Combat

CyberSystem

If you have played other d20 role-playing games, the Dice system used in Cybercore will be familiar to you. We have tried to take our experiences of what makes other system fun and incorporate it into the Cybercore Universe.

For those that have some experience with other systems here is a quick rundown on what's different in the Cybercore.

Defending

At its core, Cybercore is a game of telling stories and challenges; one of the pillars of those challenges is conflict.

When the chips are down, and the leads being laid, you have several options for defending yourself.

• Armour Factor (AF) is your ability to avoid damage; in high AF Armour rigs, getting hit is not an option. It's a promise.

• Dodge Factor (DF) is your ability to quickly move from angles of fire and use your Agility and Perception to avoid taking fire entirely.

However, it's tiring, and you only have so much combat awareness. Your Reflexes determine the number of times you can Dodge in a Round, this is capped by your armours Armour Reaction Cap (ARC).
As your training improves, you learn to keep track of more assailants and improve your Dodge Factor.

• Evade Factor (EF) measures your ability to use your Foresight and Reactions to ensure you are in the right place at the right time to avoid area-of-effect attacks.
  These include grenades, explosives, cones, and beam fire from certain weapons. Your Agility determines the number of times you can Evade in a Round.

Armour Factor (AF)

AF is how well your stats and armor protect you from physical damage. Your fortitude, Size and Armour determine your base AF.

It improves as you rank up with training from your corp as you learn to utilize your armor chassis and roll with the punches.

Armour has three categories: Light, Medium, and Heavy.

However, the GM doesn't roll to hit your AF; in Cybercore, players do most of the rolling, so you roll to see how well you used your armor to take the blow.

If you beat the monster's Attack Number (AN), your Armour has taken the blow well; failing to beat the creature's AN is likely to damage your armor; once it's torn to shreds, the creatures have easy access to the yummy meat sack inside.

The GM rolls the creature's damage, deducts the Armour DR, and passes through the remaining damage, if any, to the player.

• If you beat the creature's AN by more than 5, you gain resistance to the pass-through damage.
  The GM rolls the creature's damage, deducts the Armour DR, and half this damage passes through to the player (Round Down Minimum 1).
• If you beat the creature's AN by more than 10, you are Hardened to the pass-through damage.
  The GM will roll the creature's damage, deduct the Armour DR, and quarter the remaining damage (Round Down Minimum 0), which passes through to the player.
• If you beat the creature's AN by more than 15, your armor has absorbed all the damage; No damage passes through to the player.
• If you fail to beat the creature's Attack Number (AN), your armor has taken the blow badly and may glitch.
  For this check, your armors current Quality is -1 for every five points you failed to meet the AN, then make a glitch check.

Dodge Factor (DF)

Lighter, more nimble combatants can avoid getting hit by anticipating angles of fire and Dodging. Your Dodge Factor is calculated as the sum of your Perception and Agility. The number of times you can Dodge in a Turn is limited by your Reactions (Minimum 1) and capped by your Armour Reaction Cap.

Heavy Armours have a Cap of Zero, Medium Armours Three, Light Armours Five, No armour no cap but generally no DR either. As you gain training with different Corporations, you will learn how to improve your Dodge Factor.

Failing to Dodge an attack is resolved normally, the GM will roll the damage, deduct your armours DR (if any) and apply the rest of the pass-though damage to the player.

If you fail to dodge an attack by five or more, you are hit badly.

• Adjust your armor current quality by -1 for every five points you failed to meet the AN, then make a Glitch Check.
• You gain a Bother condition to future Dodge rolls until the end of your next turn.

If you succeed by more than 5 you can reposition yourself as part of your Dodge. For every 2 points by which you exceed the AN you can move one square.

Evade Factor (EF)

Evade is used against area effect attacks, such as grenades and other explosives or some weird alien bug acid spray. Your Evade Factor is the sum of your Foresight and Reactions.

The maximum number of times you can Evade in a Round is determined by your Agility (Minimum One).

When you make an Evade Roll against an Evade DC you roll a d20 and add your Evade Factor to the roll.

• If it beats the DC you gain Resistance to the pass-though damage (The damage is halved after deducting your Armours DR).
• If you beat it by more than 5 you gain Hardness against the pass-though damage(damage is quartered after deducting your armours DR).
• You gain one point of DR against the triggering damage type for every point by which you exceed the DC by ten. This is deducted from the hardened pass though damage.

Failing to Evade an attack is resolved normally, the GM will roll the damage, deduct your armours DR and apply the rest of the pass-though damage to the player.

If you fail to Evade an attack by five or more you are hit badly.

• Adjust your armors current quality by -1 for every five points you failed to meet the AN, then make a Glitch Check .
• You gain a Bother condition to future Evade rolls until the end of your next turn.

Damage Reduction (DR)

When you do get hit, your armor's DR will reduce the damage you take. As you find better equipment this will increase. If you are hit hard enough or swarmed by enough mobs, a certain amount of damage will bypass your DR and become pass-though damage, you will lose Hit-points.

As your armour loses quality though hits and critical failures, the DR of the damage type taken also decreases by 1

Armour Quality

Once your Armour reaches a Qualty ( or Glitch level ) of 0 it's broken and no longer provides any protection. If it's powered armour it powers down until repaired.

See Equipment Quality for more details on how to repair your equipment.

Dealing Damage

In order to damage another creature you roll a Percentile Dice, a d100, to do this Roll two different colored d10's, One is the Tens the other is the Ones, so if the 10's roll a 7 and the Ones roll is a five, the result is a 75.

Add 5x Your Rank plus any Talent, Skill, Feat and Equipment bonuses to this roll. If this roll is higher than the Targets Defense, you have overcome the defenses so roll your weapon damage.

Damage Types

Cybercore features a range of damage types that weapons and hazards can inflict:

• Blunt: Impact damage from clubs, hammers, or falls.
• Pierce: Damage from sharp points like spears, arrows, or needles.
• Slash: Cutting damage from blades, claws, or similar weapons.
• Thermal: High-energy, superheated matter causing burns and disruption.
• Lazer: Focused light beams, often used in advanced weaponry.
• Radiation: Harmful energy exposure, can cause lingering effects.
• Electrical: Shocks and surges from energy weapons or traps.
• Chemical: Acids, toxins, and corrosive substances.
• Grav: Gravitic force, crushing pressure, explosions, or space anomalies.

Each damage type interacts differently with armor, resistances, and vulnerabilities.

Hitpoints (HP)

These are a measure of your basic health, Determined by your Race's Health, Mass, and Rank. It's determined as follows.

20 + (Rank * Health) + (Rank * Mass);

Yes, the more Healthy you are and the bigger you are and the harder you fall.

As you adventure you will from time to time, take damage, deduct this from your total HP.

When you Total HP reaches 0 you gain one wound (See Wounds Count Below) and fall prone and gain the Wounded Condition (TODO: appendix).

• You lose all your Actions and any Heroic Actions you have accumulated.
• You drop out of the Combat Order.
• If you take any further damage while Wounded ignore the damage, just add 1 wound for each unique source of damage.
• At the start of the following Rounds you gain one special action called a Wounded Action.

See Wounded Action for the Actions you can spend your Wounded Actions on.

Certain Feats, Tricks and Talents also consume Wounded Actions.

When your Wounds equals your Max wounds, you are comatose and at the brink of death, you need immediate medical assistance or you will die.

Wounds

As you adventure and get hurt, you pick up wounds. Each wound brings you a little closer to death.

When your Wounds equals your Max wounds, you fall into a comma, see Death and Dying.

If your Wound Count is ever Greater than your Max Wounds, your character dies.

As you can see the more Willpower, and Fortitude and Health a character has the harder they are to kill.

A well-trained Medic or Medbay can treat wounds to lower your wound count as well as remove the Wounded Condition.

Death and Dying

When your Wounds equal your Max wounds, you are comatose and on the brink of death; you need immediate medical assistance, or you will die.

You will stay this way for several rounds equal to half your Max Wounds score (round down); if you have not recovered by then, you gain one more wound from internal hemorrhaging and die; your character is now clinically dead.

A well-trained medic or med-bay can treat wounds, as can some nanite applicators. However, you can only recover hit points once your wound count is less than your max wound score.

When you are clinically dead, rapid application of a defibrillator in a Medbay or particular Alien tech might save you. However, the chances are slim unless you have a very skilled Medic to hand (not including yourself). Often, the best you can hope for in this situation is that it was a Heroic Death.

Or is it

Each Race has made attempts to cheat death in their own way. The Om, it appears, can overcome death for the other Orgainic races and can offer a 'biological failure insurance' for a price or course.

Heroic Death

Across all the role-playing genres, all games end, but most games die. Exceptions and long-running groups exist, but as a general rule, a module will run to completion. But longer campaign arcs tend to fall apart as people's changing lives and work schedules rarely mesh for longer than a few years. It's even hard to keep online pick-up groups together, which frequently petter out after a few months.

To that end, Cybercore has definitive endings and short cycles of play. We have introduced the Tag system and Heroic deaths to assist with this. That's right. Your character will die before or at Rank Ten; by that stage, you will have written their story. All that remains is an Epic, Heroic, Infamous, or Iconic Ending.

Let the TechBards Sing and the Synth-Scribes Chronicle their deeds for the ages.

Initiative

In Cybercore Players generally go first, With a general rule that Scouts go before Groups. Thus in a situation where two groups with scouts out front meet the order is.

Player Scout, Enemy Scout, Players, Enemies.

This rule changes if one group is Ambushing, possibly with surprise. Lets say a group of Pirates (Freelance wealth Distribution Engineers) are Ambushing Party and that Party has a Scout.

Scout Fails to Detect Ambush Group.

Ambushing Group, Player Scout (If still alive), Player Group (If they are aware of the skirmish).

Scout Detects Ambush Group.

Player Scout, Ambushing Group, Player Group (If they are alerted by the scout).

Surprise

A hero who surprises their opponent catches them Off Guard and acts first in the round (if initiative hasn’t already been determined) . Attacks from behind, an Ambush, or unexpected sources (such as a companion) make up the most common sources of surprise. How much Off Guard they are depends on the Success Check.

Opposed Checks

Players do most of the dice rolling in Cybercore. To this effect NPC's Guards, Aliens and other Creatures and objects have static Check Numbers for their Attacks, Perception checks, Skills and so forth. This is commonly referred to as a DC or Defensive Check in Cybercore, but is known as a Difficulty Class in other systems. When conflict arises the players will roll an appropriate dice and must exceed the DC to be considered successful. In a situation where this would apply a Stacking Modifier to the creature, the creature gains an Extra Stack for every 5 points by which the roll exceeds the DC.

For example of the the DC is 10 then a 15-19 would apply an extra stack, a 20-24 would apply two stacks an so on.