Looking for Ruleset Recommendation

[sp]

Hi everybody. Um... "Longtime listener, first-time caller?"

I'm hoping you can help me figure out which THW ruleset bets fits my needs. (Desires? That's probably more accurate...)

I'm willing and able to hack and adjust rules to fit, so while I understand there may not be 100% alignment with my "wish list", I'm happy to hear "close" recommendations that I can file down or pad to fit my wish list:

LOOKING FOR:
- Near future / cyberpunk setting
- RPG-Lite skeleton for campaign building
- Minis on tabletop with terrain and measuring tapes
- Support for non-combat NPC encounters & story-building
- Assumed combat encounter in the range of 1-5 figures on the player side, but scalable to full-platoon-ish
- Dealing with non-combatants / civilians during encounters (such as, a firefight breaks out on a city street, a protest turns into a riot, crowd reactions, etc.)

NOT LOOKING FOR (would probably ignore or rule around these elements, if present):
- Post/Apocalyptic
- Zombies
- Traditional Military focus
- Magic / Psionics
- Non-human alien or fantasy races/species

Any recommendations are much appreciated! That's the meat of the post, but since I'm on a roll typing, I might as well keep going with lots of detailed background:

I avoided miniature gaming or collecting for decades. Because I'm not in a financial league to swap the mortgage for a Warhammer army. I tried to try Infinity a few years ago, but even with a small number of gorgeous miniatures, the financial and storage space requirements added up exponentially fast. Not to mention, given the last time I tried to organize a casual game among friends, the three of us spent three months trying to find a time we could all sit down for a few hours before giving it up.

Then last Christmas, I received a copy of Cyberpunk Red, and got myself another gaming itch. "Just want to have a game," said I to myself, "I can probably solo this." So, I practice with some combat rules, writing a basic AI for the bad guys, realize this really wants a tabletop and figures, decide maybe I can convince myself to spend a chunk of paycheck on minis after all these years--and only then did I discover 15mm scale. "You mean I can field a full squad for the cost of a single GW or Infinity CHARACTER?" Started playing a solo, tabletop miniature wargame hack of Cyberpunk RED with whichever Cyberpunk 2020 elements I felt like including, using home-printed 15mm paper silhouettes glued to #10 washers with books and cardboard box terrain, while looking at what sort of 15mm miniatures might be available online to fit the setting.

It was while treating myself to about 100 in-theme figures from Rebel Minis that I discovered the Two Hour Wargames rulesets. "Huh! I maybe don't need to fit a group RPG peg into a solo tabletop hole--here's a core ruleset that does everything I'm looking for!"

Before then, it had been... twenty or twenth-five years since I did any real gaming of the sort? And since, I've had a dozen games (mostly solo, but a few with my wife or my father) as I try to get the rules committed to memory.

So far, I've been playing mostly base Chain Reaction, but have started incorporating elements from the NUTS! and After the End of Days rules that I bought.

Anyway. There you have it. So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying the solo-skirmishing I've been doing lately, but if there is a specific rulebook (or collection of rulebooks?) that accurately captures a sorta street-level cyberpunk Blade Runner / Altered Carbon / William Gibson Novel kind of environment... I'd be thrilled to learn about it.

Thanks!

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

5150 New Beginnings

This is the best bet. The core book is all you need; the others are if you want to expand. The deck speeds play up but is not needed, just saves you time in looking up tables in the book. There are aliens but not needed to play with. You can run totally human adventures. You've played some THW so this will be easy to use. All about the Story. Hope this helps,
Ed

[atomicfloozy]

Hi, I incorporate a lot of Cyberpunk Red & Cyberpunk 2020 setting & gear into my games. I use the science fiction ruleset, 5150: New Beginnings (the new edition). I just ignore the sections dealing with aliens & most of the space travel (there is limited space travel in cyberpunk & the author of Cyberpunk 2020/Red wrote a supplement "Deep Space" for Cyberpunk.

There isn't a specific cyberpunk genre ruleset. You could do as I do & use the New Beginnings, or you could use 5150: No Limits now sold by Rebel Minis, which is what I used before New Beginnings was released, or you could apply elbow grease & use the Chain Reaction 2015 rules to drive Cyberpunk Red - in other words use Chain Reaction to drive the NPCs, movement, & to do combat while using the gear & characters generated in Cyberpunk Red, just be sure to assign your characters a Rep for the Chain Reaction engine.

There are several posts on my blog using 5150: New Beginnings - a how to are the posts dealing with Mr. Morimoto's package, I used the battle board for this encounter, but could have used a full tabletop if I had wanted. I'm also including a link to a Cyberpunk game I played using 5150: No Limits. Hope this helps.

Mr. Morimoto's Package Part One


Star Punk Dreams Part One

[sp]

Thank you both for the quick replies!

I'd seen New Beginnings in the THW store, but these responses confirm that's the way to go.

Now I may have some new plans for this weekend! Hmm..

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

As for Cyberpunking, NB has lots of it handled in a smooth way. Physical Enhancements, Sensory Enhancements, Implants, Loops, tons of stuff to modify your characters. Don't get me started on the Symons or Cyndee. Plus 11 different neighborhoods to move through. And no two games will play out the same. I've added the Down the Road Player's aid to show you how the Stories can unfold.


5150 Down the Road v5-23-21.pdf (276.72 KB)

[sp]

May 11, 2022 19:15:34 GMT Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy said:

As for Cyberpunking, NB has lots of it handled in a smooth way. Physical Enhancements, Sensory Enhancements, Implants, Loops, tons of stuff to modify your characters. Don't get me started on the Symons or Cyndee. Plus 11 different neighborhoods to move through. And no two games will play out the same. I've added the Down the Road Player's aid to show you how the Stories can unfold.


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That is very cool. The built-in campaign generators are one of my favorite aspects of the THW rulesets--even the basic patrol/attack/defend loop adds narrative and scalability without needing to have either a formal scenario document for each encounter on the one hand or a "just wipe everybody out" goal on the other hand.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

It also makes Leaving the Encounter/Mission something you may need to do.