The ad for Iron Crown Enterprises' (ICE) new "Cyberspace" roleplaying game reads:
"Set in the gritty near future where Megacorporation repression collides with Sprawl street warfare. Muscle-grafted Punks and jacked in Netheads crawl out of the gutters to scrap Media Stars and Cybernetic Mercenaries, a conflict beyond Good and 
Evil. From depraved polluted cities to the surreal beauty of Earth's global computer matrix, this is the world of Cyberspace!"
"Cyberspace" (registered trademark!) is a 208-page book containing all the basic rules for combat, action resolution and character generation in a c-punk world of 2090. Player development includes creating cybernetic enhancements, computer implants, and various other personal "improvements." A fairly comprehensive outline of a degenerate future is included (with major events time line) along with an introductory roleplaying adventure.
The gamebook is beautifully laid out and has that exhaustive (to a fault) detail for which ICE games ("Middle Earth RPG," "Rolemaster") are famous. I have not played "Cyberspace," so I can't critique its playability. It looks like fun, especially if you're willing to become a rules lawyer and if you have a world of patience and free time. Unfortunately, the writing is horrible and the text is annoyingly full of typos. This made me a bit suspicious of the game. Something about it seems false, more contrived than Blankenship's "GURPS Cyberpunk." My experience with RPG's has been that if the writing is shoddy, the game often is, too. I'd be interested to hear what people think who have played "Cyberspace" (registered trademark!)
(G. Branwyn)
Links:
ACCESS:
Cyberspace
ICE
PO Box 1605
Charlottesville, VA 22902
1989, 208pp, $18.00
Here is the TEXT POPUP for Cyberspace - game:
We Make Everything You Need
You Need Everything We Make
-slogan for Universal Products Megacorp.
The world represented in Cyberspace may seem at first to be brutal, evil, almost an allegory of the present. In a way it is. But consider the trends in modern society. We tolerate things to day that were unthinkable fifty years ago. Just look at our world today. We also take for granted things which were either ridiculous luxuries or simply unavailable just a few decades past. Entertainment, communication and travel have all been revolutionized - the latter two to the point that only permutations and refinements (gimmicks) remain to be seen.
Illicit Drugs
Colorama: Another popular hallucinogen (primarily visual), with none of the confusing side-effects often caused by such drugs. Colors seem much more intense, and conversation verges on the cosmic. Colorama users tend to engage passers-by in lengthy, rambling conversations which are difficult to relate to.
Neoheroin: An endorphin analog which blocks pain reception completely (pain and shock Mods are eliminated). In addition, user's imagination becomes very active, and all maneuvers involving SD Stat receive a -20 penalty.
