By Pondsmith Listen Up, You Primitive Screwheads!!! The Unexpurgated Cyberpunk Referee's Guide [Paperback]

CyberPunk 2020 Role-Playing Game

by Mike Pondsmith

The Referee Book. Dirty tricks from some of our most opinionated authors as well as the creator himself.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Cyberpunk, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Gaming

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Michael Alyn Pondsmith is an American roleplaying, board, and video game designer. He founded the publisher R. Talsorian Games in 1982, where he developed a majority of the company's role-playing game lines. Pondsmith is the author of several RPG lines, including Mekton (1984), Cyberpunk (1988) and Castle Falkenstein (1994). He also contributed to the Forgotten Realms and Oriental Adventures lines of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, worked in various capacities on video games, and authored or co-created several board games. Pondsmith also worked as an instructor at the DigiPen Institute of Technology.

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published back in the early 1990s, this Referre's Guide is still-relevant read for fans of Cyberpunk RED.

[Goob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the best GM advice ive ever read

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why did I read a nearly 30 year old book about running a game I've yet to play? Moreover, I'm not currently playing or running any games, so what gives?

Curiosity initially drove me to reading this and other books like it. But once I started reading them, I realized these are all books by creatives who are sharing stories about world craft and working with others. That means there's always something to take away.

Cyberpunk is Mike Pondsmith's game about a near-future dystopia...that was originally 2020. We should be grateful he was off in his prognostications. The world isn't run by mega corporations so powerful they have their own militaries. No, our world is one in which the corporations have no direct military influence and are much less obvious about the power they hold. But then again we live in a world in which an eccentric billionaire is able to disrupt a military strike that was to occur during a war between two foreign nations. Our dystopia looks different.

I appreciate how this book approaches seeing and building a world. There's also looking at characters and how they can fit into a world. RPGs often (but not always) include character classes that more or less direct how players play a game. But a class isn't just one thing, just as a professional skill set in real life isn't just good for one thing. In Cyberpunk a rocker character simply has the power of influence, which isn't something that needs to be limited to just being in a band. They could be a politician, or a civil rights leader. When you imagine a character in a story with a certain set of skills, you don't need to go to the most obvious place with them.

There's more I could go on about, but I know most people who see my reviews have no reason to read this book whatsoever, and that's fine. I read it and appreciated it. But it only gets 4 stars because it's full of typos and the oversized trade format makes for a rough read despite the fact that it physically makes it a good shelf companion for the core rulebook.

[Damian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to GMs in almost any tabletop RPG system, as the majority of the advice in it, while tailored in examples and specifics to Cyberpunk 2020, is useful for the tabletop in general. Even "never-GM" players may get a lot out of this book, both in better understanding of their GM and in learning how to be a better player for the sake of everyone at the table.

I should note that a good bit of the content in this book is presented with attitude befitting the system it was written for, so if the title didn't clue you in, there are a few places where the contributors take what some might consider cheap shots at other game systems or certain types of players or GMs, as well as a couple of segments that veer right up to the edge of '90s social commentary. But all of this is done without the foul language or mean-spiritedness you would expect from such things these days. The only other con I can think to mention would be the many misspellings and grammatical mistakes littered throughout the book, which seems par for the course for R. Talsorian's earlier releases--to be fair to them though, I doubt it'd be worth the time or money for them to correct them at this point, and they never get so bad as to affect the reader's understanding.

All in all, I have nothing but praise for this book. It's well worth purchasing for any GM in any system who is looking for advice on how to run (and enjoy) better games, thrill and excite everyone around the table, or put the fear of God into players who stray too far off the rails. Highly recommended.

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today this book would exist as a series of blog posts on the company's web page. But when this came out, the internet was not quite so ubiquitous, and a print version was still considered handy. It consists of several R. Talsorian staffers giving advice on running 'Cyberpunk 2020.' That's basically it. They deal with everything from making character backgrounds more integral to a campaign, to dealing with overbalanced technology, to keeping problem players in their place. Each author has a different take, and the book works as a kind of conversation between them. There are definitely some good ideas, and for a beginning game master/referee, I think it would be very helpful. Heck, as an experienced GM, it had some helpful bits, too. While it's mostly specific to 'Cyberpunk 2020' (and a bit for 'CyberGeneration'), some of the advice is helpful for any roleplaying game. I paid $10. for this when it came out, and it's worth that. I see it going for over $40. online now. It's not worth that. I'm sure you could find all this info, perhaps worded differently, on any given online discussion about the running of RPGs.

[Evin Grody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up on the recommendation of tiktok creator/wonderful human basicsofthegame as just a general all ‘round good resource for crafting better RPG campaigns and ideas for managing dynamics (story-wise and player-wise). Is written specifically for Cyberpunk 2020 but absolutely applicable to all RPGs/building stories generally.
Also appreciated that, even though written decades ago, at least some of the authors are well aware that “he” is *not* the only default for players, a lesson some _still_ haven’t picked up even after all said aforementioned decades…
Also definitely funny (… sure “funny”? In the darkest humour) to be reading about a cyberpunk “2020” imagined in the 80s/90s after/currently still living through the extended edition of the never-ending actual Epoch of 2020… and also how do I have to frag to get a skin-weave?

[Juan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed listen up, you primitive screwheads. It's a very cool referee/GM guide, packed with amazing advice and ideas. From general mastering tips and tricks, through story ideas to the science and sociology behind the cyberpunk world. What an amazing and timeless book, even after more than 20 years it's a joy to read, and it's as valuable today as when it was first published.

[Junn · Rating 5 out of 5]

De lo mejor que he leído sobre teoría de dirección de juego para rol.
No sólo es un punto de partida perfecto para el setting ciberpunk. Son consejos que pueden hacer cualquier juego de rol más interesante, y dar buenos puntos de partida para aventuras de carácter más social.
Imprescindible si dirijes Cyberpunk 2020 o similares, pero se lo recomendaría a cualquier DJ.

[Nikolay Golubev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Хорошие идеи и полезные советы вперемешку с ужасными. Рельсы, произвол - без этого книга была бы в пару раз тоньше, но вызвала бы больше положительных эмоций.

[Robert Gilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice guide for running cyberpunk campaigns. Doesn't even matter what system you use, you will find ideas and useful advice for your game.