The BlackHammer CyberPunk Project
CyberPunk 2021

Monolyth on CyberPunking
by M0noLyTh@aol.com

Please Note that the following is not a statement of fact, nor is it a statement of my style of play is better than yours. The following is merely a suggestion and is to be taken as such. Some of the materials you may find offensive or insulting, I assure you that it was not meant to be such. Thank you and enjoy.

Greetings my name is Erica AKA Monolyth, I am about five foot six, blonde hair, blue eyes. What you say this is a roleplaying article? Oops.

Ok all jokes aside, I've been roleplaying CP2020 for more then ten years now, what's that you say? CP2020 hasn't been out that long? First came CP2013. Then came CP2020, so I guess your right. Either way I've followed the game for all its worth, To me its not just a game, its a passion. I've read just about all the supplements out there for the game, and surfed the web for revolutionary ideas. And you know, the best one I've found was right here at my quiet little house.

What is the most important factor in CP2020? Bigger = Badder, and Badder = Character Points, and Character Points = Euro, and Euro = Cybers. If you ask me that concept is way played out. I've seen gm after gm pit player after player against the same old stuff. "What, that fraggin suit killed parents that left me for dead at birth?" or "Hey psst. Yeah you. Wanna make a Euro?" You get the point. It truly gets old after a while.

So what's my revo concept? Well that's easy, stop thinking its a game where you have to be a god to make change, cause its not. For the most part there is no possible way to tear down those megacorps, but we try anyway, don't we? Why? Cause we wanna win right? Lesson one: Stop thinking your gonna win or loose. Throw that concept out the window. In reality we don't win or loose, we succeed or fail. We win at chess not reel life. If you stop tryin so hard to win you will have more time exploring the beauty behind the velvet skies. No, Cyberpunk does not have a lot of beautiful things in it, but I'm willing to bet that when the sun does come out, that even a solo will stop for just a moment to admire the radiant blue of the sky. Its a truly rare sight to behold. Just because we see it all the time and take for granted, doesn't mean that its a everyday thing for our characters.

Next point. Ok right about I know what your thinking, "You said in REAL LIFE we don't win or loose, but we are not playing a REAL LIFE game." True, but in my opinion to get the most out a game its got to be that way. If not, why have a realistic combat system? GMs, stop reacting to what your players do and think exactly like your NPCs, I mean would that president of Arasaka really order an all out strike on a solo because he flipped off his daughter, or would he say "if you see him again, kill him." Would that cop, not really knowing the full capacity of the foe in front of him, run from someone who looks weak and frail just because the gm knows he is truly a super-cyborg? Allow your players their victories and they will have more fun with your game, but at the same time realize its a two way door. Example, so your super-cyborg player kills that cop. What if that cops wife or son even, has their connections and find out the truth? Uh-Oh, can you say family feud? Let your players affect your world you might like it. No that does not mean screw your player over every chance you get, just take a situation a build from what the player gave you.

And that last statement brings me to my next point. Don't be afraid to allow your players to change the environment they live in through their characters. I know its hard. Hell before I changed my style of GMing, I was afraid to allow my players to do much outside of what I planned for them to do. I thought that they might destroy all that I worked so hard to create. Well I was so far from right on that one it was pathetic. The previous example with the super-cyborg is only one. Take your game to a whole new level of cause and effect. The players (or npc) makes a change, now, what is the effect, and who is gonna feel it? What's gonna happen when the wrong or right person even feels the effects? Once again don't deny your players their victories. The world we live in is based off cause and effect, and sudden change of events, take this level of realism to your game. After all look how life can make you smile, frown, laugh and cry just by being the effect of someone else's action.

Now this next piece of advice is more for the player than the gms. Stop thinking with your gun all the damn time, I mean geesh, what's up with the male ego and the size of his damn gun? Get off it, your gun is not the only tool you have in the game. You have one of the most complex computers ever made right behind your eyes, and you never use it. Would your character really kill his girlfriend because she slapped him or would he jerk a knot in her first? Remember your character does "unless your a white-brain" have emotions. I'm not telling you how to play your characters, I know the stress level in Cyberpunk can get high at times, when it does sit back take five and think "what would my character do, not what would I do if I where my character and I had a big gun with no witnesses" of coarse you'd blast her you don't even know her, but your character does. Get my point? And GMs when you feel your player is acting irrational just slow him down give him a little time, especially when your npc foils a major part of his plan. Remember that none of us really know what its like in 2020 or how the world revolves, so sometimes we need a little time to think of what to do or even what to say next.

And this one is for the GMs, ok we all know that you have this great story, and the players are just gonna love it. But what do we do when our player somehow thinks of a way to circumvent the whole damn thing? Do we a: kill the character b: deny him the victory by coming up with bullshit or some other illogical reason c: get mad and quit the game or d: cuss the player out? None of the above, we are the few, the proud (and sometimes cute) we are the gms, we don't die we improvise. I don't know about your villains, but mine are not all knowing geniuses. They make mistakes too, so what I do when it happens is, I think ok they killed the leader of that boostergang way ahead of schedule, ok now what? If all else fails I'll let my players know "Hey you caught me off guard, give some time to think on this one." Trust me if your players are at all interested in your story and not the size of there gun, then they'll respect the fact that you need a little time. Let them know what's going on in the meantime, don't just keep them in the dark though. I don't recommend planning too far ahead, just kinda of sit back and let your players tell you a story as well. But back to the improvisation part, think of what happened when they killed Booster Leader. Was he replaced? If so does his replacement have the same goals as the last? Maybe he'll want revenge. Or maybe the gang will fall. If that happens what will happen next? Will another gang even worse than the last move in? The options are infinite, its up to you to choose the most logical. Remember Cause And Effect. And don't punish your character for being smart, instead reward him, you'll get better ratings on your stories that way. And remember my golden rule NEVER, NEVER, DENY A PLAYER HIS VICTORY, just because you didn't plan for it.

This ones for your defence GMs. Don't let your players get away with bloody murder. And as you well know they will try. That means, and I don't care what the core book says, there is no way in hell I'm just gonna let a netrunner hijack MRDS Attack Satellite and destroy half my city. If he wants it he's gonna work like a bitch for it. No I am not gonna deny a victory, I'm just gonna do everything within reason to discourage him from the attempt. Have npc's tell him lies and exaggerate how hard it is. Npc's don't know everything. Maybe the difficulty is just to hard and the price of failure to great, whatever the means. So if you make it easy for them to get they will take it. And another thing while were on this subject. Be very careful what you give them, you would surprised the various applications for a simple toolkit much less a state of the art cyberware. Make sure that you understand the FULL effects of tech before you introduce it into your game. Else you will find that the ingenius player will be circumventing you story sooner than you thought.

Well that's just a few ideas and concepts of how you could improve your game. Granted most of them were taken from Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads, and revised by mwa, but here comes the real kicker. Those who really don't want to hear my opinion are advised to stop here. If you do carry on please! refer back to the very first paragraph.

Ok, so far what you've should have been just about common knowledge. This is something totally new, or at least from what I've seen. Try this one, and watch your players faces, "Ok, we're gonna play CP2020, but the corps, the violence and drugs are gonna be background." I remember the first time I said those words to my players. I felt stupid for even thinking it. But hey, women are stubborn. So I went with it and it turned out to be one of the best games I ever played. I took the focus of the game off of the environment, and put it on the characters in the environment. My npc's functioned as intelligent beings with a free will, and there always something going on.

Lets start with npc's. Npc's, outside of the players, are the backbone of your story. They are what cause the effects and their the ones that feel it as well. Without them, the story is over. So why not make them the best you can, or at least your important ones. No not just your master npc's but all your important ones. Take an extra week or two if you must, it'll be worth it in the end. By doing this it will help make your world feel more interactive, ie more realistic. And realism is easier for your players to relate to. I use a universal chart for all my npc's creations but I add and remove as needed. I never use a lifepath. I never liked it to tell you the truth. And I don't advise my players to use it either. It allows more control over their character creation if they don't use it. But that's off subject. If you would like to view my charts please E-Mail me at M0nolyth@aol.com(Note the first o is a zero). The purpose for the charts is to add more depth to the NPC other than the fact that he is just a cyberpsycho. Generally I like to know why he is that way. What's his favorite food, his style of dress, his favorite color, accent, appearance and I mean beyond the stat. Know the npc inside and out. It adds flavor, and will encourage the players to know their characters better. Besides its easier for a player to relate to a npc he fully understands, if they went through real life situations. Try, if you can, to make your players feel for the npc's. If you try it, after a while it will come easier. Let them know why the npc's are the way they are, if it can be found out. This will add emotion to your game, and maybe your players won't always use their gun. Example: Its one thing to hunt down a psycho for killing his or her farther in cold blood, until you find out that the farther molested the person as a child. As you see, it's not what they did as much as why they did it. Once again, Real Life situations add to realism and realism is easier to relate too.

Ok now for the fun part, Character Creation. When my players design their character I know all they know and more. I have a chart of questions, that varies as well from character to character. But most important I let my players design their own characters, I do not force them to use that stupid lifepath. Sometimes I get a player that wants to use it, but most of the time I try to discourage them from it. But one thing I do is govern every aspect of the process. I let them know what will and will not work. What cybers are and are not allowed. I treat my player's characters with the same meticulate detail as my npc's. And sometimes you do come to the point you cannot compromise, but at no point should the gm bend, just advise the player on a new concept. Make sure that all your players are fully content with their characters before beginning the game. I do not and I will not tolerate walking die modifiers. For all those who don't understand what that means, its when a player does everything in his power to squeeze every last point out of the character creation process he can. In my opinion players like that need to play D&D. That's what it was meant for. Cyberpunk is a mature game for mature audiences. Players who cannot be mature, I kindly ask to sit out of the game and I never ask them to play again. I know its harsh but I will not compromise the fun for the rest of my players. And generally the players that want a good story don't care at all.

Now for the story telling to begin. Before you start your story make damn sure you are comfortable with your npc's and player characters. If you are not reefer back to the previous step. So your ready to tell your story? Well I would hold off on telling it for around three to four sessions. Why you ask? Well I've noticed that every game I've ever played with other gm's they through me into a story without giving me time to get a good feel for the environment my character was in. This was not good at all, I had no real concept for possible threats out there or possible allies except for the ones the gm through at me. I felt as if my character was forced to move in certain directions against my will, and quickly I became disinterested in the game itself. So I would explain to the gm that I had female problems and could not come over. But if you take a few game sessions, and besides it gives you a little more time for your story, and truly introduce them into their environment they have a better concept of where they are and how they fit in. Let them take on a booster gang or something insignificant, so long as there getting to know the place its fine. Take them to the local bars, let them get to know and trust the locals, so they know who they can rely on. A lot of gm's just tell their players the who's who, but I've found it far more effective to let them feel it for themselves. Once again, if they've experienced that the local bartender is friendly to them, they can relate to the environment better.

And what the hell, let them make a few friends. Give them a little rumble, it will help them get the fight out of their system, so they can focus better on your story instead of pulling their gun all the time. And all this time benefits you the gm as well. It gives you a little to get to know the characters in game as well. This will help you if you are unsure about how a few npc's should react to the characters in certain situations. All this builds the start to your story.

One last things and then I'll let you guys alone. You have a story, you have your npc's and you have your players ready to go. But, hows your environment? I've noticed that in other games that if my character was not there at that spot, it might as well not of existed. No shit, I played a game where we had to talk to a booster gang about a subject, and they were talking about jacking some guy tomorrow. When we went back a week later they were all the same members -1, and they were talking about the same thing. There was another game when we went a fragged off some solo really bad, but as long as we stayed away from the bar he was at he never bothered us, and he knew where we hung out. Not to mention he had the highest kill rate of everyone else. Come on gm's your npc's are smart too. If your players piss them off and that npc would hunt them down, then make him do so. There is a whole other world outside your players, Nah, really there is. Go figure that. Create some events in your world, and yes I have a chart for this as well e-mail me if you want to view it. It doesn't have to be drastic, just something to make the environment feel like its evolving and changing. Let the players feel there not alone. Let them know to be careful who they piss off because some of these fools out here will hunt you down like a dog. Treat you npc's as they would act. If they would do something other than sitting around on a step till their forty, them put them on the move. Change of scenery is nice too, you know, different faces and voices. I'm sure the same bartender doesn't work all the time, right? A few news reports of a local gang war or even a really bad wreck will let them know, once again realism and in this world realism = entertaining and entertaining = fun for both player and gm.

Thank you for your time and I hope you can use some of this material, and happy gaming.