Chaosmeister

Please don't laugh but one of the current Police Procedurals I actually enjoy is Chicago P.D. I think the Setup of the "Intelligence" unit lends itself very well to a PC COP group. They are separate from the normal police structure with some special privileges but still just local cops. The stories often get personal and as they link to the other "Chicago" series in the same universe this stuff can get quiet interconnected. I believe "making it personal" is always a goal and this show does it OK. Its not great cinema but works for what it aims to do.

I can't give specific ideas but this might be a source for some: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chicago_P.D._episodes

Thanks to both of you! I will keep it under REF just for "game" reasons, to have all driving REF and all Fighting DEX.

*fistpump*

The frank idea is cool but it really all depends on what she really wants in the end. Dark Angel can give some good ideas on that.

On the Sector 34 Blog they have an example layout that can be used instead of a classic "maze" and I dig it a lot. http://dimusrpg.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-new-datafortress-example.html

Has anyone here used that or something similar already? It kind of reminds me of the RED Elevators but still keeping more from 2020.

Cool let us hear how it goes!

We also do it in the order TigerGuard suggests because we feel it allows for characters to better fit their background.

But of course with this approach it wouldn't make sense and you need to do skills and stats first. Which is fine as I think this method actually does reflect the character as made by the player in the roll results where the original was purely random.

Personally I would use base Empathy and not cybered Empathy. The book and results often seem to indicate to me that gear and cyber comes after Lifepath due to injuries and such.

Thank you for the insight. And sorry to hear you are missing players. Did you ever consider playing or running online? It's pretty much how I get my gaming done these days.

On topic: doesn't really sound like it speeds it up a lot but I like the idea of not being impervious to pistols anymore. As I understand it Cybergenerations system is based in that?

Personally I feel 2020 will still be worth it after RED. They are different games with the same DNA. We also wanted to start playing again prompted by RED and went with 2020. I also believe it will be easier to transition from 2020 to RED compared to the Jumpstart with House rules.

I have ever only played FNFF and I do like it. However, there is some complexity in there that makes it cumbersome and timely to use. I did house rule some stuff like Automatic Fire to reduce the rolling, but I am not quite happy with it. Just now I understood that there are more combat systems that are compatible with CP2020, mainly High Noon Shootout from Listen Up and Saturday Night Skuffle from Cybergeneration. I have not read Listen Up (just started it)  or Cybergeneration and was hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on the differences, share experiences and conversion guides maybe? Any input welcome.

I heard great things about Gaslands!

Welcome fellow Newbie. As the Jumpstart just uses simple damage categories for weapons the actual weapon a character has exactly is just a cosmetic choice at this point. So go hog wild and choose from all the sources you have. If you don't have any just get the CP2020 core PDF and use the weapons  and gear from that book with the standardized stats from RED.  Since the main book is still a few months off from the sound of things your best bet is to get some older Material for 2020 and use that. I personally wouldn't start a CP RED Campaign yet though as the starter kit is really not meant for that, there is too much missing in the rules department, vehicle rules being a part of that. It doesn't even have the special abilities yet! And if you start tacking on rules from 2020 you might as well start playing 2020. But I do know of some people running successful RED campaigns, so YMMV.

I honestly never bothered with languages much. In my experience English is enough to get around most places so the intrinsic language lists feel overdone to me. I don't feel they add much to my games. Especially since all characters already speak Streetslang.

I think EMP should not govern how many romantic involvements you have, that may be more ATT, but rather if it is successful or has problems or ends in tragedy.

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@Chaosmeister no, not complicated as such. Mechanically, it would be very simple, say, "roll a 1d10 for what happened that year:" and then:

1. Good luck, bad luck (LUCK-related)
2. Romantic event (EMP-related)
3. Academic (learning) event (INT-related)
4. Social (firends & enemies) event (COOL-related. I'm making it up, but based on CP RED making COOL the attribute for negotiations, it could work...)
5. Athletic / health event (BOD-related)
6. Equipment & cyberware event (TECH-related)
7. something-something REF-related
8. sometihng something ATTR-related
9. Something-somethign MA-related
10. Nothing intersting happened this year / roll twice for this year.

...or sometihng the like, depending on what stats are used in a given game.

Then, in each category you have a target number to beat (say, 12 or more is a positive event - that's a 50% chance for an average character's stat value of 6). 

As I say, mechanically simple.

The problem being - we'd have to still come up with 6 good and 6 bad results for each of the 9 categories (108 entires total).

Sure, it would be great to have a list of many possible results for each category (the More Good Luck / More Bad Luck tables from Blackhammer's, with 20 entires in each, are a great example), but actually even having just d6 tables would be great. 

@senior officer Mikael van Atta had this idea. I like it, just not sure I could come up with enough tables.

To check if an event in one of the Categories is good or bad I would just do a d10 roll under Stat for good, roll over for Bad to keep it simple. 10 Entries in each subtable table. Not sure all Attributes need to have a table though. For example, we are splitting REF into REF and DEX and I don't really have a good idea for those. Same with MA.

If I check the Core book lucky/unlucky table it's a lot about relationships and connections and very few just good or bad luck.

13 hours ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:

@Chaosmeister no, not complicated as such. Mechanically, it would be very simple, say, "roll a 1d10 for what happened that year:" and then:

1. Good luck, bad luck (LUCK-related)
2. Romantic event (EMP-related)
3. Academic (learning) event (INT-related)
4. Social (firends & enemies) event (COOL-related. I'm making it up, but based on CP RED making COOL the attribute for negotiations, it could work...)
5. Athletic / health event (BOD-related)
6. Equipment & cyberware event (TECH-related)
7. something-something REF-related
8. sometihng something ATTR-related
9. Something-somethign MA-related
10. Nothing intersting happened this year / roll twice for this year.

...or sometihng the like, depending on what stats are used in a given game.

Then, in each category you have a target number to beat (say, 12 or more is a positive event - that's a 50% chance for an average character's stat value of 6). 

As I say, mechanically simple.

The problem being - we'd have to still come up with 6 good and 6 bad results for each of the 9 categories (108 entires total).

Sure, it would be great to have a list of many possible results for each category (the More Good Luck / More Bad Luck tables from Blackhammer's, with 20 entires in each, are a great example), but actually even having just d6 tables would be great. 

 

Ah I get that. Indeed, could work. Interesting idea. Not sure If I have the time and creativity, but maybe this would be worth its own thread? I would probably just do "roll 1d10 under Stat = Good, higher than Stat=Bad.

14 hours ago, MartyrTEK said:

random thought/questions:

as i'm reading the penalties and benefits, it occurs to me that some of them can be rolled up lifepath (criminal record, hunted by police, hunted by corporation, etc). do you give them the points for that if they roll it up in lifepath?

 

No. When they roll it on the life path they get it for free, good or bad.

7 minutes ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:

Uhh... I could've sworn I've seen them for the first time at Blackhammer's Datafort all those years ago...

 

 

I think you mean these http://www.ambient.ca/cpunk/lifepath.html Great memory Mikael, nailed it pretty much.

Will give them a read.

And yes, a lifepath system that incorporates the characters stats sounds fantastic but horribly complicated and lots of work I sadly can't do.

Let me see. Changed starting cash to fixed amount, some typos, removed some Benefits I didn't like, added the Agent item. Those are the ones I remember. Was mostly a change from A5 to A4 with new fonts and new art I have actually the rights for.

And a "new" character sheet I modified from a pretty great existing one. Can be printed A4 Horizontal too.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lKHyWrovF5E-VAcMzatam4YbSyrykZwAf5tyXI1ZHNg/edit?usp=sharing

Which tables are you referring to Mikael? The ones I have from Interlock Unlimited don't really use stats except in Hounds prison table.

Updated the PDF

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vdYg_7bPNp5e4geEWvHhf2ZpeRssn49G

I am not yet happy with the rules for Starting Cash. I think INT+LUCK/2*1000 does make sense but it puts emphasis on the stats again. The SA Table from core is just a mess with wildly varying starting cash. Does anyone have an alternative?

@Geist just sent me his map and it is amazing and much better than mine. So I will abandon  this project for now and look if I can work with his.

8 hours ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:

Out of curiosity - how do you handle skill difficulty (x2, x3 etc) at character creation?

Ignore it, make the players pay the double / triple / etc cost in skillpoints, or yet something else?

I usually ignore it. If it was for me I'd remove it completely from the game. But my players want them.

9 hours ago, MartyrTEK said:

also, I meant to ask, why 30 points for career skills and 15 for pickup?

30 Points because everyone gets 16 points worth of basic skills "for free". In total they get 46 Skill points.

15 for pickup for the reasons Mikael mentioned. Since I am also using an advantage/disadvantage system to garner more points that's just the base.

Cyberpunks don't get old they get digitized. Or something like that.

Thank you MartyrTEK! I am still tweaking it and hopefully have some time this week to finalize it, so we can finally plan session 0.

The Elevator is not bad, it just removes a lot of complications. First you need to separate what where sprawling server networks into different "machines", maybe based on CPU, because the elevator approach breaks down when you have a lot of levels I fear. You could have levels as "Jump off" points into other servers I assume. Then it is a matter of looking at what's in there and bring it in a sensible order from Easy to Hard. Every "Level" can just hold one thing. If a file is supposed to be protected by ICE the ICE needs to be in the level above the File. I think a Server should not have more than maybe a dozen levels or so at maximum. It's abstract but seems to work well as every level just needs a single check to solve (except ICE or Netrunner combat).

I just realized this whole thread should maybe go into the rules section of the Forum?