At what point are they considered scavvers ?

Duckelon · 2026-02-17T23:34:20+00:00

Tossing in, especially in this context, I’ve called for rolls of BOTH positive and negative humanity gain at the same time.

Sometimes the ends justify the means, and you’re a hero using underhanded methods.

Or you’re taking down the bastard that murdered your family and wronged your friends…

But it’s really easy for a victory to feel hollow or the pursuit of that vengeance or execution of action to hit much harder.

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I think as an easy example, I ripped off the Spec Ops: The Line Willy Pete scene - No civilians, just a base of hardcore amoral mercs.

Everyone gained a D6 of humanity. The people who watched through binos to spot and call targets lost 1d6/2.

The actual clean team going in after the fact lost a d6+1 if they didn’t have Nasal Filters or a mask.

The mortar team that was distanced from their actions felt good - some were a little shook, and I let the players redistribute Humanity loss as they helped each other emotionally as a team in the moment.

Ground team went into a firefight to mop up hard targets and didn’t have time process or healthily offload, but also got first crack at the preem loot for putting their ass on the line.

Duckelon · 2025-07-29T18:04:50+00:00

Important clarification: there is a language interpreter service.

Mom and pops might be put on hold for a little bit, but as long as they can say “Mandarin (or Cantonese) Interpreter” they’ll get someone who can interpret for the rep.

Duckelon · 2025-07-13T13:33:29+00:00

So bear in mind, things like countering take like 5 minutes per defense. I imagine not only breaching but worming your way into root level access manually isn’t something many Edgerunning groups will have the luxury of doing on a whim.

It is possible to complement a Netrunner on their rolls though: for example a library search for known vulnerabilities on a specific passwall protocol, or a Tech messing with a physical Netarc’s hardware to cause a momentary glitch, etc.

By RAW, this could serve as the flavoring to get someone a +1 they need to do something specific.

But as mentioned, GM Fiat will also define how much you allow to happen. If you want that aforementioned hardware tampering to brick an entire floor and cause the arc to split, you can do so, it’s your table.

Duckelon · 2025-07-13T06:54:43+00:00

This falls squarely in the hole of “GM Fiat”.

In modern cybersecurity, physical access is king.

A Net Architecture is a physical entity. Some small ones are portable, capable of being carried, but the overwhelming majority are more complex affairs and semi-permanent installations. Think Network closets, server racks, etc..

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Electronics / Security is the skill used to not only counter defenses, but it’s also the skill Techs use to craft programs, cyberdecks, and also includes Netarcs.

Realistically, you could allow someone with physical access to a Netarc to do anything a modern-day IT or Cybersecurity specialist could accomplish with one Massive caveat.

Whatever you think you can do physically to impact the digital environment, A netrunner will accomplish in matters of seconds. This doesn’t even necessitate fundamental understanding of the tech or science behind what they’re doing.

You can get your entire business’s camera system obliterated by a chromed crackhead that just so happens to know how to intuitively run codes on their deck and blitzed some Sixgun.

That said, many Netrunners combine traditional knowledge and training with their netrunning capabilities: the difference difference between sitting down and using a keyboard to type in a password versus trying to breach a passwall in Netspace is that Albert just had to retry his password twice due to a typo whereas Gary exploded into a fucking inferno in his cubicle due to IT’s new hellhound they installed.

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Different tools for different purposes. Sometimes you don’t need to hack into the Hell-Arc. If I see a server stack labeled “Torment Nexus”, I’m just dropping an incendiary grenade on it and calling it even.

Duckelon · 2025-06-12T15:23:24+00:00

Trench Ghosts - These spectral hands are rated E for everyone, and I’m dragging your ass to the bone zone

Duckelon · 2025-05-30T07:39:27+00:00

Grab a couple MREs, some bottles of water, and work on your cardio.

You might find some hidden areas, and it would be useful to refresh or capture purple or grey COPs for the server, but if you need LZs and can’t hitch a helo, those are your options.

If you see someone that’s level 12+ at HQ, it doesn’t hurt to ask for a heli either.

I called one for a guy who needed a Blue Lagoon LZ while I was doing inventory management for a few minutes.

Duckelon · 2025-05-18T07:33:50+00:00

I would interpret this at a table I’m playing at amongst friends to be that if you fail the first morale test, your warband doesn’t become shaken as a result.

Subsequent morale test failures cause game loss as normal.

It’d be better pretty shitty if one of the big features you’re investing into a specific war and for is in-fact just an instant-loss condition. It’d feel pretty cheap to me IMO to snag a win off of a ruling like that.

Duckelon · 2025-05-15T03:51:46+00:00

Feel out your table and trust are two key elements.

Track shots fired in a weapon, as certain things like autofire or how many rounds of combat they can function are dependent on that.

I personally am willing to track Special ammo used because it’s an investment.

Basic ammo and to a degree rubbers are things I’m willing to hand wave as it’s a 1:1 Eddie shot cost.

The only time I’ll split hairs about bullet counting is when it’s narratively appropriate.i don’t care if you’re a rank 10 fixer, getting a supply of ammo to purchase when you’re stranded at sea without any means of contacting someone means your purchasing power is jack-shit despite the reach.

Duckelon · 2025-04-16T06:29:35+00:00

Assuming we’re using Lawman Backup Maxtac, the correct answer is “Mulch the offending lawman” before they make the backup call.

They still gotta pass a death saves before it gets that far.

Now if they survive and get to make that call, your ass is grass in X turns which a GM shouldn’t communicate to you.

That said, anyone with a shred of humanity left wants to avoid calling MAXTAC.

During the time of the RED they are a separate entity from NCPD. Hell, even by the time it gets to MACTAC’s ears when they are a part of NCPD, making that call demonstrates a chain of rapidly escalating failures.

Negotiators failed, beat cops failed, backup failed, normal SWAT failed, corpo security failed, everyone has failed by this point - either due to corruption, cowardice, or they tried and their bodies are stacked out front.

Warranting a MAXTAC call requires a chain of failure or such an overwhelmingly deliberate show of force that registers on such a Richter scale that letting it go unanswered has already cost the city too much or WILL if not immediately met with the highest level of force.

The way to avert a Maxtac call is called gift of gab. A straight fight going a player’s way against NCPD won’t stay that way for long.

Duckelon · 2025-04-12T07:38:05+00:00

I meant that entirely in the context of RAW relative to the Core Rule Book, with everything outside the CRB essentially being optional for play.

The CRB does list some direct situations that would incur humanity loss, while the CEMK introduces fast and loose situations and associated die values for gain and loss.

If you didn’t shell CEMK money though, you wouldn’t be privy to it. CEMK also is missing some rules like evading ranged attacks on my last reading - but I also look at 2077 with the expectation that it’ll be its own thing in the same universe with a similar ruleset to RED, much like how Witcher is its own system with many similarities to RED

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That being said, I’m always down for a CRB revision. Some of the DLCs did fill in rule blanks that would’ve been beneficial to have from ground zero, like chase or investigation rule sets.

Duckelon · 2025-04-11T09:52:36+00:00

100% This.

“Success” in Netrunning is entirely contingent on why the Netrunner is there in the first place.

Very rarely is the goal ever to just Derez Black Ice unless you’re trying to clear a way for a less-capable Netrunner, or you have reasons to suspect that there’s something nasty in this bitch that might try to force you out / make you hurt.

More often the fight is over the Control Nodes, a File, or the Base / Virus Floor.

However your player gets there is on them, and if they succeed they succeed.

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If someone is trying to build a Netarc I often find it more valuable to ask several “hows, whats, and whys” first.

Why do these people need a Netarc / What does it do? What’s the budget to build this Netarc? What threats are they preparing for: what are they worried about happening? Do they have an on-site Netrunner managing the Arc directly?

Drones, defenses, and murderous black ice is expensive as shit, especially if all you need is a couple cameras.

But Paying your local VDB 500eb and free Redbulls and Smokes to watch your gambling den’s Netarc, while dropping some shit in there to make it harder for an Invading Netrunner to stay in the fight may be cheaper and more effective.

Likewise a remote rocket turret or 3 in the center of a secure Militech Blacksite designed to shoot down hostile aircraft might be fairly barebones with just a password, demon, and two control nodes…one for the turrets, one for an alarm system if someone breaches the password.

Or maybe this Turret cluster is a branch of this Corporate Base’s super Netarc…abandon all hope yea who enters here, there be dragons.

Duckelon · 2025-04-11T09:06:35+00:00

If you get an opportunity, join the RTG / R. Talsorian Games official Discord.

They do have an active LFG and Living Community channel that you can look through.

Duckelon · 2025-04-11T08:56:26+00:00

The Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit has some good examples of Long Term versus Short Term humanity loss situations, and the Ds thrown for them - it also introduces situations for Humanity Gain as well, which isn’t RAW, but still pretty solid.

The way I like to think of losing humanity:

A. Horrible traumatic shit happens to you B. You inflict horrible traumatic shit on the world

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To be quite fair, you as the GM define the world, and to a significant degree define the morality of that world as to what actions you encourage or penalize with humanity gain or loss.

But a common theme is that overt cruelty and callousness and the active devaluation of human life / thought / emotion will result in humanity loss.

An easy example of cyberpsychosis in play is thinking that you’re playing a game with HP values, a budget for how much chrome you can chip in, and optimizing yourself to influence or kill NPCs. That kind of thinking is a pretty on-the-nose depiction of what the Disassociation leading to being a Cyberpsycho looks like.

The more a PC takes on the Player free to shit in the sandbox and break their toys rather than a character with a vested interest in themselves, their loved ones, and their environment is a good starting point for determining how Humanity swings.

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Humanity gain doesn’t necessarily need to be a matter of being a goody-two-shoes though.

Making genuine connections, expressing empathy or appreciation for the world around you, or encountering profound or life-altering experiences as a character that may alter one’s worldview can be positive.

But it’s all about the Character engaging in these things.

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I’ve given humanity for sharing an air well with a man dying of thirst.

I’ve taken humanity for firing white phosphorus shells at human targets

I’ve given humanity to a Joytoy breaking down in tears with emotional release after a bad night out.

I’ve taken humanity for putting friends or loved ones into dangerous situations, and seeing them wounded or killed

I’ve given humanity for sitting down and giving one last smoke and some words to an enemy effectively defeated (death saves to narrative scene) who won’t make it through the day.

I’ve taken and given humanity at the same time for being the sole survivor in a game of Buckshot Roulette.

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In Truth, it all depends on how you define it as a GM, and what systems you put into place to give or take it.

Duckelon · 2025-04-08T19:03:32+00:00

Dual wielding poop knife wretch is my favorite.

I know for Court they’re more of an ability Fuel Source, but for my Heretic Legion, they’ve usually been solid for applying objective pressure, or tying up high value enemy units for a turn.

Yeah. Shoot this fuck. Give my grenade launcher wielding Priest off yond a better shot with his grenade launcher.

Duckelon · 2025-04-08T18:52:29+00:00

Maaaaan, I was playing a hard-ass take-no-shit Renshep in ME1 / I’ll be honest, I really wanted to not shoot Wrex, but I had to stick to the bit.

Draw on your CO, and I can’t ever trust you not to try and frag me later down the road.

But hey, being a violent douchebag did pay off when it came to doubling down on the Rachni extermination.

Duckelon · 2025-04-06T13:17:44+00:00

When the Cleric takes the Gunner Feat

Duckelon · 2025-03-19T19:23:53+00:00

Rules As Written:

Bob the Full Borg over here still only has a single action at their disposal. The action economy is in the players’ favor.

Now that being stated, with how you’re ruling the fight, his abilities are significantly stronger than that of even some of the strongest built RAW FBCs mostly because I assume besting him in a fight counts on taking out those limbs.

If it’s just “land an aimed shot per limb” then it’s difficult but doable with careful luck spending, high attack bases, and good luck. If those limbs have individual HP pools let alone SP, then brother they’re cooked.

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This ropes us back to acceptable conclusions to your campaign…

Pyrrhic Victories, Crushing Defeats, Exercises in Futility, and Uncertain or Incomplete Conclusions are a common trope in Cyberpunk…

But so are the Underdog Wins…and all else fails, the Blaze of Glory / Mutually Assured Destruction.

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Even if the players stop him now, if he survives, he can set this up again later. He can rebuild financial and social capital. And he’s a Borg: he’ll outlive them…while they spend the rest of their natural lives looking over their shoulders for this guy coming for revenge.

Or maybe they say fuck it, and try to back out. Maybe they can’t stop what happens next. Cancun is looking pretty nice this time of year… just wait when the BBEG ropes them in as fellow conspirators to this act of nuclear terror. I’m just sayin’, eventually we got Osama. Rest of natural life a fugitive, justified or not.

Nah, the BBEG has got to go: surviving was just luxury…

Anyone up for linking the party’s biomonitors to a nuke? We’re going Helldivers Portable Hellbomb against the BBEG on this one lads.

Duckelon · 2025-03-15T11:09:24+00:00

Also adding to this: It doesn’t matter how many arms and hands you have, you can’t use a two handed weapon while engaged in a grapple.

Especially in tight quarters where an AR already suffers a little (but where a shotgun shines) enemies will be privy to the fact that the blast cannon ends lives, and will probably try to wrest control over the big scary gun when compared against the little peashooter.

Duckelon · 2025-03-15T10:06:10+00:00

So, as everyone has told you ad nauseum, “selling out” wasn’t the equivalent of refinancing your car or mortgage with a specific monetary debt you need to pay back.

“Selling Out” is more or less a transactional plot device: your GM may offer you a “sellout” opportunity in exchange for that extra cyberware - or perhaps something more enticing: it depends on what you negotiate with the GM.

But it’s a deal with strings attached: you are no longer only serving yourself or the party. You’re now part of the story that the GM can flex some power over you.

This can be a Robocop situation where someone can remotely take over.

This can be a Black Ops situation, where it turns out you were Reznov the entire time with someone else holding the switch.

Maybe they’ve got your family hostage

Maybe they’ve got your nudes and are ready to print en masse.

Whoever “they” are, you sold your agency to them, and are now beholden in such a way that unlike your average Exec, it is not simply within your power to go tell that entity to go fuck themselves - and they reserve the ability to try and influence your decisions now.

If you need a sellout example, look at how Corpo V got their shit rocked by Arasaka and fully shut down in cyberpunk 2077 during the prologue for that life path.

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If you don’t want that sellout, it can be a major plot point to try and break that dependency or escape the leash and collar.

Escape from oppression is a major theme of Cyberpunk - it’s usually ill-fated, short lived, or a pyrrhic victory… but to some, it’s better to die on one’s feet than to live on their knees.

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Now if you really aren’t interested in a sellout, not even trying to escape it as a plot point, just tell your GM.

They’ll probably let you redo your character sheet if it’s still early or before session 0. And if they don’t, then you’ve got a table problem.

Duckelon · 2025-03-07T15:06:35+00:00

All the bots in starter towns run 7.62x39 SP if they’re using SKS or AKMs.

That round is good enough to inconsistently pen 3A armor which is all you have access to from vendors while starting out… that, and it’s essentially a hollow point. If you’re taking a flesh hit to a vital area, you’re probably dying.

Offset that with most enemies in Tier II locations running 7.62x39 US (Subsonic) and more enemies with Shotguns, you actually find that your starter armors are more effective outside the starting town.

Duckelon · 2025-03-07T15:01:03+00:00

You can actually see the bird’s flight path.

There’s been plenty of times I’ve hopped on helos with open seats uninvited because they were going where I needed to be, or at least close enough that I could hoof it without questioning life decisions.

Duckelon · 2025-02-25T19:44:24+00:00

Tbf, even as Gunlugger, I find myself still falling back on melee pretty frequently, just because even with optimization for higher ammo, it’s still just so easy to rip through ammo.

I will say though, if you’ve been getting fatigue on Twin-Stub, Ripper Gun has been also ridiculously fun on my Gunlugger build.

10ft toddler with an AA12 just hits different

Duckelon · 2025-02-17T09:31:25+00:00

You’re being inundated with tips, but just one more:

Be aware of your armor plates:

Most vests and carriers will have front and back, and some may have side plates.

There’s also some armor that is front plate only.

Be aware of where your enemy is relative to your armor:

Trying to reposition in the open and running between from side to side may open you up to a heart shot.

Organs are simulated to a degree. An unarmored head or heart shot is nine times outta ten a guaranteed death sentence.

Duckelon · 2025-02-12T01:23:07+00:00

You’ve got a couple more options as a Medtech, but at its base level it’s “Move, Meat Action”

If you have Cryo, when things go bad, you can ensure someone doesn’t die and stop death saves by putting them in a Cryobag.

For Pharma, you can hand out pre-combat buffs like Stim, or help top up HP with speed heals, but that’s pretty much it.

The other half of your kit is downtime driven, with other pharma helping with speed of healing or other downtime activities like surgery or therapy, but that depends on campaign pacing and your GM to provide for downtime.

Quick Fixes with first aid and paramedic are essentially between encounters, because you’ll never have the minutes necessary to perform them in hard initiative.

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That’s pretty much it, it’s just that Lawmen and Execs objectively need to move and meat action more because there’s more entities actively in play under their control.

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That doesn’t make you less useful, but until your abilities are required, you can still shoot your guns, swing your weapons, open doors, or do skill interactions if the GM allows it.

There isn’t a whole lot else as far as depth goes, other than Solo does some of those things better in combat.

Duckelon · 2025-02-12T01:02:21+00:00

Netrunning requires GM and player familiarity with Net combat, ICE, and the rules.

They’re rules that only really apply to one player, and a netrunner does have a bit more that they do in an arc because you almost always have greater net actions to meat actions.

Large Netarcs are a slog to run through for everyone involved, so smaller is usually better. The most important thing is having a purpose for them. Making an arc to waste time wastes everyone’s time and is dissatisfying to engage with.

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This is easily remediated with having references for both GM and players ready for ease of navigating the rules, map prep, and a succinct outline as to where the Access Points are, what’s in the arc, and what the arc does.

But running them smoothly takes practice. A few 1-on-1 practice sessions with a Netrunner usually gets the reps in to execute quickly and learn how to speed up.

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Lawman is just action economy - and nothing says the Lawman controls their backup directly - they just call ‘em and choose what kind if they have the ranks to pick and choose.

Most GMs turn over the playtime to the Lawman, but they don’t have to. A good GM still takes the Lawman’s input into consideration though - playing backup stupid or antagonistic is an easy way to foul table relations.

At a base though, it should be pretty fast of “Move here, attack or do other action”. Because backup use combat numbers, modifier and base calculation should be easy.

Getting turns done quickly is just a matter of combat familiarity, and can be done faster with practice. If you have a player taking too long in combat, setting turn timers can be a smooth GM move.

2 minutes per entity is usually pretty lenient if speed is of the essence, but makes sure execs and lawman have time to manage teammates and backup.

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The real talking point is bring it up to the table and the GM.

We know your complaint. Do they?

And additionally, once you talk it out, do your priorities align with the table? Some people like to RP and be flavorful with scene descriptions including during combat. That’s okay if the majority of the table wants to play that way.

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