Trisha Shetty (Editor)

GURPS Cyberpunk

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Goodreads

Publication date
  
1990

Originally published
  
1990

Genre
  
Cyberpunk

Editor
  
Steve Jackson

4/5
RPGnet

Designer(s)
  
Loyd Blankenship

System(s)
  
GURPS 3

Author
  
Loyd Blankenship

Publisher
  
Steve Jackson Games

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Similar
  
Cyberpunk books, Game books

GURPS Cyberpunk is a genre toolkit for cyberpunk-themed role-playing games set in a near-future dystopia, such as that envisioned by William Gibson in his influential novel Neuromancer. It was published in 1990 after a significant delay caused by the original draft being a primary piece of evidence in Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service.

Contents

In 1993, GURPS Cyberpunk Adventures — a collection of three RPG scenarios in the GURPS Cyberpunk line — won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1992.

Contents

Besides the main chapters detailed below, GURPS Cyberpunk contains a glossary of common cyberpunk terms, an index, and a bibliography of relevant media.

Characters 
This chapter describes some of the most common character archetypes (netrunner, corp(orate), cop, celebrity, etc.) and their typical skills, advantages, and disadvantages. It also provides a guideline about how much money a given job might bring or cost.
Cyberwear 
Rules for and descriptions of bionic enhancements.
Technology & Equipment 
Lists many sorts of near-future gadgets.
Netrunning 
The longest in the book, it details rules for realistic computer networks as well as fantastic cyberspaces accessible only through a neural interface. It describes what types of system can be found in the Net and how the characters can act (and fight) there.
World Design 
Gives guidelines for designing your own cyberpunk world.
Campaigning 
Helps the Gamemaster in running a longer series of adventures.

"The book that was seized by the U.S. Secret Service"

Loyd Blankenship, who was hired by Steve Jackson Games in 1989, was close to finishing GURPS Cyberpunk later that year, which was intended both to get SJG into the cyberpunk genre which had been popular in the RPG industry for the last two years, and to help SJG get over a financial hurdle and back into the black.

GURPS Cyberpunk received notoriety when the Austin headquarters of Steve Jackson Games was raided by the U.S. Secret Service in 1990. The authorities seized the manuscript for the sourcebook, which was under development at the time, asserting that it was a "handbook for computer crime". The book was reconstructed and rewritten from older drafts when the manuscript was not returned. The seizure delayed publication for six weeks. This raid is often wrongly attributed to Operation Sundevil, a nationwide crackdown on illegal computer hacking activities that was occurring about this time.

GURPS Cyberpunk was ultimately published in 1990, joining the already-released Cyberpunk 2013 (1988) from R. Talsorian, Cyberspace (1989) from ICE, and Shadowrun (1989) from FASA.

Publication history

The main sourcebook for the line (ISBN 1-55634-168-7) was written by Loyd Blankenship and published by Steve Jackson Games in 1990, as a part of the extensive (3rd-edition) GURPS generic role-playing game system.

Reception

The book was reviewed in White Wolf #23.

GURPS Cyberpunk received the Origins Award nomination for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1990.

References

GURPS Cyberpunk Wikipedia
(Text) CC BY-SA