Cyberpunk Roleplay and the Growth of a Subculture

Cyberpunk is not a fully fledged subculture per se. However, it may be on its way to becoming one. With the release of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, the TTRPG update Cyberpunk Red in 2020, and the widespread critical acclaim of Edgerunners in 2022- the Cyberpunk universe imagined by Mike Pondsmith has reached a larger audience than ever before.

For those who aren't in the know, Cyberpunk 2013, the original Cyberpunk TTRPG, was released in 1988 by R. Talsorian Games.

I believe that cyberpunk roleplay will be an important tool for growing a cyberpunk subculture. Part of the growth and staying power of the vamp subculture is related to vampire LARPing. Vampire the Masquerade has kept people engaged with the subculture and it's values when they might have otherwise moved away from it. They too have benefited from the creative energy that comes with dedicated roleplay. We've got 2077, they've got Bloodlines. We've got Cyberpunk Red, they've got VTM2.0. Vamp LARPers are mixed in with the real sanguinarians. They grew side by side and work together to create that whole subculture. Not every cyberpunk subculture member is going to be a hacker or designer of techwear and custom cyberdecks. That isn't to say that we should encourage passive consumption of cyberpunk-related media/products as a replacement for real community, either.

I feel certain that if this subculture blooms into something closer to group-identity status, that RP will probably play a large role. We can see it a bit with the fans of the Cyberpunk 2077 video game. They share glamour shots of their custom characters on dedicated subreddits. Many of them say that the game changed their life. There's emotional benefits and group-feel that grow out of that kind of engagement with the content. RP, in my opinion, gives would-be cyberpunks a means to engage with the themes of the genre/community in meatspace with other people. That's an essential gap that this set of values and ideas needs to clear before it grows into something bigger.

Other possible ways for the subculture to grow.

One need only to look around to see little bits and pieces of cyberpunk dystopia creeping into the real world. Municipal and state governments, corporate yes men, and even everyday people have opted to build pervasive surveillance systems. When there are flock cameras at every major intersection and ring doorbell cameras at the front of every home, when will you have an opportunity move without being tracked? Google is allowed to sell your map data to anyone with the money, what happens when the people with the money decide you're a threat? There will hit a moment where people cannot tolerate this level of surveillance. People will rebel and they will look for people who are already rebelling to join. They will scramble for thoughts and frameworks to describe the current situation and they will find hacktivists, the open source movement, and vandals destroying state surveillance infrastructure. Whether that becomes a fully fledged cyberpunk subculture is based on how many people are willing to look at what they're doing and admit that there are some kind of cyberpunk.

All that said, it could also grow in a fashion similar to cybergoth. Multiple people coming together in a music-oriented meeting space and converging on particular aesthetics. For certain, a bunch of techwear kiddies at punk shows could build momentum for a movement. But part of me wonders if that's going to be possible. For starters, cyberpunk has it's roots in literature, not music (despite the punk moniker). The type of third spaces that birthed cybergoth are slowly dying out under the city gentrifiers. Small music venues aren't able to meet the profit margins required to stay in business.

The problem with cyberpunk as a subculture.
Any cyberpunk subculture is going to have to wrestle with the growth of technology and the pitfalls of capitalism. The subculture is inherently anti-corporate, anti-control, anti-surveillance while being pro-tech, transhumanist, and urban. In a sense, the cyberpunk is about fighting against the very aesthetics that it is founded upon. Many adherents of this philosophy are likely to be cyberpunk in the streets, solar punk in the sheets, so to speak. Because no true cyberpunk is going to want to build the dystopia they love in literature, movies, and in games.