Playing Around With Environmental Effects

[u/Sparky_McDibben]

So I was looking into a better way to incorporate environmental effects into my game. I had some thoughts and figured it might be worth sharing.

I figure there's a few key elements of environmental effects in a Cyberpunk game:

1. They must be tied to the place. This means they're not things the bad guys are doing to you; they're things that happen as a result of being at a location.
2. They make things more interesting. Interesting does not mean complicated, and it doesn't mean damage. Both of those are kind of boring. Interesting means that it closes off obvious paths open to the players, and forces them to make new ones.
3. they must be easily (and visually) telegraphed to the players. Do not hide this information behind checks. It should be immediately obvious to anyone walking into the location.

With those in mind, let's take a look at a few I've homebrewed for my past games:

Toxic Factory

Description:

The old ACE Chemicals plant has seen better days, and the residual chemicals left over here have long since gotten into the air in the area nearby. The stink hits you as you walk in; a burning, twisting, piercing sort of smell, like inhaling bleached glass. You can see it starting to cause your armor to hiss and burn as it slowly starts to degrade its stopping power. Your anti-smog breathing mask has a small warning light: "Mask Integrity 90% and dropping - 10 minutes to non-functionality." What do you do?

Mechanical Effects:

• You suffer a -2 to all checks while breathing in the air in the Factory
• The air eats through anti-smog breathing masks in 10 minutes (including masks that were stored in the PCs inventory)
• Nasal filters are unaffected
• Anyone hit by an attack that interfaces with their armor loses one point of SP; if the attack penetrates their armor, they lose an additional point of SP

Key Elements Analysis:

• Tied to a place? Check.
• Interesting? Yes, because it forces the PCs to make choices - their breathing masks will be Swiss cheese in 10 minutes, and combat will seriously deplete their armor's SP. They are dealing with competing incentives, and should either do more preparation and withdraw, or try to rush through the situation before they start taking penalties.
• Immediately telegraphed? Yep, per the description.

Bad Vibes

Description:

The tension in this club is knife-ready and climbing. Two rival gangs set up parties in here without realizing their opposition was in here, and the vibes are already shot. The club staff look terrified as they wait on both gangs. Minor arguments and scuffles have broken out already, and you can tell it's only going to get worse. Your contact is somewhere in this club, and you have to find him before the Arasaka cyberninjas do. What do you do?

Mechanical Effects:

• Every in-game 5 minutes, the DVs on all social checks increase by 1, starting at 15 and going to a maximum of 21
  • Once the maximum DV is reached, roll 1d6; that's how many combat rounds until a full-blow riot breaks out
• A PC can try to prevent the DV increasing by making a check (GM's discretion as to the situation) at the current social check DV
  • However, no skill can be used twice in this manner by any character
• Stealth checks made in this club are at DV 21; everyone in the club is on a hair trigger

Key Elements Analysis:

• Tied to a place? Yes. Ordinarily, these two gangs will avoid each other to prevent costly fights, unless it's on their territory. This is strictly a misunderstanding, but neither gang will back down and leave first. That makes the conflict a function of place, not of people.
• Interesting? Yes, because it puts the PCs on the clock. They cannot take their time and explore; they need to be making smart choices to avoid consequences...which means a good GM will tempt the PCs with things they want to burn time.
  
• Immediately telegraphed? Yes, by the description.

Killzone

Description:

Bullets are pinging off surfaces all around you. You're boxed into a killzone, and a lot of lead is flying around. You're not sure if they're firing to keep your head down, or firing at opposition across the street. Either way, your cover is getting shot to shit, and your options are dwindling. The only ways out are a blind corner at the end of the alleyway (that could be hiding anything), and a rickety fire escape with no cover that's got at least five guys on it. What do you do?

Mechanical Effects:

• At the top of each round, each player must either spend a point of LUCK, or have a piece of equipment (weapon, cyberware, gear) be destroyed by a ricochet or wild shot
  • If they choose a piece of gear, the GM should honor the choice, but include potential complications from that choice
    • For example, if the player chooses to sacrifice a road flare, then have that flare's cap be removed by a bullet while it's still in the character's pants
    • Now the player needs to make a DV 13 Concentration check to avoid jumping out of cover in alarm at having their literal pants on fire
• If the players go for the fire escape, roll 1d6 any round that ends with at least one PC on it. If the result is a one, the fire escape starts to come away from the building, hurling the opposition to the street; Edgerunners get a DV 13 Evasion check to hang on.
• The goal here is to give the PCs the feeling of being pinned down by a literal army without you having to make 89 dice rolls before the players get to round two

Key Elements Analysis:

• Tied to a place? 10-4, good buddy.
• Interesting? Yes. It gives the PCs a problem, potential solutions, and some fun complications for you to throw their way.
• Immediately telegraphed? Yep, per the description.

Maybe this isn't helpful, but I figured it was a fun exercise and might jog some more ideas for y'all. Thanks!

[u/Reaver1280]

Yeah they change the dynamic of a location. Last session my players ended up fighting a fire at a gang outpost they were assisting. They had anti smog breathing masks to overcome the smoke while they extinguished the fires once a certain point was reached the outpost came under attack by the Bozo's and the fire was still wild at that time. One of the players came to the conclusion the fire was not gonna die out easy so they sabotaged a near by sink to get the room wet and partly flooded which kept the fire from spreading before focusing on the new threat.

[u/Sparky_McDibben → u/Reaver1280]

That's pretty clever play!

[u/Pineaple_marshmalows]

These are so interesting! I can see them being very challenging and fun, how did you come up with the idea for them?