Sydanyo;n8687970 said:
Still... The game is called Cyberpunk 2077. Does it make that much sense not to have any cyberware? Is it just a kind of a "I want to be a special snowflake and rebel against what's expected" -kneejerk to play without cyberware in a cyberpunk game? I don't know. In our amazing eurosolo campaign couple decades back, one of our eurosolos did start the game out without any cyberware. We were playing eurosolos though, with maxed out stats, and pimped out custom weaponry, and the best pharmaceuticals available. Initiative and hitting someone in the eye with his Mark II without cyberware wasn't a problem for him. Doubt there'll be eurosolos in 2077 though. Shame, really.
I don't think the term "Cyberpunk" necessarily only playes at that all people are somehow all kitted out with Cyberware. I think it more referes to the world as a whole, that a massive part of the world relies on digital stuff. Yes, people being augmented is part of Cyberpunk, but not everyone is. The Cyber part of Cyberpunk do, as far as I remember, refer to a lot more then just Cyberware... the main thing it tends to refer to (befor Cyberware) as far as I know is Cyberspace, but can alse aside from those two things refer to things like Nanotechnology and Biotechnology, etc.
As for my reason to want to play a characters with no Cyberware. That has got nothing, what so ever, to do with wanting to go against the expected, or or against the grain/norm/etc, or wanting to be a special snowflake or what ever. I could care less if almost 100% of every person in a Cyberpunk world was augmented or not. I mean... I don't like Wolverine or Death's Head II (the two comicbook characters which share my Nr 1 "Favorit comic book character of all time" slot.), because almost everybody else in the world likes Wolverine, or because Death's Head II is an extremely obscure Marvel character which almost nobody knows about... I like those characters because... well... I like them... everybody else's opinion matters not. XD
So with the character without Cyberware... I just like the idea of a character not using Cyberware (atleast the kind which has to be operated in to the persons body or something). I do also see scenarios where such a thing could be an advantage. Yeah, sure, a person who is has a lot of cyberware will most likely be better then your average person who has no cyberware. And the numbers of advantages scenarios for not being cybered up are probably fairly few... but I am not to bothered by that either.
I mean if I was bothered by the idea of not playing a character/game/etc in an optimal manner, then I would have for example changed the way I play the game Blood Bowl 20 years ago (I started to play BB almost 22 years ago). But since I like to play that game the way I do, because I think it is A LOT more fun to play that game that way rather then what is considered to be the optimal and safest way to play that game to try and ensure victory... due to that I decided a long time ago that I would rather have fun playing the game, then sit there and be bored out of my mind playing in a style which I did not like. I would rather lose and have fun playing, then win and be bored. And that is by far not the only place/thing/game where I tend to do things in a sub-optimal manner... but like I said befor, it's not to go against the grain, I just opt to play/do what ever it is in the manner which I find to be the most fun... and if that happends to go along with what everybody else think/do, or compleatly go against them all, so be it... because I really could not care less what other people might or might not think/do with what ever it is. XD
At the same time... part of the reason I am not all that interested in Cyberware is sort of simmilar to how I feel about Magic... not as strong though, just "simmilar adjacent". When it comes to making and playing a character, be it in PnP RPG's, or in computer/console games, I have always felt that Magic is some of the most boring thing ever. I don't mind seeing it in movies, reading about it in books, or having characters in a game use it... it can be fun to see/read about it, and in games where you have more the one character (Dragon Age Origins for example) I have no problems what so ever in having one or two of the characters be a mage (amount depends on how many characters you can have total). But when it comes to my character, the one I created, the one who fairly often represent me in the game, where technicly "I" where to use magic... that is where I find magic to be one of the most boring thing ever... and as long as I have a choice in the matter, my characters never use something like magic. In fantasy I like and prefer melee characters in heavy armor, who do not use any kind of magic what so ever. In modern/sci-fi games the melee is just replaced with ranged weaponry. That is why I tend to play those kinds of charactera almsot every single time I play games, because that/those are the archetypes I like to play... and like I said, magid bore me to no end when it comes to my own character... no matter if that is in fantasy, or in modern types of things, or in sci-fi. I would much rather play a Stormtrooper, then a Jedi and/or Sith.
Unlike magic though, I don't mind the idea of playing a fully Cyberroided up character... it's just a type of character which I would play in limited amounts. Most characters I might play who did use Cyberware, would probably only have a few things augmented, and only very specific things connected to the concept of the character. The none cybered, and limited cybered, characters would both probably end up being in roughly the same numbers, with heavily cybered up characters being in a limited numbers (something like 10-20% at most out of all of them). Both characters which I have played in the new Shadowrun games, by Harebrained schemes, only ever had that cybernetic implant thing you needed to be able to use the Cyberdecks... and none of my own characters in those games used magic either.
So yeah... the only reason I would play a none cybered up character in Cyberpunk 2020, and/or 2077, would be because I like the idea of it, and because it might be more fun to me... not because I somehow would want to go against the grain or the genre or what ever... like I said, I could care less what others do or do not do, or what others might or might not think about it, in something like this. XD