I've brought this subject up in a couple of my posts, but gotten no real feedback. Therefore, I'm giving it it's own thread. Cyberpunk is dying (if not already expired) and something new is taking it's place. I'm not really sure what that is, but I don't want to see my favorite game die with it because it doesn't adapt. As far as I can tell, it is adapting; which is making the setting a little difficult for me to fully grasp (and therefore run a great game- as my past ones have been). The guys at Catalyst are doing a great job getting material out and Unwired is helping me to understand the wireless matrix and AR a lot better. I noticed from the age poll that I'm on the top endof the age range of most of the players (at 35), which may be part of my problem. I'll quote what I said in that thread:
"Another problem with attracting younger players is that cyberpunk is rooted in "Big Brother/NWO" (not the cheesy reality show/wrestling group), "Hackers" and "Terminator" style anti-technological fears/wonderment. Most of us grew up without the everpresent tech that exists even now. My daughter is 7 and frequently uses the computer at home (I never saw one until I was 10, and didn't have a PC - a Commodore Vic-20 at that- until I was 13; now that kind of computing power is smoked by a calculator or cellphone) and plays video games on the PS2 (I saw games only remotely comparable at the expensive arcades). She also knows how to use a cellphone better than I do, because her mom and grandma have always had them. The new edition of SR is moving away from cyberpunk because their isn't any real substance left for cyberpunk to draw from. In the US, we have privatized public services (my city just tried to lease out its sewers), security companies with their own SWAT teams (my brother worked for on in Toledo, OH 15 years ago), private armies (Blackwater, anyone?), wireless digital communication and computing practically everywhere, Megacorps (Chrysler, Disney, the german holding company that owns RJR-Nabisco and other large companies like it which I can't remember the name of, and that's just what I know about off the top of my head), a government that is rapidly decreasing our liberties "to insure our safety", and medical science making leaps and bounds in Biotech/Cybernetics/Robotics. All those fears/wonders are facts of everday life and hold no special "mystique" to draw a new player in.
I think in order to draw in the younger players, you need to stress the one thing about SR most of us have been brushing under the rug for years- the fact that a shadowrunner is a professional criminal/mercenary. Look at the popularity of "The Sopranos", the Mobsters Myspace App, and multiplayer FPS shooters. Give the players a chance to "stick it to the man", like most teens want to do instinctively. You also need to highlight the magic aspects of the setting, which is what seperated it from all the other (effectively dead) cyberpunk games."
Also the more gear-oriented nature of the new edition is a style change I'm having trouble with. Why drill holes in your head and yank out your eyes when sunglasses and a trode net can accomplish the same thing (I don't want to start another debate over this one, I'm just pointing it out becausee it couldn't be done in previous editions- and don't get me started on emotitoys)? It's changing the feel of the game for me and "I'm not positive I like that change.
I've been running and occasionally playing SR since it came out and own every sourcebook up through 3rd ed and about 1/2 of 4th (money crunch) as well as a handfull of adventures and frequently draw on them and past creations for inspiration while working out new stories for my players. For that reason I'm finding it difficult to figure out how to run a game "by the book", 400 BP just isn't enough to run the style of game I'm good at (too "street" for me), although the karmagen option does seem to build more suitable characters.
Advice? Opinions? Help...
J