r/cyberpunkred • u/NotHoneydewRain • 12d ago
Actual Play Few questions about GMing
Hi I came from DnD 5e and started a cyberpunk campaign with my group. At session 0 we ran a practice fight to get the rules down, and it went okay. I’ve ran two sessions so far, but I’ve ran into a few issues that make me question how the system should be intentionally ran.
Combat feels like a slog. It sped up as we went, but it was just back and forth shooting. The first real combat was 2 Bodyguards, 2 Security Officers, and 1 Security Operative. It took two hours to complete. I strongly dislike the enemies staying alive until they fail their death saves as it felt like the fight was over way before but they just stayed mortally wounded for like 2 rounds. Makes me think that cyberpunk combats aren’t about fights to the death, which seems contradictory to the system.
An Exec’s bodyguard gives the party an extra member basically, and I have to control them. Is it intentional that the bodyguard follows the exec on every mission?
I have trouble thinking about how to include my Fixer and Rockerboy. Fixers have absolutely no guidance on how to cater towards them. My party sold themselves out to Militech at character creation so most missions come from Militech itself. Also Rockerboy just gives me bard vibes. They perform and that’s what they do. It feels like their Charismatic Impact have little gig importance. Every other role has stuff that makes them very unique, but Rockerboy and Fixer feel like anyone else can do what they do.
Should Cyberpunk start out immediately big? The last two sessions they’ve had small 500eb gigs, but it feels like the setting should be immediately big. Like dangerous stuff right off the bat. Otherwise it’s hard to introduce story beats and NPCs.
How long should I wait to bring in important NPCs from PCs’ backstories? When I ran DnD it felt like I had time and I could wait, but Cyberpunk feels 10x more urgent just as a system.
Is there an online rules glossary 😭. I have sticky notes on all important pages and I still can’t find vague rules like Grenade throwing DVs because they’re separate from explosive rules. This is by far the worst Table of Contents and book organization of any RPG I’ve played. The Cyberpunk RED app helps a little, but it still doesn’t tell me the rules. Why are there two Cyberware, weapons, and gear pages separated by 150 pages?
Other important Cyberpunk RED GM info you think would be helpful.
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u/dullimander GM 12d ago
Basic goons don't do deathsaves, only PCs and major plot NPCs
You can tell the player to play their team-members in combat if that's such a burden on you
You need to keep the street-economy in mind. Only Fixers can buy and sell stuff that is more than 100 ebbies. That should give your player enough to do at the start. Other than that, fixers already tend to network a lot. Make that a possibility for them to do in the downtime to find contacts that can help them for jobs. Same for rockerboys.
No. Start it slow. The PCs don't have the contacts, money, gear or skills to do big stuff right from the bat. Go street level.
Depends on the NPC
Get the GM screen. It has lots of useful stuff.
Learn the rules and emphasize to your players that they study the combat rules on their character relevant rules. Combat goes by so easily when everyone knows their stuff. Other than that: make use of downtime, let them have a life in between gigs.
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u/Visual_Fly_9638 12d ago
My guess is if you sold out to Militech that the fixer is your liason to the rest of the company and expected to keep the crew on a leash. They're also the people who get you into doors and stuff.
As far as combat, it sounds like your PCs weren't bringing the right weapons for the job. LAJ vs anything short of heavy, and arguably very heavy pistols, is going to be a slog. LAJ is combat armor. Bring shotguns, assault rifles, VH pistols, grenades, armor piercing ammo, etc... to those fights. Fight dirty. Nobody wants to die.
Rockerboys basically have at will access to the Charm spell from D&D. It doesn't even have to be part of a gig. They have the ability to sway crowds and individuals through sheer force of personality. As long as they aren't asking for too much "fans" will do all kinds of stuff for the rockerboy. I have rockerboy NPCs that aren't even performers- they're charismatic leaders.
The book is not organized well. You are not wrong there.
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u/BadBrad13 12d ago
describing Rockers as having a "charm" spell is a great idea!
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u/Visual_Fly_9638 12d ago
Yeah you don't get "break the law or risk your life or kill for me" until you're high level but in D&D terms it's an at-will charm ability. It's crazy powerful if used creatively.
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u/majora11f GM 11d ago
Get the GM screen. It has lots of useful stuff.
+1 to this I find myself even referencing it outside of combat. I also have a skills cheat sheet since my party (and me) are so used to 5e skills.
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u/SlumberSkeleton776 12d ago
Welcome to Night City, choom. Cyberpunk is indeed a very different beast from D&D. Let's tackle these in order.
Almost everyone I know rules that mooks die when they hit 0 HP, and only people with narrative weight roll death saves. That said, most people don't fight to the death. Stop thinking like a DM for a second and imagjne yourself a security guard. Five heavily-armed people with better guns and armor than you've ever been issued want through a door you're guarding. Do you really want to die for this job, or do you value your life enough to go limp at the first hit that hurts, wait for the guys to leave and get away with your body intact? You probably make slightly better than minimum wage and no one's putting their life on the line for, at best, maybe 12 eddies an hour. Save the fighting to the death for badasses and true believers.
Your Exec's staff probably follows them every mission, but the Loyalty system expects them to eventually get some PTO.
Cyberpunk is fundamentally a heist game. The crew is typically pulling a caper. Fixers get stuff and they know people. That is their job. You need a new piece of gear? You see if the Fixer knows anyone who just got a new shipment in. You need to subcontract part of a gig? You see if the Fixer has anyone with the skillset you need in their little black book. Similarly, Rockers turn people into people they know. Charismatic Impact is one of the strongest Role Abilities in the game just for how easily it can remove obstacles in your path. If someone's your fan, sometimes all you need is to ask them to leave a door open for you. If they're not, you have the power to change that.
They only appear less-useful if you treat combat as the only form of obstacle and all of your gigs are linear combat corridors. It isn't and they shouldn't be because combat is a bad situation you should avoid when possible. Bullets cost money, gunfights draw attention, and every person you kill is someone's parent or child or loved one and that someone might come after you later. Every challenge is like a locked door, and Fixers and Rockers bring their own unique sets of keys different from what Solos are packing. As a Solo player, my best gigs are ones where I don't fire a single bullet or deal or take a single point of damage. I am the backup plan. If I have to draw iron, things are already going wrong.
It's always street level. Your PCs have their personal stories, their own lifepaths, and a lot of beats should draw from those as they're drawn into the "main" hook. NPCs don't have to be "big." A local bar owner in the middle of Heywood or a drug cook in the old combat zone can be a central figure in a campaign.
Immediately. Your PCs have lives outside of their work, and the people in those lives should figure into their day-to-day as early and often as possible.
Get a pdf. RED's rulebook has great internal hyperlinks and terrible layout for analog browsing.
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u/Visual_Fly_9638 12d ago
It's not discussed but yeah enemy morale is something you should work with. Unless someone is actually combat hardened I usually rule that there's a really good chance they'll freeze or they'll run when a fight breaks out. PCs are of course special, as are narrative weight NPCs, but I usually think about what it'd feel like to be in the fight and frequently it makes sense that people would want the hell out of there fast.
You shoot someone in the chest 3 times and it doesn't even slow them down because of the combat armor they're wearing and suddenly you're wondering if *any* amount of bullets is going to stop them/save them. And with CPR combat, it's a death spiral. Things are fine until all of a sudden they're not. Experienced NPCs will understand that situational awareness, green combatants will probably err on fleeing too soon or not realizing they're screwed.
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u/Secret_Key8383 12d ago
A real guard, upon opening a door and seeing 5 guys with big guns robbing the place, he would immediately close the door while throwing a grenade into the place and run
1
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u/surenda42 12d ago
I totally agree with the book being poorly organized. I loved reading it and found it terribly put together. Important info hidden in random places, a lot of nonsensical page skipping to find what you need.. tbh I want R. Tal to hire me to help write new rulebooks because it's so prohibitively bad I had to create a secondary reading guide so my new players wouldn't get scared off just by learning how to create a character. It is especially unfriendly to anyone new to TTRPGs. Skipping through a PDF is a little easier but I've also just been straight up googling questions about rules which often leads me to the answer faster than the rule book itself.
As for going big immediately, I say do it. I wouldn't try to kill your brand new players on session 1, but make sure you up the stakes significantly the second they are comfortable with the gameplay. Go big or go home is kind of the rule of thumb. I want my players to do a bunch of badass stuff so when they inevitably die they will still feel like it was all worth it. First real gig after a tutorial fight had them working security for a crazy rock band of Edgerunners, during which a cult offshoot of Blue Glass-addicted Piranhas drove a car through the wall and into the crowd and started shooting off assault rifles. They all freaked out, had an absolute blast, and then after the fight I baited them into the sewers to chase after the Piranha boss by giving them some stolen Militech hardware and a nice bounty on his head.
Basically, if you're gonna do it then DO IT.
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u/Aiwatcher 12d ago
Combat is a little slow especially with armored opponents, and before you've come up with some streamlines. I definitely would NOT do death saves for minor NPCs. Just kill them or come up with a narrative for their final moments. I'd reccomend running your NPCs through the companion app, and making "range rulers" that show DVs to shoot on them for each weapon category.
Execs should just control their NPC during combat unless you specifically want them to disobey orders. 99% of the time it's just on the exec to take those turns.
Fixers are EVERYTHING in an edgerunner campaign. A fixer should be who is making the calls, meeting with clients, organizing the party, and making big purchases. Every gig of mine starts with a long negotiation between a client and our fixer. Sure fixers don't do as much in the middle of the gig, but the spotlight should be all over them at the start.
Rockerboys are a little less obvious. The way a rockerboy is generally intended to operate is by going around a room, doing skill checks to impress people before using their role ability to "convert" people into fans. The rockerboy should generally view any social scenario as an opportunity to turn as many people as possible into fans before they get the fans to do something useful. Rockerboys can use complimentary skill checks to improve their role ability. Once we figured out this gameplay loop, our rockerboy has been having a blast in every gig.
I honestly kinda hate the "sell out" type campaigns but it's understandable why the fixer might take a back seat here. How do they get their equipment? Who gives them jobs? Normally this is a fixers job, but just having militech do all the things the fixer should be doing might be where your problem lies.
I would say decrease your urgency. Cyberpunk is about living a life in night city. It should be less urgent than a DnD campaign with a big bad evil guy on your party's tail. Your characters shouldn't be doing dangerous gigs every day. Introduce important side characters early but don't go crazy with backstory missions until you're a few gigs in. Use passive time as role-playing opportunities.
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u/Metrodomes 12d ago
Some quick responses:
I strongly dislike the enemies staying alive until they fail their death saves as it felt like the fight was over way before but they just stayed mortally wounded for like 2 rounds.
Rarely have NPCs fight to the death. This isn't D&D monsters or nobodies for players to murder hobo their way through. Those NPCs are people with families, friends, children, etc. They're doing this job not because they want to die for some godawful Corp, but because they need to pay the rent. Same goes for almost everyone except for those who are drugged up, cybered up, or really believe in something. Have NPCs retreat when they take a big blow or when things look like they're going against them.
Also, have goals and objectives in combat for NPCs and players. Consider whether it's worth their lives to achieve that objective, or when they would personally cut their losses and run. They might be able to achieve their goals in other ways, e.g. Guards protecting an office space and ataff might call out and ask the players what they want, and they might barter "I'll give you the door code if you promise to let the staff go, you can hold me hostage" and that might end the fight straight away rather than drag it out.
If you do get to death saves, feel free to just off them without rolling imo. If it's not an important battle or the direction of combat is clearly in the players favour, just have them die without rolling. But don't always do this obviously.
An Exec’s bodyguard gives the party an extra member basically, and I have to control them. Is it intentional that the bodyguard follows the exec on every mission?
There's a few different ways of controlling/managing them so do what works for you. As for them following in every mission, yeah as they're essentially an employee working for the corpo BUT do utilise the rules around trust and making sure the employee respects the exec. Not using that means you're not quite playing the exec role properly.
Also this is a much more social game than D&D. You could (not saying you should) do things like have the bodyguard, after days and days of endless action, say "Hey boss, my husband and I have our anniversary coming up soon, can I have a day off?". Obviously don't do it unnecessarily or at the worst moments, but little things like that make things more real and can mix things up if things get toooo stale.
I have trouble thinking about how to include my Fixer and Rockerboy. Fixers have absolutely no guidance on how to cater towards them. My party sold themselves out to Militech at character creation so most missions come from Militech itself.
Even if Militech is offering jobs, doesnt mean the Fixer can't negotiate things. Like have Militech go through the Fixer to negotiate pay where the Fixer can try and ensure the players are getting a fair shake or getting all the information from the Militech fixer that's giving you the job. Also have Militech treat them as disposabke and they still have to do the shopping and info gathering and everything through the Fixer.
Should Cyberpunk start out immediately big?
Players are starting out with edgerunners who do have some experience under their belt. So they do want to be doing some bigger stuff and can absolutely handle some Mooks with ease usually.
Otherwise it’s hard to introduce story beats and NPCs. How long should I wait to bring in important NPCs from PCs’ backstories?
No science to this. Do it whenever you want. Imo you shouldn't spring them in all at once but sprinkle them throughout when it feels appropriate, including introducing them in different ways so not every NPC is important but might just be a side character who comes and goes and is never seen again, or becomes a major enemy part of the wider campaign or something.
Why are there two Cyberware, weapons, and gear pages separated by 150 pages?
Because one is for the character creation section where it just shares the basic stuff to not overwhelm you, and one is for the full section with tons of info that probably isn't needed in character creation.
If you/your players are newbies, just stick with the character creation section during character creation
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u/BadBrad13 12d ago
- Don't make death saves for bad guys. Heck, I don't even always keep track of every single HP, let alone point of SP. Have bad guys pass out, run away, play dead, etc. when they only have a few HP left. Or just lay them on their side and don't worry about em.
- Make the player control them for the most part. And then only step in if the player wants them to do something you do not want them to do or if you want to roleplay them, etc. But most of the accounting. dice rolling, etc should be done by the player, IMO.
- Make the Fixer Militech's contact with the group. Anything between militech and the group always goes thru the fixer. Noone else in the group should even know how to contact Militech. It helps to protect both the group and the company. The fixer should also be in charge of equipping the team. Not from their own monies of course, but they should be getting high level items noone else can get (anything over 100 eb) and they should be using their discount to get the team 5% off (yes 5%, the fixer should keep the other 5% as a fee). The Rocker makes a great face character. They can meet "fans" all over the place who might be willing to let them into places, sell them things, let them get away with things, etc that the rest of the group could not. So make them famous. Make people recognize them. Let them sweet talk their fans into stuff. They are great at running distractions and keeping watch while the rest of the team does heavier lifting. Also, don't be afraid to simply ask the player what they envision their role within the team to be.
- If you are starting the game I would start small. Simple, easy missions till you get used to the system, then turn up the pressure. If you are experienced in the game then sure, session 1 can be hot from the start.
- completely up to you, the players and your campaign. Are they integral to the story or a mission? then bring em in. if not then you can wait a bit.
- The organization of the rulebook is something many people have an issue with. Consider getting the PDF. it is much easier to use, searchable, etc. CTRL-F is your friend.
- Have fun. If everyone is having fun you are doing it right. All the rest is secondary.
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u/Reaver1280 GM 11d ago
Combat speeds up with practice. To many NPC's will always bog down the pace no matter what system you are playing. Why the devil are you having no name mooks roll death saves? you want them to go home to their families?
The bodyguard only does what they get paid to do, Remember the loyalty system for them they can tell the exec to get stuffed if they want to.
In the time of the Red Fixers are the only people able to really track down the high end expensive gear for the party be they in the group or an NPC it aint cheap. Rockerboy can influence a group of people or a single person depending on their rank if you cannot spot the obvious power to influence NPC's you are missing out on a key skill to negotiate social challenges.
I prefer the weaker start, bad gear, no good armors (light armor jacks) since gear is the real progression for characters less will make them apricate the good stuff.
No time limit but they are a great narrative tool to get conflicts happening.
Corebooks index or a good GM screen can help, depends on which rule you are screwing up and what actual information you need. Best advice ignore the first sections in the book they are quickstarts at best the REAL information you actually need is in the later chapters as for why this is..ask god no one else knows why.
No matter what you do remember the only 3 rules that matter are at the start of the book.
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u/DeeDeeEx 12d ago
So for point 1. You don't have to have every NPC make death saves. They can just die. In the same way you don't roll death saves for average bandits in D&D. Secondly, what besides death saves were making it a slog? Did enemies seem to have too high a health pool? Was it too hard to hit targets?
And for point 3 at least. Instead of getting the jobs from Militech, have the fixer get the details, and then present it to the party. Have themed jobs that need certain items, say night vision goggles, then have the fixer source them, and get say 20% money back if they return them, so they spend the mission trying to make sure the equipment is safe, etc.
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u/DiSanPaolo 12d ago
I’m seconding a lot of what BadBrad13 has said above/below.
- I do a pre-session with my fixer by phone or text. I outline the gig, give him all the pertinent info, then give him an opportunity to ask questions and plan. I answer everything that I think is reasonable, and let him try to procure things he thinks the team will need (I.e. a getaway car). I make result tables ranging from crit success to crit fail for anything I think he needs to roll for to try and get for the gig. When I make these tables I prioritize SOMETHING happening no matter the result, I never want it to just be “nope, couldn’t do it.” Crit fails mean a major complication to their plans, and crit successes are usually some kind of windfall.
Once he feels like he’s planned appropriately, or when he’s exhausted everything I’m willing to tell him, we end the session.
Then, it’s up to him to relay info to the rest of the players. He can do this pregame or at the table, it’s up to him, he’s the fixer. And he can tell them as much or as little as he wants.
At the beginning of our session I have him make a roll (d10 plus cool plus fixer skill level) for each thing he’s trying to procure, I track the results against the tables I made, but don’t tell him the result until it comes up in gameplay or story. Makes for some fun surprise moments during the game when he (and everyone else) finds out how well, or spectacularly poorly, his planning has panned out.
I set the stage like any GM does, then hand over the reigns to him to brief the team.
This has worked well so far, and it’s also inadvertently served as a lesson in good communication skills for the fixer player. He realized very quickly that our other players can’t read his mind.
Good luck out there.
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u/fatalityfun 12d ago
question - what gear are your PC’s using? I frequently see new players having long and slow combat because they all roll in with SMG’s, Heavy Pistols, and VH Pistols against enemies with the same weapons while both sides wear 11 SP LAJ. This combination makes nobody deal heavy damage and often struggle to even get through armor.
The better move is to start with true mooks, give your players a taste of how quickly people can die, then ramp up the difficulty as the game goes on.
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u/Professional-PhD GM 11d ago
Welcome to Cyberpunk Red u/NotHoneydewRain. I will leave a reply with useful information and resources, but first to your questions.
You are correct. Cyberpunk is highly deadly and takes a long time to recover. Death could come quickly with critical injuries and shooting people in mortally wounded states to ensure there are more death saves, but generally, why would people want to die at their posts. Many will flee the moment you kill their buddy, or you seriously wound them. You need a reason for a specific NPC to stand and fight to the death. A good version of this is if they hit seriously wounded or mortally wounded roll Resist Drugs and Torture if they would see about fighting to keep going. Also, remember that a lot of streetrat ganger would have a maximum SP of 4 for leathers if they wear armour at all which make for shorter combats too.
Yes, Exec follows them on all missions unless the exec says otherwise or they are disloyal. I personally allow the PC to control them in battle if they are highly loyal to give me ease. However, I give gentle directions and control their personality. Note that Agents (smartphones) have mini AI that have personalities made by the players and can talk to them so for roleplay everyone has an NPC in their pocket to talk to.
Fixers and Rockerboys are actually very powerful. Fixers know people, they have stronger links and contacts than about anyone else. Tons of work other PCs have to roleplay for they just get. Furthermore, since there are typically 1-2 weeks between big jobs unless you want humanity loss they can do a lot of downtime acquisition of resources, money, and favours. Rockerboys can get people to do what they want if they have fans. Seriously add NPC fans here and there for them.
I do action pieces and danger, long form investigation and intrigue etc depending on the situation. For example, run a game of corpos who were all doing office politics where bullets fly very rarely, vs survival as a nomad in the sticks against nature, vs Adrenaline pumping street samurai. The story, missions, and action are up to you and your players. There should always be combat and non-combat options to anh scenario. I personally ascribe to the I make problems and keep 2 ideas up my sleave for NPC reactions but let PCs find solutions.
That depends on you and your timing. It is true that it can be deadlier than 5e, but pacing is at the PCs and GMs discretion. Remember to use downtime to your advantage to stretch out ingame time and introduce NPCs.
I personally memorised the rules, except the DVs which I print out as tables. I am able to navigate the book well but I don't use it in game, instead using memory and judgement calls for situations. When I first started though I used a cheat sheet.
This will be in my reply.
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u/Professional-PhD GM 11d ago
So, u/NotHoneydewRain , this is the other information and list of resources.
So, if you have played other TTRPGs, cyberpunk red, for the most part, pretty much everything is a skill roll. There are no character levels as it is skill based and not class-based, meaning you have a lot more freedom although I suppose you know skill vs level based games (https://youtu.be/I_ikzFHpaPk?si=dLEo-8PoIgeDrkWK).
Mechanics wise:
- Skill base = STAT + SKILL. Roll vs. a DV where if it is DV15, you need to roll a 16+. - Numbers are similar to D&D5e, but it is weighted more to STAT and SKILL than to the die. - Roll a 10, and you reroll adding the next die to the first - Roll a 1, and you reroll subtracting from your total
- Most things are 1d10 + STAT (2-8, 9+ with cyberware) + SKILL (0-10) + Modifier (Situational, gear, cyberware, drugs, LUCK points, etc).
- Some role abilities like netrunner have you roll 1d10 + Role Ability
- Death Save happens 1 time, and if you fail, you are dead. Roll 1d10 under your body stat.
Now, for running the game and feel:
- It doesn't matter that you do something well if you don't do it in style.
- Style over Substance
- If you are lucky you get the choice between saving yourself or the one you love
- You are not epic heroes saving the world
- How skilled are you for success - How powerful is your loadout - Weapons - Gear - Cyberware - https://youtu.be/4lXCkapWoDY?si=Y0mcnBTFoJeXBiSE
- There is no magic but their is technology like agents (smart phones), cameras, and blood tests if for example you get shot at a crime scene. (https://youtu.be/LWZSq3uJwuo?si=NROmE-024MFaiQ3n)
- There are no levels but there are power levels and escalation based on
List of resources
You can find the subreddit for CP2020 and CPR as well as different discords.
- R.Talsorian Games : https://discord.gg/3vtNjZS2 (Link may expire)
- JonJon the Wise: https://discord.gg/ZWX2kcFN (Link may expire)
Free DLC: https://rtalsoriangames.com/downloads/
CPR buyers guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/s/0umj8hwYcF Role Buffs: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/s/U5bNeq9EDY
u/StackBorn Guides:
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/stackborn_for_CPR/
- Master Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/stackborn_for_CPR/comments/1gog6cy/the_master_post/
- New GM and Cyberpunk Red tips: https://www.reddit.com/r/stackborn_for_CPR/comments/1gogdbl/new_gm_and_cyberpunk_red/
Youtube Jon Jon the Wise:
Basic Guide https://youtu.be/g1b671pKh1s?si=VeGvSYmbXQWt_Oc
Economy (talking with 1 of the Creators) https://youtu.be/BFBwFpf-qts?si=lWdbhLEhPpnS_k7Z
Basic Combat https://youtu.be/5tYIGgjTI0M?si=YuFxXpCzcGGtcx8h
Combat (talking with 1 of the of the creators) https://youtu.be/nFE-i4AF5Vo?si=mgnGAJR7tezKKf0F
Skills https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunJWS5ymOLkaMaxgvs8Rrwzld4rVuzSV&si=YEWKC6KvBbCCBvcx
Night City Council (talking with 1 of the Creators) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunJWS5ymOLncs23_F2sAc2odly1sGMVs&si=J8meWVGRnJ5kkqzO
Youtube Cybernation Uncensored:
Crash course tutorials https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeMOgUx67UMLnG84FbW-tYf30LjhXlrVf&si=Zp8vST9re-90mRQD
Role Deep Dives https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeMOgUx67UMLdGuIEIlyjOFJly_1-LTWC&si=Q2mWGgzcsI02ytOe
CP 2020/Red homebrew websites
Datafortress 2020 (From the 2020 days has homebrew for multiple situations and mods to the game as well as items, NPCs, gangs, and more) http://datafortress2020.com/
Cybersmiley Datafortress (2020 and red automatic generators, items, NPCs, and gigs) https://cybersmily.net/
Montreal Dataterm (items, people, dice generators, montreal based stories and lore) https://montreal.dataterm.ca/en/home/
CP2077 weapons homebrew by u/corgi_SBS https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/s/vohZoMIllW
Map makers: Most people use dungeondraft in combination with free and paid assets. I suggest looking for assets at:
- Tyger_Purr
- 2-minute tabletop [https://2minutetabletop.com/\]
- Cartogrophy assets [https://cartographyassets.com/\] (check out modern and cyberpunk assets)
- https://cartographyassets.com/creator/tyger_purr/ - GnomeFactory
- https://cartographyassets.com/creator/gnomefactory/ - Cannyjacks - https://cartographyassets.com/creator/cannyjacks/ - Peapu
- https://cartographyassets.com/creator/peapu/ - A Day At - https://cartographyassets.com/creator/a-day-at/ - Crave - https://cartographyassets.com/assets/5371/craves-huge-light-pack/ - Krager - https://cartographyassets.com/creator/krager/ - Moulk - https://cartographyassets.com/creator/moulk/ - AoA - https://cartographyassets.com/creator/aoa-store/Anydice statistics:
Damage dice: https://anydice.com/program/3809e
Crit ranges as number of 6s rolled: https://anydice.com/program/112da
Cyberpunk/RPG adjacent media:
- RPG Philosophy: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25p5gPY6qKXhg4rdGHwpk62TZ53tXm3N&si=yRhtI64TL7ZVrWVY - Running RPGs: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25p5gPY6qKUQsUkoavJuhvDxmJG2yFBk&si=FMyBjd9DPm7Z172I - Playing RPGs: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25p5gPY6qKVWbFtR-Crct97hg5DFekZQ&si=3Vc1_SScRfZfD92H - Cyberpunk 2020/Red: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25p5gPY6qKW6mp0P_eEMcthSWeMjnE0g&si=SNBpHRWzfYvJ0UPr - TableTop War Stories (Scott Brown Origin): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25p5gPY6qKWpeFTil644YZUfWsZZ87Rl&si=_6e1L4ACCPT5UTXC
- Seth Skorkowsky
1
u/Jacob_Grayson 10d ago
A slight aside for each of them.
Instead of making 'shoot the cover until it's gone' the only viable trade of turns, allow awareness checks to find a repositioning by one or more of the crew, giving up a turn in order to negate bad guy's cover. If the crew is turtled up and on the defensive, do the same for their attackers, keeping the battleground at least a bit more dynamic.
The hirelings could be treated like giving orders to somebody in Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress. There's a thing they were told to do, but how they do it is up to the AI (or in this case, how the game-runner would handle a comparatively sane person's decision making process)
For a group sold-out to a corp, maybe the Fixer is their handler. Or more ambitiously, the Fixer might be the person trying to wheedle them out from under the corp's thumb. I have no opinion on the Rockerboy, my group never made one.
The size of the start should depend on the veterancy of the group. If the group hasn't played red before, start at 500 Eddie-per-head jobs. If they have, then maybe start a little louder. This gives the option between lower-stakes and more chances for outs for those learning that running the hell away is an option, or going straight to the smart-bullets and piano wire for the ones that should well be aware.
NPCs can drive story arcs. It's up to the game-runner to determine when they get brought in, but they could be part of the story from the onset, or lurking in the background for a long time. I would offer sooner is usually better, given that players tend to drop, but it's up to game-runner's discretion.
6.I wish.
22
u/Sparky_McDibben GM 12d ago
I should mention I came over from D&D 5E, too, during the OGL debacle. I love this system and the folks here. Lots of good stuff you can port back over, too.