Cyberpunk OD&D Style

[Hexenritter Verlag]

I know that there are Traveller fans here & I also know that there are OSR Space Opera based RPGs on Swords & Wizardry, but are there any fans of Cyberpunk here? Not just Cyberpunk 2020 but the genre in both literature & gaming in general? Has anyone tried to create a Cyberpunk themed OD&D campaign? I personally love nearly all things Cyberpunk, I even like the Cyber-Fantasy of Shadowrun. 

As I was typing up my update post in my Dieselpunk thread - I got to wondering, has anyone tried to create a OD&D styled Cyberpunk campaign? XP based on treasure? It works, as many Cyberpunk games have PCs earning $$ for jobs & are able to sell of any stuff they gather on the side. Instead of dungeons you are raiding corporate R&D sites, organized crime hideouts or even black site labs or complexes. Instead of wizards you have netrunning hackers but take innovations from SR5e with wireless technology, the hacker need not be stuck in a van or room, but on site & create a few charts or have the systems set up with info needed to speed up play for planned missions. Instead of a cleric you have a tech guy who pilots drones, drives or pilots vehicles for the crew & the infiltration specialist/saboteur help facilitate things.

I know there is a OSR that I think does Cyberpunk (I'll need to check for sure), if so it could be mined for tech or simply convert the tech from our favorite Cyberpunk game into OD&D terms.  

[Jakob Grimm]

Apr 23, 2018 15:56:13 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

I know that there are Traveller fans here & I also know that there are OSR Space Opera based RPGs on Swords & Wizardry, but are there any fans of Cyberpunk here? Not just Cyberpunk 2020 but the genre in both literature & gaming in general? Has anyone tried to create a Cyberpunk themed OD&D campaign? I personally love nearly all things Cyberpunk, I even like the Cyber-Fantasy of Shadowrun. 

As I was typing up my update post in my Dieselpunk thread - I got to wondering, has anyone tried to create a OD&D styled Cyberpunk campaign? XP based on treasure? It works, as many Cyberpunk games have PCs earning $$ for jobs & are able to sell of any stuff they gather on the side. Instead of dungeons you are raiding corporate R&D sites, organized crime hideouts or even black site labs or complexes. Instead of wizards you have netrunning hackers but take innovations from SR5e with wireless technology, the hacker need not be stuck in a van or room, but on site & create a few charts or have the systems set up with info needed to speed up play for planned missions. Instead of a cleric you have a tech guy who pilots drones, drives or pilots vehicles for the crew & the infiltration specialist/saboteur help facilitate things.

I know there is a OSR that I think does Cyberpunk (I'll need to check for sure), if so it could be mined for tech or simply convert the tech from our favorite Cyberpunk game into OD&D terms.  

I'm not familiar with Cyberpunk, but what you describe sounds like a lot of fun.  Please post more about it.

[True Black Raven]

I concur, sounds like a blast, please continue to share about it.

[Hexenritter Verlag]

If you haven't read any cyberpunk - check out the Mirrorshades anthology edited by Bruce Sterling or the Ultimate Cyberpunk anthology edited by Pat Cadigan. My favorite Cyberpunk books are Hardwired by Walter J. Williams, the Aubrey Knight trilogy by Steven Barnes & the Marid Audran trilogy by George Alec Effinger.


Jakob Grimm Cyberpunk is set in a Dystopian near future, where either the government is tyrannical and the players are eking out an existence in the underground as potential revolutionaries or it is where governments are little better than puppets of megacorporations. You are often freelance operators working for various corporations or other power groups, eventually you have influence and resources to stake out power within the system or underground, owning businesses or running crime syndicates. You often have cyberwear of some kind implanted in you and depending on type of setting implanted weaponry or small arms that can be easily concealed or you are armored and armed people stalking the near lawless streets outside the guarded corporate or financial districts of the city. The typical Cyberpunk game is the latter or nearly so. Such as the image below:

[True Black Raven]

Thanks for the reading recs, I am familiar with Steven Barnes, so I will probably start there.

[Hexenritter Verlag]

Steven Barnes is a great writer. His stories are lighter on the cybertech but have more action than typical but I love the trilogy.

[True Black Raven]

I've read Dream Park and The Barsoom Project he did with Larry Niven and a couple of others. I have a lot of reading to do, the years are short and over quickly. His wife Tananarive Due, is also a writer and co-wrote the The Tennyson Hardwick novels with him, that I want to read and I would like to read her African Immortals Series.

[Hexenritter Verlag]

Apr 25, 2018 13:15:10 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

I've read Dream Park and The Barsoom Project he did with Larry Niven and a couple of others. I have a lot of reading to do, the years are short and over quickly. His wife Tananarive Due, is also a writer and co-wrote the The Tennyson Hardwick novels with him, that I want to read and I would like to read her African Immortals Series.

I've been meaning to read Steven's other books & some of his wife's books as well.

[Hexenritter Verlag]

I wanted to cover a few thoughts that I had while out & about today on this potential project. Using OD&D as a base I was brainstorming ideas on how the standard tropes of OD&D could be used to emulate Cyberpunk campaigns. Here are my thoughts below.

• Dungeoneering: In a previous post I mentioned that this kind of thing could be emulated via raiding Corporate R&D complexes, Criminal Headquarters & the like. Toss in defeating or bypassing Guards or Mercenaries and gathering things like Intel, technology or other needed experiments, “freeing” prized employees from a patron’s rival to actual sabotage. Accumulating “loot” as in gear/prizes from heists, to stock interests, credits, drugs, property or info you can sell can lead to advancement.



• Wilderness Exploration: This is harder to emulate in a cyberpunk campaign, but not impossible. Take finding a hidden installation in a wilderness cloaked by high tech means or even low tech façades. The Intel you received for a job says the hidden on an isolated piece of land between 20-120 square miles or acres. You land at the edge of the land & sneak through the region exploring until you locate the hidden complex. Or you leave the installation & your vehicle get’s disabled and you are forced to explore the wilderness evading pursuers; acquiring a vehicle to get to a local town & find your way home with your “package” intact. Thus it can be done.



• The Endgame or Domain Campaigning: Unlike OD&D the Endgame need not be the end but could turn to Domain play. Sure you can do it with OD&D 3LBB, but using the supplements make things “easier” for those who prefer it. That said, in a cyberpunk campaign it is far more intriguing option as you are not actually ruling a domain in an OD&D sense, but running a business or organization of some sort that allows you and your minions to continue play, just with more ramifications. In fact the players can run separate elements of an organization, yet you can then go on high level jobs that have great rewards but huge risks both locally and internationally.



• Magic: Now magic & magical items will not play a traditional role unless you are running a Cyber-Fantasy campaign based on Shadowrun. Instead of magic spells would be specialized programs in which a hacker can utilize to combat black ICE (anti-intrusion programs) that protect a target’s computer data system. Sleep or Slow (?) can stop a number of Black ICE programs or counter Hackers from attacking you. At lower levels you have limited ICE Cracker “Spell” programs and need to utilize thief like subterfuge skills to bypass them. Depending on your hacking subsystem or if you have a pilot/driver character not doing things, they could run the hacker through the prepared hacking session while the main referee can run the rest of group via the on site situation. Instead of healing spells you can have nanotech injections of nano-surgeons fixing internal damage turning lethal damage to temporary exhaustion.



• Races & Classes: These can be home-brewed based on traditional classes & races. Fighting-Men can be ex-soldiers turned mercenaries, organized crime enforcers or hit-men or even corporate black ops security members. Magic-Users become high tech hackers on a net run with some thief skills when in the net. A Thief is a spy, a saboteur, a thief or street level goon for a local organized crime family, you’d have a pilot/driver/tech person, who also pilots drones and can do minimal hacking but more focused on defense than intrusion. Races – you’d have androids, bio-engineered replecants/beings & cyborgs – not quite androids but not quite human. Cyborgs are often highly specialized towards combat, so rarely are hackers or pilots.



That is it for this post as it shows how OD&D tropes can be used as the basis for a Cyberpunk campaign fairly easily. It took me an hour to work through these ideas as I was out today. This is just the basics as technology & setting needs to be worked out. I think I’ll post a cleaned up & possibly expanded version of this for this weeks ‘Musing About Original Edition Adventuring’ blog.

[True Black Raven]

Hexenritter Verlag, I like your Cyberpunk OD&D Style outline above. That would be an awesome game to play in (I'd love to play in a Steampunk game as well as I am a big fan of Jules Verne, HG Wells, et. al.) so I hope you continue work on this. 

I have one minor quibble. I would disagree that

• The Endgame or Domain Campaigning: Unlike OD&D the Endgame need not be the end but could turn to Domain play.

IMO Domain Campaigning in OD&D, as in this, is not the Endgame, but just part of play. I believe that the campaign in OD&D, and in this as well, can move back and forth between various styles of play, whether that be dungeons, wilderness, city, ocean going, domain (from strongholds up to a kingdom or even an empire), travel to other worlds or through time and more. It can all be one mostly seamless whole. robkuntz what say you about this?

[Hexenritter Verlag]

I agree True Black Raven, I think I edited that out of my blog post & rewrote it to be more accurate but forgot to edit this post as well. I actually had to reedit it as some of that still was part of my blog post. Here is the edited version from my blog post.


Since this is a Cyberpunk themed post I decided to break down how I'd do things by taking key tropes of OD&D and using them as a framework; such as: Dungeoneering, Wilderness Exploring, The Endgame or Dominion Play; Magic, Classes & Races.

Dungeoneering: This kind of trope could be emulated via raiding Corporate R&D complexes, Criminal Headquarters & the like. Toss in defeating or bypassing Guards or Mercenaries and gathering things like Intel, technology or other needed experiments, “freeing” prized employees from a patron’s rival to actual sabotage or theft. Accumulating “loot” as in gear/prizes from heists, to stock interests, credits, drugs, property or info you can sell, can lead to advancement.


Wilderness Exploration: This is harder to emulate in a cyberpunk campaign, but not impossible. Take finding a hidden installation in a wilderness cloaked by some high tech means or even a low tech façade. The Intel you received for a job says the hidden complex is on an isolated piece of land between 20-120 square miles or acres owned by the target. You land at the edge of the land & sneak through the region exploring until you locate the hidden complex. Or you leave the installation & your vehicle get’s disabled and you are forced to explore the wilderness evading pursuers in order to escape with your "loot"; acquiring a vehicle to get to a local town & find your way home with your “package” intact. Thus it can be done.


The Domain Campaigning: In a cyberpunk campaign domain play is a far more intriguing option as you are not actually ruling a domain in the OD&D sense, but instead you could be running a business or organization of some sort. It adds a different flavor to what is typical in OD&D. In fact the players can run separate elements of an organization if they so choose, managing their turf or business interests;  yet you can then go on high level side jobs that have great rewards but huge risks both locally and internationally. 


Magic: Now magic & magical items will not play a traditional role unless you are running a Cyber-Fantasy campaign based on Shadowrun. Instead of magic spells would be specialized programs in which a hacker can utilize to combat black ICE (anti-intrusion programs) that protect a target’s computer data system. Sleep or Slow (?) can stop a number of Black ICE programs or counter Hackers employed by the target from attacking you. At lower levels you have limited ICE Cracker “Spell” programs and need to utilize thief like subterfuge skills to bypass them. Depending on your hacking subsystem or if you have a pilot/driver character not doing things at the time, instead of being bored with nothing to do they could run the hacker through the prepared hacking session while the main referee can run the rest of group via the on site situation. Instead of healing spells you can have injections of nano-surgeons fixing internal damage turning lethal damage to temporary exhaustion. Magical items will either be specialized hacking Ice Cracker programs or high tech weaponry or armor that make you harder to hit & deadlier.


Classes & Races: These can be home-brewed based on traditional classes & races. Fighting-Men can be ex-soldiers turned mercenaries, organized crime enforcers or hit-men or even corporate black ops security members. Magic-Users become high tech hackers on a net run with some thief skills for use while in the net. A Thief is a spy, a saboteur, a thief or street level goon for a local organized crime family, then you’d have a pilot/driver/tech person, who also pilots drones and vehicles, plus can do minimal hacking - more focused on defense than intrusion. With Races – you’d have androids, bio-engineered beings & cyborgs – not quite androids but not quite human. Cyborgs are often highly specialized towards combat, so rarely are hackers or pilots.

Oh I like Steampunk - are you into the whole Alternate Earth retro-history thing or just adding steampunk tropes to your fantasy True Black Raven? 

[True Black Raven]

Apr 29, 2018 11:07:52 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

Oh I like Steampunk - are you into the whole Alternate Earth retro-history thing or just adding steampunk tropes to your fantasy True Black Raven ? 

Yes, I am into both! Alternate realities are a whole good fun!

[robkuntz]

Apr 29, 2018 8:04:59 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Hexenritter Verlag , I like your Cyberpunk OD&D Style outline above. That would be an awesome game to play in (I'd love to play in a Steampunk game as well as I am a big fan of Jules Verne, HG Wells, et. al.) so I hope you continue work on this. 

I have one minor quibble. I would disagree that

• The Endgame or Domain Campaigning: Unlike OD&D the Endgame need not be the end but could turn to Domain play.

IMO Domain Campaigning in OD&D, as in this, is not the Endgame, but just part of play. I believe that the campaign in OD&D, and in this as well, can move back and forth between various styles of play, whether that be dungeons, wilderness, city, ocean going, domain (from strongholds up to a kingdom or even an empire), travel to other worlds or through time and more. It can all be one mostly seamless whole. robkuntz what say you about this?

Anything goes unless you go with only some-thing.  By 1975 I took a shot to eliminate what I refer to as the "corporate ladder model"  ( quoted from an interview question/answer here:  www.threelinestudio.com/interviews/ )==

"I presage this in ‘New Ethos’ with a model I developed during the play-tests of D&D, the GGm, the "God Game" model, which is an integrative model that I created and successfully played 1974-1975 and that shifted the design base from the inverted pyramid of D&D (what I also refer to as the ‘corporate ladder’ model) by flattening it and thereafter moving laterally within its design scope and with no backward design perturbance.

"Essentially I combined two models by systematically grafting them together and as was inferred by Arneson’s implicit ongoing systemization." 

[Hexenritter Verlag]

Apr 29, 2018 22:20:50 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Apr 29, 2018 11:07:52 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

Oh I like Steampunk - are you into the whole Alternate Earth retro-history thing or just adding steampunk tropes to your fantasy True Black Raven ? 

Yes, I am into both! Alternate realities are a whole good fun!

That is why I also like the whole Dieselpunk thing. But being a fan of Victorian & Edwardian era period dramas; plus the art of the period, Steampunk does really appeal to me. I've considered emulating aspects of Victorian/Edwardian earth & apply it to a fantasy setting, using magic fused technology leading to the industrial era. Just writing this reply has me thinking of ideas for such a setting.

Where as the Cyberpunk idea is rooted in our world but pushed ahead in the time-line & pushes technology forward, the dieselpunk setting goes back to the 40s & then fuses on Post-Apocalyptic and fantasy/supernatural elements. Personally I'll play in a alternate Earth Steampunk game & read the fiction, but if I'd run a Steampunk game it'd be in a fantasy world with Victorian/Edwardian trappings fused to it instead.  

I've been having issues with my ‘World of Skârn’ revisions which is frustrating me; which is why I've been brainstorming about Cyberpunk & Diespunk oriented OD&D. I think I need to step back from it & work on these and possibly a Steampunk setting to clear my block on that project. 

[True Black Raven]

Apr 30, 2018 16:01:58 GMT -5 robkuntz said:

Anything goes unless you go with only some-thing.  By 1975 I took a shot to eliminate what I refer to as the "corporate ladder model"  ( quoted from an interview question/answer here:  www.threelinestudio.com/interviews/ )==

"I presage this in ‘New Ethos’ with a model I developed during the play-tests of D&D, the GGm, the "God Game" model, which is an integrative model that I created and successfully played 1974-1975 and that shifted the design base from the inverted pyramid of D&D (what I also refer to as the ‘corporate ladder’ model) by flattening it and thereafter moving laterally within its design scope and with no backward design perturbance.

"Essentially I combined two models by systematically grafting them together and as was inferred by Arneson’s implicit ongoing systemization." 

Are these 30-50 models going to be solely in "New Models for Role Playing Games" or is some of that going to be in "A New Ethos in Game Design – The Paradigm shift originated by Dungeons & Dragons™ 1972-1977"?

[True Black Raven]

Apr 30, 2018 17:28:40 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

Apr 29, 2018 22:20:50 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Yes, I am into both! Alternate realities are a whole good fun!

That is why I also like the whole Dieselpunk thing. But being a fan of Victorian & Edwardian era period dramas; plus the art of the period, Steampunk does really appeal to me. I've considered emulating aspects of Victorian/Edwardian earth & apply it to a fantasy setting, using magic fused technology leading to the industrial era. Just writing this reply has me thinking of ideas for such a setting.

Where as the Cyberpunk idea is rooted in our world but pushed ahead in the time-line & pushes technology forward, the dieselpunk setting goes back to the 40s & then fuses on Post-Apocalyptic and fantasy/supernatural elements. Personally I'll play in a alternate Earth Steampunk game & read the fiction, but if I'd run a Steampunk game it'd be in a fantasy world with Victorian/Edwardian trappings fused to it instead.  

I've been having issues with my ‘World of Skârn’ revisions which is frustrating me; which is why I've been brainstorming about Cyberpunk & Dieselpunk oriented OD&D. I think I need to step back from it & work on these and possibly a Steampunk setting to clear my block on that project. 

I agree with you, I would play in any of them, but if I am running it I want some fantasy too!  Sometimes you just have writers block and have to do something different to shake it loose.

[Hexenritter Verlag]

True Black Raven, this morning I began brainstorming how a "Steampunk Fantasy" OD&D setting would develop. Taking huge amounts of inspiration from our world & seeing how I can apply it to the setting. As of now Dwarfs & Gnomes are a big part of the technological advancement. Most Elves in the various Imperial core regions are either city dwelling citizens cut off from the Fey Wilds or in small isolated forests with a very antagonistic & xenophobic mindset. The last bastions of Elves are in the untamed "wilderness" of several continents that only have "primitive" human tribal communities. I'll be using ICE Rolemaster equipment PDF to create price lists for it & likely the Dieselpunk setting.

[True Black Raven]

Sounds like a solid plan. Shame about 20 of us can't get in a room together and have multiple brainstorming sessions.  I wish we had 50 members on here that would commit to posting in multiple brainstorming threads. Not everyone knows that in brainstorming you voice all ideas and there is no bad idea. Choosing from them comes later, brainstorming is just grabbing big handfuls and throwing them against the wall to see what sticks.

[Hexenritter Verlag]

May 1, 2018 11:23:52 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Sounds like a solid plan. Shame about 20 of us can't get in a room together and have multiple brainstorming sessions.  I wish we had 50 members on here that would commit to posting in multiple brainstorming threads. Not everyone knows that in brainstorming you voice all ideas and there is no bad idea. Choosing from them comes later, brainstorming is just grabbing big handfuls and throwing them against the wall to see what sticks.

Very true True Black Raven. I'd love to hang out with you guys & gals - tossing ideas back & forth. I love brainstorming, which is why I posted both of these threads to help spur my creativity as I had hit a solid wall with my revisions.

[robkuntz]

May 1, 2018 11:02:15 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Apr 30, 2018 16:01:58 GMT -5 robkuntz said:

Anything goes unless you go with only some-thing.  By 1975 I took a shot to eliminate what I refer to as the "corporate ladder model"  ( quoted from an interview question/answer here:  www.threelinestudio.com/interviews/ )==

"I presage this in ‘New Ethos’ with a model I developed during the play-tests of D&D, the GGm, the "God Game" model, which is an integrative model that I created and successfully played 1974-1975 and that shifted the design base from the inverted pyramid of D&D (what I also refer to as the ‘corporate ladder’ model) by flattening it and thereafter moving laterally within its design scope and with no backward design perturbance.

"Essentially I combined two models by systematically grafting them together and as was inferred by Arneson’s implicit ongoing systemization." 

Are these 30-50 models going to be solely in "New Models for Role Playing Games" or is some of that going to be in "A New Ethos in Game Design – The Paradigm shift originated by Dungeons & Dragons™ 1972-1977"?

I showcase two in New Ethos for illustrative purposes in promoting Arneson's shift; the remainder will occur in New Models.  The two for New Ethos are the GGm and The CBI model (a promotion of Arneson's Comeback Inn model sequence on steroids, so to speak).

[True Black Raven]

May 1, 2018 11:36:01 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

May 1, 2018 11:23:52 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Sounds like a solid plan. Shame about 20 of us can't get in a room together and have multiple brainstorming sessions.  I wish we had 50 members on here that would commit to posting in multiple brainstorming threads. Not everyone knows that in brainstorming you voice all ideas and there is no bad idea. Choosing from them comes later, brainstorming is just grabbing big handfuls and throwing them against the wall to see what sticks.

Very true True Black Raven . I'd love to hang out with you guys & gals - tossing ideas back & forth. I love brainstorming, which is why I posted both of these threads to help spur my creativity as I had hit a solid wall with my revisions.

That would be a real blast! Maybe someone will make a comment that will trigger an idea for you.

[True Black Raven]

May 1, 2018 13:58:52 GMT -5 robkuntz said:

May 1, 2018 11:02:15 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Are these 30-50 models going to be solely in "New Models for Role Playing Games" or is some of that going to be in "A New Ethos in Game Design – The Paradigm shift originated by Dungeons & Dragons™ 1972-1977"?

I showcase two in New Ethos for illustrative purposes in promoting Arneson's shift; the remainder will occur in New Models.  The two for New Ethos are the GGm and The CBI model (a promotion of Arneson's Comeback Inn model sequence on steroids, so to speak).

Good to know. How close are those books to being published?

[Jakob Grimm]

May 1, 2018 20:33:56 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

May 1, 2018 13:58:52 GMT -5 robkuntz said:

I showcase two in New Ethos for illustrative purposes in promoting Arneson's shift; the remainder will occur in New Models.  The two for New Ethos are the GGm and The CBI model (a promotion of Arneson's Comeback Inn model sequence on steroids, so to speak).

Good to know. How close are those books to being published?

Good question, also robkuntz, what is the Arneson's Comeback Inn model sequence, I am not familiar with that?

[Jakob Grimm]

Apr 25, 2018 12:34:27 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

If you haven't read any cyberpunk - check out the Mirrorshades anthology edited by Bruce Sterling or the Ultimate Cyberpunk anthology edited by Pat Cadigan. My favorite Cyberpunk books are Hardwired by Walter J. Williams, the Aubrey Knight trilogy by Steven Barnes & the Marid Audran trilogy by George Alec Effinger.


Jakob Grimm Cyberpunk is set in a Dystopian near future, where either the government is tyrannical and the players are eking out an existence in the underground as potential revolutionaries or it is where governments are little better than puppets of megacorporations. You are often freelance operators working for various corporations or other power groups, eventually you have influence and resources to stake out power within the system or underground, owning businesses or running crime syndicates. You often have cyberwear of some kind implanted in you and depending on type of setting implanted weaponry or small arms that can be easily concealed or you are armored and armed people stalking the near lawless streets outside the guarded corporate or financial districts of the city. The typical Cyberpunk game is the latter or nearly so. Such as the image below:

That is most definitely the near future, that is the world I am expecting to live in during some part of the remainder of my life. The government is both tyrannical and a puppet, the rest of it can't be too far away.  The game sounds fun, even it the real future does not.

[robkuntz]

May 2, 2018 10:15:27 GMT -5 Jakob Grimm said:

May 1, 2018 20:33:56 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

Good to know. How close are those books to being published?

Good question, also robkuntz , what is the Arneson's Comeback Inn model sequence, I am not familiar with that?

I'll answer both in this post.  The books are problematical for publishing dates.  They will be very expensive to print due to size; and given the medium response to DATG, that throws another major uncertainty into it.  I am examining other options outside of this industry as well as considering PDF only releases.  Meanwhile I am concentrating on the contracted, THE BOOK.

The Comeback Inn was in Arneson's Village of Blackmoor (first mentioned in in print in Domesday Book #13; and thereafter experienced many months later in the first adventure that 4 LGTSA members, myself and Gary included, took into Arneson's FRPG world when he showcased it for us in Nov. 1972).  The Comeback Inn had special rules for engaging with it, thus from a design view I have iterated it further as an extendable example of utilizing an ever-expanding thought process through scaling the initial design.  Thus the model illustrates many stepped processes which then change as these step from its base, and can be noted by such a course to actually create a game from a game segment, or a game outside or beside a game segment, as the progressions mature, in sum creating many models over its iterated history.

[Hexenritter Verlag]

May 2, 2018 10:18:30 GMT -5 Jakob Grimm said:

Apr 25, 2018 12:34:27 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

If you haven't read any cyberpunk - check out the Mirrorshades anthology edited by Bruce Sterling or the Ultimate Cyberpunk anthology edited by Pat Cadigan. My favorite Cyberpunk books are Hardwired by Walter J. Williams, the Aubrey Knight trilogy by Steven Barnes & the Marid Audran trilogy by George Alec Effinger.


Jakob Grimm Cyberpunk is set in a Dystopian near future, where either the government is tyrannical and the players are eking out an existence in the underground as potential revolutionaries or it is where governments are little better than puppets of megacorporations. You are often freelance operators working for various corporations or other power groups, eventually you have influence and resources to stake out power within the system or underground, owning businesses or running crime syndicates. You often have cyberwear of some kind implanted in you and depending on type of setting implanted weaponry or small arms that can be easily concealed or you are armored and armed people stalking the near lawless streets outside the guarded corporate or financial districts of the city. The typical Cyberpunk game is the latter or nearly so. Such as the image below:

That is most definitely the near future, that is the world I am expecting to live in during some part of the remainder of my life. The government is both tyrannical and a puppet, the rest of it can't be too far away.  The game sounds fun, even it the real future does not.

I couldn't agree more Jakob Grimm - I live in Oregon & the local government is pushing for more & more limitations on our liberty. 

I've loved Cyberpunk forever, it is one of the forms of sci-fi that really speaks to me. Being an anti-authoritarian the topics found in the literature has appeal to me. I like Dystopian literature & media in general for that reason; yet cyberpunk tosses in sexy tech into the mix. 

This project gives me a stripped down quick way to run Cyberpunk without the clunky charts & skill systems of Cyberspace or the unnecessary rules of Cyberpunk 2020. The only things I need to figure out is the netrunning/hacking subsystem, classes, races, vehicle movement & combat, the modern weapon combat rules and the equipment list. Much of this I can house-rule or steal rules from a OSR. I'll be staying true to the K.I.S.S. rule when developing these subsystems in order to keep things fast moving and consistent to OD&D rules. 

Cyberpunk needs to be deadly, which OD&D does well - I just need to figure out how to keep the subsystems simple, so the mechanics fade into the background as you play. Of all the subsystems the vehicle movement & combat rules will be the hardest to develop and not make the overly complicated. I'll be looking at WWII Operation White Box, White Star White Box & a few other OSR based sci-fi/modern games to get ideas for this and for how modern weapons are handled. 

Setting wise I am debating on taking the default Cyberpunk 2020 or Cyberspace settings and tweaking them to fit my needs or develop my own setting. My biggest issue for the latter is the default city & mapping it. My laptop lacks the power to run most mapping programs & I can't currently afford to upgrade and get the programs; but this can be mitigated if I use a established city and print out or buy street maps of the region. But doing so means that I need to figure out location, then flesh out power groups and main npcs; which is not an issue as ICE did that with their default San Francisco setting. 

[True Black Raven]

May 2, 2018 11:03:58 GMT -5 robkuntz said:

May 2, 2018 10:15:27 GMT -5 Jakob Grimm said:

Good question, also robkuntz , what is the Arneson's Comeback Inn model sequence, I am not familiar with that?

I'll answer both in this post.  The books are problematical for publishing dates.  They will be very expensive to print due to size; and given the medium response to DATG, that throws another major uncertainty into it.  I am examining other options outside of this industry as well as considering PDF only releases.  Meanwhile I am concentrating on the contracted, THE BOOK.

The Comeback Inn was in Arneson's Village of Blackmoor (first mentioned in in print in Domesday Book #13; and thereafter experienced many months later in the first adventure that 4 LGTSA members, myself and Gary included, took into Arneson's FRPG world when he showcased it for us in Nov. 1972).  The Comeback Inn had special rules for engaging with it, thus from a design view I have iterated it further as an extendable example of utilizing an ever-expanding thought process through scaling the initial design.  Thus the model illustrates many stepped processes which then change as these step from its base, and can be noted by such a course to actually create a game from a game segment, or a game outside or beside a game segment, as the progressions mature, in sum creating many models over its iterated history.

What is THE BOOK, if we may ask?

[robkuntz]

May 2, 2018 20:17:16 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

May 2, 2018 11:03:58 GMT -5 robkuntz said:

I'll answer both in this post.  The books are problematical for publishing dates.  They will be very expensive to print due to size; and given the medium response to DATG, that throws another major uncertainty into it.  I am examining other options outside of this industry as well as considering PDF only releases.  Meanwhile I am concentrating on the contracted, THE BOOK.

The Comeback Inn was in Arneson's Village of Blackmoor (first mentioned in in print in Domesday Book #13; and thereafter experienced many months later in the first adventure that 4 LGTSA members, myself and Gary included, took into Arneson's FRPG world when he showcased it for us in Nov. 1972).  The Comeback Inn had special rules for engaging with it, thus from a design view I have iterated it further as an extendable example of utilizing an ever-expanding thought process through scaling the initial design.  Thus the model illustrates many stepped processes which then change as these step from its base, and can be noted by such a course to actually create a game from a game segment, or a game outside or beside a game segment, as the progressions mature, in sum creating many models over its iterated history.

What is THE BOOK, if we may ask?

Covered  that in pt. 2 of my recent interview with RPG Pundit:  therpgpundit.blogspot.com/2018/03/an-interview-with-rob-kuntz-part-2-of-3.html  (question 6)

[True Black Raven]

May 3, 2018 3:37:47 GMT -5 robkuntz said:

May 2, 2018 20:17:16 GMT -5 True Black Raven said:

What is THE BOOK, if we may ask?

Covered  that in pt. 2 of my recent interview with RPG Pundit: therpgpundit.blogspot.com/2018/03/an-interview-with-rob-kuntz-part-2-of-3.html (question 6)

you do know it is easier to remember those things once you have given us a title for the book. Just saying! Does it have a title yet? Or is that TBD? A book from you on the History of D&D, that is something that really should sell and I hope that those sales blow your expectations away.

Anyone who hasn't read the answer to question 6 in that interviews, do yourself a favor and go read it now. May we have permission to quote that answer all over the place?

[Jakob Grimm]

May 2, 2018 12:28:18 GMT -5 Hexenritter Verlag said:

I've loved Cyberpunk forever, it is one of the forms of sci-fi that really speaks to me. Being an anti-authoritarian the topics found in the literature has appeal to me. I like Dystopian literature & media in general for that reason; yet cyberpunk tosses in sexy tech into the mix.

I think all really old school gamers are anti-authoritarian, it kind of goes with the territory.