Creating a Cyberpunk Role Playing Campaign

Ideas on How to Write / Create Your Own Dystopic Fiction Setting

Jun 9, 2009

Cyberpunk is one of the most interesting and relevant science fiction subgenres, featuring a gritty noir feel that lurks behind every data jack or lively street corner.

As a genre, Cyberpunk owes a great deal to the 1980's, when films such as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and anime sensation Akira were released to theatres, gaining popularity amongst the general public alongside such literary narratives as William Gibson's Neuromancer and the creation of FASA's Shadowrun universe.

A subgenre steeped in gritty, dark tales that surround man's fascination with technology, electronics, drugs, violence, and crime emerged as a cohesive canon that still exists today both in film, literature, and other mediums of art and expression.

Creating the Cyberpunk Mood, Understanding Context and Atmosphere

Cyberpunk by definition is a counter cultural setting that often features a conflict between authority and individualism, corporatism versus anarcho-syndicalism, communism or socialism, and a great degree of blatant class warfare. This ambiance of adversarial conflict between so many factions of society that are concurrently interconnected due to the omnipresence of high technology and the internet (in one form or another) leads to a great deal of possibility for intrigue, deception, and metaphysical warfare beyond the confines of the corporeal.

Simply put, Cyberpunk is a great foundation for stories of rebellion and uprising, or conversely of oppression and suppression of criminal elements (if the narrative is built around the characters being of the corporatist or authoritarian persuasion).

Not only does the technological facet of the canon allow for a great deal of free form roleplaying – that is, so much more is possible in the digital world that may not be feasible in standard science fiction or fantasy stories set in the modern or ancient world – but the charged and intricate sociopolitical atmosphere afforded to cyberpunk narratives allows for a wonderful and intelligent plot progression.

When writing a cyberpunk scenario or campaign it is important to constantly remind the player characters of the threat of detection, summary execution or incarceration, random and wanton violence at the street level and online, and the endless possibilities of the black market and independant contractors. Nothing is to be taken at face value in one of the most violent and anarchical play settings available to roleplaying enthusiasts and this provides a virtually perfect launchpad for creating a truly immersive custom campaign.

Considering Technology, Gimmicks, and Gadgets

A large part of the subconscious narrative within the cyberpunk framework is a humanistic examination of what it really means to be human, and the impact that technology is already having, and might have, on our lives. This means that advanced technology, interesting gadgets, and cybernetic gimmicks or implants are normally commonplace. Bionic limbs, mechanical eyes and sensory implants as well as cerebral enhancement to raise intelligence or reflexes are very common tropes within the cyberpunk community.

Consider using this technology not only in the most obvious of places (ie. items and implants offered to your player characters as well as your antagonists) but also part of the atmosphere and plot progression.

A brief but useful example might be a campaign that begins in the midst of the black market within a poor metropolis, the player characters being scavengers that are looking for work to keep themselves supplied with food and ammunition. Several local chop shops might be looking for fresh organs, other arms dealers might want some guns to stock their kiosks, or a late night bar might want a little extra hired muscle for the metal show that's the talk of the town this evening.

These starter plots can be perfect launchpads for a larger epic, while still maintaining a ground level feel that is appropriate for low level characters and intriguing in that they provide a great deal of choice and an emphasis on role-playing and non-combat skills.

Cyberpunk affords a great campaign or scenario setting for players and game masters alike who prefer a visceral, raw science fiction atmosphere that allows for a great degree of moral interpretation and ambiguity coupled with advanced technology and combat. Experimenting within the genre not only leads to an examination of the impact that technology and electronics have on the nature of our lives but also on the formation and structure of our current and future societies.

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The copyright of the article Creating a Cyberpunk Role Playing Campaign in Writing Genre Fiction is owned by Nicholas Morine. Permission to republish Creating a Cyberpunk Role Playing Campaign in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.