Cyberpunk 2077: Potential Similarities With Its Tabletop Predecessor

Cyberpunk 2077: Potential Similarities With Its Tabletop Predecessor
Credit: CD PROJEKT RED via Youtube

The upcoming title Cyberpunk 2077 has been scheduled to release in April of 2020, giving fans plenty of time to speculate on what the talented team over at CD Projekt Red will choose to include in the final product.

Luckily we do have some insight on this, as Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a tabletop roleplaying game called Cyberpunk 2020 from the ’80s. The main writer of the Cyberpunk series, Mike Pondsmith, has been brought on as a consultant for the video game version. Pondsmith has also stated the game features many “cross-pollination” elements from its tabletop predecessor.

So what elements are for sure coming from the tabletop game to Cyberpunk 2077? For starters, we have already been introduced to the setting. Night City is a dark and gritty urban environment, full of plenty of seedy places for our characters to get into trouble.

Megacorporations rule and are some of the most powerful organizations in the tabletop version, and this is likely to make a return. The game is already confirmed to be set after the fourth Corporate war. These corporations are numerous and diverse, and some are references to real life companies such as Microtech and Euro Business Machines (representing Microsoft and IBM respectively.)

Continuing with the theme of factions, different gangs will more than likely play a heavy role based on the cinematics. The tabletop version hosted a variety of creative gangs, ranging from Prankster Gangs who commit typically benign pranks to Posergangs who employ “biosculpting” to emulate their favorite celebrity.

Drugs also featured heavily in Cyberpunk 2020, and we have seen in the trailer they will be appearing in some capacity in the final product. Drugs in the original came with devastating permanent consequences to the player characters, so hopefully, the developers will tone that down for the upcoming title. From what we have seen so far, it seems drug use will appear similar to how it was used in the Fallout series.

The tabletop game was based off of skill progression rather than leveling, and it seems the game version has taken notes. There are several different branches of skills for progression, with players having the freedom to mix and match as they see fit.

As for the actual stats, these are lifted directly out of Cyberpunk 2020. These stats are Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Reflexes, Tech, and Cool. Most are fairly self-explanatory, while Cool, in this case, reflects mostly how cool your character can keep under pressure. Several stats from the original did not seem to appear in Cyberpunk 2077, including Luck, Attract, Movement, Empathy, and Body Type.

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