SnowDog

If my memory serves right, in CP 2013 hand to hand damage stun damage and only 1/5 of that got transferred as lethal damage. In CP2020 h-to-h damage was not changed otherwise but the whole stun damage was dropped, so martial arts became terribly effective.

In CP2020 I used to waste PCs left and right if the dice dictated so. It has never been my habit to actively seek ways to kill of PCs in a GM vs. players fashion but when PCs got into combat it was very likely that at least one of them bought the farm. In one session one of the players had two dead characters

Not my proudest moment as a GM. Since then I have tried to keep PCs alive having to keep a balance between believable threat of getting killed but still being able to survive. Often one of the easiest way to keep PC KIA count down is to assign NPC goons pretty low stats and skills but still a lucky shot can be a pretty brutal. Important NPCs should be another thing and be a real danger depending on what's their trade.

How about just giving an initiative penalty -5 or something instead of having to aim for the whole round? If you aim for the whole round you should get the aiming bonus...

I have been thinking about this too and think that missed called shots should have a possibility to hit. I don't think that they should always be body hits because normal shots are basically aimed at the body but you automatically roll for a hit location. I have not yet managed to think of an easy way to handle missed called shots with possible hits. Maybe it could be handled by a system suggested by Stephane but taking account the margin of failure.

Let's say you aim for the head. You miss the roll, make another one and see that it goes down. With a small MoF it hits torso, a bit larger MoF means it hits either of the legs and yet greater MoF it misses completely. On the other hand if the roll says that the shot deviates to sideways or up then it is a clean miss no matter the MoF. If it deviates a bit to 5 o'clock it hits the left arm with similar MoF to 7 o'clock it hits the right arm but with larger MoF it misses, even with a MoF that would have allowed a leg hit.

Does that make any sense?

Yeah, always roll the dice and remember to look at them too! It makes players nervous and they can never tell whether you have planned something or is it just something random. Same applies to combat although I tend to like the dice to dictate the outcome of the combat (apart from the tactics).

SnowDog

I don't remember where I read this but I found it quite hilarious.

"Sex is like air. It's not a big deal unless you don't have any."

SnowDog

At the early days of my cyberpunk games I had extremely high rate of death for all PCs. It was a miracle if someone lived past 3 sessions this is one of the deaths.

We were playing a ready made adventure and one of the PCs had managed to get himself killed right at the beginning. So the player created another character while rest of us played. Player just finished the PC and introduced himself to other PCs and then they went to combat zone. This scenario had one drive by shooting scene at this point and so it happened to go that this new PC got a burst to his head killing him instantly. I believe that this PC was in game for about 5 minutes...

SnowDog

In my mind medical technology is so advanced that if you get proper medical attention then there are no after effects besides possibly some scars. As Strawberry-Cream pointed out, there is this 8 point rule that you loose that body location if you get 8 points or more of damage in a single attack. So it is quite possible to loose a leg for a single shot from Ronin. Then you probably need either a replacement leg (meat) or cybernetic one. But still it is assumed that you won't get any long term negative effects from that wound when it is healed and possibly missing part is replaced. I think this is OK in a high tech setting but if you have to settle for something less high tech then I see that there might very well be some other problems.

Actually I would not go against stats (with maybe MA and ATTR as exceptions) as they also represent how talented the character is in various tasks. So I would probably just give negative modifiers for certain situations. For example if your hand is not healed correctly I would give penalties for all tasks that require the use of that hand.

SnowDog

My only beef with the current system is that you have to make those death saves once a round (I think that previous version had them once per turn). I think that this is way too often. On the other hand you could think that being in a mortal-n means that the character is in a really bad shape and is almost beyound help but that means that you should have the characters make death saves at least in serious and critical conditions but maybe once per hour and once per minute respectively.

I agree with Strawberry-Cream that there are quite a lot of things to keep the character alive already BUT as I am keen on messing with the system go for it and tell us how it went with you system.

SnowDog

So you're the only one willing to GM? A familiar feeling, my sympathies  

There have been excellent advices already so I don't have much to add.

1) Of course you should be careful how much you hand out IP but depending on how often you play I don't think that the character improvement will be a problem. Actually characters improve quite slowly in this game and many die before they improve at all

One way would be to try to pace the campaign in a way that even when you give quite a lot of IP after the sessions their characters would still improve quite slowly in game time. What I mean to say is that even when the characters improve fast in real time you put enough "down time" between scenarios that character improvent is slow in game time (maybe in years).

2) Be prepared. I don't mean that you have to map every building and give stats to every NPC just to those that you are quite sure that are needed. Let's say PCs will be hired to assasinate a mobster. Then you obviously should map the mobster's house in case that players decide to hit him there and also give stats to the mobster and his body guards. I suggest that you use same stats (and skills) for multiple NPCs to reduce the record keeping. Then you should also think the routes that guards take, how much time it takes for them to get to certain points during their route, how they will react to certain situations etc. This will give you something to base your reactions to players' actions but then you can also give accurate info for the players if they ask about some of the details (if you choose to tell them). So if the PCs get a bloody nose during the hit you can always say that you had made some SOPs for the NPCs and they should learn from their mistakes (if they made the mistakes).

3) Which leads us to flexibility. Be flexible. Don't try to railroad your players. When you design scenarios try to think of the background for the current activity. If the PCs are hired to investigate a crime scene write a short story about what happened during the crime. This helps you to arrange the ideas in your own head and you can see if it makes sense and things are logical. When players start to make questions you can answer with confidence. At the same time try to promote creative thinking. If a player asks if he find finger prints or hairs at the crime scene you just compare your mental image of the activity that took place during the crime (whatever it is) and if you think that it is possible that the criminal didn't wear gloves and cap could very well have left finger prints and/or hair to the scene even when you had not thought about it beforehand. On the other hand if the criminal was supposed to be a pro he might not have made that mistake you could just say no, which also might be a lead to players as that indicates that the perpetrator was not just a punk (no pun intended). Nothing frustrates the players more than scenarios that you can solve only the way that GM has envisioned them.

4) No PC is immortal. Let your players know that their character can very easily buy the farm if they act stupidly and even because of bad luck. I don't mean that you should waste them like a grim reaper, it get's very old very fast but trust me, players will appreciate the combats much more when there is a real danger that their character won't come out unscathed or even alive.

5) Learn the system. As this has been pointed out you have to know the system before you can run the game smoothly. When you and your players begin to feel comfortable with the system you can add the tempo of the game and especially combat by limiting the amout of thinking before the turn thus making the combat more hectic and intense. But if you try this before you can run the combat fast it will backfire.

6) The last item is pacing. Keep your game going, don't let it bog down to player indecision. It is quite difficult to say how long to let the players argue what to do etc. before quality of the game begins to suffer but on the other hand that kind of arguments are excelent ways to roleplay.

I hope these help!

SnowDog

I'm with van Atta for using wire based communication. Granted, it can compromise a hidden operative and it is also a bit cumbersome. Another trick might be to use small drones to carry the messages like modern day homing pigeons  

Anyway this seems that someone has been playing Splinter Cell. Eh?

SnowDog

Yeah, happy birthday...

SnowDog

Congratulations, man!

SnowDog, off to christmas party  

Yup, that's a nice game. I'm about half-way through but I have not had time to play it much lately. Funny thing is that it is a kind of game that I planned to run with CP rules. With that I mean no cybernetics, only smartgoggles etc. In the end the whole campaign died because the characters were just shooters and could not do much else   Anyway, I could give it a new try with new characters...

SnowDog

I had my mandatory military service as a mortar squad leader in Finnish army. As I got to rank of alikersantti (I suppose it is equivalent of Corporal) I served 330 days.

First 10 weeks were basic training when we were raised from alokas (recruit) to jääkäri (jaeger). Then I went to NCO school where I was promoted to korpraali and after the graduation to alikersantti. So alikersantti is 4th rank... After the graduation I spent most of the time training new recruits. Yes, that's the feature of conscript army  

BTW has anyone heard anything about DarthMurph? I have been watching news and fortunately northern Iraq seems to be relatively quiet...

SnowDog

Yes, of course you can be from the street and still be a samurai. Maybe you are a street samurai if you work for a fixer, a gang or a certain mobster despite your background? If you work for a government you might even be a government samurai if you want to take it that far. I still think that you can only be a street ronin even if you work for a corporation as it can be only termporary job or even only just one mission.

SnowDog

I would call them street ronin and corporate samurai. Street ronin are just another name for more or less competent independent operators (like most PCs, I think). They could be self taught, learned their tactics and skills on the streets or maybe they are former spc ops operators who have mustered out. Corporate samurai work for one of the corps and might come from the streets but more likely from the police or even more likely from the military.  Their competence varies but the low end is probably higher than low end of street ronin because they will get at least some training from the corp.

That's just my take on the terms...

SnowDog

Welcome!

SnowDog

I was once very interested about the idea of troupe way of playing. I read about it from Ars Magica and in that game everyone generates at least 3 characters. When they go to an "adventure" everyone picks up one of the characters and they can even take another person's character (I suppose this depends on how the players agree to handle it). Anyway, I suggested it to my players in a form where all characters were part of an organization and they had a pool of characters to choose for different kinds of missions. My players knocked out the idea and said that it is hard enough to develop one character let alone many in one campaign. So I dropped the idea.

So, that's what my players thought about multiple characters but I'm not saying that it would not work. Go ahead and try it. You can always get back to more common form where everyone keeps just one character but you have be carefull because X-Men have different power levels (at least I think they had when I followed the comic) and many will be tempted to play the most powerful characters all the time.

What comes to pregenerated characters I prefer self ganerated characters over pregens but sometimes pregens are just great way to get the game going and to show the players how the system works so they can generate consistent and viable characters the next time.

X-Men in Nightcity, what a weird idea  

Good luck with your campaign,

SnowDog

Not bad dudes! The longest campaign I have ever run was a SpaceMaster campaign that lasted one year IRL and about ten years of game time but no way that any of my CP games would have lasted that long  

Thanks,

SnowDog

Good points people. I really have to flesh out some "minor" NPCs that are not important to missions etc. just to make the gaming world a bit more alive. But of course just fast forwarding some time helps to get the game time moving as it seems insane how much happens to PCs in such a short time.

Just out of curiosity, what is the longest time (in game time) your (or your player's) characters have lived? As I have never actually played CP, I have only GMed it, I can say that for my games it has been about 6 months. After that the game has ended or the players have lost at least one character each. I have also read that in Vietnam War SOG operators considered 20 ops behind the border (of Cambodia?) as a line after which you were living in a borrowed time. What's your take of this (in your games)? In my games it has been about 10, mostly less...

SnowDog

Okay, as human beings all of us are driven by hormones etc. but what I wanted to say is that many, even most of us can suppress the urges. Of course that still leaves some people who can't or won't suppress their urges even if they should.

I hope this clarifies my meaning.

SnowDog

First of all I'm glad to hear that everything was (comparatively) fine and that the daughter of DS learned something from it (I am sure). Secondly I don't have children, so my opinions are just that and may very well change when the situation changes...

I have to say that I feel kind of odd because I have always (even when I was 16) respected my parents. I have never thought that they were stupid and didn't know anything. On the other hand they set me boundaries and enforced them but didn't resort to anything physical, mind you. When I went to my friend's place we agreed when I should be home and if I wanted to stay longer I could always call them and ask for the extension of homecoming time. I can say that I had my parents' trust and I did very little that I now regret. Of course my parents didn't have to worry so much for me than for my little sister.

Now, what can I say? Children should have boundaries to what they are allowed to do and they should earn the trust and respect from their parents. I have seen more than enough of those bloody kids whose parents believed in more liberal way of raising their offspring or just didn't care where they hang out or what they did. Of course those boundaries should be enforced somehow otherwise it's no use to set them.

My last point is that not all 20 year old boys are horrible creatures driven by their hormones. I am sure there still are some who can behave and it seems that this particular dude kept his hormones in check.

End of rant...

SnowDog

I would say that my players at least in my games are more mission oriented than trying to live a life of his/her PC. Still, I think that it is more the way you present your game to the players than what kind of players they are. I am pretty sure that my players could go for "better" roleplaying if I just would drive them to it.

Does any of you have a problem that when you are not giving out the missions or otherwise directing the game then some players just idle and others want to impatiently pursue their own goals. For example every thief (or equivalent) goes on for an independent job etc. I suppose this is not the problem on the contrary but the problem is that then they want to play almost every minute out of their characters' lives and can't just let a few weeks go past more or less just recovering from the previous adventure.

SnowDog

I don't watch much TV although I just bought a new widescreen TV last friday. I follow Alias (I think it's the 2nd season here in Finland), Friends (I suppose this is the last season) and Hercule Poirot. Occasionally I catch some other comedy series like Dharma & Greg. Of course I try to see as many documentaries from Discovery channel and Animal Planet as possible but unfortunately this is quite rare these days. When I have time I watch some DVDs...

Hmmm... this makes it look like that I spend the whole time watching TV but it really isn't so, honestly  

SnowDog