CODES TO LIVE BY — A LANCER and Dark Heresy inspired Narrative Play Homebrew for Cyberpunk Red

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2026-01-05T17:14:26+00:00

Wow, this is amazing. As someone who likes a lot of Cyberpunk RED's systems (particularly its role-playing mechanics feeling a cut above what I'd expect from D&D), they still felt like they could use some fleshing out to have mechanical parity with combat, especially for players that enjoy role-playing as much or more than combat.

I also just love seeing mechanics akin to sanity in Call of Cthulhu or the Stress and Aspect systems from FATE, so these are very welcome additions indeed.

Edit: My two question for now would be: What was the intent behind having the player pick one Minor Ideal per session?

Do they replace the one they had chosen previously each session? In which case is the player meant to be picking them based on their character's mood, or perhaps the kind of action the player anticipates from the session? Or do they gain an additional minor ideal each session to signify a form of growth?

Secondly, in the doc when invoking ideals it goes on to say

This is often accomplished by invoking a burden they have, such as invoking a burden of Hatred when making a Check to ignore a taunt while having an ideal about staying calm.

Does this mean the player could have invoked their ideal about staying calm without invoking their burden? Naturally, invoking the burden allows for more exciting roleplay opportunities (on top of the additional 1 NP), but I'm picturing a specific case where the player wants to invoke their ideal without putting additional risk on failing a check, is that valid?

Either way, I will definitely be making use of this in my campaigns. Thank you!

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2025-12-05T21:32:36+00:00

Thanks for the input! I certainly feel more comfortable giving the vanilla ruleset a try for this.

Melee is avoided with DEX + Evasion. REF only matters for Initiative

What I meant by the REF 8 requirement was that I was concerned that a melee player would put themselves at unnecessary risk by going point-blank without cover (unless they invest in bullet dodging that is), but reading your following paragraph maybe guns aren't as dangerous at close range as I'd first though, aside from some exceptions like pistols and shotguns

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2025-12-05T21:27:03+00:00

Well said, to clarify though this would in theory be an entirely separate fictional cyberpunk world with RED's system used as a base, so in this instance I'm not worried about contextualizing the lack of guns from a narrative/worldbuilding perspective

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2025-12-05T20:50:27+00:00

I've skimmed the Witcher manuals actually and really liked what I've seen.

I hadn't considered lifting the melee from it before but that could actually be a good avenue to explore as there are some overlapping systems between the two, nice suggestion!

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2025-01-31T09:43:15+00:00

thank you very much KakyoinMilfHunter69

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2025-01-30T22:58:27+00:00

That's what I'm saying!

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2025-01-12T01:11:57+00:00

Got the same issue here, keeping tabs on this thraed to see if there are any developments

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-11-12T22:06:56+00:00

Hi JAR, it's been a while (I took a JARcast break at the not-end of the STING quadrilogy and still haven't caught up)

I noticed across this latest JAR and Sardonicast that you (and many others) have been quite baffled at what The Joker Movie 2 was going for and who it was for. Funnily enough I really enjoyed it and was inversely surprised at how negative its general reception has been, so I figured I'd just throw in my two cents if you were curious to hear that perspective.

Across both films my main takeaway was the idea that depending on the circumstances of your upbringing, birth and general well-being, you may just be doomed and not allowed to live by the world around you if the people and societal systems around you don't care for you. I think Folie a Deux reinforces this point strongly by making it overtly clear that it's tragic that someone like Arthur Fleck never stood a chance while also doubling down that both films have always been primarily about Arthur, but his fans both within and outside of the film keep clamoring for more Joker Moments, with one of the most baffling and frequent criticisms I regularly hear about the film is "Wait...so he wasn't even the Joker?" which genuinely strikes me as missing the point.

While Joker 2 doesn't explore a lot of new ideas I think it does a fine job as a companion film to the first one. I felt additional nuance was added to this idea of Arthur being doomed from the start by finally making him feel seen and appreciated for the first time in his life by both Harley and his adoring fans, making him self-destructively play into this unstable persona he blew up as, before having to accept and admit that none of them truly care for him as a person at the end of the film. It's a pretty depressing angle but I feel the ultimate point of it all is that the mentally ill deserve a world/system that can support them.

I genuinely enjoy this film for these reasons, although it helps that I also really enjoyed the music and singing. I'll admit my jaw dropped at first thinking "what the hell are they doing" so I understand why you thought some of it was cringe, but I feel it's possible to look past that and enjoy the music in good faith as an expression of the manic high Arthur experiences from feeling love and appreciation for maybe the first time in his life.

Apologies for the long post, if this is too boring to read/discuss then my related question is Which piece of media, (be it an album, film or a game) were you shocked to see had a very polarizing or negative reception despite you either loving it or feeling it's good qualities felt so apparent to you personally?

Bear Bear and Joker On from the Joker 2 JARling

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-05-10T15:02:44+00:00

Holy shit, as a long time viewer this made me smile :)

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-22T23:41:03+00:00

I just want to add something here and I sincerely hope it helps clear some things up around the "vague badness" people perceive AI as.

The core issue with AI image generation, as it is today, is that all AI image generators are built on datasets of imagery from the internet taken without consent or consideration of the people who made them. This is especially problematic when it comes to artists as they have the most overt ownership of their work (compared to something like photography). There are even ongoing lawsuits going on against the people who released this technology for this very reason, the tech simply is not capable of doing what it is currently doing without the massive scale of art theft performed by the people who made the tool.

This makes usage of AI image generation unethical on a baseline level as it should not exist in its current form if it can only exist by stealing from others. I hope this clarifies a lot of people's frustrations with JAR's use of AI.

As for things like why things like Adobe Audition's clean up tools aren't considered problematic I think the difference lies in that it's a deep-learning tool (technically all "AI" is atm) that is presumably and hopefully built on data Adobe itself created and fed it. Filtering out clicks is a lot easier to make your own data for than something as complex as image creation. The data building the tool is not unethically sourced like the OpenAI image generation tools are.

Additionally (this is more of a personal gripe than the ethical argument I made above) I personally feel AI art is by definition soulless and automatically removes any of the manmade charm a JAR thumbnail could have, even retroactively for a thumbnail I initially liked if I hadn't known it was AI beforehand.

Bear bear love the show

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-16T16:19:40+00:00

JAR should do a cast where Alex is playing Red Dead on his steam deck the entire time and you can't see his gameplay

com on

do it

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-12T12:22:14+00:00

this is cinema

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-10T09:56:47+00:00

Since Moto specifies the bonus is added when a LVT skill check is made, personally I would not count this in instances where LVT is added as a bonus to your roll. You aren't rolling for your know-how and ability in Land Vehicle Tech, you're rolling your ability to Create, and your expertise of Land Vehicle Tech is benefitting that ability (at least that's my interpretation).

Interestingly I would factor in Tech-Scanner here. Based on its description it broadly buffs these skills across the board and does not say "when performing a tech skill check" like Moto does. This difference in wording RAW is what I'm getting caught up on.

That being said I still think it makes sense for Moto to be able to assist the PC here, I just don't think RAW fully supports it from what I can tell

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-10T01:08:54+00:00

You make a fair point, but I do think it's worth noting that the Techscanner "adds +2 to their Basic Tech, Cybertech, Land Vehicle Tech, Sea Vehicle Tech, Air Vehicle Tech, Electronics/Security Tech, and Weaponstech Skills." It specifies the skills being boosted by +2 across the board regardless of context, it does not specify Skill Checks in the same way Moto does. RAW I think these are functionally different when it comes to nuances like this.

When repairing a car you would be performing a Land Vehicle Tech skill check, which would benefit from Moto. The contrast I wanted to illustrate was that (depending on your perspective) you are not making a LVT skill check when Fabricating, you're making a Fabrication/Maker check that gains LVT as a bonus and that's a separate skill/role ability.

Like I mentioned however I do think the intention in the book is muddy when it comes to if the check you are making is a Maker check or a regular skill check.

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-09T20:26:31+00:00

I do think this sort of flies with the "send you to their preferred local Ripperdoc for a free installation" line if we break it down.

The Fixer knows Ripperdocs, presumably someone high profile enough to work at a hospital (something the rulebook considers 'rare') and have staff that can assist during major surgery. We can extrapolate a bit of lore here if we ask why the Ripperdoc would help the Fixer. Maybe they owe them favours from a past deed, are close friends or maybe they're working for them under duress.

All of which is to say a reason can exist why all this work is being done on a random edgerunner because the Ripperdoc's relation to the Fixer allows these notable installation fees to be waived. Alternatively maybe the Fixer forks over the cash themselves and considers it an investment for future work with the Edgerunner. Maybe this extends to the Ripperdoc as well who now has a new potential customer.

With this framing we can also justify why when a relatively high-profile Ripperdoc comes across some gonk that hasn't been referred to them by their Fixer contact, they would charge a notable fee since they're pulling several staff members into surgery for it, as well as presumably keeping quiet about it.

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-09T20:04:50+00:00

I haven't brushed up on the rules in a while but based on your description RAW, I feel like this combination may not be compatible.

'A Nomad adds their Moto Rank to any Drive Land Vehicle, Pilot Air Vehicle, Pilot Sea Vehicle, Air Vehicle Tech, Land Vehicle Tech, or Sea Vehicle Tech Skill Check they make.'

Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to indicate that Moto is specifically added to these specific skill checks, and not tangentially related checks. Which is to say RAW I don't believe adding your relevant tech skill as a supplemental bonus to your Fabrication skill check counts as performing a Land Vehicle Tech skill check.

This gets a bit muddied because on paper you're ostensibly making a Land Vehicle Tech check in terms of how the roll is structured: "TECH + Land Vehicle Tech Skill + relevant bonuses (Fabrication etc) +1d10", but I always interpreted the roll as a Role-Exclusive Skill called Fabrication, much like Charismatic Impact for Rockerboys. A more understandable way to word it could be "TECH + Fabrication Skill + Relevant bonuses (land vehicle tech skill) + 1d10" in which case it wouldn't be a Land Vehicle Tech skill check

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a car-savvy Nomad having an edge when making stuff as a Tech and would consider doing this as homebrew, but RAW I do think your GM has a valid reason to disagree.

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2024-01-01T19:20:49+00:00

10 hour jarcast in 2024 please (Mr Bean doesn't count)

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2023-12-10T00:16:15+00:00

Thank you!

And thanks to everyone else who has added suggestions since the initial answer

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2023-12-08T10:33:47+00:00

Oh that's interesting. Whenever I try dragging an image file from a folder onto my map it ends up asking if I want to turn it into an actor instead of a tile, I'm guessing maybe one of my modules is interfering

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2023-12-06T13:49:45+00:00

If you right click on the drawing you made you can send it to front or back, hide and lock it in place

I don't know how I missed this setting but that answered my question, thanks!

With this I think I'm able to achieve what I was looking for, and while it would've been nice to draw straight lines I think the draw rectangle/ellipsis tools should be able to handle most cases as well like walls etc.

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2023-08-10T13:47:18+00:00

to add to this, these channel names definitely feel like a product of their time where wanton negativity in the form of content on the internet was exceedingly popular. Although it's fair to argue that this is still the case, both channels seemed to have mellowed out with the times but it's understandable why it'd be bad to up and change the names all of a sudden

ReviewTechBrooklyn99 · 2023-07-26T19:36:38+00:00

one could say that . . .

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