Mosca Syndrome

It's been a bit since my last contribution, so let me lay another one on you.  Use your imagination for the small details.

Angel Heart

In 2012, wealthy stockbroker Angela Hart's younger sister Petulla died in her arms after what must have been the hundredth savage beating from her drunken lout of a husband.  At that point she realized that she had been engaged in shallow financial pursuits when there were far greater things at stake in this faltering world.  She quit her job and, with her own money and investments secured from other successful women, bought a former embassy building (you can pick the defunct or now hostile country that was once outposted there) and converted it to a cafeteria and women's shelter.  She wanted to provide a place where women in trouble could go and be safe from the various predators of society (at least the male ones).  

The building in question takes up most of a city block.  It's an imposing concrete structure, and being a former embassy is built for security.  When you walk in the front door, you find yourself in an anteroom with plain pink walls and deliberately uncomfortable steel benches (they don't care for loiterers) around most of the perimeter.  There is a window with a benignly smiling attendant and three exits including the one leading back out to the sidewalk.  The biggest exit is a wide corridor about 5m long leading to the main restaurant.  The walls and ceiling of this hall are stainless steel and there are signs in several languages at the entrance to this corridor stating that no men are allowed beyond this point.  Anyone who hasn’t been living in a cave knows that the stainless steel walls are an obvious indication of some decent scanning equipment.  If that's not enough, there's always a couple of tough-looking and heavily armed (lethal and nonlethal) female guards standing at the entrance to the hall.  Many times these guards are volunteers from the local police department, or personnel whose time has been donated by area corporations who want to provide a "woman-friendly" image.  More security can be called in (Angela Hart has an emergency contract with whatever heavy-hitting local security company you like) if necessary.  Suffice it to say, between the scanners and the guards it's unlikely that any man is going to get into this place without a serious fight.  Strangely, there is no place to check weapons.  Strangely, without all the testosterone in the air, gunfights just don't seem to happen here.

The restaurant area is large and relatively comfortably appointed and is set up like a cafeteria--get in line, select what you want to eat, pay, and have a seat at a booth or table and eat.  The food isn't bad.  Naturally, there are no male employees present.  At any time of day there are lots of women eating and conversing here…some walk-ins from the street and some who are staying at the shelter.  Many of the women working here are even residents of the shelter.  

The last exit from the anteroom is next to the window with the attendant.  This door leads to a negotiation area.  Say for instance there is some kind of conflict, and a female party wants to negotiate things with a male party at Angel Heart.  An appointment is made, and when the male party arrives at Angel Heart he goes to the window and the attendant checks him in.  He is then "buzzed" through the door and, after walking down a short hall, passes through a door into a negotiation room that is set up much like a courtroom, except that the section he is in is sealed off by a thick and armored clear wall.  He can speak with parties in the rest of the room through an intercom system wired up for that purpose.  The idea is that the female party can feel safe from the visiting party and still talk face-to-face to discuss how a problem (often a battered wife and abusive husband, but other issues have been discussed) is going to be resolved.  This is all done under the watchful eyes of one of Angel Heart's moderators (often Angela Hart herself), and legal counsel is often present or brought by the outside party.  If things get out of hand, a flip of a switch will activate a liquid-crystal mechanism that will turn the glass wall opaque.  Another switch will fill the visitor's room with incapacitating gas.  

That's pretty much it for the first floor of the building, although there is the kitchen and some storerooms.  Believe it or not, there is actually a men's room in the restaurant, in accordance with city code.  Strangely it has no urinals, and is freely used by the women who are here.  There are secure and alarmed fire exits at appropriate intervals.  

The second floor of the building contains a small-scale medical, training, and counseling center for psychological issues as well as empowerments such as assertiveness, job skills, and cognitive therapy.  Many of the instructors and professionals here are donating their time or working in spare hours for well below their normal rate.

The third floor serves as a physical fitness/therapy center.  It has a gym and rooms which serve as aerobics rooms and self-defense training rooms.  

The fourth through seventh floors of the building comprise the shelter/short term hotel.   Accomodations are not luxurious but are relatively secure.  Floors 4 through 6 feature many small but homey private rooms that share several large bathrooms, and the seventh floor has larger and more luxurious rooms that are generally used as hotel rooms or for especially sensitive cases.   All people residing at the hotel must speak to a counselor every few days to discuss their individual situation and to be certain that people aren't just using the place for a free apartment.  Backgrounds are looked into, and freeloaders and dangerous persons may well be removed as a financial or safety risk.  Persons wanted by the authorities are likely to be turned over (depending on the politics surrounding the charges).

The eight floor has a few luxurious suites, a small administration department, legal offices, and Angela Heart's own stylishly appointed apartment and personal office.  Very few are allowed into this area…the main elevator doesn't even have a button for this floor.  A well-hidden side elevator with some kind of decent security (card, keypad, retinascan, whatever) in the restaurant area will take people up here.  The same elevator also goes to the roof and to a well-hidden door in the parking garage that features some REALLY fierce electronic security.  

The ninth floor contains a lot of old embassy offices that are still being used as storage pending their conversion into large dormitory-style emergency shelter in the event of some massive issue.  It also serves as a noise buffer for the AV/heli pad on the roof.  

The roof contains (surprise) an AV/heli pad capable of supporting two vehicles.  There is a small room which contains the elevator shafts and stairwell.  This room adjoins another guard post and scanning station.  Men are requested not to leave vehicles, and signs clearly proclaim that they are not to attempt to enter the building.  There is also a large (3m across) neon red heart with white neon wings and a gold neon halo on top of the outbuilding on the roof.  Makes the building easy to spot.  

The basement and sub-basements serve as a parking garage.  It's pretty secure physically--again this is an old embassy building we're talking about, but people who are arriving or staying are allowed to park here (you must get your ticket validated at the attendant's counter or you will have to pay a small fee to get your vehicle out of the garage.)  There is usually one guard patrolling the garage, and there are numerous and obvious cameras.  Loiterers will be asked to leave, and vehicles that cannot be accounted for will be removed.

The only man who is allowed to see any area outside of the anteroom or negotiation room is Abner Hart, Angela's Husband (thought she was a lesbian, did you?  Gotcha!)…he is by profession a successful sculptor and typically calls an AV-cab to the roof to fly him back and forth to his studio.  The guards all know who he is, and although he is well-liked by almost everyone at Angel Heart, even he stays out of most of the building in order to maintain the sanctity of the shelter.  Abner is 47 years old, 5'8" tall and rather unassuming, though he tends to speak in an erudite and cultured manner.  He avoids contact with people in an around the shelter (or his studio across town, for that matter).  He normally is not seen in public without a competent, professional bodyguard.  He normally is not even seen in public at all, really, but is never out walking around alone.

Angela Hart is 45, and has the bearing of a person who is used to some amount of wealth and power.  She is not a terribly striking woman, but does have a good deal of personal presence.  She is fair-minded and highly perceptive (high EMP, human perception) but inherently suspicious of men and will tend to believe a woman's side of a story before she will a man's.  However, anyone who takes advantage of her establishment's generosity and charity can expect to find themselves at the very least barred from its services and possibly the subject of civil or criminal litigation.  Being very well-off, she is pretty well liked and protected by local authorities.  She is also a master of public relations and when a conflict brews between Angel Heart and another organization she often seems to come out smelling like roses and the other side ends up looking like fools or monsters.  On those occasions when she and/or her husband are out and about (society events, etc.), there is at least one competent bodyguard present.

There have been a couple of high-profile incidents surrounding Angel Heart.  In one, a wealthy corporate's abused daughter fled there and there was very nearly an armed standoff before the corporate was duly fired from his job.  In another, a resident of the shelter was suspected in a murder investigation and there were complications with the search warrant until the police could come up with an all-female entry team.  In still another, a group of yahoos dressed up as women in an attempt to gain entry and extract one of the residents and were promptly captured and turned over to the authorities.  There are of course darker rumors abound about what happens to a man caught in this place, but they are as of yet unsubstantiated.  

The place subsists primarily on Angela Hart's money and donations from corporations, individuals, and political action committees.  Technically a non-profit organization, it usually has no problem keeping its head above water.        

There are some possible uses for Angel Heart in a Cyberpunk Game.  It's probably not going to be the center of a plot, but is more likely used for complications and testing the characters' ingenuity.  Most of them revolve around the gender barrier:

A place for female characters to lay low.  It's a great complication for a group of male PCs when they need someone and she's hiding out in there.  Maybe they need information, or some crazy Shiek hires the characters to get one of his wives out of there or something.  

If the PCs are a gender-mixed group, it's a way to temporarily split the party up for other wackiness.  If there is something they want in there, the rest of the party will almost invariably want the female PCs to go in and get it.  

If the PCs are bad guys, they could be hired by enemies to do something awful to the Harts or someone residing at the shelter.  Or they could be hired covertly by Angel Heart to do something awful to bad guys suspected of doing so.  Perhaps the corporate mentioned above could be out for revenge?  

They could be hired to grab Abner Hart and hold him for ransom or some other condition, or figure out who has done the same and get him back.    

As always, the place could have darker secrets in some of the sub-basements…cults, militant organizations, etc.  Perhaps Mrs. Hart has a political or religious affiliation of some kind and is brainwashing runaways into followers and soldiers?  Or maybe she is THOROUGHLY evil and is simply selling them on the white slavery market (the whole younger-sister-was-beaten-to-death thing is actually a cover up for the fact that SHE did it)…Outlandish, maybe, but this is Cyberpunk, innit?

If any of the male characters have some kind of female nemesis (ex girlfriend, enemy sister, former partner gone bad/good, etc.), it's a great way to provide for her a base of operations from which to conduct her own business.  It's a pain in the A** to get someone where they sleep when you can't get in there and there's some rumors that if you get caught sneaking in you'll get castrated!

Anyway, that's it for Angel Heart…see you next time!

Screw that!  I'll just build my character with a level 10 in perform:  Mime.  Those guards will think I'm a lamp, a bush, a bird, or the wind itself.  Unless I get caught in one of those infernal invisible boxes, there's no way they'll catch me!

Speaking of goofy-colored straps, what's the SP on that straitjacket, anyway?

In an effort to provide more options for dumb things to happen when your a character botches a gun roll, how about we come up with a bunch of annoying glitches that could happen when we fumble?  Particlulary I'm looking for the ones that fall short of the character shooting himself, one of his buddies, or the gun exploding.  They may not be appropriate for all situations (the magazine can't really fall out of a revolver), but let's see what we can come up with....I'll throw some out:

Character forgets to take safety off.

Character clumsily can't get trigger finger into trigger guard.

Character's finger gets stuck BEHIND the trigger like a chinese finger trap.  That hand is useless until the character spends 1d6/3 rounds getting it unstuck.

(Smart gun)Character for some reason can't seem to coordinate thought impulse to properly fire gun.

(Smart gun)Character manages to yank cables out of plugs while moving, drawing, or changing targets.  Unless the gun can be fired manually, it's a paperweight until you get plugged in again.

(quickdraw)Gun catches on character's clothing and the character will have to spend another round untangling it.

(quickdraw)Gun catches on character's clothing.  Character manages to jerk it free, but ends up pistolwhipping himself in the nose for 1d3 damage (add strength bonus if applicable)

(quickdraw)character whips gun out and manages to lose hold of it.  The gun goes sailing off and lands about 2-3 meters away.  

(caseless)Battery shorts out..gun is useless until battery is replaced.

(caseless)Firing circuit malfunctions!  Gun will not fire until a weaponsmith checks it out.

(caseless)Firing circuit malfunctions!  Gun begins firing at its maximum ROF and will continue to do so until out of ammo.

(weapon w/underslung grenade launcher)Character accidentally pulls the wrong trigger.  

Dud round...character must chamber another one.  

ENTIRE MAGAZINE of dud rounds...what is up with the quality control these days?

Character manages to eject the magazine, which clatters to the ground, leaving him with one bullet in the chamber.

Character manages to fire the weapon's maximum ROF harmlessly into the air.

Anybody else got some fun ones to add?

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but what if those Edgerunner's really, REALLY have to go?!? *LOL* Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )

It never happens, dammit...the drinks are loaded with nanites that are programmed to seal your urethra shut....problem solved!  

...however there is the minor drawback of exploding like a water balloon if you get punched or shot in the abdomen...

Now enough of this chatter...here, have a martini on me!

The problem with any rule, official or house, is that if enough exceptions pop up in game play, it becomes a burden to implement.

I can see an initiative modifier for weapons if:

1.  The character intends to use the weapon that round.  Naturally, if the character isn't trying to use it, then it shouldn't affect initiative outside of general encumbrance.

B.  The weapon isn't already "at the ready"...I'm not sure, but aren't most combat pistol shooters trained to hold the weapon straight out in front of them and turn their torso or whole body to aim rather than swinging their arms to bring it to bear (Hanns, can you verify?)--this would not provide much of a speed advantage over a rifle, since it is also aimed by turning the body to face the target.  While the pistol would still be a little faster, would it really be measurable on the rather coarse scale of this gaming system?  On a tangent, this is part of my beef with a lot of the more subtle cyberware and gear...the gaming system is so coarse that the mininum bonus is a +1, which is sometimes a bit more than the object should be worth IMO.

III. The intended target is at VERY close quarters--ie standing so close that the firer has to back up (or kick the target forward) just to point the gun where he wants, or the shooter is in an environment where the length of the weapon interferes with obstacles.  

In other words, IMO the rule has too many particulars to be of real benefit, other then perhaps altering the quickdraw penalty for each weapon, or perhaps altering it for the type of weapon and the way it's being carried (IE, pistol in waistband vs. pistol in shoulder holster vs. Rifle on shoulder sling vs. pop-up gun in cyberarm).  It sounds like the situation Dillweed described was one in which the weapons were out but the quarters were close.  I wasn't there, but I just am not sure the size difference would have been enough to rate a bonus/penalty for anyone involved.

heh...shameless plug...I'm now imagining an infomercial where Phipps calls out the smiling members of the audience to wear various armored garments and then gutshoots them to demonstrate the effects.  "All this for only 29.95!"  

Which idea are you talking about?  I assume you mean the combat system, but I've spewed so much stuff into this thread that I've gotten myself lost!  

...I need to look back and see if I was this bad ~before~ I gave up caffeine...

The solo-female incident is EXACTLY what happened, DC, although the woman was a techie and not much taller.  The guy would hide behind ANYTHING--cheap particle board furniture, children, plants, anything...

I have been using an upped-damage system for the bullets for years.  It (slightly) violates the SP14=Class IIa police vest theory, but I have never had a problem with that in actual game play.  But at least a 9mm bullet has a chance of killing the average man.  I had called the system "Light 'em up" and I think it's still posted on the Blackhammer site.  

The "class IIa" issue is easily overcome with upped bullet damages.  Just assign all the rounds a "class" and give each individual armored garment a "class" based on how heavy it is and how nasty a bullet it should be able to stop.  An SP14 police vest could be called "class IIa," and a 9mm bullet can be called "class IIa"...the vest stops any regular (non-AP) bullet up to its own class.  Stronger bullets and AP bullets do damage as they always did (vs. SP)....I'll leave extrapolating this to other rounds up to you, but I simply took the number of dice' worth of damage for each round from "Light 'em up" and considered that to be the bullet's "class", and simply assigned the various garments a class of their own with SWAGs.  Things with a certain SP and made of heavy stuff would have higher class, and things of the same SP made of thin stuff would be lower class, or have no class at all, meaning they aren't guaranteed to stop anything.  Naturally, nothing of a low SP had a high class.  That would make no sense at all.

Don't knock it 'till you try it--I kid you not, it was a WHOLE lot of fun...all the gestures and descriptions came into play when I read off what that character was trying to do.  The reason for writing it down was to keep people from changing their actions because of something another character did not even a split second ago in game time.  It got very noisy and animated as I started reading the various actions off and making the players make their rolls.  There was a lot of suspense and "Oh my GOD!" reactions as people realized what their compatriots were doing when they didn't have a chance to collaborate on things with each other (it's always bugged me the way players collaborate on things when there characters just don't have the time to discuss the pros and cons of what weapon where who).  They were forced to make assumptions on what the others would do, and the chaos that resulted seemed terribly realistic to me--characters all shooting at one bad guy and leaving the others unharmed, all trying to fit behind the same piece of cover (hey, whoever had the highest MA got there first!), or running in different directions when it was the worst possible plan.  After a few of those, they started collaborating on tactics--who is supposed to cover what, one-word signals to retreat, etc.

Also, the "recap" at the end of the combat was fun, where the I would give a second-by-second synopsis of what went down.

The idea behind the cops hassling over heavy and silly armor is to discourage people from walking around like they are expecting a gun battle...you need to explain this attitude to the players before they suit up their characters and get out there, or they will get bitchy about it and rightfully so because it's not fair.    

The specific interaction depends on the cop and the look and attitude of the people, just like real life.  One might let a pretty girl off with a warning, while another may take great offense and do everything he can to put the big threatening-looking guy away.  Unless the superiors are watching, they have a bit of discretion in who gets arrested and who doesn't.  They may decide they would like to have such an illegal object and propose that the character either give it to them or go downtown.  If I were the character, I would give it up.  Beats the slammer.

I wouldn't call any armor illegal, but would say that obvious armor is "probable cause" for the cops to stop and search the character.   The cop has every right to suspect that a character is dressed like this because he is going to do something illegal and needs protection from police weaponry.

Keep in mind that most of this may not be consistent with Talsorian's setting, but it just reflects the way I like my games...again, be upfront with the players if you're altering the rules and/or setting to acheive a different feel.

In my games, depending on the locale, things like unregistered guns are naughty on actual US (non-corporate--corporations are often sovereign entities with their own laws) soil...there is real jail time to be served.  If the characters are going to be walking around in public with unregistered firearms, they had better take special precautions not to draw the attention of the authorities--ie, don't wear the silly armor....Just like real life.  They don't automatically get hassled on the street every time, but they know the chance is there and is great enough to carefully consider their wardrobe.

Automatic weapons (anything full auto or burst-fire), AP ammo, and explosive devices are VERY naughty, and carry a minimum 10-year sentence for possession (I call it "intent to commit terrorism") if you don't have the proper permit.  And there is so much red tape surrounding that permit that only a total corporate stooge would ever have a chance of scoring one.  In short, the characters need to be careful and secretive about things like plastique and SMGs, and assault rifles only show up when the sh*t really hits the fan.  

This isn't to say people don't still have and use such things--there are plenty of people out there who are always putting themselves on the edge every day in one way or another, and another 10 year sentence isn't that scary to them.  

Also, part of the fun of this game is getting to cut loose with crazy weapons every so often.   Don't completely deprive anyone of that joy....but know that those people who want to last are pretty careful with such toys.  There are also many cops who can be bought off.  

There are also ways to subvert such laws....some cops don't know a Glock 30 machine pistol when they see it and assume it's legit.  If you've had your weaponsmith techie build the machine pistol parts onto a slightly modded legal semi-auto frame (I allow legal semi auto versions of all the full-auto small arms to be bought at the same price) with a legit serial number, most people aren't gonna know unless you start busting out the autofire with it.

...but does anyone want to take a chance of doing ten years for having a machine pistol because they wore a huge bulletproof jacket to the local Waffle House for coffee and a cop got curious?

Of course, the rules change in the combat zone--if nobody is there to enforce the rules, then there aren't any.  Just keep a low profile if you've got a full-auto Ronin in the trunk and you're headed that way....

The reason for the armor layering rules, in my opinion, is that Talsorian saw that they had left the armor rules wide open for rampant munchkinism, and then had to come up with something to reel it back in.  Unfortunately what they came up with doesn't make much sense.  

there is some discussion on armor rules in the "Implementing House Rules" topic in this same forum.  I detailed an armor system that I think would keep things reasonable there, although I'm sure some people would argue with that.  It's based on the old system, where armor values are added together, but has some caveats that make getting crazy with the SP levels a bad idea....

right, in other words the door can be monitored by the same attendant who lets people back into the area with the privacy rooms to begin with.  I wasn't proposing assigning an attendant just to watch the fire door.  Again, whatever works for you!  The place is imaginary, so whatever needs to be done to make it fit someone's world can be done...

...I was just a little steamed because I saw the fire thing as sort of a nitpick that could be taken care of with a little common sense, and, like the presence of bathrooms, wasn't an issue that needed to be addressed here.

I have run into more than a few players over the years who seem to think it's appropriate and comfortable for their character to wear a helmet all the time.  I always offer them a full-face motorcycle helmet to wear while we are gaming (so they can prove their point), and they always seem to turn it down....

Helmets are a Class A hassle.  I usually want nothing more than to get that stupid helmet off when I am done riding.  I have sometimes stopped at a convenience store to buy candy or whatever and seen the clerk get visibly uptight about a masked man walking into his shop.  Carrying the dumb thing around is even more of a hassle.  It's heavy, it occupies one of your hands, and when I was younger, the clerks thought for sure I was going to shovel merchandise into it and leave without paying.  Some still do.  

Bad guys who take headshots....I usually don't do this unless it's a special and skilled bad guy, or the players are being stupid (such as trying to suddenly attack several bad guys who "have the drop" on them) or are themselves doing nothing but headshots.  

One player was so scared of headshots that he wanted the bodyplating cowl and faceplate, but didn't want to look inhuman so he wanted "Realskin" and "Techhair" on it.  When I mentioned that he would probably look like an animated CPR dummy rather than a "real boy," he decided against it.  The same player's big, tough solo routinely hid behind smaller (often female) characters for cover when a fight broke out.      

I reiterate:

"But I guess that would reflect someone capable of making those judgements (combat sense?) in such a moment. "

In other words, the speculation assumes a person of suitable skill and (given the setting of the game, possibly preternatural) awareness but also or alternately a person given a pre-combat situation where such a decision can be made.  

The situation leading up to the combat is going to make a big difference.  If we are talking about, say, a "deal" situation where you think it's going bad and one of the opposing guys has an obvious big nasty gun on a sling and the other must at most be carrying a pistol, you know who your first shot should be headed for and can act accordingly... A home invasion is going to be more like you say--a chaotic flurry of action where whomever is closest gets it first.

Plus, there is the fact that whether it's realistic or not, players in a game still have a 3rd person view of all this action with a lot more time than actual people in the situation would have.  Even the best players and GMs abuse it from time to time.  Ever been playing a game and some GM had a bunch of unruly boosters attack like trained commandos as if they'd rehearsed the entire action?  Or been GMing a game and had PC A somehow magically know which bad guy PC B was attacking and therefore know to attack the other one?  Those are hitting-you-over-the-head examples, but the only way to make sure that sort of thing ~never~ happens is to make the PCs write down their character's intended actions before the round starts without talking to each other....I've done this before...it makes for very entertaining combats--extremely chaotic--everyone writes down on a little form what they are trying to do, the GM decides ahead of time what each NPC is doing, and the GM collects all the forms and orchestrates all the events as if they happen at the same time (usually a one-second round)....initiative only counts in the first round, so even the quickest solo has to be careful about getting in the Sh*t....after a couple of these combats, PCs start planning ahead---"Okay, next time you take the guy on the right and I'll take the guy on the left"--but it doesn't always seem to work out that way...good guys and bad guys sometimes even shoot each other at the same time and both of them end up dead...that system tied with a toned-down armor system REALLY ups the ante on firefights...

I dunno about that.  I would think the first priority in the gun battle is to NOT get shot yourself--although crazy armor SPs can distort that idea....  

I think I (as a player character--as a person I would probably run screaming) would go after the one who looked most capable of hurting me rather than the one who looks toughest to hurt.  In other words, who has the gun that hurts me the most?  Often they are one and the same, and it would be hard to tell unless one had a little gun and one had a big one, but still...

...if they are similarly armed, taking out the apparently easier-to-kill one first means one less gun shooting back when I have to deal with the other one.

But I guess that would reflect someone capable of making those judgements (combat sense?) in such a moment.

The whole system is pretty whacky if you look at it too closely, so too much concern for realism is like buying a paraplegic a $200 set of running shoes....

I like this, too.  Brutally simple.  Realism junkies be d*mned...let them play Millenium's End.  A single combat in that system between five or six people could take several generations to finish...sort of a family heirloom.  Good GM's guide though--lots of floorplans and ideas and stuff.  I still have no idea where I got the books for that game, but I have them.

I think all of the published armor rules are wonky.  They were the first to go when I started modding the game.  Sorry that's not much help, but I would stick with whatever worked for you originally.

There's lots of ways to limit cyber with house rules. Ideas off the top of my head that may or may not suit you:  

Start the characters off with less money to spend on gear.  They can buy c-ware later on, but it takes the character out of the game for the surgery and recovery.  

Multiply the prices in the books by 2-5x across the board.  Keep in mind that it should be more uncommon in NPCs, too, if you do this one.    

For every piece of c-ware put in, make them roll a luck save.  If they blow it, their body rejects it and they have to be put back to "stock" again.  The money is spent reversing the procedure--no complaining, now...they knew the risks when they had surgery in the first place.  Again, cyberware in the NPCs should reflect this, too.  Note that they are welcome to try again at another surgery clinic or with a different brand of cyberware, but the risk is the same.

Armor rules are a tricky beast.  I threw Talsorian's setups out the window ages ago.  I have since tried a lot of things hoping to find a balance between realism and easy playability and found that it depends on the players and the game.  Again, right off the top of my head here's a set that might work:

1.  Armor SP is added when armor is layered.  Each layer acts on its own against an attack.  None of this weird formula from Chrome 4 or the 2nd edition book or wherever.  You can layer on as much as you want, but it will cost you...keep reading:

2.  EV penalties affect both REF and MA.  Try and run the 440 in a flak jacket sometime and you'll see what I mean.  Honestly, if you've ever tried to run any distance in motorcycle leathers (SP4, EV 0), you'll see what I mean.  

3.  The EVs for individual garments are ignored.  EV penalties are assessed based on the Total SP of the most armored location.  Standard skinweave (SP12) and armor built into cyberlimbs are excluded from this total.  Perhaps you could impose a 1 point EV at 20, and another point of EV for each 2 points of SP above that.  In other words, at 30 points of SP the character suffers a -5 to both REF and MA.  At 25 (IE a suit of metalgear), the character is at -2.

4.  Skinweaves and any very thin, light armored garment (T-shirts, stockings, etc.--use your judgement) is considered a "sheer armor"  Sheer armor only converts damage to bruising damage--non lethal, but still can force stun saves.   Even more, it is completely ineffective against bludgeoning-type attacks.  Furthermore, if the damage dealt is more than twice the SP of the sheer armor (remember that this is halved for AP rounds), the sheer armor is ignored completely.  Sucks to be you.  That's why you shouldn't rely on multiple layers of light armor to get huge SP totals.  One stout bullet could rip right through all of them as if they weren't even there.

5.  Armor is reduced by 1 point of SP per penetrating attack.

6.  (tipping hat to Bookwyrm) Anything with an SP of more than 14 is noticeably armored.  Mention that there is an established case history that allows the cops to use heavily armored garments as "probable cause" to stop and search people.  Between this and the EV penalties above, people aren't going to be wearing the heavy gear unless the job truly demands it.    

7.  Sit back and watch as characters start actually running for cover--often behind each other--at the beginning of the firefight!  Watch as the .22 gatling becomes a terror (bruising damage through skinweave)!  Thrill as PCs and NPCs don't have to carry 12mm+ autopistols and big-ass Assault rifles to get their point across!  Marvel as all the neat weapons you wouldn't even bother with before become viable and stylish options!  World peace is now a step further away!

(yeah, I know someone's gonna come along and shoot some holes in this impromptu armor system, but I don't care.  It could work just fine for me--it rewards simplicity and keeps the firefights good and dangerous)

Snow-

My little mod (above) would handle that nicely.  The truly billingual character would have his INT in both languages.  If he wanted more then he would have to spend some skill points.

I think "native language" is an obsolete term in the 2020s.  I would more likely call it "primary language"--meaning the one you actually use the most and are most comfortable with than that of your native locale.  A minor point, I guess, but that term seems to fit better.

As far as your own English goes, you communicate your thoughts in writing as well as most English-speakers I know.  However, I didn't think English was your native (excuse me--"primary") language even before I found out you were a Finn.  

I'm not going to claim to be any kind of language scholar, but I'll take a stab at explaining further:

I think that some of your native language's syntax (the way statements are worded) bleeds through in yoru writing.  I am not so savvy as to figure out which language it is on my own, but I could tell that something there wasn't right.  English is a convoluted language, and even native speakers (at least us Americans) often play fast-and-loose with their own grammar, which further complicates things...but sometimes you hear somebody say something in a way that no native English speaker would say and it tips you off...an example:

"...character's native languages(in this case English and Japanese) on the level +8..."

I can't speak for the English, but no American I know would say "on the level +8"...I don't know any Finnish, but this looks for all the world like another language's syntax seeping through.   An American might say "at +8" or "at level 8" instead.  

On the other hand, the same post had a very conversational feel to it rather than a stilted adherance to grammar.  Americans in particular tend to favor conversational flow over proper grammar, at least in spoken conversation.  Not that it's a noble goal to have bad grammar, but I'm just calling it as I see it...

Which I guess gives me an idea about putting things in game terms....anyone have any speculation on the difficulty level of a Language: English skill roll to tell that Snowtiger is not a native English speaker?  Easy (10), Average (15), Difficult (20)...or would you have competitive roll, and if Snowtiger's English roll is higher than your own, you didn't notice anything?  I kind of like the competitive idea, really.

Jade

Okay...the email option in this forum doesn't seem to let me attach documents to the message (or I'm just incompetent).  I used it to send you an email address--if you email me there I can send you the things I promised.  Sorry about the delay.

-MS

SIGH!  What, Cyber City's fire marshalls are on my case now?

I would think that with a little attention paid to the design, the building could be made to meet fire codes without having to have a big security-compromising door to the freaking outside.  Or if it does have one, maybe it's within plain sight of the attendant and festooned with whoop whoop alarms that go off if you try to open it for any reason and does not have any way to open it from the outside.  Whatever works for you.    

Before anyone asks, yes--the place has restrooms.

Dragon,

I don't have the book or use the Night City setting...I have been using a different city because I am big on creating my own setting elements and like the flexibility.  

To put it in your setting, I would say to pick a nice business district somewhere, not actually in a corporate plaza but nearby, and place it there.  Ideally it would be somewhere where there would be enough foot traffic to make the bar profitable...alternately, it could be below ground in a business or shopping district.

I'm glad you like it.  As time permits I will add more setting elements from my games to this board, but will leave locations up to whomever wants to use them.

-MS

damn...these guys would probably be ~after~ some of my characters (who are usually wrongly accused....honest!)...

Bullet--

In my settings, the corporations aren't likely to send even an unmarked team to raid an upscale bar like that.  They like to keep their dirty work more low-key.  Your mileage may vary.

A corporation could grab an employee they know was at the privacy bar and extort/beat/scare info out of him or her, but if the corporation is that paranoid or that worried about the employee's actions, then the employee is probably already undergoing weekly latex-glove exams anyway.  Like I said, some uptight companies would keep a clause in the employment contract that would allow them to fire someone for going to The Know, but unless a whole lot was on the line they probably wouldn't be staking it out--or if they do find out, they may just save it as a card to be played later...after all, for a Corporate character, getting fired can be the equivalent of being cast down from heaven--keeping their job is good motivation.

I hadn't bothered with escape hatches because I consider the place to be located in a pretty nice part of town and unlikely to be the target of an all-out raid.  The three-entrances-on-three-sides-of-the-building thing is intended to make it tougher to keep track of who goes in and who comes out, but anyone who's REALLY marked is going to have a lot of trouble keeping too many secrets anyway--but if nothing else they at least know where they can go to say something important out loud.

Anyway, if you like the concept, modify it to suit your games and have fun.

-MS

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Psychophipps--

Thanks for the compliment and the input.  I like to think that I am strong on setting elements, but know that I tend to be weak on the realistic technology behind a lot of it (the tech level of my games sometimes suffers for it).  That F-cage thing does sound like a better approach, and it gives me a cool name to throw around when a character asks the attendant how secure the rooms are!  

-MS