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Old 09-26-2019, 11:23 AM   #11
Anders
 
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

The Action series may be useful as well.
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Old 09-26-2019, 11:35 AM   #12
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
It really depends on what flavor of cyberpunk. In general, it is a good system if you treat cybernetics as advantages that cost points, as money is too cheap in GURPS to serve as a good game balancer. For example, a TL9 character with Multimillionaire 2 possesses $300 million in personal assets, $60 million of which may be in adventuring gear. Even if you are charging $15,000 per CP, they can easily purchase 2,000 CP worth of cybernetics without much trouble for the cost of 100 CP of Wealth.
Thanks for the heads up.

I was planning to run a classic digital heist type game where the starting characters are street level guys that are mostly motivated by money. Because of this I wouldn't allow Wealth related advantages.

But your point stands if the characters score big at some point. It might be advisable to limit the cyberware's availability and reliability to offset this.
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Old 09-26-2019, 11:36 AM   #13
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The Action series may be useful as well.
Thank you! I have eyed them before, but now it's the perfect time to pull the trigger.
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Old 09-26-2019, 11:39 AM   #14
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

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I'll chip in another vote for Pyramid 3/21 the Console Cowboys article alone is worth the cover price.
Most of the feeling comes from the setting, Cyberpunk for Third Edition was good but I disliked the netrunning rules as too clunky. Replace those with the article mentioned above though and I think its very playable.
Also Transhuman Space is kind of like Cyberpunk but more futuristic and more Bladerunner.
Thank you! I skimmed through the original netrunning rules at some point and reached the same conclusion. Great if the Pyramid's version are actually playable.

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Originally Posted by Antiquation! View Post
You may find this link useful:

https://edgerunners.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page

It contains both session reports as well as extensive lists of equipment, vehicles, cyberware, homebrew hacking rules, templates and more.
Oh yes, thank you!
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Old 09-26-2019, 11:53 AM   #15
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A point relevant to cyberpunk is how much gun combat is there going to be? I've played in Shadowrun 3e, SLA Industries and a couple of Dark Heresy campaigns that were cyberpunk-ish. All in their native systems and all did gun combat very badly.

Gurps does gun comabt pretty good. That 1 second Turn that people think is too short for dungeoncrawling is about right for gun combat where the longer Turns found in other systems demand aphysical behavior from guns.
I agree. Guns are quick and potentially very lethal. Of course, one of the advantages of higher TL campaigns is effective body armor that can mitigate some of the lethality.

In order to keep the grittiness of the setting, I would suggest replacing the normal DR with semi-ablative DR equal to 200% of normal DR. A TL9 Heavy Clamshell would go from DR 45 to DR 90(s). It would be able to initially resist heavier weapons, but the cumulative damage would eventually render it useless.
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Old 09-26-2019, 12:30 PM   #16
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

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It really depends on what flavor of cyberpunk.
I cannot agree with this more. There is a lot of different kinds of cyberpunk. Last time I tried to run a game in gurps I ended up exploring the dirty seams of a society edging towards transhumanism. Which is probably my doing, not GURPS.

Quote:
In general, it is a good system if you treat cybernetics as advantages that cost points, as money is too cheap in GURPS to serve as a good game balancer. For example, a TL9 character with Multimillionaire 2 possesses $300 million in personal assets, $60 million of which may be in adventuring gear. Even if you are charging $15,000 per CP, they can easily purchase 2,000 CP worth of cybernetics without much trouble for the cost of 100 CP of Wealth.
Alternatively, just don't allow the wealth advantage, or limit it to Comfortable. That's just staying within genre limitations.

*******************************

One important caveat is to not allow all possible gear at that Tech level. If you have Ultra-tech, page 9 talks about how to make the tech cyberpunk.
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Old 09-26-2019, 12:34 PM   #17
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

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But your point stands if the characters score big at some point. It might be advisable to limit the cyberware's availability and reliability to offset this.
I'd go with buying cyberware with points for character generation, then with cash only in-game. That way all PCs start on the same footing, then they get rewarded during play by scoring big payouts. Alternatively, they can only scrap and scrape together enough cash for shoddy upgrades.

CP earned in-game would take a long time to be enough for decent cyberware anyway. Probably only allow them to be spent on "organic" skills and advantages, such as new social advantages and so on.
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Old 09-26-2019, 02:37 PM   #18
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

I will second Action! for cyberpunk. CousinX (who wrote that Pyramid article you all like) ran our group's hard-SF cyberpunk game heavily based on it, and it worked great. I also converted Shadowrun and use it for the occasional crazy violent one-shot. GURPS does both flavors just fine.
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Old 09-26-2019, 03:31 PM   #19
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

If you charge people points for cybernetics most PCs will take a pass on most cybernetics, as the vast majority of it is a really bad investment compared to conventional gear. On the other hand, if you only charge money, someone will buy 50-75 points of wealth and put it all in cyber, and that will be problematic in a different way.

Other than that, gun combat is very very lethal in GURPS. That may or may not pose a problem.
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Old 09-26-2019, 04:00 PM   #20
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Default Re: Is GURPS good system for cyberpunk

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Originally Posted by Almenac View Post
How well do you think GURPS is suited for Cyberpunk games? Is it easy to run?
It's the best system for Gibsonian CPunk there is.

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How does it compare to other CP names like original Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, Interface Zero/Savage Worlds or others?
Those games impart a flavor through their crunch, so if you seek to impart that flavor... eh... it'll be a lot more hard work to hack GURPS into that shape.




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The Action series may be useful as well.
Thank you! I have eyed them before, but now it's the perfect time to pull the trigger.
Action 2 and Action 5 are absolutely requirements*. The others... eh... less so, unless you really want to use Templates, at which point I strongly recommend reworking the templates to fit the types of Characters you want to see.



* Disclosure: The preceding comment was typed by someone who considers those two books requirements for every game he runs.




Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
If you charge people points for cybernetics most PCs will take a pass on most cybernetics, as the vast majority of it is a really bad investment compared to conventional gear. On the other hand, if you only charge money, someone will buy 50-75 points of wealth and put it all in cyber, and that will be problematic in a different way.
The simplest way to deal with this is to remove Wealth from the game.

Just give the PCs the starting capitol you want them to have. Done. If you absolutely think they need more money (or the access to trade starting abilities for capitol) then allow them to trade Points For Cash.

This is CPunk, no one should be playing the "multibillionaire who runs the gutters for lols and because he no longer feels the zest for life unless he's bleeding and in a firefight..." and if someone does want to play that Character, then their background is something they've left behind anyway and should have no impact on play, so they have no access to the Wealth.
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