This is Cyberpunk 2020, the softcover revision of the Cyberpunk rules, released in 1990.

Creator Mike Pondsmith figured out a lot about his game in the two years since Cyberpunk 2013. Everything is expanded and polished. The Lifepath system for creating a character backstory has more options. Everything fits together better. The world now feels real and plausible where in 2013 it seemed a bit indistinct. Night City gets more detail and there is a solid adventure that introduces a number of important figures in the Cyberpunk world.

I love the art here, even though a lot of it is kind of crummy (and much of it reprinted from the previous version). The best of it is clever riffs on Patrick Nagel’s style, except with sly references to technology and a lot more guns. There is a definite vibe of style over substance here.

There is a big wrinkle, though. Hacking has its own dedicated system which is…complex. 50+ pages complex. And those rules apply to only one character class, the netrunner, which creates a problem in terms of running games. It seems a shame to downplay or leave out the hacking, as it is a central part of Cyberpunk, but including it leaves non-netrunner characters sitting at the table with nothing to do while the hacking minigame takes place. Conversely, unlike deckers in Shadowrun, netrunner characters aren’t going to have a lot to do when not jacked into the net. The solution is to just split the party, but handling multiple action scenes is always a tricky juggling act for a gamemaster.  

That aside, Cyberpunk is a solid game set in a rich, well thought out world. You can see a lot of stuff getting worked out here that would eventually become a huge part of our language of urban science fiction. In that respect, I think Cyberpunk is extremely under appreciated.