Basically its a dive into how Cyberpunk 2020 the table top game died, revived itself, died agian, and then revived again... and how its a franchise that will keep getting second, third and forth chances with obscene budgets.
I attribute the amount of affection it has to its unique gameplay mechanisms, which are basically designed to create dynamic, tragic, consequencial stories, of real meaningful deprivation and struggle... and how that's so vastly different from basically everything in our superhero driven culture.
Southkraut
A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
KulakRevolt 1yr ago
Thanks!
I don't get it, though. What every writer should learn from Pondsmith is...to make great literature? Maybe I missed an entire paragraph, but I don't at all see your answer to the question of the HOW you repeatedly raised.
That character should have real ties to their world and their actions should have real consequences.
The lifepath and FNFF systems ensure that their is no way for your character to be a generic orphan without grief, while the FNFF system ensures your character can't be superhero effortless evading the consequences of combat or conflict, but instead must take everything smart and always be in real meaningful risk even if they are smart.
Southkraut
A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
KulakRevolt 1yr ago·Edited 1yr ago
Alright, I apologize - I did indeed miss several entire paragraphs. I was reading on my phone and the article was cut off before it even got to Lifepaths. See? A submission statement giving a tl;dr of what you were going to lay out would have prevented this misunderstanding! Going to re-read. Thanks for patiently answering me.
A picture! Mike Pondsmith is black? Never knew. I expect something like this to be screamed from the rooftops for woke points, not slid on my desk in this matter-of-fact, race-blind manner.
I generally agree with your perspective on the genre and on what I know of the Cyberpunk Franchise. I disagree on the Edgerunners series - I thought it was unexpectedly good for animé, which surprised me when I watched it with a buddy as a sequel to our hate-watching the recent Witcher series - but overall still a clichéd mess with a horribly rushed plot. Consumable, enjoyable, certainly one of the better animé series, but hardly something for the ages. But still, overall I think you've made a good case for the qualities of the franchise, setting and ruleset. Not enough to get me into playing a TTRPG, but I still appreciate the thought that went into it.
You also mentioned MGRR. Did you by any chance write about the Steven Armstrong speech before?
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Notes -
I want to read this but out of principle I won't because not even you are too cool for submission statements.
I included the lond form of the Title!
Basically its a dive into how Cyberpunk 2020 the table top game died, revived itself, died agian, and then revived again... and how its a franchise that will keep getting second, third and forth chances with obscene budgets.
I attribute the amount of affection it has to its unique gameplay mechanisms, which are basically designed to create dynamic, tragic, consequencial stories, of real meaningful deprivation and struggle... and how that's so vastly different from basically everything in our superhero driven culture.
Thanks!
I don't get it, though. What every writer should learn from Pondsmith is...to make great literature? Maybe I missed an entire paragraph, but I don't at all see your answer to the question of the HOW you repeatedly raised.
That character should have real ties to their world and their actions should have real consequences.
The lifepath and FNFF systems ensure that their is no way for your character to be a generic orphan without grief, while the FNFF system ensures your character can't be superhero effortless evading the consequences of combat or conflict, but instead must take everything smart and always be in real meaningful risk even if they are smart.
Alright, I apologize - I did indeed miss several entire paragraphs. I was reading on my phone and the article was cut off before it even got to Lifepaths. See? A submission statement giving a tl;dr of what you were going to lay out would have prevented this misunderstanding! Going to re-read. Thanks for patiently answering me.
A picture! Mike Pondsmith is black? Never knew. I expect something like this to be screamed from the rooftops for woke points, not slid on my desk in this matter-of-fact, race-blind manner.
I generally agree with your perspective on the genre and on what I know of the Cyberpunk Franchise. I disagree on the Edgerunners series - I thought it was unexpectedly good for animé, which surprised me when I watched it with a buddy as a sequel to our hate-watching the recent Witcher series - but overall still a clichéd mess with a horribly rushed plot. Consumable, enjoyable, certainly one of the better animé series, but hardly something for the ages. But still, overall I think you've made a good case for the qualities of the franchise, setting and ruleset. Not enough to get me into playing a TTRPG, but I still appreciate the thought that went into it.
You also mentioned MGRR. Did you by any chance write about the Steven Armstrong speech before?
I never wrote about it no.
If someone here did though I'd be very interested to read it. Always found that character inspiring
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