Spouse is in his jammies, hunched over his controller playing Cyberpunk with Cat napping beside him. Other Cat is lumped under the covers in bed, as is her wont. It is snowing outside. I have coffee. All is calm, all is bright.

Spouse never played Cyberpunk 2020, which I found rather shocking. We both have played a wide variety of pen and paper RPGs, and since we met in a gaming group in 2005 and have mostly played together ever since, it is strange to think I have played something he has not. But he's played a lot of D&D/Pathfinder and I have only dabbled, so I guess there's that.

I started roleplaying in '94ish with Rifts. My best friend in high school started dating a guy who GM'd, and she didn't want to be the only girl at the table so she pulled me in. If you know Rifts you know it is a favorite with the powergamiest of the powergaming murder hobo clan, but the GM was a genius with good storylines and manipulating the less constructive players so I had a pretty good time. Around '99 I ended up playing more with my at-the-time boyfriend's college group and they had rotating GMs with different systems and one liked to run Cyberpunk. That GM was also just fantastic with storylines and his Cyberpunk games were really, really good. I was playing with more serious gamers who were character focused and it is still a very bright few years in my RPG experience.

Cyberpunk 2020 was the game that taught me about character death. I had never had a character die before (mostly because the Rifts GM was so busy raining hell on the problem players that I tended to get a pass). So when my first CP character got shot to death under a burning semi and was most definitely dead-dead-dead, I was all suprisedpikachu.jpg. But there was nothing meanspirited about that death, it was just the logical result of my character's actions. I'd made an unstable solo and that's what happens to unstable solos. I learned to have backup characters, and build them smarter. I learned that while my current character was cool, I had tons of other options that I'd never played that were just as cool. I learned habits in how I prioritize character attributes and skills that carried over into all RPGs I've played since. I learned that I liked the small gritty storylines better than the epic ones, and sometimes the finest rewards were in just surviving a scrap with a gang and winning a bet with a fellow character. The enemies were powerful and scary and resources were few and the dark magic of tech would take its pound of flesh in the end. Loved it.

It is with great fondness that I see Night City brought to life. We're playing on PS4 which is supposed to be shitty but no issues so far (cross fingers). I'm explaining to spouse about game references - what they've brought from the RPG and tailored to fit. When an NPC is revealed to have a trauma team platinum membership, I'm like, "ooh, that's fancy, those guys will actually get in a fight to save you if you're hurt" and then they show up to save the NPC all kitted up, barking orders, pointing guns. Super cool. No meatwagon sightings yet.

Spouse never met a sidequest he didn't like, so we ought to get a lot of enjoyment out of this. Right now he's putting together the most awful looking outfit he can and we are howling with laughter. They did not shy away from the late '80s/ early '90s kitch and it is glorious. Every new shirt is an adventure.

I got housekeeping and Christmas stuff to do, but today is a good day.