The Cyberpunk TCG goes out on Kickstarter tomorrow, March 17. Set in the gritty, high-tech world of Night City, it sees players assemble a crew of edgerunners from the gang members and corporations that this setting has lying about in spades.
We spoke to Richard Zapp, head of game design at creator WeirdCo, and he told us that The Cyberpunk TCG is a game that can be played for decades. Right now, the company’s road map is already fleshed out with “over five years of new gameplay mechanics and themes in the pipeline”.
According to Zapp, going down the crowdfunding route will help WeirdCo bypass many of the problems that plague new trading card games: those of distribution and scalping.
“One of our strongest motivators for launching through our Kickstarter platform is to protect accessibility. Proper supply to demand is one of the hardest things to nail on a TCG release, and Kickstarter gives us the ability to truly understand initial and future demand,” he explains.
Launching through Kickstarter also ensures that invested fans will be able to access the cards without having to shoulder past people only interested in resell value.
At first glance, Cyberpunk has a lot of similarities to other TCGs, with units you can pay for with resources, then send into combat to attack or block. Like Magic’s commander format (or the recent Riftbound TCG), decks have color-based restrictions, defined by ‘Legend’ characters that you play from a separate zone. And like several new games that have emerged in the last few years, Cyberpunk lets you convert the cards in your hand into the resources that you spend on other cards.
But the game’s unique aspects really stand out. For one thing, this is one of the few trading card games that includes dice. And these are far more than just a gimmick; they’re fundamental to how the game is played and won.
Each turn in Cyberpunk a player rolls a die, called a ‘gig’, and places it on the landed result. These dice can be manipulated by various cards, and their total defines your ‘street cred’, with some cards requiring a certain street cred value before they can be played.
You also need to start your turn with six gigs to win the game. When you attack your opponent, instead of dealing damage to a lifepool, you get to steal their dice, making for an interesting push-and-pull feeling that defines the rhythm of this game.
This mechanic is a nod to Cyberpunk’s TTRPG origins and it uses all the classic RPG dice, from a D4 all the way up to a D20. I think there’s a lot of unique design space WeirdCo can play with here, and some interesting decision points when it comes to what gigs you should roll and which you should steal. For example, the Legend card Jackie Wells can increase a dice total by 2, and lets you draw a card if it hits its maximum value. This could give you a totally different priority than other cards that only care about high street cred.
“Ultimately, it helps make sure no two games feel the same while allowing many new design knobs players can explore,” says Zapp.
While I drew a comparison to commander, Cyberpunk’s legends system is actually quite different. For one thing, you have three Legend cards which start face down in a special zone. This creates hidden information for both players. Your opponent doesn’t know what you have and you don’t know which of your Legends is which until you pay to flip them up.
“We love the surprises and plot twists that part of the mechanic can offer – and offering mechanics and tools that provide information about players’ Legends is a fun mini-game,” Zapp says. “Matches that you can predict the outcome can feel stale – hidden information helps make every game fresh!”
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Source: Wargamer
