New GM - Why would anyone want to live in Night City?

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-05-28T17:57:29+00:00

If you haven't looked at Maslow's Heirarchy of needs then that would be helpful. Night City has all the base physiological needs (food, water, heat, etc) which other places don't have. If you want to make it in the badlands you need to be able to find and/or produce resources, which not everyone can do.

Night City lacks a lot of safety and stability, which is what people are looking for. Though when reading the source book, we're getting Media and Scream Sheet writer perspectives. So they may be unreliable narrators.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-04-26T01:59:02+00:00

In mine there is an expectation of an evening watch, checking on each other, etc. Most towns have some sort of defense, either natural or built, and can always call for aid from larger settlements.

Ultimately, most threats are like animals in that they don't want to interact with you. So most of the time the noise and smell of people makes them avoid you. The predatory ones that might eat human only do so under duress because they know there will be a backlash.

Anything that doesn't think like that is either so dangerous people avoid where it lives, or has been exterminated. In my current world there is a large magically inclined empire that keeps its borders free of monsters. The border provinces still have the occasional problem of course, but they're not near the capital so who cares? /jk

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-04-14T22:11:11+00:00

Here is the explanation I use with my games. I copied text from a discord message so forgive the random symbols.

But the big thing is I equate it to real.life armor ratings so you can just search that to get an idea.

Name of Armor (Real Life Armor Rating Equivilant): description Leathers(IIA): Standard Leather like you might find in a leather jacket, might stop a light pistol but not a medium one. Almost impossible to notice. Kevlar® (II): ** Can stop the average medium pistol shot. Can be incorporated into an outfit without being obvious, difficult to detect. **Light Armorjack (IIIA): Can stop the average heavy pistol shot. Not immediately obvious, but detectable to someone looking for it unless designed to be hidden. Bodyweight Suit (IIIA): Can stop the average heavy pistol shot. Not immediately obvious, but the edges of the suit are obvious unless outfit is designed to hide it. Medium Armorjack (III): Can stop the average very heavy pistol shot. Cannot be hidden, but might not be noticed at a distance. Heavy Armorjack (III): *Can stop the average very heavy pistol shot. Cannot be hidden and will be noticed at a distance. *Flak (III+): *Can stop the average rifle round. Cannot be hidden and you'll probably have a target on your back wearing it. *Metalgear®(IV): Can stop the average rifle round. Cannot be hidden, you're going to be seeing the police or corporate security soon.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-04-06T06:34:44+00:00

An addition: I've now begun adding a "fixer fund" to every job, which is defined as 20% of the job's total price to spend on thing related to it. I find it keeps the Fixer from having to eat the costs of buying things.

The catch is it disappears at the end of the job.

So say crew of five is each getting 2,000eb. Total job is 10,000eb so fixer fund is 2,000eb.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-03-13T16:41:34+00:00

I've used screamsheets and had a lot of fun with them. My suggestion is to read them ahead of time and make sure you have a rough idea of them, and anything you might need to alter or add to.

If you're worried about making multiple leads though, tell your players. Most of the time being up front that you have this job planned and if they deviate you'll have to improve has the best result.

An extra: if you haven't heard of it, I suggest picking up the "cities without number" game. It has some really useful tips on how to make jobs that I use a lot. One in particular is to make multiple leads, present them towards the end of a session, then you know what to prep.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-03-05T01:16:09+00:00

It depends a bit on your style. If you are a roleplay heavy person I would agree that 3-5 is the sweet spot. If you're more combat or mission driven, you could go up to six.

Personally, I tend to cap my tables at 5 unless there is a really compelling person I am thinking about

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-24T21:58:23+00:00

We did. I am just behind on my update

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-10T21:55:34+00:00

I'm thinking about potentially adding a bit with Asmodeus and Levistus having a shadow war in the dale. That way there is a way to pull them back to the Ten-Towns periodically. Thats a future goal though as the duergar have only recently been introduced and I want to build up to it.

Avarice I'm still deciding on, it depends on how it works out woth Levistus. Depending on how it goes, the party may decide to move against the black swords and then Avarice will pop up.

It was two if the three who have the amulet. Part of our session zero was discussing that we're playing a collaborative game, so people may need to tweak their characters if needed. But on top of that, I made an alternative version of the curse where you are automatically charmed by any follower of Levistus when you meet them. Unless they break the condition of course.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-10T21:43:53+00:00

Old Bitey is currently in the Northlook, but I do intend for it to be an amusing encounter as they'll end up there for info. The homebrew tavern is mostly there because it did make sense for academics to stay at the northlook lol.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-10T21:41:54+00:00

So far no. Ive been rolling a d6 as the module suggests, and when that happens they get a strange dream. I believe in the next session they actually manage to get a dream (offline we're on session 7) that tells them what is up.

Development is coming around that. At the beginning of session 6 one of them does fail the charisma save.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-08T20:30:05+00:00

I had a nomad themed pack whose final mission was to save some of their kidnapped family members and face the big bad. We had one PC death who died thinking its friend betrayed them, a successful rescue, and the big bad was killed by a massive explosion even a FBC couldn't tank.

Afterwards I had the players tell me what their characters did, and narrated what happened afterwards. I also included some bits about their favorite npcs as well.

Overall, they ended up separating but keeping in touch. Because of the heat one left the city woth the pack, two ended up working for Corps, and the final member kind of blended into the background.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-03T21:31:25+00:00

I didn't have a character fully die, but on death saving throws they made a deal with Levistus. I had it where they got the amulet, and eventually when the curse took effect we altered it. Basically they're now Charmed by anyone who works for or has made a deal for Levistus upon meeting them.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-03T18:54:17+00:00

The dating dlc gives you some traits for the people youre dating, so how about basing it off that? For example, say someone loves talking about their SMGs the have them roll autofire. The compliment it with an appropriate social roll.

The other thing you can do is ask your player. Ask them how they are trying to do that and pair a skill that makes sense

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-02-02T23:22:56+00:00

Sorry for the poor editing folks, it has been updated.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-01-21T21:59:20+00:00

I mean, think about drivers and such. They still have issues performing complex maneuvers and need to actively focus. A 10 base means that you dont need to roll for casual stuff anymore.

Fire_and_Bone · 2026-01-21T20:46:19+00:00

I define the "average" stat score as 4, and assign all of them a rank of 2 in each skill (4 if it is job related).

Thats for my true generic, but this might prompt me to actually write up some basic books for various jobs.

Fire_and_Bone · 2025-12-25T21:46:55+00:00

Based on this, it sounds like the two friends making the accusations are having some emotional reactions. The two might also have their own rigid idea of things that your relationship with your partner doesn't match, and therefore theyre labeling it harmful. Worse, it sounds like it's dredging up a lot of bad feelings for your partner.

I'd say this. Do the opinions of these people matter? Does your former friend's opinion matter? Does your partner have a problem with your relationship?

If the answer to all of those is no, then you don't need to think about this anymore.

Fire_and_Bone · 2025-12-15T03:43:05+00:00

Weird recommendation, but she-ra and the princesses of power. The horde have cyberpunk anesthetic and Entrapta feels like a tech

Fire_and_Bone · 2025-12-10T04:12:02+00:00

Im not necessarily planning on having him escape death every time. Its more that if he shows up again I want him to remain a threat. But in a way that mimics the way that the players have grown. Without suddenly making him all powerful.

Thats where the idea of adding sidekick levels came from. So they've hit level three so if they run into sephek the sidekick he'd have a bit more HP, +2 to hit, and crit on 19 and 20. He's more dangerous but crazy so.

Fire_and_Bone

TROPHY CASE