I am currently in a group playing Cyberpunk: RED and, while I am enjoying the GM’s play style and plot, I feel like we’re not utilizing the system to its full extent. Particularly, we have dropped initiative, the XP system, and the very, very detailed way it handles “damage to body parts.” What might be a good system to switch to while still keeping the feel of the game? I’ve looked for any PbtA games, but there seem to be none in the cyberpunk genre. I personally would prefer a narrativist sort of game but I’m okay with a little bit of crunch in combat (and I think the other players/GM would agree with me).

  • @[email protected]
    6•1 year ago

    This is going to be a bit of an echo but nevertheless

    • The folks behind City of Mist (crunchy PbtA) are working on Tokyo: Otherscape, cyberpunk with mythic flavour. Haven’t looked into it apart from following along the Kickstarter so cannot comment on how easy it is to remove the mythic elements from it. But yeah, in development so perhaps not what you need now.
    • Cities without Numbers. Kevin Crawford’s upcoming cyberpunk system which going to the printers soon, mid August, and then the pdfs will go on sale. Will come with, as usual, great GM tools. Since it uses the same engine as Stars/Worlds Without Numbers you can check out the bones of the system already now. And the basic editions are free.
    • If you want something with a clear mission structure you cannot go wrong with something Forged in the Dark. Don’t know what though but saw some in another reply.
    • Shadow of the Beanstalk for Genesys. Genesys is great featuring awesome dice, but those can be a but hard to get. Haven’t read SotB but will echo the recommendation.
    • Among the “pure” PbtAs there is at least the Sprawl (classic anti-corp cyberpunk) and the Veil which is a bit more artistic and philosophical (my impression).
    • (Long shot) While Ironsworn: Starforged is very sci-fi it has a great mission structure (vows), ways to track progress (best trackers ever!) and tools for emergent gameplay (gm-less play). With a bit of reflavour and hacking in hacking it could be great. Bet there already is a cyberpunk hack for it…
    • @INeedMana
      1•1 year ago

      For Genesys dice you can use an online roller. The one we used is not online anymore but this one looks good. It’s not the same as rolling real dice but might be a good idea in the beginning

      The regular dice to genesys dice conversion will be adding to the time needed to “calculate” the result which takes a bit of time itself. The dice are the biggest boon and the biggest flaw of the system at the same time IMO