How to Cyberpunk in D&D 5e
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| ©Wizards of the Coast |
Back to where it all began: pen and paper roleplaying games. First, a word of advice: if you'd like to play in a cyberpunk setting, try game systems like Shadowrun (I want to play this, the videogames are fantastic by the way), The Sprawl, SIGMATA (I actually have this, but I've never been able to play it, thank you COVID) or go straight for the big boi Cyberpunk Red (or 2020, whatever you prefer). But if you don't have those games because you don't plan on spending any money on them or you do not have the time and will to learn other systems and you know D&D 5e, well keep on reading. Given our final purpose, it's only fitting that we are going to hack D&D.
The first impression would be that a game based on the fantasy genre would not work in a sci-fi setting as fantarealistic as cyberpunk. But what are the tropes of such genre? First, a distopian future where technology went for the wrong turn, causing more troubles than those it solves. Second, social and economic disparity, which in an extreme capitalistic system like the ones portrayed in cyberpunk (mega corporations, totalitarian governments) escalates crime, poverty, rebellion and repression. Third, the big question: what is "human"? Compare them to the tropes of high fantasy, which is the premise of D&D: the presence of magic, the eternal fight between good and evil, what it is to be a hero. They are not that different, you see? Hence why I think that playing a cyberpunk setting in D&D is not impossible and not even that difficult. You just need to work around it a little bit.
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The biggest issue is how to explain/incorporate magic. Shadowrun did this flawlessly by saying that magic and technology simply do coexist. Know that this is a very viable option and by far is the simplest. Look at Star Wars for example, or even Eberron and Exandria (to some extent). Instead you could simply root out magic, keeping classes that have no access to spells + the Artificer (because that is the most technology you can get) and reskinning magic objects to make them sci-fi devices or the like. Another way is to keep magic, but only for net-running (or hacking if you will). So classes like wizard and the like become useful only during the proper cyber parts of the game. Or just introduce nanotech devices that manipulate particles in such a way that the user can emit firebolts and so on. In the end, D&D spells are just additional effects that you can apply to the game and if you think of them in this way and not as "magic", I'm sure you can automatically figure out anything to use them.
Then we have to discuss about divine casters. Usually cyberpunk, being a distopian future of our world, does not have real deities interfering with mortals. While religious cults are perfectly conceivable and paranormal is not entirely out of the picture, it is still very hard to justify divine magic. Therefore clerics, druids and paladins (plus some other divine related classes) need some mental gymnastics to be placed correctly. I'd like to provide some ideas on this topic, but your solution may (and probably should) be diverse. Clerics could represent concepts rather than deities, if so their magic would simply be the same as those of bards, sorcerers, warlocks and wizards. The same goes for paladins, when their oath would be linked to a deity. It is rather simple to justify an Oath of Conquest, but is significantly harder for the Oath of the Ancients. Druids are the most difficult. At this moment I can only view them as a sort of biotech users with the ability to shapeshift by voluntarily recombining their DNA. A little too much for my tastes, I'll admit.
A smaller issue (which in fact I do not consider necessarily an issue) is the abstract concept of hit points and the big amount of hp pools that a character gets on later levels. To many this is what keeps D&D in the realm of unrealism; those many often do not consider what hps really are. As an abstract concept, they are a mix of bare health and will to carry on: more hp means that you are able to sustain physically and mentally more wounds. And if we think of them as a ratio, we can imagine that a character has become more capable of avoiding an attack's worse outcomes. An unexperienced character could outright die off of a goblin's stab; an experienced one, while still wounded by the same attack, is not so naive anymore to be caught out of guard and simply being stabbed in a vital point. [disclaimer: I'm not quite sure if I managed to explain myself here, for it is a complex concept and english is not my first language. I would find it difficult to explain this even in my native tongue, so bear with me] That said, since cyberpunk is full of prosthetics (and D&D has prosthetic limbs as common magic objects), I would recommend to use a couple of optional rule found in the DMG, the Injuries at page 272 and Massive Damage at page 273. These two would de-godify characters if you think that hp are totally unrealistic. I've already covered this topic in this previous article, if you are interested.
At last, races. If you don't mind mixing fantasy and cyberpunk, feel free to use them as they are. If you want to be strict, use only Human and Human Variant (and Warforged). The middle ground is to take racial traits as just a set of rules that represent human individuals with some augmentations. For example, Darkvision could be a common type of enhancement of one's eyes; Powerful Build could represent artificial muscles; Trance could be a modification to one's brain to make it less dependant on sleep. I can't obviously cover all racial traits, so use your imagination and judgement in this case. If some trait bugs you too much, simply swap it with another one.
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| ©Wizards of the Coast |
Years ago there was something called "d20 Modern", which essentially was D&D 3e but in the future (there was even a supplement called "d20 Future", just saying). Nothing official of this kind exists for D&D 5e (I bet you could still buy d20 Modern somewhere, if only in pdf form, or you can check its SRD on this wiki and hack your way from 3e to 5e), but with the help of an Unearthed Arcana and an article appeared in 2015 on D&D's official website you have something to start off. I especially like the subclass for the Warlock, for example.
In the end, this hack requires three things: a clear statement on the status of magic; an agreement on flavoring abilities, effects and eventually spell, among all the players (yes, this includes the DM) to give the "tech" feel; extra rules (official or homebrewed).
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Let's talk about inspiration. There are plenty of books, comics, videogames and movies about cyberpunk, but if you were to stick to the bare minimum I'd suggest reading Neuromancer by William Gibson and watching the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie by Mamoru Oshii.
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| You can't get more cyberpunk than this frame, deal with it. |
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| I mean, come on. How wonderful is this movie? |
- Cyber Ninja: almost self-explanatory.
- Suggested class: Monk, Rogue
- Suggested background: Acolyte, Criminal/Spy, Faction Agent, Urchin
- Detective: again, self-explanatory.
- Suggested class: Bard, Rogue
- Suggested background: City Watch/Investigator, Soldier
- Hacker: an IT expert with a passion for cyber attacks.
- Suggested class: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
- Suggested background: Charlatan, Criminal/Spy, Haunted One, Hermit, Sage, Mercenary Veteran, Soldier
- Military/Mercenary: actual soldiers or soldiers for hire.
- Suggested class: Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue
- Suggested background: Marine, Mercenary Veteran, Soldier
- Scientist/Technician: biology/technology/whatever savant.
- Suggested class: Artificer, Wizard
- Suggested background: Anthropologist, Archaeologist, Cloistered Scholar, Guild Artisan, Hermit, Sage, Shipwright
- Street Samurai: usually a sellsword for mob bosses or corporations.
- Suggested class: Fighter, Rogue, Warlock (Pact of the Blade)
- Suggested background: Criminal, Gladiator, Mercenary Veteran, Soldier, Smuggler, Urban Bounty Hunter, Urchin
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