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Review of Cyberworld: Dark Ages of The 21st Century
The book is in a word beautiful. 222 pages of black and white photos of people playing in the larp environment. and the layout was clear concise and logical. but this is where the good news stops. The rules for cyberworld are an obvious cross, between cyberpunk 2020, and White Wolf's Mind's eye theatre system. Character creation starts by choosing a role ala cyberpunk with roles like Cop, Executive, Mercenary. in fact with the exception of two classes (Powerarmor pilot and Power armor tech) the roles are all carbon copy Cyberpunk roles. In fact converting CP characters to Cyberworld is almost a simple matter of changing symantics. calling a net runner a Virtech for example. each role has a specified number of skills and one role exclusive skill just like Cyberpunk and stats run from 1-10 just like cyberpunk. Skills also run on the cyberpunk skill of 1-10. but here is where the differences end.
The matters of task resolution are handled almost identically to those in any White wolf larp. the main way of contesting something is doen via paper, rock, scissors (even the Bomb is included) the only real difference is that the system does not include the whole concept of bidding stats. The stats are used instead to decide both static tasks (if your stat skill is higher than the GM based dificulty you succeed, easy huh?) The problem is that these two systems make a really clunky system, which is not really suitable for either larping or sit down gaming.
Too much record keeping for the larpers and not enough system for the sit down crowd.
The genre is very much generic cyberpunk no real flavor to set it apart. It's pretty apparent that the boys at Dark age games have read Cyberpunk 200 second edition, on even a cursory reading. which is my biggest problem with the system. there si almost nothing original here, and what is original has the feel of being changed just enough to keep thier buts out of litigation. all in all a disapointing larp.
