The Gambler – A new Role for Cyberpunk 2020

The Gambler

(and yes, I gave myself the permission to publish this. If you want to publish it too, go ahead. I require you to keep my copyright notice intact, and would love get a mail from you to learn about your doings.)

The Gambler

I once saw a film with Robert Redford playing a professional gambler. The setting was Havanna, Cuba, just before Castro overthrew the Batista dictatorship. I don’t know the name of the film in english… Ford smuggled, played poker, fell in love, was engaged in combat – and he solved all the problems he faced in the way of a gambler. Bluffing, threatening, raising the ante till the others dropped the cards. I realised that no character class of the CP 2020 system mirrored that way of dealing with life. Even throu I am almost violently against adding new character classes to the system, I felt the need to create this one. Because its new (and features a new way of looking at problems). Solos shoot problems. Cops arrest them. Dealers deal with them. Techies build a device to overcome them. Gamblers gamble against them. Thats new, and requires a new character class. Continue reading “The Gambler – A new Role for Cyberpunk 2020”

Human Shields in Cyberpunk 2020

Author: sparky.

The asshole attacked me with a back hand. I swung my right arm and connected with his kidney. He promptly buckled with a scream. That was when I saw his partner with the Assault Rifle. ‘Shit. This is going to be a bad day.’ I thought. As his partner raised the muzzle of the weapon to point it at me I acted. I reached and grabbed the punk I’d just nailed by the back of the shirt and held him in front of me just as his parter opened with a three round burst. The bullets made wet smacks as they pummeled the body in front of me. After the guy fired I pulled out my AMT and blew his fool head off, and left the shield to die in a pool of blood.
Johnny Walker – Militech

Some times you are looking down a barrel with no where to go. So what do you do? You attempt to find cover. And in some close range fire fights the best cover around can be the bodies of living or dead people. I know, it harks back to memories of Arnold riding the escalator up and using a human shield against fully automatic weapons. Pretty cool, a little messy, but pretty cool.

Well, guess what. I was CC’d with a message for Rajeen Nabid and the message had a direct quote for RTG on how this would be done! So here it is a little more fleshed out and taking armor into account. (Which believe it or not, is actually easy.)
Here we go!

Human Shield

SP = Body Type Modifier (BTM)

SDP = 4xBody (i.e. Body of 7 = 28 (7×4=28)

These are estimates from RTG (pretty good ones too). An unarmored shield would have these types of values. And for all intents and purposes this would be treated as cover. Damage that penetrates the SP of the Shield will be passed on to the SDP of the body (4xBODY). So if the person has a high body there is a lot of damage that can be stopped. But, once the Shields SDP are reduced to zero the shield ins no longer effective and you are also wearing a large portion of the shield as there won’t be much left.

Now, “Great!” you’re saying. “Next time I get my self into a fire fight… I’ll just grab the first person I see and use them as cover!” Well, it does work that easily for dead or unconscious shields. But, it’s a different story when that shield is still conscious and alive! If the person you wish to hide behind is not incapacitated you must first make a grapple roll to grab the person. Once you have grappled the person you may hold him in front of you. You must also roll a grapple roll every turn you wish to use him/her so long as they are alive and awake.

Armored Shields

Now What do you do if you have armor on the shield. I use the RTG armor Layering rules for the body only! The shield does not count towards armor layering because it is actually treated as cover and not armor! This is what I came up with.Now, the first step is to figure the total SP of the Human Shield. This can be done by using the rules for armor laying (Which can be found on www.cyberpunk2020.de (At least….That’s where I found them on the net)).

The way this works is first find the SP of the armor that the shield is wearing and the SP of the body (BTM). Subtract the lower of the SP from the larger and cross reference the table. Add the number of the bonus to the LARGER of the SPs. Chances are the low SP of a human body is not going to make much of a difference.

Difference in SPs	Bonus Number
0-4	5
5-8	4
9-14	3
15-20	2
21-26	1
27+	0

Once you have figured the SP of the Shield you are ready. Let the mayhem begin. Here’s an example to illustrate the point.

Example

John Doe is using a human shield. The BTM of the shield is +2 so the SP of the shield is 2. The shield is wearing a Kevlar T-Shirt (SP-10). Subtract 2 from 10 to get 8. Cross referencing the table we see that he gets a bonus of +4. This number is added to the LARGER of the two SPs to give 14SP. The target must take over 14 points of damage for the SDP of the target to take any damage. Makes for a pretty good shield huh? John Doe is being shot at by Punk Boy. Punk Boy is using a heavy SMG. He fires and hits the Human shield. He rolls for his damage and gets 17 points. The armor of the Shield stops 14 of it the other three go through to the SDP of the shield. The shield has a body of 8 so the shield can take 32 points of damage before being reduced to so much chopped liver. John Doe has a good thing going. Unless Punk Boy pulls out the big guns.

So, as you can see there are a lot of good benefits to having a human shield. Thanks for the idea!
-sparky

Panzerungstabelle aus dem englischen Regelwerk Cyberpunk 2020

Author: Mike Pondsmith.
Übersetzung: Blechpirat

Aus dem englischsprachigen Regelwerk (2. Version, überarbeitete 2. Auflage, die mit den Bildern aus Italien) ergibt sich eine Regel zu dem übereinander tragen von gepanzerten Kleidungsstücken. Sie lautet:

Vergleiche die unterste Panzerung mit der darüber. Nimm den höheren Panzerungswert, und ziehe den niedrigeren davon ab. Vergleiche die Differenz auf dieser Tabelle:

Differenz	Bonus
0-4	5
5-8	4
9-14	3
15-20	2
21-26	1
27+	0

Zähle den Bonus zu dem höheren Panzerungswert hinzu. Wenn noch eine dritte Schicht Panzerung da ist, wird der berechnete Panzerungswert mit der dritten Schicht verglichen, die Tabelle dazu befragt, und der Bonus wird wieder zum höheren Panzerungswert hinzugezählt. Mehr als drei Lagen Panzerung ist unmöglich. Dieser Vorgang wird für jede Trefferzone des PCs wiederholt.

Außerdem wird (zusätzlich zu der Behinderung, den die Panzerung etwa schon mitbringt (Mittlere Panzerjacke = -1) ein weiter Punkt für die zweite Lage, und dann noch 2 Punkte für die dritte Lage von den Reflexen abgezogen. Skinweave (Hautverstärker) wird dabei nicht mitberechnet.

Beispiel:

Ripperjack hat Reflexe von 8 und trägt ein Kevlar T-Shirt (10 SP), eine Leichte Panzerjacke (14 SP) und eine Schwere Panzerjacke (20 SP).

Am Torso:: Die Differenz zwischen den beiden unteren Panzerungen (14 und 10) ist 4. Das ergibt nach der Tabelle einen Bonus von 5. Der wird zur höheren Panzerung dazugezählt: 14 + 5 = 19 SP. Darüber kommt noch die Schwere Panzerjacke mit 20 SP. Wieder die Differenz zwischen 20 und 19 (der berechnete Panzerungswert für die beiden unteren Lagen gemeinsam) bilden: 1. Bonus beträgt also 5. Höherer Wert + Bonus: 20+5 = 25. Am Torso hat Rippejack als 25 Punkte Panzerung. (Nach dem alten System hätte er 34 Punkte gehabt.)
An den Armen:: Das T-Shirt wirkt hier nicht, daher 20-14= 6, Bonus also 4. 20+4 = 24…

Sein Reflexverlust beträgt: 2 für die Schwere Jacke, +1 für eine zweite Lage, +2 für eine dritte Lage = 5. Kein Spaß. Ripperjack hat jetzt nur noch 3 Reflexpunkte.

Nelly ist cleverer. Sie hat auch Reflexe 8, hat Hautverstärker mit 10 Punkten (damit sie nicht riskiert, Attraktivität zu verlieren) und trägt eine leichte Panzerjacke.

Die Differenz zwischen den Panzerungen ist (14-10) 4, der Bonus daher 5. Der höhere Panzerungswert ist 14 + den Bonus von 5 ergibt 19, Reflexverlust beträgt 0.

Falls es noch Fragen dazu gibt, meldet euch in den Kommentaren!

Vielen Dank an Dreamdealer, der mir die Tabelle zugemailt hat und Yw376, der sie nicht kannte.

Die Rückstoßregeln aus Morgan Blackhand’s Street Weapons.