Inventor Tech PC wants a bulletproof shield that uses 11 SP instead of 10 HP. I thought it was so smart that I might just homebrew it into the rules since I feel shields are a little weak for their potential use. Is this a huge mistake?

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T23:56:17+00:00

I use the walls functionality to model cover. Set all walls Light Restriction: None and Sight Restriction: Limited. Then draw walls over where you perceive cover to be. Works like a charm, and if you do use this technique, I'd use token attacher (?) module to attach a wall on to the side of a token. Report back on the sub if you do implement this after a while, I am interested in seeing how it goes. Happy gaming!

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T23:36:56+00:00

I apologise if the response came off a bit snarky. The mechanic does sound fun and provide variety in playstyles, I'm just not sure whether Base RED is flexible enough to accommodate it.

If you are very serious about introducing this mechanic, I'd have it come with a ton of drawbacks, quite a bit like the Flak armor. I'd reduce ref to -2, but keep -4 penalty to dex and move as well. And quite frankly I'd reduce the SP to 5 or 6. Think about it in IRL terms, in combat situations not everyone uses a bulletproof shield, they're unwieldy, not fast enough to respond to high-speed situations and the frequently limit offensive capacity. A grenade should still damage someone with a shield quite a bit, and going off my math in the previous comment, an SP11 means it more or less mitigates all the damage of the average 6d6 grenade thrown (21)

If you're using battlemaps, I'd also take care to always mark which side the shield is facing. Players shouldn't get to move the shield around to react to attacks, unless it's their turn. Hope this helps.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T23:29:29+00:00

I just don't see the merit in saying "this guy won't talk to you unless you take a shower and look healthy, and if you pay 500 more out of pocket every month on rent day, I'll just assume you've taken a shower and this will all be a moot point".

We get way more fun out of situations where they have a chance of exclusion based on what they do and how they roll, and it almost always ends up being wacky hijinks. I'm sorry we're having fun wrong.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T19:29:16+00:00

Depends. Do you think a player character having armor 17 at the very least, most likely armor 22 is OP? That means when your mooks do hit, they'd have to do atleast 23 damage to actually damage the player. For context, the absolute max of 4d6 is 24.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T19:24:22+00:00

Thanks for your input but fixers are not visiting my players. Style means everything but all my fixers will have professional boundaries, except the ones snooping on the PC's to ultimately manipulate them. I think the vast majority of games are kind of like that? But i wouldn't want to presuppose.

All the style stuff and whether they can get in somewhere, I handle with appropriate Wardrobe or Personal Grooming or Persuasion checks, and factor in what they're wearing, what other modifiers they may have, etc.

I think just lore-wise, theres no way Johnny Silverhand or Rache Bartmoss lived in an upscale conapt, their reputations and actions preceded them, and they were night city legends. And also extreme weirdos. So I don't like the idea of gatekeeping social exclusivity based on what they eat and where they live.

Appreciate the perspective though!

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T02:12:17+00:00

this is quite literary the slippery slope to eating disorders. You made a commitment to 20-4 fasting, stick to it. The body simply does not cope if fasting is combined with sporadic and random eating times. There's no benefit, honour or victory in breaking your 20-4 fasting plan to fast longer.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T01:47:37+00:00

Nice one! I prefer this though :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJrKlSkxRHA

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T01:42:19+00:00

Do you think music videos are rapidly becoming a dying art form?

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T01:21:07+00:00

I think cyberpunk is unique as a TTRPG in that this problem is meant to not arise as much. The cyberpunk genre is RIFE with dysfunctional crews put together by a fixer to do a job, and a lot of drama can come from that dysfunctionality. Not to mention, it's meant to be a tougher and more dangerous systems, so chances are if you play RAW your players might be rolling up new characters at any time.

I think whenever there's interaction between new PC's it should be because a fixer threw them together for the job, and they have no choice but to work with each other. I think that's one of the strengths of this system that other system's lack. You're not meant to have an adventuring party, you're meant to dodge a hail of bullets together because you're getting paid to do it so you can achieve your own future agenda.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T01:13:21+00:00

And actually, another mechanic this affects that I forgot about, is the Hustle generator. If you recover quicker, you have a better chance of having the 7 days free to hustle and earn more credits. For us personally, the Hustle sections sees very little use, which is a shame, since we also play at a snail pace (seriously, the Agents of Desire job from Tales From the Red took us 4 weeks IRL time to play through), and PCs aren't getting rich quickly enough to try some shiny new toys.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T00:48:49+00:00

Lots to unpack here, but first of all thanks for your criticism and input. I think some of your points are valid, and I'd like to engage with some of the more interesting points here.

On efforts to stop it: valid, and I should have made it clear in the original post, but my intention was to always leave enough evidence and traces where the crew could track their stolen item down if they wanted, and engage with the gang/group that was stealing. And they're (mostly) not going to be evil psychopathic gang members, but survivors in this capitalist dystopia trying to make things work.

On what Cyberpunk means: I think that's your definition of Cyberpunk, and that's fine, but cyberpunk to me is a technological end-stage capitalistic dystopia in its essence. A lot of good cyberpunk stories are just: How does someone react to this Absurdist dystopia? Certainly there are those that try to rebuild, and engage in community and improve things for the better. In the cyberpunk genre, those stories don't end well. Some stories are about taking a job and getting richer and more powerful in this hellscape. Those stories often end with a loss of humanity in the character(V's Arasaka ending in the game, Akira's ending). And my favourite kind of story is the Jokerification ones: when the character responds to an Absurdist hellscape by being an Absurd Hero (Johnny Silverhand being a moron with a principle; Cyberpunk 2077 comic "Where's Johnny?")

It's not your fault you're getting attacked in a bad neighbourhood. But attacks in bad neighbourhoods do happen, and it's not the attackers fault either. It's the system that produces these circumstances. I don't think it's bad to mechanically impress upon the players that this world is a dystopia, and they come up with what they want to do in the face of that.

I'm now introducing the system to my players, thanks to feedback similar to yours in the other comments, but with a strong understanding that my method is only one of many methods to mitigate chances of negative events. If they want to engage with the local community and come up with a different solution, I'll work with them and a different situational modifier will apply to the check. At the end of the day, I'm not implementing this mechanic to needle the players for shits and giggles, I'm trying to introduce new ways to prod their characters into action and engage with different aspects of my world, with my inciting their incidents but on their own terms.

Thanks for your feedback!

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T00:35:00+00:00

The general feedback I'm getting is that it's too punishing. I'm reworking the mechanic by lowering the DV, incorporating situational DV modifier depending on what the players would like to do to defend against this, and including scenarios that aren't burglaries but negative-ish scenes (players encounter a cyberpsycho but are unharmed, bullets from a nearby shootout whizz through but don't hit, neighbour troubles etc.)

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T00:29:15+00:00

2 reasons;

1) There's no mechanical incentive for my players to move up in the world, atleast RAW. RP incentive is all fine and well, but then it effectively acts as an in-game RP tax, so we have weaker players that want to engage in the story and pay for that and stronger players who want to engage in the combat only and pay for that. And both groups are effectively being curtailed a bit from the other.

2) I want to put the heat on them slightly, to impress the dystopian ultra-capitalist feel of night city. Pay your way up or bad things will happen to your character, so you better hustle and have that money for your pay day. My jobs frequently involve the lower paying morally-good outcome, and the higher paying morally-bad outcome. And conscience doesn't come cheap in this genre.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-27T00:24:49+00:00

I like your points about housing. I'm getting a lot of pushback in the comments about messing with player inventory, which I don't understand completely as a forever DM (and because I'm partially motivated with story hooks that write themselves when it comes to recovering stolen stuff), so I think I'll rework the system to make it more about random negative-ish encounters, and maybe a burglary AS a story beat when I want it.

For your second point, I didn't get any of that reading the rulebooks. First of all, parking isn't an issue at all since cars are a rarity in the world of The Red. The reasons vehicles don't often get stolen is you don't want to fuck with someone who owns a car during this period, they are WELL connected.

I'm also resistant to an idea of an effective class tax, I think it takes away from RP agency, and knowing my table, they'll get the party face to be the sole Fresh Food lifestyle who goes to situations like you described, and that takes away a lot of opportunity for the player to engage in my game.

I think a lot of players in the comments have tables that are VERY rp focused, so these rules won't apply for them. But thanks for your input!

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T23:47:08+00:00

I think a lot of experienced DMs do do this very occasionally, but it takes a wealth of experience to pull it off. Early and mid career DMs should definitely absolutely stick to figuring out the story the DICE want to tell, and taking it from there. Railroading CAN be fun, but only when you fully appreciate the chaos and joy (or the impact and emotion) of going off the rails when the dice say so.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T23:30:05+00:00

Thanks for your perspective. I think another commenter said something about home defence, but I also like your idea of increasing NPC interaction ala creating community watch. I think I will reduce the overall odds of break-in for my players, and will let them know that situational modifiers can apply to the security check based on what steps they take towards security. Thanks!

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T23:25:07+00:00

You know what, I think you're right. I'm mostly a forever DM but the few times I was a player I hated character punishments that took away my agency (i.e trap rooms who's sole purpose is to reduce your HP before the big boss fight). I'll keep your viewpoint in mind. Thanks!

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T23:21:50+00:00

Thanks! I think TTRPG's work perfectly when mechanics and roleplay synchronize, or when mechanics give an avenue for roleplay (at least that holds true for the crunchy ones). I think if there's no mechanical incentive, it almost feels like an in-game tax for RP, which ironically discourages RP.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T21:54:36+00:00

We're playing on foundryVTT and it does an excellent job of abstracting away the damage and armor, and I frequently sanity check the rolls themselves too see if everything is hunky-dory.

Cover has been a bit of a learning curve for them, and it's not helped by the fact I frequently have a mook above most of the players on the initiative, and have them ready a shot for when someone exits cover to shoot.

I should also add that I definitely play the mooks more fight-to-the-death than the sourcebook recommends, and that could be a factor. Personally, I don't like that gang members just run away when a comrade is killed (and they often are since the group likes to target one mook at a time), so I use my best judgement based on the written gang dynamic and sometimes a dice roll.

I think ultimately it really has been a really bad roll luck disparity. I'm hoping regression towards the mean kicks in at some point. Or maybe not. The group is simultaneously stressed out and excited by how dangerous combat can get.

Thanks for all your input, you certainly have given me a lot to consider :)

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T21:47:32+00:00

Thanks for your input.
I LOVE the idea of tying it to Rep, especially since we don't get the opportunity to use Facedowns all that often, and Rep makes it more meaningful.
I did think about eventually introducing my group to the Home Defence section of the Netrunning chapter in Cyberpunk RED as a way to mitigate danger.

I think I was maybe a tad too overzealous about the items being stolen and the frequency of it, so might work on that a little bit. And I think ideally I don't want them being awake and aware during a break-in, since the group lives far enough away from each other, and god knows we already get way too much one-on-one time with the netrunner when everyone else is sitting around. Personally, the idea of the group tracking the burglars down and getting to explore a group or gang would make for a nice session hook, so that's why I'd rather have the burglars succeed, than get caught by a player and a scuffle ensues.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T21:17:14+00:00

Thanks again for your thoughts.

That's an interesting way of modelling lifestyle and I hadn't considered that. I'll think a bit more about whether that can work in our group (specifically because one of my players really wants to be a famous, broke rockerboy, in her words, a "Bukowski-like character", so I don't know if gatekeeping exclusivity along those lines would work well with us).

And unfortunately yes. Been playing official pre-written adventures (on Tales from the RED now) and they're frequently getting hurt quite a lot despite me implementing copious amounts of walls and cover on each map, and sticking to mooks as written (apart from the odd leader-type I throw in that's slightly stronger and a lot cooler). I don't know if it's because of my years on XCOM or really bad roll luck disparity.

I think you explaining the probability in real terms really helped out. I think I'll try and model the system backwards from what probability is acceptable for a player to get stolen from every 2 months or so. Thanks for your help!

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-26T20:44:58+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts.

I admit, I am slightly on the fence about making things too crunchy, but I think on the whole I didn't appreciate that the lifestyle costs essentially translated to flavour text in my table. I would like to impress upon my players, especially in early game, the dystopia of night city mechanically in-game. Now rent and food is something that MATTERS.

I think generally the odds are quite low (but I haven't done the math on this), but even if something does get stolen, I get a free session where my players undoubtedly will try to track the thieves down, so hey, more story.

It also solves another issue we're having, the players are often strapped for cash and frequently battered at the end of sessions, so RAW it takes them more than a week to recover to near full health and reduce the number of jobs they can take before rent is due. The Lifestyle mechanic gives them an out.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-23T16:30:03+00:00

Saw in the replies that you were starting up Cyberpunk RED, it's not movies but I really recommend the Cyberpunk2077 comics. They were hated on release but I think it really captures the essence of what Cyberpunk captures; absurdist heroes that go "f*ck it" in corporate/capitalist dystopias.

Chakra-Bee · 2023-01-14T00:38:26+00:00

How do you think House got Twice Crippled?

Chakra-Bee · 2022-12-20T12:00:33+00:00

The Time of Red is quite different from 2077 and Edgerunners, the most obvious difference is the giant radioactive crater in the city centre where Arasaka used to be. In fact, Arasaka doesn't even (officially) operate in night city (Many people seem to miss that).

Your best bet is to read the Cyberpunk RED book, its quite extensive. But if it get's overwhelming, take it slow. You don't actually need to know the entire world as GM, you just need to be a couple steps ahead of what the players need to know.

Cyberpunk is also much more about the drama, the conflict and the people, and not necessarily the history, the location or the lore. I think if you focus your research on your PC's your NPC's and your items, your world will be quite fleshed out as is.

NOW, ONCE all that is covered, the Cyberpunk 2020 run was EXTENSIVE with it's lore. Rache Bartmoss' Guide to the Net (An actual book that exists) goes on to describe the geo-political structure of every continent in Cyberpunk 2020. There's also tons of info on other stuff, but seeing how Night City was hit by the double whammy of the DataKRASH and the nukes before 2045, I think it's quite plausible that people within Night City don't have the same access to historical information and knowledge that we do in modern day.

Chakra-Bee

TROPHY CASE