Jemstone: I'm cool with spoilers. The odds of me ever actually getting to pay this game are incredibly low, and I feel a need to know what happened :P I'll pm you my email address in a little while.
You've got (forum) mail!
Cheers! Got some reading to do tomorrow then. Need a distraction from all the valentines day crap that'll be all over the place.
Cheers! Got some reading to do tomorrow then. Need a distraction from all the valentines day crap that'll be all over the place.
But did you read it yet? And did you like it? Did it make sense? OR WAS IT ALL A HORRIBLE LIE?
I actually just started it. Saturday mornings are my one sleep in day, so I'm usually not done with breakfast and so on until 11. Now that my hunger is sated, it's time for the reading!
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... Oh man, that's a lot to take in. I don't know if I've comprehended all of it yet, after all I'm not overly familiar with the lore of Cyberpunk, but daaaamn. Totally get where Krensky was going with the Childhood's End reference now as well.
Thanks for sending me that Jemstone, really appreciate it. It's given me some ideas that I might work into some other games. Not necessarily cyberpunk games, but I think there's some stuff there I can adapt.
I read it in high school last century and a few times since then. For Clark obviously the ending is a major upper. For some folks, the ending might be truly horrifying. My attitudes have changed in the four decades since I've first read it, but it remains a good read.Cheers! Got some reading to do tomorrow then. Need a distraction from all the valentines day crap that'll be all over the place.But did you read it yet? And did you like it? Did it make sense? OR WAS IT ALL A HORRIBLE LIE?
I think Jemstone was referring to the stuff he sent me about the end of his Cybergeneration game. My mind is blown right now.
Tinkergoth is right. I was asking about the Cybereneration stuff I sent him.
Tinker, you have more mail, by the by. :)
I've never even heard of Ashen Stars or Gumshoe.
What can you tell me about it? Should I hie my haste to the Google?
Unrelated, a small bit from my PBEM Cyberpunk game, in which I prove that advertising is everything (a nice tie in for the big game happening today, I think...)
** spoiler omitted **
Basically it's an investigation focused system created by Robin D. Laws. Supports a range of games. Probably best known for Trail of Cthulhu. Games I've got for the system are Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists and Mutant City Blues. I'll be picking up Fear Itself and Night's Black Agents when I get a chance.
Reason I don't think Ashen Stars would be a good choice is because it's built as an (admittedly somewhat noir/investigative) space opera, which isn't really what I'd consider a good genre to try and build cyberpunk out of.
I see..What about a tech-noir/ noir investigation in a cyberpunk world (a la Blade Runner) sort of game? Would that still work better with Mutant City Blues?
Big thumbs up for Cyberpunk 2020/Interlock. It is incredibly easy to adapt that system to whatever game you want to run. It does grit like no other system I've ever seen and has intuitive advancement mechanics. Its also possible just to slap together some pathetic gangers and have a shootout in some convenience store, and have an amazing afternoon of fun.
Just avoid the Cybergeneration book and its various supplements like the plague.
I cant get my group into that, yet. We are definitely playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out (whether they like it or not.And they will like it) but at the moment 2020 is looking too aged and complex to get my group into it. I'd prefer to use adventures or sourcebooks from it and ran a different system, a light one. Technoir seemed like a good candidate but its too alien with its tags and word system and what not.
I see..What about a tech-noir/ noir investigation in a cyberpunk world (a la Blade Runner) sort of game? Would that still work better with Mutant City Blues?I've never even heard of Ashen Stars or Gumshoe.
What can you tell me about it? Should I hie my haste to the Google?
Unrelated, a small bit from my PBEM Cyberpunk game, in which I prove that advertising is everything (a nice tie in for the big game happening today, I think...)
** spoiler omitted **
Basically it's an investigation focused system created by Robin D. Laws. Supports a range of games. Probably best known for Trail of Cthulhu. Games I've got for the system are Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists and Mutant City Blues. I'll be picking up Fear Itself and Night's Black Agents when I get a chance.
Reason I don't think Ashen Stars would be a good choice is because it's built as an (admittedly somewhat noir/investigative) space opera, which isn't really what I'd consider a good genre to try and build cyberpunk out of.
I still haven't had a proper look at Mutant City Blues, since I'm prepping some Savage Worlds games at the moment. I still think it'd be the easiest one to use for it, like I said when I first mentioned it, reskinning the mutant powers as biotech or cyberware would probably work well, and it's a very heavily investigation focused game (as are all the GUMSHOE games).
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I cant get my group into that, yet. We are definitely playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out (whether they like it or not.And they will like it) but at the moment 2020 is looking too aged and complex to get my group into it. I'd prefer to use adventures or sourcebooks from it and ran a different system, a light one. Technoir seemed like a good candidate but its too alien with its tags and word system and what not.
CP2020 is less complex than Pathfinder.
All skill rolls are STAT + SKILL + 1D10 (or 2D6 if you want a different curve) VS DC (or competing roll). Period.
You get 2 actions a turn at no penalty. Additional actions are available at a cumulative -3 penalty to all rolls associated with them.
Armor stops damage, and is degraded by 1 point per shot that penetrates.
That's basically it. There are other more fiddly rules, and more rules for combat, but that's really it.
Get your group over to my place here in California and I'll show them. :)
I cant get my group into that, yet. We are definitely playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out (whether they like it or not.And they will like it) but at the moment 2020 is looking too aged and complex to get my group into it. I'd prefer to use adventures or sourcebooks from it and ran a different system, a light one. Technoir seemed like a good candidate but its too alien with its tags and word system and what not.
CP2020 is less complex than Pathfinder.
All skill rolls are STAT + SKILL + 1D10 (or 2D6 if you want a different curve) VS DC (or competing roll). Period.
You get 2 actions a turn at no penalty. Additional actions are available at a cumulative -3 penalty to all rolls associated with them.
Armor stops damage, and is degraded by 1 point per shot that penetrates.
That's basically it. There are other more fiddly rules, and more rules for combat, but that's really it.
Get your group over to my place here in California and I'll show them. :)
I wish I could actually. I can't say that I am that impressed by the role-play in the UK. It's more miss than it is hit.Also people are into silliness and chaos in ways that my scientific brain fails to comprehend (and no its not a matter of imagination. I have a very vivid one :) )
Best roleplayers -in my personal experience obviously- I had the pleasure of meeting/playing with in my life so far were from Greece, Norway and the US
I have to vote for Shadowrun as well. I'm running a 4E Shadowrun game right now. The only thing that I find difficult is sometimes juggling the complexity of the Matrix, Magic, and Physical worlds at the same time.
I'm staring a group of n00bs in SR5. Can you point me to any
"Introduction to the Matrix and it's Mechanics" runs?| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've finally had a chance to play Interface Zero 2.0, and I'm loving it. Only just started the game, but it's been a lot of fun already.
Probably would still say that Cyberpunk 2020 as a system is more genre faithful, but Interface Zero is pretty damn close. Based on Savage Worlds as well, so mechanics are very easy.
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I cant get my group into that, yet. We are definitely playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out (whether they like it or not.And they will like it) but at the moment 2020 is looking too aged and complex to get my group into it. I'd prefer to use adventures or sourcebooks from it and ran a different system, a light one. Technoir seemed like a good candidate but its too alien with its tags and word system and what not.
CP2020 is less complex than Pathfinder.
All skill rolls are STAT + SKILL + 1D10 (or 2D6 if you want a different curve) VS DC (or competing roll). Period.
You get 2 actions a turn at no penalty. Additional actions are available at a cumulative -3 penalty to all rolls associated with them.
Armor stops damage, and is degraded by 1 point per shot that penetrates.
That's basically it. There are other more fiddly rules, and more rules for combat, but that's really it.
Get your group over to my place here in California and I'll show them. :)
I wish I could actually. I can't say that I am that impressed by the role-play in the UK. It's more miss than it is hit.Also people are into silliness and chaos in ways that my scientific brain fails to comprehend (and no its not a matter of imagination. I have a very vivid one :) )
Best roleplayers -in my personal experience obviously- I had the pleasure of meeting/playing with in my life so far were from Greece, Norway and the US
Some of the most intensive roleplay I have ever been involved with, was in Cyberpunk 2020.
Does it have anything close to Cyperpunk's "Lifepath" system?I've finally had a chance to play Interface Zero 2.0, and I'm loving it. Only just started the game, but it's been a lot of fun already.
Probably would still say that Cyberpunk 2020 as a system is more genre faithful, but Interface Zero is pretty damn close. Based on Savage Worlds as well, so mechanics are very easy.
Nah, no lifepath system. It does have occupations, which are similar to roles from 2020. Pick one you meet the requirements for at the start and it provides bonus credits and other benefits.
One thing I do prefer about Interface Zero 2.0 to Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun is that there's no real concept of humanity loss for getting cybernetics. It's replaced with Strain. Everyone has a strain limit equal to their Vigor die value (so d4 to d12, and past d12 you just start increasing the value by one each time). You can have cyberware worth up to your strain limit with no ill effects, but unlike in 2020 (where losing all your humanity to cyberware will result in cyberpsychosis) or Shadowrun (where losing all your Essence to cyberware severs your soul from your body), you can go beyond your limit as much as you want, just with increased risk.
Once you install cyberware that takes you beyond your strain limit, you roll a Vigor check, with a penalty equal to the number of points over your limit you've gone. Pass the check and it all goes fine. Fail, and you pick up a permanent level of lethal fatigue (-1 to all trait checks) that won't be removed until you either increase your strain limit or reduce your cyberware to bring you back under the limit. Fail another check when installing more and you get another fatigue level, which stacks. Get more than 3 fatigue from cyberware strain and you die on the operating table while they're installing the new ware.
Technically speaking you still have to roll against the surgery code in CP2020 when getting Cyberware installed - but it's generally handwaved for new characters (because then you're potentially dying in character gen like in Traveler). I still make players roll their surgery saves for any NEW gear they get.
It's not finished, but for a while I was working up a "Humanity is gained or lost through life events, not through cyberware" system, where lifepath events cause you to gain or lose Humanity... Mostly because I think that someone who loses their leg in a pocket war, and then gets a new leg, shouldn't lose Humanity just for getting their full mobility back. I originally started putting it together for an Appleseed game (in which a full-body borg is more Human than many full-flesh folks), but it never got finished, as the game died in the concept stage.
Technically speaking you still have to roll against the surgery code in CP2020 when getting Cyberware installed - but it's generally handwaved for new characters (because then you're potentially dying in character gen like in Traveler). I still make players roll their surgery saves for any NEW gear they get.
It's not finished, but for a while I was working up a "Humanity is gained or lost through life events, not through cyberware" system, where lifepath events cause you to gain or lose Humanity... Mostly because I think that someone who loses their leg in a pocket war, and then gets a new leg, shouldn't lose Humanity just for getting their full mobility back. I originally started putting it together for an Appleseed game (in which a full-body borg is more Human than many full-flesh folks), but it never got finished, as the game died in the concept stage.
Yeah, I prefer to not have humanity loss at all, unless as you mentioned it's from traumatic experiences rather than what is essentially routine surgery in these settings. The reason I like Interface Zero's way of dealing with it is that there's no actual risk until you start exceeding what your body is meant to be able to handle. Which is how I feel it should be.
I've finally had a chance to play Interface Zero 2.0, and I'm loving it. Only just started the game, but it's been a lot of fun already.
Probably would still say that Cyberpunk 2020 as a system is more genre faithful, but Interface Zero is pretty damn close. Based on Savage Worlds as well, so mechanics are very easy.
Since you're already familiar with the setting, we'd love to have your feedback when the Pathfinder conversion playtest document becomes available. We're shooting for some time near the end of the month.
Since you're already familiar with the setting, we'd love to have your feedback when the Pathfinder conversion playtest document becomes available. We're shooting for some time near the end of the month.I've finally had a chance to play Interface Zero 2.0, and I'm loving it. Only just started the game, but it's been a lot of fun already.
Probably would still say that Cyberpunk 2020 as a system is more genre faithful, but Interface Zero is pretty damn close. Based on Savage Worlds as well, so mechanics are very easy.
Sure, I'll definitely take a look. I don't play much Pathfinder these days, but I can defintely run an eye over it and see what I think.
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For those of you who don't mind once-a-week updates, the thread for my Weekly Cybergeneration 2030 game is available over in the Campaign Journals section.
Judging by the way the players are writing their character voices, I think you might be in for a treat.
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On a similar note to jemstone (and seriously, do check out his campaign journal, the story is shaping up to be awesome), I've just started posting an in character journal for the Interface Zero 2.0 game I'm in.
It's a lot longer than I'd initially planned, it kind of changed from a journal to a full dramatisation of the story from my character's point of view, but I'm having fun writing it, so it's all good.
Original (and full) post can be found on my blog: A Fistful of Roses, Act I: My Name is Roxy
Can be read here as well, with some minor censorship, over in the campaign journals section: A Fistful of Roses - Interface Zero 2.0 campaign
Yeah, I prefer to not have humanity loss at all, unless as you mentioned it's from traumatic experiences rather than what is essentially routine surgery in these settings. The reason I like Interface Zero's way of dealing with it is that there's no actual risk until you start exceeding what your body is meant to be able to handle. Which is how I feel it should be.Technically speaking you still have to roll against the surgery code in CP2020 when getting Cyberware installed - but it's generally handwaved for new characters (because then you're potentially dying in character gen like in Traveler). I still make players roll their surgery saves for any NEW gear they get.
It's not finished, but for a while I was working up a "Humanity is gained or lost through life events, not through cyberware" system, where lifepath events cause you to gain or lose Humanity... Mostly because I think that someone who loses their leg in a pocket war, and then gets a new leg, shouldn't lose Humanity just for getting their full mobility back. I originally started putting it together for an Appleseed game (in which a full-body borg is more Human than many full-flesh folks), but it never got finished, as the game died in the concept stage.
That's actually what humanity loss represents. Its covered in one of the essays in... Solo of Fortune if I remember right. Note the psycological and psychiatric therapy restore humanity. It's also why its, theoretically, possible to become a full conversion Borg with minimal (possibly no, I don't have Eurosource handy) humanity loss.
If you have enough time and money. Time, humanity, creds. Pick one to save on.
Maybe in Cyberpunk 2020, it's been long enough since I've read it that I can't remember it properly. But in Shadowrun, the damage that cyberware does is very clearly not physical, it's to what makes you human, what keeps your soul tethered to your body.
But even if that is what it is in Cyberpunk 2020, my point is still that I much prefer the Interface Zero 2.0 mechanics for it. No need for rolls or anything until you exceed the strain limit, and even then you can keep going as long as you understand you're risking death. No psychological downsides, because it's still you, just improved. It's more of a transhumanist way of looking at it I suppose, but I find more often than not in cyberpunk fiction it's a similar thing, the ideas for cyberpsychosis and so on are far less common than they are in games that represent the genre.
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I chipped in for the first time in forever last light. God it is good to be playing CP again.
However, running into a problem.
Melee weapons and cyber weapons. Do they really behave like armour peircing ammo? I.E. Half damage after armour? Or is it just that they treat some kinds of armour as half value.
Some armor is only half effective against certain types of bladed weapons (or specifically mentioned cybernetic weapons).
Usually these are light, leather armors types.
Is the damage of those weapons then halved after penetration, as per AP ammo?
Cyberpunk 2020, Revised Edition (the one with the Paolo Parente art for the Role Iconics), page 102, under "Armor Piercing Rounds."
Armor Piercing Rounds...For example, say a 5.56 AP round causes 30 points of damage. It hits SP 10 armor, which reduces it by five (10/2 = 5). The remaining 25 points are further reduced to 12 (25/2 = 12.5 rounded down to 12), based on an AP round's lower damage capacity.
The same is true of knives, swords, and other edged weapons. Note that armors marked with a check (check symbol) on the Armor Table are at half SP effectiveness against edged weapons.
So, yes, you would, effectively, do half damage after anything gets through.
If you were wearing SP 12 poly leather that had the check symbol, that would mean that it would only be SP 6 against an edged weapon.
So Corporal Punishment, the leader of this particularly horrible cell of L'Hommes De L'Heur, a Posergang that fancies itself some kind of French Revolution reborn, stabs you in the belly with his bayonet.
He's super jacked and has a BTM of +4.
He rolls damage on the Bayonet (2d6 for the weapon, +4 for his BTM), doing a whopping 14 points (10 on the dice, 4 on the BTM).
Your Polys are halved to 6, so you take 8 points (14 - 6 = 8), which is halved to 4.
You've just taken half the maximum number of hits you can take to one section in one hit without it being instantly rendered chunky stew.
If not for the halving, you'd be making a death save right about now.
Cool cool, thanks.
Always happy to help!
And don't forget:
Technically, it's more efficient to take 10 additional actions in one turn (for a total -30 penalty at the end) and just throw grenades at your target.
As was discovered during the playtest of the Japanese language edition of CP2020, you can just fling grenades at your target and the throwing deviation rules indicate that you won't land your pineapples more than a hex or two off of your intended target no matter how poorly you throw. So you'll miss your intended hex a lot, but the spread and area saturation of the grenades will still more than likely take out your target... or at least all of their cover.
As can be expected, we house ruled that right out of the realm of possibility for my group's games. (only after I used it against the players as a GM, mind... the players were fine with it when they were the only ones doing it...)
Some of the most intensive roleplay I have ever been involved with, was in Cyberpunk 2020.I cant get my group into that, yet. We are definitely playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out (whether they like it or not.And they will like it) but at the moment 2020 is looking too aged and complex to get my group into it. I'd prefer to use adventures or sourcebooks from it and ran a different system, a light one. Technoir seemed like a good candidate but its too alien with its tags and word system and what not.
CP2020 is less complex than Pathfinder.
All skill rolls are STAT + SKILL + 1D10 (or 2D6 if you want a different curve) VS DC (or competing roll). Period.
You get 2 actions a turn at no penalty. Additional actions are available at a cumulative -3 penalty to all rolls associated with them.
Armor stops damage, and is degraded by 1 point per shot that penetrates.
That's basically it. There are other more fiddly rules, and more rules for combat, but that's really it.
Get your group over to my place here in California and I'll show them. :)
I wish I could actually. I can't say that I am that impressed by the role-play in the UK. It's more miss than it is hit.Also people are into silliness and chaos in ways that my scientific brain fails to comprehend (and no its not a matter of imagination. I have a very vivid one :) )
Best roleplayers -in my personal experience obviously- I had the pleasure of meeting/playing with in my life so far were from Greece, Norway and the US
I suspect so. Its not a matter of appreciating the system, I know CP2020 is the best; its about getting a group together.
I am kinda jealous.
Forget getting them into that as a GM. I want to find a group to play as a pc..
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I wish I could actually. I can't say that I am that impressed by the role-play in the UK. It's more miss than it is hit.Also people are into silliness and chaos in ways that my scientific brain fails to comprehend (and no its not a matter of imagination. I have a very vivid one :) )
Best roleplayers -in my personal experience obviously- I had the pleasure of meeting/playing with in my life so far were from Greece, Norway and the US
Some of the most intensive roleplay I have ever been involved with, was in Cyberpunk 2020.I suspect so. Its not a matter of appreciating the system, I know CP2020 is the best; its about getting a group together.
I am kinda jealous.
Forget getting them into that as a GM. I want to find a group to play as a pc..
I'd so love to once again run some Cyberpunk. Whereabouts in the UK are you?
Nnnnng. Someone run a play-by-email or forum-based cyberpunk game with a posting schedule I can maintain, already!
Nnnnng. Someone run a play-by-email or forum-based cyberpunk game with a posting schedule I can maintain, already!
+1
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@stroVal,
At this rate...
It's gonna be you or me that does it, and then whoever does still won't get to be a player... :(
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Well, The Expanse is making me want to run an Eclipse Phase game (I know, not cyberpunk, but they're both cyberpunk adjacent), but I have no luck with PbP.
Run a CP-202X game and I know you'll get myself and Astro.
Hell. Run it JUST for us. Small, tight-knit game. Think of the focus it would have. Egad.
Maybe we could drag Zombieneighbours in, too.
Well, The Expanse is making me want to run an Eclipse Phase game (I know, not cyberpunk, but they're both cyberpunk adjacent), but I have no luck with PbP.Run a CP-202X game and I know you'll get myself and Astro.
Hell. Run it JUST for us. Small, tight-knit game. Think of the focus it would have. Egad.
Maybe we could drag Zombieneighbours in, too.
I've never done a PbP game before, and I know there's a hell of a time difference between myself and where most board dwellers are located (not sure if that'd be an issue or not), but this is something I'd be interested in as well. Always wanted to give Cyberpunk 2020 (or whichever later version) a go.
Cyberpunk!!!!! I shall read properly when I return home, but in principle I would join in with something.
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Both eclipse phase and CP are appealing in very different ways.
I am reading the expanse at the moment and I only just finished the main chunk of revelation space, so eclipse phase is high on my list of things to do.
On the other hand, cyberpunk!!!!!
See?
I do not lie.
I do NOT lie.
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Alternity keeps regrabbing my interest.
I'm not sure if I should be offended or flattered. :P