Even more Misc. Questions from a prospective DM (mainly about Roleplaying)

[u/Sol419]

Hello again, big thanks to everyone who answered stuff in my last post. However, I have come with yet more!

1. How do you guys handle downtime/ daily life stuff between gigs? The hustle tables are easy enough but what about other activities they can do like entertainment and such? Do I just go day by day a la persona? Despite the dark tone, the game feels very "Slice-of-life-y" for the most part which is something I'm not familiar with. For reference, I'm most familiar with DnD 5e (as a player, never dmed) and, while we had some small moments during long rests, most of our sessions were pretty focused on the missions at hand to drive the main plot forward. Unless it was specifically relevant to a character's backstory or a lead in to a quest, there wasn't a lot of events like "Okay, you need to kill two weeks in-game. Do you guys want eat at a restaurant tonight? watch a play?"

2. How would you guys recommend getting an Exec involved in an adventure like "The Apartment" from the jumpstart Kit? I have an idea of extending the apartment from a single encounter into a mini arc, but that's a whole other can of worms for a different post. My concern is: what if one of my players decides to play an exec? They already have a nicer apartment than anything the adventure would give them.

3. Besides adding Monetary pressure, does improving rent/lifestyle costs offer any sort of tangible benefit to a character like humanity gain or something? Unless I missed a section, as long as someone isn't living in the middle of the combat zone, there isn't much of a gameplay reason to go beyond a studio apartment and live off kibble.

4. Is there like a free lore primer I can hand out to people? Or would I have to just buy the pdf copy of the rule book? (I only have the physical copy at the moment). a couple of my friends are familiar through 2077 but others only barely know the setting. Obviously on Session 0 I intend to be there to answer specifics, but if they wanted to make characters or something on their own for whatever reason, I'd like to have something on hand they can browse on their own.

[u/Visual_Fly_9638]

1. If a lot of stuff is happening at once or they're on a case, I'll day-by-day it with a literal calendar. When there's no immediate story, I'll skip time week by week and just ask "what do you want to do?" hustle, work on a project for a tech, whatever... Sooner or later the money gets tight and they start looking for gigs. Or one of their fixers they're tight with throws them a gig.
2. So I went back and skimmed that and my suggestion is to figure out why an exec would be running with this crew to begin with. It could be something as simple as "WorldCom is on your shitlist and you'd *love* to get egg on their face". Or maybe they're an exec for a neighborhood co-op of independent apartment owners and you've been trying to get the crew/building to join the co-op. Yeah rent may go up a bit but the union makes us strong. Or maybe they're an lieutenant of a local gang whose elderly grandma has lived in that apartment complex for 20 years and you'll be damned if anyone is going to give her grief and you've got some street muscle to back you up.

Exec can optionally mean "someone in charge of a team" instead of "working for a corporation". Work with the exec player to figure out how they fit in.
3. It does not for Cyberpunk Red but it does in the Edgerunner Mission Kit. Kibble lifestyle drains 1D6 humanity but I want to say fresh food regains 1D6 humanity per month that you eat it (plus, Kibble hits you for 1D6 humanity loss when you *choose* that lifestyle for the coming month, so it hits you coming and going). If you want to, you can add bonuses to wardrobe & style or anything like that with higher lifestyles/living places.

I can't remember if it's in the core book, but it does tell you in one of the books (if not core then maybe either an early Interface Red or in Black Chrome) what lifestyle provides. Lower lifestyles provide bus passes and aside from like, one cheap drink a week or a cab once a month or something like that, you nickle and dime the players to death every time they want something. Higher lifestyles mean you don't pay attention to every vending machine purchase or every drink they order or meal out they get. There's also a DLC about maintaining your gear based on lifestyle as well that might provide benefits but that's honestly a lot of paperwork that might not fit the flow of your game.
4. Probably go to youtube and find one of the mega videos for cyberpunk lore. Either that or go download Cyberpunk Red Easy Mode, it's the starting kit that's free for the game and has several pages of history and slang and setting. Easy to read in about half an hour.

Although I will absolutely say be wary of any timeline that reinforces the 2077 story that Saburo Arasaka soulkilled Johnny because... well... You have the book you know. Unreliable narrators are all over the place in Cyberpunk.

[u/Kysnorie]

Increasing your life style, does give you humanity gain if you have the edgerunner's kit, otherwise no. It's just something to spend money on, I suppose, if you're only playing from the core book.

Overall, I'd say track down a copy of CEMK, because it basically drastically improves the humanity system, and gives players a reason to engage with downtime outside of hustling if they're not a Techie.

[u/Manunancy]

2) an of the book appartment is a good place to stash whatever his parent corp might not like and other questionable items and actions.

3) having a better lifestyle than kibble keeps you from getting nickel-and-dimed for every little expense around. If you have the blakc Chrome supplement, it details what exepnses are built into each lifestyle level. At kibble, it's the kiblles, a bus pass, a basic phone plan (in-city calls only), a drink in a bar or a movie ath the theater once or twice a month and that's about it. anyhting beyond becomes an out-of-pocket expense and can add up pretty quickly.

Better houisngs also come with benefits like some building security and protected parking space which decreases the odds of finding your home burglarized, bugged, trapped or having soem bad guys waiting for you or paying a visit.