A Rant Regarding the Interlock vs. Fuzion Debate

There's been a lot of paranoia and hard feelings going around lately regarding the announcement by Mike Pondsmith that the next edition of Cyberpunk, titled Cyberpunk 203X, will use the Fuzion rules. In an effort to calm some of the wild fears and downright reactionary paranoia, here is a brief history of the Cyberpunk game and the Interlock system, as well as a calm explanation of what Fuzion is all about.

Cyberpunk by R.Talsorian Games has been around since 1988. Cyberpunk used a variation of the Interlock system introduced for R.Talsorian's other game, Mekton II. In 1990, the second edition of Cyberpunk, called Cyberpunk 2020, made several changes to its version of Interlock. Almost all of the rules were completely redone and retooled.

R.Talsorian has promised a third edition of Cyberpunk, and with it further changes to the rules. This time around, the rules have also changed names. The Interlock system is now called the Fuzion system, so-named because it introduces elements from another popular game system, the HERO system, and "fuses" the two together. Fuzion, itself, has undergone several variations, similar to its previous Interlock incarnation. Each Fuzion variant is as similar to, and as different from, each other as the Interlock-based as Cyberpunk, Mekton, and Cybergeneration variations of Interlock were. Fuzion offers a lot of customizable options. Using a system of "switches", allowing certain rules to be "on" or "off"; "dials", allowing settings to be changed from genre to genre; and "plug-ins", entire rules-sets that may be used in a game at a GM's discretion.

This built-in customization allows Fuzion to be molded, adapted, and modified to fit any genre. The "Core" Fuzion rules, without customization, can do a good job of approximating the feel of most genres, but not very well. Therefore, each Fuzion game must be customized to fit it's genre and setting.

What's Different About Fuzion?

The changes are actually quite minor in respect to the previous changes from first to second edition. What's different includes:

• point-based character generation system instead of random die-rolls
• optional character advantage-disadvantage system
• built-in customizability through switches, dials, and plug-ins
• simple Hits/Stun points-based damage system
• new combat actions
• less deadly and more detailed hand-to-hand combat rules

Everything else is essentially unchanged from Mekton’s Interlock rules.

What I Would Change.

To make Fuzion more like Cyberpunk in gameplay and style, I would make some changes. These include specifying the 3d6 dice-rolling mechanic from Bubblegum Crisis:RPG instead of giving the option of 1d10 or 3d6 as provided in other Fuzion games, this was to reduce confusion. In addition, I have decided to keep the original Cyberpunk weapons damage instead of using the Fuzion flat DC system. This was in an attempt to reduce conversion between systems. I would also make some minor changes to the skill system, importing skills and skill multipliers from Cyberpunk 2020, again to reduce conversion. I would also import the Cyberpunk 2020 shooting mechanic of firing against a range difficulty instead of the Fuzion/Mekton opposed roll difficulty. I would also import and change several of the shooting difficulty modifiers. Lastly, I would make some minor changes to the combat actions such as autofire.

To see what some of the changes would look like, and how it would alter the base Fuzion rules, see Basic CyberFuzion, my attempt to produce a set of Fuzion rules as close to my vision of Cyberpunk 3.0 as possible.