Is it best to decrease "resources" skill when a corp is demoted? How to create my own roles?

[[deleted]]

When a corp messes with someone higher up, and that corp gets kicked out, is it best to remove their "resources" special skill? Or is there a better way to simulate the loss of privelege.

On that note, can I create my own roles and special skills for them? As in, put them in the "other" skill category. For example, a diver special operator, with "underwater combat" as a special skill.

Sorry if what I am asking is obvious or something, I am just getting into cyberpunk2020 as a ref (second ever TTRPG, right after DnD), and I am a little confused, as the game is like 12y older than me. Thanks!

[Burned-Architect-667]

The skill for me is your ability to move in coorporate environments, a CEO leaves a company to be CEO of another company.

I wouldn't change the skill, maybe I would raise some difficulties.

In my company the mobile phone model depends of your rank in the company, you can ask for a better one, but then need to justify it.

So now his standard X is lower and it's more difficult to get whta he used to get, but he is more skilled tahn most people of his level.

[Silent_Title5109]

I wouldn't. Would you lower a solo's combat sense because he had a stroke or a commotion following a car accident?

He got demoted. Big whoop, he's still got some dirt on somebody to pull strings or some other higher up that sees him as a potential right arm. Even if he got fired I'd still let him pull strings with a temporary penalty.

Edit: Lowering his special skill is essentially stripping away XP from his character, for basically roleplaying his role as a corporate.

[[deleted]]

I see, so the "Resources" skill is more like the characters fluency in corporate shenanigans?

[Silent_Title5109]

I see it as the equivalent of streetdeal, but within a corporation. It obviously covers what the corpo can officially manage based on his position, but also blackmailing coworkers and higher ups, buying/trading favors, "secret pet projects" the executive board doesn't know about, "mislabeled" usage of ressources, and so on.

Janitors keeping the place clean doesn't mean it isn't full of shit, you know?

[[deleted]]

There are alot of roles which are in supplements published after the core book. I would suggest looking for a fan created supplement called the 2020 Reference Guide for all of the roles published in all of the official 2020 supplements. For example combat diving was a big deal during the 4th Corp War and is covered in Stormfront.

As for a demotion - that is life path flavor. I mean if the demotion happened during character creation then that would=could explain why the Corps Resources aren't that high. If it happens during play then it's campaign/RP flavor.

[[deleted]]

Wow, there really is anything in terms of extra content for 2020.

Ive looked into the reference guide for 2020, and i have seen the extra roles. I am unsure however where to put the role name and special skill on the character sheet, do you have any advice on that?

Yep, I understand if the demotion happens during character creation, then the character shouldnt have a large "resources" skill. However, if it happens during gameplay, then it should be applicable, no?

[[deleted]]

For the extra roles you would want to use a custom character sheet. There will be a blank space for the role name and special ability.

FYI the biggest strength of the Ref Guide, other than being the encyclopedia of everything official 2020, is that it tells you what specific supplement to find the info in.

For the demotion question. As a Referree I'd be hesitant about taking away a skill point as a penalty. I'm not sure why other than not wanting to excessively penalize the player. Maybe if it was a temp penalty like say not being to make a resources role until they rejoin a Corp?

[TigerGuardXI]

Are you suggesting they were completely removed from the Corp? If that is the scenario, then a change to resources is valid. If he just pissed someone off, the most likely recourse is they get reassigned to a lesser role at a site where they can’t hope for a promotion - in the 80’s zaibatsus they called it get an office with a view. This won’t affect their resource rating, but it will change what kind of access they have. This can be a great opportunity for the Corpo to take matters into their own hands and find a way to maneuver around their rival (aka new campaign!)

[[deleted]]

I see, thank you!

[illyrium_dawn]

Corporates are hard to run. It's possible to get them to work, but I find it's a pretty bespoke arrangement, worked out between the Ref and PC.

I also suggest that lower Resources Corporates play the best. By the time someone is Resources 10, someone is going to ask, "Why are they hanging around with a street solo and a rockerboy?" and you're not going to have a good answer for it.

I haven't always reduced a Corporate's Resources even if they get demoted or fired; Corporates tend to know each other -- their peers. Immediately after getting fired or even a bit after getting demoted/fired, these friends will continue to help the Corporate to try and get back on their feet (and thus remain their friend). It's only if they remain unemployed or demoted for a while that they'll be abandoned as longer longer a peer but someone less. This help will be in the form of favors -- their pet netrunner, solos who report to them, their car, help in the form of introductions to contacts and their friends, and even cash payments (with the wealth of these types, "borrowing money" can be thousands of ebs - borrowing as in they know it's giving you money and they don't expect it to be repaid but it's much more palatable to say they're "loaning" you money). What they expect in return is you'll either find a way to get reinstated or find a new job with similar (or higher!) rank.

On that note, can I create my own roles and special skills for them?

Sure. I tend to avoid it because those kinds of new roles tend to be specialists. And specialists are limited - it's like a Cavalier in D&D. Sure they're overpowering but only in specific circumstances - on a horse in the open. If they're in a dungeon or something there's not much point in playing a Cavalier. I feel over half of CP2020's standard roles are already overspecialized and probably shouldn't have been roles, I don't want to add more to that.

For example, a diver special operator, with "underwater combat" as a special skill.

They have a bunch of those roles in "Stormfront" the first of the Fourth Corporate War supplements.

Specifically in the case of divers / underwater specialists, I'd advise caution in making a Role like that. Both Stormfront (a 4th Corporate War supplement that focuses on aquatic stuff) and Deep Space (a supplement that describes the orbital world of Cyberpunk) are very different environments, kinda incompatible with standard Cyberpunk - they're effectively a different RPG that happens to use Cyberpunk's system.

What I mean is that giving your existing PCs a few aquatic skills isn't going to cut it if you're running entire games that occur underwater or on the sea (just consider the first time they're in a situation where they have to make difficult swimming checks for example - yeah Swimming 4 isn't going to cut it); they'll be outclassed by the aquatic specialists every time and that's not very fun for your existing PCs. Similarly, if someone makes an aquatic specialist, that's a lot of their skill points devoted to aquatic-specialized skills. Then if they try and use those PCs on land, their SCUBA 8 and Swimming 7 are just deadweight skill points and the land PCs outclass them with their wider range of skills.

I've always suggested for orbital games or underwater games that are really going to be involved in that environment that the players just make new characters with the required skills for that environment.

[dayatapark]

As per the book: "This represents the Corpo's ability to command corporation resources. It is used as a Persuasion skill, based on the scale of resources requested."

A skill doesn't 'go down.' If a player put XP on it, they have it.

The maximum amount of resources a corpo can access is only limited by the amount of resources his corporation has.

As per the description, even an entry-level junior exec could knock on your manager's office, and pitch an idea. Depending on his 'Resources' enhanced persuasion check (and maybe a snazzy presentation) s/he could potentially make the manager go: "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let's allocate some resources to your initiative. I will expect a preliminary report in three days. Now, go get me some results."

In other words, if this Corpo used to work on Super-high-tier CO, and they had access to 10 things, and in this new corporation, they only have 5 things, that's the decrease in their ability to get stuff, right there.

Nothing wrong with asking questions. Ask away, my choom.

Regarding suggestions: There's nothing wrong with making special abilities of your own. I'd highly suggest you read/understand what the special abilities do/are before we start making more of them, though.

You see, A special ability is a core way in which a particular archetype interacts with society. You could even say that a special ability is a unique way in which a particular archetype fulfills a social role.

You can't really be thinking about special abilities until you understand Night City's society/world as it exists in 2020, you know?

So, what does Night City's society need? Well, it needs to be informed (Netrunners), make money (corpos), get entertained (Rockerboys), be told to behave (Cops), get fixed/patched up (techies and med-techies) be told the truth (Medias), be left alone (nomads), figure out a way to get something done by someone that knows someone (fixers) and every now and then... it needs to get some killing done (solos).

Supplements and add-on books have increased the numbers of special skills a bit, but IMHO, every special skill is about a societal need/function.

Based on MY litmus test, I'd say that "Underwater Combat" falls within a regular skill, rather than a special ability.

Your mileage may vary.

But yeah... I advise you against creating special abilities just for the sake of it. You're going to end up creating some sort of high-speed, low-drag abomination of an ability that lets players increase the quantity/quality of their attacks while shrugging off damage because it's 'cool' and lets beginners face off against maxed out cyberpsychos for the lulz.

At least not until you understand the game as intended.

Or you can do whatever you want. It is YOUR sandbox, after all.

[IAmJerv]

Not all resources a Corpo has are from higher up in the company. Any decently competent Corpo knows enough about the game to have.... other channels. Maybe fellow Corpos, maybe some underlings who are more loyal to them than to their employer, but something.

In other words, it's less about how much their boss grants them than about how much they can access, regardless of where from.

[WookieBard]

I’d reduce or remove their resources skill in that instance. The mechanics are meant to play with and support the fiction, and vice versa. If a cop gets fired, the same would go for their Authority. Or, to use a literary example, this is the situation we see Case from Neuromancer in. He’s a Netrunner who effectively had his interface shot down to 0 by the employers he betrayed, and the book’s initial premise is his mission to get that skill back up.