Cyberpunk Red

[Thenomain]

I...I just learned about this!

rtalsoriangames
JANUARY 25, 2018 AT 1:00 PM
Actually we have a new updated Cyberpunk 2020 edition coming up called Cyberpunk Red. There will be updates. It will primarily be Fuzion.

Red? RED? Get it?!

I'm at the same time nervous and excited with giddy anticipation. It seems to be planned to release alongside CP2077 of course.

Where have I been for the past 10 1/2 months?

[magee101]

Any news on a release?

[Kay]

Looks like 2019 - hopefully. https://rtalsoriangames.com/2018/11/09/planning-the-dark-future/

[Thenomain]

And from that:

rtalsoriangames
NOVEMBER 11, 2018 AT 3:16 PM
[...] Cyberpunk v3 is officially an alternate timeline, as is Cybergeneration.

Which is kind of too bad because I liked the ecoterrorism of Cybergeneration, but I get it. "T-1000 Pre-Teens" didn't feel like a great fit for the over-arching Cyberpunk setting. It was a stark reaction to the Death of Punk in the 90s, but as punk styles, and in some cases punk itself, has come back with a vengeance I can see why they wanted to drop it.

CPv3 was...eh. I can see how R.Tal was trying to meld the grand sociology of Diamond Age into the game, and make deckers more integrated to table-top play, but I can't fault them from dropping this timeline as well.

I will be over-thinking this for a week.

[Runescryer]

@thenomain I think Cybergeneration came about as something for Mike to run for his son Cody without the usual excessive sex, violence, and betrayal found in a 2020 game; especially the excessive amounts found in a game run by Mike himself.

And yeah, 3rd Edition was an attempt to mold ALL THE THINGS the Cyberpunk genre had become by then; and the eternal Quixotic quest of all cyberpunk games to better integrate netrunning/decking/hacking into the game without spending an hour of game time on, essentially, a side quest for one player at the table.

Definitely looking forward to Red, and 2077.

[Thenomain]

@runescryer

Well I really liked the idea that social currency was incredibly important, a facet that people give Eclipse Phase credit for. (And Fuzion Core came out right before D&D 3e and I think had a much better grasp of feats, but you can't win against the 800 lb, gorilla's art department.)

But here we are, 5 years after the first Cyberpunk game took place and we're making fun of Hasbro for saying "social experience is the real currency", mostly because the current socio-economic situation hasn't changed much since the recession of the 80s.

I mean, it has, it's just come full circle.

And so Cyberpunk is relevant again.

--

I will say that around CPv3 and Cybergen, Mike Pondsmith just seemed tired. I think being practically a one-man marketing team takes it out of you, and he had a family to take care of.

He's always been an incredibly nice guy to talk to for me, and I hope him all the dolla-dolla-bills-y'all from CP2077.

[Runescryer]

@thenomain Not so much around Cybergen, but definately around v3, yeah. Remember at that time he wasn't just trying to keep RTG afloat during a downturn in the RPG industry, he was paying the bills by coding for Microsoft (ironically, his big project was the Crimson Skies game for X-Box, adapted from the FASA game). So, the time around v3 was really stressful and burning the candle at both ends for him.