GURPS Cyberpunk is a genre toolkit for cyberpunk-themed role-playing gamesset 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 StatesSecret Service. 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. Unlike most commercially successful books from the third edition of the game, there is currently no Cyberpunk sourcebook for its fourth edition, as of 2018. Similar rules for advanced technology can be found in GURPS Ultra-Tech, from gadgets to cyberwear, but there aren't, for example, rules for netrunning which are essential for such games.
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 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 there. ; World Design : Gives guidelines for designing your own cyberpunk world. ; Campaigning : Helps the Gamemaster in running a longer series of adventures.
U.S. Secret Service seizure
, 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 from R. Talsorian, Cyberspace from ICE, and Shadowrun from FASA.
Publication history
The main sourcebook for the line was written by Loyd Blankenship and published by Steve Jackson Games in 1990, as a part of the extensive GURPSgeneric 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.
