Merril, Asukaga & Finch, financial analysts. Quite probably an allusion to Merrill Lynch
• Microtech, a computer and electronics manufacturer.
• Militech, American arms and mercenary contractor.
• Mitsubishi-Sugo, a major transportation manufacturer.
• Network News 54, an American broadcasting company.
• Orbital Air, an African corporation with a monopoly on space transportation.
• Petrochem, an energy company.
• SovOil, a neo-Soviet oil giant, controlling a vast percentage of the petrochemicals market
• Trauma Team International, a private medical firm.
• World News Service, a worldwide news conglomerate, similar to the Associated Press.
• WorldSat Communications Network, a satellite communications giant.
• Zetatech, a computer, cyberdeck, robotics, and cybernetics manufacturing company.

Zaibatsu ) is a Japanese term referring to the financial cliques, or business conglomerates, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy throughout the Edo and Meiji periods. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... Merrill Lynch & Co. ... The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ...

Roles

The Cyberpunk 2020 equivalent of character classes are Roles, of which the main rulebook contains 9, and later supplements have expanded the number considerably. Each Role has a special ability which gives a character a unique edge. This article is about a concept in role-playing games. ...

Iconic Characters

The game's backstory had a series of powerful characters that influenced the world of Cyberpunk.

"Good Guys"

• Alt Cunningham: A brilliant Netrunner and programmer, she invented the beta version of Soulkiller, a program that would make a digital emulation or copy of a netrunner's mind. Arasaka kidnapped her, extracted the information from her, and made a more deadly version that would simultaneously fry the netrunner's mind after backing it up, allowing a Sysop to interrogate it at will. They then used it on Alt since she was of no further use to them, but her digital "ghost" broke free into the Net.
• Johnny Silverhand: A famous and idealistic Rockerboy singer and guitarist with a silver-chrome cyberlimb arm who opposes Arasaka for a grocery list of personal grudges from the loss of his arm to the death of many of his close friends and family. He is Alt's ex-boyfriend. He was in the band Samurai with fellow famous rocker Kerry Eurodyne, and is most famous for the songs "Chippin' In" and "Never Fade Away".
• Morgan Blackhand: A pragmatic Solo with an anodised black-chrome cyberlimb arm. Generally considered to be a "Solo's Solo", with years of experience and ops under his belt.
• Rache Bartmoss: The most brilliant (and paranoid) hacker in the Net, he invented the Demon series of programs and was the "narrator" of the Guide to the Net and Brainware Blowout sourcebooks (posthumously edited by his rival/colleague, supreme hackerette Spider Murphy). Rache finally flatlined in 2021, either by a lucky Sysop or poor health due to repeated bouts of malnutrition and dehydration from surfing the Net too long. Fortunately he had top-of-the-line life support to maintain him. Unfortunately, he was too paranoid to trust anyone with his location or leave any means of recovering him. He spent his time deteriorating in a cryogenic freezer (disguised to look like a refrigerator) while still managing to be one of the best hackers in the Net prior to his death in the opening salvos of the Fourth Corporate War.

Samurai is a fictional band fronted by the character Johnny Silverhand in the Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game. ...

"Bad Guys"

• Saburo Arasaka: The devious head of the diversified Arasaka Corporation, which not only dominates most of the Third World (including America), but also Japan. He has united factions of the Japanese government, the military, organized crime and various lesser corporations under his control. Some have begun calling this era in history the "Arasaka Shogunate".
• David Wyndham: The head of Arasaka's Night City division. He was personally responsible for Alt Cunningham's original death.

Sequels

Main article: List of Cyberpunk 2020 books

// Near Orbit, (1989) Rockerboy, (1989) Solo of Fortune, (1989) Eurotour, (1993) Firestorm: Stormfront - The Fourth Corporate War, Book 1, (1997) Firestorm: Shockwave - The Fourth Corporate War, Book 2, (1997) Land of the Free (Box Set), (1994) Tales from the Forlorn Hope, (1991) Cyberpunk 2020, (1990) Deep Space, (1993) Listen Up...

The Firestorm Series

Firestorm was supposed to be the bridge between Cyberpunk 2020 (the 2nd edition rules and milieu) and Cyberpunk V.3 (the 3rd Edition rules and milieu). Its purpose was to shake up everything and get players prepared for the new background they were cooking up.

Firestorm I: Stormfront

Set in 2023, the backstory has two deep-ocean-based megacorporations duelling for control over a third one (the period known as the "Ocean War"). One hires the Japanese diversified technology and security services firm Arasaka and the other hires the American military technology and mercenary services firm Militech. When it escalates into open warfare, they each hire mercenaries .

During the conflict, the long-standing bitter rivalry between Arasaka and Militech causes them to forget about their customers and go for each other, in the beginning quietly (the phase called the "Shadow War"). The covert war between the two heats up, becoming the Fourth Corporate War.

In the course of the adventure setting, the characters are hired to hunt down a pesky netrunner who is making their anonymous employer unhappy. Little do they realize that the hacker is the infamous (and already "dead") Rache Bartmoss. Regardless of what they do, their employer pinpoints the apartment with an orbital mass-driver and vaporizes it.

Firestorm II: Shockwave

Set in 2024, the second part of the Firestorm series sees Arasaka mobilize the Japanese Defense Force to take on Militech and the American military in a series of "proxy conflicts" (the phase dubbed the "Hot War").

Waves of cyberviruses corrupt databases worldwide, leaving the isolated Arasaka Towers arcology in Night City the last viable data storage mainframe in the world.

Militech gathers together the surviving meta-characters and a Special Forces team played by the player characters into a "super team". Their job: to take out Arasaka's Night City arcology with a tactical nuke to deny its assets to Arasaka.

Then they find out that Alt Cunningham, who was captured by Arasaka earlier, is trapped inside the mainframe. Of course, Johnny won't let Alt die a second time, so the team tries to break her out.

The end result is that the meta-characters go out in a blaze of glory. Johnny Silverhand dies at the hands of Arasaka's cyborg assassin Adam Smasher in order to buy Spider Murphy enough time to break Alt into a series of datapackets and downloads her into the Net. Morgan Blackhand then takes on Adam Smasher atop Arasaka Towers while the rest of the team gets extracted out. The outcome of the duel is greatly disputed because the low-yield tactical nuke the team deployed sets off the 2-kiloton "self destruct" bomb Arasaka had placed in its data core. This destroyed much of downtown Night City and contaminated the ruins and anything downwind of it with lethal fallout.

Firestorm III: Aftershock

The long-awaited third volume, Aftershock promised to tie all the loose ends together and herald the end of the old Cyberpunk 2020 (or "Cyberpunk V.2") game world and usher in the beginning of the new Cyberpunk 2030 (or "Cyberpunk V.3") game world. It was later cancelled and its material was folded into the Cyberpunk 203X rules book.

Cybergeneration

Main article: Cybergeneration

Cybergeneration takes place in an alternate future of the core Cyberpunk 2020 timeline, where a nanotech virus epidemic has resulted in a subgroup of teenagers with unusual, superhuman skills. It began as a supplement that still required the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook, but the second edition became a standalone game. Cyberpunk 2020 is a cyberpunk role-playing game set in the near future. ... A mite next to a gear chain produced using nanotechnology Nanotechnology as a collective term refers to technological developments on the nanometer scale, usually 0. ...

Cyberpunk 203X

Ever since the 1998 release of the Cyberpunk 2020 sourcebook Firestorm: Shockwave, fans of the game had been awaiting for a third edition of the Cyberpunk game, known as Cyberpunk 203X. Over the years, the entire project had at times been discounted as vaporware, its delays due to other projects and Pondsmith's involvement in the development of The Matrix Online.^{[citation needed]} Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Vaporware is software or hardware product which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. ... The Matrix Online (MxO) is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Monolith Productions. ...

The game was released first in PDF form on December 17, 2005 and as a conventional book on January 15, 2006. PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The setting has been heavily updated from its last event book series, Firestorm, which covered the opening of the Fourth Corporate War. The aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War has resulted in widespread corruption of the Net and major losses of hardcopied data, to the point that all data is intangible and recent recorded history is in doubt. An example that pops up in Pondsmith's demos at conventions, releases on the Internet, and in the finished game is that history has become so corrupted that many people in the world now believe Richard Nixon, instead of resigning over Watergate, committed suicide on camera and that memes such as the moon landing being hoaxed become prevalent. A fan convention, or con, is an event in which the fans of a particular TV show, comic book, or actor, or an entire style of entertainment such as science fiction or anime, gather together to meet famous personalities (and each other) face-to-face. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Watergate redirects here. ... Robert Budd Dwyer (November 21, 1939 – January 22, 1987) was a former Pennsylvania politician who, on the morning of January 22, 1987, committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a revolver during a taped televised press conference. ... For other uses, see Meme (disambiguation). ... Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong in NASAs training mockup of the Moon and lander module. ...

The war has also lead to the collapse of nations, the world economy, and many of the staple megacorporations. This civil upheaval leads to the rise of the "altcults", alternative cultures similar in vein to the "phyles" from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. In fact, Cyberpunk V.3 has more to do with the new postcyberpunk literary movement and transhumanism than with the Gibson-Sterling mirrorshades movement. Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, currency, and the history of science. ... The Diamond Age or, A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... Posthuman Future, an illustration by Michael Gibbs for The Chronicle of Higher Educations look at how biotechnology will change the human experience, has become one of the secular icons representing transhumanism. ... For other persons named William Gibson, see William Gibson (disambiguation). ... For other persons named Bruce Sterling, see Bruce Sterling (disambiguation). ... Mirrorshades are sunglasses with a special coating on the outside of the lenses to make them appear like small mirrors, although the wearer just sees things in a brown or grey tinted point of view, usually. ...

In addition to rules changes to the Fuzion system and background, Cyberpunk V.3 also uses concepts taken from Pondsmith's experience at Microsoft with computer and video games as well as corporate culture, such as a simpler character generation system using templates, web-based active content URL links for updates, and making groups, organizations, and corporations their own "characters". Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... This article is about the machine. ... This article is about computer and video games. ... “URL” redirects here. ...

The Altcults

• Corpore Metal or Cee-Metal - a society of full-body cyborgs that use Livemetal technology, where a modular braincase unit is inserted into a variety of purpose-built body frames.
• Desnai' - Disneyworld-like series of amusement park arcology that strive to shelter themselves from the anarchy outside their walls. It is run heavily on automation and uses telepresence-piloted drones for travel, security, maintenance, labor, etc.
• Edgerunners - the descendants of the anti-corporation Cyberpunk movement. Integral cyberlimbs are replaced by Neo-Cyber technology, in which detachable articulated frames called "bracers" worn over the body can be modified to perform all the functions of dedicated cybertechnology.
• Reef - an undersea community whose members are heavily genetically-modified to adapt and survive in the depths of the ocean.
• Riptide Confederation - a fleet of Japanese floating arcologies that were cut off from their country following a nuclear civil war. They use bio-engineering to make living "tools" to aid them.
• Rolling State - the descendants of the Nomad families in Cyberpunk 2020, who now use advanced nanotechnology and megatechnology to create land-based mobile cities.

In addition, there is also the Fallen Angels, space-bound scavengers, the Ghosts, people who have uploaded their minds, and the Neo-Corps, the surviving corporations of the Cyberpunk 2020 world that are now organized in the form of organized crime syndicates. However, the six listed above are the only ones that have been mentioned in deep detail. The term cyborg, a portmanteau of cybernetic organism, is used to designate a creature which is a mixture of organic and mechanical parts. ... Cinderella Castle, at the center of the Magic Kingdom, is Walt Disney World Resorts most recognizable icon Introduction Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company, the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, USA is home to four theme parks, three water parks, several resort hotels and golf courses... Arcology is a term invented by architect Paolo Soleri, and is a portmanteau of architecture and ecology. ... In transhumanism and science fiction, mind uploading (also occasionally referred to by other terms such as mind downloading, mind transfer, whole brain emulation, whole body emulation, or electronic transcendence) refers to the hypothetical transfer of a human mind to an artificial substrate, such as a computer simulation. ...

Novels

Two Cyberpunk 2020 novels have been published, both written by Stephen Billias: This article is about the literary concept. ...

• The Ravengers (1995)
• Holo Men (1996)

Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ...

Collectible Card Games

Two different, independent collectible card games have been licensed and produced based on the Cyberpunk setting. The first, called Netrunner, was designed by Richard Garfield, and released by Wizards of the Coast in 1996. The second was called Cyberpunk CCG and was released in 2003. It was designed by Peter Wacks and published by Social Games. Collectible card games (CCGs), also called trading card games (TCGs), are played using specially designed sets of cards. ... Netrunner is a collectible card game designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering. ... Richard Garfield Richard Garfield (born 1966) is the billionaire game designer who created the card games Magic: The Gathering, Netrunner, BattleTech, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (originally known as Jyhad), The Great Dalmuti, Star Wars Trading Card Game, and the board game RoboRally. ... Wizards of the Coast (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is a publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes. ... Cyberpunk the CCG is a Collectible card game based in the near dark future of the Cyberpunk 2020 world. ...

References

• Michael Pondsmith. Cyberpunk: The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future. Talsorian Games, Incorporated. ISBN 0-937279-13-7. 
• Will Moss; Mike Pondsmith; Lisa Pondsmith. Cyberpunk v3.0. R. Talsorian. ISBN 1-891933-03-5. 

External links

• Homepage of R. Talsorian Games, publisher of the game
• The BlackHammer Project - one of the largest community fansites of the game
• Datafortress 2020 - A large Cyberpunk 2020 website on the net
• Views From the Edge, a forum dedicated to Cyberpunk 2020 and the genre in general
• Karsten's Cyberpunk 2020 Archive, one of the oldest and biggest archives of fan material for Cyberpunk 2020
• RPG.net review of Cyberpunk 2020
• (Italian) The largest italian community fansites dedicated to Cyberpunk2020