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.
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. Your 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 anticipate 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 Reactions 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 time and place 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.
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 use your armor to take the blow. In this case, you roll a d20 and add your AF to the roll. If it beats 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, adjust your armor current Quality by -1 for every five points you failed to meet the AN, then make a glitch check.
For example, Griffin needs to beat a Zog Warriors AN of 15 on its clawed slashing attack. He rolls a 3 + his AF (5) nets him a 9. A Failure by 6. He has to make a Glitch Check for his brand new Syntheleather Vest. The Vest has a Quality of 6. However, as he failed by more than 5, this quality scores a -1 penalty (5). He has to roll a 1d6 and requires 1-4 to avoid damaging his armor. Griffen rolls and gets a 5; his Syntheleather Vest is damaged until he can repair it. Its Quality Drops by one (now 5), and the DR against slashing attacks also drops by one.
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. 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 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.
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 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 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.
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
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.
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 Item weapon bonuses to this roll. If this roll is higher than the Targets Defense, you have overcome the defenses and can roll your weapon damage.
Initially a d20 base to hit system was intended to be implemented, however this bounded hit box restricts the number and sources of bonuses you can apply and still have a reasonable chance of "missing" even at high levels. Cybercore is heavily gear and training based system, and we wanted players to be able to collect numerous tech and alien equipment to use and still have a good chance of missing the target.
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.
| Base HP @ Rank 1 | Base HP @ Rank 10 | Max Wounds | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human | 23 | 50 | 3 |
| Boehec | 25 | 70 | 5 |
| Rodi (Space Rat) | 22 | 40 | 2 |
| Android | 23 | 50 | 4 |
| Om (Crystaline) | 22 | 40 | 3 |
| Lizards | 23 | 50 | 3 |
| Cyborg | 25 | 70 | 3 |
| Silicoid | 26 | 80 | 5 |
| Nanocoids | 25 | 70 | 4 |
| Karani dopplers | 23 | 50 | 4 |
| Junker dopplers | 22 | 40 | 4 |
| Grey | 23 | 50 | 2 |
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).
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.
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 Ranks, Grit, Stability, 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.
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.
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.
Each Corporation will grant the player's skill dice to use when performing specific skills in which the Corporation or Syndicate excels. The basic dice are the same regardless of the Techglomerate; however, there is one fundamental difference between Corporations and their more shady Syndicates counterparts.
You add Corporation dice to player rolls. You deduct Syndicate dice from a GM roll or static number. This is not always the case, but it's a good general rule. Some higher-tier abilities allow you to make the roll after the initial dice roll but before the GM reveals the outcome.
| Rank Level | Core Dice | Or Break Dice | Or Break Dice | Or Break Dice | Or Break Dice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1d4 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2 | 1d6 | 2d4 | -- | -- | -- |
| 3 | 1d8 | 2d6 | 4d4 | -- | -- |
| 4 | 1d10 | 2d8 | 4d6 | 8d4 | -- |
| 5 | 1d12 | 2d10 | 4d8 | 8d6 | 16d4 |
| :----------: | :----: | :-------------: | :------------: | :------------: | :------------: |
| 6 | 2d12 | 4d10 | 8d8 | 16d6 | 32d4 |
| 7 | 3d12 | 6d10 | 12d8 | 24d6 | 48d4 |
| 8 | 4d12 | 8d10 | 16d8 | 32d6 | 64d4 |
| 9 | 5d12 | 10d10 | 20d8 | 40d6 | 80d4 |
| 10 | 6d12 | 12d10 | 24d8 | 48d6 | 96d4 |
Rank five shows you how the dice break down; the higher ranks indicate what you could do if you broke down all your dice.
You gain a 1d4 Bonus to add to your roll, For instance your background will grant you a Bonus in two skills.
If you have a bonus from multiple sources the Dice size increases by one for each additional source.
Bonus(1) 1d4 => Bonus(2) 1d6 => Bonus(3) 1d8 => Bonus(4) 1d10 => Bonus(5) 1d12.
This pattern repeats for each additional source above 5 so for instance if you had 6 People helping you, you would gain a 1d12 + 1d4 to the roll.
A Penalty is the opposite of a Bonus and they cancel each other out. If you have two Bonues written as Bonus(2) (so a 1d6) and one Penalty(1), you would Roll a 1d4 and add that to your result.
Characters can gain a Boon+ from a variety of sources, Boons are a +2 that you add to a roll that stacks. So if you have two boons (a Double Boon) you roll and add +4 to the roll. Your movement can also be Boon'ed, in this case the +2 applies to the number of squares you can move.
The opposite of Boons. Banes+ are a Stacking (-2) to a roll. If you have a Condition or effect that grants you one or more Banes (Or a Double Bane), you deduct them from your Roll. Your movement can also be Baned, in this case the -2 applies to the number of squares you can move.
Thus Boons and Banes cancel each other out.
Certain Effects in Cybercore apply Stacking Modifiers, These are normally depicted with a + symbol following it's name. Eg Boon+. This means every application of the Stacking Modifier stacks with any previous application of the Stacking Modifier and any success roll to remove a Stacking Modifier removes only a single instance from that Stack.
When a roll is used to determine the application of a Stacking Modifier an Extra Stack is applied for every 5 points by which the roll exceeds the DC.
If you have Advantage, your roll twice and take the better result. with Disadvantage you roll twice and take the Lower result.
In cybercore Advangate and Disadvantage stack. For each additional Advantage or Disadvantage you have in a given situation you roll one more die. Rolling 3 die is called Advantage-3, Advantage caps out at a maximum of 4 dice (Advantage-4). .
Advantage and Disadvantage don't just affect d20 rolls you may make, You can have Advantage and Disadvantage on any roll, in which case you roll all dice twice and take the highest or lowest total result.
When ever a Creature (Player or NPC) Rolls one or more 1d20's and the highest Roll is a Natural 1, it is considered a Critical Failure. When there is a Critical failure a calamity occurs.
A Calamity Anything that can go wrong will go wrong in the worst possible way. A Calamity is an Opptunity. Use it to spice up your game sessions.
Think of a Calamity as the ultimate curveball, the cherry on top of a series of unfortunate events that turns the game on its head in unexpected ways. Here's how you can make the most of these moments without turning the tide against the fun:
This is a great opportunity for the GM to add some dramatic tension to the game. A Calamity shouldn't outright TPK the party unless it's simply the last roll on a string of very bad rolls that got them into the situation in the first place. The Idea is for everyone to have fun at the table, the GM is not the adversary of the party, but if the dice cause a characters death so be it, as the Players roll most of the dice in Cybercore, it difficult for the GM to fudge any rolls to prevent it. In the end sometimes all they can hope for is a Heroic death.
The old adage that you have to fill your bag of skill before you empty your bag of luck is very true in Cybercore.
The Luck pool has a cap of 15, you shouldn't hoard it. Lady Luck is fickle and turns her back on those that do not flirt with chance. If you have to roll luck and you exceed 15 points, you lose the 15 luck and the remainder is your new luck score..
Certain Tricks, Talents, and Feats may grant you a wild Die of a certain size. When they do, add a different color dice of that size to your dice pool for the affected skill or weapon. When you roll, add that dice to your roll total, if that die rolls the highest number (i.e a 6 on a 1d6), it "explodes", then you roll the wild die again and add that, you continue to do this until it doesn't explode.
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).
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.
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.