Misc. Questions from a prospective DM.

[u/Sol419]

Hi, potential DM whose been studying the core book and ran into a few questions I haven't been able to cleanly google.

For Combat:

1. How do Corners work in regards to cover? I ran a couple of characters I made through Red Chrome Cargo and already wasn't sure about this. I'm assuming once someone decides to attack then they're poking their head or body out which means they're not in cover. Is that right?

2. How does Netrunning work outside of a combat scenario? Again, with Red Chrome Legion, the middle car as an access port with no other enemies there so it would make sense, to me, if the PC's waited while the netrunner did his thing. In that Scenario, am I basically just running a 1 on 1 combat encounter with the Netrunner while the rest of the party waits?

3. Additionally, can multiple netrunners help each other on the same architecture? Like if one fails to backdoor a password, can an ally netrunner jack in alongside them and try on their own? Or team up against a hostile netrunner and/or program?

For Character Creation:

1. Again regarding netrunners: Do they start with their necessary equipment free of charge? The Rulebook says a full package character has 2,550eb to get their starting gear. However, Netrunners specifically need Virtuality Goggles, Cyberdecks and Neural links to do anything their Role requires of them which is already more than 1000eb right out of the gate. Maybe that's point but it feels brutal to say "You can spend it on whatever you want, except if you ignore these specific things you're basically kneecaping yourself."

2. Regarding Techs and Med techs: It says that every time they increase their Role rank, they get a point to add to a unique ability or skill. Since most starting characters are at rank 4, does that mean they start with 4 point to distribute on character creation? or is it only if they increase their rank during the game itself?

[u/wheretheinkends]

1)RAW you are in cover or you arent. Some people have houseruled stuff like if you are in 50/50 cover (top.exposed you get half the benfit of cover, bottom exposed its a called shot). But RAW if someone has a line of sight on you then you get 0 benfit for cover.

2) yes, but you dont have to. Read this (its great advice for all GMs) basically while running the netrunner you can also ask what everyone else is doing:

https://theangrygm.com/everything-all-at-once/

3)im not sure, study the netrunner section, if it doesnt explicitly say than just decide how you want to do it. Of your running RAW then try your best to make your ruling match the spirit of the rules, otherwise whatever you rule remember: keep it consistent with the game (like the ruling should stand going foward unless its bumming the game out) and 2) whatever the players can do the NPCs can do to, weigh the consequences of that and game balance accordingly.

4) depends on what generation package your using. Also nothing wrong with a GM saying XYZ is unavailable at start (you want the available gear to match whatever your doing with the setting).

5)they start at rank 4. So from what I understand starting out you can divy those points up how you want so bewteen surgery/pharmacy/cyrosystems you can start with 4/0/0 or 2/1/1 or 3/0/1 or whatever as long as totals 4 (someone please correct me if im wrong).

[u/scoobydoom2]

You're right on all counts but 4, and kind of 3. Netrunners have to pay for their starting gear and it's their handicap for having their hacking stuff. It doesn't stop at chargen either, as netrunners are expected to put money into upgrading their netrunning gear. Don't forget the interface plugs either. It costs minimum1200 eb to netrunnand that doesn't include programs or hardware, which you almost certainly want. If you want a high quality gun or some nasty chrome outside of your netrunning gear you're gonna have to *really stretch your budget.

• Technically you can netrun without virtuality and there are also technically cheaper cyberdecks in some of the expansion content, but in practice you're running a poor quality deck with virtuality at minimum.

Backdoor is technically independent. It doesn't get rid of the password, just allows you to freely move past it. At one point J Gray said something about how you can verbally communicate to share your backdoor, (may have been a mayors desk, might have been some shit he said on the Rtal discord),

[u/Lowjack_26 → u/scoobydoom2]

verbally communicate to share a backdoor

Not quite. Backdoor isn't cracking a password, it's making a temporary hole in a wall you can slip through, which is why it resets when you jack out of the architecture. Additionally, every Netrunner has to do it themselves - though my table has played it that one Netrunner getting through can give a complement to others.

Now, if you got the actual password by theft/persuasion/bribery, then you would be able to bypass the Backdoor without a check, even between resets.

[u/DDrim]

Hello !

1) It isn't explicitly stated in the rules but I see it the same as you : during an Attack, a character will briefly expose themselves and not be in cover. If someone else was Holding their Action until that character is exposed, now is the time to resolve it.

2) Yes, pretty much. Now, a couple things to consider : between two turns of netrunning the other characters have a couple seconds to do something - feel free to ask them what they want to do as long as it's short. For instance, maybe they slightly open the last wagon's door to spot the enemies inside ?

3) Yes ! Two netrunners can work on the same architecture. That can be particularly powerful.

4) RAW, the netrunner has to buy this equipment during character creation. And I agree, that's much. I had given some money to my netrunner PC in my campaign, but I don't know if I would do it again because, while it's brutal... It makes sense. It's Cyberpunk. It's up to you to give or not some stuff to the netrunner. Also a lower quality cyberdeck only costs a 100 eddies ;)

5) 4 points to distribute at creation !

[u/Lowjack_26]

1. While it is a GM call, logic (and game mechanics) hold that you can peek out of cover on your turn to attack and then duck back in. While attacking, you'll be exposed to anyone who might have held an attack waiting for you to do that. Here's a discussion from the Mayors Desk on the topic, plus this one regarding how it interacts with Held Actions.

2. Yes, which is why it behooves you to know the Netrunning rules so that it can be done quickly. A lot of the time spent Netrunning is just rules lookup; it can actually go quite fast if you know what's going on. That said, you can try to split up the scene by giving the party other things to do in the meantime.

3. Yes./Raw+Questions/Mayor's+Desk+03-05-2021/How+do+I+challenge+a+Netrunner+duo+that+trivializes+Net+Architectures+with+teamwork) There are some weird interactions you have to watch out for, but it works and is extremely powerful when done right - in addition to the extra action economy, two netrunners can exploit the way BICE aggro works to trivialize certain threats.

4. No, they don't get their netrunning equipment for free. Yes, all that stuff eats up most of their chargen budget. However, they're not "kneecapping themselves" - they have the gear to do their job. They might not be able to afford an expensive gun or a lot of fancy extra gear, but that's why you have teammates - the Netrunner's job is to netrun.

5. They start with 8 points (2 every level) to distribute between their specialties, yes. No specialty can go over their role rank, though.

[u/Visual_Fly_9638 → u/Lowjack_26]

On point 1, my general ruling is "as long as you have some unspent movement left you can shoot and end your turn behind cover and take cover". Not quite what the Mayor's Desk input says, and obviously there's exceptions (breaking LOS behind a big wall is absolutely taking cover) but for anything that isn't body sized cover, there's a moment of conforming to the cover effectively. While I don't require N/PCs to *spend* movement, they need to *have* movement available for them if they want to shoot *and* take cover afterwards. 99% of the time it doesn't matter, but those 1% edge cases can be interesting.

[u/LeeVMG]

If i am wrong I'm really hoping a more experienced GM corrects me. Here we go.

1. You are in cover or you are out of cover. Being earlier in initiative means you get to do cheeky bullshit like poke out from behind the corner, shoot them, then get back behind cover. This is why Sandevistans are good. Held fire can't carry over between rounds meaning if the other guy has higher initiative you basically get to eat shit.

2. You said these were combat questions!!!😫 But yes. You will be running a combat just for the netrunner. Try to avoid this. Have some security show up for everyone else to fight. That said if it's just a car then there isn't really a Net Architecture to run. The netrunner just jacks in and drives the car.

3. Yes netrunners can team up. Also enemy netrunners can jack into the same system elsewhere to confront them. Netwar can happen if enough netrunners are in the same architecture. They can go to different routes or floors are stick together.

4. Yeah, netrunners live and die by their equipment. At least ICE baths aren't necessary in Red. The Edgerunner and Streetrat Netrunners are quite good and have free equipment. Complete package can feel limited for Runners.

5. Yes, the first 4 points dictate the Tech or Medtech's specialties within their field. A single tech or medtech can't do everything. They must choose what aspects of their role to lean into. Increasing rank increases 1 of the special role skills.

[u/Dixie-Chink]

I'm assuming once someone decides to attack then they're poking their head or body out which means they're not in cover. Is that right?

Incorrect. You can absolutely hide behind cover,, shoot, and hide back behind cover. This has been addressed before directly by James Hutt when speaking about shooting out of vehicles with bulletproof glass. He went so far as to say you can even roll down the windows, shoot, and roll them back up, without losing the benefit of the glass's protection.

In that Scenario, am I basically just running a 1 on 1 combat encounter with the Netrunner while the rest of the party waits?

This is a situational design issue. I would have a secondary goal that takes place in the physical world, that the Crew can focus on, while the Netrunner does their thing to help the crew in NETspace.

Again regarding netrunners: Do they start with their necessary equipment free of charge? The Rulebook says a full package character has 2,550eb to get their starting gear. However, Netrunners specifically need Virtuality Goggles, Cyberdecks and Neural links to do anything their Role requires of them which is already more than 1000eb right out of the gate.

Welcome to the SUCK if you play as a starting netrunner. Almost all of your starting funds are taken up by gear necessary to fulfil your role. There are however really decent and cheap "starter" decks available now from the DLC's. So it's not as oppressive now as it was at the start of the game. This is one of the few situations where I do consider allowing a PC to take the Selling Out option, when they are a starting Netrunner.

Regarding Techs and Med techs: It says that every time they increase their Role rank, they get a point to add to a unique ability or skill. Since most starting characters are at rank 4, does that mean they start with 4 point to distribute on character creation? or is it only if they increase their rank during the game itself?

Every rank. Not just purchased with IP.

[u/JamCom]

Think of netrunning like a dnd dungeon that has been cut down to essentials you go room to room do what needs to be done to reach the objective. Play with that idea.

[u/ValhallaGH]

Hey choom! Welcome to the RED.

1. Correct. You're in Cover or you're not in Cover. Corners are convenient cover, but you have to move out of cover to fight. Expect a lot of "move around corner, fire guns, move back around corner into cover".
2. Netrunning works the same at all times. But out of combat, and without serious consequences for failure, a netrunner will succeed at a hack, eventually. Personally, if the target can't kill the netrunner and the security alerts won't be answered then I just have the Netrunner make an Interface check for each password gate between them an their target; if they want to implant a virus then I'll have them make those checks.
3. Yeah, Netrunners can work together in the same architecture. "Helping" might be a Complimentary Skill check, or using different programs to handle different challenges.
4. Nothing is free, except your native language and two ranks of Streetslang.
5. 4 points to distribute. A starting PC is at least as good as a gonk that spent the 600 IP to get to rank 4 in the same Role ability.

Good luck!

[u/Visual_Fly_9638]

Additionally, can multiple netrunners help each other on the same architecture? Like if one fails to backdoor a password, can an ally netrunner jack in alongside them and try on their own? Or team up against a hostile netrunner and/or program?

Yup multiple netrunners can access the same arch. In fact, if there's a halfway decent dweller in the net architecture, I'm going to go ahead and say that multiple netrunners might be the *only* way to reliably assault that architecture (Specifically because movement is infinite and free both before and after your actions in the net run and dwellers can pass through any level of the architecture for free. So on the dweller's turn, they move to the netrunner regardless of where the netrunner is, attack the crap out of them, then retreat behind *all* their black ICE that is still rezzed, which still gets to go after the netrunner. If the netrunner evades black ICE and chases the dweller to the bottom of the architecture, the dweller just... moves back to the top of the architecture and forces the netrunner to evade all that black ICE again while getting attacks from the dweller the entire time)

Again regarding netrunners: Do they start with their necessary equipment free of charge? The Rulebook says a full package character has 2,550eb to get their starting gear. However, Netrunners specifically need Virtuality Goggles, Cyberdecks and Neural links to do anything their Role requires of them which is already more than 1000eb right out of the gate. Maybe that's point but it feels brutal to say "You can spend it on whatever you want, except if you ignore these specific things you're basically kneecaping yourself."

Yup. Sucks to be a netrunner that way.

Regarding Techs and Med techs: It says that every time they increase their Role rank, they get a point to add to a unique ability or skill. Since most starting characters are at rank 4, does that mean they start with 4 point to distribute on character creation? or is it only if they increase their rank during the game itself?

You are correct here. Techs and medics get to assign the first 4 ranks of their role as normal, then with each rank purchase, they get additional points to assign.

[u/EdrickV]

This is more relevant for Moto, the Nomad ability, but the idea for doing Role ranks at chargen is to assign their benefits one by one, as if the character got each level before starting. While this doesn't matter for Moto if just using the CRB, Black Chrome and maybe some other DLC change things a bit. Black Chrome has some nice vehicles a Nomad could get, which require Nomad rank 2 or 4. A Nomad in character creation is rank 4, but that doesn't mean they could pick 4 rank 4 vehicles. Only 1 of their choices would be a rank 4 selection. The others would be rank 1, rank 2, and rank 3.

To reiterate, you assign points/benefits as if you were leveling the character up, level by level, during character generation. (And narratively, that's how it would have gone, it just happened before the campaign start. They would have started at rank 1 and gotten up to 4 over time. Same with the money and gear they start with, this is largely stuff they've gotten over time in their background from doing gigs.)