How is combat different than other PnP games. Basically, how does it work?
The most basic difference between Cyberpunk 2020 and most other roleplaying games, is that Cyberpunk does not use a hit point/level progression mechanic. Instead Cyberpunk uses a skill point progressions system, and a static number f wound boxes. So in a game like Dungeons And Dragons, where whenever your character levels, he gets more hit points, and at later levels these hitpoints can number in the hundreds. In Cyberpunk your health never increases.
Another big difference is the definition of taking damage itself. In most games, again using Dungeons and Dragons as the baseline, when you take damage, you lose hit points. The hit points themselves are usually defined as an abstraction of your your fighting spirit, an in general, no matter how many hit points are lost due to damage, there are no effects on your character until those hit points drop below zero. so a higher level character, with 100 points, may take a 42 point blow of damage from an axe, but he will continue to fight as if nothing happened.
In Cyberpunk, as stated, you have what are known as wound states, each measured in 4 point increments. Light, Serious, Critical, Mortal 0 - Mortal 10. Every wound state beyond light has immediate and detrimental effects to your character, in the form of cumulative minuses to the characters actions. In addition, every time a character takes damage beyond light, he must make a stun save to remain conscious. If he has taken enough damage to reach Mortal Wound States, he must also make Death saves or die.
In addition, unlike most other games, Cyberpunk uses a hit location for all damage. Head, Torso, Arms, Legs. Where you get hit again has its own effects. And head shots double damage.
Furthermore, the amount of damage you take in a single shot itself can have serious consequences. If you take 8 points of damage in a single attack to a limb, your limb becomes disabled. If taken to the head, you must make an immediate stun save. If you take 10 or more points to a limb, then the limb is considered severed or otherwise destroyed.... if you take that much damage to the head, it just plain kills you.
Finally there is armor. In games like Dungeons and Dragons, armor provides a cumulative numerical bonus, and it makes you harder to hit. Attack rolls are made against your armor class, whose number also raises with the characters level, which can get quite high at higher character levels. In Cyberpunk, armor coves specific locations, and soaks up damage. Damage that gets through the armor, if you have armor covering that location, then goes to the character. The armor worn has varying ranges, usually from 4-25 at the highest levels of personal armor. But wearing anything more than an armored vest with a value of 10 to 18, torso only, under your clothes is not practical for most situations. If you walk around armored from head to toe, people will be mistrustful of you, police will stop and question you, plus you have to worry about the wieght of the armor encumbering your actions.
Finally there are damages. Weapons damages vary greatly, but are always measured by the type of ammunition used. A 9mm handgun, the most common, does 2d6+1 while a 44 magnum does 4d6 damage.... Assault and hunting rifles usually do between 5d6 and 6d6+2. So as you can see, combat in cyberpunk is very, very lethal... especially considering that even character who do wear armor, don;t wear it all the time, or have armor that covers their whole body..
In addition to the obvious lethality of the system, it also creates a fairly rare opportunity for threat and drama. In a game like dungeons and dragons, a person holding a crossbow on even a medium level character, or a group of people holding a crossbow on him, really presents no threat... because even if they hit, they can;t do enough damage to instantly drop the character in question. So its almost impossible to set up a situation that forces the character to surrender with anything short of an army. In Cyberpunk, you combat god, veteran of a thousand fights, kung fu master navy seal, can still be taken out in one shot by a petulant 12 year old girl with a handgun. It creates an entirely different dynamic, one where avoiding combat is often the best policy.
cool idea for a thread
can you elaborate on the role of the megacorps in cp2020 a little bit? how much power do they have, how many of them are there, do they have own "sovereign" territory and private armies, how are the workplace conditions of a normal person working for arasaka (for example)?
The two most notorious are Arasaka and Militech. Militech is as American private military firm, much like Blackwater, they are also an arms, armor, and military vehicle manufacturere. The rent out their forces to serve as police, security, and military forces around the world. Arasaka is their primary competitor, with its own private military, its own weapons and vehicle manufacturing. However Arasaka is also a Zaibatsu, and has its hands in food, electronics, apparel, and countless other corporate interests.
However, even Arasaka, as big as it is, isn't the most powerful corporation. Biotechnica, which not only holds the biggest market-share of bioware, but also controls huge prtions of agriculture and medicine, is one of the most powerful forces on earth (think Monsanto, with less morals, and more power).
There is the financial firm of Merril, Asuka, and Finch... your basic ridiculously wealthy conglomerate of investors and financiers.
Their are the various Cybernetic corporations, like Raven, Dynalar, Mistubishi, Sony, and Kiroshi. However many of these corporations are at their heart electronics companies, and have wide influence in a number of markets beyond cyber, such as home electronics, computers, guidance systems.
Most corporations do not claim sovereign territory, as many, especially the Japanese firms, are very nationalistic. However, they do hold massive influence across the globe. Arasaka for instance, has become the military and police, in their entirety, for Argentina. Many cities across the globe have hired Arasaka or Militech to act as their police forces. And even the US military has supplanted its own forces with Militech troops in 3rd world conflict zones.
Working for a megacorp varies a great deal, and your lifestyle depends entirely on what you do for the company. If you are a salaryman - low to mid level office drone - you live a pretty card board life, you earn meager pay, work ridiculous hours, and have little job security, but at least you get rudimentary life and health insurance, which beats most of the poor suckers out there. At higher levels upper management, you live well. An apartment in a corporate controlled and regulated complex, or maybe even a house in a secure suburb. At the executive level you live well indeed, residing in a penthouse suite, or a secure mansion up in North Oak. Of course your employment, even at the highest levels, is only measured in what you can bring to the company, and sometimes one little mistake or failure is all it takes to have all that stripped away from you.
Of course if you are general labor, your life is shit. But these things never change.
If you are a professional operator... an edgerunner if you will, either fulll time, or contracted, to a mega corp, you live as well as your pay grade allows. You are sent on ridiculously dangerous jobs, but the better you do, the more you are rewarded. Especially if you have no trouble with the moral grey area many of these jobs entail. Militech is always looking for good men and women, and if you are good enough, you will live a life measurably similar to their top level executives... of course that also means that whenever their is something holding up production, like a small third world village, or if someone is trying to defect to another company, taking their valuable trade secrets with them... it is your job to remove the problem... by any means necessary.
That about cover it for you, or was there something more specific you wanted to know?
