There is one crucial element from the Cyberpunk 2077 videogame that DMs aren’t completely aware of. As DMs, we can often feel like knowing about a specific game or campaign isn’t enough. The best DMs are often proficient in skills like improvisation, accents and even understanding narrative structures (which we can explain in detail in a future article).
Nevertheless, our true main goal is not just to “run a campaign“, but to make every single player in it feel like they’re living a true adventure, completely immersed in the story.
Cyberpunk 2077
We recently saw the upcoming Cyberpunk RPG game: Cyberpunk Red. Now, Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed until December 10th who knows when, but the premise of the new RPG is clear: the old Cyberpunk tabletop RPG.
“So why does that matter? Why is Cyberpunk 2077 being mentioned a second time in the tavern? When did it become a futuristic cybertavern?” Don’t worry, the tavern is the same as always, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate other inspiration sources for our own DM skills as well.
Yes, we know Cyberpunk 2077 is a videogame, but as we mentioned in this post, its core gameplay mechanic revolves around decision making and exploring, and just like classic tabletop RPG games (especially Cyberpunk 2020), it’s not your typical linear videogame.
Every dialogue in the game offers different response options that will actually matter in the main story and alter the world you play in, your lifepath (or backstory for us D&D enthusiasts) also matters tremendously up until the end, every weapon choice, the clothes you wear and even physical elements that you pick in your character creation are crucial for the story as well.
This not only makes Cyberpunk 2077 a great option to test out, but an amazing tool for DMs to learn from and to extract new ways to carry out decision making mechanics for our own games: new cause-effect events, new opportunities opening up for players, new player choice paths, new themes uncovered, and a whole bunch of creative consequences that every decision could perpetuate.
This upcoming videogame promises deep and rich decision making story pathways as well, which is something definitely valuable and worth looking for us DMs. This is why we strongly suggest you to check it out even if you’re not really a videogame fan.
System Requirements
So, what do you need to run it? Well, first of all you would need either a PC or a console. Its compatible platforms are:
• PlayStation 4
• PlayStation 5
• Stadia
• Xbox One
• Xbox Series X/S
• Microsoft Windows
But still, we would like to dive deeper into the PC requirements, as you need to strategize your PC purchase, unless you’re willing to spend on a decent pre-built PC such as this one (the downside to this is that it might cost more than if you build it yourself).
Minimum system requirements (low settings, 1080p)
• Core i5-3570K
• GTX 780 3GB (or RX 470 4GB)
• 8GB RAM
• 70GB storage
• Windows 7 or Windows 10 64-bit
These are the latest minimum specs from CD Projekt Red, the company behind the game. Anything past the “High” specs with ray tracing off should be more than enough to play the game smoothly while looking good (not with max. settings). We could go on and on about various recommended system requirements, but this is not really the place for it. That’s why we’re offering the following recommended PC builds:
Budget PC specs
• Ryzen 5 3600XT
• B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac
• Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR4-3200
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 500GB
• EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 Super
• Apevia Aura-S-BK Mid Tower Gaming Case
• Segotep 600W 80 Plus Gold
Will this recommended build be able to run Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings, with ray tracing on and 60+ fps? Probably not (if you really would like that, check out the next recommended PC build), but it does provide a truly decent performance.
Reccommended PC specs
• Core i7-10700
• GeForce RTX 3080 (a lot cheaper when availability improves)
• NZXT Kraken X63
• Asus TUF Gaming Z490-Plus
• Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR4-3200
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 500GB
• Apevia Aura-S-BK Mid Tower Gaming Case
• Thermaltake GF1 850W Gold
Optimized Games
The term “game optimization” is basically the process of making the game run faster, better and/or smoother in each of its platforms. There is a very long list of games that were not optimized on launch, resulting in low fps, response time problems and the requirement of extremely high-end specs in order for them to run smoothly.
In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, we can see that the official requirements aren’t that high, which is common in optimized games. Also, the fact that its massive vertical world is only 70gb, are pretty good indicators that it’s probably very well optimized already, which means that we don’t need to spend a crazy amount of money for it to run properly.
Conclusion
We are truly hyped for the release of Cyberpunk 2077, being an apparently worthy successor of one of our favorite tabletop RPG games: Cyberpunk 2020. Also, we are excited to see the work of art (as some of the developers describe it) the questing teams have done regarding decision making pathways.
This is perfect for us DMs, as it will most definitely help us refine our storytelling skills, which makes us have an easier time making players feel immersed in the story they’re playing.
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