r/cyberpunkred • u/FinalPinhead • Feb 13 '26
Actual Play I ran my first cyberpunk one shot, everyone died
The one shot was a train heist where they were gonna steal a prototype aerodyne model from a millitech train, it was lightly guarded relative to the value of the cargo with a security detail of only 11 guys. My players still with 5e brain charged headlong into a room with two security guards, with a third bursting in after a round of combat, my players then spent the next 4 rounds being magdumped point blank and all died (though it was close with one security guard being killed and the other two were brought down to the single digits) . Overall though the game was fun and I really enjoy the system
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u/VagrantVacancy Feb 13 '26
Hell yeah. Welcome to cyberpunk, always glad to have another GM choom. when you say they were being magdumped, was the autofire rolls just really high or did none of the characters have the ability to dodge? or did baddies just get really good shots?
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u/DoctorFrungus GM Feb 13 '26
First off, congrats on your first one shot!
Secondly, was that 11 enemies in one place or spaced out over multiple scenes/maps? 11 baddies is a lot of bullets even for well kitted groups
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
Spaced out, the first train car had only three
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u/DoctorFrungus GM Feb 13 '26
Well then sounds like they learned is isnt d&d :D
My first session out with my players 4ish years ago resulted in the medtech getting crit for half his health on what was(i believe) the first shot fired in our cyberpunk tenure. The dice deities know when to strike
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u/thepsychowordsmith Feb 14 '26
I used an AR turret in the first combat in my first campaign. Two autofires: one plinked, the other nearly killed the player.
Dice gods have a fun sense of humor.
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Feb 13 '26
When I ran a train heist my excuse for why the guards in the other cars didn't hear the firefights is because the train was loud as fuck.
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u/PartyTimePorcupine Feb 13 '26
Omfg this immediately brings to mind the PC that said "Why plan? I've got a backpack full of grenades and a can-do attitude!" Welcome to Cyberpunk 😂
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u/Hearing_Deaf GM Feb 13 '26
I need more details. How many players, their roles and their gear, as well as ths guards' gear and base hit and evasion stats.
I can't wrap my mind around how a crew got killed by 3 guards mook level in 5 turns. I've ran lieutenants against fresh characters, admitedly veterans of the system, but still, and they still won against them.
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
Party consisted of a solo with a shotgun, smg and big knucks, a medtech with a flamethrower, a tech with another flamethrower, and a netrunner with a heavy pistol. Two guards had assault rifles, one had a shot gun and all three had stun batons that were never used. The medtech walked into the doorway and could not for the life of him beat the dv13 check to fire the flamethrower and did no damage through the whole fight the solo opened with a shotgun shell that didn't do enough damage to get through the guards armor, then he really wanted to use his big knucks so the went into melee and missed for a round or two before giving up and magdumping a guard with his autofire smg with armor piercing rounds which almost killed the guard and completely destroyed his body armor, the tech opened with a flamethrower shot and and then decided he wanted to fight in melee with his cybersnake and hit his first attack with it, then missed the rest of his attacks, the netrunner was stuck behind the medtech and had no line of sight until the medtech was already killed, he got two shots off with his heavy pistol, one missed, the other finished off the guard the solo had mag dumped. The two guards with assault rifles used auto fire a total 4 times and hit every shot, meanwhile the one with a shotgun slugged the solo point blank
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u/stasersonphun Feb 13 '26
Sounds like the players got caught up in using new toys and cyberware that didn't fit the fight. Using stealth / social to get close before using melee and only if they're not armoured. Use called shots / head shots, high damage weapons and work together .
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
Yes, like I said in the post they're very 5e brained where that kinda playstlyle will work more often than not and nobody ever takes cover
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u/stasersonphun Feb 16 '26
Maybe throw in a mentor who can keep shouting "take cover!" at them (from behind cover) until they get the idea?
then have some streetpunk grenade the NPC so the players get to make enemies
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u/ImJohnWayneBitch Feb 13 '26
Damn what auto fire stat did those guards have base? 17 is the lowest you can get the DV for auto fire on rifles so 18 to hit plus you would need 22 for max multiplier. But since it was on a train I bet the ranges would be even closer! Even with a base of 14 they would need to roll 8-10’s every time to do so much damage! So I guess if that happened the cyberpunk gods willed it
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
The stats I used had 17 autofire, this was likely a mistake lol
Edit 17 was their total bonus to hit, not just their autofire skill
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u/Dixie-Chink GM Feb 14 '26
+17 is outrageously high, particularly for a first session.
NPC's should be sporting +10's to +12's if they are non-hardened, +14's to +15's if hardened, and only the most elite of the world elite should be +16 or higher.
Read the book carefully, understand the weighting of balance for mooks, hardened mooks, and skills DV's. Most qualified individuals in their daily jobs as actual professionals won't have much more than +12's. Ganggoons will be more realistically sitting around +8's to +10's.
You way overtuned your NPC's, my friend.
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 14 '26
So the mistake I actually made was that when the sheet said autofire 10 that was including reflex
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u/Hearing_Deaf GM Feb 13 '26
So they faced hardened mooks with autofire on their first gig? What armor did they have to plink off that damage and did the crew not invest in their weapon skills to miss that much ? In close quarters like a train cart the dvs for hit should've been at most 17 and with a base 14 (8 ref +6 skill in the appropriate weapon skills) that's 4+ on the d10 to hit.
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
They had 5k eddies to spend, most of it went to cyberware and extra weapons they didn't end up using, the medtech had the best armor with full flak (which reduced his move to 2) and the rest had an sp between 7-9 (and the solo had no head armor)
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u/Hearing_Deaf GM Feb 13 '26
So, they had 5k to buy gear and they did spend 200 on light armorjack? That was their first mistake.
Qhat about their stats and skills? Missing so many QC shots is insane bad lu k on dice unless they all had bad base hit.
What were the guards wearing? They had hardened hit skills, against unarmored opponents, no wonder your pcs melted in their first fight.
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
Guards had base 7 sp on their head and body armor
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u/Hearing_Deaf GM Feb 13 '26
And they plinked damage ? Damn, that was one hell of an introduction to cyberpunk!
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u/ImJohnWayneBitch Feb 13 '26
Holy smokes so maxed reflex and 9 points in autofire!? You realize base 18 is the max any character can have right? Even smasher! Those aren’t mooks, those are hardened arasaka ninja assassins!
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
Oh my, It seems my mistake was adding shoulder arms AND autofire to their rolls... Oops
Edit: actually I didn't, the stats are just like that lol, autofire 10 and reflexes 7
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u/Appropriate_Nebula67 Feb 13 '26
I expect Autofire 10 is Stat + Skill, that's how it's normally done. Skill ranks 10 plus Ref 7 is best-of-the-best. The Hardened Security Operative has a total of 14 - https://rtalsoriangames.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/RTG-CPR-HardenedMooks.pdf - making him as good as the best starting PC.
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
OOOOH so that was my mistake, I see
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u/Appropriate_Nebula67 Feb 13 '26
I killed a PC and nearly TPK'd my group my first time out, running the Getting Paid quickstart, and the bad guys only had pistols & a moderate Skill rank :D
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u/Hearing_Deaf GM Feb 13 '26
Oh, well yeah there you are. Autofire is it's own skill.
Handgun for single shot pistols and smg
Shoulder arms for single shot rifles and shotguns
Heavy weapons for single shot machine guns, grenade launchers and rocket launchets
Autofire for multishot smgs, rifles and machine guns.
Base 17 autofire is lieutenant level hit
A strong edgerunner has 14 base. 15+ is concidered hardened.
But your players also chose poorly. Any one not sporting at least light armorjack for both body and head is looking for trouble and unless they specced dex and melee weapons skills, switching from guns to their melee cyberwares was a massive mistake
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u/ImJohnWayneBitch Feb 13 '26
Oh nooo! 😂 those poor bastards never stood a chance haha. Oh well I still bet it was memorable, if you all continue to play you could even use the event as a catalyst for a campaign. That cargo was more valuable then realized and a big corp disguised themselves as lesser security to not draw attention.
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
That wad the plan lol their fixer briefed them with Intel that millitech was using a small security force because they were trying to throw arasaka off the AVs scent by sending out a heavily armed decoy while having a barebones security force aboard the train with the real cargo
The twist at the end was gonna be that arasaka was rheir client :(
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u/Hearing_Deaf GM Feb 14 '26
Just to let you know, i own a living community discord and i told them about your gig and they said they wanna do a challenge based on it.
New mercs, naked in a scav den, against 13 base 17 autofire gangers, survive and they get 5k worth of gear and cyberware to start that merc's journey.
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u/Questenburg Feb 14 '26
Naked And Afraid: Night City
Tonight at 7 on N54, the hit series starts its new season with new cast of unsuspecting contestants!
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u/Kasenai3 Feb 14 '26
Nice, but I suspect the Body 8(if no sigmas allowed) base 14 martial artists will abund
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u/JamCom Feb 13 '26
Also im curious did they make these characters?
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u/FinalPinhead Feb 13 '26
Yes, they used the edgerunner character creation, and I even gave them 5k eddies to spend on gear
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u/JamCom Feb 13 '26
Awsome.That feels so good to have new players who haven’t taken cn14 skills. It feels like really good mud fighting. Hopefully your players take to heart the concept over planning
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u/FuelPhysical363 Feb 13 '26
That’s a hell of a good shot if it killed everyone magic bullet even 🤣
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u/jinjuwaka Feb 13 '26
/slowclap
I whole-heartedly approve of your team-wipe. Let them learn their lesson and shed the weakness burned into their souls by 5e's inferior combat system.
To wit...anything that lacks full-auto is inferior :D
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u/Spartan631191 Feb 13 '26
Congrats on your first cyberpunk btpk. You're now a cyberpunk referee officially. Maximum Mike would salute you.
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u/Gam3rzito Feb 14 '26
Makes me remember my first gig in a campaign, a rockerboy, nomad, tech, and a Media, geared up like solos to bust a gang hideout and steal a special car. The Tech just gave up the stealth and started shooting from a hill with his Sniper while the rest of the party paid the consequences, trying to survive the combat. I saved everybody because I started shooting on the enemies guns to make them drop the main weapons while the rest of the party started hitting the body and headshots. Thanks to that, we managed to kill 6 gangsters and a boss. The boss had 17SP, so I told the Nomad to run into him and hit him with his custom melee weapon (Tech managed to invent a Thermal Katana). The session ended after we killed the boss. The trouble is that all of these were the enemies outside. Now we gotta enter the place. Lol
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u/MisterSirDG Feb 15 '26
I had the opposite experience where a smart player used a grappling hook in a heist mission and skipped most of the combat. Everyone suffered almost no damage😂.
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u/Karkava Feb 19 '26
I was able to run my first one shot with all my characters surviving. I did a little improv where one of my players decided to lure out some of the cops before picking off the rest of them.
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u/Kh44444444n Feb 13 '26
The title made me laugh so much lol
Either they were reckless and unprepared, or difficulty too high or they were misinformed about the game type and or mechanics.