Cyberpunk Red

We haven’t heard much from Mike and R.Talsorian Games for years – but then they came back with The Witcher RPG. The Witcher is licence of a computer game from CD Project Red – which are programming a R.Talsorian licenced computergame at the moment.

So now Mike annoces Cyberpunk Red, tand the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit, an introductory box set for the game. And it will come soon:

The Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit will be released on August 1st at GenCon. Ideally, it will go on sale at our booth at GenCon and online via DriveThruRPG at the same time. It might also be available via our webstore then but should be available soon after if not. Cyberpunk Red will most likely be available later in the year.

R. Talsorian Homepage

Cyberpunk Red will use the classic Interlock system, but Mike claims that there will be revisions and updates. I’m a bit worried there, because The Witcher is very much a copy of the ageing Interlock we know from Cyberpunk 2020. And Mike allready told us that it will have roles, so not much change there. If they can’t even modify Interlock for a fantasy game, how much will they change for another Cyberpunk game? Probably not much more then a couple of skills. On the other hand: The Witcher’s lead designer was Mikes son, while Reds lead designer is Mike himself. Anyway, the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit will use a reduced version of the same rules. (And I heard that the quickstart rules from The Witcher are quit useable… (I could run a fight in The Witcher mostly from my Cyberpunk 2020 knowledge, because they didn’t even change the modifiers…)

The good part: it will be mostly compatible with Cyberpunk 2020 and be set in the same timeline: R. Talsorian Games and CD Projekt Red have worked together on a common timeline for the original Cyberpunk (Cyberpunk 2013) to Cyberpunk 2020 to Cyberpunk Red to Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk v3 and Cybergeneration on the other hand both officially take place in alternate timelines. They are “what if?” scenarios. The Carbon Plague of Cybergeneration did occur in the 2020/Red/2077 timeline but was quickly contained. Cyberpunk Red takes place between the end of the 4th Corporate War (2022 or so) and 2077, Mike won’t tell us more there… only that it will fill the gaps betwenn 2020 and 2077, so it might be a game to explain how the world of Cyberpunk 2020 changed into the world presented in the video game.

That leaves the question of the artwork. For me, the artwork in Cyberpunk 2020 (I used the 2nd Edition with the Italian artwork) was very very important, very influencial to my playstile and one of the reasons I never liked Shadowrun much… But my trust in R. Talsorian has been shaken by Cyberpunk 3… Mike claims the artwork will up to “industry standards”, which is not much of a claim.

Still, I’m kind of excited… :)

(Source: https://rtalsoriangames.com/2019/05/30/the-cyberpunk-red-faq-as-of-5-30-19/ )

Banksy on Advertising

People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

A very cyberpunk attitude.

R. Talsorian to work on Cyberpunk 2020 again?

I don’t know much, since I wasn’t at Gencon 2017. But James Gray, who works for Fat Goblin Games, who licence Castle Falkenstein from R.Talsorian, writes:

Cyberpunk Red will be Cyberpunk 2020 1.5. Some small rule changes and an update to the technology so it makes more sense from a modern perspective (your real world cellphone shouldn’t be half the size of the cellphone your character uses in game. They’re hoping to release that within a year. A Cyberpunk 2077 put out to coincide with the video game is possible but there are currently no promises there.

(Source)

I kind of wonder… Will “Cyberpunk Red” just replace the core rulebook? Will all the sourcebooks checked, modified and reprinted (unlikely, I would guess). Will the game be able to have a comeback? In the sense of being a relevant near future game, I mean, not as a retro-future game. Will it even be played again?

And why would they put in the effort? Mike has the licence for the Witcher RPG. That has huge potential, if they are fast enough. The game has been out there quite a while now, and the buzz is fading. Why divert resources? Especially if they could probably reboot the franchise with the Cyberpunk ’77 computergame and have the rulebook on the shelves, when the crpg comes out?

You are being watched

The closed circuit camera in the top right corner is part of an online demostration against german laws which focus on digitally spying on its citizens – i.e. forcing the providers to hoard data like where your mobile phone logged in, what sites you surfed to, when you phoned, who you phoned, how long you phoned. It adresses my fellow Germans to protest against this spying.

NYPD: Spycopter

The New York Police Department (NYPD) got a new spying toy. A helicopter stuffed full of surveilance electronics with amazing (and frightening) capabilities:

  • looks like a civilian helicopter made by “Bell”
  • an arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment powerful enough to read license plates — or scan pedestrians’ faces — from high above New York
  • see-but-avoid-being-seen advantage
  • worth $10 million
  • high-powered robotic camera mounted on a turret projecting from its nose like a periscope
  • camera has infrared night-vision capabilities
  • a satellite navigation system allows police to automatically zoom in on a location by typing in the address on a computer keyboard
  • can beam live footage to police command centers or even to wireless hand-held devices

The NYPD got the expected reactions:

“From a privacy perspective, there’s always a concern that ‘New York’s Finest’ are spending millions of dollars to engage in peeping tom activities,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

And answered them the usual way:

Police insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear.

Yeah, right. Nothing to fear? If I want to be spied upon, I would move to North Corea. Yahoo tells us, that the NYPD plans to spend tens of millions of dollars strengthening security in the lower Manhattan business district with a network of closed-circuit television cameras and license-plate readers posted at bridges, tunnels and other entry points. We are sure they are only taping the “non-law-abiding New Yorkers”. That’s pretty much the usual stuff. The UK (who somehow misunderstood George Orwells 1984 and now seem to take it as an instruction manual) has all this. But now the Yahoo article starts to get surreal:

Police have also deployed hundreds of radiation monitors — some worn on belts like pagers, others mounted on cars and in helicopters — to detect dirty bombs.

And fantastic – did he read the R. Talsorian “Protect and Serve”?

[NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond] Kelly even envisions someday using futuristic “stationary airborne devices” similar to blimps to conduct reconnaissance and guard against chemical, biological and radiological threats.

Thanks to Don’t Tase Me, Bro! for pointing me to the Yahoo News Article. I remember a (bad) science fiction movie featuring a helicopter that could see into rooms with thermographs. Anybody remember the name?

Freedom is just another word for having nothing left to lose

Funny, for all surveillance, Osama bin Laden is still free — and we’re not. Guess who’s winning the “war on terror?” – Cory Doctorow

Today is “Dark Future Day”. Its scaring me. Check the news: As you probably know, everybody within the European Union has every use of a telecomincation device (mobile, computer) safed and made accessible by the government. Not the content of your conversion, but date, time, length, sender, receiver. Also logged: Every station your mobile phone registered with. That’s scary allready, but no longer a news. New is:

Cory is right. Osama bin Laden wins the fight agains Freedom. And we voted those who help him into power. I wonder if he can stop laughing at us?