Yeah, Half Life did a similiar thing by introducing gameplay elements through story.
All of the Bioshock games did a really good job of dropping you into the game blind, and making you discover the world through exploration and in-game content. I prefer the same. Finding out about this strange world is part of the fun.
And I still haven't read all of the Witcher books. Nor will I read background info on CP or anything about CP2020 PnP. Deliberate and conscious decision. Also laziness. If a game is well-designed, you shouldn't need to read anything except the manual page that tells you the key-binding for the controls.
The only problem with going in blind is that YOU might not know anything about Night City, but your character probably does. The amnesia or stranger in a strange land mechanisms have been a little too over-used and I don't think they'd fit here. There has to be some way of telling you what you need to know without your character being treated like a noob.
Of course, they can also do the intro to Night City trailer, but that's just straight marketing. Flashy and exciting to get people to buy the game rather than an educational documentary.
And I still haven't read all of the Witcher books. Nor will I read background info on CP or anything about CP2020 PnP. Deliberate and conscious decision. Also laziness. If a game is well-designed, you shouldn't need to read anything except the manual page that tells you the key-binding for the controls.
The only problem with going in blind is that YOU might not know anything about Night City, but your character probably does. The amnesia or stranger in a strange land mechanisms have been a little too over-used and I don't think they'd fit here. There has to be some way of telling you what you need to know without your character being treated like a noob.
Of course, they can also do the intro to Night City trailer, but that's just straight marketing. Flashy and exciting to get people to buy the game rather than an educational documentary.
But..but..Dragon! I was hoping you'd try PnP with us! Once I or Wisdom or Redge or Chris or whoever works up a campaign worthy of your interest, of course.
God,i hope they don't do amnesia.
Although there is precedence for brainwipe, of course.
They did say they were going to start you as a low level Street guy, so they could have you just arriving in Night City via the train or airship..panning the view across the City as you arrive, seeing fires in the Combat Zone, NN54 vectored-thrust AV-4s hovering over a recent incident in Chinatown, the Corp Center glowing so brightly across the sky...your Times Square Marquee implant running the recent news across your HUD if you bought one at creation with your starting money...
Drooool.....
Woah. Kinda hyped the shit out of myself there. Years. To. Go. Calm down, Sard. I wonder if I move to Poland if CDPR wold be a little creeped out? Surely I could do something for them. Anything.
Well, I guess I could be tempted. Just don't make me read anything. Can I do it without reading anything, or would that just make me annoying?
OK, so stranger in a strange land might work.
Maybe they could a little something similar to AC3 where you start the game playing as someone else. You could select your class in the beginning, and whichever class you choose starts with a different opening scenario. However, unbeknownst to you at the time, you are actually braindancing in someone else! Once you get a hang of the controls your character stops braindancing and voila, you're in Night City!
I swear... all this contemplating can't be healthy.
I swear... all this contemplating can't be healthy.
Absolutely totally doable. Even better, in some ways. I kind of specialize in this, as my Dark Heresy crew is made up of, an engineer-turned-nurse, hyper bright guy who never roleplayed before, reads everything, does great. A long-time-in-the-past RPGer, reads everything, terrible luck in game, my best actor. A long-time roleplayer, doesn't like the setting, reads little to none of it. Two first-time players, read little to start, are reading more now, one is in command no less. Two more first time players, Navy medics, neither one likes to read or will do so, one has yet to play the other is probably my best or tied for best tactician anyway.
So, no, reading the setting and rules is not necessary -unless- you want to play something very challenging. In Dark Heresy, that's a Psyker. In Cyberpunk 2020, that's a Netrunner.
Even those are doable with minimum study, if you're familiar with the setting from other material.
As for rules, myeh. CP2020 is dead easy. Roll 1D10, add it to your stat of 2-10 and your skill of 1-10, vs a target number ranging from 10 to 30. Higher is better. Natural 1 or 10 is a fumble or crit. You may add other modifiers from cyberware or wounds or whatever the GM tells you, but mostly it's 1D10 + a number on your sheet ranging from 3-20.
I like this, as an optional tutorial. I still like the idea of the player not knowing they are in braindance or, when in braindance, having the same freedom as before, only with a big old SAVE/LOAD button on the upper right, plus looking different and people calling you a different name, in a mission-style adventure.
I've played cyberpunk PnP but I'm afraid the official lore itself is still mostly a mystery to me. Great game system though. But I can't answer your poll I'm afraid.
EDIT: Caught up on all the messages now, if there is a forum hosted PnP session I would like to put myself forward to be a potential player in that. Something like that would be awesome and would kill two birds with one stone on the lore front.
EDIT: Caught up on all the messages now, if there is a forum hosted PnP session I would like to put myself forward to be a potential player in that. Something like that would be awesome and would kill two birds with one stone on the lore front.
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Intro.
Make an introduction that covers the background and at class selection give a description of what you're supposed to do. I liked "The Division" as it presented one of the best intros in terms of introducing players to the game. 3:30 and you know what to expect. With CP2020 in 2077 there is a lot of more to cover, but I expect intro to be as informative as possible if we're supposed to be part of this world. Not some caveman (purist?) who got hibernated and now find out that this isn't exactly what he expected... Even people who travel know something about the world they travel across. Or they might go Fallout and present us with a nomadic character outside the city.
Of course, additional sources of informations are welcome as well, but intro is first and foremost.
Make an introduction that covers the background and at class selection give a description of what you're supposed to do. I liked "The Division" as it presented one of the best intros in terms of introducing players to the game. 3:30 and you know what to expect. With CP2020 in 2077 there is a lot of more to cover, but I expect intro to be as informative as possible if we're supposed to be part of this world. Not some caveman (purist?) who got hibernated and now find out that this isn't exactly what he expected... Even people who travel know something about the world they travel across. Or they might go Fallout and present us with a nomadic character outside the city.
Of course, additional sources of informations are welcome as well, but intro is first and foremost.
I don't know if this is problem at all. I think Cyberpunk is quite self-explanatory. Big city/night/rain/neons/drugs/prosthetics/augmentations/cyborgs/AI/evil corporations/net/hacking... You should be able to dig the setting without too much problem.
Besides Cyberpunk 2077 is based on pnp lore, not on a book(s) lore, so it's easier, you don't really have to understand and get to know tons of "important-in-book(s)-characters" and relations between them.
I mean I was able to argue with Sard about things, with next to zero specific knowledge about pnp system.
Similar thing was with VM:B, it was well written world that you subconsciously understood (vampires drink blood, werewolves don't like silver etc.). All unique pnp lore and mechanics are just topping on a cake.
If you are really passionate about developer next game, you just go on official forum, find a guy like Sard or Wisdom, and ask the shit out of them (kudos to you :hatsoff about the lore stuff.
Besides Cyberpunk 2077 is based on pnp lore, not on a book(s) lore, so it's easier, you don't really have to understand and get to know tons of "important-in-book(s)-characters" and relations between them.
I mean I was able to argue with Sard about things, with next to zero specific knowledge about pnp system.
Similar thing was with VM:B, it was well written world that you subconsciously understood (vampires drink blood, werewolves don't like silver etc.). All unique pnp lore and mechanics are just topping on a cake.
If you are really passionate about developer next game, you just go on official forum, find a guy like Sard or Wisdom, and ask the shit out of them (kudos to you :hatsoff
about the lore stuff.
I mostly think the game should be written and presented in such a fashion that it's self-explainatory. If you have to look for outside sources to understand it, that's not a good thing. I don't want to need the CP2020 world explained to me to be able to enjoy the game. Let me explore, have hints and touches and a world with a culture that reflects its state of things. I don't need to know what exact year saw the foundation of a new nation or corporation or who was in charge at the time. Let me see or read news talking about that country or enterprise and people talking casually about it when it's pertinent to their daily lives or whatever. Have peoples t-shirts reflect the memes of the time, have advertisements for "historical movies" that bridge either our timeline or CP2020's with 2077. Tell me in the descriptions of weapons where it was manufactured, who is its primary user, tell me where a character wants to run away to, if it's a space colony or whatever. Fit it all in the game. Let us figure out for ourselves. One doesn't need to know all the history, politics or economic intricacies of the real world to live in it, but pieces of info about it do really come up in conversations, media, etc. and shape our culture.