Cybergeneration

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Cybergeneration
Cover of Cybergeneration rulebook, 2nd edition
Designer	Mike Pondsmith
Publisher	R. Talsorian Games Firestorm Ink
Publication date	1993 (1st edition) 1995 (2nd edition)
Genre(s)	Cyberpunk Science fiction Superhero
System	Interlock System

Cybergeneration is a follow-up to the R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game. Cybergeneration was originally published as a supplement for Cyberpunk, but later re-released as a fully featured game in its own right. It is set in the year 2027, 7 years after the events in Cyberpunk 2020 and is considered an "alternate" universe from the official sequel to that game, Cyberpunk V3.^{[citation needed]}

The game is currently licensed out to Firestorm Ink, under Jonathan Lavallee.

1 Overview
2 Background
- 2.1 The CyberEvolved
3 External links

[edit] Overview

In terms of tone, Cybergeneration differs from its predecessor somewhat, as the player characters take the part of nanotech-enhanced youngsters in an oppressive world ruled by adults who fear and seek to control them. The special powers of the CyberEvolved children give the game a definite superhero flavor.

[edit] Background

The backstory revolves around the "Fox Run" incident of 2025, in which a transport of supposed scientific equipment crashed and accidentally released a weaponized nano-virus called the "Carbon Plague".

Adult humans infected by it died horribly after the virus rewrote the victims' genetic code and warped their bodies. However, the virus had a different effect on children and teenagers. Since they haven't fully matured, it altered their bodies, and granted them nanotech-enhanced powers, and made them immune carriers if they survived the illness. Society dramatically fears the capabilities of these "CyberEvolved" children, which drives them underground.

The oppressive mega-corporation Arasaka manages to dominate the US Government and gets its candidate David Wyndham elected President of the new Incorporated States of America (ISA). Its lassez-faire government works with the corporations directly, becoming their puppet. The "Bureau of Relocation" (BuReloc) is a paramilitary force that runs prison camps for "unproductive" citizens and hunts down the CyberKids.

Multiple groups oppose, fear, and hunt the CyberKids, but one group stands out as protectors: the Edgerunners of old. The sourcebook describes them as wiser, more experienced and, ultimately rebels-without-a-cause no more (Cybergeneration offers the rules to convert old Cyberpunk 2020 characters into adults for the CyberGeneration setting).

To oppose this oppressive dictatorship, several major "Edgerunner" non-player characters run the Eden Cabal, a revolutionary movement that seeks to overthrow the ISA and BuReloc.

[edit] The CyberEvolved

So called "CyberEvolved" children fit in one of several archetypes and see their powers fall in one of five categories (supplemental source books would later add more):

Alchemist - Can reshape matter at molecular level.
Bolter - Can project bolts of electricity at a target.
Scanner - Can sense the brainwave patterns of others, allowing for telepathic-like abilities.
Tinman - Limbs shape into tentacles, weapons, and can extend. "Natural" body armor.
Wizard - Augmented Virtual Net hacking powers.