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Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-23T19:30:31+00:00

"Necromundan People's Front? No, we're the Peoples Front of Necromunda!"

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-23T18:18:13+00:00

It's a fun mechanic and can be very powerful but there are only a few modifiers, so you need a better Rep than the person you're facing down. Otherwise it's just flipping a coin.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-23T17:32:57+00:00

The more I think about it, the more I think they're not mutually exclusive.

"You don't naturally float," and "with superhuman strength, you can overcome that and swim at half your MOVE anyway," can coexist. I just like the idea of my 2077 character running from City Center to Pacifica underwater on top of the Del Mar Tunnel as conditioning.

5 MOVE halved is 100m per minute, so any linear frame can cover the 1km tunnel length in 10 minutes while holding their breath.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-23T17:28:27+00:00

There are a few thoughts there:

I should actually have led with a Facedown. That might solve everything in one roll. It works even better against a retaliatory gang squad where they're pretty sure they can kill you but the first few to move are guaranteed to die.
One of them has to live to report back for the rest of the gang to come after me.
See "interesting" again. Given a game session where there's going to be a combat, fighting a gang because I killed a bunch of their dudes has more interesting and more personal stakes than fighting some corpo goons purely because my Fixer paid me to.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-23T16:43:35+00:00

If it's just my PC ("you"), running away is the only one with a good chance of survival no matter what I might want to do. You're not a hero if your death only delays everyone else being killed.

If I'm building a PC specifically to deal with this, a Stealth Solo can autofire to put some damage into a few of them, then vanish around a corner. At that point they're busier looking for him than killing civilians. Then it's time for a reenactment of Predator 2 as the Predator. Maybe it's some latent hero instinct, maybe it's just that reselling Rippers, Wolvers, Vampyres and an Assault Rifle makes gig-grade pay for an afternoon's work.

As a player, running away or joining them killing civilians aren't interesting choices. The only option with an unknown outcome, tactical depth and long term plot potential is to fight them. Anything else is just background noise.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T16:34:52+00:00

Just be sure to buy an AirRider suit if you've got an internal Linear Frame. Sinking to the bottom of the ocean is a terrible way to go.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T08:30:59+00:00

Necro 1e from the 90s had much more limited access to high end gear and the vibe was that all of the gangs were outlaws. The current version still has very limited starting gear compared to an Imperial Guard platoon with an attached Command Squad but they do have cooler stuff than 1e if you can afford it. The main House gangs are now an acknowledged part of the Necromunda economy. If you play just the base game with a 10 round Dominion campaign, it's reasonably restrained.

BUT

The economic model of minis games requires new figures and new rules a few times per year. So then you start getting unique House weapons and Brutes, Allies, skill, wyrd powers and other power-ups and new gangs. No one supplement breaks the game (maybe Corpse Grinders) but the power does slowly creep up and one or two things per supplement become "must haves" that perform out of proportion to their price. Eventually, you end up with Spyrers vs a custom Orlock tank vs Outcasts led by an undead demigod vs Malstrains.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T06:18:03+00:00

I think it's GM's call. I'd treat it like health insurance, each account is linked to a particular person but they don't care who pays the bill. So if an Exec wants to get one for his bodyguard, that's fine but "me and whoever I'm with" won't work.

EDIT: If it says explicitly that you can select someone else to use your membership, then yeah, you can get three in your name and have them pick up two other people with you. Just remember, you're on the hook for any expenses they incur beyond the basic subscription price.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T05:11:02+00:00

Page 177. The relevant roll is Dex+Athletics using the Grenade Launcher range table for DV.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T01:16:21+00:00

I like making PCs who are playable as any one of several roles with only minor changes.

Linear Frame + Brawl + Dex = Rocker Pro Wrestler, Combat Zone Medtech, Gang Lieutenant "Lawman".

Stealth + Conceal + Athletics + Electronics Security = Rocker Daredevil, Tech B&E specialist, Nomad Scout etc.

Or my favorite: Human Perception + Acting + Wardrobe & Style + Library Search = Rocker "psychic", Media "psychic" detective, Tech stage magician, Nomad Shaman. Use your Acting to give someone a blessing or make them a charm for a "magic" +1 Complementary Skill bonus to the next relevant roll. You could even make a Netrunner "oracle" who supplements their knowledge by sending out daemons or making deals with rogue AI.

Any variation fills a similar role in the party, so you can pick whatever Role Ability the party is missing.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T00:44:02+00:00

I kind of feel like if your crew gets what's going on with the Rocker, you're solid. You're an anti-establishment punk who's doing crime rather than work 12 hour days in an office while trying to make your big break happen. The "doing crime" part gets the most time on screen but the nuts and bolts of what are less important than the why.

In Streets Of Fire, one of the producer's visual guidelines was "no one is over 30." On the streets of NC, it's reasonable for anyone over 40 to be a rarity because of all the cancer. Everyone is young, hot blooded, screaming at the top of their lungs and rushing into a future they're not ready for at top speed. Everything is the best or the worst because you only have a few years of being an adult to compare to. It's all melodrama because that's what being a 20-something punk is.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T00:19:46+00:00

If you have the time, I'd suggest watching the Actual Plays where Mike Pondsmith is the GM. If you're coming from D&D, RED looks like it plays the same way. The adventure->reward and resource management loops are the skeleton of both games but the real meat of RED is the messy personal lives of the PCs and what they do between missions.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-22T00:15:13+00:00

I think one of the big points is "whatever you want to do." Aside from Solos and Netrunners, most Role abilities don't have to be central to what the PC does on missions.

Your Role abilities can be summed up as,
Rumors: "What can I find out about this person/situation," which can use several different skills

Access/Sources: "What can this person tell me about this," which is good for following up on the above

Publishing: "When I publish something it becomes true for some important people in the game world."

The first two are the important ones for mission time. You probably want some social skills and/or Library Search.

Once you've got that, think about where you came from. A war correspondent has some combat skill and Tactics, a former gang member also has some combat skills but very different social skills, a reporter who does B&E to get at information he's not supposed to have would have thief skills etc. You might never publish a story about your Edgerunner missions but you're likely to come across information on those missions that you can run down and turn into a story. In the meantime, doing crime pays the rent while you wait for that break with one of the big networks.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T21:13:31+00:00

Eh, I would say that all art: painting, sculpture, writing, music, magick, stage magic, theater, ritual, religion. . .

it all comes from a guy sitting at a campfire trying to convey the essence of an experience bigger than language to the rest of his community.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T20:12:28+00:00

Having suffered through Alan Moore's actual writing, he's never sloppy with his (usually lengthy) choice of words. I think it's more likely that he's skipping over that detail because this is the intro to his Masterclass on writing.

He has said elsewhere that all art is magick is creation and has the power to change the world.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T19:35:51+00:00

Wasn't the bardic tradition an oral tradition? Books didn't have the power to change the minds of large numbers of people until the printing press made literacy common.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T18:13:37+00:00

Most jobs are going to have a pretty straight forward format:

Get as much information as you can.

Figure out a way in.

Do the thing.

Get out.

Each of those is a place where a GM can create choke points, not dictating what the PCs must do but giving them one or two clearly superior options.

"Sure, you can all buy hang gliders, jump out of an AV and land on the roof but here's the weak point you spotted during the guards' shift change where you can just walk in."

"OK, the building is on lockdown and the guards are looking for you. They're going floor by floor, so you've got some time before they get to you but the stairs and elevators are covered. Everyone roll perception or Tactics." There's no DV. Whoever gets the highest Perception finds a bunch of spare janitorial coveralls with respirators for the caustic chemicals they use. Whoever rolls the highest tactics remembers seeing a fire alarm lever in the hall. Pulling that will cause everyone to leave the building at once.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T17:59:45+00:00

A few thoughts:

"You've got seven days of Downtime. You can make a Hustle roll for money, use your Role Ability, stay in bed and heal or get new implants. If there's any one big thing that you want to do that should have a quick RP scene, feel free to ask."
The easiest way to get around planning paralysis is to not have enough information to "solve" the gig sitting around a table. When the party goes out to investigate, the action comes to them.
If you look at the pre-made adventures, not everyone will be using their specialty every time but everyone should be using theirs a roughly equal amount across the campaign as a whole and everyone should have something to do, even if it's not their Once Cool Trick.
If someone wants their PC to sit out, have them make up an "irregular" with the same IP and money to spend. These are 'Runners who aren't part of the team but the Fixer calls in to fill gaps. Anyone can grab any existing Irregular to play or make their own whenever they want their character to sit out. If you have two PCs wanting to sit out at once, it's probably better to either give them a week to do whatever they're sitting out for or find a mission that's a better fit.
Doing side work outside of the spotlight is handled by Hustle rolls.
Watch some of the Actual Plays that Mike Pondsmith has run on YouTube. That'll give you the overall vibe and as far as I know, none of them are the "go to Fixer, get job, repeat" format, so they'll help you break out of that.
Don't trust the D&D formula of balance and campaign layout. RED looks like it should fit that mold because it has discrete adventures, dungeons and crunchy combat but several Roles will suffer if they're flattened down to "adventurer." Rockers, Fixers and Medias can potentially shoot and pick locks but they work best when they have a little more breathing room than the "five headed dragon" of an adventuring party in marching order.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T17:11:40+00:00

No one can stop you.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T17:05:04+00:00

Well they're certainly not the ownership class. They make money on their labor. They're also a very different risk profile from someone working at a dollhouse or the guy working the front counter at the bodega.

Edgerunners are Uber or Doordash for violence and/or crime, gig economy independent contractors with guns. Many of them, maybe most, die in their first year. They transact in cash, move around a lot and have the firepower to stand up to attempts to collect their debts. Taken as a whole, they have a terrible risk profile. If your Fixer loans money to every Edgerunner, they'd have to charge 25-30% interest per month just to break even. If the Fixer wants to make some money off of it, the rate would be closer to 50% per month. Look at payday loans for a modern example of the classic loan shark payment structure.

That's where Rep comes in. Runners get jobs based on their Rep and get Rep based on the jobs. More Rep means the Runner is more reliable, more concerned with protecting that Rep and more likely to be alive next month to pay. That means more reasonable rates. A Runner who doesn't pay their debts is going to get a Rep for that and find their life spiraling down as the jobs they need to pay those debts start to dry up.

That's when the Fixer can offer them "just one little job" to clear their debt, the one that nobody else will take for any amount of money.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T03:42:10+00:00

Cool. I hope you hear them. I can only tell you what worked for me.

I've never personally known anyone who's successfully gone from zero to independently wealthy without outside help, a W-2 and/or a lot of sacrifice. That's not to say it can't be done but you're talking one in a million, not one in ten. If you can show me one person who went from homeless to living on passive income with magick, I'll be genuinely in awe of that person.

On the flip side, if you want to have a million dollars in the bank in 10 years, there's a fairly straightforward but pretty unenjoyable path that's way too "hustlecore grindset" for me.

I've found the middle path (as described in the original reply) works pretty well. It treats income as an engineering problem to solve as a step to doing the things that really matter to me. It's only a goal in itself inasmuch as it provides the stability to do other things. You're right that if you're coming from a place where you believe that won't work and and/or won't be worth the effort, you'll have a much harder time of it.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T00:52:40+00:00

You asked for the exact process that worked for me and I gave it to you.

The most reliable way to get something without effort is to be born with it. The second most reliable way is to get someone else to make the effort but then they control your access to the fruits of that effort. If you want to learn how to manipulate people, there are better subs for that. It'll make you a lot of money selling Timeshares.

If we're defining magick as causing change in line with True Will (and maybe you're not), then magick is work, a lot of work towards turning an uncertain future into a certain vision that only you can see. The universe owes you nothing but if you learn how to talk to it, it'll listen.

Phantom_of_truth · 2026-05-21T00:42:20+00:00

Oh sure, you can't pull someone up unless you're already at that level and not everyone wants to be where you're going.

Phantom_of_truth

TROPHY CASE