Mike Pondsmith is not only known as a creator in the tabletop role-playing game field, such as Dungeons & Dragons , but also contributed to the video game Cyberpunk 2077 In a talk, he recently shared his thoughts on very specific fan wishes.
Who is Mike Pondsmith? Mike Pondsmith is an American game designer, author, and founder of the role-playing game publisher R. Talsorian Games. He is the creator of the pen-and-paper role-playing game Cyberpunk, which is also the basis for the video game Cyberpunk 2077, in which he was also involved. He was also involved in settings for Dungeons & Dragons.
Pondsmith has been working in the RPG industry since the 1980s and has developed numerous systems and expansions. He is known for his strong focus on world-building and social criticism, and gained attention from the wider gaming community primarily for his collaboration with the game studio CD Projekt Red for Cyberpunk 2077.
During a talk panel at the Digital Dragons Conference 2025, he spoke about how fans become an integral part of a franchise and also addressed specific fan wishes, regarding which he has a clear opinion.
“Fanfiction couples drive me crazy!”
What is the creator’s opinion? The specific fan wishes pertain to couples that fans create in the form of fanfiction stories that do not exist in the original story. According to Pondsmith, there would be “people who want to see a beautiful love story in almost every case, and if you don’t offer them one, they will invent one – and it will be strange” and the results of that would drive him “crazy.”
And even if one were to bring suitable couples into the original story, there would always be people who modify and adapt their connection to fit their own taste. “Oh God, I was sometimes horrified by the couples I saw. Were you on crack? How could you believe that such a thing really happened?” Pondsmith added.
Nevertheless, such interactions of fans with the story are also important. It is crucial how one, as a developer, handles that and how one encourages fans to interact with the story – even in the form of modifications and fanfiction. Because these fans will always exist, whether you want them for your own creation or not. But in the end, they are also fans that you have reached with your work.
CD Projekt Red is not only the developer of the role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077, but also behind the popular Witcher series, for which a fourth installment is currently in development. This time, the team has openly been influenced by another legendary role-playing game, but Witcher 4 is not supposed to be a copy: The creators of Witcher 4 explain how Baldur’s Gate 3 has influenced them – And why their role-playing game will still be very different
