punked

Punked (v.): to be tricked or deceived by someone.

Punked (n.): A Cyberpunk Red Experiment

I've never played or run Cyberpunk Red. I'm not into punk rock either; more of an electronic person. This could get ugly, but maybe in an educational way? You can be new to the system, too, as long as you have the CPR core rulebook and are willing to learn the rules.

The game doesn't start with punks. I'm fairly sure someone with cyberware needs to get punked before they can be a cyberpunk. Also I need to learn the rules so I figured I'd start with character creation. Made a pregen for you. Four versions of it even. Pick one, let's go.

...but you'll get to turn your pregen into a proper Edgerunner if we survive the prologue. That's an M-sized if, though. PBP is notorious for attrition. I might not click with the system or the world. We might not click with eachother. In short, if we're not having fun we won't keep going, but technically we still got to play a bit of CPR.

I may split players into smaller groups or one-on-one IC/OOC threads as needed. Sometimes other players may be able to follow along, other times not.

I may highlight some possible courses of action when relevant. These are not signals of the 'correct' or 'safe' way forward, or where the story is 'supposed' to go. They are simply me pre-empting blank stares around the virtual table when nobody has ideas. Always assume you can attempt something different as fiction allows.

I may use accelerated action resolution when character count is high, to safeguard the game's momentum and my sanity. Not quite one-shot-one-kill, but close enough. I learned the GM can do that from a convention one-shot I was perusing. It was for mooks... but hey, the pregens are Corpos so they count, right?

Great! Let's get punked.

Practicalities

If you're unavailable or struggling with inspiration, let everyone know. Failing to do so leads to waiting, and waiting kills games. Well, first it might kill the character we're waiting for, but eventually it'll kill the game.

Rolls go into the IC post they relate to, or an OOC thread if I ask for rolls pre-emptively. Sometimes we may even roll without playing it out IC. Pre-emptive rolls are very welcome on your part, too; I can use them or skip them as needed. Just make sure to label them in the roller for clarity.

I'm undecided on battlemaps. They provide extra clarity, but they're also extra work and I'd like to lean towards a looser, faster, more cinematic feel for combat. I'll likely try it first without maps and see how it goes.

We're playing a game, maybe even with some emotional depth and cyberpunk vibes. We're not writing a bestseller however. If you can spout streetslang on occasion, great! If not we'll assume your character's verbal output is in line with their style and action.

Some basic posting style and content quality bars still apply: write in third person present tense ("Jack is a dull boy"). Favor observable actions that move things forward over stagnant, mysterious brooding ("Jack pokes at the cyberpsycho with his wolver, clearly a Very Badass Move"). 1-3 paragraphs is a good post length.

Target posting frequency is every other day (3/week). Feel free to post more often, especially if you're active in multiple threads. Don't wait for everyone to post; as you know by now waiting kills games. We're adults (right?), we can piece the timeline of an exchange together in our minds (right?). If the scene has moved on you can address different times and places in one post ("Back at the garage... Jack grabs his gear. 'Fine, I'll come along.' Later at the basketball court... Jack gets real close to the Media's camera. 'I'm Jack Ten-Piece-E, and I'm here to tell you the players' side of things'").

Oh, Jack. Never change.

 

Themes And Tone

It's (mostly) the classics: workforce exploitation, social inequality, gaslighting, loss of identity, being a foreigner (not the band sorry), survival (or lack thereof). The prologue deals with falling off a cliff, so I need you to take that step. You'll get to choose which side of the cliff.

Oh, and cinematic violence. I'll show where it hurts, how much it hurts and maybe what sound it makes when it hurts, but won't go into gratuitous detail.

If the game goes beyond prologue there might also be positive themes, flashier fashions, neon lights, and the illusion of upward momentum. The specifics depend on how (if at all) you nail the landing.

This (game) isn't the post-apocalypse. There's plenty of new, cheap, mass-produced stuff around, or else worn-down stuff that used to be hot. It's the custom-made or fresh-out-of-packaging, high-tech, high-end stuff that's harder to get.

Despite all that I don't intend this to be a grimdark game.

 

Post-Prologue Hopes

Page 408 of the rulebook: a Cyberpunk adventure isn’t "GM Storytime" but a collaborative effort everyone contributes to. While I'm setting up the dominos and giving them a nudge in the prologue, past that I expect players to point the gun at what interests them.

I'd like to try scene-hopping rather than running a realtime simulation. That is, a string of vignettes focusing on meaningful moments, rather than one long take. I honestly have no idea if that will work. If not we'll try something else.

And finally, never deal with a dragon.