^{Originally published on Sidekickcast.com December 1, 2015}

I’ve spent a lot of time detailing fantasy RPG weirdness because that’s the genre I’m most familiar with. However, strange stuff in gaming isn’t relegated solely to D&D and Pathfinder. For example, there’s the Cyberpunk 2020 Chromebooks.

The Chromebooks were a group of four sourcebooks that detailed all sorts of new gear for use in a Cyberpunk 2020 game. In many ways, they were brilliant – they were written like real product catalogs, so every entry gave you not only something useful for the game but also a feel for the corporate-dominated setting. At the same time, these things did introduce plenty of stuff that is either hilariously weird or amusing in hindsight (remember that these things were written in the early 1990s without the benefit of a crystal ball to show what they year 2020 would really be like).

This time around, I’m going to focus on the original Chromebook. With new weapons, cybernetics, vehicles, and more, there’s a lot of interesting stuff in this 96-page accessory…and a lot of other stuff that reminds me that the future is pretty funny.

The Outdated Tech

I hate it when people ding a sci-fi story for not being able to accurately predict the future, but at the same time I’m a little guilty of that crime. The creators of Cyberpunk 2020 had no idea how the Internet or mobile technology would develop, let alone how large computer hard drives would get, so it’s not like I can fault them for having 56K modems and omnipresent fax machines in the year 2020. Still, I’ve got to smile just a little when I see some of this stuff.

The Advanced Communications Suitcase is a “sophisticated system…with a 48 MHz personal computer.” Later on, we get the Office Communications Suite, which allows seamless transition between an office phone, fax, and answering machine. Best of all, “a built-in switching device selects between fax and voice transmissions automatically, preventing the annoyance of hearing the fax tone when you pick up the phone.”

24 years ago, this was highly advanced technology worth an addition to a near-future sci-fi supplement. But looking at this book now, I have to smile at how cute it was that 90s-me would look at a laptop with a 48 MHz processor and say, “Wow.”

The Slices of Life

Cyberpunk 2020 was always really good about putting in stuff that didn’t have much statistical value on a character sheet but which still helped paint an evocative picture of the setting. This Chrombook includes stuff like a digital cab hailer that guarantees the prompt arrival of a cab in 1d6 minutes, an image wallet that really only exists to give you a fancy way of flashing an ID card, and smoked beef-flavored cigarettes.

Missed your shower this morning? Try Shower-in-a-Can:

Or, if you never want to be without your sunglasses, you can get them grafted to your face:

If love the latter one for a couple of reasons. First, the blurb brings up the Cyberpunk “style over substance” maxim, which reminds me that fashion tends to look dumb. Second, the glasses are armored, and the item states that a head shot hits your eyes if you roll a 1-3 on 1d10. This means that in Cyberpunk’s world, 30% of all things that hit you in the head will hit your eyes. What a horrific world the PCs live in when paper footballs and stray mosquitoes hit a person in the eyes almost one-third of the time. No wonder you need to graft armor-plated sunglasses to your head.

The Fashion

You can’t get through ten pages in any Cyberpunk 2020 book without the maxim of “style over substance” or some variation getting used. The game wants your PC to be cool first and foremost. The problem is that the game’s idea of style includes stuff like this:

That is the Gibson Battlegear, which comes with this catalog blurb: “Substance AND style. You’ve got to look good doing what you do; a professional but casual image. On one hand, protection is fine, as long as you don’t let them think you’re scared. On the other hand, style counts for nada if you’re dead.”

I love the idea that the Chromebook is an actual product in 2020 Night City, and that a sizable portion of that product is spent selling guns and fashionable body armor to vigilante killing machines. And in that vein, the absolutely stupid styles advertised in these books fits remarkably well in a messed-up dystopian world that is basically Mad Max surrounded by urban decay.

The Behavior Chips

Any character that has cybernetics in this game probably has a chip slot, which allows you to learn new skills instantly and grants a few other cool bells and whistles as well. There are a number of adventure-useful behavior chips in the Chromebook, but four other less frequently useful examples grab my attention more.

Two of these emphasize the Night City culture very effectively. The Redundancy Loop makes sure that you screw up at a given sport at just the right time. That way you can play tennis with your boss without the risk of winning. And the Fish N’ Chips chip makes a user feel full while eating very little – absolutely no in-game effect, but now suddenly you have a look at the newest diet craze in 2020.

Then there’s the Stress Chip, which places close gunfire at the same frequency and tension level as office stress. Moving to a new neighborhood where people didn’t fire guns outside your window on a nightly basis would cost you way too much. For a mere 350 Eurobucks, you can get a chip that will keep you calm even when some drugged-out psycho points a Glock at your head!

Finally, there’s the DeathTrance chip. This chip allows you to go into a death-like state for a set period of time. It’s advertised as a “Great party trick!” and costs 1,000 Eurobucks. One Eurobuck in Cyberpunk 2020 is equal to about two US dollars. That means you’re shelling out $2,000 for a party trick. For that kind of money, you could get a sweet 48 MHz laptop computer.

The Chromebook and its sequels are useful in a Cyberpunk 2020 game, but they’re probably more useful as a setting book, showcasing the sorts of things that people obsess over in Night City. If there’s ever a Kickstarter devoted to bringing this game back with some better rules and higher quality art, I really hope that adding in a Chromebook with all the glow tattoo/Death Trance/Shower-in-a-Can goodness is one of the stretch goals.

_{Images: R. Talsorian Games}