druid91

I'm still around.

Stern - Tech Head SP:  | Body SP:  11 | Shield: 0 | HP: 45 / 45 INT: 5 | REF: 6 | DEX: 8 | TECH: 8 | COOL: 5 | WILL: 8 | LUCK: 4 | MOVE: 6 | BODY: 6 | EMP: 4 Humanity: 42 | Critical Injuries: 0 | Addictions: 0 Heavy Pistol Stern would take a seat, ordering nothing as he probably couldn't afford anything from the Cafe anyway. "I go by Stern. Usually do technical work for some locals. Odd jobs here and there fixing things some gonk broke while scavenging. Or fine-tuning cyber for peak performance, Chrome is my main area of expertise. That being said, I'm good with most machines. No cars though. Never really picked up the mechanics trade." As he spoke, Stern would tap one finger on the table idly, after a moment the finger opening up to reveal the head of a screwdriver, changing the light thump to a sharper tap tap tap.  

Still here. Had an IRL game day yesterday.

Fast-Stats Stern - Tech Head SP:  | Body SP:  11 | Shield: 0 | HP: 45 / 45 INT: 5 | REF: 6 | DEX: 8 | TECH: 8 | COOL: 5 | WILL: 8 | LUCK: 4 | MOVE: 6 | BODY: 6 | EMP: 4 Humanity: 42 | Critical Injuries: 0 | Addictions: 0 Heavy Pistol Stern entered the cafe with a wary confidence, stopping only momentarily to take a look around try to read the room and find his contact, before making his way through the sea of suits. This was not his kind of cafe, then again these days if it was called a cafe it probably wasn't made with his sort of people in mind. Still the tech would ignore any looks, or insults his street-rat appearance got him unless it looked like something more serious was going to back it up and deliberately keep his hands where people could see them. "A pleasure to make your aquaintances." He would say, primarily looking at Giancarlo, but offering a nod to Makoko and Scythe as well.

 Stern - Tech Head SP:  | Body SP:  11 | Shield: 0 | HP: 45 / 45 INT: 5 | REF: 6 | DEX: 8 | TECH: 8 | COOL: 5 | WILL: 8 | LUCK: 4 | MOVE: 6 | BODY: 6 | EMP: 4 Humanity: 42 | Critical Injuries: 0 | Addictions: 0 | Eddies: 10 Heavy PistolHeavy Pistol Handguns 3d6 damage 8 clip 2 rof 1 Handed Concealable   Home - Cargo-Container in Upper Marina on the edge of the Old Bank Block Stern's fingers flicked back and forth, wisps of smoke rising from the soddering iron protruding from his ring finger as he worked on restoring the busted up connectors on a cyberarm some gonk had ripped off with a combat knife. Sighing at his own Mental Hypocrisy, the Tech would stretch, a series of pops, both metallic and non-sounding in the silence of the cargo-container. "I already got paid for this one too..." Still, rent last month had come razor close, advance payment meant more work for less money. As he restored the last few connectors, he would raise the arm up, giving his work a once over before picking up his agent to give Johanna a call. Even as he took hold of the agent it would light up, the clip of a chainsaw revving playing and a notification popping onto it's screen. "Huh, sounds like a good way to get paid." And tapping a few buttons on his agent to bring up his accounts showed he really needed to be paid.   To: Don Luca Sounds like a good deed, I'm interested. To: Johanna That arm you paid me for last week is done, the one with the claw fingers, that Murphy ripped off some Tyger? Neural Connectors are all fixed up. Should be ready for your ripper pal. I've got some Biz to take care of so I'll be out for a bit. I'll drop it at the usual place. And with that, he would stand, tools retracting into his cyberhand, he would wrap the arm in a well worn piece of bubble-wrap that was probably manufactured before the corporate wars, and slide the whole mess into his carryall. Pulling his armorjack off the hook next to his desk, he would sling it on. Pulling his shades from the pocket and checking his holster for the iron inside, he would step out of the cargo container and into the light. Locking it behind him as he started walking north.  

Stern - Tech Head SP:  | Body SP:  11 | Shield: 0 | HP: 45 / 45 INT: 5 | REF: 6 | DEX: 8 | TECH: 8 | COOL: 5 | WILL: 8 | LUCK: 4 | MOVE: 6 | BODY: 6 | EMP: 4 Humanity: 42 | Critical Injuries: 0 | Addictions: 0 Heavy PistolHeavy Pistol Handguns 3d6 damage 8 clip 2 rof 1 Handed Concealable  

I'm honestly not seeing the reasoning for this statement? My point is that if somebody plays a puny wimp who pumps their body with cyberware, then they'll end up better off than somebody who was muscular to begin with. I hadn't even looked at the mechanical implications until after I'd already asked my initial question, at which point I felt obligated to do the research. As for why I wanted to dump body and build it up, yeah, Stern is a Techie nerd where a prime theme I wanted to go with was use and abuse of cyberware. It doesn't make sense for him to be a big tough dude when the whole point is for him to want to get built to the gills anyway. You don't want to get strong if you're already strong.

So when I say I looked into it, I basically just trawled through the homebrew channel on the official R Talsorian Discord as well as googled around to see what others had done. The often touted list there for inventions was... ▷ Don't make an invention that makes an x1 skill better or even at par with an x2 skill. ▷ Don't make Cyberware or Drugs that increase DEX, EMP or LUCK. ▷ Don't make a weapon that is ROF 3 ▷ Don't make weapons that deal more than 8d6 or 2d6x5 damage with a single Attack. ▷ Don't make an ROF 2 weapon that does more than 4d6 damage, unless its a borg weapon (Requires BODY 11 or higher). ▷ Don't make a weapon that can make aimed shots at a damage higher than 5d6, unless its a borg weapon (Requires BODY 11 or higher). ▷ Don't make an invention that mimics a Role Ability or makes it obsolete. Cyberpunk Red did walk back a lot of the stat boosting items present in 2020, but the main issue is that they left a lot of means to boost BODY. What that leaves is that anyone putting a point in body at chargen is mechanically handicapped compared to anyone else. Because those points could be put into something you couldn't change later. You need two implants (Which provide 2 body apiece) and 8 body to reach the best implanted linear frame if you start at 4 Body. It costs an additional internal cyberware slot at 2 body, because you need another dose of grafted muscle and bone lacing. But at the end of the day, anything above 4 body is a waste unless you intend to play an Organic Solo a la Blackhand. Which is a totally valid concept! But if you're already intending to cyber up, which I am, it puts you in a weird place where anything more than 4 body is an absolute waste, and 2 body is best if you feel like living dangerously and squeezing out an extra couple points somewhere else. Likewise, you get this weird situation where you can get chipped with speedware that makes you faster than the opposition and at least if the show is meant to be accurate turns you into the flash for a couple of seconds, but you can't dodge bullets unless you took REF 8 at chargen. So you're either always fast enough to dodge bullets or never fast enough to dodge bullets. There is no room for growth there. Which thinking about it, could be an alternate effect. Enables Bullet Dodging even without REF 8. I admit I hadn't given the skills connected to REF too much thought. Since a +2 bonus, while significant, didn't really seem game breaking to me when it came down to it, hitting more often isn't really too bad when it comes to ranged combat but given the way ranged combat works, even if you maxed it out to a +20 you're not that much better off than if you were stuck at +18. Either your opponent can dodge bullets, in which case you have a slight edge. Or you have to hit the DV, which just means you're accurate at a longer range, which while useful, isn't a huge deal. And driving is kind of a pass-fail sort of skill anyway. The skill aspect really kind of is the main issue for implementing something like bodyware for other attributes. I almost feel like they should have some kind of tiered system, for essential attributes and nonessential. Because as is, dumping body just makes too much sense if you're going to go borged out anyway.

So I'm going to preface this with, having done some research, adding something like Grafted Muscle and Bone Lacing for other stats is probably a bad idea balance wise. However I still like one of the ideas I was toying with so I figured I'd throw it in as a potential future invention that doesn't stack.   Name: Sensory Compiler Cyberware Type: Chipware/Neuralware Install: N/A Description & Data: A chipware implant that piggybacks off of an implanted BD Recorder, parsing the sensory data collected through specialized algorithms intended to analyze the data, separate the valuable information from the noise, and feed that back into the users Neuralware allowing for enhanced spatial awareness and improved reaction times. +2 REF, Cannot take the user above 10 REF. Additional installations provide no additional benefit. Requires a Braindance Recorder implant, and Chip-Socket to function. Option Slots: N/A Cost: Very Expensive (1,000 EB) Humanity Loss: 14 (4d6)

So I'm working out the stats, by normal rules there's no way to advance stats once your character is made except a variety of Body improving Cyberware. Would it be possible to use the Tech invention feature to invent things that work like grafted muscle and bone lacing but for other stats? Not pre-game but during play.

So I finally got around to doing the enemies, friends, and Tragic Love rolls. (I wanted to do them here because they always seemed higher stakes than the rest of the background rolls.)   And it's kind of appropriate but also oddly funny to me. Between his family in the backstory and the fact that his first two girlfriends died... Of the seven people he's ever been close to, more than half are dead. 4 - 3.   Good ol' Cyberpunk Chargen.

Ok! Thanks! Yeah, honestly not much I could upgrade but I had wanted to upgrade the cybereye just because it was something he had personally worked on. (Plus an upgrade to a cybereye is fairly cheap.)

Bit of an odd question, but when building the character, is it possible to apply Tech upgrades to things as we buy them? Or would I have to do that later?

Stern Tech INT REF DEX TECH COOL WILL LUCK MOVE BODY EMP 5 6 8 8 5 8 4 6 4 (6) 8 (4) HP DEATH SAVES HUMANITY MONEY 45 6 42 - 70 - 80   AWARENESS SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Concentration [Will]   2 8 10 Conceal/Reveal Objects [INT]     5 5 Lip Reading [INT]     5 5 Perception [INT]   2 5 7 Tracking [INT]     5 5 CONTROL SKILLS         Drive Land Vehicle [REF]     5 5 Pilot Air Vehicle [REF]     5 5 Pilot Sea Vehicle [REF]     5 5 Riding [REF]     5 5 BODY SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Athletics [DEX]   2 8 10 Contortionist [DEX]     8 8 Dance [DEX]     8 8 Endurance [WILL]   3 8 11 Resist Torture & Drugs [WILL]   3 8 11 Stealth [DEX]   2 8 10 PERFORMANCE SKILLS         Acting [COOL]     5 5 Play: Instrument [TECH]     8 8 Play: Instrument [TECH]     8 8 EDUCATION SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Accounting [INT]     5 5 Animal Handling [INT]     5 5 Buearocracy [INT]     5 5 Business [INT]     5 5 Composition [INT]     5 5 Criminology [INT]     5 5 Cryptography [INT]     5 5 Deduction [INT]   4 5 9 Education [INT]   2 5 7 Gamble [INT]     5 5 EDUCATION SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Language [Street Slang] [INT]   4 5 9 Language [English] [INT]   4 5 9 Language [INT]     5 5 Library Search [INT]     5 5 Local Expert [Northside] [INT]   5 5 10 Local Expert [INT]     5 5 Local Expert [INT]     5 5 Science [INT]   5 5 10 Tactics [INT]     5 5 Wilderness Survival [INT]     5 5 SOCIAL SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Bribery[COOL]     5 5 Conversation [EMP]   2 4 6 Human Perception [EMP]   2 4 6 Interrogation[COOL]     5 5 Persuasion [COOL]   2 5 7 Personal Grooming[COOL]   4 5 9 Streetwise [COOL]   5 5 10 Trading  [COOL]     5 5 Wardrobe & Style [COOL]   4 5 9           TECHNIQUE SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Air Vehicle Tech [TECH]     8 8 Basic Tech [TECH]   2 8 10 Cybertech [TECH]   4 8 12 Demolitions (x2) [TECH]     8 8 Electronics / Security [TECH]   2 8 10 First Aid [TECH]   2 8 10 Forgery [TECH]     8 8 Land Vehicle [TECH]     8 8 Paint / Draw / Sculpt [TECH]     8 8 Paramedic (x2) [TECH]     8 8 TECHNIQUE SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Photography / Film [TECH]     8 8 Pick Lock [TECH]   4 8 12 Pick Pocket [TECH]     8 8 Sea Vehicle Tech [TECH]     8 8 Weapons Tech [TECH]   4 8 14 RANGED WEAPONS SKILLS Autofire (x2) [REF]     6 6 Handgun [REF]   4 6 10 Heavy Weapons (x2) [REF]     6 6 Shoulder Arms[REF]     6 6 FIGHTING SKILLS MODS RANKS STAT TOTAL Brawling [DEX]   3 8 11 Evasion [DEX]   3 8 11 Martial Arts (x2) [DEX]     8 8 Martial Arts (x2) [DEX]     8 8 Melee Weapons [DEX]     8 8                                                   LIFEPATH Cultural Origin North American Motivations Power Environment  Safe Corp Zone Personality Intellectual and Detached  Opinions of People People are obstacles to be destroyed if they get in the way. Family Crisis  Family was killed, with Stern the only survivor Personal Style Gang Colors Valued Person Johanna Friends   Hairstyle Unkempt Valued Possession An old Recording, his first Cyber-eye Enemies None, Yet.... Affectation Piercings and Chrome Background Corporate Technicians Life Goals  To achieve cybernetic perfection, with cyberware of his own design and manufacture. ROLE LIFEPATH What Kind of Tech Are you?  Cyberware Technician Where do you get your supplies? Strip the gear from bodies after firefights. What's your workspace like?  Only I understand my filing system. Who are your main Clients?  Local Gangers. Who's Gunning for you? A rival gang, who wants him to work for them exclusively. ROLE ABILITY DESCRIPTION RANKS Maker - 4 Fabrication 2 Maker - 4 Upgrade 2 Maker - 4 Invention 2 Maker - 4 Field 2       WEAPON TYPE WEAPON SKILL SINGLE SHOT DAM MAGAZINE SIZE RATE OF FIRE HANDS REQUIRED CONCEALMENT COST Heavy Pistol Handguns  3d6  8 2 1 Yes 100                                                 ARMOR TYPE ARMOR DESCRIPTION STOPPING POWER ARMOR PENALTY COST Light Armorjack  A combination of Kevlar® and plastic meshes inserted into the weave of the fabric. 11 N/A  100           CYBERWARE INSTALL DESCRIPTION & DATA COST HUMANITY LOSS Grafted Muscle & Bone Lacing  Hospital Increases BODY by 2. The increase changes HP, Wound Threshold, and Death Save. Multiple installments stack. Cannot raise BODY above 10. 1,000  14 Cyberarm (Right) 2/4 Clinic Replacement arm. Has 4 Option Slots. Comes installed with Standard Hand that doesn't cause Humanity Loss or take up an Option Slot. 500 7 Tech Scanner Clinic Techscanner installed in Cyberarm. Helps diagnose broken tech. +2 to multiple TECH-based Skills. Requires a Cyberarm and takes 2 Option Slots 500 7 Cyberoptic (Right) Clinic Artificial Eye. Each Cybereye has 3 Option Slots. Some options must be paired (purchased twice and installed in two different Cybereyes on a user. HL must be paid for each). 100 7 Tool Hand Clinic Fingers contain screwdriver, wrench, small drill, and other tools. Can be installed as only piece of Cyberware in a meat arm. 100  3                                         GEAR DESCRIPTION COST Agent  Self-adaptive AI powered smartphone. +2 to Library Search. +2 to Wardrobe and Style under some circumstances. See pg. 352 for more information.  100 Carryall  Bag for carrying stuff. 20 Flashlight 100m/yd beam of light. Lasts 10 hours on a charge. 20                                       CHIC DESCRIPTION COST BOTTOM Gang Colors  A pair of well worn black denim jeans. 50  TOP Gang Colors A black Tee-shirt, crudely emblazoned with the words "I survived a night at the Totentanz and all I got was this shirt." 20 JACKET Gang Colors A leather jacket, with a many-eyed skull printed on the back. 50 FOOTWEAR Gang Colors A set of well worn black boots. 20 JEWELRY       MIRRORSHADES Gang Colors A set of red tinted reflective shades. 20 GLASSES       CONTACT LENSES       HAT       FASHIONWARE Chemskin Dyes and pigments infused into the skin to permanently change its hue. +2 to Personal Grooming if user also has Techhair. 100 FASHIONWARE Techhair Color-light-emitting artificial hair. +2 to Personal Grooming if user also has Chemskin. 100 FASHIONWARE Light Tattoo A grinning cybernetic skull, with three eyes, above the Chrome counter. 100 FASHIONWARE 'Kill' Display A reprogrammed Kill-Display on his flesh and blood forearm. It reads CHROME: 13% (Counts as Light Tattoo) 100 FASHIONWARE Light Tattoo Mechanical patterned red-highlights along his neck and throat. 100 FASHIONWARE Biomonitor Subdermal implant which generates a readout of vitals. Can link to Agent. 100 PERSONALITY Stern is friendly, intelligent, with a genuine passion for cybertechnology. But he is also aloof and distant. Prone to bouts of morbidity, fatalism, and possessing a deep-seated streak of ruthlessness born of a childhood in post-nuclear Night City. Though he's lived on the mean streets of night city for years now, his mannerisms and attitudes betray his corpo origins even after all this time. APPEARANCE A wiry punk in the Maelstrom style, Stern's right arm is obviously chrome with his left, being covered in light-tattoos. His former slight, malnourished build makes the implanted mechanical muscles all the more obvious, as the dyes and pigments infused in his skin gives it a pallid, corpse-like hue. Combined with the white tech-hair and red highlights, the Chrome junkie appears to be affecting a look of artificial Albinism. Beyond that, he looks much like any other punk you might find in the combat zones of north NC. HISTORY The child of Arasaka Corporate technicians, Gerald was born in 2016. He spent much of his early childhood in one Corpo-Education program or another. Then at the age of five that all changed. 2023. The Fall of the Towers. The assaults on Night city had Gerald’s parents moving him out of their apartment in the city center, and the last he saw of either of his parents was his father, driving into the distance to try and reach Arasaka tower to pick up his mother. Thirty Minutes later, the city center vanished in a nuclear fireball. Their home was destroyed. Arasaka was forced out of the country, and Gerald was out on the streets. Starving, Scared, and alone, he spent the next three weeks picking through the rubble of night city looking for food, or things he could trade for food. Sleeping in a makeshift cave in a pile of rubble on the Northside. That was where Johanna found him, a Maelstrom ganger. And if things had gone differently, maybe that’s where he would have died. But a childhood spent in the home of Cybertech Engineers rubs off on even a young child. He had been identifying various implants on corpses, and had been clumsily harvesting them, cleaning them up, and trying to figure out how to sell or barter with them. Pleased with the cache of, albeit broken, cyberware Johanna took him in. From there she set him to work scavenging for her. As the years went on he graduated from corpse scavenging to running repairs for Johanna. Stern found himself a satellite to the gangs operations. Not quite a member, but not quite an outsider either.

So, how do dice rolls work here in Baldr?

Character name: Gerald Sterner   Character handle: Stern Role: Tech Appearance: A mid-twenty something, wearing Maelstrom gang colors, Heavy fabrics and a multitude of pockets while sporting obvious chrome, including a singular glowing red cyber-eye.   Personality: Stern is friendly, intelligent, with a genuine passion for cybertechnology. But he is also aloof and distant. Prone to bouts of morbidity, fatalism, and possessing a deep-seated streak of ruthlessness born of a childhood in post-nuclear Night City.   History: The child of Arasaka Corporate technicians, Gerald was born in 2016. He spent much of his early childhood in one Corpo-Education program or another. Then at the age of five that all changed. 2023. The Fall of the Towers. The assaults on Night city had Gerald’s parents moving him out of their apartment in the city center, and the last he saw of either of his parents was his father, driving into the distance to try and reach Arasaka tower to pick up his mother. Thirty Minutes later, the city center vanished in a nuclear fireball. Their home was destroyed. Arasaka was forced out of the country, and Gerald was out on the streets. Starving, Scared, and alone, he spent the next three weeks picking through the rubble of night city looking for food, or things he could trade for food. Sleeping in a makeshift cave in a pile of rubble on the Northside. That was where Johanna found him, a Maelstrom ganger. And if things had gone differently, maybe that’s where he would have died. But a childhood spent in the home of Cybertech Engineers rubs off on even a young child. He had been identifying various implants on corpses, and had been clumsily harvesting them, cleaning them up, and trying to figure out how to sell or barter with them. Pleased with the cache of, albeit broken, cyberware Johanna took him in. From there she set him to work scavenging for her. As the years went on he graduated from corpse scavenging to running repairs for Johanna. Stern found himself a satellite to the gangs operations. Not quite a member, but not quite an outsider either. Treasured Things: A cybereye Johanna gave him, that he fixed up and chipped. A recording of the call his mother made to his father just before the Tower fell. Important Connections: Johanna - Low level gangoon who took Gerald in after his parents died. Now a business partner. Goal: To replace his body with cybernetics of his own personal design and manufacture, and rise through the ranks of the gang.

Speaking of Lawman, is refluffing it as a ganger acceptable? Basically Backup works exactly the same except instead of cops, you're calling nearby gangoons to come and back you up fluff wise.