Netrunner Edition>Cyberpunk 2020 vs. Cyberpunk RED?Cyberpunk 2020 is the second edition of the Cyberpunk TTRPG that focuses on simulation gameplay and has a black trenchcoat aesthetic.Cyberpunk RED is the fourth edition of the Cyberpunk TTRPG that is set after Cyberpunk 2020 following the Fourth Corporate War, focuses on more balanced gameplay and is more streamlined but has less content.>Cyberpunk Rulesets (The Vault) (May not have all updated rulebooks, check official sources for updates)bit<dot>ly/2Y1w4Md>Resources for RED:https://datapool2045.net/>RED free-DLC and extra contenthttps://rtalsoriangames.com/downloads/>RED Easy Mode is available for FREE.https://rtalsoriangames.com/cyberpunk/>Errata Pageshttps://rtalsoriangames.com/errata/>Character Sheetshttps://rtalsoriangames.com/downloads/>Previous thread:>>96237546Thread Question: Are you currently in a game (any edition), and what are you/the players up to? Replace with solo play/schizo fantasies as needed.
No schizo necessary. My 2020 bois have been following a celebrity around trying to entertain him over a weekend for cash, with middling success, but it has recently been revealed the man is suffering from advanced disassociation and heightened aggression from a piece of cyberware malfunctioning. They must now balance his lust for murder with the doctor's orders of trying to keep him calm and under control. Almost everything they came up with as entertainment involved capturing and injuring hobos in some way, but the moment Mr Celebrity said he wanted to murder a hobo for sport they all got really shy about it. Players; can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em, am I right?
>>96509222Sounds like the guy to be drugged and kept entertained with a snuff braindance or three.What alternatives to bumfights did the players come up with?
>>96509179>Are you currently in a game (any edition), and what are you/the players up to? Replace with solo play/schizo fantasies as needed.My groups characters are currently on the run after the easiest multi billion dollar heist in history, and what might become the easiest multi billion escape from the law in history with the GMs efforts to shut down any potential stakes or human complications. there were a grand total of two guards stopping us, the entire gamut of electronic security was shut off by a coincidental nuclear EMP, none of the security doors were closed or really locked and the complete lack of preparation did nothing to hinder us in general Individually one player is currently borderline zoning out for multiple sessions because he has a specific thing he wants to do and doesn't really care about anything else until that's done. Another player is just kind of along for the ride. And I'm personally swinging between trying to get the GM to do something that induces actual tension into the campaign and zoning out from boredom.
>>96509301Firstly they figured they'd do hobo battles, like cockfights. They shelved this idea in place of hiring some hobos to look tough so they could scare them away for tourism, so they shot near them and it went alright. They then thought about staging a car robbery by using a hobo with a suicide vest, but they shelved this idea in place of shooting some local drug dealers and splitting the drug cash with the NPC. They gave him his own gun, and took him to play poker, which they then turned into a lethal gunfight as they stole all the poker money. Mr Celebrity is so-so pleased. They've been a little underwhelming as a group in coming up with ideas, partly because they keep circling the drain on inevitable crimes against hobomanity then chickening out. But they ended up at an illegal fight ring where they did some cyberboxing and tried to poison a guy, but failed due to IRL player fatigue. It's very much a situation of>So Mr Celebrity might want to just see a landmark>Are there any landmarks nearby?>Well there's a series of highrises here with skybridges that->Dude that'd be a great place to source hobos!But it is what it is, once this is over I am going to unload some consequences in the form of a bounty hunter coming to take revenge on behalf of an old lady they fucked over. They aren't used to things coming back to bite them so I think it'll be good.>>96509515They wouldn't be rich if they spent all their money on security.
>>96509634>They wouldn't be rich if they spent all their money on security.idk bro I just want there to be some actual difficulty and tension in the campaign
>>96509179How well would 2020 and RED work if you replaced the D10 with 2D6 instead?
>>96509704The tension will be from following your stocks, the rising stakes will be to decide whether to diversify your portfolio into agriculture or goods transport.
>>96509179I still don't get MedTechs. I can't imagine any build that isn't just: I have Speedheal.They can't even use any of their abilities on themselves in down time.Can't "Therapy" self/Can't Cyberware self etc.Are roles supposed to be like this?I just made them a forensic detective/investigator which has almost no mechanical relationship.
>>96509882Severely reduces the swinginess, and reduces the downsides of things that happen on critical failures (I can't really think of anything in RED at least that carries additional effects from a critical success). Evasion pumping becomes a lot more viable because it becomes a lot more reliable. A of RED is about accounting for the likelihood of failure (the 10% chance of a critfail at all times and the imploding dice feature is made to make optimizing past a 90% chance of success a case of diminishing returns), and poor quality weapons would not be a huge downside.
>>96510712MedTech is pretty uniquely focused on supporting others as opposed to buffing yourself, yes, as the medical profession is. A bounty hunter who incapacitates opponents in Cryobags. or a priest whose therapy is of a more religious nature. The base building DLC allows medtechs to upgrade and fabricate street drugs, which combined with their access to rapidtetox lets them stack up on drug-based buffs with little real downside.
>>96510712Make a gig that's stealing an entire crate of cyber arms with inbuilt grenade launchers. Make a hidden fact about this shipment that it has trackers in each unit. Watch them yell "Medic!"
>>96509179Anxiously awaiting for my first campaign to begin, we're running RED set in 2020. Playing a cokehead stunt driver (Rockerboy) who is going to get roped into a trip out of Night City to Japan so we can rob some facility. It will probably go horribly and we'll be buried at sea on the other side of the planet, but a chance at riding a Kudalini Shiva is worth risking his life.
>>96510712The longer you stare the more cartoonishly large his head is on his body.
>>96512193midgets can only make it in this world as corpos. we're not ready for pocket healers.
Why do SMGs use Handgun?
>>96512733Simplification. Optimally standard SMGs should use handgun and Heavy SMGs should use shoulder arms. I'm kind of surprised no DLC has added a folding stock/skeleton stock attachment to make handguns usable with the shoulder arms skill.
Idea. Female only gang of exotics who biosculpted/ modded themselves to look like harpies, complete with feathers, wings and chicken feet. Who can still hold guns and function like reversed tiger claws/ evil moxes. Acting like a roving gang of cyberpunk bird woman rapists/ murderers who mostly target good looking blokes.
>>96510836Medtechs are a dip for speedheal and maybe rapidetox. Really they aren't worth investing in. If you wanna craft drugs it's honestly better to just invest in tech anyway.
>>96513421Is jerking off before posting not part of board etiquette anymore? I haven't been here in a few years.
>>96513650If the idea being raped by a screeching, blood soaked chromed up bird woman teetering towards cyberpsychosis gets you hard, you have some serious problems, friend.
>>96509179TQ: We got a gig lined up to steal from a datafotress, my runner got the decks, the exec and fixer are to cover the story, and our nomad is seeing about getting us an AV if things go south
>>96509179TQ: Shits a little goofy with my solo at the moment I’ve become a warlord of what on the front is a hypercompotent theocratic eco based military junta with communist economic but the truth is that it’s a Nihilistic anarchist AI cult that will inevitably lead to an apocalypse if successful Now my ass has to figure out if I should somehow save myself from this nightmare or go along with it as he’s kinda cyberpsycho
>>96509179TQ:>nogamesHey, chooms. Good to see a Cyberpunk thread; it's the one RPG I loved in my teens and miss now. Been considering trying to re-collect all the old 2020 books that I foolishly ditched years ago (the one thing I can't replace: all the hardcopies and floppies of long-deleted internet homebrew content that went with them), but the other and likely easier option would be Red. I seem to remember Red getting kind of a lukewarm reception; what do you guys make of it? Is it worth trying to start or join a game, and is there anything I need to know about it - or is it simple to pick up?I blame 2077 for getting the itch started again - sure, it's a bit more combat-heavy than most tabletops (action RPG with FPS overtones), but damn, Night City looks unreal. Better than I ever imagined it. Just makes me want to get back into the dark future and see what happened after the Firestorm campaign...
>>96509179TQ:Well we're playing RED, but the year is 2061 so there's substantial overlap on our way to the year 2077.On the heels of some manner of transhuman AI cult, our crew is chasing down a lead from a server hidden by ousted faculty at NCU under the floorboards of the Dean of Digital Sciences. We're zooming out into the desert in SoCal trying to chase that down now.For my part, my Tech-Netrunner has completed modifications on her prototype neuroport to interface with a miniaturized NET Architecture and drone controller to house and command a Demon she calls GREMALKIN. "Gremmy" as she's sometimes called it, is in command of a heavily modified Savannah Panther, but with a direct brain-connection to her internal NET, she's also able to assume direct control.Relevant in that, when we were intercepted by corpo-backed Nomads, after two rockets didn't do the trick, she sent in the cat to finish the job. With their close connection, she had more than a front row seat to Gremmy taking a grown man by the neck and shaking him to meat; which probably wouldn't have been as much of a problem were it not for the neural bleedthrough (as her neuralware and, consequentially, brain shares load with the drone link) as she also got a taste of Gremmy's algorithmic dopamine rush.So basically in addition to at least having doubled the weight of her skull and hard-wiring herself to a terror weapon, she's also accidentally clicker-training herself to murder.We're budgeting for more therapy.
>>96513650Someone has to teach them, for that, we thank you.>>96516163I would not recommend Red, if you like 2020 it really isn't the same game and odds are you'll be using 2020 material to flesh out your Red game anyway.>t. grog
>>96509882 it Would probably make the game too easy. cyberpunk is balanced around the heavy variance and critfail frequency of the d10
>>96509179>Are you currently in a game (any edition), and what are you/the players up to? Replace with solo play/schizo fantasies as needed.I'm patiently waiting for the solo play book for RED to drop. I've got ideas.
>>96516284A separate TQ related to this: how many people in RED games are actually playing games in the Time of the Red? As far as I can tell most games I've seen don't actually take place in the time period, whether due to concerns about the general tone of the setting or a preference for the cyberpunk world they saw in 2077 and Edgerunners.
have any of you played an exotic/ used them in your games? Asking cause I looked at the specs of the LagoForm® sculpt and feel like a Shotgun Totting Bunny girl Wannabe Solo would be a fun encounter/fight to throw at my players or for a Newbie-Runner to saddle the crew with running cause she's a corpo playing runner and her parents hired them to basically baby sit/ dissuade her from trying to be a merc. And to be clear, they'd be an anime style rabbit person and not a full furry exotic. But thinking about it made me curious how much use Exotics actually get in gameplay
>>96520072The campaign I'm waiting on is set in 2020, but I actually do find RED's time period pretty interesting. The beginnings of some of 2077s gangs and the groundwork for the various conspiracies that have been laid are ripe pickings for storytelling. I'd be interested in seeing the years leading up to the Unification War too, when Rosalind Meyers was probably laying the groundwork and setting up research projects at Militech before moving into the politico field to deploy her new toys officially.
>>96520222I was playing a Biotechnica exec in Red who’s employees were all bio exotics with him as the normal person. I kinda based their cyberware on what was close to what the interface package had so I had a whale driver, a lizard bodyguard, and a catgirl secretary/ninja Eventually we got enough ranks in exec for the ninja to also get an employee, who was also just a regular guyAlthough employee die fast sometimes so you’ll have to make do sometimes and when your GM forgoes the 1k cost he gets to decide what your replacements look like>pic related, my new driver after the old one got killed by a cyberpsycho
>>96520401I like the cut of your GM's jib, giving you a Chicken guy as a driver is pretty fucking funny. Also like the cut of your jib for picking a theme and sticking with itHow'd the cyberpsycho flatline your whale valet though?
>>96520072Most of the problem with the Time of the Red even within Cyberpunk RED is that the system kinda does a bad job of running it. You can slavishly follow the economy rules, but then you have to grind your heel into players to keep them from stealing literally everything that isn't nailed down (but if you don't let them steal some of it, they'll be so dirt poor they won't have any fun on the other hand).If you stretch availability a little and make night markets a source for cool extra shit instead of scraping in the dirt around washing and vending machines to find enough eddies for a gun though, it actually runs 2020 or 2077 games wonderfully. You can get your hands on most anything if you're willing to settle for a low quality brand or paying out the nose on it, but then what you have to chase is actualy chase gear: brand named excellent quality weapons and exotics, cars, high end cyberware, all the stuff you kinda sign up for when you play a system called Cyberpunk really.Basically there's nothing really wrong with 2045, but maintaining tone and restrictions there can get bland, especially if you're not ready to slap some mud on things.
>>96520222I hope that NPC has plot armour, because it'd be too much fun to have her give up being a runner and wind up kidnapped or running away, so the parents come back to ask for her safe return. Imagine making your players "follow the white rabbit"...>>96520778I love the idea of the Time of the Red, but you're right, the economy rules are a problem. Equally, is it just me, or does the huge change between Red and 2077 feel unnaturally fast - that Night City seems to have very suddenly recovered, rebuilt, and gone back to a very 2020 kind of state in just 30 years? tl;dr is that if I were to run a Red game, I'd steal lots of 2020 flavour, and take some hints from 2077 about general atmosphere - but I'd likely ignore 2077 otherwise.(Although you know what vidya players are like - they klep literally anything and everything that's not nailed down, just like your players!)
>>96521029You raise an excellent point. It'd also give me an excuse to make my friends listen to White Rabbit by Egypt Central during the "Sequel" Gig
>>96521029>Night City seems to have very suddenly recovered, rebuilt, and gone back to a very 2020 kind of state in just 30 years?Funded in 1990 i suppose, so 30 years to rebuild isnt that streching.
>>96513421Take your meds, Mike.
>>96521099Fuck you Johnny Silverhand, you can't tell me what to do!
>>96521089This made me realize that the first edition of Shadowrun WOULD have been published before Night City was even a Sparkle in Richard Night's eyeMaybe homeboy was a shadowrun fan...
>>96521089If it was just reconstruction of the nuke damage, fair enough. But there's contamination, social decay, presumably a broader urban decay caused by the withdrawal of maintenance services - and let's not forget that the Night City maps are radically different.>>96521151Sounds like choom's a chummer.
>>96520222I wish I could go back in time to the day the people at RTG came up with exotics and smack whoever actually proposed the idea upside the head, hopefully putting sense into that shit-filled, retarded skull of theirs and preventing a bunch of furries from worming their way into the game.>And to be clear, they'd be an anime style rabbit person and not a full furry exotic.Don't care. Fuck you, furry.
>>96520222Had a younger version of the member of the Animals with the Scale Biosculpt showup in a game where our solo accidentally ended up one of the founders of the gang.Ya know, the guy who looks like killer croc in a balaclava you can ice in 2077
>>96509179RED absolutely butchered so many stylish designs. Morgan Blackhand is a larger than life action hero, not Nero from DMC.
>>96522169I think the art is generally agreed to be pretty atrocious. I have to see this horrid mug every time I look up one of the cyberdecks.Maybe they should have went for 203X illustration instead
>>96522169That's what happens when you trade in artwork inspired by old-school comics and manga for ArtStation-core. I just try to visualize things differently from how they're presented in the illustrations, at least until RTG can release a "version two" of the core rulebook with art that's actually worth a damn.
>>96522224>203x illustrationGiven the cost of 1/6-scale GI Joes in 2025, that's some expensive butchery going on. Might get a better result asking CDPR to do it, virtual style...>>96522327>art that's actually worth a damnI have to admit - the lavish production values of modern RPG books can be a drawback. I know some of the art in previous editions of Cyberpunk is a little dated, but the majority is still great, like the iconic image of (pre-Keanu) Silverhand rocking out. I'd love to see a return to simpler, hand-drawn art, and simpler layouts - I have to wonder how much of the Red corebook's bloated page count is due to the illos and layout. Not that I would object to more modern art if it were actually good, but the old stuff had soul and identity - just like comparing current-edition D&D to anything pre-WotC.
>>96522169What's lower left from?
>>96524247The RED rulebook also has an additional 70.000 words in it compared to the 2020 rulebook.
>>96524298I will answer my own question. Solo of Fortune 2
>>96524247There's def some art from the old days that was jank (Rogue's hair in Firestorm Shockwave) but it was soulful and inspired by classic cyberpunk media rather than generic modern Sci-fi.>>96524469Yeah that's Lydia's SoF2 art, fit into the collage easier. I miss elf-chan. The blindfold design is kino but the claws look like Frosty The Snowman's nose.
Do the weapons in RED come pre-loaded with ammo during chargen? Very strapped for eds, the extra hundred will go a long way.
>>96525019The default weapons don't, though spme of the Faisal's series of weapons are disposable, pre-loaded standard quality weapons that can't be reloaded (in the Toggle's Temple DLC); You can get a standard quality VHP, poor quality shotgun or medium pistol that way.Execs can also bum up to 50 Very Heavy Pistol bullets off their team members, and Nomads can yank 30 rounds off per installation of onboard machine gun.
>>96525019>>96525193Oh there's also the GunMart Engage (single shot rocket that only costs as much as the rocket itself) from black chrome, and the Teen Dreem from 12 days of Gunmas, which is an SMG so cheap (20 EB) that you can use the remaining funds on bullets. The Everest VentureWare SurvivalMaster is a concealable 5 round assault rifle that can't be upgraded and can't do autofire but only costs 100 EB and is standard quality, which is also another option to get a budget weapon to free up more money.
>>96525193>>96525267Thanks anon. I'm playing a Rockerboy, so all I get to bum is a couch to sleep on and drugs. I had enough to buy everything I needed, but my credchip will only have 50eb on it to start. Could refund that six pack of Smash... But you never know when it'll come in handy.
>>96525298What are you buying with the remaining 2380 EB, if you don't mind me asking?
>>96525309We actually got a bit of a funds boost to 3150eb, because we're playing a game set in 2020 and the Netrunner was already broke with only half the gear she needed. My Rocker is really more of a stunt driver who plays music on the side. Masetto AirRider armor to avoid whiplash, Light Armorjack motorcycle helmet, electric guitar and pocket amplifier, various tools, and some synthcoke and booze (which I was told mixing will result in a heart attack, but that's what the Medtech is for). As for Cyberware, I've got a Neural Link, Interface Plugs, and Braindance Recorder, and Toxin Binders. Everything I need to get shitfaced and drive off a ramp going 150, then sell the experience.
>>96520072I play in red, I think it's unique in a good way. It's dynamic when you start in essentially a power vacuum as opposed to a time when megacorps are dug in. I borrow some CEMK rules like humanity and quickhacks so there's a little bit of disregarding cyberware generations. I also interpret cars as being scarce in the sense that no one can afford them, while also flooding the streets with them like on the cover of the rule book, because cars will do that at any time period when you disregard public transit.>>96520778It's probably not RAW but I plan to slap a bunch of Fixer fees on everything, in addition to the Haggle stuff. In every other RPG, you would never get the full value of a item selling it to a vendor, I refuse to believe Fixer's would pay in full for a POS gun dug out of the mud.>>96521029>Equally, is it just me, or does the huge change between Red and 2077 feel unnaturally fast - that Night City seems to have very suddenly recovered, rebuilt, and gone back to a very 2020 kind of state in just 30 years?I believe Night City underwent the same kind of investment and reconstruction Germany and Japan had after WW2. Even if the infrastructure is destroyed, there's talented and skilled human capital that can only be found in industrial nations. Sometimes the postwar constraints can lead to innovative public works, like Japans train network.Cyberpunk's future tech would accelerate rebuilding even further. I think the timeline is more like 2020-2077, 50+ years to rebuild. The Red Times, 2025-2045, were the postwar shitty times, and desu I think reconstruction could have started sooner but RTG wanted to avoid any reference to the 2030's, because of Cyberpunk Generations. 2045-2077 is not post-apocalypse, it's post-post-apocalypse.
>>96526362>In every other RPG, you would never get the full value of a item selling it to a vendor, I refuse to believe Fixer's would pay in full for a POS gun dug out of the mud.My experience with tabletops outside D&D is super limited, but the general rule of thumb people I've played with follow is that players can get 25-50% market value depending on their relationship with the merchant/faction, and an additional 15-25% as purely trade in credit. Got a Fixer you're buddies with who deals in firearms? Bring him a gun thats not a complete junker and he'll put 75% of it towards your next purchase. He pays a few eds to get it tuned up and resells at market value, still making 20%.
>>96526362RAW is a lot of 'can' and not a whole lot of 'should' for fixers. You should treat them as their role abilities and personalities permit and a lot of economy problems slot into place.The economy system is based on being able to sell things for market rate as a baseline, but a Fixer can haggle for 10% both ways, so realistically buying and selling from a Fixer that you've got no deals or clout with is always going to be a proposition in losing 20%. That's before applying penalties for damaged goods. Cutting other deals like store credit or tangibles as rewards for a job can make things interesting, but broadly you just 'do unto others' with the fixer role and things will shake out.Other than that, you can just limit looting time or add impending reinforcements (NCPD is great for this, you don't want to be caught holding the bag when they come to investigate gunfire) and lifestyle/rent/consumables will add all the additional pressure needed to keep the player economy holding.Lifestyle and rent already squeezes players quite a bit, so letting them sell stuff freely at close to market is kind of important.
>>96520222One of my PCs was a Catgirl for min max reasons. The Katnip package gives you alot of useful cyberware for a low price and it's cheap enough to get at character creation.
>>96509179I would honestly consider watching this.
>>96526678Everything is better with catgirls
>>96526678Honestly, getting an procedure to become a cat girl just cause it gets you some Cyberware for cheaper is very setting appropriate
>>96527179That's my explanation for why Danger Gal is the way it is.
>>96527323Don't they have an anime in universe? Pretty sure they did the cat thing to be more marketable than the average chromed up gang of solos with a death wish.
>>96525380How are you handling netrunning for a RED game set in 2020?
>>96509179Not presently, though my group is working on translating 2020 to GURPS for a future game, mostly for the better social mechanics and character variety. This is after playing about 6 full games in 2020 and finding some problems with how it does character building.>>96509882I doubt it would break anything too badly, you'd just need to change what counts as a critfail and crit success. Its probably the easiest choice to reduce variance. We considered it for a while.>>96512733A better question, IMO, is why do LMGs use heavy instead of rifle.
>>96509179Been playing with the same GM for a couple years now. Started with 2020, jumped to RED, then hopped back to 2020. He's a good storyteller, but is pretty much game mechanically illiterate. Which is baffling, because he's supposedly a programmer.One problem I brought up in our current game is that we have too many character points. 75 points, to be precise. But our statistics maximums are still the same (10 max for each stat). Every character feels pretty much the same, with not a single character having a stat below 8. I suggested he dial back the number of points, or raise the stat caps.His response was to allow us to each raise one stat, and one stat only, to 12... which feels like nothing. I suggested that if he wanted us to have the same amount of variance in statistics as average joes (50 points), without reducing our point totals, then he would need to raise our stat caps to 13 or 14 for ALL statistics. But he seemed uncomprehending.Another problem is that the GM has never opened the rulebook for any game he's ever ran. So he can't answer any rules clarification questions players might have, and just stares at us dumbfounded. Me and another player (an engineer) who actually read the rules have had to come up with our own interpretations for the group.There's also the matter of the GM using ChatGPT to generate homebrew weapons and other gear. I don't think using AI as a sounding board for ideas is bad, but without proper knowledge of game rules to curate its output, the things it spits out tend to be broken or unbalanced.For instance, one of the players has a traditional gunpowder sniper rifle that inflicts 9D10 damage on a hit, when normally only highly-advanced ETC guns and vehicle-mounted or borg weapons can reach those damage numbers. There was also a roomba with a "self-defense program that gives Sandi powers and +2d6 +full BODY score to unarmed damage" which makes no sense.
>>96528438I can see LMGs having a different skill; stuff like changing barrels and using it from a bipod and making sure you don't burn your hands on the barrel shroud, and the fact that it's a 20 pound slab of metal rather than something like 7-10 pounds.
>>96509179What are the must read supplements for 2020 aside from Blackhands Weapons and the Chromebooks?
>>96528390I think it's going to be mostly RED's gameplay using equipment and some flavor from 2020. Never touched that side of the game before so the details are beyond me.
>>96509179Are there fillable versions of the CEMK character sheets? Or do we just have to wait for the 2077 source book and pray its included?
>>96509179I posted my pics from Nova Open a bit ago for my home thread of /trench/This set up for Combat Zone was sick as fuck desu
>>96513421based
>>96529546I like Night City Stories for the locations and NPCs, but I hate how every job starts with 'this dude just blew up your apartment and then demands you do a job'. Honestly all of the 2020 books are great. It's an entire job dedicated to one job, and the chapters are the set-up, the entire game map, and then the kinds of interactions you can expect. Seriously good stuff. Arasaka brain worm was pretty good. Even as the GM I was thinking "How can anyone get to this fucking island???"
>>96532657*entire adventure book dedicated to one job
>>96522169You'd think Lydia's nickname would be Treefucker with that elf sculpt, but it turns out those duck sicking lips don't keep her from scraping you with her teeth.
>>96526362It's funny you should mention CyberGeneration. I was watching Johnny Mnemonic last night (an oldie but a goodie, even if it fails a bit in the execution) and was thinking about homebrewing something for mnemonic couriers in the Time of the Red. And then it struck me... out of all of Cyberpunk, how would I homebrew the version of Interlock I'd love to run? What would I take from the first edition and 2020, what would I tweak?And over the course of a beer or three, that idea kind of skewed slightly sideways into whether "my" Night City had more Gibson elements, or whether there were YoGangs on the streets, or AltCults (hey, if Arasaka can have biochips, there's no reason not to have a biotech AltCult like Reef out there), or nanotech diseases. Sure, Red YoGangs may not be the same as CyberGeneration YoGangs, but the street rats have to go somewhere, right?I guess what I'm saying is... not even Maximum Mike is immune to making missteps in mechanics or worldbuilding, but even the missteps have stuff in there worth re-evaluating. Same with rule archaeology - the system has remained broadly the same over 40 years to the point that you could fairly easily splice in older rules that you prefer, couldn't you? (I miss the thriving state of 2020 homebrews on the mid-90s internet btw - so much of it's been lost)
>>96528635Your game sounds like a total fucking mess. I'm surprised your GM made it through even one session, let alone run a game for years. I hope you're having fun, because I would never want to be in a game like that.
You gonks ever use Elflines Online for anything or even acknowledge it exists?
>>96532176By 2045, you already have BD's that could give you any kind of deviant fantasy you'd want. My character doesn't bother with meatspace joytoys, he dabbles in that virtu pussy. If you want monstergirl stuff, harpies would probably be more at home in Shadowrun I think. While technically possible, flight-capable exotics would be very expensive, so I can only imagine rich retards would want to join a gang like that. Given the heavily chromed bodies and seemingly naive nature, I think they'd be vulnerable to hacking. They may debut as knockoff dangergirls with wings, but they'll end up on jig-jig street turning tricks for monstergirl fetishists.
>>96533964>You gonks ever use Elflines Online for anythingNo.>or even acknowledge it exists?I have no fucking clue what you're talking about. The Witcher RPG? This is Cyberpunk, mate.
>>96535556An MMO they added to RED that is a sequel to the incredibly popular (and retroactively added) game Elflines Explosion Adventure for the Segotari Double Agent in the early 2020s. They introduced it in an April Fools article a few years back and added rules for playing the game inside the game.>>96533964I haven't played a game in the actual RED time period and probably wouldn't use the actual game mechanics, but it could be a fun way to have characters communicate using some coded language that looks like they're role playing in the game. Plan to "Raid the Mystic Laboratory of the Fishmen", then hit Hydrosubidium's research facility on Charter Hill.
>>96535816>I haven't played a game in the actual RED time period and probably wouldn't use the actual game mechanics, but it could be a fun way to have characters communicate using some coded language that looks like they're role playing in the game. Plan to "Raid the Mystic Laboratory of the Fishmen", then hit Hydrosubidium's research facility on Charter Hill.This is only good idea I've seen associated with Elflines in any way. Might use it in the future.
Anyone got any tips for how to run an open table for RED?
>>96536467My only other guess would be running it as one of the passtimes that can increase your Humanity like partying, but only the most autistic of groups would go into any detail further than "you rolled good/bad on playing video games".It would be funnier if doing poorly could also make you lose humanity. Sometimes a shitty raid makes me want to go Cyberpsycho.
>>96536676If my experience with MMORPG is anything to go by, losing humanity is far more likely than gaining it.
>>96509179I'm currently GMing a game of RED where the players are up against a weirdo cult split between David Bowie and an AI of a particular prominent gaming Youtuber.They're probably lurking the thread, so no spoilers for you fuckers!
>>96535556Are you too lazy/retarded to goggle Elflines Cyberpunk?>>96533964One of my players saw the rules for the card launcher and wanted to turn it into melee weapon by replacing the plastic case with metaldespite the fact the thing launches cards with enough velocity to deal damage like a pistol
>>96538929I would fucking kill for Bowie posergangs. The Elvises think they have a complex set of eras? The Bowies wouldn't even be able to stay a cohesive bands. The Aladdins and the Dukes would be having shootouts in the streets while the Major Toms overdose and the Jareths abduct children and have them Bio-sculpted into goblins.
>>96539029And that's without the Thin White Dukes overtaking the Red Chrome Legion.
>>96538929Funny you should mention that. I have a fixer that was part of a poser game that sculpted themselves after 80's pop idols. The guy looks like Bowie doing his Ziggy Stardust style. Of course, he calls himself Starman.
>>96535816>They introduced it in an April Fools article a few years back and added rules for playing the game inside the game.The issue with Elflines is it was the first splat R.Tal released after corebook. Then they added two more spalts despite the first one being poorly received. There's more material in Elflines than the EMK. For whatever reason, It's obviously a writer/s pet part of the setting so it gets pushed despite no one really running the rules or using the lore.
>>96539451I don’t even see the appeal of it, it’s just a fantasy reskin of RED that you’re meant to run on top of the regular game as a minigame and it feels like too much effort for what it’s trying to be. Like the idea of there being an MMO in universe with gameplay mechanics for downtime is fine, making a whole side system for it is baffling.
>>96539574>I came to play Cyberpunk>Let's play a version of it where you don't play Cyberpunk but instead play Scoia'tael Scallywags>I've played enough Cyberpunk, I want to play something else>You're in luck, we can play Scoia'tael Scallywags within the game, we don't have to switch system!Logic that only makes sense if you're a marketer.
What is your characters favourite flavor of Kibble.
>>96539451>For whatever reason, It's obviously a writer/s pet part of the setting so it gets pushed despite no one really running the rules or using the lore.You can tell Cody Pondsmith wants to do Fantasy and is stuck having to write the sequel to his dad's RPG.>>96509179>Thread Question: Are you currently in a game (any edition), and what are you/the players up to? Replace with solo play/schizo fantasies as needed.I had a CP2020 game running a while back. Managed one good session before I moved and it messed everything up. Need to get my players back and continue the campaign, one of my players ended the last session with two broken legs because he tried to jump off a moving train ,instead of stopping the train, which they were completely in control of. Something I still don't understand to this day.
Has any Refs ever instant killed a player character on the spot instead of maiming them?I usually give my players a bit of leeway when they're in a spot by their own consequences, but my players characters are starting to get a bit pushy on others like they own the place.
>>96542427Put them in a situation where they don't instantly die, but can't be saved. KOed and bleeding out, and their chooms cant reach them because of the swarm of enemies around. Drop a building and have them get trapped under rubble with a rebar spike through the gut. Enough time for their life to flash before their eyes, but not enough time to be rescued.Of course, know that instant kills really piss off players. Especially if it's something beyond their control. It has to be a direct consequence of their actions with some degree of telegraphing.
>>96540796Does Cody even write Cyberpunk anymore? He's not credited on any books in the past couple of years.
Are there any pre-Edgerunners depictions of Sandevistans?
>>96542427I tend to think as a GM you should be very reserved on who drops the sword of damocles and why. Unless they're shittalking a major player to their face AND not doing good work for them, the world is indifferent and lethal enough without you having to build better rocks to fall on them.If 'the others' are NPC fixers, they're not the first shits they've seen get big for their britches and each one probably has a different strategy for how to deal with it. Unless they're actively backstabbing, fucking up constantly or threatening, its easier and simpler to just cut them loose.On the other hand, if they're somehow in a position to be, say, shit-talking Yorinobu to his face, it may be appropriate to warn them once, then have them wake up dead. Context is VERY important though, and while consequences are an important part of any game ecosystem, if you're just looking for an excuse to slap them with an act of god for being mean to your NPCs, they'll be super pissed over your shitty sense of karma and they'll be right to call you out on being a bitch over it.
>>96543641Morgan Blackhand rocked one, so probably in descriptions of scenes from the Firestorm books. Most other people I could find with one are minor characters mentioned in passing in stuff like Eurosource.
I understand the whole style over substance thing, but who the hell would ever pick the Midnight Arms Smartgoggles over the base model? 250eb more for 2 less option slots on something for aesthetic purposes when the original doesn't have a clear visual description is retarded. Unless Smartgoggles got banned at most tables and this was meant to be an official toned down alternative. It seems these shittier versions are the ones that stuck around in RED as the Smartglasses.
>>96536494What's a open table?>>96535359BD has one inherited weakness when compared to... jesus fucking christ, raping someone irl.Not only is the BD edited for certain experience (for good or bad), but it also happens once, while real experience can differ each time.Not sure if I want to push the discussion further.>>96536676Yeah, elflines is a joke that went too far and is somehow understood as a perpetual thing among crew now.They did tried to level up it a bit, slightly by hidding RABID statblock here, and I think the ROF3 pistol is also there, but I havent checked.>>96542427I always give them at least one chance to survive even if they find themselves in a bad situation due to their own stupidity, unless they do a heroic sacrifice or straight up death wish run.When I ran this one Pondsmith mission where you steal a crate with neurotoxin from hammerhead train, and a character fails to pass a DV13 to jump on a train I hit them with 1d6 damage (bashing against moving cover) and have them lose an action. If a enemy grapples a PC and throws them out of the train I give them DV13 to grab the ledge in last moment, and they need to lose an action to get up (prone condition checks out), if they fail (or deliberately lose their grip) they fall off the train and are hit as if a very heavy melee weapon hit them.A whole different story - a characters were out to kill woodchipper, they rammed her AV and one crazy motherfucker decided it's good idea to board it - so he jumped onto her roof, sliced her glass with a katana and got in, then next round grabbed her and jumped out for certain death (about 200 meters into the air they were). I asked whether he was sure, because I said even with his extensive cyberleg augmentations he would most likely die. He agreed and went with it, stating that it was the final stage of his cyberpsychosis.So I rolled 36d6 (not 40 bcause he had 4 impact dampeners) and yeah he died.
>>96545296To me it seems like they realised the Smart Goggles undermined Cybereyes and nerfed it.
>>96545769I believe you can share a BD with another person in 2045, at least my ref hasn't countermanded me yet when I suggested that. I figure joytoys would charge less for that because they could project any kind of body they want to see and feel on you, while you could do the same for them. The bottleneck is finding a club with that kind of tech on hand where you can trust the staff not to steal or kill you while you're chilling in the virtu. The one my character was going to got wrecked, so I need to find a new place, or I'll have to stick to bog-standard BDs.
>>96545769An open table is a game where you allow new players to join so long as there are available seats: it's like games at conventions where you may either have players assigned to you from a pool of participants or it's just first come-first served to play.I've never done it, but RED and Cyberpunk in general is good for it because PC power is non-linear. I would pay especial attention to the GMing chapter in RED about how to structure beat-sheets. Since you might have players joining in progress you might want to organize a 1-2-3 or 1-2 pattern of scenes where you cycle back to combat or action frequently, while also flipping back to some kind of exposition or interaction that allows for introducing and fast-tracking new players.So like, have a gang shootout where you can stuff a new player in as reinforcements or a bystander caught up in the events, but then they'll immediately have a scene where they can shop a little, get up to speed and get ready for the next action scene. It means also that if a player shows up during these non-action scenes, they have very little time to wait until they're in a shoot-out or a car chase or something.Depending also on the exact nature of your play setting, you can then plan for a finale that various scenes can drop into, so whenever you're coming to time you can shuffle the assembled players off to a big showdown finale.
>>96544945Sorry, I should've made it clear that I'm looking for art, not just descriptions.
Being rude to powerful people in CP is the exact same issue as being rude to the king in DND.>I tell the psychopathic murderer he's gay lmao>Antagonising him is a bad idea, he'll probably kill you, no rolls necessary.>He's a gayboy lmao>Stop fucking around and start playing the game, if you are just going to go against the stream to see what happens then you might as well just leave.
>>96546541>doesn't do a facedown roll when calling the psycho gayPlaying it wrong.
>>96546541It could be worse.>I use a Cyberscanner to see what this psycho has under the hood>Antagonizing him is a bad idea, he'll probably kill you, no rolls necessary>Okay, we leave>Wtf you were supposed to stay and fight him
>>96546389I think the closest thing you’ll find is probably the boostermaster from Solo of Fortune
>>96543494He's too busy writing his ATLA fan fiction RPG Shadow Scar.>>96545296Referees were encouraged to penalize players who walked around armed to the teeth and reward players who invested in designer suits and name brand gear. The Mirrorshades are concealed smartgoggles, letting you use them while not being harassed by the bouncers for bringing your NVG to the club.>>96543641Sandevistan in CP2020 wasn't superspeed like in Edgerunners, it was basically bullet time from the Matrix. It simply allowed you to react much faster than a normal human being so there really wasn't a way to depict it before the anime and CP2077 turned it superspeed
>>96548892To be fair, there are very few instances in the anime where Sandevistan would have to be making you strictly faster beyond 'moving first'; they play it back for dramatic effect, but almost always that could be 'he/they moved before anyone else could react'.It's not perfect, there is certainly plenty of 6-million dollar man going on as well, but as both an anime show and depicting cutting edge prototypes (and, beyond a certain point, generally with people with significant cybernetic reinforcement) it's not that much different than bullet time or other slow-mo (except for the cool fluorescent colored afterimages).That being said, slow motion effects like in Blade and the Matrix are probably a more grounded match. Without ware that makes your body faster, the world is just slowing to a crawl for you, giving you more time to think and act.You still need to be physically fast enough to capitalize on that advantage or doing something that doesn't rely just on your physical speed, like shooting a gonk in the head before he can draw his gun.
>>96546389Oh, >>96549239 here, my bad G. Didn't mean to write you a book. Time dilation is hard to depict. I think there's a pic from the cardgame where the art for Krenzikov or something is like a zoetrope first-person shot of a gangster trying to draw his gun while the POV, presumably with the speedware, draws, aims and blasts him in the head before he can clear leather.
>>96548892I guess the loaded up techie look is suspicious, yeah. Maybe I just had the wrong idea of what the goggles look like, sounds more like those big Virtu headsets than mechanic goggles with an overlay. Followup question. Chromebook 2 has additional options for the OptiShield.1) Are the 2 slots in addition to Anti-Dazzle? AD only takes 1 slot in 2020, so I assume yes.2) It looks like options only take a single slot regardless of their Cyberoptic equivalent seeing as you can put TimesSquare Plus on despite that normally taking 3 slots.Might go for a Shield with TS+ and Targeting Scope.
>>96548892>>96549239>>96549275I actually prefer Edgerunners' way of depicting it, as it's very stylish. And where would we be with Cyberpunk without style? It goes over substance, after all.Personally, I just wish there was more official art of Sandies and Karens themselves, especially the lower-grade ones that in no way compare to David's. All I have to go on are the low-res icons from 2077.
>>96549771>>96548892>>96549771My biggest issue with Edgerunners is that it implies that the Sandy boosts MOV as well as Initiative/REF. Being able to make the first move doesn't mean super speed, it means drawing first in a pistol duel. Accel World does the concept of super boosted processing speed well, slowing time to a crawl but not allowing you to move more than you should without significant effort. It's not as glamorous as super speed, but can make it look like you have aimbot with the extra time to lock in on precise shots almost instantly.
>>96549913Honestly my pet-peeve is actually that we probably SHOULD have some MOVE boosting gear in RED, because aside from skate feet people just blast MOVE when the build needs it with no granularity.I tend to try not to min-max too hard in RED more out of survival instinct rather than an urge for fair play, but that still means when my PC puts on her heavy duty gear she's stomping around at MOVE 3. Having a few options to reduce or remove MOVE penalties for heavy gear or get conditional/temporary move aside from skate feet would be nice, even if its just to drag yourself kicking and screaming back up to an average MOVE speed.
>>96550123Here's hoping Solo of Fortune RED gives us more options. All we have at the moment is the Internal Hydraulics Upgrade for FBCs that set your REF, DEX, and MOV to 4/6/8 unless they'd be higher without it. Anything else would be conversions from 2020, like Speeding Bullet Legs, Corvette Legs, or Speed Grafts (Chromebook 2 bioware on the Exotics table). If you've got an internal Linear Frame, maybe see if a Techie can upgrade it to set your MOV to half of the Frame's BODY strength.
>>96550123MOVE as a stat is alright but armor reducing MOVE, especially as strictly as it does, is retard video game bullshit. Making concealability the king factor for armor works better than slicing your fucking stats in half.RED is too obsessed with "builds" and "balance" generally honestly. Some options should just outright be better, balanced out by either concealability or sheer cost for anyone who doesn't have a corporate tracking buttplug lodged in their ass.
>>96550449Combining the Implant and Bioware categories is incredibly restrictive too, and makes the rules confusing. Bioware wasn't effected by EMPs afaik, but now it's just another piece of tech. Can your Muscle and Bone Lace be disabled? Your cyber lungs? Liver? And while a Cyberspine is EMP immune, it takes up 3/7 slots. Not to mention the ramped up humanity costs on everything due to the scarcity of quality cyberware in 2045. Hopefully the 2077 sourcebook gives us more clarification on that point and reduced HL costs for modern / 2020 cyberware.
>>96542427I've been in two cyberpunk games, both in 2020.The first one the Ref killed a PC every 20 minutes. We had a PC meet with a fixer and the fixer thought his handle was so abominably shitty that he killed him on the spot. (His name was "ludlub.") We once got jumped by a midget cyberpsycho disguised as a victorian doll who ripped open our rockergirl thinking she was her mother. Our first gig was to take down four notorious full-borg PMC generals in the heart of a warzone, each of which could splatter 1d6 PCs per combat round. We only won because the GM let us roll new characters in the time before it came to our turn again in combat. My Netrunner survived to get possessed by a Blackwall AI and died to food poisoning in a Mexican restaurant.The next Ref literally told everyone that the PCs would never die. If any PC actually dies, then they'll just get knocked out. We've had two combat encounters in over twenty sessions. No one has ever taken any damage or gotten hit once. I'm not sure what we're doing or why we're even here. Literally nothing happens every session. All everyone does is just dick around.
does anyone here have repositories on the Fuzion System?
>>96545769An open table is one where players can drop in and out whenever they want, so they could play when their schedule allow it or skip a session when it doesn’t without it slowing the game down. This means that the party could look different every session and that new players could jump in whenever they want.
>>96552462Sounds like two extremes. There needs to be a danger (that makes the play thrilling and gives stakes to encounters), but there also needs to be balance to it. Technically, there are all kinds of high-level threats and traps that can kill you outright, but as a ref, I would probably wall those off and drop hints to the player when possible. >a player does some research for the mission>"You know about that facility; They have highly trained security teams on site. Attempting to infiltrate it is almost an assured suicide mission." I wouldn't tell the players they couldn't do it, but I'd give them a reasonable expectation for the difficulty of the task. It feels like less of a rugpull and more of a consequence. Much the same way, if I describe a Cyberpsycho like>"A hulking beast of chrome, inhuman in how they move and fight. They've already turned 6 NCPD officers to canned EEZYBEEF in less than a minute. Their monoeye shifts quickly around their domed head, searching frantically for fresh meat. Extended claws still dripping with blood and sinew scrape along the asphalt as it skulks around."So it's something that communicates to the player that this thing isn't to be taken lightly, and they should run rather than fight it. Have it be killable but very hard to kill. That way, if someone snuck in a rocket launcher or devised some trap to take it down, they still technically have a chance to beat it, but they'd have to be very careful trying to do so.
>>96542427Oh boy this was just recent tooOur team was running from Netwatch and Arasaka after we got an AI and trapped in in the techs head, as we escaped the tunnel a FIRETEAM had prepared actions and literally Merced’s the two PCs, one failed the death save after being shot 4 times and the other survived because they’re a Borg. We enddd on that cliffhanger but the funny thing was that the team was a crew of mercenaries we HIRED. Can’t trust anyone in night city
>>96548892>PicrelMan, I miss Mike (or whoever that was) writing and description, this sidebar (or a column of a page, cant tell for sure) is really, and I mean, really simple and informant.Instantly provides context and example at the same time in first paragraph, then goes into mechanics and lore in the second, followed by a advice for both GM and player alike, not from a world perspective, but about a word.This is really slick and elegant.I love RED as a system, and to the lesser extent as a piece of worldbuilding, but it cannot simply compare.
>>96550123>we probably SHOULD have some MOVE boosting gear in REDI'm aware that you're most probably asking for official releases, but I've posted it before so might as well post it now: there are three reliable ways on how to increase MOVE in RED.>MOVE is BODYIntroduce linear frames that boost MOVE to 12, 14 and 16, along with muscle grafting that would allow for faster movement, like linear frames require muscle grafting for higher body. My point is those should be different types of synthetic muscles.The entire balance is right there - you copy Corebook, cant really go wrong with early James balance.>MOVE is speedwareSimilar to the above, you make two pieces of cyberware that are based on existing speedware, that is the sandy and kerez.The permanent +2 MOVE seems like a logical choice to be made into cyberlegs, since, you know legs are pretty permanent.As for action activated +3 MOVE to me, the second heart, peacesetter or whatever it was called in 2020 seems like a good choice.>MOVE is 2020 gearThird option, and placed last for a reason would be to port 2020 cyberware (alternatively wait for december 202X for it to be released in X-Mass DLC) to RED. Elephant in the room would be the balance problem, since RED have different spectrum (significantly lower) of values of stats and chrome boosts.You'd have to do some thinking about whether allowing for MOVE 20 cyberlegs (corvettes from 2020 had that much of a number I think) will absolutely shred your game balance, or not.
>>96550123>Having a few options to reduce or remove MOVE penalties for heavy gear or get conditional/temporary move aside from skate feet would be nice, even if its just to drag yourself kicking and screaming back up to an average MOVE speed.Oh boy do I have a present for you.https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13M8JJh1qC9VaqZ6kPM3NTXJCX10H_HHgPosting a goddamn drive link because we cant post PDF on tg now>Corvettes Page 32>Heavyweight ModulePage 34BTW I'm actively rewriting drones & puppeteers rn, you guys have any ideas for welcome additions?
>>96550449>RED is too obsessed with "builds" and "balance" generally honestly. Some options should just outright be better, balanced out by either concealability or sheer cost for anyone who doesn't have a corporate tracking buttplug lodged in their ass.But that's how Red is in the first place? The game tries to balance things, but ultimately certain options are better than others and it remains fairly unbalanced as a result. Concealability is a GM fiat thing that's rarely strickly enforced and giving it "hard" rules just makes it obtuse.
What Black ICE would be funniest to slap in your Netrunner's Neuroport in a 2070s RED game. I'm of the opinion that shoving a Giant in there would be funny. Gotta give the Weefles the ol spicy Synapsis
I know this is a different thread but there's no shadowrun general. Anyone here familiar with Shadowrun 2e?
>>96549709Yeah I assume anti-dazzle is standard and "options" here means each one of the list below takes one "option" and not equivalent to Cybereye "options".>picrel>Me trying to decipher how the game works after Mike adds in whatever cool thing he saw in the latest issue of Appleseed>>96553101In this case, it was Ross "Spyke" Winn writing a few pages on how to control powerful characters. I do miss these old referee guides and assorted splatbooks. You can feel the personality of the authors far more than today.
>>96548892Well the edgerunners one was supposed to be a bleeding edge military unit wasn't it?
>>96554013Scorpion and lichIf they hit they don’t do damage but rather apply HEAVY rebuffs to the runner, and in a 77 game with quickhacking you are probably in combat so if the runner becomes a vegetable for trying to quickhack you your solos will beat their ass while helpless
>>96509179>hread Question: Are you currently in a game (any edition), and what are you/the players up to? Replace with solo play/schizo fantasies as needed.Playing RED, the party is currently in Egypt, being paid by a Militech backed resistance movement to overthrow the government, taking out a squad of elite Edgerunners from around the world, MGS style. The Nomad took one level in Lawman and is having his "Clan boys" operate his tank for him.
>>96556033Yeah and it also fucks you in the ass if you use it. Fuckin 2d6 humanity loss per pop.>>96556146Yeah, Lich and Scorpion would be effective in slapping down cheeky Netrunners trying to molest your brain. >>96556210Do the Edgerunners they're targeting have amusing codenames like MGS?
>>96509179>https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/535790/single-player-modeSchizo fantasy no more
https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/s/8nhiZiC6CIITS BEEN 8 MINUTES WHY YOU LAZY FUCKS DIDNT POST THE PDF YET?
>>96556627Lmao they hidden the simplified netrunning rules in there
>>96556033It is, but even the standard models have superspeed in 2077 and CEMK still didn't add that. Just unlimited uses with Humanity loss.
>>96509179Been getting into game dev and I'm trying to think of a way to do freakshit for a science fiction setting to stand in place of aliens in a "humans haven't made first contact" situation. Cyberpunk immediately came to mind.>>96513421Yeah, that's the stuff.
>>96556627I hope /cpg/ will be nice to us solo players. My fragile ego can only take so much.
>>96556627>simplified netrunning, tables, and encounter lists>gig generatorThey put a majority of nonsensical shit as free dlc like ELO but not stuff everyone actually needed?
>>96557494They’re kinda shitty about that desuIt’s very gay how every interface is basically a collection of the free shit plus like 1 section that’s useful like FBCs and martial arts. I hope they get their shit together eventually rather than having their rules scattered between books and “mayor desk” videos.
>>96518887It just dropped today apparently. I'm wondering if anyone has it on the usual places yet. Hopefully R. Tal's guide makes me not bounce off trying this for testing Interlock and non-Interlock systems.
hey im not asking this in here because I like Cyberpunk but I want you're guys genuine opinions on whats better, Interlock Unlimited? or Fuzion? I actually got enough people together interested enough in doing a Armored Trooper Votoms game and actually gathering third party plug in rules for stuff such as weapon and vehicle creation seems very limiting, but Interlock Unlimited, despire being a generic system, seems to be very Cpunk 2020 focused. if anyone could, would anyone be able to point me in the direction of a rules Trove for Fuzion?
Could a gorilla go cyberpsycho? Would a FBC Gorilla beat Adam Smasher in a fist fight?
>>96559120Gorillas probably aren't capable of dissociating, and thus aren't capable of being cyberpsychos.
>>96553166My legs are OK
>>96559120>>96559341But they CAN be installed with tons of cyberware and a Perfect Pet chip. I want to know what happens if you stuck that in a person's chipsocket. Would they need to be lobotomized first, or can it control humans?
>>96559341Eh... I could sort of see it. Monkeys are human adjacent/same evolutionary tree, after all.The question is: How much Chrome/upgrades could a Gorilla have (more than traditional monkey's like Chimpanzees, obviously) before losing their "humanity."Given Gorilla's already have brutality, I'd say it wouldn't take that long for it to "dissociate"/rage out (think the Rage virus from the 28 X film series) so a FBC Gorilla (IMO) probably wouldn't be possible. But if you gave the Gorilla something like the (forgetting the name in 2077, literally... Gorilla Arms?) Arm upgrade from 2077 (oops, repeating myself) and something like armor skin (similar to Nanomachines that Senator Armstrong has), I could see a small challenge to Smasher.Smasher would probably win, but would have to work a minor bit to figure out how to beat raw strength and the armor.>>96557532I think toward the end of 4E they'll probably make a big book for all the interfaces, but that's probably just cope on my part since putting the interfaces out at FLGS and DriveThru makes them more money.I mean shit, J Gray and Rob in their Discord are happy about how much money people are spending at $10 (or $25 for a Print on Demand) for the Solo Play book, they literally are beating Marvel's TTRPG system that released today or sometime earlier (last week?) in the past 1-2 weeks and is currently the top seller.But it's like: "No shit? It's $10 dude, that's a 'worth flipping through' price." Not me though, I pirated it and it isn't system agnostic enough for me to use in Genesys/SotB to test that system.
>>96509179Is there an updated list to download the PDFs? I tried getting the Cyberpunk Red rulebook but The Vault link is down.
>>96513728Doesn't matter, had sex.
>>96559362>anon provides insight >its an imperative that I troll themThat’s why we can’t have nice things, James.
>>96559856If we are taking the idea of cyberpunk 2077 lore than smasher is a constant cyberpsycho and just like v or David you could have a gorilla with a psychology like smasher where you could cram it with a metric ton of cyberwear but the issue is if you change everything in the gorilla is it still a gorilla or just a custom made borg frame with chimp brain.
>>96559856It's bullshit that they're only doing POD for recent books and almost all of 2020 but not the RED core rulebook. "We'll keep it in stock" they said. >>96560188Searching the name of the book and pdf, usually brings up one of the usual hosting sites. I know the core rulebook is on everyone's favorite repository and lawsuit magnet, but the others are on slightly smaller sites.
>>96561832I wasn't using 2077 beyond the Arm implants/chrome. But Smasher has been near Psycho level since 2020. He's been FBC since... 2013/1E Cyberpunk? If I remember right.>>96559843How do YOU view it, Anon? I mean if you're asking this question from a DM perspective it's ultimately YOUR opinion.IMO and I'm understanding you right, flipping it to where a Gorilla controls the human would rip the Human apart literal and metaphorically because the Gorilla wouldn't understand it doesn't have the strength (unless the human had the implants for it) because humans don't have the raw/bare strength and skills that Gorillas would have/understand in their daily life.>>96562450Single Play was literally linked in the Share thread if he scrolls. If he has a particular one he wants he can probably ask and have it uploaded by someone that has it.
>>96559856Why would the solo play need to be system agnostic? I never did solo play (think it’s a bit cringe) but in my test with an AI GM it was okay. Like I would still prefer irl games but to experiment it’s okayHonestly I think it’s more of a GM toolkit and if the groups you play with agrees to it allows you to do downtime stuff without a GM having to weigh in all the time.
>>96563041>Why would the solo play need to be system agnostic?It wouldn't, necessarily and I get why it isn't (since R. Tal wants to keep folks in Interlock/Cyberpunk system), but it'd be nice to have another Cyberpunk table/list for solo play oracle that comes from an "official" company instead of all the third party ones that you have to hunt down like: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/383715/the-gamemaster-s-apprentice-2e-cyberpunk-deck?src=newest_recentI mean, I guess in theory I can just convert the d6-10's into Genesys's d4-20 system but it's a bit disappointing the guide is so into 4E that you can't really use it for other systems.
>>96509179How's the Cyberpunk 2020 book? I am interested in it, but I fee like it is an old school TTRPG so what do I have to be prepared for when getting into this game?
>>96556627Oh boy, I can finally pick up and play Cyberpunk Red now
>>96564282It's crunchy, but not overly that comes in some of the add on books. High lethality too but the games not hard to pick up
>>96564947High lethality and solo role can easily break the game making balancing quite tough but its fun.
>>96565023Oh yeah, first time I ran 2020 one of my players came to me with the most busted powergamer character I've seen, which is what they tend to do but this incident is what made me realize it. But as long as you keep an eye on your players and reel them in when they try to powergame you should be good. Or just kill them, that's what mike said to do in the referee's guide (listen up you primitive screwheads)
>>96564282It's unironically easier to navigate than the RED rulebook.
Did i do something wrong? This is in RED, if it helps.One of my players died from a hostage situation that went wrong and the others watched.Player 1 got captured and got a gun to his head. The enemies are using him as a shield thing so they can back up and flee. I keep leaving hints that the rest of the group should leave them alone, sit down, don't further escalate the situation, and so on. The players keep trying to talk to them down and I turned my hints obviously blatant for a last warning.The one player who keeps greatly aggravating them raised a gun, and I had the enemy shot Player 1 dead in pulling the trigger.My table was split on two players thinking they deserved that and the other two (where Player 1 is) got mad.I think they expected actual combat instead of 'boom, done'? They also rolled checks throughout the thing and I kept giving them variations of "wait it out".
>>96567790This is what initiative is for. If the player hostage is restrained you can deal an aimed headshot's worth without a roll when the enemy's turn comes up, but the players should have the chance to beat him to the shot. There's a reason the human shield rules still allow aimed shots at the grappler's head.
>>96567790>>96567891The players are going into this expecting this to run and be resolved according to the rules of the game/world, which are that if it goes to blows they will have a chance (however low, however long the odds) to react.As DM, it is of course your prerogative to suspend that; that said, unless you've been consistently being inconsistent with the rules, the players have every reason to believe that this will be resolved according to RED's rules and have every reason to feel betrayed if you break that assumption without warning. If you're going to suspend the normal ways the rules work, you need to clearly and explicitly communicate that you will be doing so, out of character, with the players.
>>96567790In situations where one player is at the mercy of another player's actions you need to be speak firmly out of character and get consent from the party that is going to take it up the ass when things go south. This is because otherwise the party that got fucked is going to resent the other player(s) for the rest of their lives, and odds are the other players, by virtue of being players, probably made an incredibly stupid decision.
>>96567945This; and I think RED doesn't need any help really putting players on notice. Short of a godly evasion an NPC has good odds of landing a called shot to the head in a grapple. Assuming no helmets it would take a really bad damage roll or a really tough character to not go straight to death saves.You might be tempted to go "oh, well you can't survive something like that so I won't bother rolling", but the book is actually very restrained on when it invokes that kind of rule. If you consider the falling section about 'falling off a skyscraper without a parachute", the answer as to why you're dead is actually mathematical more than narrative: If you're falling more than two rounds (80 m/yds) you're rolling probably all the dice you have, any distance past that is almost certainly going to be fatal and it doesn't make sense to make the game grind to a halt to decide just how dead you are.VH Pistol headshot with a 4d6 pistol is dropping a potential 8-53 damage on a character with an average of about 28. It's going to sort their shit unless they got cyberware installed that 'nu-uh's that.In spite of Cyberpunk's lethality I think people get attached to their characters more today now than ever; I'm not saying to cushion every corner and child-lock every cupboard, but if there's a chance of survival, let the dice roll.
>>96567790What the fuck was the conversation? Like obviously you made it clear the enemy wanted to leave so your party can easily have negotiated > you let our friend go and we’ll let you walk, we’ll even unload the guns in view to make it clearBut if the negotiations were going nowhere then only combat remains, and it’s a little gay to just “you die no rolls” after failing to resolve something in RP and undercut from resolving it in initiative
>>96567891>>96567945Well, shit. Though that giving them enough warnings could work instead of combat.I'll fix that by making them rescue their friend from a corp or something who thought he was dead. Maybe give the guy the bullet stuck on his head like the Bozo with a grenade nose for a funny reward.
>>96568025>your party can easily have negotiatedThey did. But they did it in a way that is a threat instead of calming down or a truce that supports both sides>let our friend go or we'll shoot your heads>can we drop your friend here by the door and leave>noMore attempts of trying to find something that supports both sides, but all was met with refusal. I think the players are mad only because their friend was captured, and wouldn't take scared enemies who want to flee and leave them alone. There was no reason to further aggravate the situation like they did. I guess they're attached to their own characters or something.>>96567991>>96568017I'll keep it in mind for later. >If you consider the falling section about 'falling off a skyscraper without a parachute", the answer as to why you're dead is actually mathematical more than narrativeWhen you put it like that, a lot of things clickI'm the retarded DM, I'll give the player a talk if he would like a rescue
>>96568017>It's going to sort their shit unless they got cyberware installed that 'nu-uh's that.I have a player whose character is organic and still walks in the middle of firefights. He is the only character that is sent to the hospital the most. You would had thought after the third near-death that he would chrome up but nope, still organic. I still have no idea what he is thinking most of the time.
>>96568123It sounds like they think they’re big dicks in a city full of bigger fish, so honestly my opinion has changedLet them suffer this death, in fact put the screws in them because they don’t seem to understand that a firefight is the LAST thing you want in this system even in RED due to the lethality. But if they act like they are hot shit they need to be humbled. It’s one thing to be confident but they seem like they’re just cocky and need to be knocked down a few pegs to understand the setting
Does everyone use the 2077 night city map for their RPGs or are there any alternative maps of night city I can use? I liked the design of 2077s night city but due to video game limitations the scale of the city just doesn't feel right for a sprawling megalopolis
>>96569444Honestly it’s probably the best you’re gonna get2020 only has the main island map, and 45 has expanded but there a big fucking crater in the middle of the city
>>96566300The layout in RED is "cleaner" (less lore intersparsed between the rules) but it's less "dense" (I guess, I'm not sure how to describe it) which is a problem.
>>96567790Your only fuck up was outright shooting him in the head. If the other player raised a gun, you should've probably had the one that raised a gun make a quick fire check, and if they fucked up (and they more than likely would've) it would've been on THEM for fucking up the "your immunity just got revoked" situation.If I'm reading you right.One DM for me had a construction site completely empty, even when I turned the spotlights off to see if anyone would come out/check to see WTF was going on.They basically then dumped a shit ton of enemies on me with no hints or anything becasue somehow I was supposed to link up with their NPC's instead of going it alone with no warning because they didn't even bother to try to think of what I was trying to do.Shit like that is what drives me up the wall.
>>96569536Not to mention having to deal with the radition.Which funny enough I'm still a bit miffed by 2077 glossing over. "Oh, that pocket nuke that had fallout for 50 years? Totally gone! (Even though Chernobyl still has high levels of radiation nearly 50 years later)"I get rule of cool and NC is the main character and all, but Geez: I think Pondsmith fucked up with the Nuke.
>>96570054At least it’s the corpos getting cancer from stray radiationA pocket nuke was the flashy end and the time of the red had a lot more fallout than the radioactive kind but yeah I think there just enough to cause problems long term but not enough like in the past where if you weren’t protected you just started cooking and taking damage
>>96570054The amount of fissile material at a nuclear plant is exponentially higher than what would be in a pocket nuke. Little Boy and Fat Man's radiation levels were close to background within a month. The Corpo Plaza nuke, while no doubt more efficient, was smaller than Fat Man and Little Boy and functionally was also an airburst where it detonated on the 120th floor. 50 years of cleanup with the technology of the future seems more than enough to clean it up to levels where the only real risks are slight elevated rates of cancer at ages well beyond the average lifespan of a night city denizen.Pic unrelated.
>>96570819>>96570054Oh, the explosion was .1-.5 kilotons. Little Boy was 16 kilotons. While groundwater poisoning would persist longer, it seems more shocking that radiation lasted so long.
>>96570927That's one of the things that turned me off of red, the bomb was basically a suitcase nuke. A very small tactical charge and yet it basically leveled the corporate plaza and painted the sky red for the following decades?
>>96572513Read the book more carefully, the suitcase nuke was therel, but it was also a cover story. They couldn't have done it without Silverhand pitching a fit, but they drilled it with an honest to god bunker-buster nuke intended to basically cook the entire sublevels and drop the tower down on top of itself. The reason NC got trashed is that one way or another they miscalculated the depth or blew the launch, so they not only might not have gotten Mikoshi, but they leveled the city center in the process.
>>96570054As an aside: Chernobyl's radiological impact wasn't a consequence of the blast, but the fact that it was an active radioactive fire and spread radioactive material over a wide area with the steam explosion of Reactor 4. Ostensibly, it was a dirty bomb.A weapon not intended to salt an area with radiation for a long period of time will result in less contamination, and both cyberpunk technology and the necessity of the cleanup in a city center would accelerate cleanup efforts.
>>96572775The real question is how the fuck Blackhand, Smasher, and Shaitan survived being in the blast, with the last being just a brain in the jar after Adam got tired of fucking every hole he'd made in his Eclipse body
>>96509179TQ:In a red game right now, it's fun as hell.I'm a street rat solo who's currently freaking out about uncovering a massive conspiracy >Tech has been bugging GM for a Base>GM finally relents and tells us that our Fixer has found a place that the owners want us to clear out because the renters missed a payment >Homeless shelter>We sneak in, pretend to be homeless , maybe find a way to get them out without much hassle >Some investigation later, we find that they're specifically looking for people with a certain mindset and bussing them where they don't come back from>Find out they're going into a lab that's brainwashing them into solos>Tense combat where we fight a dozen brainwashed solos>Find out that the lab has huge corpo clients, and the NCPD>Oh dear >Burn the lab, scrub the data, and fuck off into the badlands with a nomad palAnd now we're in a small nomad settlement trying to figure out what to do next. Are we dead the minute someone launches an investigation? Are we anonymous? The tech wants to launch a campaign against this ignoring I'm the one who has to do the fighting most of the time. And don't even get me started on the corrupt cop that has our team by the balls who's given us a deadline of two weeks to find a collar for him to bust and take credit for. It's a gangfuck and I'm here for it.
>>96573141They didnt survive. Blackhand is an urban legend since, shaitan wasnt even found and adam already was an engram, just kept secret by then.
>>96573622They didnt survive. Blackhand is an urban legend since, shaitan wasnt even found and adam already was an engram, just kept secret by then.
>>96573622>>96573631Dude, Shaitan was with rogue and spider when they told Kei to commit sudoku. And in Interface Red 4, fucker shrugged off cyberpsychosis twice in the process of self surgery-ing himself a custommFBC out of experimental militech gear and eating a bunch of memory chips and brain dances so he could learn all martial arts and a get a salty run back against Adam Smasher, during which time he was stranded at sea surviving off expired mre sugar packets mixed with irradiated rain water.The cover or Interface Red is Shaitan in his new body kicking a Saka rent a cop in half
>>96574362As for Blackhand, Pondsmith has said he's alive. Just broke and thin, since someone asked why he got fat in the 2077 reference.
>>96572775Remembering it now, I thought it was like a failsafe arasaka had buried underneath the tower in case of something exactly like what happenedAlso a funny youtube recommendation I happened to get today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88c-0ZI-vXU
>>96572513The red sky comes from the Orbital bombardments during the war, not the nuke. It's stated that the entire world has red skies during the time of the red, not just night city.
Any tips on how to run the screamsheets for RED? I generally like shorter adventures like that where you have to fill in the details yourself because it means I have a lot more freedom to wing stuff but a lot of these seem combat focused and pretty deadly if ran as written.
Is there a consensus on which of the published screamsheets/adventures for RED are actually worth running?
I need some help. Recently I have acquired a CLAW but am having choice paralysis when it comes to the underbarrel mount. Except the grenade launcher I kind of have that already covered
>>96579254Are you going to be loading it for general use or to throw in boxes of specialty ammo? If it's going to be your main armament firing shells/slugs/etc, then the 25mm or micromissiles seem a good fit. If you're going to be throwing expensive specialty ammo through it, the underbarrel SMG will let you fire normal ass bullets at gonks and not waste really expensive rounds on unarmored gonks.Ideally you should probably have a few underbarrels to switch out as jobs require.
Has anyone tried the single player mode yet? I just bought it but haven’t tried it out but I’m planning on trying it out this weekend
>>96570927I guess. But I still say that with how 2040 had radation (though the fallout speading in only one direction instead of going through the entire city is weird) another 30 years later wouldn't have had it be background radation yet, IMO, in that case.Pondsmith kind of glosses over the whole thing because he needed to make 3E/2030, so it was just a stupid end to 2020/2E.>>96572815>dirty bombWouldn't Silverhand's be one of those? I forget if he took it off Arasaka execs himself or not.In any case, 2077 glosses over the whole thing and "Never Fade Away"/the mission that shows it in-game is supposed to be "unrealiable Johnny-is-a-bad-ass retelling." Even though it sort of explains Blackhand and crew (Rogue, et. al.) leaving before the bomb IIRC.I'm watching the video Youtube series that the book QR codes and I'm not too impressed by the writer (the primary one, not J Gray) doing a bunch of um/ahs during the two introductions. I haven't gotten to the third episode yet to see if it properly flows to where it doesn't make me too excited to go through it myself if that's going to be the process.
>>96583493Oops, last part was for >>96582711
>>96583493Nah, Silverhand's duffelbag nuke was pretty standard. The goal wasn't to irradiate anything, it was to deliver it to where it would do the maximum damage.For better or worse Cyberpunk tends to not over-explain background information. Biased retelling, stories and straight up lies exist as part of the story rather than departures from it.If you're running a game you should probably iron out any details that are crucial, but secrets are good for stories and give especially Media characters some wild shit to do; whether it be tracking down what actually happened or spinning their own yarn for societal change or personal gain.
The first heavy hitter I'm sending at my group is packing two gorilla arms and like their body's weight in synthcoke
Anyone else run some of the 2020 adventures in RED? I ran Land of the free this summer, and it was more fun than in 2020 (Being away from night-city doesn't cripple some of the classes nearly as much.)
(System Agnostic)Building a dossier template for cyberpunk for my table of mixed-experience players. Pulled concepts from assorted games I've played. Anybody spot anything missing? Thanks.Name / ID:Alias / Handle:Gender:D.O.B. / Age:Height:Weight:Location of Birth:Ethnicity / Metatype:Location of Residence:Affiliation:Credentials / Licenses:Skills:Social Class / Lifestyle / Caste:Cultural Origin:Personality:Clothing / Fashion / Style Description:Hairstyle:Values / Motivation / Goals: Biography / Background:Experiences:Trauma:Personality:Former Residence(s):Type / Class / Role / Archetype / Specialty:Clientele:Modus Operandi:Known Associates / Crew / Allies / Enemies:Family:Intimates / Affairs:Contacts:Bonds:Cyberware:Signature Miscellany (Gear):Weapons:Addictions / Vices:Destressers / Hobbies:
>get new players, nice characters>slowly make them get used to the new system and get them in the mood that their behavior won't put bread on th table>now they're true mercs, learning quick after 3 sessions>all except one>goody two shoes>won't assassinate, won't bribe, won't be a stealthy fucker to put down poison, won't do facedowns, and so onWhat the hell should I do?
>>96591191You should let ethics be their liability. They will struggle and die, learn and adapt or show you miracles.
>>96591302Oh, as an addendum you should remind them to use facedowns. There's nothing wrong or dishonorable about getting real big and real loud (or real quiet and clear) and letting people know that they ought not do what they're doing.
>>96579254Damn, this weapon alone has more character than entire array of RED weapons from the corebook.>PQMicrowaver
>>96583493>B-but we have CANON sources about how 'saka tower raid exactly went down>Johnny memories cannot be trusted because he is artificialIt's almost as if CPR had the right to make their own artistic vision, bizzare
>>96585073RED be like+1 melee/brawling/martial art damage, bro
>>96591191>Be me, few years ago>Play baby first adventure in RED>Very first session with the group>Nomad camp pays the crew 2K split for recovering a truck with medical supplies that militech confiscated as "evidence".>Players are told that nomads want no trouble, they can steal the truck back, fight it out or whatever, but they prefer no violence.>"If you manage without killing anyone we'll scrap in and throw a few extra">Fixer player demand 1000 upfront>Sure why not>Immidiately after leaving the camp and heading towards NC they roll for a database search to find the officer that supervised militech raid, good roll>A player that rolled wants to call him once they're within telephone range of the city>Sure>Player offers to drop exact nomad camp location, their defensive capabilities, camp layout and offers for the crew to assist in "cleansing the filth" for bonus 2000>Officer drops to 1000 bonus, fixer doesnt even roll, just agreesThey earned the nomad killers reputation there, shaping their future story, losing many potential clients and getting ambushed with fucking anti material rifles by vengeful nomads month later.
>>96585073Hardened mini-boss? Don't forget that if you have more than 3 players you can add in a mook (which multiply quickly using the hardened rules) or even a lieutenant (who can access a special tactic). Personally, I like selecting the +12 shoulder arm mook with a poor shotgun +3 mooks (when they appear once on the 2nd-4th turns). Nothing makes a fight more memorable than funny criticals.
>>96556627>Single-player modeDoes anyone have a PDF copy? Asking for a friend.
>>96595506If you had friends you wouldn't need a sologame QED foul netrunner begone from my datafortress
>>96509179TQ:>playing an exec in a team with a rockerboy (a graffiti artist) and a techie who I've contracted as on-hire edgerunners>FOTB (well, plane) Arasaka Exec thrown into Las Vegas to restart Arasaka Nevada, which started as a single warehouse and a patch of land near the strip>no support, because my boss hates me because I look like my mom who cucked him with my dad>who he may or may not have had a hand in killing the both of>anyways>several sessions back we "failed" a job for our cokehead fixer to acquire a VIP from a "nomad" camp on his orders as we gave bad information that his intel was wrong>we infiltrated the camp of Raffen, then smuggled the VIP out of their bondage under the cover of dark>then the VIP started talking on the ride back to the golden nugget after he found out who sent us>see, what our cokehead fixer hadn't told us, was that the VIP was ACTUALLY a debtor to the casino the fixer managed, to the tune of somewhere around 2 million eddies>he cut us a deal, let him live (because where he was going, he wasn't coming back, not in one piece) and he'll work with us>he's even the vice president of another rival casino's IT department, so I make the executive decision to accept>we get the tech to invent an upgrade to the kill chip, adding a remote detonator and disabling the instant explosion upon being inserted into the neck>fixer is seemingly none the wiser, we now have more assets and my web of connections grows>he paid us for the effort anyways, kick ass>he gives us more jobs when we get back, everything's rosy>over half a dozen sessions pass and we get away with it, we spend the time mostly doing jobs for other fixers alongside him>collecting debts, wiping out scav gangs, protecting drug labs, relatively basic stuff as we expand our network of contacts and show that we can be trusted>even steal an AV from a gang of raffen shiv who're going to get turbofucked by militech later for stealing it initially
>>96596363>armour piercing bullets and keeping a single guy in enfilade was relatively easy, so we didn't bother worrying too much about gear>we pull up in the company car, head into the pizzeria and enter into the flickering lights- before the door closes behind us and locks shut.>entire party is immediately on edge>netrunner teammate switches the lights on>I'm trying unbelievably hard not to laugh as the predictable occurs, and two continental foods mascots appeared out of the dark>last fight, we tried to take in the cyberpsycho in non-lethally and went for a single punch to end itBAD DECISION! DO NOT TRY THAT!>our rockerboy went from 40->3hp in one big swing the next turn when the psycho weaved the punch and uppercut him so hard he broke his spine>we're trapped in a building with what can only be assumed to be two of the very same statblock, if only more lethal as they're far less mobile>so we all shoot and scoot as much as we can, dealing as much chip damage as we can to wear down the SP while exploiting the fact that they thankfully only have 3 movement>my netrunner team member hits an insane shot on one of them halfway through the combat encounter with her pistol, dealing 40 damage and popping the biosystem inside of the mascot borgs>now free to focus on just one, we microwave the shit out of it and have the tech take an axe to their limbs in the interim to disable them>after a few tense rounds, pull out his biosystem, and we're jolly.>unfortunately netrunner girls amazing shot killed the other borg though, so no second brain in a jar to add to my growing collection>don't ask.>anyways, call fixer as we break out and talk to the now slightly less insane psycho we've defused>we question the sole remaining psycho, because the mascots didn't match the description given- and the only guy to have passed through this place in the last five years... apparently looked just like our fixer>we relay that information as we get it, and he drops the call
>>96596375I fucked up the formatting with these, insert a "cokehead fixer calls with offer of a new job" at the beginning of the one above this one if it doesn't make sense>uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh>turns out our cyberpsychoes have actually been here mouldering for several years after killing several children themselves... half a decade ago>call the fixer back>blocked>uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh>my two contractees look at me, because now we're all out of five thousand eddies on a contract I picked.>we need to go get revenge, or otherwise these two will revolt>head back to the casino (because what else are you going to do in Las Vegas?) to regroup>plan a lightning raid, order some pest control suits, half a dozen tubes of binary compound and rent a scissor lift>pull up in the rockerboy's stolen van towing the scissor lift>nobody suspects a thing>hop out of the car, pile into the scissorlift and head up to the second floor where the fixers office is>one unfortunate complication, I'm a fucking idiot with 4/10 memory for things I haven't bothered to actively catalogue>we go up and are barely paid any attention to by passers by as we break into the second floor of this casino>burn a hole in the wall with two sticks of the binary compound applied simultaneously, and we're in...>to the fucking supply closet.>shit.>the five man squad exits the supply closet like a clown car>the guards are thankfully occupied with themselves talking, so we make our way over to the actual entrance of his office, which is actually down the hall >but as a plus side to being an idiot, it does mean we don't have to burn our way in through the street facing side of the building>give them our spiel about needing the managers signature, they "read" the contract I just wrote in literally seconds on the fly and pass the tablet through his sealed door
>>96595506Last 2-3 PDF Share thread had it.
>>96592371>It's almost as if CPR had the right to make their own artistic vision>Let's ignore the Pocket Nuke, Pondsmith, sir!>Sure, let's also ignore the Radiation that wouldn't be background in 50 years since I exploded Night City, CD Project!>BRILLANT!No.
>>96596585>step to the side as he opens the slot, walking over to go "retrieve something" from my bag to avoid him seeing incredibly defining features which apparently haven't been communicated to his guards>being a 6'7 asian woman is usually quite difficult, but this guy's an idiot so we're thankfully blessed.>he opens and then closes the slot quickly to take the tablet>shit.>plan b it is>my team members form a line, blocking the guards sight as I apply binary compound to the wall, eating through it in seconds as the fixer fumbles through the contract bulked out with lorem ipsum text>step in as the rockerboy strikes up a conversation with the fixers gangoons without me having clued him into the plan, yapping about how they should negotiate for cheap dental care to keep them distracted>as they're considered a small group, they're made into fans with his charismatic impact roll and the conversation is damn near enrapturing for them, thank FUCK as otherwise we were totally fucked>hit the fixer with the "yeah I'm gonna need you to log off for me" hand to the shoulder after I take off the hat and gas mask and swap my tech hair back to its usual shade>he, without my knowledge, manages to unlock the door while I'm right up in his face while he's gibbering about what he can give us without even a facedown roll>offers his weapon to me, so I take his switchblade and pat him down while pressing a gun to his guts>my perception and his stealth tie, so the ref tells me I'm paranoid because things don't seem right>so we cutting a deal in his room, my pocket shotgun leveled at him while he shakes from withdrawals>interspersed between this are cuts to the rockerboy yapping about how the fixers gangoons should be talking about how much they're earning with eachother and establish a workers union to ensure bargaining power
>>96597410>grilling the fixer about all his information, and this guy is like, comically useless>he has no idea where his books are, and supposedly can't tell me anything about his business without his laptop>twist the fixers leg (metaphorically) by stopping them from taking their drugs, before offering him a solution>he gets chipped like the VIP and says "yes" to whatever I want, in exchange he gets to die another day and take a hit >he accepts, and I grab a handful of synthcoke from off of the table and offer it to him to avoid turning my back to someone who want's nothing more than me dead>dude rails the whole four doses I had in my hand>now with him somewhat mollified, I tell him to get me his laptop >he crosses the room, before stopping at the door which was halfway towards his bed>he struggles against it, banging his shoulder against it to try to open the unlocked and unlatched door->only to achieve absolutely nothing as his big as fuck guard is leant against said door, listening to the rockerboy yap>he turns back to see me looming over his shoulder, and finally tells the truth>he has no idea where his books are, because he's actually outsourced everything to Offshore Accounting Ltd. based in New Mumbai>he still has all of his debtors on the laptop though>grab the laptop, walk the fixer out the hole in the wall- and in less than five minutes total we extract while our rockerboy finishes up jawboning with his fans, slipping out with nobody any the wiser>take him back to base>while the tech whips up a new service chip, sit the fixer down and finally do a forced financial audit by calling the obnoxiously indian tech support>this motherfucker has been wasting half his casino's budget on literally just hookers and blow>he's also seemingly unaware of the concept of human trafficking so he won't just buy a mail order bride or something>he has barely 3k in his corporate accountthanks, asshole.
>>96596779Hoooly fucking shit thank you anon!!!
>>96596787Tell me you haven't read, heard or even thought about the radiological impacts of the real life nuclear devices dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki without telling me you haven't read, heard, or even thought about the radiological impacts of the real life nuclear devices dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.To give you the short version: Radiation levels in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were near their original levels within a month after the bombings; bombs not designed to salt the region with poisonous radioactive isotopes don't do so incidentally well. Chernobyl, by virtue of being an uncontrolled radioactive fire and explosion, had a much larger contaminating effect on not only the immediate region but a significant swath of Europe.If anything, RED exaggerates the risk in the so called 'hot zone' for narrative and game-play effect. Even at ground zero it would be much safer much faster than the book suggests, which we can accept as the possible consequences of a different kind of bomb (or, perhaps simply a shoddier one).This is largely moot because the exact details of the bombing are utterly irrelevant to 98% of games. Use the truth you want to for the game you run, just don't make it boring.
What is the coolest way you've had a character die in cyberpunk, Chooms?
Drones & Puppeteers updatedv.2.65https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13M8JJh1qC9VaqZ6kPM3NTXJCX10H_HHgNew shit (because I havent posted here last time it will be slightly more than usual)>Role reimaginedYou're now a dude that effectively have two bodies, and gameplay is designed around that.>New gearI'm pretty autistic, so I had to rearrange the subsections to fit the two page spread, anyway batteries are now gear, not upgrades, gloves are gone (thought they were cool I was unable to come up with rational take on them), suit now requires SOME body movement, added passive and active radar and also that one DADS thing that seem to be unbalanced (but I know I will not get your opinion, because you fucktards dont even play RED) but it really isnt for me, and a fiberoptic cable which does a whatever a fiberoptic cable does.>Chrome?Just one. Borgware that lets you carry demon on your cyberdeck.>WeaponsNew ammo, that zaps with a net, kind of lack fireworks but what did you expect. It's a single target non lethal grenade with a grapple utility (check black chrome, because no way I'm rephrasing net entanglement rule)Also, the sawn off shotgun is gone in favour of yet another (and dare I say pretty based) take on smart weapons.>More?I still have to figure out (nice little thought experiment) how to make picrel happen in RED.
>>96598496FBC rolled very very high on an attack and a damage roll and just smeared a guy like frosting stuck to your finger.
>>96597700>If anything, RED exaggerates the risk in the so called 'hot zone' for narrative and game-play effect. Even at ground zero it would be much safer much faster than the book suggests, which we can accept as the possible consequences of a different kind of bomb (or, perhaps simply a shoddier one).Isn't the implication that it's actually an Arasaka nuke they had in their basement as a failsafe that blew up the hot zone and not the suitcase nuke that Blackhand and pals had?
>>96599812I'm pretty sure that the fanfiction in the core rulebook Black Dog was dealing with the unexploded Arasaka nuke before any enterprising players could get their hands on it, but it looked really unappealing to read so I didn't.
>>96564282It's pretty good though some rule interactions are never explained properly (block and dodge key attack bonuses for martial art styles...).>>96567790Putting one pc's character life directly depending on the actions of a different player is always a bad move.The player whose pc got killed instantly because some other player botched a social encounter has the right to be mad.>I keep leaving hints that the rest of the group should leave them alone, sit down, don't further escalate the situation, and so onI understand the point you were trying to make but from a gameplay perspective "just do nothing" is boring. They are players, here to play, to act, not to watch your cutscene unfold while standing still.>>96568123Remember>live on the edgeTaking risks is an integral part of the aesthetic. Your players probably expected a firefight with an initiative roll and the chance to heroically save their friend instead of an automatic instant failure.
>>96591191>>96591302Let the player play however they want. If they just don't want to kill but aren't being disruptive to the rest of the party it's just a matter of preference. Trying to force a certain playstyle or roleplaying from your players is a controlfreak referee move.You don't have to pull punches or make it so that the enemies won't try to kill their pc, but if their pc finds creative ways to solve problems without committing crimes, then I just fail to see the issue.
>>96601728In my game, there was a human trafficker whom we caught. They had detes we needed, but they were probably too hot to handle, and they'd get disappeared if we put them in a regular jail. Discussions were had on how to handle the situation, from locking her up in a coffin apartment or hiding them away in some safe house. Anyway, a few failed interrogation and shakedown checks later, the consensus was >"fuck this bitch"She was a human trafficker with blood on their hands. It just so happened some of the people she'd killed had friends who were in the area. I "looked the other way" and let the gangoons she'd wronged zero her ass. The street justice was done, but not by my (or my crew's) hand. I think that was a decent outcome with no negative humanity penalty for me executing someone.
When is it better to maim a player character than outright killing him?
>>96602291I'm sure the PC would like to survive somehow. If they get captured by a corpo, they may get the Adam Smasher treatment if they're a hot enough solo.>Well, you're missing all your limbs, a good chunk of your internal organs are non-functional, and your skeleton has been pulverized. >You have two options: >One, we can flash your brain for intel and dump your meat on the street for the scavs to pick clean.>Two, you can work for us as a cleaner. We saw what you did to those hit squads we sent after you. It'd be a pity to waste such talent. Of course, you'll be legally dead and we'll own you, but at least you can live on in some form. We'll provide a fresh new body; the newest generation linear frame, neural mesh, sub-cortical dampers, synthetic optics, reinforced skeleton, and a few other toys to make you a real menace on the streets. Naturally, you'll be paying back all of our generous contributions to your new physique over the next century, given the interest rate on the loan you'll need to afford all those nice toys.>You have 24 hours to make your decision. If they're a no-name nobody, they may have to get stitched back together by a loving ripperdoc if they didn't get arrested and hauled off to jail or some corpo blacksite.
>>96602126>I think that was a decent outcome with no negative humanity penalty for me executing someone.As I referee I never thought of making pc's roll a humanity loss over killing someone. That would also seem to me like trying to tell them how to play their character. If the pc is the type of person who would shoot someone in the back of the head then that's fine, it's not my character.A referee trying to tell the player that said action imposes a loss of humanity seems to me like an annoying moralfaggot. That's the kind of gm that in a fantasy system would pull some crap like "after the party kills the marauding goblins in the cave, you go to the final room and find... a few child goblins crying, heh, 'yup you just killed their parents, don't you feel so bad about this???" and think they are the hot shit.
>>96602596I always found it weird there is humanity loss on killing somebody, on a setting where nearly everyone is a mercenary and kills
>>96602291Yes, crits are hilarious. That's why the core rulebook gave all basic mooks poor shotguns or assault rifles (20% funny crit chance).
>>96602637There is no Humanity Loss tied to killing.
>>966027602d6 and 3d6 loss on 'killing for the first time' and 'murder or violent death of an innocent'.That is in Edgerunners book, but was vague in the RED book with 'humanity loss from violent acts'.
>>96602840of course I forgot my pic
>>96602840It must have been added there. I don't recall ever reading about such a rule in 2020 which is the edition I still play to this day.
>>96521151Shadowrun 1e was going to be published before Cyberpunk 2013 initially.
>>96602840>>96602896>>96602901Many of the RED humanity losses make no sense>witnessing tortureIn Cyberpunk?
>>96602954Seems they forgot that the characters in Cyberpunk are the most likely people to torture someone
>>96602596I don't know if my ref WOULD have given me humanity loss. I think it depends on how we play it. The person in question was handcuffed and posed 0 threat. They were clearly beaten. It would essentially be an execution if any of the PCs killed them. I remember earlier in the game, he did give another player humanity loss for killing someone who had surrendered. My rule of thumb will be (since I'm a lawman) not to go out of my way to murder people and arrest whoever I can. Since this is Night City, though, I have no qualms about gunning down people who don't BACK THE FUCK UP, when I yell at them to do so. SOP for the NCPD.In the militech-funded expedited 2-month training course I enrolled in to become a fine peace officer, that was one of the first things the instructor explained.>"If anyone doesn't do what you say immediately when you're pointing a gun at them- shoot them. If anyone asks any questions, say the 'perp was suffering from cyberpsychosis. They're some kind of crazy if they don't follow instructions when you're pointing a gun at them anyway."
>>96602840>>96602896I mean, I can see that being a thing if you outright state that your character has never taken a life before and isn't a sociopath. However, most Cyberpunk characters don't fall into that category, which renders this moot.>>96602901Do you want a cookie for that?
>>96602954This book also details a number of normal ways your humanity score goes back up; but nobody posts that chart.I wonder why?The only one on that list that's a little fucked is "murderous ideation". It's too vague.
>>96603496>This book also details a number of normal ways your humanity score goes back up; but nobody posts that chartHumanity Gain makes a lot more sense compared to Humanity Loss, most of the latter being nonsensical because what >>96603345 already mentioned
Rockerboy who is a fujo fanfic writer.
>>96603555If you use them both together a number of actions lose Humanity Costs entirely or net to positive:For example, lets say that 'murderous ideation' means 'planning a cold blooded killing'. Then if you plan to kill a gangster who is poised to kill the owner of a bodega you would take a 1d6 hit for planning a murder, but then you'd gain 2d6 from saving their life.For another example, you torture an enemy to get the combination from their safe to steal-back something important from them or halt their plans. You would take 1d6 for torturing them, but you'd gain 1d6 back from defeating someone.The general jist is that justified or moralized violence can keep you entirely level; while wanton or cruel acts will see you spiral. Principled action and trying to maintain an ethical code will generally recover you HL in the long term.Finally with the HQ rules and lifestyle rules for certain levels of accommodation you're netting some HL from there as well. The average edgerunner then can indulge in limited torture (especially when 'the ends justify the means) and violence, having become acclimated to threats of being killed and killing. What shakes them then has to be substantially dehumanizing, gruesome or soulcrushing; and generally only really grody stuff will cause more than a 1d6 hit.Broadly while some tweaks may make sense, I think these charts are very good; with even murder-hobo character not swinging wildly in humanity so long as they're being cruel for sensible motivations. The only characters that will crater immediately are the unnecessarily and unrealistically cruel.
Is it just me or locate/remote and control/remote in CP2020 are busted? It's not particularly hard to create a strength 10 controller program (difficulty 20 to create, perfectly doable) which can then auto succeed every time. I know you have to make a different program for each type of object you want to control but the weight of a strength 10 controller is just 2 MU so you can have more than one, and honestly just one to control cars and maybe one for electronic doors should be more than enough.I assume that you can only hijack cyberized cars and I assume those should be relatively rare, but none of that's written as far as I know. The example in the corebook makes it sound like you can hack and take over anything.
>>96602596Humanity loss/gain is just a way of simulating a characters innocence and descent into unhinged psychopathy. I wouldn’t run it literally by book tables but I think its generally fair for someone doing knowingly fucked up shit to suffer some small degree of humanity loss.Those who are characteristically running low EMP already would be less and less phased by such things and therefore less likely to lose humanity, that’s the way I see it.My biggest issue conceptually with humanity system is that any player who wants to just play full murderhobo deathborg has to start the game with as high an EMP stat as possible meaning they are implicitly angels behind all the chrome.
>>96604618>My biggest issue conceptually with humanity system is that any player who wants to just play full murderhobo deathborg has to start the game with as high an EMP stat as possible meaning they are implicitly angels behind all the chrome.EMP is not a measurement of how nice they are, it's a measure of how charismatic they are. High EMP lets you lie and deceive others.Humanity is not a measurement of morality but rather a measurement of how cyberware makes you lose touch with regular human experience.For example REF boosting Kerenzikov alters your perception of time, making it so that the world around you appears to move slower. This makes it have a relatively large humanity cost because your experience becomes that much different from that of a regular human.As you get more cyberware you become less human in the sense that it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to the life and experiences of regular humans, which is also what makes it harder to talk to them.
>>96604618It makes sense from a balance standpoint to make players invest into their humanity to tank dehumanizing equipment. You can't punish them with low humanity if they're already at low humanity.I do agree that having low humanity should inoculate you against some humanity loss-- if you already care very little about other people, splatting them with exploding shells shouldn't bother you much more than putting out rat poison.On the other hand for some characters having the slide go a long way down makes a lot of sense. My character in my current game is a bit of a cinnamon roll behind it all, but between cutting her teeth on the old ultra violence and all the cyberware we're pretty close to disassociative murder town by now.You have to remember that being a true cyberpsycho makes you unpredictable, impossible to cooperate with and broadly unsuitable as a protagonist of any kind. Murderhobos exist in NC but you're probably getting hired to shoot them.
>>96604618>Make Humanity equivalent to CoC Sanity, decoupled from Empathy and becomes its own stat>When you install new cyberware GM rolls under Humanity>On success nothing happens>On failure the cyberware has a quirk that gives GM a reason to fuck with you later>Sometimes roll Humanity as a check to see if the PCs are too autistic to resolve a situation with interpersonal skills>Players clap whenever they get Humanity restored and make sad noises when they lose itNever going back.
>>96605338>player starts with 10 humanity>they install every single cyberware in every splatbook>just fine
>>96604618I'd mentioned to someone a negative humanity mechanic for those wanting to indulge in more chrome without having to deal with the humanity tax. I think they said they would cook it up, but I haven't seen anything for a few threads. The idea being you are always in negative humanity and going into the positive is what makes you "lose control". i.e., being an unhinged cyberspscyho is your natural state. Being "normal" is what would make you breakdown.
>>96605912Even if they for some reason had enough money to do that, yeah, I guess. If someone wants to play with a lot of cyberware, why shouldn't they be allowed to? I don't penalise anyone for wanting a tricked out tacticool gun, or flashy car, or comfy base.
>>96603496>The only one on that list that's a little fucked is "murderous ideation". It's too vague.Depends on the GM. Some would be moralfags that would throw dice at you for a simple "I should kill that guy for real", others would actually require serious intent and actual planning of murder.
I haven't read the full single player book, but I think I like the fast and dirty combat (unless it turns out to be really stupid). I really wanted a 'narrative' combat that was measured in minutes for situations like holding the line while waiting for exfiltration. Or maybe this is from somewhere else, I'm just looking at updates via the companion app.
Coming from RED, what do bows have over other weapons other than not having any combat noises?
>>96602896>>96602954Given the tone of Red this tracks with R.Tal's intepretation of the setting. What I find more ridiculous is how living in a city or working for a corp somehow gives you humanity loss
>>96609780Living in a polluted, crime-ridden shithole of a city or working for a soulless megacorporation would certainly impact my mental health.
>>96609780Even more fucked is the Exec, Lawman, Media roles existing beforehandYou can't tell me "ackshually they are removed for easy play in the beginner gig" when the humanity losses are against the point of the Roles
>>96609460Biotoxin, toxin and sleep arrows. You get 10 arrows for the price of a single grenade, so theoretically you can be more efficient (assuming you don't miss, arrows give you 10 victims but the grenade is a single group that fits inside a 5x5 square, which will probably be around 4). I think everything else arrows get, boolets get too (incindiary, expansive, smart).
>>96607447Well that's the reason why it's kinda stupid; not necessarily because it doesn't make sense in universe, but because 'having an idea' isn't a game action and players will often have and even express ideas their character doesn't really have.Not to mention frustration and circumstances can make that trip way too easily and often. In a recent game from a combination of player frustration and being actually on fire during netrunning, my PC issued an ultimatum to others in the crew that they needed to take the time to put her out or she'd kill the witness they were trying to distract. In reality it was largely an OOC problem expressed in IC (priority issues) but if 'having the idea' is sufficient, then she'd be taking 1d6 HL for, arguably, a reasonable crash out.At the very least I think it has to escalate to considering viability and planning just to keep outbursts and threats from causing you to drop all your rings.
>>96609832Working for the Corp I get but it punishes Exec players and what working for a corp entails is vague. The reasoning behind living in the city are "overstimulation" which just comes off as the writer of the tables being an autist. AHHH NO crowds and loud noises I am going insane save me nigger Mike!>>96609967Lawman and Media I understand. They need a major rework in general. I get the feeling Red's designers don't like Execs since they undermine alot of the poverty simulator elements of Red.
>>96609780City living is a dumb thing to lose humanity for; especially since there are plenty of other ways to lose humanity that come from being in NC; you don't need it.I actually think corporate work should give humanity loss. Being a cog sucks, but it sucks less if you're paid well and can get your humanity back on lifestyle. The goal here is more thematic than realistic though to give a mechanical backbone to what's a setting conceit. Staying in line and doing what you're told is a good way to get plowed under for the bottom line or some corporate project; having 1d6 HL upfront on it for running in the wheel just lets you frontload some of the suffering so players aren't surprised when they get burned.
One of my player's character's online Mainline is going to be a full borg Maelstrom member. Cause they gave me freedom to do whatever with them so long as they were a girl.
>>96611296>They need a major rework in generalBut Anon, how would (You) rework them?
>>96613029NTA, but all Lawman needs is to be able to put their Lawman Rank to social skills involving being police/part of an org. I scribbled up something like it a while back:Authority: While Backup is the most tangible show of the Lawman's support, the threat of force can be as effective as a show of it. Whenever a Lawman makes a check to convince or coerce someone into cooperating with them or doing as they say (this includes Facedowns!), they can add half of their Lawman rank (round up) to the check if they claim they are acting in an official capacity. They need not ACTUALLY have the jurisdiction, permission or orders they claim they do, so long as the other party cannot be certain they don't. Flashing your badge and lying though has its risks: if you try to use your Authority on someone who knows --for certain-- you are lying, they automatically succeed against your check (including Facedowns!). Repeatedly abusing your authority, breaking regulations or lying to your superiors can be grounds for suspension, though nothing stops you from lying about that too. A good Lawman will know when and what they can get away with.Media is fine as long as the GM plays it correctly, dispensing rumors and giving them opportunities to use their Credibility. It's worth noting that while you can publish, sometimes just writing an unsinkable report and handing it to the right person can be a strong use of the Media role.
Is there a fun cyberpunk title that leans more story game / PbtA than D&D/GURPS autism?
>>96613111Anon, did you mean to buff lawman, or to replace backup with authority?
>>96613111Rumours are just quest leads that the GM should be giving players anyway. Credibility sucks because it's pure GM fiat with very vague guidelines on what to do. The level 10 ability is just ridiculous, reminds me of this scene.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKohD_RLnFw&rco=1Even if the GM is good at running a Media's abilities they're only going to be running stories maybe once a session and they have no utility outside of their role ability. Similar issue to the Netrunner, they revolve around an optional subsystem detached from everything else than many GMs struggle to run properly. As to how I'd fix Media, giving them some skill bonuses would be a good start. Really every Role getting some kind of skill bonus should be standard in this game. The skill list is huge and giving bonuses to players is a good way to incentivise them to use some of the more underutilised skills. Media is a face and investigator so I imagine they'd get bonuses to things like persuation, conversation, bribery, library search, compostion etc.As to what else you could give the Media to improve them, I'd make them Facedown specialists. Give them the ability to raise the reputation of the crew. Give them a "Blackmail"ability where they can present compromising material to an NPC and give them negative modifiers to checks. You could have these abilities in addition to Credibility and Rumors, but generally I wish Red would move away from it's more wishy washy narrative powers like Credibility and Charismatic Impact. The game is closer to a wargame style TTRPG like DnD than a narrative game like VtM or CoC and all the Roles should reflect that with more tangible bonuses.
>>96613445>extra skills points for rolesI'd support this. Every role has 4 or 5 skills that get a +1 or something every time you level up the role ability. >Rockerboy is really good at that, his role ability gives him +4 by default!!It'd make muticlassing very strong as well, getting the stat benefits from two different roles.
>>96613434What you think Lawman needs a nerf? Don't be ridiculous. Solos get dial a bonus, Execs can have their muscle on tap at all times, Lawmen have to sit on their hands and wait for the cavalry; unless your GM is stupid enough to let you dial ahead every single encounter.Authority shores up some of the fantasy of Lawman without stepping on other role's toes and lets people do their favorite version of dirty harry or lethal weapon.>>96613445If the Ref is using Media just to give players quest leads they're fucking up already. Business opportunities, side jobs, leads: the Media is a 'player agency' class that gives them information enough to help dictate how the crew engages with the world; and then in turn allows the Media to affect the world using its own currency: stories.Credibility is intentionally vague because it is widely applicable. Rumors is intentionally vague because it is specifically broad. I get a bit uppity over talking down on Media (and Netrunner) because it is a role that simply relies on the GM reading the book.
>>96615889>What you think Lawman needs a nerf? Don't be ridiculous. Solos get dial a bonus, Execs can have their muscle on tap at all times, Lawmen have to sit on their hands and wait for the cavalry; unless your GM is stupid enough to let you dial ahead every single encounter.Yes having nothing to do while you sit on your hands and wait several turns for a bunch of crappy NPCs you can't control to show up is a GREAT ability. Bravo 10/10 game design. The Lawman needs absolutely no work despite being the most barebones Role. >If the Ref is using Media just to give players quest leads they're fucking up already. Business opportunities, side jobs, leads: the Media is a 'player agency' class that gives them information enough to help dictate how the crew engages with the world; and then in turn allows the Media to affect the world using its own currency: stories.Yes this is all stuff the GM could be feeding the players without a Media in the party. Unless the GM is autistic and wants to railroad the players and give them no agecy, rumors has no utility in play.>Credibility is intentionally vague because it is widely applicable. Rumors is intentionally vague because it is specifically broad. I get a bit uppity over talking down on Media (and Netrunner) because it is a role that simply relies on the GM reading the book.Credibility is doing nothing all session and then at the end rolling to MAYBE get a GM fiat effect and if the roll fails well fuck you player. Acting like people on dislike Media/Netrunner because they haven't read the book is just ignoring the problems with those roles.
>>96617156If you're going to spend this much time writing, you could spend maybe a quarter of that time reading and not come off nearly as much of an illiterate retard. I literally told you what I'd give Lawman to make them better on top of the existing Backup ability.Once you're done reading that, maybe read Media's Role ability (like actually read the words on the fucking page), the Netrunning Chapter and the rest of the book while you're on that pace.
>>96618247Firstly I agree that Lawman needs a secondary ability since Backup sucks. I think that's a generally agreed upon point and I don't think that other anon was saying they need a nerf either. Sorry but your post wasn't clear if you were defending Backup or not. Secondly I have read the book AND played/gm'd multiple campaigns and Media characters just suck. Their abilities are too niche and don't come up often enough to justify putting points into the role. They may as well be classless characters.Netrunning sucks because it splits the party and slows down the game. Unless you create a scenario where the party cannot continue whithout a Netrunner's success, any objectives achieved in the Netrun can be solved by the party in meatspace, so it's a whole lotta effort for not much reward and many tables just ignore the role entirely because of it.Generally I think that Roles should be designed with a level of utility in mind. Nomad, Solo, Tech and Exec all have fairly versatile abilities applicable in a number of gameplay scenarios from combat to stealth to social situations. Fixers and Medtechs are less robust but still important given Medtechs are the only source of healing the game and Fixers are essential if you're running the economy bullshit RAW.Rockerboys, Medias, Lawman and Netrunners on the other hand are hyper focused on a specific ability that can be hard to implement in a session.
>>96568017Jumping on this for a question since I came from Shadowrun: what about in specific cases where there is no escape? SR has a thing where if someone in low enough hp and can't escape from a grenade from a car- skip the death save, the body is red mist.In Cyberpunk: if i have an enemy that traps and locks a player in a building and sets it on fire, or puts his feet in cement blocks and throws him in an ocean, then what?
>>96622965Both examples you provided for Cyberpunk are unlikely but possible to survive; when outcomes of an action or event are uncertain that is when dice are called for.Your grenade example only turns out that way because of the way excess damage works along with the chunky salsa rule. Rolling dice in that case is still relatively quick and easy.Falling off a skyscraper is instant death if you don't have an escape plan because if you fell off the empire state building (which as I understand it is the 7th tallest building in the world today and possibly average for real towers in night city- Arasaka Tower is twice that) you would be rolling 500d6 ignoring armor damage.
>>96599812Thought the Arasaka Nuke going off is what causes the timeline to diverge into V3.0, and it didn't pop in RED?
>>96622965You don't need a specific rule to tell you that people die under extreme circumstances. If neither you nor the player can think of any way that theiur character can get out of the situation, it is OK to just kill them.Either that or you apply the drowning and fire damage until the character dies, and waste everybody's time.
>>96613029Media just needs the ability to unlock story beats that nobody else could get, that either completely avoid combat or give the crew such a tactical advantage that their first turn is insane and if they still fail it's a skill issue.
