MonSTeR

I think most of the PCs in my world are a way above the average joe, but below the big hitters.

My world seems to be a stat based world rather than a skill based one at the moment. and I make the assumption that the average joe has each star about 5 ish. ie 45 point characters. sometimes with less than the standard 40 points of skills. Even then most of the inhabitants of the world have skills like "prepare burger" rather than "Pilot-vectored thrust vehicle"

The PCs at the moment are 65 point characters with the standard 40 + pickup points for skills.

I'd like the vibe to be normal guys doing bigger things than they should knowing that they're getting out of their league, I think that keeps it "on the edge".

As Bloodbath glances in the rear view mirror he sees the SUV turn with him.

These guys aren't hiding or even trying to be subtle. It's almost as if they want you to be aware that they're following you.

Maybe Shrap's idea of losing them at the New Harbor Mall would work better as finding a lone booster on the street at 9 AM isn't proving easy.

The possibilities to attempt to abuse the system are there, such as trying to use say "Driving" to act in synergy with "Operate Heavy Machinery", or say "Rifle" to aid "Sub-machine gun" and so on. It's where to draw the line.

Shadowrun used a system which allowed the use of the "next best" skill at a penalty to the roll.

Phipp's fledgling system is using some great ideas about skills, in a very similar way to how I'e run the piloting skills in Cyberpunk for years. Talk with him about it.

At the moment the MonSTeRpunK game aptly demonstrates the level I usually run at. The characters are on thier ways up.

They're no longer struggling to find somewhere to sleep for the night and have adequate equipment to handle low/medium runs with the emphasis on skill, ingenuity and teamwork rather than the biggest railgun DeathSolo's favourite arm's dealer could hook them up with.

I tend to like to think of it as "Future Realism" with an added "Sci-Fi twist".

"Einstein did his best stuff when he was working as a patent clerk"

Big Eyes, Small Mouth is good

As Neko scans around, he can make out the big black SUV, identical to the one outside the coffee house, tailing them from a little distance back.

The streets are as lively and chock full of traffic as they ever are here, it being the tail end of the morning rush hour. An Osprey can be heard flying overhead making it's way into the corporate zone, probably en route from Night City's airport to the south.

The denizens that haunt the park at night are not to be seen and you even passed a young woman actually jogging on the sidewalk a couple of hundred yards back.

Finding a booster out on the streets around breakfast time is not going to be an easy task, this is Blood Razor turf, and they're not known as early risers.

Yep, I agree about giving definate answers as to where folks are at the time and how whether that guy over there is in range and whether or not they can make the gap between cover etc...

It's common knowledge that the area a block due south of here is Blood Razor turf and you're on the fringes of it now. It shouldn't be too hard to find a booster, if it wasn't still early in the morning.

I would say yes to the 9 mins then

One way to look at it simply is to say that the world record holder would probably have fitness10, MA10 and Athletics +10 sort of thing, so with only 8 points in total behind the best of the best of the best with honours sir... he's not gonna be too shabby at it

Yep it's supposed to be a bugger to do. I used to train pretty hard and was usually closer to 6 miles at 10 minutes a mile, rather than 10 miles at 6 minutes a mile  

The hour-ten is basically a semi-competitive half marathon the world record for that 13 miles being something like 58 minutes.

I know I'm not part of this game but I used to do a fair bit of running in college so I thought I'd chime in.

The 9 minutes is optimistic.

The world record for the mens 3000m (about 1.86 miles) is someting like 7 and a half minutes. In Shorts and a vest, on a well maintained running track.

One thing soldiers like to be able to run is the "hour-ten" Ten miles in one hour. ie 6 minutes a mile.

I've had BESM for ages, and with a copy of the "Hot Rods and Gunbunnies" supplement you're well on your way to having a anime-cyberpunk style campaign.

The thing about body is that using theoretical extrapolations of current biotech, it seemingly would be one of the easiest areas to improve. I'm still not happy about it being a one omnipotent be all and end all stat which it currently is, but I think it is a good starting point.Maybe having Body at 1-5 and then a strength/constitution/stamina/toughness type bonus of 1-5 would be a better way to handle it. In CP2020 I usually average out "Strength feat" with Body in order to get a more realistic level of how "strong" folks are, maybe a similar way with BTM would work?

I also have issues with the lack of a (for want of a better term) "mechanical" stat. as found inthe West End star wars system. The ability to perform somersaults does not grant one the ability to drive like Michael Schumacher and shouldn't really come from the same starting point as they use different motor control functions of the brain.

More than anything I think the "mechanical" stat in the SW game made the "vehicle specialist" a very real possibility and an excellent character type for that genre of game. A genre not a million miles away from cyberpunk.

Yep I believe there's an old Marvel Superhero's "Manhatten" sourcebook that we all should buy a copy of.

I also use Steve Jackson Games' "Car Wars" maps to provide ubiquitous city scapes. I beleive they did a great tile based city system called "city blocks".

Well worth picking up S/H. I also use their "AADA Road Atlas" series sometimes.

I think the best currently produced lead miniatures in 28mm are Wargames Foundry's Street Violence range. They've got loads of models designed now.

INTO THE STREETS

DOWN ON THE KILLING FLOOR

DARK HEART OF THE CITY

There's also a range called "Future Warriors" or similar sculpted by Mark Copplestone from his company "Copplestone Castings". They're cheaper but not so detailed.

For those who are interested in seeing what it looks like (style over substance).

HERE are a few piccies

Recently I've been intrigues by a few images from recent Batman comic books after the "No Man's Land" story, where Lex Luthor has rebuilt a lot of Gotham City following an earthquake, it mixes the gothic with the ultra modern, the few sketches I've seen so far look great

As Bloodbath  pulls away from the back of the Coffee house and heads towards the park, a couple of the NCU private police force cruisers can be seen heading towards the locale the team is leaving. It seems as if the SUV has been spotted and that the Maxes are rolling out in force. No sirens suggest they're going to try to stop the vehicle where it is with a surprise visit from the Bronze.

Juliet smiles a half genuine half petrified smile back at Shrap "Just a little polishing, no fillings if that's what you're getting at!"

Rat concentrates on the banking for a while and then with Neko and Thumper aboard nods at the Viking to set off.

The hopefully relative safety of Little Italy is due North of the NCU campus up through the wealthy "West Hill" area of the city. To the immediate East of NCU lies Lake Park whilst venturing to the South or West takes you out into South Night City, the Combat Zone. The sprawl of cheap housing and industrial facilities along with some of the few remaining oil refineries.

As Shrap runs over Juliet with his scanning equipment he finds 3 bugs. Both earings and her watch. "It's always the jewelry" he thinks to himself.

The waitress at the counter seems very sympathetic, especially in light of her shiny new $50 which dissappears rapidly into the pocket of her little white apron nestled behind her dog eared order pad.

She ventures out slightly from behind the counter and points out towards the back entrance.

The coffee house is on the North eastern tip of the block, if the van was to park up on the South east corner of the block having approached from a block over to the East it could do so pretty much without the knowledge of anyone in the SUV. The alley is screened by the rest of the building on the Northern side of the block.

Juliet informs the group that her fiance is a mid level executive in the huge German corporation "Stuttgart Industries" a company so big that they bought the entire city that bares their name, and a lot of Southern Germany besides. His name is David Zimmerman.

One of Rat's pocket vibrates again and he reaches for his phone, The call comes through anonymously on his voicemail telling him the the APB is now in place 11 seconds under the 10 minute deadline for the bonus.

It shouldn't be long before a beat-Max spot the SUV and calls in some support.

Juliet hands over her purse, pulling out some prevalent cards as she does so. Her credit cards, both personal and corporate.

"that one I don't think they'll be able to touch" she says pointing at her own platinum card, but the corporate one." which is a simple white card with the corporate 'Krantz Technologies' logo script on it, a sure sign of high credit

"That one they'll freeze as soon as they get wind of what you're doing."

Is "Delta Green" a modern day Cthulu type sourcebook? I've heard it mentioned but never actually found a copy in the UK to leaf through