Im Laufe der Jahre, die ich Cyberpunk2020 spiele, bin ich immer wieder über das Quellenbuch HARDWIRED gestolpert. Blätterte es durch. Fand die Illus mäßig. Und legte es weg, da es nicht zu meiner laufenden Cyberpunk 2020 Runde in Night City passte (was vor allem daran liegt, dass es Night City bei HARDWIRED nicht gibt).

Inzwischen hatte ich Gelegenheit, den Roman HARDWIRED von Walter Jon Williams zu lesen. Und in Folge meiner Begeisterung auch gleich das HARDWIRED Buch für Cyberpunk 2020 als PDF bei Drivethru zu ziehen (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=2275&it=1 ).

Mein Fazit: HARDWIRED (Roman und Quellenbuch) ist Pflichtlektüre für CP2020 Fans. Und das liegt vor allem an folgenden Facetten:

HARDWIRED: Roman und Setting

Im Gegensatz zum sehr Achtziger-beeinflussten Cyberpunk2020 Grundsetting ist das Setting von HARDWIRED sowohl zeitloser als auch aktueller als auch “fokussierter”: Wie es sich für ein Cyberpunk-Setting gehört, ist die Welt am Arsch. Im Falle von HARDWIRED haben mächtige internationale Interessengemeinschaften den Orbit übernommen und die Erdstaaten in einem Steinbrockenkrieg faktisch entmachtet. Read the rest of this entry »

This drug is the future of coffee. Take it, and even not having slept for 36 hours won’t lessen your ability to function. The DARPA has funded scientists who discovered a drug that will eliminate sleepiness and keeps the drugs user alert.

orexin A is a hormone that is naturally occuring in the brain. Monkeys treated with the drug after 36 hours without sleep were as able to do awareness tests as well as monkeys who had been allowed to sleep. More about the study can be found here.

I figured that everybody would be addicted as soon as this drug hits the steets: Soldiers (for whom it has been developed), corporates, freelancers… so here are the stats (based on Ocelots Drug Lab 101)

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orexin A

Drug Effects: No need to sleep Untimed Side Effects: Mildly Psychologically Addictive

Drug Features: Longer Duration Timed Side Effects: None

Totals: Strength: +3 Difficulty: 30 Duration: Medium (1d6x10 minutes) Legality: Legal/Common Drug Form: Nasal Spray Time to Effect: 10+2d10 sec Purchase Price: 10

Designed using Night Flyer’s Drug Lab Java Calculator for Ocelot’s Drug Lab v3.0 @ www.paper-dragon.com

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I had to edit some stuff. The drug is based on the effect “Increased Duration”, so please look there for overdosing rules. Purchase Price would be 0eb, but there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, so its 10eb.

The Big Book of Drugs^TM for Cyberpunk 2020

[This article contains real and fictional drugs to be used with the Cyberpunk 2020 roleplaying game. The author does not advice condone the use of real drugs. Using drugs as a topic in a roleplaying game should used be resposibly. See the licence at the end of this article.]

The More Then Complete List of Drugs for Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.

Hi. A friend told me to see you. I hear you need stuff, right?

Sure, yes, all right. Don’t be so shy, chombatta. Keep cool. This little thingy makes it impossible to overhear us. Relax! But then you don’t look like you are after Dowers. I guess you need Speed, Man. Am I right? I have it all. ALL. You just need to tell me what you want.

- at a corner near you.

This is the ultimate and complete “BIG BOOK OF DRUGS” based on Ocelot’s Drug Lab 101. I guess it can be used with normal Cyberpunk 2020, too. Check it out!

Your characters won’t use drugs? They read the drugs in the Cyberpunk 2020 Rulebook and said: “No way?” Shock ‘em. Give your Boosters all those nice REF-boosting drugs. As NPCs they don’t really have to worry about side effects. If little 10-year-old Billy high on Lace is faster then the partys solo, your players will reconsider… Especially if little Bill is one hell of a shooter with his boosted REF…

Click here to see BIG BOOK OF DRUGS

Creative Commons-Licence

I found an article about Scopolamine on boing-boing. It’s a really scary drug, taking your free will away and allready available. Criminals love it – they can force the victim to give them all its money or use them sexually. Its also very likely to kill the user right away. That makes it instant cyberpunk 2020 game material for me. I figured I would need some hard game rules for the drug, so my first stop was Ocelots Drug Lab 101 and the wonderfully helpful Javascript Tool Night-flyer provided.

This is the result:

Scopolamine (Zombie Drug)

Drug Effects: HypnoticUntimed Side Effects: Death

Drug Features: Longer DurationTimed Side Effects: Loss of Inhibition Memory Loss

Totals: Strength: +5 Difficulty: 21 Duration: Long (1d10 hours) Legality: Type A Illegal Drug Form: Powdered/Snorted Time to Effect: 1d2 Min Purchase Price: 0 (50eb)

Since Ocelots Rules are mainly aimed at creating game balancing rules, the drug ist without a purchase price – who would willingly take the drug? So I assigned a price tag of 50eb – seems reasonable to me.

[Scopolamine] is as close to pure evil as it gets, a tiny amount of the powder administered to the victim causes one of two effects, a) death, or b) complete loss of free will. Criminals are usually hoping for the latter, as it enables them to tell victims to empty their bank accounts, give away their car, perform sex acts, basically whatever the criminal dictates.

This is where Scopolamine has got its reputation as the “zombie drug”, victims appear completely sober and rational, but they’re really just automatons. (Source for the description: boing-boing)

The result looks like this:

Kick-Ass

Drug Effects: Attribute Increase: + 5 REF Untimed Side Effects: Slightly Physiologically Addictive Slightly Psychologically Addictive

Drug Features: Longer Duration Timed Side Effects: Bloodshot Eyes

Totals: Strength: +5 Difficulty: 72 Duration: Long (1d10 hours) Legality: by Prescription Only Drug Form: Pill/Tablet Time to Effect: 2d6x10 min Purchase Price: 180

Night-Flyer has a cool Javascript Drug Generator to easily create drugs using Ocelots Drug Lab 101.

Great Work, Night-Flyer!