Old-School Cyberpunk (and Nostalgia)

For some years now I have been rally into Cyberpunk-genre gaming, mostly out of '80s and '90s nostalgia.

I grew-up in the '80s, will all the cheesy cartoons, comic books, and blood-n-boob filled action & horror films that came with it. On top of that, being from the San Fransisco Bay Area, I was exposed to the Puck scene, the Hip-Hop scene, sci-fi/fantasy/comic/RPG conventions, and bootleg "Japanimation" more-or-less at once. It was neat, but I was mostly in the background as a child too young to really understand a lot of it.

I started to come in to my own as a young teen in the '90s. By then, I was into heavy metal, discovering a lot of legally made "dubbed" anime (before then, you had to rely on bootlegs having subtitles or own a magazine that lists the translations) that came of the OVA video market, and I was running my own D&D games. The '90s anime market had a wide range of genre, but the one that really stood out was cyberpunk, with titles like Akira, Appleseed, Battle Angel Alita, Bubblegum Crisis, Ghost in the Shell, etc. (Much of it was inspired by American films from the '80s) Back in the '90s, I mostly played D&D, Battletech, 1e Gamma World. My first exposure to cyberpunk gaming was Shadowrun (2e). It was classic cyberpunk mixed with fantasy elements. I never liked that combination. By the time I discovered SR, the Tolkien elements of fantasy — elves, orcs, overly-useful magic, etc. — was wearing thin on me. All I wanted was a pure cyberpunk game and I was unaware of Cyberpunk 2020 or ICE's Cyberspace. It felt like everyone was playing 2e AD&D, Shadowrun or Vampire, without much variation.

I finally discovered Cyberpunk 2020 in the mid-2000s. The site that really got me to looking into CP2020 is an old site called Datafortress 2020 by Deric "Wisdom000" Bernier. It is a great resource of CP2020 that helps expand upon the setting, often using anime and images found across the internet.

With Cyberpunk 2020, I found the rules to be... well... Dull. In a nutshell, it was basically "Roll a d10, add relevant attribute, skill and any other adjustment vs a static Target Number." With rules, I want something with more pizazz with the game mechanics, as well as a focus on actual role-playing. On top of that, it also had a "Humanity Cost" for getting fitted with cybernetics, with the ultimate cost being Cyberpsychosis: A mental infliction that turns a character into ether an emotionless introvert who balls-up in the corner and withers away, or a mindless berserker that must murder-fuck EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING!!! I was never a fan of this rule. I see it as a cheap game-balance mechanic to limit the amount of cybernetic a character have at one time. To me, the best limitation to what you can have installed is power and maintenance. That is, some of the more powerful cybernetics would require a lot of power. You might have to use some of the internal areas of a cyber-limb to mount batteries, while a whole cyborg body would require portable motor! Maintenance goes without saying. Its silly to think that you get your right arm replaced and it would stay as good as a natural arm: A cyberarm cannot mend its own cuts and brakes, and you still have to keep it oiled and what have you. If anything, you should be able to mount any number of cosmetic, superficial cyberwear, like any fashionwear, sensory-enchantments, the Mr. Studd™ sexual implant (yes, this is a thing), Skinweave, etc. After all, being able to go "full cyborg" should be an achievement into itself, and not something that is relegated to a murderous corporate attack-dog.

And yet, I still really like it! The game gets "Cyberpunk" right! The chrome, the fashion, the scene, the punk! You can never downplay the fashion or the "punk" enough. Its high-tech lowlife adventure! Cyberpunk took a lot form other fiction and it is better for it. You'll find a lot of great content with it its rulebook and supplements. The art is great. Although, its a shame that is mostly black & white (the cyberpunk future is best viewed in that punk-n-blue neon-back-lit "bisexual lighting"), and a number of the more risqué artwork found in the French language editions was altered or expunged from the English edition, which is a big no-no, as cyberpunk is supposed be erotic. Another great part of CP2020 is that due to people getting disenfranchised by the mega-corporations (aka, the only employers in town), they avoided becoming homeless rats in the urban war-zones by coming free-roving families called the Nomads. Beyond "The Sprawl" of the big cities, fly-over country is an endless landscape of dead farmlands, suburban ruins, old decayed roads, lawless gangs of bloodthirsty raiders, the Nomads trying to survive in the wild countrysides of North America. Basically, Cyberpunk 2020 goes into Mad Max territory.

In this game, you can freely sample classic cyberpunk novels, '80s sci-fi action films, '90s cyberpunk anime, post-apocalyptic biker films, and even the stranger cyberpunk films of the '90s. You can watch Bladerunner, Freejack, and Crime Zone for the urban backdrop, Robocop (1 & 2) for the corporate backdrop and corporate-controlled media, Mad Max (The Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, and any number of their imitators) for the Nomad communities, Liquid Sky (and Patrick Nagel's art, and Jem and the Holograms) for the fashion, '80s punk for the rebel Rockboy scene, Hackers for Netrunner scene, Strange Days for the directive stories, and so much more!

Mind you, I'm still not a fan of the rules, and I will use a system that will strike my fancy. In the past I'd use Dream Pod-9's Silhouette system. Right now, its something more cobbled together from a number of different rule systems. I will ape content from Shadowrun, Cyberspace and any other cyberpunk game I can find. I find the Cyberpunk 2020 setting to be easy and available.

Unsurprisingly, Cyberpunk 2020 is going to see new life with the upcoming video game Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt RED and tabletop RPG Cyberpunk Red by R.Talsorian Games. Here is the tailer for the video game:

Battles of the Mechacyberoids

Battles of the Mechacyberoids is a setting that I just came up with. Years ago, at the old (now defunct) Goblinoid Games forum, we were fooling around with the character generation system used in Mini-Six during its beta-testing stage. We were making stats for all sorts of characters, established and original. Among them, I managed to make stats for some of the Gen-1 Transformers, namely Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream. One of the key things with this was the use of scale. In the rules, scale determines size and firepower (and the resistance there of). Bumblebee had the smallest scale in any form, while everyone else were huge in size. Although, the rules did not cover scale in chargen, it was a neat gimmick. After that, I have been thinking about a Transformer-inspired that was different enough to be its own thing. Only until now, did it hit me...

This setting is a cross between super sentai fiction (think Voltron and Power Rangers) and cartoons with giant transformable robots (Transformers; Go-Bots), with some magical girl transformations (Cutie Honey; Sailor Moon). I wanted to make a setting about giant transformable robots, but to do so, without being reliant on human sidekicks — such characters, often teenagers, were used as intermediates between the young viewers, and the strange alien robots. I wanted the action to jump between human-scale and mecha/vehicle-scale without having to change characters. One of the key ideas came from Transformers: Headmasters; a strange take on later Gen-1 Transformers, where alien humans had the idea of turning Cybertronian heads into transformable exo-suits, allowing humans to serve as a supporting brain, while leaving the Cybertronian in alt-mode (vehicle mode) when not together. I just dropped the human partner, and made it so that the giant robot can detach its own head in order to transform into an artificial human. "Mechacyberoids" is a working title, but it is based on the long-winded titles found in a lot of old '70s-'80s giant robot anime.

In this setting, some alien cyborg drones called the Mechacyberoids, who in their natural state, resemble giant robotic bugs, found their way on earth in the late '70s to early '80s. They were on a mission by their master, the dreaded Cybergorgon, to secure an artifact (a blue gowning dodecahedron) that is believed to had fell on earth. While there, they discovered a strange form of life that could threaten the mission. Initially, they though the machines and cities were a living hive collective. Without a means to communicate, first contact was not pretty. They damaged cities, killed bystanders and had a deadly conflict with the US military. To understand the treat better, they took on new forms. Initially, they formed into vehicles and moved aimless round cities and highways. On further examination, it was revealed that smaller beings that called themselves "humanity" were in control. From there on, they separated their own heads form their bodies, and human form...

After years of close contact, the Mechacyberoids began to understand humanity better and became enamored with human idols and culture. They exist in two bodies: a human form; and a telepathically-linked vehicle. Their human body is mechanical, covered by life-like holographic skin. They have the ability to pull out weapons and tools from out of nowhere, and to transform into "soldier mode." The transformation is vary much like Cutie Honey, and when done, they are in a cool outfit, covered in armor plating and assessors (HUD-set, hover-feet, jet packs, bunny-ear antenna, utility belt, etc.). Their vehicular body can change into "battle mode", where weapons and other equipment (wings, ram-plates, grapple arms, etc.) fold out of the body. The transformation is vary much like M.A.S.K. When the threat gets too big, they can transform their vehicle bodies into "robot mode", jump onto the torso to transform their human body into the giant robot's head. Their giant robot bodies resemble the classic Transformers. Their giant robot bodies are build and armed for battle. Unlike Transformers, their vehicle forms are not fixed to one type of vehicle, but change their alt-mode takes time to scan and reconfigure. And also unlike Transformers (which never had any concept of scale), they are bound by their default size.

They can also combine freely, creating "Gestalt" (aka Combiner) forms form nearly all combinations of fully-formed giant robot Mechacyberoids. A Gestalt form increases the size and power by the number of Mechacyberoids formed into it. The only problem is that all the joined Mechacyberoids form a telepathic link, and they all need to be unified in thought and action in order to function. Normally, in the past, Mechacyberoid drones could work freely in this mode in great numbers, but the differing identities that came with human contact, had made this a difficult feat. (This is vary much like Fusion in Steven Universe, but more mechanical.)

These earth-bound Mechacyberoids pass off as normal people, living one human lifestyle or another. Although, unable to start families, they do engage in human relationships. They have no sense of gender or sexuality, but they have embraced such concepts and take on these identities as part of their "human role." They have two names: A "human name" that is part of their human identity; and their "true name" that would sound like a strange nickname to most people, but is the name chosen, and used with each other, that reflect their unique identity or dispossession. For example, a transformable dump truck was named Granite, as "he" is a stubborn oaf who throws his weight around, without an ounce of grace. As a human, his false identity is Arnold James Bolton, a construction worker from Mechanicsburg, Ohio. Despite their attempts as being as human as possible, they tend to exaggerate what is expected of them in their human roles based on what they see in media. For example, a Mechacyberoid living as a normal husbands, might emulate a fictional husband from an old TV sitcom (smoking jacket, penny loafers, and all). A Mechacyberoid who wants to "protect and serve" might join a local police department and act out a fictional TV/movie cop (short fuse, over-sized pistol and all), or dress in a loud outfit and fight crime as a costumed vigilantly (cape, tights and all).

As enamored they are with human ways, they all know that if Cybergorgon finds the earth, he will consume it, turn it into a dead planet. He would also see any free-thinking Mechacyberoid as an abomination that would infect other Mechacyberoids with its corruption, and thus destroy any humanoid Mechacyberoids. And if he gets the artifact, he would become an unstoppable force in the cosmoses. As such, there are four factions with the earth-bound Mechacyberoids: The Guardians; The Renegades; The Rogues; and The Loyalists. (all are working titles)

The Guardians were founded by a noble leader who dreams of a future were humans and Mechacyberoids live together in harmony. Their primary goal is to keep the earth a secret form Cybergorgon, and to keep the artifact from him. They also seek to defend the earth, when Cybergorgon's forces come looking for answers.

The Renegades are ruled be a power-hungry despot, who wants to secure the artifact, in order to defeat Cybergorgon and take his place as the master of the galaxy. Followers are drawn be the more proactive defense against Cybergorgon, and are more willing to sacrifice the earth and its people, if need be. They look down at humans for being weak on all levels. As the Guardians and Renegades cannot see eye-to-eye on most things, they are always at conflict with each other.

The Rogues are, for the most part, self-indulgent hedonists. They do want to keep earth a secret, but they do not want to engage in outright rebellion. They would rather lay low and hope Cybergorgon forgets about them. They have no leader or unified ideals. They mostly operate as gangs. They make up the majority of Mechacyberoids on earth.

The Loyalists want to continue the mission and hopes that Cybergorgon would forgive them for the delay. As they are seen as a threat all other factions, they operate in secret, trying to rebuild the communication network damaged by Guardians and Renegades forces. They have no regard for humans. Thankfully, they are few in number.

Cybergorgon resembles a large spaceship with three mechanical dragon heads, each mounted on a long articulated "Doc Ock" styled neck. Without any human contact, he has not concept of empathy or free agency. As he built this Mechacyberoid as semi-autonomous tools, he expect all his drones to serve him, and sacrifice themselves, if need be, without hesitation.

So far, it is a premise with a lot of room to build upon. I have no idea when I'll make a sourcebook for this, and I want to stock it with some key players and items. As this is new, I'm still coming up with new ideas, and even this basic premise would likely face revision.

Reflections of an Old-School Otaku

Anime... A collective of animation that had achieved such mainstream success it is now a catch-all category to anything that even emulates its style, regardless of its origins, even if its its a cheap cash-grab made by people who see the medium as profitable to exploit, without any understanding or respect for what they are emulating.

The mainstream success can largely be contributed to a cartoon lineup called Toonami on Cartoon Network. In 1997, Toonami was an afternoon showcase of western cartoons and some anime thrown in. If you wanted less-edited anime (that was toned down to PG-13 violence, with mild cussing and nothing too risqué), you watch their midnight run. Beyond shows like Gundam Wing and Big-O, one of the most approachable anime aired was Cowboy Bebop. Cowboy Bebop tanked in Japan, but it was a huge success in North America, with it's recognizable archetypes and pop culture references (most episodes were a nod to some American movie, and show titles based on music and album titles). This was when most adult anime fans of today first got their feet wet with the hobby. To an anime historian, Cowboy Bebop is a milestone, with BCB (Before Cowboy Bebop) and ACB (After Cowboy Bebop) used by some of the younger fans. Since then, there have been a number of TV outlets for anime, and even dedicated Netflix-styled subscription-based net-channels like CrunchyRoll.

Before this mainstream success, Japaneses anime had different name — Japanimation — and it was a whole other hobby, with a whole other fan-following. In the years BCB, the hobby was so obscure, mainstream culture had yet to find any real labels or stereotypes placed on the medium or fanship, much less be on their radar, and finding anything or anyone within the hobby was like a grand quest to find The Fabled Legendary Treasure of Epic Legends that would supposedly make you wet yourself over its greatness! Mind you, there was no internet — or what we know as in internet — so we had to brave our greatest enemy: that blinding ball of light that appears in that big blue room the inhabitants call "The Great Outdoors." Braving horrible skin-blisters and possible permanent blindness, we old-school otaku (for a lack of a better name, as we just called ourselves "fans") set forth seeking others like ourselves in darken holes called "Comic Book Shops," and grand pilgrimages to massive gathering halls called "Conventions." There, we meet new people, talk about our interests, and establish networks to help acquire the items we quest for, namely bootlegs. Before the the early-to-mid-'90s, were you could find OVAs (made-for-home-video movies or mini-series) in the "special interest" isles of video rental stores, we had to find and buy them through underground networks of pirated videos.

How this worked, was that sailors who worked in the US Navy and US Coast Guard would be stationed in Japan for a time, were they setup VCRs in their barracks to recorded shows that aired on Japanese television. Thankfully, the Betamax was a highly popular recording system in Japan, as it produce higher quality video than the VHS — unfortunately, that was the standard system in the US. So, when the sailors come home, they sell their tapes to people who would use those tapes as master copes for a massive collection of bootlegs. They would duplicate the shit out of the master copy, and then those copes would be further and further duplicated into granny-as-shit copes. This is a lot like the first "wood-grain box" edition of OD&D, where only one-hundred copes of D&D were published so far, and sold out quickly, so most people had to contend with granny multi-generation Xerox copes of the rules until TSR were able to get more copes to market. They also used video equipment to add translated subtitles (of differing quality) in an old video font that would become harder and harder to read with each new generation. Those bootlegs would then get distributed in conventions, and were sold as "behind the counter merchandise" at comic book shops, where they were not advertised to the general public (they were technically illegal contraband). Although, fans know when a comic book shop sold bootlegs and other anime merchandise (typically toys and model kits), as they would have posters of anime series and characters covering the front widows alongside more iconic scifi characters and comic book superheroes. As a kid, there was no better sight then a storefront with posters and cardboard standies of Captain Harlock, Astroboy and obscure fighting robots standing shoulder-to-shoulder to the likes of Capt. Kirk, Boba Fett, Wolverine, and Superman! (There was also Doctor Who, but I did not know who he was until I was much older.)

In those days, D&D, comic books and Japanimation often gone hand-in-hand. You not just found bootlegs and rare collectibles at comic book shops; people used to hangout in the backroom to play role-playing games. It got nerds out of their dungeons and meet fellow nerds; to play fun games, and watch "cartoons" the FCC and whinny, uptight parent groups would never allow on television. Yeah, one of the big appeals with anime is how ultra violent they can be, and the fact that they casually show T&A in programs targeted at children, but the truth is, you can see all that in R-Rated movies that fulled theaters in the '80s. But where Hollywood spends millions to produce scifi/fantasy spectaculars, animation can produce more of the same results, and have room to explore characters, concepts and settings, while taking greater risks, like mixing genres. For example, Leiji Matsumoto (of Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers), Captain Harlock, and Galaxy Express 999 fame) likes to take mythologies and fairylands, and craft them into grand space epics with normal Earth-bound vehicles (sailing ships, steam trains, etc.) made into spaceships. While watching the series, you are pulled more and more into his worlds, full of memorable characters. His works are imaginative, beautiful, and make for great settings to role-play in. To me, he was Miyazaki, before Miyazaki.

Well, that was my experience as a kid in the '80s. With a Navel base, a Coast Guard base, lots of comic book shops, conventions that felt like monthly events, and two nerdy parents, there was a lot going on in the San Fransisco bay area for anime fans like myself. In the '90s, there was a growing market of OVAs that was a big thing for me. Yeah, much of the videos were mindless schlock, but I loved them no less. There were some great titles, like Akura, Ghost in the Shell, and Macross Plus. There was a also steady flood of localized anime like Robotech, Technoman Blade, Ronin Warriors, Samuri Pizza Cats (surprising funny, if you're old enough to get the jokes), and Dragonball (DBZ sucked balls, but the original series was great in the same way as the works of Matsumoto, as above). In the mid-or late-'90s, a PBS station in San Jose played uncut anime (subbed and dubbed) like Urusei Yatsura, Evangelion, Key the Metal Idol, alongside great British scifi like Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and Red Dwarf. The level of nerdity was off the charts!! Then there was Toonami in the late '90s that showcased a ton of anime, Anime Unleashed on G4 in '03, were found Last Exile and Serial Experiments Lain, AZN Television/International Channel was were I discovered Armored Trooper Votoms and The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, and now... Well, I dont have cable anymore ($90+/month for fucking basic! Are they out of their fucking minds!?) Now there are all sorts of options. Yeah, I have Netflix and Hulu, but their stocks are limited. I quickly found out that there are quite a number of subscription-free sites were I can see almost any anime I want!

Goddamn, video streaming would have been pure fantasy as a kid! If I had this option as a kid, I would likely missed out on great shows like Pirates of Darkwater, Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates (that cartoon was strangely dark), Batman the Animated Series (best of the '90s), Animaniacs, Disney Afternoon and so on, as I would be too caught-up with all the edgy Japanese stuff, while dismissing the aforementioned stuff as safe, happy "cartoons." Don't get me wrong, as a kid, I loved all kind of animation, but back then, Japanimation used to be a bitch find, so you appreciated whatever you could get your hands on, regardless if its good or not. They were was so culturally obscure, it made you feel special, and with the adult content; a little rebellious. Because of all that, it felt like all anime was superior. And with that mentality, I had an elitist attitude about it, which I grew out of as I matured, as I learned that many titles I mindlessly advocated were just plain shit, while I have been too dismissive with western titles for their lack of mature content. Plus, I learned that "mature content" does not always mean it actually "mature." For example, as a kid, I was annoyed to learn that Voltron was heavily edited form the original series do to heavy violence. I was annoyed by how grown-ups changed a good show to make it more "kid friendly," despite seeing violence all the time in movies. But getting the chance to see the original GoLion series (the original title) as an adult, I was annoyed by how overly violent the show was. Basically, it was going form one extreme to another. The level of violence and brutality on display undermined all the drama, tragedy and pathos the characters are going through, and the bad guys are even more cartoonishly evil then its western counterpart! Had they tone down the violence to PG-13 levels and rewrote Prince Sincline/Lotor as a more sympathetic and misguided character, then Voltron could have been a more superior program to GoLion as far as storytelling and character depth. If they are going to make changes for the sake of a western audience, then do it right!

Nowadays, I have the luxury to be choosy with what anime I want to be invested in, to were I can better avoid dead end shit like Bleach and Inuyasha. There is such a glut of titles available to me, I can't sort though them all! I really want to find great titles, but most of them have the mentality of people who never grew past high-school — nothing but angsty-ass teens and overly-sexualized junior high-age girls! Plus, they also have to compete with some great western shows I have been caught-up with. The current is Steven Universe, which is a surprisingly deep and brilliant show, with a lot of pathos, that takes me back to why I really love shows Captain Harlock and Dragonball so much. And, if I want a truly weird and obscure collective of animation make me feel cool and special, I'll go headlong into European animation... hum...? Euro-may?

Western cartoons... Japaneses/Koren anime... European animation... Its all good!