Nodejacker’s Netbook

 

Out now! The Nodejacker’s Netbook for SG:U is a supplement which revisits the rules for hacking computer systems, building on and improving the one-roll essence of the original/Carbon Edition rules.

Includes

d66 System Responses for when runs go bad

d66 Exploits for when luck is on your side

Revised and improved cyberspace consoles

Improved software and new options

AI classifications 

Anti-AI paradoxware and how to deploy it

Random data finds

New hacker hardware for nodejackers

Available on ITCH and DTRPG

Sprawl Goons: Upgraded - Expertise

Art by lap-pun-cheung. Not used in Sprawl Goons. Dammit.

Text taken from the upcoming print edition of Sprawl Goons: Upgraded:

Backgrounds in Sprawl Goons were originally conceived to add flavour to player characters, but here’s some associated benefits in the form of Expertise for each Background type.

To trigger an Expertise roll, the situation must be an appropriate one for the roll to be made and is usually requested by the player looking for a specific advantage, but can be called for by the GM (usually to help newer players). An Expertise roll is allowed once per scene or combat encounter, as stated in the description.

Use the following Difficulty Scores as a guideline for the Expertise roll. Each Expertise type confers a +1 to the roll and specifies which stat to use, as noted in the entries below.

• Character is under no stress DS10
• Character is under moderate stress DS12
• Character is under major stress DS14

Any Upgrade dice are in addition to other Upgrade dice, such as those provided by augmentations, gear, consoles or narcotics.

11. Zone Wars Veteran

• Situational Awareness
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to add Upgrade dice to your attack, once per combat encounter.

12. Komatsu Killmorph
• Mimic
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to successfully copy the mannerisms and vocal tone of another person (after having observed them for a few minutes within the last 24 hours), once per scene.

13. Nodejacker
• Feedwise
+1 to a Cognition roll to accurately navigate cyberspace or to find useful contacts online, once per scene.

14. Syndicate Enforcer
• Intimidate
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to apply pressure through threats of violence to achieve a desired outcome, once per scene.

15. Chemical Edit

• White Lies

+1 to an Affinity roll to fabricate convincing falsehoods (originally developed to compensate for your lack of tangible memories), once per scene.

16. Clone Interrupted
• Masquerade
+1 to an Affinity roll to imitate the person you’re a copy of, but only when you’ve discovered their identity, once per scene.

21. Robotnik
• Machine Mind

+1 to a Cognition roll to teleoperate a drone, remote, robot or vehicle with cold focus, gaining the addition of Upgrade dice, once per scene.

22. Runaway Splice
• Primal Instinct
+1 to a Reaction roll to gain Upgrade dice for your next attack, if cornered or if you’re outnumbered and alone, once per combat encounter.

23. Strato-cabbie
• Top Gun

+1 to a Reaction roll to pilot your hopper with the manoeuvrability of a strike-fighter, with Upgrade dice, once per combat encounter, pushing the vehicle to its limits.

24. Backstreet Biomechanic
• Under Pressure

+1 to an Equilibrium roll to treat injuries with added Upgrade dice in any stressful or dangerous situation, once per scene.

25. Toxic Tweeker
• Hypertolerance

+1 to an Equilibrium roll to resist the adverse effects of chemical or pharmaceutical substances, once per scene or combat encounter.

26. Jaded Jurōjin
• Boundless Resources
+1 to an Affinity roll to request help or finances through family channels (within reason; the family don’t need an audit right now), once per session. And as you well know, they’ll definitely want something in return.

31. Fugitive Cybrid
• Uncanny Durability
+1 to a Morphology roll to ignore any damage that is sustained that round, once per combat encounter.

32. Nexus
• Street Biz
+1 to an Affinity roll to negotiate deals or to enlist suitably shady contacts, once per scene.

33. War Child
• Relentless
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to continue fighting, despite any injuries and without the wound Glitch dice, once per combat encounter.

34. Panzer Mind
• Battle Tech

+1 to a Cognition roll to exploit any vulnerabilities in the transmission, chassis or armour of tank suits and other combat vehicles, gaining Upgrade dice on your next attack, once per combat encounter.

35. Mnemonic Envoy
• Fragmentary Recall
+1 to a Cognition roll to recover potentially useful slivers of memory or portions of data from past clients, once per scene.

36. Datasocialist Insurgent
• Saboteur’s Scrutiny
+1 to a Cognition roll to identify instabilities in buildings and infrastructure, allowing explosives or other forms of attack to deliver their damage to spectacular effect, once per scene.

41. Recoded
• Whispered Intuition
+1 to Cognition rolls to gain an insight into a situation, provided by (and limited by) your master AI’s knowledge, once per scene.

42. Transmissions Cop
• Digital Instinct
+1 to a Cognition roll to follow online leads or notice digital anomalies and clues, once per scene.

43. Freak Fighter
• Threat Analysis

+1 to an Equilibrium roll to pinpoint opponents’ physical weaknesses or gaps in their armour, gaining Upgrade dice on your next attack, once per combat encounter.

44. Nanomancer
• Structural Dynamics
+1 to a Cognition roll to assess the suitability of nearby materials for use by your assemblers, or to determine whether your dissassemblers can break local materials down, once per scene.

45. Combat Chauffeur
• Pedal To The Metal
+1 to a Reaction roll to drive evasively and tactically at speed, avoiding hostile attacks and gaining Upgrade dice, once per combat encounter.

46. Tecstatic
• Earthly Escape
+1 to an Equilibrium roll to meditatively negate the effect of privations, such as pain, fatigue, cold, heat, torture, thirst or hunger, once per scene or combat encounter.

51. Orbital Operator
• Augmented Allure
+1 to an Affinity roll to exploit and influence grubby dirtsiders with your unearthly, lab-cultured attractiveness, once per scene.

52. Ghostrunner
• Mindware
+1 to a Cognition roll to detect the type of digital being or expert system and their influence over devices, software or systems, once per scene.

53. Rogue Shikaaree Type-66 ATID
• Beserker Mode
+1 to a Reaction roll to compute the optimal position and form of attack to strike up to three opponents, once per combat encounter.

54. Telemetric Sniper
• Target Acquisition
+1 to a Cognition roll to estimate the most effective range and angle of an attack, gaining Upgrade dice, once per combat encounter.

55. Cognition Verification Agent
• Synthetic Awareness
+1 to a Cognition roll to discern whether an individual is real, a cybrid or housed in a cybershell, once per scene.

56. Ultrateen
• High Influence
+1 to an Affinity roll to obtain access, by virtue of your wealthy family, to places, both real and virtual, that are usually off-limits to the average citizen, once per scene.

61. Fluid Reality Adept
• Holoactualisation
+1 to a Cognition roll to focus your mind and to generate hyperreal, highly deceptive holographic illusions of exceptional quality, with Upgrade dice, once per scene.

62. Gang War Surplus
• Urban Evasion
+1 to a Reaction roll to discern and utilise an otherwise unnoticed escape route, or to find a bolt-hole and lay low, once per scene or combat encounter.

63. Zero
• Phantom
+1 to a Morphology roll to remain unnoticed and anonymous, blending into the background or crowd, once per scene.

64. Algorithmic Augur
• Are Friends Electric?
+1 to a Cognition roll to enlist the help of a digital entity or sentient program online, once per scene.

65. Turbosensei
• Matrix Moves
+1 to a Reaction roll to athletically capitalise on your immediate environment during a fight; run up walls, swing from ducting, vault off columns, etc., once per combat encounter.

66. Meat Puppet
• Honeyed Words
+1 to an Affinity roll to beguile and charm your way out of tense or dangerous situations, when isolated or cornered, once per scene or combat encounter.

Art by lap-pun-cheung. Also not used in Sprawl Goons. FML.

Sprawl Goons: Upgraded - Metal Express

Vehicle rules for Sprawl Goons: Upgraded, coming soon to both dtrpg and itch.io.

Vroom. Dakka dakka. Kaboom.

Sprawl Goons: Upgraded - A Fistful of Bit-Yuan

Recently, I've been asked whether I planned to provide a price list for all the gear in the Sprawl Goons trilogy. Originally, my intention was to leave it up to individual GMs to determine the values according to their perceived game-worlds, but realised it may be helpful if I created a base-line.

These toys are priced in bit-yuan, but could just as easily be valued in dollars, nuyen, bits, eurobucks, credits, or c-bills. Pick your flavour.

General Items

• Cheap Sanyo® Cell Phone   25 b¥
• Ono-Sendai® Cyberspace Console and ‘trodes   675 b¥
• Toolkit  150 b¥
• IR Goggles  200 b¥
• Stolen Credit Card (blackmarket)  150 b¥
• Bottle of Moskovskaya® Vodka  30 b¥
• 3 Doses of Brazilian Hyperdex  45 b¥
• Capsule Hotel (24 hours)  30 b¥
• Yeheyuan® cigarettes (20)  10 b¥
• Fake ID (blackmarket)  500 b¥
• Handcuffs  20 b¥
• Mirrorshades  15 b¥
• Palm-sized A/V drone  250 b¥
• Lazarus Patches (blister pack of 6 patches)  30 b¥
• Self-adhesive motion sensor  80 b¥
• Professional Medical Services (per hour)  250 b¥
• First-aid kit  60 b¥
• Exo-womb  500,000 b¥
• Hayabusa® H-520 semi-autonomous loader  80,000 b¥
• Quality Assurance drone  9,000 b¥
• Mitsubishi® snakebot  5,000 b¥
• Strato-cabbie’s Hopper  10,000 b¥
• Memory Backup Service (per month)  5,500 b¥
• Fresh, healthy clone  300,000 b¥
• Cybrid (new bioplastic synthetic)  10,000 b¥
• RFID tag (implanted)  500 b¥
• M-94 Tank Suit  1,000,000 b¥
• Mnemonic Envoy Service (per data set)  2,000 b¥
• Nano-fabricator  250,000 b¥
• Carbon nanobar  1,000 b¥
• Glucose bar  5 b¥
• Calcium block  350 b¥
• Limo  80,000 b¥
• Biofeedback console and ‘trodes  1,500 b¥
• VR-training session (24 hours)  500 b¥
• Unlocked, low-grade AI  5,000 b¥
• Counterfeit personality chip  600 b¥
• Cloned Cortical Archive (blackmarket)  25,000 b¥
• DRM-cracked cybrid (blackmarket)  6,500 b¥
• Net-shrine account (per month)  200 b¥
• Emitter array/processors/drives/interface rig  16,000 b¥
• Neoprene hexayurt  150 b¥
• Neural cut-out (implant)  500 b¥
• Average augmentation installation fee  1,000 b¥

Augmentations

• Sentry® Military Grade Neurochem  2,000 b¥
• Ishiteki® Muscle Matrix  4,500 b¥
• Clavel Industries® Combat Neurolink  1,000 b¥
• Dornier Orbital® Neural Lattice  1,250 b¥
• Sentry® Amped Hearing  500 b¥
• Genexus® NeoDerm  1,500 b¥
• Ishiteki® Slicers  500 b¥
• Komatsu® Full-spectrum Optics  1,000 b¥
• Cradle Biolabs® Filter Lungs  650 b¥
• Clavel Industries® Savvy Jack  500 b¥
• Cybernetic Limb (generic arm/leg)  800 b¥  / 1,200 b¥
• Ishiteki® Myomar Tendons  750 b¥
• Komatsu Systems® Vigilance Suite  500 b¥
• Sentry® Exo-plating  2,500 b¥
• [Various Manufacturers] Pop-up Weapon  price as weapon + 500 b¥
• Hayabusa Heavy Industries® Linear Frame  3,500 b¥
• Dornier Orbital® Vehicle Interface  250 b¥
• Genexus® Bio-auditor  200 b¥
• Genexus® Pain Blocker  500 b¥
• Kanawa-Mendez® Spider Optics  1,000 b¥
• Genexus® Softdrive  5,000 b¥
• Clavel® Cortical Archive  600,000 b¥
• Komatsu Systems® Striking Cobra  1,250 b¥
• Cradle Biolabs® Infernoweave  2,000 b¥
• Clavel® EMP Shielding  5,000 b¥
• Komatsu Systems® Skull Gun  2,500 b¥
• Cradle Biolabs® Dispensary  600 b¥
• Ishiteki® Nanodocs  3,500 b¥
• Sentry® Tac-net Comm  450 b¥
• Kanawa-Mendez® Hermes-class Cyberlegs  2,000 b¥
• Kanawa-Mendez® Spinal Reinforcement  1,250 b¥
• Cradle Biolabs® Kickstarter  3,000 b¥
• Dornier Orbital® Mood Modulator  450 b¥
• Genexus® Neuro-bridge  350 b¥
• Takematsu-Hegenaur® Augmented Reality Module  200 b¥
• Cradle Biolabs® Toxin Scrubbers  350 b¥
• Clavel® REM-inducer  200 b¥
• Komatsu Systems® Wampyrs  350 b¥
• Hideyoki® Monowhip Digit  300 b¥
• Ishiteki® Jacked Reflexes  1,000 b¥
• Kanawa-Mendez® Cybershell  150,000 b¥
• Clavel® Mind-Drive  2,000 b¥
• Ishiteki® Scratchers  400 b¥
• Dornier Orbital® Voice Modulator  200 b¥
• Ishiteki® Mirrorshades  500 b¥
• Orchard Technologies® Machine Link  120 b¥
• Clavel® Surveillance Array  500 b¥

Shardware (for use with the Savvy Jack)

• Kung Fu Shard  300 b¥
• Nice Guy Eddie Shard  250 b¥
• Photo Memory Shard  250 b¥
• Shiver Shard  500 b¥
• Tank Suit Shard  150 b¥
• Language Shard  200 b¥
• Style & Etiquette Shard  150 b¥
• Felony Register Shard  250 b¥
• Vehicle Zen Shard  200 b¥
• Tech Spec Shard  300 b¥
• EMT Shard  350 b¥

Firearms

• Haldane & Kluvis® HAK G55 10mm SMG  1,500 b¥
• PKD-45 Police Special Revolver  500 b¥
• Hideyoki® Shard Gun Flechette Pistol  800 b¥
• Echo International® KR-16 5.56 Assault Rifle  2,000 b¥
• Sony-Diahatsu® Type-6 PLP Pulse Laser Pistol  5,000 b¥
• Haunt® M10 Anti-material Sniper Rifle System  7,500 b¥
• AK-91R 7.62 Assault Rifle  1,200 b¥
• Echo International® Nemesis 10mm Semiautomatic  500 b¥
• Armcor® Diamondback 10mm Machinepistol  750 b¥
• Sentry® P226 9mm Semiautomatic  450 b¥
• KRYSS® Venom 11mm Modular SMG  900 b¥

Ammunition Options (box of 50)

• Standard  50 b¥
• Hellfires  100 b¥
• Shredders  150 b¥
• LN2s  500 b¥
• Splinters  200 b¥
• High Explosive  300 b¥
• Moisture-responsive HE  450 b¥
• Depleted Uranium  800 b¥
• Jelly Rounds  300 b¥
• Gas  375 b¥
• Acid  250 b¥
• Hollowpoint  80 b¥

Weapon Modifications

• Targeting scope  250 b¥
• Custom grips  150 b¥
• Gyro-stabilisation  400 b¥
• Bio-lock  350 b¥
• IFF chipping  500 b¥
• Teleoperation link  800 b¥
• Folding bipod  100 b¥
• Silencer/suppressor  85 b¥
• Electronic trigger  120 b¥
• Extended magazine/drum mag  65 b¥
• Smart targeting  750 b¥

Heavy Weapons

• Sentry® M-88 RPG  4,000 b¥
• Haunt® Light Anti-Tank Weapon  2,500 b¥
• Echo International® KS-49 5.56 SAW  2,250 b¥
• Armcor® Accelerator AP 18mm Railgun  6,500 b¥
• Sentry® Shredder Portable Minigun  2,000 b¥
• Hideyoki® L5 Heavy Chemical Laser Weapon  3,750 b¥
• HAK® G40 Rhino 40mm Grenade Launcher  1,200 b¥
• Echo International® K-60A .50cal Machinegun  1,350 b¥
• Barrett® AT3 .50cal Anti-Tank/-Borg Rifle  4,500 b¥
• Haunt® EMP-1 Electro Magnetic Pulse Rifle  2,750 b¥
• QBZ® Leong Incinerator Unit  950 b¥

Melee Weapons

• Hideyoki® Monomolecular Knife  55 b¥
• Carbon steel Katana  200 b¥
• Nunchaku/Tonfa  40 b¥
• Sentry® Electronux™ Knuckleduster  65 b¥
• Shuriken  15 b¥
• Switchblade  10 b¥
• Mono-dao (monomolecular sword)  350 b¥
• Sledgehammer  10 b¥
• Telescoping Baton  45 b¥
• Chain  5 b¥
• Club  2 b¥  / FREE

Armour

• Motorcycle Leathers  80 b¥
• Arachnoweave Sleeve  250 b¥
• Carbon Fibre Flak  150 b¥
• Laser-ablative Fabric  300 b¥
• Impact Gel Inserts  95 b¥
• Ceramic Plate  120 b¥
• Heavy Kevlar Jacket  200 b¥
• Exo-frame  3,000 b¥
• Coil Suit  1,750 b¥
• Flame Retardant Sleeve  220 b¥
• Heavy Leather Coat  110 b¥

Narcotics (estimated street value per dose)

• Hyperdex  20 b¥
• Fauxcaine  30 b¥
• Stim  15 b¥
• Slaught  45 b¥
• Syndorphine  50 b¥
• Iniquity  25 b¥
• Xeno  30 b¥
• Tetrameth  40 b¥
• Red Rapture  25 b¥
• Meta  30 b¥
• HD  20 b¥

Illicit Software (blackmarket prices)

• NeuroShield  100 b¥
• ReBoot  300 b¥
• Tunnel Rat  550 b¥
• God Mode  800 b¥
• Hunter  250 b¥
• Khali Grade 7  5,500 b¥
• Cloak  450 b¥
• Spoof  200 b¥
• Quiver  150 b¥
• Mr Sparky 2.0  300 b¥
• Peripheral  220 b¥

Cyberspace Consoles

• Orchard Technologies® nPod  475 b¥
• Genexus® Gestalt Bio-modem  3,900 b¥
• Ono-Sendai® Shinobi-7  1,800 b¥
• Braun® Hyperion  3,700 b¥
• Hideyoki® Vision 512e  4,000 b¥
• Toshiba® Nimbus  2,600 b¥
• Sony-Diahatsu® Yūrei  5,250 b¥
• Komatsu Systems® Ubi-C  3,200 b¥
• Thompson® Eye-phones  990 b¥
• Ishiteki® Kyōka suru  1,100 b¥
• Numan-Lloyd® N-24A  800 b¥

Personal Drones

• Situational Awareness  300 b¥
• Targeting  325 b¥
• Buddy Bot®  250 b¥
• Holo Emitter  220 b¥
• Surveillance  300 b¥
• Defense  550 b¥
• Medi-drone  425 b¥
• Bomb  850 b¥
• Assassin  1,200 b¥
• Tracker  320 b¥
• Ortillery FO  5,575 b¥

Fabricating Freaks - Sprawl Goons PC Generation

I thought I'd take the opportunity to run through the Sprawl Goons: Upgraded character generation, using all the bells and whistles from all three books (Sprawl Goons, the Booster Pack and the Plug-In Pack), to show just how simple it is to create a funky cyberfreak for the dark future.

Okay, lets do this.

First, we name our character. I'm calling this guy Travis Bright, because I can.

Travis' beginning Resilience Points score is 12, and his Inventory score is 10, in accordance with the SG:U rules. So far, so good.

I then distribute 4 points between the four stats (remember, a stat can have a score of 0). I'm going for Morphology 0, Reaction 2, Cognition 1 and Equilibrium 1. Travis isn't much of a meatboi, but he is handy with a firearm, pretty technical and not easily phased. 

Now, before I decide his starting gear, I'm going to look at the Booster Pack and roll Travis a Quirk and a Background to flesh him out some more. Rolling a 9 on the 2d6 Character Quirks table tells me that Travis is a recovering addict. Uh oh. Then, I roll d66 on the Backgrounds table, getting a roll of 21. Looks like Travis was a Robotnik, teleoperating QA drones for Hayabusa Heavy Industries, before an algorithm took his job. Maybe that's why he started using?

Next, we look at starting items; the rules in SG:U say choose three. So Travis gets a Ranged Weapon (natch), a Stolen Credit Card, and an Implant. Rolling 2d6 on the Guns, Guns, Guns table in the Booster Pack gets Travis an Echo International Nemesis 10mm semiautomatic. As for his implant, I can roll on the 2d6 Augmentations table in the Booster Pack or opt for a roll on the d66 Additional Augmentations table in the Plug-In Pack, but instead I'm going to choose the Orchard Technologies Machine Link augment (result 65 on the Additional Augmentations table) as it makes the most sense for his Robotnik background. With the GMs permission, Travis uses the stolen credit card (2d6 uses - I roll a 3!) to get a few more things. I opt for a Savvy Jack implant running the shardware for Vehicle Zen. Travis also bags a Surveillance drone before the card is burned. Travis has some cool toys.

Starting cash is rolled, providing Mr Bright with a whopping 300. Travis had better get busy and earn some bit-yuan pretty soon.

While we're slinging the cubes, I want to find out where Travis' augmentations come from, so I roll a d6 on the How You Got Your Augments table in the Plug-In pack, and roll a 2: Travis apparently scrimped and saved for his enhancements, but cut some corners by using a backstreet clinic. So, we now roll on the Cheap Street Tech Quirks table to discover that substandard neural connections in his Machine Link and Savvy Jack cause muscle spasms. Travis isn't a meatboi, but he is a randomly convulsing boi.

I also want to figure out what junk he was hooked on, so, again, I turn to the Booster Pack and the Narcotics table, rolling a 7. Travis was big into Iniquity, an aphrodisiac-euphoric and a relaxant. Little wonder he struggles to stay off those sweet, sweet wafer-thin black tabs.

Finally, Travis needs a signature look. Rolling a few times on the Plug-In Pack's A La Mode tables, Travis sports an oversized puffer jacket covered in badges and patches, over a baggy jumpsuit, and he wears a beanie hat. Classy fella.

TRAVIS BRIGHT

Former Hayabusa Robotnik and recovering Iniquity addict

Morphology 0

Reaction 2

Cognition 1

Equilibrium 1

Resilience Points 12

Inventory 10

Gear: 

Echo International Nemesis 10mm semiautomatic (SS/50m range)

Homemade surveillance drone he calls 'Magoo'

Dead credit card

300 b¥ in cash

Implants:

Orchard Technologies Machine Link

Clavel Industries Savvy Jack

Shardware:

Vehicle Zen

Appearance:

Huge puffer jacket w patches, jumpsuit and beanie hat

Sporadic convulsions

Time for Mr Travis Bright to hit the streets, earn some dough and sort his fucking life out.

Sprawl Goons: Upgraded - Is This Plugged In?

Greets. Long time, no post!What have I been up to aaaaaall this time? Well, I've been beavering away during lockdown, including contributions to the avant-garde cyberpunk RPG, successfully kickstarted by Chance Phillips, Dancing With Bullets Under A Neon Sun, based loosely on the Black Hack, as well as expanding my cyberpunk hack of the ENnie Award-winning Tunnel Goons by Nate Treme.

Following the well received Booster Pack, the second supplement is out now. Both the Booster Pack and the Plug-In Pack, along with some of the Sprawl Goons: Upgraded content, is extremely easy to port over to other cyberpunk games, especially the rules-lite offerings. So, even if you don't goon around in the sprawl, they may be worth a look-see. Go have a virtual browse.

Available at DTRPG and itch.io

The blatant commerce bit:

Sprawl Goons: Upgraded - Plug-In Pack

You thought you'd seen the best lite dark future gaming with Sprawl Goons: Upgraded and the option-heavy Booster Pack, now Geist Hack Games brings you the Plug-In Pack, 17 pages of new content to push the cyberpunk fun even further!

• More optional rules - fast draws, snipers, suppressive fire, the Hollywood hordes rule, drug addiction, campaign progression, and more!

• A 2d6 selection of cyberspace consoles

• 2d6 hot weapon modifications

• 2d6 deadly heavy weapons

• 2d6 personal drones to give your character the edge

• 36 (d66) additional and varied augmentations from the top manufacturers, plus their benefits

• 2d6 shardware examples, for use with the Savvy Jack implant

• Cybershell death

• A la mode - 36 (d66) aesthetic affectations for cyberpunks

My next project looks to be either a companion volume to the Augmented Reality city kit, or a Lulu POD hardcopy of the three Sprawl Goons books in one compact volume. Choices, choices…

Sprawl Goons Gets a BOOST!

OUT NOW!

More tables, more tech, more backgrounds, more Sprawl Goons! Upgrade your lite dark future! 

20 pages of new cyberpunk tables to enhance SPRAWL GOONS: UPGRADED:

• Augmentations

• Street Tech Quirks

• Guns, Guns, Guns

• Ammo Options

• Melee Weapons

• Personal Protection

• Narcotics

• Illicit Software

• Corporations

• Character Quirks

• 36 Character Backgrounds

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/317653/Sprawl-Goons-Upgraded--Booster-Pack

Sprawl Goons Upgraded

With our weekly Cyberpunk 2020 game on hiatus, my group and I decided to game online, so I needed something fast and simple to run. Intending to stay with our campaign, but focusing on the background machinations of a couple of major NPCs, I decided to give Sprawl Goons a bit of a polish, and here's the result.

I'll post up the group's PCs shortly, and hopefully give you some background to events, as the team bounce around the globe.

SPRAWL GOONS: UPGRADED

CHARACTER CREATION

• Name your character

• Resilience Points are 12

• Inventory Score is 10

• Distribute 4 points between the stats below (a stat may have a score of 0)

Morphology: Good at melee, brawling, climbing, feats of strength

Reaction: Good at sneaking, aiming, shooting, balancing

Cognition: Good at hacking, perception, speaking, learning

Equilibrium: Good at keeping your nerve, resisting stress, maintaining your cool

STARTING ITEMS 

Choose 3 Starting Items (examples):

• Melee Weapon (specify)

• Ranged Weapon (specify)

• Armour (specify)

• Implant (specify)

• Penlight

• Cheap Sanyo Cell Phone

• Ono-Sendai Cyberspace Console and ‘trodes

• Toolkit

• IR Goggles

• Stolen Credit Card (2d6 uses)

• Half-bottle of Moskovskaya Vodka

• 3 Doses of Brazilian Hyperdex (+1 Morphology)

• Capsule Hotel Key

• Yeheyuan Cigarettes

• Fake ID (specify)

• Handcuffs

• Mirrorshades

• Palm-sized A/V drone

• Blister of d6 Lazarus Patches

Roll 3d6x10 for starting cash

GAME STRUCTURE

A referee controls and describes the world to the players, who then describe how their characters (PCs) act in the world. The referee will then call for an Action Roll should the situation warrant it.

THE ACTION ROLL

When an action’s success is uncertain, a player rolls 2d6 and adds points from the relevant stat and a point for each relevant item used (referee’s decision). If the total is equal to or greater than the action’s Difficulty Score (DS), it is successful.

DANGEROUS ACTION ROLL

If an Action Roll has a risk of physical danger, such as in combat, the difference between the dice roll and Difficulty Score (DS) is the amount of damage the endangered participant takes.

Examples:

As an action, Tanner (a PC) gets into close combat with a member of the Zone Bosses gang who has a DS of 10. The player rolls 2d6 and adds 2 from the character’s Morphology score, 1 for Tanner’s katana, and 1 for his kevlar jacket. Tanner’s Action Roll total is 12. The difference between 12 and 10 is 2, so the Zoner takes 2 damage. A non player character’s DS is also their Resilience Points, so now the enemy’s Difficulty Score is 8. If the player’s roll had been a total of 8 (2 less than the DS of 10), then Tanner would have lost 2 Resilience instead of the Zone Boss.

Elsewhere, another PC, Katya Kaiser, fires her Hideyoki shard gun at a Genexus agent shooting at her (DS10). Katya’s player rolls 2d6, adding 1 for her Reaction, 1 for the shard pistol, another 1 for the explosive flechettes it fires, and 1 for her spiderweave armour vest. She rolls 10 on the dice, adds the 4 points for a total of 14, so the Genexus goon takes 4 points of damage. Next round, the NPC agent’s DS will be down to 6. If Katya’s player had attained a total Action Roll score of 7 (3 less than the DS of 10), it would have been Katya that received damage (3 points) from the agent’s shots instead.

DIFFICULTY SCORE GUIDELINES

Easy: 8 | Moderate: 10 | Challenging: 12 | Hard: 14 | Formidable: 16 | Extreme: 18 | Impossible: 20

GLITCH & UPGRADE DICE

These are extra dice added to the Action Roll by the referee, depending on the circumstances during the game. Only the referee can determine if and when a player needs to roll the Glitch or Upgrade dice.

The GLITCH dice is a third d6 rolled during an Action Roll, requested by the referee when they feel the character is at a disadvantage. From the three dice rolled, keep the two worst scores for the Action Roll result. 

For example, a character may have faulty or damaged implants, or has sustained a wound that may affect the chances of their action’s success.

The UPGRADE dice is a third d6 which the referee will ask the player to roll when performing an action, when they think the character has gained a situational advantage. From the three dice rolled, keep the best two scores as the result of your Action Roll. 

For example, a character may have prepared well, set a solid ambush, done in-depth research, or brought the most suitable gear for the job, increasing their chances of success.

INITIATIVE ROLL

To determine who goes first in a combat situation, roll a d6 for initiative, adding the Reaction stat, and 1 for any relevant speedware augmentations, such as a a Reflex Booster, or performance enhancing drugs, such as ‘Dorph.

D6 + REACTION [+ AUGMENTS + DRUGS]

CHARACTER DEATH

When a character’s Resilience reaches zero, they will begin to take critical damage. 

Critical damage represents serious wounds, shock and blood loss. The referee will roll 2d6 (one for wounds, one for location) to determine both the severity of the injuries and the body location affected.

Critical Injuries Table (d6)

1. Drop weapons, superficial cuts, wind knocked out of you, bruised, dazed, knockdown 

2. Dislocations, shattered or broken weapons, numbed limbs or body parts 

3. Incapacitated limbs, deep wounds, smashed teeth, broken bones 

4. Severed arteries, internal bleeding, spine injuries, gouged eyes 

5. Portion of a limb lost, organs ruptured, bleeding out, artery severed, stunned 

6. Entire limb lost, body parts hacked in half, shock and blood loss, edge of consciousness

7+ Eviscerated, flying body parts, arterial spray, death in 1 round

Body Locations (d6)

1. Leg (nearest or most logical)

2. Torso 

3. Torso 

4. Torso 

5. Arm (nearest or most logical) 

6. Head

If a character has already taken critical damage, the next roll on the injury table is rolled with a +3.

Once a PC has taken a critical injury, they will be rolling all further Action Rolls using the Glitch Dice, until they have received medical attention.

When an NPC’s DS reaches zero, they die. The referee may choose to use the critical injuries for major NPCs in their campaign.

HEALING

Regain all lost Resilience Points by spending 8 hours resting in a safe area. For a quick fix mid mission, apply a Lazarus Patch to immediately recover 3 Resilience Points. An allied character with a first aid kit who performs a successful Cognition based Action Roll will gain the injured PC 2 Resilience Points. Critical Injuries cannot be healed this way and the PC must be attended by a medical professional with the right equipment.

CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT

Level up at the end of each mission. Each level, raise a stat score by 1, and raise either Resilience or Inventory Score by 1.

INVENTORY

Your Inventory Score is how many bulky items you can carry comfortably. For each item that exceeds your Inventory Score, subtract 1 from any Morphology or Reaction rolls.

IMPLANTS/AUGMENTATIONS

Cybernetic implants are interfaced with the PC’s meat body, and therefore don’t count towards the Inventory total. These can be anything from pop-out blades, to thermal optics, amped hearing, pneumatic fists, or jacked-up reflexes.

HACKING

Hacking attempts on systems can only be performed with an interfaced cyberspace console, and Action Rolls utilise the Cognition stat. 

A system will have a DS, just like a non-player character, depending on its level of security; a basic system might be Easy (8), whereas a zaibatsu mainframe could be Extreme (18). Neural damage can be taken from certain secure systems, in the same way as physically fighting with an NPC, and is the difference between the DS and the failed hacking roll. Critical damage will most likely affect the nervous system and the cognitive function of the target, leading to spasms, nerve damage, loss of motor function, seizures, reduced IQ, involuntary physical actions, bugs in augmentations, ticks, bleeds and heart attacks, console burn-out, etcetera. Go wild.

Your character’s console will add 1 to your Action Roll (cutting edge models can add more). If you can obtain them, specialist software or ICE-breakers, as well as a hacker’s inventive coding, may also add further bonuses to your hacking Action Roll. Researching a system prior to the attack, obtaining current passwords, or infiltrating via a back door exploit or other vulnerability, may allow the use of the Upgrade Dice (referee’s discretion).

SPECIAL RULES

• Full auto attacks give a +4 bonus to the Action Roll, but empty the weapon’s magazine

• Burst fire gives a +2 bonus to the Action Roll, up to three times before the magazine is spent

• Aiming gains a +1 bonus per round spent scoping the target, for up to a maximum of 3 rounds

• Shotguns do +3 damage point blank, +2 close proximity, and can hit up to 3 bunched targets at range

• Speciality munitions, such as explosive flechettes, add a further bonus to Action Rolls (see example)

• Throwing a grenade is a Moderate Action Roll, and uses the Reaction stat

• Grenades do +3 damage in enclosed spaces

• Planted explosives (using detonators or triggers) do 2d6 to 3d6 damage, dependent on type

• Monofilament edged weapons negate armour (so it can’t be added to your Action Roll total) and do +1 damage if the target is unarmoured

• Fire inflicts repeat damage for up to 3 rounds

• Falling damage is worked out as 1 point of damage for every 3 metres fallen (rounded up)

• Armour Can Be Slagged to negate a Critical Injury once, but is damaged and useless next time and must be replaced; it cannot be repaired

• Cybernetic limbs take damage as normal, but simply break or shut down when taking Critical Injuries, and can be repaired by a competent tech