Although cyberpunk is a beloved genre, it does tend to be a bit more obscure than some other nerdy labels these days. There’s been a recent resurgence in the genre thanks to things like Blade Runner 2049, Netflix’s Arcane series (to extents), and the aptly named game Cyberpunk 2077, but as fans of all things nerdy, we thought our readers might want to check out some of the original cyberpunk sources to help them get a better sense of a cool world they might be missing out on.
Blade Runner Helped Form the Vision of Cyberpunk
What began as an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep became something else entirely in the hands of Ridley Scott in this 1982 film. Scott drew heavily on noir influences for this sci-fi tale of a bounty hunter tracking down escaped robots on Earth. Deckard’s case takes him into the rarefied air of corporate scions and the rain-slicked streets where real animals no longer exist. It also ends on an ambiguous note that fans and filmmakers have argued for decades. The sequel still leaves the question unanswered, but provided even more glimpses into a future world filled with wonder and with despair.
When most people hear the word cyberpunk, the image they form in their mind is likely one from this film, like a beat-up car flying through a futuristic skyline or the bright neon signage of a dingy street where Deckard chases his prey.
Neuromancer Is a Seminal Text for the Genre
This 1984 novel by William Gibson was where many of the tropes of cyberpunks found their origins. It highlighted the clash between the high-tech elements of the future and the low-life members of society’s fringe that are used by the powerful to get their dirty work done. Elements of the setting had come from Gibson short stories like Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome, but this collects everything together in a heist that involved cybernetically enhanced assassins and brain hacking computer experts that influenced two of the largest tabletop games of the 80s. Some folks think that Neuromancer influenced Blade Runner or vice-versa, but as often is he case it was the same influences working on creators in different ways.
Neuromancer heavily influenced the tabletop games that claimed to be part of the cyberpunk genre, primarily through the central conceit of rogue outcasts of society banding together to steal something from the corporations that rule everything. Apple TV+ will soon bring to life a Neuromancer live-action series, exciting news for cyberpunk fans.
Cyberpunk Speaks for Itself
R. Talsorian Games released groundbreaking RPG in 1988. It was inspired primarily by Hardwired, a Walter Jon Williams novel that mixed in a dash of post-apocalyptic surroundings to the glamorously gritty cities of cyberpunk. The game focused on the same heist structure used in Neuromancer to allow players to go on adventures without worrying about alignment or heroics like other RPGs. If this name sounds familiar to video game fans, that’s because this is the setting and system the CD Projekt video game is using for its first-person RPG Cyberpunk 2077.
This game influenced a lot of the good and bad tropes that are part of cyberpunk tales, such as the focus on cool guns and gadgets used by the main characters to the idea that too much cyberware makes a person cold or emotionless.
Shadowrun Is Not to be Missed
This 1989 game was one of the first of many to blend cyberpunk with other genres. In addition to a dark future setting, Shadowrun adds in the return of magic, allowing teams of “shadowrunners” to include orks and wizards as part of their teams that can be hired to do dirty deeds cheap. The tabletop game continues to be published today and HareBrained Schemes has created a trilogy of excellent console RPGs that deliver the interesting details of this unique world to new players all the time.
Shadowrun brought cyberpunk full-circle by mixing in elements of D&D fantasy into the genre. It was also the first of many “kitchen sink” games that mashed up genres in tabletop roleplaying, inspiring such games such as RIFTS, TORG, and Deadlands.
This is by no means an exhaustive discussion of the genre. We expect to see some great suggestions for cyberpunk books, movies, games in the comments on social media. But everyone has to start somewhere, and these choices should put anyone in the mood for some more stories in the cyberpunk world.
Check out Callisto 6!
Join GM Eric Campbell and players Amy Dallen, Aliza Pearl, Bonnie Gordon, Sam deLeve, Hector Navarro, and Gina DeVivio on Callisto 6, a cyberpunk-set actual-play RPG show!
Images Credits: Warner Bros., Wikipedia, R. Talsorian, Topps
Originally published on September 7, 2018
Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. He’s worked on dozens of different tabletop games ranging from Star Wars and Firefly to his own creations like CAMELOT Trigger. He can be hired as a professional Dungeon Master for in-person or remote games. You can watch him livestream RPGs with the Theatre of the Mind Players here. His meat body can be found in scenic Milwaukee, WI.