Welcome to the New

and

Revamped

Edgerunner!
The New Edgerunner

Table of Contents

New Edgerunner is a fanzine dedicated on

supporting the Cyberpunk genre, mainly
Cyberpunk 2020 from R. Talsorian Games. It
also takes and will publish general roleplaying
articles as well.

Welcome to the first issue of the New

Edgerunner!

Edgerunner is a free fanzine, which is released

once a month.
As a fanzine we rely on freely contributed articles by fans of the Cyberpunk genre. Be sure
to read our submissions part to know what
types of things we would like to receive.

The Old Edgerunner

Old Edgerunner is still available online in its
original PDF format. You can download the
two issues of the original volume from:

Actually this is not the first issue, but rather the

third issue. The original Edgerunner, all two
issues of it, were released back in '98. However do to complications, mainly involving grandiose ideas of what it should be, it became a
rather stressful project and fell apart because
of the high degree of maintenance and professionalism it needed.
Nonetheless the new and revamped
Edgerunner is here. So all I can say further is:
Enjoy!
A Second Look at Roles: Nomads

MetaEvolutions

The Main Site:

http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~exec/
The Mirror Site:
http://www.cyberpunkcontraband.com

by W.D. Bailey a.k.a. Dog Soldier

by Michael Wolf

Weekend

by Dana Jorgensen

Cyberpunk in the 90s

11

by Lauri Gardner

Submissions

Edgerunner Magazine

A Second Look at Roles:

Nomads
by w.d.bailey aka dog soldier

After a recent martial arts class one of the

students made a wisecrack, "I got kicked out
of the Marines for fighting dirty.." I replied,
"That's pretty good, I know Marines. The worst
thing about Marines is that you can't fight just
one." The reply to this was, "Yeah, that used
to be the way it was with all the services."
Now you might ask, "What's the point to this
story?" The point is that the Nomad special
ability of Family is the trait most likely to be
found in any member of an elite military unit.
Most characters created with a ex-military
background make no mention of this. If you
ask the player about who his character served
with you'll get a blank stare and often get the
mumbled excuse that "everyone in my unit was
killed". In real life this is the most common story
of fake veterans.

turning from war who were (and are) looking

for that spirit of family. Likewise with some of
the Militia groups that have formed in the US.
So what does this have to do with roleplaying?
Nomads would in all likelihood be the most common and numerous muscle. My online handle
came from a character who was a Scout for
the Luna Rojas motorcycle gang, a group consisting primarily of Cubans from Miami. Never
was never any time that a dozen other "Dogs"
weren't in earshot. I feel that the Nomad role is
potentially one of the most powerful roles in
the area of close combat. Yet in almost every
other CP 2020 game I've ever seen the Nomad is always alone in the group. Handling a
game with a group of Nomads will be very
challenging to the GM but the opportunity for
excellent roleplay would make it well worth the
effort.

The Hells Angels motorcycle gang and many

similar groups were formed from veterans re-

Edgerunner Magazine

metaevolutions
by michael wolf
"Oh this is skip-dandy. First you little
pukes decide to run amok with the gifts
that MY pet nanites have bestowed upon
your heathen souls, now it seems you
don't think it's enough and have just
DECIDED to break programming and go
and mutate without MY consent!!! That's
it! You cyber-twerps deserve what you
get." -GhostLord
Source: Dr Margaret Tuere, CDC
[NSecA@F...
R&D_DBioP..TC1

General, your efforts the bring

this menace to an end are simply
not enough.
We need proper intelligence on
these monsters if we are ever to
find a counter-measure for this
plague. We only have theories so
far, and have yet to find
any
proof of what one or our lab techs
has named "Meta Evolutions".

General Lacolucci:

Ok, so your CyberGeneration game is in full

swing. You've got your players into the idea of
playing snot-nosed little terrorists and culturejammers instead of railgun-toting maniacs. But
now the revolution is heating up. The ISA is no
longer pulling its punches and some of the Wizards are getting wind of talk about a counteragent being developed by the CDC.

It seems that our best efforts to

stop this mutation is being met
with greater resistance than ever.
And I fear that this new turn of
events has weakened the morale of
the brave men and women who fight
these monsters.

The people are starting to listen, they're finally

starting to think that there is something wrong.
But now they're scared. They know about the
revolution, but they also know that it's horribly
out-gunned by CorpSec and the military.
There's no way these kids, even the mutant
ones, can win.

Over the course of the last few

months, many of the ex-children in
our care have begun to exhibit
abilities not recorded for their
Evolved Type. After much debate
within the lab, it has been confirmed that the a few of the
"Evolved" are still evolving.

On the home front, the war is going well, but it

doesn't seen like enough. Blackhand's dream
of an Evolved army is still years away from
being realized, and the Revolution doesn't have
that long. They need to win soon.

Destination: Lt Gen. Chris

Lacolucci
DoD@P..._Tac..JH1
(EYES ONLY--READ and DESTROY)
Message Reads:

Edgerunner Magazine

Now.

If there's one the CyberGenerations knows,

it's that you must evolve or die. As the nanites
have shown, nothing is impossible. These rules
will allow your Yogangers to do just that. To
evolve beyond what was thought to be the limits of the Carbon Plague.
SYSTEM
When a character reaches a certain level, he/
she may begin to purchase new abilities with
XP. All new powers have two requirements;
the prerequisite level of their evolved skill, and
how much XP is needed to buy the new power.
After the power is bought, all skill checks are
done with the original evolved skill.
TINMAN
Fast-shaping- Hexite Shaping 7, 20xp
The Tinman is able to shape his/her hexite at
an accelerated rate. This ability reduces the
time to shape by two levels. No shaping test
can take less then one round, but anything that
would have been less than one round does not
require any effort, and does not count towards
the character's actions.
Armor Morph- Hexite Shaping 6, 10xp
The Tinman may now shape his/her hexite armor plating, such as adding spikes to the armor or shaping the face or torso in an artistic
or horrific form. Use the standard levels of difficulty for such shaping.
WIZARD
Specialize- Arcane 4, 50XP
The Wizards internal systems may now construct more complex and powerful Familiars.
When the Wizard learns this ability, he/she
chooses one of the Familiar Functions (Attack,
Defensive, Movement, Independent Action, and
Intelligence). That Function will now always be
equal to his/her Arcane, and may still be increased with Arcane and Intelligence points
during Familiar construction. The Wizard may
NOT change which Functions gets the bonus
and may not purchase this ability more than
4

once.
Cut-away- Arcane 7, 10xp
The Wizard may now have a Familiar active in
the Net while he/she is not connected to it (i.e.
away from an LDL or completely offline).
Simple, neh?
BOLTER
Shock Field- Bolt Throwing 3, 30xp
The Bolter may now surround himself with a
barrier of electricity. Anyone that makes contact with the Bolter will suffer damage automatically. It requires one action to activate,
but may remain on indefinitely, as long as his/
her batteries hold up. The Shock Field can be
set at various levels of intensity, same as a
bolt attack. For every round the Field is on, the
Bolter's batteries are depleted by the amount
a comparable Bolt would have used.
Flashing- Bolt Throwing 7, 25XP
Speed. Pure, unadulterated speed. The Bolter
has learned to increase the electrical impulses
from his batteries to his mind and body. His/
her MA is increased by 4, and his Ref by 2.
DBZ- Bolt Throwing 4, 40xp
The Bolter has learned to pull a particular stunt
with his bolt-lines. With much effort, he/she is
able to twist his bolt-lines around each other,
in flight, and combine their charge into one staggering attack. The attack's difficulty is raised
by one level, and every turn is considered one
level harder as well. If successful, the Bolter
may expend up to twice the normal charge
and do the corresponding amount of damage.
SCANNER
Mind Bender- Interpretation 8, 30xp
Ever seen the movie Scanners? That's what
you can do. By increasing the output of your
scanning fields, and rotating those frequencies
rapidly, the Scanner begins to slowly fry his/
her target's brain. Mind Bend requires the user
to make an Interpretation check
Edgerunner Magazine

Posting- Interpretation 4, 5XP

See Virtual Front.
Insulation- Interpretation 8, 15XP
The Scanner no longer suffers from backlash
damage from his/her Static Discharge.
ALCHEMIST
Rewrite- Manipulation 8, 10xp
This power allows the Alchemist to do what
was thought impossible; change the Evolved
type of the target, including the Alchemist him/
herself. To Rewrite someone's evolved type,
the Alchemist must touch the target. If the target is unwilling, he/she must be restrained. The
process takes one hour to implement. During
that time, the Alchemist must concentrate and
make a Manipulate check at Difficulty 30. Once
done, if successful, the transformation will
basically be a repeat of the original sickness.
Neither the Alchemist nor the target have a
choice of what Evolved type will manifest. Once
finished, the Evolved skill will be at half the
former skill level, rounded down. If you turned
a Tinman with Hexite Shaping of 6 into a Bolter,
the Bolt Throwing skill will be at 3.
Remote Manipulation- Manipulation 5, 30xp
With this ability, once you touch on object to
transfer your nanites, you can continue to shape
and alter it at a distance. The Alchemist has a
range of 1 meter per level of Manipulation. All

Edgerunner Magazine

difficulties remain the same. The Alchemist must

still recollect his nanites, or be reduced in power
as per the standard rules.
Assembly Line- Manipulation 6, 20xp
The Alchemist can now manipulate more than
one item at a time, as per the multiple actions
rule.
Using Meta-Evolutions in your C-GEN game
I have to tell you, adding MetaEvos to your
game is risky at best. After all, one of the reasons CyberGen was created to get away from
the tendency to power-gaming. By introducing
MetaEvos, you add a whole new level of potency to you campaign, and if not careful the
whole thing will go nuclear.
There are a few different ways to add
MetaEvos to your game. The easiest way is to
simply start the game off with your PCs knowing about their potential to evolve further. But
unless you're starting from scratch, this won't
do.
Another method is to have your players stumble
upon it. If you have Virtual Front, the adventure there is a great way of introducing these
new powers. If not, then you can simply have
an NPC display these new powers and teach
the kids how to pull it off.

Weekend
by Dana Jorgensen
Weekend is an edgerunner retirement community. By all appearances, the town of Weekend looks like a picturesque, sleepy town circa
1910 to 1950. The town is filled with sturdy
little buildings, stores, and homes. However,
while anyone is welcome as long as they keep
the peace, none seem to be able to find a
place to move in unless invited by one or more
of the residents.
And if you don't keep the peace in Weekend,
you'll rarely have the opportunity to realize how
foolish your actions were. The town is very
well defended, with an incredibly competent
police force (composed of well armed retired
cops and solos for the most part), an abundance of will-hidden surveillance equipment,
and the entirety of its citizenry usually armed
to the teeth. Screw up too much and you'll learn
exactly how many residents keep an armored
car in the garage or a military AV parked on a
landing pad in the back yard.
As an edgerunner haven, Weekend is also considered a safe haven by all edgerunner who
know of it. Come to Weekend for some R&R
and know you don't have to worry about your
life. Your assets outside the town, however,
are another matter entirely. They will always
remain fair game.
The first Weekend, founded during the
Arasaka-Militech corporate war, was in the
backwoods of Maine, where there would never
be much worry of trouble, due to the overall
lack of corporate and government interest in
the area. The founding fathers was a small
group of edgerunners trying to escape a fiasco. A small nomad pack was called in for
6

construction. A corp and a pair of fixers arranged the supply of construction materials,
both legitimate and illegitimate. A small team
of netrunners helped boost the finances available to pay for the project, while a team of excops and solos provided security. By the time
construction was completed in 2023, the town
of Weekend, Maine had 280 residents, each
and every one of them an edgerunners. It took
almost another year to officially found the growing town and get government support.
Quickly, the worldwide edgerunner community
worked together, with more Weekends rapidly popping up to help support those
edgerunners who didn't like the area of the
first Weekend. Regardless, Weekends always
were founded in a decidedly rural area, well
away from the hustle and bustle of city life.
Some of these newer Weekends were actually finished before the original Weekend. Eventually, there was a Weekend in every state, all
quietly organized and networked together. If
you're a resident in one Weekend, you can
expect to receive preferential residential treatment in every Weekend, regardless whether
you live there or not.
When knowing edgerunners visit Weekend for
the first time, they are shocked by the town,
since it is what one might consider boring.
However, their assessment of the facilities always change for the better. After all, when
you have spent years of your life living on the
edge, straddling the line between caution and
paranoia, wondering where retribution will come
from enemies both real and imagined, you don't
really understand what a good night's sleep is
worth until you can again enjoy one. Once you
Edgerunner Magazine

learn to enjoy sleep once more, the town goes

from boring to subduedly interesting.
The name Weekend was chosen in reference
to the decades old sarariman tradition of getting Saturday and Sunday off from work, the
first and last day of the week, usually referred
to as 'the weekend'. It was a period of time
used by workers to recover from the stress of
the work week. The edgerunners adopted the
reference as a rebuff to their frequent corporate employers.

Weekend Services
The Weekend Sheriff's Department
Law Enforcement
The law in Weekend is usually composed of
retired police officers and solos. Along with
providing a highly competent, experienced and
sizable law enforcement agency numbering at
least 24 officers, many officers also engage in
private investigations both in and out of town,
as both an extra source of income and a source
of hobby entertainment. The officers work in
shifts of 4 working 6 hours of patrol and 2 hours
of desk duty per day, 5 days per week. The
officers operate in pairs based out of a BMW2020 armored patrol vehicle. Each and every
officer patrols regularly; there is no desk duty
for those with a badge. Many also use their
own personal vehicles. All use their own personal weapons.
In return for law enforcement services, the
members of this entirely volunteer service are
paid a weekly stipend of 500EB, plus free access to reasonable amounts of fuel, food, and
ammunition. They also get an annual tax break
based on their level of volunteer service.
The typical Weekend Sheriff's Department
maintains an operations center that combines
a dispatch center, administrative and duty offices, detainment center, impound lot and veEdgerunner Magazine

hicle garage. Many share facilities with the

town's firefighting and other municipal services
as well. Each department also maintains a small
fleet of vehicles, including at least 15 BMW2020s and a fast, heavy lift helicopter used for
patrol, search and rescue, air ambulance, and
firefighting duties.
Weekend Banking
Financial and Investment Services.
Weekend Banking is one of the last financial
institutions in the country dealing with hard
currency. The bank handles eurobucks, US
dollars, and the Japanese yen, maintaining its
own secret currency reserves. The bank also
can handle the conversion of precious metals
and stones to currency, and is fully capable of
issuing virtual currency and credit. In addition,
the bank also prints and issues the Weekend
scrip (Ws), the preferred hard currency of the
towns. Use of the scrip gets a discount in most
shops and gets a very good conversion rate
(1.5 Ws = 1 EB).
Several megacorporations (primarily manufacturing companies) have also started using
Weekend scrip as a form of payment to
edgerunners, since such individuals can go to
the Weekend Banking branches to exchange
the scrip for either hard currency, precious
metals, or virtual currency. By working in this
manner, it enables the corporations to effectively launder their payments to edgerunners.
In return for these services, Weekend Banking
is quietly aided by the corporations in its integration and credibility with the regular financial
institutions of the world.
Each Weekend Banking branch is a virtually
identical building. It is a stout structure made
of solid, steel reinforced concrete. Within is a
large steel and titanium vault, containing funds
security area where the bank's currency and
valuables are stored, plus a safe deposit box
7

chamber containing 1500 safe deposit boxes.

The lobbies are well armored, with walnut paneled steel tables, counters, and teller booths,
drop-down steel-banded bulletproof lexan partitions, automated lethal and nonlethal security
systems, and enough alarm triggers that the
combined staff doesn't have enough fingers to
press them all.
The bank also supplies its own line of customized armored vans for the transportation of
valuables. These heavily armored vehicles are
powered by a 1200 HP turbine engine capable
of running on anything and everything from
gasoline, to kerosene, to CHOOH2 and alcohol. Each bank building has a specially constructed loading bay that the armored vans
back into. The vans are completely secure for
loading when in these bays.
Weekend Firearms
Weapon Shop, Gunsmithy, Static and Combat Course Firing Ranges
For most edgerunners, a firearm isn't just a
tool, it is a way of life. Every edgerunner seems
to own at least one high-quality, customized
firearm suited to their own needs for personal
protection. Maintaining one's skill with those
weapons is also of great importance. After the
first four or five Weekends had been founded,
the first Weekend Firearms shops appeared
at the behest of the Sheriff's Departments due
to the need of reasonable firing ranges for
weapons qualifications. The first few were just
police warehouses for storing heavy weapons,
munitions, and a static firing range facility. It
was the Texas Weekend that changed everything after an anonymous wealthy edgerunner
spent a small fortune establishing a gunsmith
shop and combat course firing range.
Since then, the complete Weekend Firearms
gun shop has appeared on the edge of every
Weekend, fulfilling the ammunition and weap8

ons requirements of the town's citizens, and

providing the facilities for the people of town to
remain competent with the weapons they own
and carry. A few of the shops even do custom
automotive work to handle the mounting of
weapons on vehicles, and the Nevada shop
even has a self-serve bullet foundry/mill and
brass reloading section for old cased munitions. Most of these shops are partnerships
between the more technically skilled solos in
town, who tend to continue tinkering with weapons even if they've stopped shooting at people
for the most part.
Weekend.net
Weekend Online Services
Weekend.net is a thoroughly secure network
established by the fixers and netrunners living
in the various Weekend communities. The network was initially established for the benefit of
the local residents, by handling inter-community communications, resident registries, and
an assortment of government services. As the
communities became more legitimate, the network expanded to include promotional services,
private online service for small business, such
as online requisitioning for stores or online reservations services for motels and vehicle rentals, and linking into more substantial government networking, such as NCIC. For now, the
network pays for its Internet service, but provides Internet accessibility for all the town residents as needed. As the coffers of Weekend
grow, the netrunners hope to eventually wire
the towns together on their own private
hardwired network, reducing the opportunities
or capabilities of outside hacking.
Weekend Medicine
Medical Services
The retired medtechs living in Weekend established their own emergency medical services, Weekend Medicine. They maintain one
Edgerunner Magazine

ambulance, one AV-9 equipped for emergency

medical services, and a small medical facility
capable of performing most medical services.
In deference to the 'retired' status of the bulk
of residents, Weekend Medicine will repair or
replace damaged cyberware, but they will not
install upgrades or new cyberware. They have
a responsibility to prevent damaged minds from
creating a damaged town.
Weekend Warriors
edgerunner consulting firm
Weekend Warriors is a means for edgerunners
to keep their skills sharp and their pockets full
by returning occasionally to the 'outside world'.
The company maintains a small recruiting office or guild hall in each and every weekend,
where edgerunners can announce their availability or review listings of open job positions.
The company also maintains offices in most
major cities, where corporations and other individuals looking for qualified workers with
certain hard-to-find skills can arrange employee
placements.
The company maintains a single worker restriction, mainly directed at netrunners; any
work done must be done at least 100 miles
away from Weekend. This restriction came
about after a netrunner decided to telecommute
and the law tracked him back to his home,
raising suspicions about the entire town.
Because Weekend Warriors provides a proven
pool of highly skilled and reliable workers, most
edgerunners placed by Weekend Warriors find
they draw better pay than they could have otherwise (at the referee's discretion, employment
through Weekend Warriors can increase the
edgerunners monthly salary by 10% to 80%
over the amount listed in the core rules).
That covers the regular "municipal" or common services you can expect to find in town.
Edgerunner Magazine

Aside from that, the business districts usually

have a reasonable number of thriving businesses; electronics and computer shops operated by netrunners, garages and appliance
repair shops run by techies, a few doctor offices run by specialist medtechies (most frequently a cancer specialist), vehicle rentals and
general retail shops run by retired corps or
fixers who moved on to "fix" in their favorite
hobbies and areas of interest, private detective offices run by retired cops or the active
volunteer sheriff deputies, a local newspaper
or theater run by retired medias, restaurants
run by just about anyone, etc.
Every Weekend is built on a layered concept.
In the center is the fortified town square, which
contains the medical center, police station, fire
station, municipal parking and maintenance,
community center and city hall. The entire
square is either an enclosed compound surrounded by a thick stone wall or built as a thickwalled building surrounding a central courtyard/
parking facility. The town square facilities are
designed to not only serve municipal duties,
but in the case of the town being attacked, it
can provide shelter for the town's inhabitants
and easily withstand being besieged by a nomad pack or gang.
Around this lies the business district. The
Weekend.net offices, gun shop/ranges, and
bank are typically closest to the town square.
The gunshop/ranges tend to be walled in, extending from the town hall out towards the edge
of town.
Around the business district, one finds the residences. For the most part, the homes are
modest, modern structures on a relatively large
plot of land, often measuring a half acre or
more. Inside, however, the structures are rarely
modestly decorated. Most are finished like a
luxury mansion and possess multiple basement
sublevels for protecting the more prized pos9

sessions should the town be razed. Back yards

are filled with AV pads, pools, patios, and the
like.
Also in the residential district, one often finds
small parklands or playgrounds, as well as any
motels and the occasional restaurant. You can
also usually find a town library; cheaper to buy
something and contribute to the community
when you usually share some interests with
the other members of the community. Depending upon the dangers of the locale, the town
may or may not be fenced or walled in.
Many Weekends also have a pseudo-industrial area on one side of town. In this commercial zone, many netrunners and techies keep
their personal workshops, where they can do
quite a bit of inventing in privacy.
One glaring omission in the Weekend design
is the absolute lack of dataterms. If you want
to know about the town, you'll have to log into
Weekend.net with your own netrunning gear
or pick up the town brochure available at any
and every store. Want to know about the news?
Pick up and read the local newspapers at the
store or visit the local library.
When fleshing out the town, remember that
the edgerunners will show a bizarre sense of
humor in the name of their businesses. The
vast majority will include the work "weekend"
in their business names, continuing the play on
the word. You'll find plenty of businesses with
names like Weekend Bulletin (town newspa-

10

per), Weekend Car Rental, Weekend Pizza,

Weekend Theater, and the like, many names
insinuating the business or service is only open
or available Saturdays and Sundays.
Also remember that these towns are inhabited
by grizzled veterans who learned how to survive on the edge. To swipe a useful reference
from D&D, "The average town will be lucky to
have a 1st level fighter, let alone a 5th level
fighter". Well, for these towns, the phrase would
be more like "The town will be lucky to have a
1st level fighter because most of the residents
are at least 5th level."
If you use Weekend in your campaign, feel
free to trash the place if your plot requires it. It
makes a great tool for enticing players with
services, equipment access, and contacts,
which can easily be snatched away when a
corporation gets pissed off enough to level the
town to frag a few annoying edgerunners.
Suddenly the surviving troublemakers (or would
they be called troublebringers) find themselves
banned from any and all Weekends, forcing
them to find alternatives to the services and
contacts they lost by bringing trouble to town.
It's amazing the ideas that can be inspired by
a few words. Recently, a local weathercaster
said "I can see the Weekend from here", like
he was standing on a hill and looking at a
town in the distance.

Edgerunner Magazine

Cyberpunk in the 90s

by lauri gardner

Cyberpunk is for me a near future society, a

society that is brought to the extremes, a society based on today and accelerated to its destination of society of tomorrow. A mirror into
today's society through the eyes of those that
could be.
The way on describing Cyberpunk is very much
like describing a color. It is nearly impossible
on describing a white that to some will appear
as a spotted grey or to others a silver.
Cyberpunk by that token shifts, dependent on
the knowledge and personal thoughts of the
describer of this society describing the projected world of he near future. This is why what
may seem viable today may seem mere silliness tomorrow. Trends shift and undercurrents
rise up, giving changes in the way the future
might flow.
The Internet is a good example of an undercurrent that has only know been realized. It
was known to a mere few twenty years ago
on what the Internet could become. The pervasiveness of the Internet now is so much more
than even what they anticipated. A network
open not to the few, but to the many.
The purpose of my work is to show what a
Cyberpunk world could be, using the way the
development of the previous decade has come
to fruition. I wish this work to be insightful, however I must warn you that what I lack of in age
as well of wisdom, the width and depth of experience.
Cyber was the escalation of technology, a loss
of self into consumerism, where life could be
bought in small ergonomic packages. JapaEdgerunner Magazine

nese companies or Zaibatsus were looked

upon with envy coloured contempt by others
for winning the technological seeding of the
people. This onslaught of new waves of technology upset societal norms and raised questions about the status quo. These questions
were coupled with a raising awareness of ones
surroundings. AIDS, famine, racial issues,
growing urban violence were all raised to the
public.
In the future world of Cyberpunk these issues
were mirrored. Life was plastic. You could not
only buy your life in small packages, these
packages were market researched to only last
a hairs breath of time. The conversion of yourself to become a machine was not only possible but fashionable. You could no longer ride
the crest of change you had to immerse yourself in it. With this immersion humans had become things with price tags. Life was cheap.
Awareness of this was also noticed, questions
raised. Multinational corporations, the growing division between rich and poor,
cyberpsychosis, the lawlessness of the streets
were questions that no-one would willingly
answer.
Cyberpunk was a creation of the 80's, born
from two symptoms of parallel development,
cyber and punk.
Punk was an underground movement that burst
onto public awareness. It was a way on rebelling against mainstream acceptability. The torn
clothes a way on expressing dissatisfaction on
clubs where you could only go in leather shoes
and ties. As it became more an accepted part
11

of society the message was lost. Clothing lines

were created, people would buy designer shirts
just to rip them up. Suddenly punk was as dead
as disco.
In Cyberpunk there is a shift, the power of
punk withdraws itself from the understanding
of the mass outside. Punks are people who
have stepped outside of normality, who live by
a standard dictated by their own choices. Society has divided between the two groups: The
sheep (or mass of society) and the wolves (or
punks). Their own stubborn individuality and
opposition to authority is what refuses them to
be integrated into the mass of society.
This is what the future of the Cyberpunk world
during the eighties would have been, a society
running full speed into a dead end. The questions that are raised in both are the same, the
emphasis has just shifted to suit the needs of
the world.
The people asking these questions are white,
urban, and middle class. People with a feeling
of horror on having the values that they stood
for being brushed away on the tides of change.
Cyberpunk of the 90's needs to be divided into
two parts as well, technology and culture.
Technoculture is still a buzz word that one occasionally hears when reading some hack's
writing on some marginal cultural theme while
sitting in a cyber cafe drinking a Mocha Grande.
For the nineties I feel that the word is more
appropriate to that of Cyberpunk in this age's
context.
Technology is no longer something to be feared
of, it is something that is accepted. Cell phones,
computers, fax machines surround society.
Through this technology, communication is the
key, enabling the world to run smoother and to
become smaller. Digitalization of information
is the Vanguard of this movement and youth its
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mouthpieces. A single e-mail message can

mobilize hundreds of people to any where in
the world if the message is to them important
enough. In the world of Cyberpunk the technology is around you. People have replaced
parts of themselves, not for violence. For communication, with a datajack you can talk to your
friends while snowboarding or check your new
friends info out to see who are they. This ability to stay continuously on the Net without having to ruin your social life will be taken for
granted. The structure of reality will split into
RL (RealLife) and NL (NetLife), with interaction of people falling into these spheres.
Culture is all about the global village. With technology to communicate people from around
the world can to a single meeting place. The
emphasis on what is national culture has no
bearing, it is rather what is the culture that you
surround yourself that is important. The music
of yesterdays punk has changed to the
electronica of today's raves. In raves the purpose is to step out of society's borders, but
the affrontal of consumerism of the 90's has
turned around completely. You are expected
to dress in a fashion with designer labels and
way out clothes. Money is no longer a means
but a tool in a materialistic world. Having things
is no longer an end, but a way on reaching for
something else. A certain jadedness has come
over the youth, with pleasure its focal point.
Pleasure or the pursuit of fun becomes what
they attempt to attain. The images of the media enforces these views giving out in whispers and between the lines on what is moral.
Sex is no longer a shared moment but an object of gratification.
Countered to the growing power on what the
media tells one to do is an undercurrent of
people with an alternative viewpoint. They are
not reactive, like their counterparts in the 80's,
they are proactive asking very hard questions
with very difficult and uncomfortable answers.
Edgerunner Magazine

Questions on the IMF, on governments rights,

child soldiers, multinational corporations, reasons for war. They are not asking for the symptoms they are asking for the cause, shifting
power structures that are taken for granted.

This is my vision on what the 90's is and what

the Cyberpunk world might become. I have
tried to avoid writing too much as I am sure
that everyone out there is able to cogitate more
information either for or against this vision.

In the Cyberpunk world there is a distinct downward spiral. You have no culture, hovering in
the limbo. Even ethnic groups and nations are
no longer clearly drawn, communication has
made the world one small place, so too has
traveling quickly become inexpensive and possible making it physically small as well.

The style of Cyberpunk has shifted even on

the gaming table. The original story in the book
was about street operatives people eking out
their living while enjoying the fruit of freedom.
In today's Cyberpunk they are better armed,
but they are more aware of their surroundings.
Gone are the times when being scared meant
you never knew when a booster gang might
drop by. Now scared means you are trying to
figure out what exactly corp. Y is asking of
corp. Z, and who or what is X and how does it
all relate to the grand scheme of things (us).

Governments and corporations fight over dominance over each other, the Media is its playing
field and the minds of its youth its target. Each
one tries to lure you to its own set of rules on
what is right. The Alternatives are also its own
power structure, it is a voice of moderation
and responsibility in a world without responsibility or moderation. They would be considered to be the punks, outcasts out of
Cyberpunk society. They are proactive in a
world which is reactive.

Edgerunner Magazine

Suffice it to say that Cyberpunk has existed

more than ten years and it has been long overdue for it to restock its surroundings. I leave
you to your own judgment.

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submissions
What I'm asking for are previously unpublished
articles about Cyberpunk or roleplaying in general. They do not need to be long, a page or
three. Actually, overly long articles will be cut
into parts to be published in the following issue.
The articles themselves can be anything from
a design of gear to a treatise on the nature of
Cyberpunk.
The only thing I demand is that the English
language is clear. I have better things to do
with my time than checking grammar of articles. Although with a little bribing *grin*, I'll
look through it and do necessary correction
work. Don't forget to add a title and your name
on the top of the article!
As for format, simple text format please. That
way I can open your article without problems
and convert it into html.
New Edgerunner will be published once a
month.
Questions, submissions to:
lauri_gardner@yahoo.com

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Edgerunner Magazine