From: adr9510@sigma.tamu.edu (Trapped in Aggieland)
Newsgroups: rec.games.cyber
Subject: Re: Shadowrun vs. Cyberpunk
Date: 7 Apr 92 03:38:42 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Archive-Name: rgc290

In article <1992Apr06.230418.5157@Veritas.COM>, fsmlw1@acad3.alaska.edu writes...
> 
>i am interested in knowing how close Shadowrun and Cyberpunk really are... I
>have played Shadowrun but have only heard of Cyberpunk... Are they basically
>the same game?? If anyone knows could you please either VMS me or post it here
>on the newsgroup... Thanks for you input in advance...

Once more into the fray:

Ok, right off the bat: it's damn hard to get killed in Shadowrun, wether you
compare this to reality (bwahahahahaha) or to the Cyberpunk system. Cyberpunk
tends to have nasty things happen, like 9mm handguns blowing ppls heads off with
an alarming rate. Kinda like real life...you just don't walk away from a well 
placed shot from a Beretta.

As far as Cyberware goes, there is also a huge philosophical difference in the
games. In CP2020 you start with an Empathy *stat*, similar to essance, but 
variable on a 1-10 scale depending on how many points you put into it. This
reflects how well you interact with the rest of the flesh and blood world
(i.e. Your local minister or school counselor would be a 8-10, and Son of Sam
would be a 1 or 2). 

When you add cyberware, you take off so many "humanity" points per peice. For
every ten (10) humanity points you lose, you have a -1 to your Empathy stat.
Thus, Son of Sam gets cyber eyes and hand razors, etc, and loses 2 Emp. This
takes him to ZERO or less, at which point he gos completely Cyberpsycho an 
becomes an NPC. (Usually, but not always blindly killing anything he can get
his hands on). So if you're gonna chrome out, it pays to get a high emp.

Finally, all is not lost. Since adding metal, ect. is more of a psychological
problem than a problem of "essance" loss, you can be helped. Thereapy lets you
recover humanity points (albeit slooooooowly in most cases) untill you're
back where you started (and you can always use experiecne to buy up your Emp
stat untill it reaches ten).

This is how you get German Imperial Troopers (FULL cyborgs) in CP2020. In shadow
run, anyone with that much metal (both arms, both legs, dermal 3, eyes, ears,
wired 3, and onboard weapons) would never leave the table.

Finally, metal in SRun is a lot more expensive than in CP2020 (although it ain't
cheap their either). But SRun makes up for it with the way Tech values are
assigned. In CP2020 the ammount of money you have to blow is dependant on how
"good" your character is in his professional skill. The skill system is so
totally different I won't even try an explanation at this point.

And, of course, they're no magic in Cyberpunk.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron D. Robb, aka The Philosopher   |	Disclaimer: Texas A&M stands staunchly
Somewhere at Texas A&M University    |	behind my every word. Really they do...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"By all means marry. If you have a good wife, you will be happy. If you have a
 bad wife, you will become a philosopher"
						-Socrates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------