I’ved talk about how Cyberpunk played a big part of shaping my fiction preferences, which has been far reaching. I like just about everything cyberpunk. Hackers was one of my coming of age movies. Neal Stephenson and Gibson dictated my literary diet during my teens. And of course, Cyberpunk did not leave one of my greatest past times unchanged either.
A lot of people cut their RPG teeth on Dungeons and Dragons. Not me. I knew about D&D and AD&D, THAC0, alignments and the like, but I didn’t actually play D&D until the 3rd edition d20 system came out (no Baldur’s gate and the like don’t count, I mean pen and paper RPGS). Instead I grew up on other classic systems. My longest stint was probably the White Wolf systems; Mage (one of the greatest ideas that never really came to pass), Werewolf and of course Vampire the Masquerade (guess when I played those), but my earliest RPG experiences was sitting behind in a class after school, hidden behind a building or in a mcdonald’s dabbling with a whole slew of other systems. Rifts. Macross. And of course, Cyberpunk 2020 (which was incidentally the setting that encompassed the first Netrunner CCG).
I never really played Cyberpunk that long (the dearth of GMs being one reason) but the thought of being made more than human AND at the same result in being LESS than human was always something that sang to a part of my soul. Cue the path of humanity in Vampire, and of course, cyber-psychosis in Cyberpunk 2020.
While it is no where near completion (estimated date, when it’s done), Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt seems to be very interested in exploring the same things that intrigued me. Mechanics, electronics, what it means to stretch the boundaries of humanity, all wrapped up in what seems like a very pretty graphical bow. We don’t really see what is INSIDE the package yet, but I guess with the success of Witcher under their belts, I can afford CD Projekt a degree of faith.
I am more interested in ensuring that Cyberpunk 2077 comes in GOOD, as opposed to on time, but if they do succeed in that, I’d really look forward to walking the rain-slick streets of Night City again, and not just on pen and paper.
I played Cyberpunk 2020 twice in my life (not counting my ill-fated attempt to GM once), and loved both times to bits. I wish I could have played more, and am very much looking forward to this video game.