caldeen

I have been toying with converting some of the random damage to fixed. For example a .357 now does d6+9 rather than 2d6+3. My thinking is that this increases the minimum and average damage without upping the maximum.

The points I give for stats and skills depends on the game I want to run. If it is going to be a gutterpunk game the points are lower. For a super soldier game the points are higher. I do put limits on the amount of points that can be put into one skill. This comes from playing with a few people who would put 3 skills at 10 and divide up the other 10 between the other 7 career skills.

For stats if the character has a 3 or lower in a stat they are handicapped/malformed. I had one guy who wanted to put a 1 in attractiveness. I told him he could but would have a humpback, club foot, and lopsided face. He decided to go with a 4.

I allow selling out. None of my players have done so twice.

Also, if my characters do not have at least a 1 in Education they are functionally illiterate.

I have been accused of being a mean GM.

For this reason and another I am going to have my players make up multiple characters for my next campaign. The players will make up resumes for each character. Edgerunners Inc. anyone? This way if a player's character gets injured and the player does not want to play him injured he can bring in his backup. Also, the team leader can select the team he wants for a particular mission. I am also making them pay for expenses. Food, shelter, skill maintenance.

Am setting up this game as a backup to play because the group I have now has several unreliable members. Having a game canceled at the last min is annoying.

For me the fact that it takes time to heal is one of the best things about Cyberpunk. Armor is an essential, especially with it being so cheap.

I have killed characters. Don't think I did it because they annoyed me. I hope it was because they were just being dumb. Not paying attention to what happened when they did certain things. Assaulting an enemy position blindly and alone.

I do not like rolling for stats. It can result in way to big of a difference in PCs. At least with point buy if a player gives his character a low stat he has done it himself and was not screwed by a low die roll.

I use ATTR to se how some NPCs react to the characters. Also, any stat below 3 is disabled. A 1 or 2 ATTR means the character is disfigured. Humpback, malformed face, something that just boosting ATTR wont help. Also keep in mind that the prices in the book are just suggestions. I use them for startup and possibly legal procedures. Remember that ware is tracked. To much ware and cswat shows up.

Players do not exist in a vacuum. Things cost and actions have consequences.

With a Trama Team card and broadcasting Biomonitor it is hard to really die except by a headshot. As long as you are in the city.

We do have cloning in our game. It is expensive. The character goes into the clinic and pays 100k. The character is backed up. Make a copy of the character sheet minus ware. If the character comes back they have the skills and knowledge from the time of the backup. If they want ware also it costs extra. The upside of growing the ware into the close is that humanity cost is halved. When the character dies they start growing a new clone. When the clone is fully grown the brain is imprinted. Character's can do further backups at 10k each time.

For 50k a remote uploader can be implanted. The uploads still cost 10k each payable in advance or with automatic withdraws. With the remote there is also the risk of corruption and hijacking.

These prices are all for legal, registered procedures. For "off the books" procedures the cost would be much more. Times 1.5 at least. There is also the risk of the illegal shop tampering with the new you.

Corps will sometimes offer cloneing, but who would trust them?

Edgerunners come from everywhere. I have played streetpunks, mid level rollers, and high powered operators. I prefer the challenge of starting with punks and moving up. Starting with little or nothing. Scrounging for money and food. Most of my characters have had some kind of cover. A locksmith company explains having certain tools and is a good way to launder money. Another was going to school and doing jobs pay his way. Others have enrolled in school for the dorm room and cafeteria.

Living as a zero would be hard. No ID, no insurance. No place to crash and semirelax. Fake IDs are great for establishing a life.

I seem to remember that in the Cyberpunk 2020 world the IRS was abolished and the US govt uses sales taxes to get money so everyone pays taxes. That may have been a house rule. We made so many.

In the next game I run the players are going to have to keep up with their characters lives and expenses.

I do not intentionally kill characters. However, if the players seem determined to get the characters killed I no longer fudge things. In the latest game I got 2 TPKs. We ended after the second. The 3 characters assaulted a position they knew was fortified by a force of soldiers without doing any recon. They also split the party before beginning the assault. One person went in first alerting the forces inside before the other two hit the door.

Trusting the GM not to be out to get the players is important. Personally I am getting tired of fudging things so the characters do not die. My players keep refusing to think. It seems like I am having to lead them by the nose. Recently I did my second ever TPK because my players insisted on driving, on an interstate, into a war zone. Any suggestions on how I can make them think?

Speaking of Skillchips does anyone else recall the rules on them from the "Hardwired" supplement? Meaning that there are limits to what a Chip will let you do and eventually you learn the skill if you use the chip enough.

No. In my game Skillchips are a substitute for real skills. The only way to get better with chips is to get a higher level chip. While using a chip you get no IP for using the skill. I believe that is how the main book does chips also.

How do you guys do the immediate IP for using skills? I make the players keep track. Any time the GM calls for a skill roll the character gets IP for that skill. The GM has to call for the roll so the player doesn't farm IP.

You can also make a paintball blow gun from pvc pipe. Half inch, schedule 200. Do not try and hold the paintballs in your mouth before firing them. They taste horrible, according to my brother.

Skillchips of 10? Not in my game. No char is going to become a grand master in a skill by chipping. They can buy a 3 from the mall. Up to a 5 from high end corps or military. Covert operators might be issued 8s for languages and social so they can pass for native but that is rare.

Downloading skill chips is possible. It is also dangerous. Download something then plug it into your brain so it can influence your actions? Is that wise?

I always use the -5 for nonskilled actions. Getting a 1 in a skill is not hard.

The way we do things.

Keeping it simple. Kicking has a RoF of 1. Punching has a RoF of 2.

I like martial arts. Almost all of my chars have some martial arts, not at a 10. It has been a long time since I started a char with 10s in a skill.

For stun we use a separate damage track. 3 sections are light with no penalty. 3 sections are hesitate, save or loose an action. 3 sections of pass out with lower saves. The 10th is a save vs death or die. It takes a lot of stun damage to die, but it is possible. Also, anytime the char is shot and armor stops the damage they take one stun.

If my chars stroll around in metal gear toting assault rifles they are going to attract attention. In the combat zone people will avoid them. Hostiles will attack them trying to get all that neat stuff. Usually not in a straight up fight, but by sniping from the shadows. In the other areas the people will be alarmed and the cops will appear. If the cops do not confiscate the items trackers will be planted, and possibly a drone assigned to follow. Carrying explosives, any heavy weapons, or other assorted nastiness will get them arrested if not shot. Fighting the cops will most likely get them dead.

No, you do not have to take an aimed action to declare a called shot. You just say I am going to shoot him in the head. I do not use aiming in combat. It is more for sniping. For each round that you aim you get a plus 1. I do not think it is wise to take a round in combat to aim is worth 1 point.

As for 3 round burst I just have all the rounds that hit do so in the same location. More to reduce the number of rolls than anything else.

I do not allow called shots during full auto.

I see "body location" as torso, arms, or legs. Hitting the head is a bigger penalty.

Jury rig is powerful if used correctly. In my version jury rig adds to tech skills at half. Just the technical ones though. Not the medical or musical skills. Characters can add the full jury rig for a temporary fix in an emergency situation.

Playing a techie is challenging. Outside the box thinking is necessary. Techies should fight by planning ahead. Against NPCs and PCs. After all the PCs will most likely give the techie their guns to upgrade. A cookie cutter chip inserted on the sly is a wonderful insurance policy.

Some of the players have used ETH. Never on something that large. I stopped using it because of its cost and rarity. The weapon has to be modified for ETH and can then not use standard ammo. This doubles the cost of the weapon, if I remember correctly. Then the ammo costs a lot more, and has to be specially made. This makes it traceable. For govt or corps this might not be a problem. For a edgerunner ETH leaves a big trail. Just my opinion.