A really fun comparison of some sample hacking/decking/netrunning runs in Shadowrun (1st, 4th, 5th), Cyberpunk (2020, RED), and a couple of systems I’m unfamiliar with.
It’s interesting to see the ludic philosophy for each system:
- Shadowrun seems to value stealth for deckers, meaning cybercombat only occurs when something goes wrong.
- Cyberpunk seems to expect netrunners to steamroll everything in the system they’re attacking.
I have a personal attachment to the Shadowrun style, and I’m trying to figure out how “sneaking” works in Cyberpunk RED. I think the short answer is it doesn’t, and I’ll have to figure out what an alarm means in this system and how it should be triggered.
Wow, this is detailed, good find!
The finding at the end of each run is interesting. I’ve found Cyberpunk RED netrunning to feel kind of meh (when GMing). Seeing the complexity that Shadowrun provides, and is still able to do runs in the same amount of real-world time, is eye opening.