Anyone got experience with Cyberpunk Red?

[Duckman]

I was thinking recently that I wanted to get back into Shadowrun but having looked into the "new and improved" Sixth World I think I would rather choke on my own Argle Bargle.  As a result I am looking for options.  That means either a conversion of Cyberpunk Red (a system I am not as familiar with) or an older Shadownrun edition (which means lots of house rules and clean-up anyway).  Anyone familiar with Cyberpunk Red or  a Shadowrun conversion of Cyberpunk?

[Torg]

hmm I am not familiar with Cyberpunk Red... (I will have to look that one up - I hadn't realized they did a new version of Cyberpunk).

Have you looked at Carbon 2185?  (recent kickstarter RPG) or Eclipse Phase?  it all depends on your version of Cyberpunk you want I guess.  I love cyperpunk - but never really liked shadow run as it was.  I did play it because my group back in the day played it.  But I liked the Cyberpunk RPG feel better myself (less elves, magic and that BS) 🙂

-d

[Ish]

I played the original Interlock edition of Cyberpunk 2020 back in the mid-Nineties. At the time, my friends and I all thought Shadowrun was more interesting so we mostly stuck with that. Nothing wrong with Cyberpunk as a setting and the old interlock system was perfectly functional (I was a big fan of Melton Zeta, which used the same basic rules as a foundation) although like any game system it had a few quirks... But nothing a competent GM and some cooperative players couldn’t work around.

I don’t know much about the new edition, but I remember that there was a lot of positive buzz around it when it was announced.  

[Duckman]

1 hour ago, Torg said:

But I liked the Cyberpunk RPG feel better myself (less elves, magic and that BS) 🙂

Part of the reason for chosing SR is the presence of the racial tension but even so the rules have always been a shambles (the Matrix in particular, but every edition has had a laundry list of things needing house rules).

1 hour ago, Ish said:

But nothing a competent GM and some cooperative players couldn’t work around.

I don’t know much about the new edition, but I remember that there was a lot of positive buzz around it when it was announced.  

It's a tough choice.  I was looking for something that would not require a whole bunch of house rules but I realized if I try and do a conversion it is a full set of house rules anyway.

Both system have new core sets out in the last 12 months.  Catalyst (CGL) continues to abuse Shadowrun, their writers and their customers.  Given their behavior in the open panel at GenCon last year (with the embezzler-in-chief laughing as he admitted that they didn't know if the European backers of their most recent kickstarter would ever get their product) I am not in any hurry to give money to CGL and the changes they made to dice management followed by their defense of those changes on their official forums demonstrated that they really don't understand dice rolling distributions or how modifiers affect them.  That said, a lot of people are liking the "streamlined" system.  I'm struggling to keep an open mind about it but Inquisitor66 can tell you I  am not doing a very good job of it.  Too much baggage and group preferences which are counter to the way some of their changes read.

Cyberpunk Red got some glowing reviews as well but it is hard to tell if that is because it is so good or it just was not the editorial tire fire that SR 6e was.  The actual core for Cyberpunk Red is still 6 weeks or more away although the intro box came out around GenCon last year like SR 6e.

[Ish]

I can’t speak to any of the drama around SR6. I own a copy of the core book, have played a dozen or so game sessions of it, and think it works just fine. It’s got flaws, but I think they’re mostly issues with layout and formatting. The system works great, the book just does an incredibly bad job at explaining how the system works which is the primary job of a @&$# rulebook!

But, I digress...

I can’t speak about Cyberpunk Red because I haven’t red read it, let alone played it. Nor do I know anyone who has. But I have some fond memories of the original Cyberpunk 2020 that I’d be willing to give it a shot if someone were to ask me to join a campaign.

But, personally, the cyberpunk roleplaying game that intrigues me the most right now is Infinity The Roleplaying Game from Modiphius. It’s based on the miniatures wargame and thus benefits from having a very well established universe as its backdrop. With all the corporate espionage, political intrigue, computer hacking, info wars, and cyborg-ninjas getting into katana duels that you could ever want. 

[Torg]

one I forgot - if your ok with the star wars RPG from FFG ... Based Genesis rules ... Android setting book - shadow of the beanstalk is pretty nice as well.  Good if your used to the FFG starwars ruleset / funky dice.