Cyberpsychosis In Cyberpunk Red

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Mike's Comment On Cyberpsychosis:

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:32 Cyberpsychosis Mechanics
03:46 Mike Pondsmith On Cyberpsychosis
06:30 Cyberpsycho NPCs
07:07 NPC: The Wandering Psycho
08:17 NPC: The Shaky Ally
09:09 NPC: The Final Boss
10:01 Outro Conclusion

Music by Draken RPG. Special thanks to them.

[jerusalaim]

cyberpunk red has a fascinating system for cyberpsychosis, at 2 humanity you have borderline cyberpsychosis, at 1 you have borderline cyberpsychosis and at 0 you have full cyberpsychosis but are still somehow in control (kind of like main in the end, moments of lucidity in a see of psychosis), however if your humanity goes below 0 then you go full out of control and give the dm your character sheet.

[marcoliver]

I think i'm going to ask my players what their characters main goal is, what is their deepest desire... then if they go cyberpsychotic the psycho character will go after that goal with the limiters off - straight line, no consideration for the safety of others or themselves. "Arasaka Tower - all the way to the top!"

[Jawn]

I love the idea of a beloved NPC slowly over the course of the campaign succumbing to cyberpsychosis. Or maybe they get scooped up by maelstrom and they throw a bunch of chrome on them just to see what happens.

[Jinxonxanax]

I made an homebrew rule I call: "the line"
basicly the player or npc as a "line" he doesn't cross. if the player/npc didn't cross that line sane he wont cross it during psychosis.

for exemple. pairotto the chromed up ronin smokes incense during down time and never fights while smelling incense. durring psychosis a player lights up incense and pairotto comes back to his senses

[noahmewhinney]

Petition to call cyberpunk gms punk masters 🙋‍♂️

[seeinred]

I don't really know the tablettop, but in context of 2077 there was a clear indication (in one of the sidequests) that maxtac recruits cyberpsychos. So that is on the menu of tabletop too, i imagine.

[Plax]

Hell yeah, great vid. The CP Red app has a prebuilt cyberpsycho NPC that I use as the character sheet for big boss cyberpsychos. I think it's pretty balanced despite being really tough.

[lordzaboem]

Great vid, I especially like how you broke how the process of cyberpsychosis is individualistic. The failing ally is a great hook that I have never thought to use.

If you ever make a follow-up, I hope you go into the symptoms. Just as every descent into cyberpsychosis is different, the symptoms are just as diverse.

I had an NPC cyberpsycho with no visible chrome and no cyberweapons. He went too far with neural implants and skill chips. The guy was an ethical monster who saw other living people as financial resources to get harvested, but he acted normal enough to speak with him.

[JesseBrohinsky]

I just made an interesting connection -- One of the things that is interesting about David Martinez is his ability to take on a huge amount of Cyberware. If your susceptibility to Cyberpsychosis is based on your humanity, which is Empathy stat * 10, then mechanically the thing allowing David to have so much capacity for chrome is his empathy. Which I think works really well from a narrative perspective too.

[BigDunTitus]

Great ideas how to use Cyberpsychosis, I love the idea of an ally coming back throughout the campaign worse and worse, having something like an encounter with a wandering cyberpsycho set them off.

[chadsigmarson]

Old video but I still feel like sharing. I love the "left 4 dead witch" concept. A theoretocally harmless Cyberpsycho in their appartment or streets or whatever. I just recently had a player die to one because his character was very religious and could not ignore the Psycho. That concept is great for a "biting off more than they could chew" scenario for your players.

[Holygarch]

A lot of interesting stuff. I personally got an npc which is on the verge of Cyberpsycosis but at the same time he's (or it's gonna be, unluckily never used him yet xD) one of the main allies of the team, a true edgerunner who fought the war and created a group that's as well ally of the protagonists, but not on the verge. So when he's gonna freak out, a domino effect will take place. Hopefully I'll use him sooner or later xD

[hollowman]

I like who each type of cyberpsycho that you talk about matches with the cyberpsychos that David's crew meets throughout the series:
First we have the wandering cyberpsycho in the form of the hobo that kills pillar.
Then we have the shaky ally in the form of Maine, who David tries so hard to save.
And for the finale, we have Final Boss Adam Smasher who is described as being a "high functioning cyberpsycho".

[NotTsurugi]

I always love the idea of exploring Cyberpsychosis as a player. I'm the type of player who has too many character concepts and too little time to play them. I feel like I'd love to make a character that as the campaign goes on, becomes slowly and slowly more decked out in chrome, and eventually goes full Cyberpsycho. I'd also love to player character with a high empathy that does that so I can really explore what it's like to fully rely on Chrome more than your own body, and I feel like that's generally what Cyberpsychosis is all about.

People eventually end up relying on the Chrome more than their own Human body, just like how people addicted to Steroids end up relying on that more than their own body.
I think that is an insanely GENIUS concept as a game mechanic and from a writing/narrative standpoint, and it's easily one of my favorite aspects of Cyberpunk.

[dylkiller]

Got a great story in a cyberpunk westmarch server I made. Me and another player who moved in together to make rent easier to pay both got linear frames. My character was a veteran of the 4th corporate war and the other player had an ex-boosterganger fashion designer, both of us are techs. They got the vermillion frame out of black chrome and i gor a linear beta frame from the core book, and now both of us are at 2 empathy and experiencing borderline traits. Lace (the fashion designer) is experiencing flashbacks to her previous love affairs where her exes went cyberpsycho during the gang wars, meanwhile my character (who is named Solomon) is experiencing PTSD-like symptoms, shell shock, and hallucinations like corporate soldiers heads peeking around corners or rubble covering his body when there is none.

The best part is that Solomon is planning on therapy, but Lace is worried about what the doctors may do to her if they find out she was a booster, but my character needs to wait a little while before he can do therapy, so he's spending his time trying to get her to come with him.

[SpartanG]

Oh yeah, I remember that final boss psycho! That shit was INTENSE!

[gorrister]

I love the idea of a therapy to join the Mercer religion and need to care for a therapy animal for a week.

[kelmirosue]

While I never played the game myself. The way I'd probably handle this is a private session where the player gets to fight off whatever fits the narrative at the time, until their character dies

[mdsx]

One thing that I like to do when a player has any kind of psychosis effect is to let them act as normal, but I roll to see if they "loose it" a bit. Even more fun if the rest dont know why Im rolling.

[danmaertens]

I’m pretty much gonna watch all your videos about this stuff because I need to do research for this upcoming game. I’m gonna be playing in and your content is extremely helpful and very easy to digest and listen to thank you so much for your efforts.