Hi I need help in creating my own cyberpunk rpg world and setting, I may have mention this before but I could really use the help now the timeframe is that of shadowrun First ed, and the starting cities is Victoria\Vancouver metroplex former Canadian state of BC, right now I'm unsure should I have magic if so then it would be too much like Shadowrun. In this world the Native people still have the same problems that they have now but worse, also there are new tribes of Urban Primitives that are this settings anti tech group.



LW

You're obviously going to have a history between then and now. When does your history start? (Shadowrun's history starts in the late '90's, for instance. Does yours start modern day, in that modern technologies are all old in your game?)

There are a lot of basic questions you'll need to answer before anyone else can help. For instance, what sort of die mechanic do you want? Will you include magic? What sorts of magic? Are you going for classic Gibson CP or something more modern? What is the focus of your game, on runners? On people on the bottom? On rock bands? Why are you making a new system when several excellent systems already exist?

You could safely include magic as 'occult'-style activity, good, evil, neutral, whatever. It should fly so long as its kept rather minor or unknown, without copying Shadowrun. As long as you don't have half the population turning into elves or dragons flying around.

Alternatively, you could do away with magic but explore the idea of "psychic" phenomena as the full capabilities of the human mind begin to be explored. You could even tie this to aliens if you wanted to go with a flair completely different than Shadowrun - so long as those aliens never make an appearance anywhere, cause then you're basically back to elves and dragons again. The cultural implications of the rise in psychic activity could be staggering.

I could easily picture a world, for example, where there is no technology to "counter" psychics, and psychics are a minority group heavily persecuted by the Powers That Be. In fact, psychic potential itself might be illegal, leaving those with the ability forced to hide it if they can. Further, in such a world, any mental gift at all could be prosecuted along with the psychics... it might not pay to be a brilliant researcher or musician in such a world.

Just some thoughts.

Play around.

Have fun.