Playing the Corporate Baddies
Draw from real life, avoid the myths. and treat them like the antagonists they are.
Many cyberpunk games (or rather conversations on social media about cyberpunk games) share a rule: you don't do jobs for corporations. It's a sound rule. Especially if you want to signal to strangers, "No, the cops and corporations are not misunderstood good guys. They're the bad guys."
Here's the thing, though. If you can trust the group, set up safety tools—and they're open to it—dangle the corporation's job. Make it look enticing or necessary. Hint at the danger. Make NPCs warn them. Then—play the corporation like a corporation.
There are many ways to start a cyberpunk campaign, but none motivate the players or nail the genre better, than an evil corporation at its center.
Three myths about corpos.
Most depictions of corporations are pure fantasy—between the cyberpunk setting and the real world, the real corporation is much worse. I'm genuinely surprised by what cyberpunk characters do in response to their corporations' behavior—if they only knew how much more infuriating the real ones are…
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