Characters have 12 Attributes in Cybercore, this is slightly more than your average role-playing game, but we felt you couldn’t represent the wide varieties of creatures held in the multiverse with a mere 5 or 6. Also when you run out of them you are dead, so bonus.

These Attributes are grouped into 3 Categories, Physical, Mental, and MetaPhysical or just ‘Meta’ for short.

Attributes in Cybercore are the sum total of your bonuses from your Origin, Legacy, Training, Feats, and Equipment. While your Race and legacy provide a generally static bonus, talents and feats gained through training specializations can improve your attributes as you gain experience over your adventuring career.

When you fail in Cybercore (and oh, you will), the consequences cascade down the list: first Armour, then Health or Stress. If those run out, you can burn Grind or Luck. If those run out, you must sacrifice a point of a relevant Attribute. Hit 0 in any Attribute? Congrats, you're toast.

Attributes can be improved (cybernetics, anyone?), but not healed, so keep track of your base stat, without enhancements. They are your character’s soul scaffolding; treat them with care.

In addition to Attributes, characters have Active Stats; the meters that change during play: Armour, Bonds, Energy, Exhaustion, Grind, HITS, Luck, and Psych. These are covered in the Active Stats chapter under Cybersystem rules. Saving Throws (Challenges), Failing Forward, and Succeeding Backwards are also covered there.

Attributes

Social Attributes

Social attributes exist; and they’re still complicated. Welcome to space.

Persuasion(+/-) and Allure(+/-) can be either positive or negative.

Choose their bend during character creation.

These Social attributes are used with either a positive or negative bend. For instance, Persuasion as a Negative covers deception and intimidation, Allure(-) would be someone so horrifically scared they are frightening.

You can only use them within their polarity unless you have a feat (like Two-Faced) that says otherwise. So if your Allure(-) makes people quake in their boots, don’t expect it to sweet-talk a bartender.

Attributes Description

We will leave it over to Drill sergeant Jarvis (Ironass) to explain the core tenets of the abilities found in the Cybercore universe.

"Hey, that's Master Sargent Ironass berk!"

"Ok, you intergalactic bacterial spore samples! Welcome to the Core! We are here today to evaluate your lard asses for enrolment in the Mercs! Now the Mercs and most of the other crappier organizations you could join recognize 12 key attributes in performance. Don't you even dare think about pissing off to one of those other Orgs while I'm drilling ya! you lousy runts, we all use the same intergalactic recruitment agency and so we all just photo-dupe the same damn enrolment form.

To save you whiny ass looser's having to listen to the same drivel over and over I'll cover the lot now, besides it means this will take longer and we all like standing out in the rain now don't we.

"Sir! Yes Sir!"

Agility

Represents aim and coordination and assists with the amount of damage dealt when striking unarmed.

"If you can't catch a falling plasma grenade, well suddenly the phrase 'closed casket' makes a lot more sense. It's ok though you'll be listed in the after-action report as 'biological confetti.'"

Allure

Allure is your magnetism, the way you turn heads, stop conversations, or clear rooms without saying a word. It's charm, intimidation, seduction, menace, all wrapped in one dangerously attractive package.

Whether you're trying to woo a diplomat, terrify a gang leader, or make your enemies hesitate just long enough for the jump, Allure is your social gravity.

Frightening or fascinating; it all depends on your polarity.

"Allure, recruits, is why some folks get doors opened for them… and others an airlock, learn the distinction."
"And remember: when you walk into a room, people should either want to follow you… or run."

Foresight

Foresight is your cosmic spider-sense; the uncanny knack for spotting trouble right before it steps on your face. It covers tactical awareness, intuition, and the ability to read a situation faster than the average brain cell can scream "AMBUSH!"

Use it to anticipate enemy movements, avoid obvious traps (that others somehow miss), or just know when that strange humming sound means "get behind something solid."

"Foresight, recruits, is what separates the Mercs from the meatbags. It's that gut feeling that says 'don't trust the smiling android with the bone saw.'"
"Ignore it, and the cleanup crew's gonna need tweezers and a mop."

Fortitude

Fortitude is your body's "nope" stat; how many needles, bullets, sketchy food cubes, or questionable alien cocktails you can take before falling over, frothing, or exploding in a medically interesting way.

This governs your resistance to pain, poison, disease, radiation, parasites, and any other chemical sludge the galaxy tries to pour into your meat chassis.

"Fortitude, maggots, is what keeps you upright when your insides are trying to become your outsides. It's what says 'no thank you' to alien gastro-worms and stares down that alien syringe labeled in six dead languages."
"You want to live long enough to regret your life choices? Stack Fortitude."

Harmony

Harmony represents your inner balance, your metaphysical center, the thing that stops your mind from screaming OMG a serrated space barnacle bug is crawling out my ass" when it's really just a mildly uncomfortable situation. Probably.

It combines well with Willpower to determine how much Stress you can take before you start quoting ancient Terran poetry or trying to interface with the toaster.

"Harmony, recruits, is what stops your soul from leaking out your eyeballs when you stare into the abyss. Meditation helps. So does high-grade neural insulation."
"But mostly? It's not licking strange artifacts. Write that down."

Intellect

Intellect is raw brainpower; the stuff between your ears that isn't just skull echo. It covers memory, analysis, reasoning, and your ability to not wire the red cable into the fuel cell again.

Not technically required for the Mercs; unless you plan to survive more than a week or want to join Special Ops. Most of you failed this one the moment you showed up here in the rain, wearing metal armor, during a lightning storm.

But if you're planning to be a Space Jockey, Combat Tech, Engineer, or anything that involves circuits, pressure seals, or numbers bigger than three; you're going to need some grey matter. And probably a neural implant or two to make up for what's missing.

"Intellect, recruits, is what keeps the ship running, the doors locked, and the enemy's air supply routed through their waste system. You don’t need Intellect to die screaming. You need it to die last."

Might

You there, down the end, I said stand up straight!, I don't care that you come from a Grav .1 Planet you gelatinous blob of Fungus, you stand up when I'm talking to ya and you stand even straighter when I'm yelling at ya!

Strength represents your physical strength, it assists with the amount of damage you might deal when striking unarmed or with a melee weapon.

• Strength helps you lift and carry more items.
• It helps you pick up and wield oversized weapons like a rotary minigun.
• It helps you hit harder in melee, every point in strength is another point of damage.
• You can use it if you want to Pin-Grapple someone's limbs.

Strength helps you pansies stand up in the rain on a Grav 5 planet like this one. We still like that rain don't we recruit!"

"Sir! Yes, Sir!"

"Very good, now let's move on, I'm sure you would all appreciate being issued with your slug resistant combat vests before it starts to hail."

Perception

Perception is your sensor array; biological or otherwise. It’s what lets you spot an ambush before it starts, hear the safeties click off in the dark, or notice that the “dead” alien is still breathing. Barely.

It covers sight, sound, smell; all the things that should be wire directly into your frontal cortex on a good Merc, sure twitchy trigger fingers can be an issue, but it's a life saver.

As a general rule:

• Normal conversation: ~20 meters
• Shouting: ~100 meters
• Whispering: ~10 meters
  (Pro tip: if you can smell the alien before you see it, you’re probably too close.)

"Perception, recruits, is what keeps your organs inside your armor. Check corners, check ceilings, check your squadmate’s eyes; if they’re missing, the mission’s changed. It’s called Don’t Die now."
"Dump Perception, and your last words will be ‘huh?’"

Persuasion

Persuasion is classic people skills; leadership, confidence, smooth-talking, and lying so convincingly even you start to believe it. It's how you talk your way out of trouble, into the captain’s chair, get out of war crimes tribunals, and convince a customs officer that the six crates of contraband were “educational supplies.”

"Now I remember this time on Varkon-6, middle of a ceasefire that was barely holding together with duct tape and denial. My squad’s pinned down in a noodle stand, right? Outta ammo, outta cover, and outta luck."

"So I step out, adjust my collar, flash a smile that could sell oxygen to a water planet, and persuade a very angry Varkoni arms captain that he should lend us some of his gear… for diplomatic stability."

"Three hours later we were geared up, fed, and flying off-world with a signed trade agreement and three noodle recipes. That’s Persuasion, recruits. Learn it; or have your service record end with ‘traded for mustard and tactical napkins.’."

"Now move it! We’ve got a ceasefire to misinterpret."

Reflex

Reflex is your twitch stat; the difference between diving behind cover or becoming atmospheric seasoning. It governs your reaction speed, dodging ability, and whether you duck the plasma beam or end up decorating the ceiling with your neck.

Useful for everything from slipping past sentries to catching a dropped grenade before it turns you into meat confetti.

"Reflex, recruits, saved my rear end back on Threx Station when a crate of unstable plasma cells decided to play dominoes with a box of proximity mines. Don't think. Don't breathe. Move."

"Three milliseconds later, the entire hangar was slag. I was on the other side of it; covered in soot, short an eyebrow, and still holding my coffee."

"Reflex, Or fireproof dog tags. It's your call"

Technical (Tech)

Technical is applied smarts; the difference between activating and ejecting a cryopod, while you are in it.

It’s the art of fixing, hacking, splicing, bypassing, and making miracle repairs with half a toolkit and a prayer to the firmware gods.

It covers hacking, bypassing, rewiring, overclocking, underclocking, crosswiring, and praying to ancient machine spirits while mis-using duct-tape.

If you’ve ever wanted to say “I saw this in a tutorial once” before hitting a big red button; Tech is your thing.

"Tech, recruits, is what kept my squad alive on Vantar-12 when the evac shuttle decided it didn’t believe in ignition sequences anymore. I hotwired the thrusters with two hairpins, a combat knife, and my moms rubber glove."

"We made it to orbit. Shuttle screamed the whole way up. So did Jenkins. And my mum, but they were out the back doing the double mass pony ride prayer to the great space vacuum in the sky"

"Moral of the story? Learn your Tech; or someday your eulogy’s gonna start with ‘he meant well’ and end with ‘mostly in one piece.’ Also you can wipe the in shuttle cam system cause no one wants to see that shit."

Willpower

Willpower is your mental spine; the grind in your brainpan that keeps the wheel spinning long after the hamster’s fallen off and been eaten by something with too many eyes.
It’s what helps you hold the line, stay cool, and make sense of the chaos when logic takes a lunch break and your reality check bounces.

You’ll use it to resist fear, psychic interference, gaslighting AIs, hallucinations, and whatever horror just oozed out of the vents whispering sweet nothings like you Ex on Sargoose IV. Then you realize it is you Ex from Sargoose IV.

"Willpower, recruits, is what kept me sane when a Xarnith Mind-Flayer tried to reroute my thoughts, tentacles are not "romantic" in any known language. I held strong. Jenkins? Well Jenkins now flinches every time he hears poetry."

"Nobody can hear you scream in the metal recovery cubes free floating round the station, The nanowire usually keeps them in orbit. Usually. So unless you want to spend the rest of your career screaming at the dark or trying to marry a vending machine, Willpower."

Mass and Speed

Mass

Mass represents your weight more or less, the more massive you are the more weight you have to throw around, this is useful if you have to wrestle a Bovarian-combat-sow. It also ensures a quicker death when you attempt to re-enter a planet's atmosphere without a re-entry suit.

Every point of Mass represents approximately 25kg of body weight. Humans generally have a starting Mass of 3 (approximately 75kg).

Mass synergizes well with Might and the combination of the two determines if you can wield large or oversized items.

"Oh for plasma's sake, Pick that sack of iron ore back up recruit, Ya don't faint on the first day of training you whinny, you got nothing to be afraid of, you won't be wrestling any Bovarian Sows until you are well into your training. Tomorrow. If you survive the entry exam. Yes, that's 'entry' as in re-entry you berk."

"Oh just leave him down there, he will probably wake up when it starts to hail".

An Origin's Average Mass is in the Origin Table. Players can use the table or choose their Origin's Mass for most Origins, but Nanocoids have a fixed starting Mass score.

Carrying Capacity

You can comfortably carry equipment weighing up to 5kg per point of Mass. This represents about 20% of your body weight—a sustainable load for extended operations.

Mass and Large Items

Your Mass determines what you can carry and wield effectively:

• Large Items: Characters with Mass 5 or higher can carry large items (4 slots) in their hands. Lower Mass characters must carry them on their back.
• Large Weapons: Characters with Mass 5 or higher can carry and fire large weapons (miniguns, heavy blasters, etc.) while standing. Lower Mass characters can carry them but must mount them on a tripod or vehicle to use.
• Powered Armour: When wearing powered armour, use the armour's Mass instead of your own for determining what you can carry and wield.

For more details on item sizes and slot costs, see Inventory.

Speed

Speed is the number of squares you can move as part of an Action, unless that action states otherwise. Certain Combat Maneuvers for instance make you Restrained.

Base Speed Formula

Your base Speed is calculated as: Speed = 7 - Mass (minimum 2 for your origin's base Mass, minimum 1 if Mass is increased by feats or other sources)

A standard human (Mass 3) has a base Speed of 4 squares. Lighter species like Rodi (Mass 2) are naturally faster at Speed 5, while heavy creatures like Silicoid Slaters (Mass 8) move at the minimum Speed of 2. If you increase your Mass beyond your origin's base (e.g. through the Large feat), your Speed can drop to a hard floor of 1.

Speed Modifiers

• Carrying Large Items: If you are carrying a medium or larger item in both hands, your Speed is reduced by 1.
• Powered Armour: When wearing powered armour, use the armour's Speed rating instead of your own.
• Origin Feats: Feats like Fast Feet can increase your Speed.

For more details on item sizes, see Inventory.