House Rules
Campaign notes
You are in Neo Tokyo. And so are the 2020 Cyber-Olympics. They are being hosted by the Arasaka Corporation.
Old tokyo is a refugee camp turned slum in the basin of the crater formed when a massdriver dropped a rock during the second corporate war a decade ago.
Arasaka leveled a portion of the slums to build the new olympic park in the same spot as the 1964 games.
Your character either is attending the games for some reason, lives in the slums of old tokyo or both.
Allowed books: Core rules Chrome book 1 & 2 - If you have any equipment out of these mark it (CB1) or (CB2) for reference.
Technology
Culture shock time. Remember the cyberpunk tech level is very different from our own. The telecommunications infrastructure is more in line with 1980s than anything else. Cellphones exist for making voice calls. There is no texting, IMs, or push notification email. Long distance communications requires long distances charges. This is largely because instead of the baby bells and other ISPS there is a single telecom giant called Internet that is basically a merger of all the phone companies. They basically run Netwatch "voluntarily" funded by the world's corporations and governments that probable fear what would happen if they upset the sole purveyor of communications. They are probably the most powerful company in cyberpunk yet they remain largely neutral to all the other goings on. Just pay your internet bill and don't mess with the system.
No smartphones or consumer apps exist.
No Web or hyperlinks. The Net is more of a VR playground.
Drone technology is very different. being much bulkier than what you can DIY today.
There is generally less miniaturization and general purpose equipment than we have. Everything in cyberpunk is bulky and purpose built.
Stat Points
1) Set your ATTR to anything between 2-10. A person with a 6 is pretty normal looking. A person with 2 or 10 is going to be memorable. 2) Divide 55 points between your remaining stats so that all stats are in the range 4-10. 3) If you are starting as a Full Conversion you cannot spend more than 35 points on INT, LUCK, COOL, EMP and TECH. There are more details on starting as a full conversion below.
Skills
Role Skills
Choose 1 Special Skill (More on creating your own special skills further down) 1) Expertise in a regular role skill add special skill when making checks with other skill. a) Split Expertise: choose two role skills add 1/2 special skill to both. Thus if you had Expertise (Driving and Awareness) at +5 you would add +2 to both skills when you try to make checks. 2) Rank in an organization/Gang 3) An Existing special skill from a existing Role Everyone has Awareness/Notice as a Role skill Choose 8 other skills that fit your role (Send me your proposed role for review)
Divide 55 points between your role skills. Payrate is based off weighted average of role skills not just one. Starting funds is based on lifepath below.
Pick-up Skills
divide INT+LUCK points between all non-role skills
Skill Diffculty
Difficulty has been removed from most of the skills in cyberpunk. However those that do retain it you must pay the difficulty cost when first allocating points as well so if a skill is difficulty 2 then to get a 6 in that skill would cost 12 starting skill points.
The following skill difficulties remain All Martial Arts with a difficulty 1 or 2 now have a difficulty of 2 All Core Martial Arts with a difficulty 3 or 4 now have a difficulty of 3 Remember Brawling remains without a difficulty modifier Stealth keeps its difficulty 2 All the pilot skills are difficulty 2 If you choose Expertise in one of these skills it is also gets that difficulty
Other skill changes: Mathematics is gone it is now part of Education & Gen Know. New Skill Geography & Navigation(INT). Cause maybe you want to figure out how to get there from here Interface is now based on TECH to hack, particularly at a keyboard. If jacked in you can opt for: "I know kung-fu" fully embrace the metaphor and use your REF to get around "There is no spoon" there is nothing between your mind and the data, use INT for Interface Related: a linked vehicle or weapon may use TECH instead of REF when being operated. Science Prerequisite: No INT skill except Awareness/Notice, Shadow/Track and Wilderness survival can be more than double your Education/General knowledge High Technology Prerequisite: No technology based TECH skill may be more than double your Basic Tech skill If you don't meet the prerequisite the skill counts one higher difficulty.
Skill changes
Interface is now a regular skill though netrunning difficulties are 5 higher.
Jury Rig is an action that can be done with any tech skill. The difficulty is 5 higher than it would normally be to fix it.
Medical Tech replaces First Aid. Difficulty of anything that required medical tech is 5 higher.
Conform is a new skill that allows you to not stand out in social situations. This could be used to make it look like you belong somewhere, or to deflect guilt when investigators are scanning a crowd.
Geography & Navigation is a new skill that can be used to find your way around or determine the quicket way to get between two places.
New Special Skills
Expertise
You can select a "Expertise:
The way expertise would work is if you wanted to be a mechanic who is specialized gyro vehicles you would pick "Expertise: Gyro Tech" which you could add to your Gyro Tech skill to more easily roll against very high difficulties. 1d10 + Tech + Gyro Tech + Expertise: Gyro Tech You could work on designs that were beyond the most experienced non-experts. Expertise: Basic tech could let you make a lot of difficult checks to repair, Jury-Rig, assemble, or sabotage common items.
Rank
Rank is probably better called Influence in a organization. This is the generalization of Resources for a corporation, Gang Rank from the old NPC role or Family for an nomad pack. This mostly lets you choose organizations that are not covered by the conventional roles.
Vehicle Zen
Vehicle Zen is a new special skill for Drivers and Pilots it gives will grant half skill bonus to 2 pilot skills and related notice checks:: +Vehicle Zen/2 to 2 pilot/driving skills of your choice. +Vehicle Zen/2 to Awareness/Notice checks while operating vehicles from the two chosen skills.
HtH Changes
Brawling remains without a difficulty modifier All martial arts with difficulty 1 or 2 now have a difficulty of 2. All core book styles with difficulty 3 or 4 have a difficulty of 3. Your style bonus is capped at you skill level thus someone with a boxing of 2 only get a form bonus of +2 strike until they raise their strike to +3. The damage bonus from your martial art is equal to the form bonus not the number of ranks in the skill.
| Style | Dif | Str | Kck | Blk | Ddg | Thr | Hld | Esc | Chk | Swp | Grpl | Disarm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koppo | 4 | +4 | +2 | +3 | - | - | +2 | +2 | +1 | +3 | +2 | - |
| Karate | +1 | |||||||||||
| Choi Li Fut | +1 | |||||||||||
| Akido | +3 | |||||||||||
| Animal Kung Fu | +1 |
Life Path
Roll or choose: 1) Origins and personal style a) Clothes b) Hairstyle c) Affectations d) Ethnic Origins 2) Family Background a) Family ranking b) Parents c) Family status d) Siblings (Number, Gender, Age) 3) Motivations a) Personality Traits b) Person you value most c) What you value most d) How you feel about most people e) Most value posession
Life Events
You may roll life events for inspiration, but ignore any changes to stats, etc unless you choose it from the list below.
Make up to 13 lifepath selections, try to tie each to a life event rolled or chosen. You start with 0 points (4000eb, Rep 0, and have paid some fines.) You may trade in pick-up skill points for 1 extra life event point. You made trade in a Stat point for 2 extra life event points.
Starting Funds: -1 1000 0 5000 1 15,000 2 50,000 3 100,000 4 200,000 5 300,000 6 400,000 7 550,000 8 700,000 9 950,000 10 1,200,000
Debt(Make 1 payment per month, and reduce starting funds by 1 payments value): -1 6 payments of $883 -2 12 payments of $3000 -3 24 / $4000 -4 50 / $5000 -5 100 / $5500 -6 150/ $6000 -7 200 / $7650 -8 250 / $9000 -9 300/ $12000 -10 350 / $15,000
Reputation: X Starting Rep is X
Criminal record: 1 None 0 fine(littering, traffic tickets, etc.) -1 community service(vandalism, misdemeanor) -2 1d6 months(minor felony) -3 1d6/3 years(felony) -4 1d6+1 years(major or serial felonies) -5 1d10+6 years(Man 1) -6 3d6+12 years(Murder 2) -7 Life(40 years)(Murder 1) -8 Natural life(Multiple Murder) -9 Death row(Serial murder) Modifiers 0 Sentence Served (Guilty) -1 Sentence Served (Innocent Felony or higher) 0 Fugative (Guilty) +1 Fugative (Innocent)
Hunted by : -1 members of local cops, company or organization -2 entirety of local cops, company or organization -4 statewide cops, company or organization -6 nationwide cops, company or organization -8 multinational cops, company or organization
Friends & Enemies: 1 Friend: usually a coworker, ex-lover, realtive, etc who still thinks highly of you, but doesn't have much influence X Contacts: you have influence over someone in an organization (similar to +X/2 in Family, Authority, Resources, or Street Deal) (police, gang, etc) X Mentor: +X Skill points to any skill -1 Enemies: make enemy with less power and influence than yourself -2 Enemies: make enemy of comparible power to yourself -4 Enemies: make enemy with more power and/or influence than youself
Abilities: 2 Acute sense(+2 Awareness with that sense) 1 Ambidexterous(no off hand penalty) 2 Great Memmory (+2 to INT checks to remember details) 1 Time Sense 4 Light Sleeper Physical Flaw: -2 Deep Sleeper -1 Hard of hearing(-2 on audiotory awareness/notice checks) -1 Poor vision(-2 on visual awareness checks) -2 Nerve damage(-1 REF, as this is nerve damage no cyberware can correct it) -2 Horribly Disfigured(-5 attr) Insanities: -4 Nightmares (80% chance each night) -2 Amnesia (Secret lifepath roll) -8 Blind Hatred Of Humanity -4 Phobia -3 Multiple personalities (1d6 more personalities) name: choose emp: base emp -6 +1d10( for emp<2 roll new personality insanity) cool: 1d10 int: 15 - new emp -2 Delusions Of Granduer 1-2 immortality 3-4 fantasy 5-6 infalibility -2 Hyperactive(+1 to ref based skills, -3 to int, tech based skills) -2 Paranoid -2 Obsession d10 1-5 love 6-10 hate % 1-7 crimebusting 8-14 solitude 15-21 gambling 22-28 alcohol/drugs 29-35 food 35-42 danger 43-49 fashion 50-56 secrecy 57-63 opposite sex 64-70 wealth 71-77 technology 78-84 timeliness 85-92 stealing 93-00 lying -1 Manic/Depressive(cannot use luck when depressive) -2 Addiction Misc Flaw: -2 Illiterate Blind Bad Temper Compulsive Compulsive liar Alergy cyberware rejection Addiction Deaf Vendetta Misc benefit: 1 Bilingual (start with 2 native languages, your family history should reflect this) Member of organization Competent (reduced fumble chance) Cyber affinity (reduce humanity cost) Quick Healing
Cybernetics
Full Conversion Borgs
Characters starting as a FullBorg can spend at most 35 points on INT, LUCK, COOL, EMP and TECH. They only get the reduced humanity cost for the base package not other cyberware they add on. Full conversions require licensing through a sponsoring organization or are black market. Is your full conversion licensed? Who is the license sponsor? Who installed it? Except for criminal organizations all organizations would be very hesitant to sponsor anyone with a felony on their record. Remember the whole body is disabled if the head or torso is disabled, and there is no penalty to called shot the torso. You might want to be careful about staying inline you don't want to spend the rest of your life in a braindance prison or just turned off in a basement somewhere. Note being disabled or turned off for an extended period of time could have extremely negative consequences on your character's sanity. On the Gemini the cyber armor fully counts as a soft armor layer The other models cyberarmor fully counts as a hard armor layer It maybe unclear from the description, but the Interchangable Biopod is intended to increase the humanity cost of the Full Converion by 2d6.
A RealSkinn(tm) version of the Gemini Borg. HC = 13d6 + 2 SP = 12 all over counts as skinweave $ 55,000 for, an extra 1000eb you can have your looks before the procedure copied onto the borg preserving the ATTR you had and reducing the humanity cost by 1d6.
Therapy & Registered Cyberware
Therapy as described in the Core rules assumes your cybernetics are permanetly removed.
Therapy cannot reduce your Humanity loss below the minimum for your installed cyberware. for example 1d6 HL can never be reduced below 1.
RealSkinn reduces the minimum humanity cost by 1.
The four therapy programs below are base on an follow the descriptions of the Therapy rules on page 101 of Chromebook 2. Intense outpatient is similar to outpatient with more hours per week, this may start to impede a characters professional or social life.
Hrs/Wk: How many hours the pateint must attend therapy every week during the program Duration: How long the program must be maintained to recover humanitity points. The patient may be mandated to install an personality chip for the duration if they are deemed too dangerous. Cost: The price in eurobucks for the entire program HC Recovery: How many humanity points the patient gets back at the end of the program.
| Program | Hrs/Wk | Duration | Cost | HC Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outpatient | 14 | 4 months | 22000 | 1d6 |
| Intense Outpatient | 30 | 2 months | 21000 | 1d6 |
| Inpatient | 168 | 2 months | 40000 | 2d6 |
| Intensive Care Therapy | 168 | 2 months | 62000 | 3d6 |
Most facilities offering therapy in 2020 are required to register any cyberware as part of admittence to the program so be careful with those cyberweapons. The more "compassionate" ones may just remove and dispose of the offending options instead, making their job easier and minimizing legal entanglements.
Other Equipment
Armor & Clothing
An outfit gets the style modifier if all parts of your clothing and armor match the style, and you have at least a pants, top, footwear and jewelry. The jewelry costs a base or 25eb, but applies the style modifier twice so High fashion jewelry would be (25x4x4) 400eb. Some people and sub-cultures may not respond as expected to the style effect.
| Style/Quality | Effect | Who | Cost | Jewelry Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generic Chic | - | - | x1 | - |
| Leisurewear | +1 ATTR | Suburbia | x2 | 100+ |
| Urban Flash | +1 Rep, Intimidate, Streetwise | Punks | x2 | 100+ |
| Businesswear | +1 ATTR, EMP professional skills | Corps | x3 | 225+ |
| High Fashion | +2 ATTR | Upper class | x4 | 400+ |
| SuperChic/Custom | +3 ATTR | Celebrities | x7 | 1225+ |
| Clothing | Cover | EV Mult | Base cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pants | Legs | x1 | 20 |
| Vest/T-shirt/Top | Torso | x1 | 15 |
| Jacket | Torso & Arms | x1 | 25 |
| Hooded Jacket | Head, Torso, Arms | x1 | 35 |
| Long Coat | Whole Body* w/o head | x2 | 40 |
| Hooded Long Coat | Whole Body* | x2 | 50 |
| Footwear | * | x0 | 25 |
- Long Coats only cover legs if worn with armored footwear of same or higher SP
| Material | Fashion Compatibility | EV | SP | AP | Cost Mult |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Leather | Leather Clothing | 0 | 4 | Hard | x2 |
| Kevlar | Most Clothing | 0 | 10 | Soft | x4 |
| Light Armor | Denim, Suit jackets, etc | 0 | 14 | Soft | x6 |
| Med Armor | BDUs, Canvas, Bomber Jacket | 1 | 18 | Soft | x8 |
| Hvy Armor | Parkas, Down, Snow gear | 2 | 20 | Soft | x10 |
| Door Gunner | Parkas, Down, Snow gear | 3 | 25 | Soft | x13 |
Piecemeal MetalGear.
The pieces indivudual encumberace are high due to lack of balance and distribution. When combined the piecemeal MetalGear will not exceed the encumberance of a full suit. Helmet [Head, 25, 0, 200] 1 Arm [Arm, 25, 1, 100] 2 Arms [Arms, 25, 1, 200] Torso [Torso, 25, 2, 300] Leg [Leg, 25, 1, 150]
Shields
There are 2 rule sets that come into play with shields, Use Cover(p103) and parrying(p112). Both of which should probably get a bonus from a purpose designed shield. Shields are at minimum portable cover that if not attacking the character can get behind. When attacking their weapon arm would be exposed. Their head would be exposed as well, if they can't see thru the shield. Parrying as shields are designed to be used defensively they should be even harder to break when parrying than weapons. Maybe only taking damage on a fumble. or if purposely attacked. The down sides shields use up a free hand. I wouldn't count them as an armor layer, as they are closer to cover. Carrying a shield all the time could be tiring so they should probably have an EV though it would be more related to the size than material as shields don't need to flex. You can't see thru them so an awareness notice penalty would probably come into effect if covering head. They are directional so if flanked they lose value. Finally they are bulky and obvious so if you walk around with one you will stand out.
Shield Size - Large (Riot, Pavise, Wall), +2 Parry, +1 EV, Can cover Whole Body - Small (Target, Heater) +1 Parry, +0 EV, Can cover Head, Arms and Torso - Hand (Buckler) +1 Parry, +0 EV, No cover - 2-Handed (Tower shield) Probably too big to parry with effectively, +3 EV, but easily grants Whole Body cover, and can probably be used by other nearby characters. basically the same as carrying any of the Doors from Common Cover SPs
Shield Material - An opaque shield should be able to be made from anything a helmet is made from. - A transparent shield should be able to be made from anything a face shield or wind shield is made from - Wood 5 SP - Steel 14 SP - Nylon 20 SP - Laminated Expoxide Plate 25 SP - Poly Carbonate 8 SP Transparent - Ballistics Plastic 15 SP Transparent - I think real world transparent material would be better than this as I've read reports of riot shields stopping pretty heavy fire.
Microwavers
EMP weapons will be a save or disable effect against certain equipment. EMP weapons will be a save or destroy effect against certain equipment. Some may require characters to make stun saves. extreme cases mar result in mortal saves. Your neuralware processor will be immune to EMP, though having one may give a -1 to stun saves when applicable Shielded electronics will get a bonus to that save.
Normal Microwaver Disable(8),Dam(1d6)
Cyberware Sheilding Resist(8)
M40 Pulse Rifle (CB2-pg39) PB: Destroy(13), Mortal(3), Stun(20) Close: Disable(10), Stun(5) Med: Disable(10), Stun(3) Long: Disable(7), Stun(1) Xtrm: Disable(3), Stun(0)
Model009 Volt Pistol (CB2p43) Disable(10)
Skill Checks
Converting description pluses to diffculties. Diffculty = 14 + described ranks required.
Taking a 1. You can ALWAYS do this no chance to Fumble.
Taking a 6. (similar to d20 taking a 10)
Taking a 11. (similar to d20 taking a 20)
Criticals
Success
If you roll a nautural 10 choose 1: 1. Add another 1d10 to the checks 2. Treat Target SP as half 3. Choose hit location (if you would hit) 4. Get a free extra unarmed attack. 5. Half time it takes to do task (No effect on attacks/actions/combat turns)
Failure
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1-4 | Minimum Fumble |
| 5-7 | Common Fumble |
| 8-9 | Uncommon Fumble |
| 10 | Rare Fumble |
| Action\Roll | Minimum | Common | Uncommon | Rare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attr/Cool/Emp | More susceptible to future | More susceptible to future | Violence | More susceptible to future |
| failure in the same situation | failure in the same situation | failure in the same situation | ||
| +2 Diff | +4 Diff | +15 Diff | ||
| Tech/Create | None | Make it worse +5 diff | Beyond repair | +15 Diff |
| Int/Knowledge | None | Obviously wrong | Adamantly wrong | Convincingly Wrong |
| whole party agrees | ||||
| ROF < 4 UR | Jams (1d6/2 actions) | Jams (1d6 turns) | Hit Party/Self | Drop Weapon |
| ROF < 4 ST | Jams (1 action) | Jams (1d6/2 turns) | Hit Party/Self | Drop Weapon |
| ROF < 4 VR | None | Jams (1d6/2 actions) | Hit Party/Self | Drop Weapon |
| ROF > 3 UR | Jams (1d6/2 turns) | Jams (1d6+1 turns) | Hit Party/Self | Drop Weapon |
| ROF > 3 ST | Jams (1d6/2 actions) | Jams (1d6 turns) | Hit Party/Self | Drop Weapon |
| ROF > 3 VR | Jams (1 action) | Jams (1 turns) | Hit Party/Self | Drop Weapon |
| NA/Melee | None | Jams (1 action) | Hit Party/Self | Drop Weapon |
| Parry | None | Off balance (1 action) | Shield takes double damage | Shield breaks |
| Pilot | None | +1 Control Loss | +2 Control Loss | +3 Control Loss |
| Ref/Move/Body | None | Sprain 1d6/3 damage | Fall prone (1d6/2) | Fall prone (1d6) |
Stuff beyound this point is at best a work in progress
Alternative damage
Is the damage in cyberpunk correct? it seems a little too varied to me. Possible solutions:
1) Everything does +1d of damage. For example 9mm rounds would do 3d6+1 damage, a scorpian 16 Missile Launcher (8d10) and a swich blade does 1d6+1d6/2 (call it 1d6+2)
2) Reassign all damages to a tighter d20 style damage range
3) use the d6 1, 2, d6 counts to create teirs: 1 1d6/3 2 1d6/2 Leather immune 3 1d6 4 1d6+1 Leather Average 5 1d6+2 6 2d6 7 2d6+1 8 2d6+2 9 3d6
Handgun rounds 5mm 1d6+2 6mm 2d6 9mm 3d6 10mm 3d6+1 11mm 3d6+2 12mm 4d6
Rifle Rounds 5.56mm 5d6 7.62mm 6d6+2 20mm 5d10
Shotgun 00 3d10
Shiriken/Throwing knife/dart 1d6/2 Unarmed Strike 1d6 Switch Blade/pocket knife 1d6 Scratchers 1d6 Vampires 1d6 Kick 1d6+1 Throw 1d6+1 Choke 1d6+1 Brass knuckles 1d6+2 BigKnucks 1d6+2 Club 2d6 Knife 2d6 Rippers 2d6 CyberSnake 2d6 Battleglove/Cyberarm 2d6 SliceNDice 2d6+2 MonoKnife 3d6 Nunchaku/Tonfa/Flail 3d6+1 Naginata/Spear 3d6+1 Sword 3d6+2 Axe 4d6 Wolvers 4d6 Sledgehammer 4d6 MonoKatana 4d6+2 Chainsaw 3d10