Cyberpunk has always been about mood. More than any other role-playing system that I have been involved in. Music and atmosphere have formed an integral bond to provide more than just a bunch of punks sitting round a living room table drinking soda and eating pizza. Music can define everything from that feeling of anticipation to enhancing the rush of adrenalin as the Red Chrome Legion hunt you down, their razor sharp wolvers glistening in the moonlight.
We'll steal your dreams
Control your minds
Persecute the fools, Left behind
The realm of the freaks
Is to solve the demise
Ravage the lifeless, Blinded by lies
Provision - Front Line Assembly
Rocker's have the power of Charisma, the ability to draw crowds of people together in order to preach their message of rebellion. Rockerboys are the social conscience of 2020. As the Corporate machine rolls forward, consuming everything in it's path, it's the Rockers who inform, enlighten, and all too often incite.
The primary ability of the Rocker character in the Cyberpunk CCG is using their power in the lowering of a location or Operation's M-Sec. When used during the Legwork phase, a Rocker can subtract his full power value from the M-Sec of an Operation you control, or ANY Location in play. So, the more Rocker's you have on your side, the easier your primary strike teams find it to run your Operations or destroy your opponent's key Locations. With a couple of Rockers and a couple of Netrunners working behind the scenes, it's possible to reduce hits to levels that a single runner can complete.
As it stands in the game now, Rockers, like Fixers and Tech's seem to play second fiddle to Solo's, Nomad's and Netrunners. The game is heavily slanted toward the more combat orientated characters and we only tend to see Rockers make an appearance in Style decks. However, there are strategies that can be employed that make the Rocker more useful than you would imagine, especially if you focus more on each individual Rocker's special talents, than their primary ability, or on a technique that allows them to incite a mob to effectively trash an entire neighborhood.
One team can run one Location and any number of Operations per turn as long as they have the Movement points available to them. Therefore multiple teams can run multiple Locations. By careful design and having several small teams, by using an army of Rockerboy's, it is possible for a player to trash 2-3 Locations a turn. Even if your opponent is putting into play 1-2 a turn, you can soon overrun him, especially if he has to stop drawing from his Run's Deck in order to get something to hit your Rockers with.
You might want to consider taking this one step further and attempt to build a deck with no Operations at all (except those like Gangs Bring Down Property Values which have no E-Sec component), your Ops Points are all accrued through destroying your opponents Locations. As long as you have some nice covering cards like Run and Hide, Ambushed and Trashin' the Corp Zone, if your opponent decides to try and defend his Locations, you can screw with his defenders to give your Rockerboy army the upper hand.
Johnny Silverhand
The Legend, the man himself. We all know the history of Johnny, Kerry Eurodyne, Bes Isis, and the band that was Samurai. In the Cyberpunk CCG, Johnny Silverhand is the Style Deck's coup de grace if you can get him out. Played the right way, he can provide almost a quarter of your Style points alone, but you MUST pack I Don't Think So or A Fool's Errand. If your opponent plays a well timed Poser, Silverhand is nothing more than a street hack wannabe.
That said, you want to make sure you can load him up with as much gear as you can - Cyber, Toys, a Shiva, and a weapon, while keeping his EMP as high as possible.
The Cred-Heads
Everyone's favorite Corporate hit-makers. Great for a heavy Corp deck, where the more Corp's you have, the more powerful they become.
Sable and the Babies
Perhaps the best Rocker in the game at present. Power of 7 that can be pumped to 9 when used to lower the M-Sec on a Corporate Location or Operation. Playing a Street sponsor with a good selection of Corp Operations is best for Sable, who has the added advantage of being dangerous against an opponents Corp deck.
Da Ice Boyz
A cheap Rocker that with an In My Element can damage most Corporate Locations to the point where even your average street punk can hit it successfully.
Meat Grinder
Cheaper than Da Ice Boyz and with a bonus LR value that might tip the scales in a tight fight.
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