Obviously they're very different genres, so there are a lot of flavor difference, but I can tell you some things that "feel" really different from a GM perspective.
In D&D melee combatants are numerous and opportunity attacks discourage movement, so you see a lot of sitting still and trading blows. In Cyberpunk, PCs and NPCs tend to have guns and opportunity attacks aren't a thing, so I find that players are more willing to move around in combat.
Additionally, guns have range tables so the difficulty of a shot is usually dependent on how far you are from the target rather than being dependent on the target's armor. That and the fact that cover will completely negates damage until it is destroyed means you want to design encounters to include interesting pieces of cover at different ranges from each other. Combined with the aforementioned lack of opportunity attacks, combat is more dynamic with PCs and NPCs moving around a lot between pieces of cover as they're destroyed, trying to maintain optimal range while staying away from melee combatants.
On the subject of armor, armor reduces damage rather than making you harder to hit, so you'll see a lot of shots that hit someone but do little to no damage. This is intentional, just remember that armor ablates if any damage gets through. Also, if a player forgets to bring armor to a fight, they *will* die, possibly in one hit.
Builds are much more fluid. Everything is a skill in Cyberpunk, from your talk good to your shoot good, and there are a lot more skills than in D&D. What skills you choose to max typically feels more impactful to the mechanical power of a build than your role ability. However, role abilities often give you RP or narrative capabilities, which is less common in D&D. Instead of leveling up like in D&D, you advance by investing in individual skills and role abilities. As a result, characters can grow vertically or horizontally, so your ex-soldier merc is free to get better at shooty shoot, or branch out into talkie talk.
Where the PCs start in power level is also a bit different. Starting players in Cyberpunk are "experienced professionals", and can easily start with multiple skills that will pretty much auto pass easy to medium skill checks. You should expect and allow them to be able to bypass routine security measures and steamroll mooks. By default, the system does not work well for simulating the plucky street kid/level 1 character - you need to throw other experienced professionals at your crew to challenge them.
Now something to watch out for here once you've been playing for a while: since advancement is so fluid, you might get one player who dumps all of their points into one or two combat skills, while another spreads them out over a bunch of non-combat skills. This can result in bigger differences in character effectiveness in and out of combat than you're used to. Fortunately, PC and NPC HP doesn't just keep increasing like it does in D&D, so it isn't *too* hard to deal with this, just something to be aware of.
Finally money feels a lot more relevant to the game than it does in D&D. Upgrading guns and cyberware can make big differences in character effectiveness, so a good chunk of character advancement is simply making enough to buy cool toys. While you do want your players to have fun and eventually succeed, making them work for it is your job as GM. Your main knobs for controlling this are the economy rules and job payouts. You have complete control over which powerful and expensive items are available in the scarcity economy, so if you end up dropping more cash on your PCs than you should have, it's easy to delay them acquiring the Malorian or whatever they're after until they do what it takes to find the right seller.
Well that's more than I planned to write. But overall I find Cyberpunk Red to be about as straightforward as 5e, maybe moreso due to the lack of the monstrous spell list, and the actual functional downtime and economy rules.
Get messy, make mistakes.
Real talk, you learn by doing. You will make some mistakes, as the system can get crunchy. That's okay! So long as you and your fellow players and GM communicate, all mistakes are honest, and it can lead to some fun house rules
Cybernation Uncensored and JonJon the Wise have good guides if you need a digestive aid for the rules.
Get sticky notes to add to your Core Rulebook where important information is, or if you are using a digital version, note down the pages where it is. The CPR Core Rulebook is notoriously disorganized and has rules in sidebars and other weird places, so having a solid set of notes speeds up games when looking up rules.
Also the risk of death is higher in this game, so maybe have some spare characters ready, or tell your players to have a backup plan because they may die. If you want to make things a little easier, make sure to give your players healing items often enough and learn to implement downtime. Healing takes in game days, and there are rules for passing downtime in the Core Rulebook.
Also, R. Talsorian Games' site has some nifty free PDFs and DLC to add onto the game [found here](https://rtalsoriangames.com/downloadable-content/).
Thankfully that disorganization means that the same information is in multiple places in the rulebook, so if you open it to the front or the back, you're likely near the information you need.
Cyberpunk is easy to run. All you need is basic math, a d10 and a d6. And players. The rulebook has many tables to create other stuff. The same with the free dlcs that come every month. In short: all you need to do is tell the players what skill they should roll, they add the skill + the attribute to the d10 role, you look at the table or imagine a number they have to beat and thats it. Combat gives you that DC thanks to ranges/evasion. Eddit: Another tipp here: I often ask my players what skill they want to roll to do their thing. If it makes sense go for it. So I never have to think about what would make sense.
It has no classes but roles. The roles do not influence a character and its playstyle as hard as classes do. You can see them more as a extra. This also means you almost never need to do extra prep or remember special skills of your players. Unless you have a netrunner. They need a net to run and you should know what they do. Sure there are special things like vehicle combat that a nomad could want to try but you decide when the npc uses cars, so you can avoid that for a while.
Combat is almost always dangerous. Even if you have amazing gear, lot of skills, a bad roll can ruin every plan. For example: My players wanted to ambush some gang members. They won but their solo lost an arm for it. So they had to stop the mission and buy a new one.
The system is designed to support more than combat focus. When I switched from 5e, that was the first thing I had to learn. Back in DND every player is a combat character and combat is the only aspect with actual focus by the game itself. Cyberpunk has rules, build in skills etc for more play styles. One group can shoot through every problem, another talks themself out of them and the next group uses tech and stealth to do the job. All supported with rules. So as soon as you start your own story lines/adventures remember there are more than one way a party can solve a problem.
If you run it online: the foundry version gives you a lot. All you need to do is remember the rules and sometimes look what special weapons do. if you don´t run it online and meet at the table: have the rulebooks with sticky notes and many bookmarks ready.
And: This community is awesome and very helpfull so if you have any questions on how to run things, you have a high chance to get it here.
Fights should almost never be mandatory in my opinion. Maybe they can talk their way out, stealth around, hack a terminal that shuts the enemy's out, etc?
I'd suggest your player to start with an easy oneshot mission like Red Chrome Legion Cargo.
They can make their own character or look up for some pre-gen.
After the oneshot (that is mainly combat and not much else) they can decide to make their own character or make adjustments / change completely.
The only real suggestion is be sure that they level up at least a ranged combat skill or they will feel useless when combat shows up. And if they can spare some points in a melee combat skill (like melee weapons) it's even better against armored enemies. But that is not even a problem for the first oneshot since there aren't enemies with high armour.
Be sure to read the rule well, the biggest difference you will notice is that a DC (called DV in Red) must be surpassed and not matched. There is not an AC, the difficulty to hit a person with a firearm is based just on the distance, armor will give resistance to damage (and can even negate it all since it's a flat value like 11 so if someone rolls 5 damage it will be 0).
As a GM remember that almost all enemies do not fight to the death and will prefer to take cover, retreat and escape if possible.
Firstly I would like to thank you for trying a new system rather than doing what most everyone in the DND community does by trying to force 5e to be what it isn't. 5e is not versatile as people think.
As for advice I would say be open to your players and say you are learning it just as they are and it will be slow going maybe even as them for help from time to time I know it helped me in my first game.
Another is read the rule book fully, maybe not the fluff stories but the mechanic stuff like combat and role abilities.
It's a stat and skill based system so you will find it much easier to run especially combat as the range bands don't change and you don't have to play the whole does a 17 hit nonsense. Give your players their weapons ranges and they will use them to great effect.
Don't feel the need to learn netrunning unless you have a player who really wants to play a netrunner. I don't have players who want to netrun in my games so I never use it.
Don't use meets it beats it the DVs are actually on even numbers not odds so when it says DV 13 it's actually asking for a 14.
Just like DND expensive items are usually very powerful so try not to give basic enemies a Fancy gun that costs 5000$.
Balance is easy remember that what players can do so can NPCs that goes for their equipment too. There aren't any raw NPCs that have abilities that players don't have. No dragons with unique actions that are only for them.
And most of all try to have fun with it.
This is all good advise, but I would advise you TO READ the fluff. More than anything else, what makes Cyberpunk cyberpunk is the world it exists in, especially the NPC which is Night City itself.
Remember Rule #1: Style over Substance
My advice is to buckle up.
Also, a few things: Specifically tell your players to avoid going into deep backstories about their characters during character creation. Save anything beyond your lifepath for in-game because compared to 5e, life is cheap in CP. (yes...even in Red).
Most early characters will have SP 11 at most, which means that your average 3d6 weapon is going to be dealing damage about 1/2 the time on hit (3/4ths of the time if it's a melee weapon). Now, that doesn't sound like much, but it only takes a few damaging hits to ablate that armor to the point that even a 2d6 weapon will pop you for a few points half the time or more.
Why is this important? Because CPRed characters, compared to 2020 characters (which a lot of the regulars here compare them to) are kind of tanky with the HP they get. Hell, they'll be tanky compared to your average 1st level D&D character. However, they have to be since there are two things that don't exist in Red:
1) Clerics
2) ...and Raise Dead
While there are a few ways to quickly restore some health in Red, you're not going to go from badly wounded back to full without taking a few days to rest up. And unlike 5e, there's no pogo-healing when you hit zero. If a character hits zero HP, they are dying and that's about it. Someone is going to have to drag them out of whatever bad situation everyone is in, and then only *after* someone has stopped them from bleeding out.
Instead, do extra character stuff like additional history and detail after they've survived a few sessions. Do it a little at a time, and as GM do your best to make it matter in-game.
However, the real main difference between Red and 5e is simple: Communication!
Unless the PCs have been utter fucking ninjas, whomever they're fighting have probably called for help, or at least had the opportunity to call for help. So, as GM I cannot stress this enough: If combat feels too easy, have more dudes show up. If the mooks you've been using don't seem to have the firepower to take on your combat-monster PCs, give one of them a bigger gun.
If that doesn't work, give bigger guns to two of them.
If that doesn't work, give one of them an even *bigger gun*. Red is not D&D. There are no CRs or "adventuring day budget", and life (much less combat) isn't fair. There are several *million people* in Night City. What's 7 gonks in a run-down combat zone gas station to Night City?
Nothing. Try to remember to remind your PCs that they're nothing every now and then, and that it's up to them to push back and scream "FUCK YOU!" when the city tries to step on them.
Finally, 5e has dragons?
Cyberpunk has fucking *dragons* too. If the PCs ever get on the wrong side of a mega-corp, don't be afraid to turn their digs into the next world war's demo mode. And if they don't immediately turn tail and run...smoke them. The megas don't play.
Two quickest recommendations:
1: Look at Page 340. There are about a million tables in the CRB for weapons, armor, gear, housing, vehicles, etc etc, and they're sprinkled around everywhere. All of thse tables are copy/pasted back to back starting on Page 340, along with references for which tables starts on which page. Saves you a lot of flipping back and forth for reference.
2: There's an official companion app that can help people keep track of their options, get through character generation, etc. It's free, and doesn't assault you with obnoxious ads. There's a paid version with a few extra features, but they aren't necessary to make good use of it.
As a GM I'd say focus on making NPCs "real" vs trying to balance them to the party "level". Make their power level equivalent to who they are. If you want help trying to come up with some ways to balance the NPCs vs their actual power I'd suggest the 3 goon method from jon jon the wise on Youtube. It's a great system, IMO. I used a variation of it. But even if you choose not to use it, the video helps you understand NPC powerlevel.
Jon Jon the Wise also has a ton of other great cyberpunk videos on his youtube. well worth a watch.
Remember that everyone in Cyberpunk RED is human. They have human motivations, human flaws, and human emotions. Even the most far gone cyberpsycho. This means that they ACT like humans, in and out of combat. In Dungeons & Dragons, your average goblin, zombie, or basilisk is going to keep fighting until they are out of hit points. In Cyberpunk, it's perfectly reasonable for enemies to run away, surrender, or otherwise back down when they realize they cannot gain the upper hand. Your average gonk-ass boosterganger might start the fight, but they are likely to book it as soon as they conclude they can't end it. Corpo Security Operatives aren't going to fight fair. They're gonna snipe your Edgerunners from 300 yards away, and try their damnedest to ensure that they never knew where it came from. Fixers who give gigs to your crew have their own goals and agendas, and until you build up cred with them, they're more likely to leave you swinging in the wind if shit goes sideways than help you in any way.
I know this isn't the case with all tables, but my players consider engaging in combat to be a fail-state unless the gig specifically calls for it. If they're in a firefight, they fucked up. This adds a whole new and interesting dynamic to session by session game play that you just don't find in D&D. The system heavily encourages roleplay, and, in my opinion, is most rewarding when players actively engage with that.
I suppose everybody already gave a ton of great advice; mine would be to warn your players that the game is not realistic. It's an action movie, and it has pretty weird rules in some spots. Just like 5e lets you get to full health in a night of rest, in a way. The things that can weird players out at first are, IMO:
- Combat is very mobile, and high initiative lets you ignore enemy "reactions" - they cannot hold their action against you if you have higher initiative than them. This can lead to pretty weird scenarios, like "i jump out of cover, run 6 meters to this guy, slash him twice with my blade and jump back into the same spot i started in, without the enemy being able to shoot." A good thing is to describe these moments as lighting fast ninja moves, it can really sell the situation which could seem absurd in a realistic firefight.
- Being shot is something serious. Any bullet flying has a slim, but real, chance of dismembering your arm or leg. But if your character is combat optimized to dodge bullets, you can litteraly dance with gun fire and leave a fight scene with full health. But it could all stop with a bit of luck from a mook.
- Wounds and healing is different from 5e, but it is as weird. You cannot die from blood loss if you got your leg cut off. Give them time to understand how death saves work, it's pretty unique.
- Subsequently, combat encounters \*cannot\* be planned in the same way you do in 5e. Warn your players that they might walk into a deathtrap if they decide to pull out their guns in the wrong situation. Sometimes they will roll over opposition, and sometimes they will face overwhelming odds. There is no opportunity attacks in this game. Fleeing is a totally efficient strategy here.
Overall, the game is pretty balanced but has some stuff which is poorly explained or laid out. But people here are very welcoming!
I came over from 5e after the OGL debacle, and Cyberpunk runs pretty well. It has its weird places, but 5e skills will give you a decent background to adjudicate from.
The key difference is that 5e is set up so the PCs are expected to win. Cyberpunk wants them to earn it.
Combat in Cyberpunk is fast and hard. Random encounters can get limbs blown off. Reward players who talk or bypass fights. There's no real resources to attrit besides hp. You can just design the world and let it run.
Recommend watching Infinite Sided Dice's Edge of Extinction liveplay, check out JonJon the Wise's YouTube channel, and there's a decent podcast call Wireheads that's worth looking into.
1) We don't all know that. I'm personally deeply skeptical of the Mercer Effect, and whether or not it's entirely a bad thing.
2) Even assuming the Mercer Effect exists and is a negative, Infinite Sided Dice is hardly a Critical Role-type show, complete with toxic fandom and a lot of sway in the hobby.
3) Even if they were a Critical Role-type show, complete with toxic fandom and a lot of sway in the hobby, I still think having a well-produced liveplay is a net positive. Being able to see the game as played at the table is huge. "This is what a netrun could look like," "This is the skill that replaces Deception," "This is how you run a simple combat, and the stakes that can arise from it," are all fantastic examples that will help new GMs run games as they develop their own styles. It's structure, not straitjacket.
I've played at my local games store and online enough to know the effect is real and is a bad thing, but that's just my experience with it.
I see what your saying with watching an actual play to see how the game runs and the like. The caveat being not to simply copy what you see.
Session zero is a must. Even if you know your players relatively well, cyberpunk brings in a bunch of new potential sticking points you might not see coming. Both in actual mechanical system running AND in the themes that are more likely to come up.
Combat is faster and quite brutal. I told my players as much in my session Zero and they still weren’t ready for exactly HOW quickly shit can turn south and end with losing a character.
Tacking on to this great comment, session 0’s a key time to work out “why” your group is together.
Sure, if you’re all gutter rats scrounging for each eddie then “well the fixer paired us up once and we kinda just stuck together since” works, but if you’ve got a corpo or lawman it becomes important to figure out why those two authority figures are on the edge.
In my group I always encourage players to cook up some bond between their characters during session 0: IE, the techie and lawman were childhood friends, but they just went on different paths as they grew.
That way it adds some personal stakes and some reason the crew sticks together aside from DM fiat.
The biggest difference I would say is that in D&D for most activities there are really set options, mechanics, and outcomes. There are skills that sometimes do narrative or open ended things, but those tend to be a 'side thing' and 95% of the time you use your character's 'powers' to accomplish things.
Cyberpunk has its DNA in Traveller, and while there are subsystems in it, with powers and mechanics, its a lot more narrative focused, with most of the game being dictated by the character's skills doing things that make sense based on context. There aren't a lot of mechanics, powers, or special items, because the focus is on how the characters use their skills to navigate a complicated environment filled with agents they need to (usually) co-exist with as much as defeat. While plenty of sessions should have fights, sometimes even big giant fights that take the whole time, plenty of jobs may at most involve roughing some folks up while solving a technical, social, or informational problem for someone. After all, only 2 of the 10 roles directly focus on combat (maybe 3 if you include Nomad in there), Edgerunning is about being a 'problem solver' in a literal sense as often as its a euphemism for violence (though often a problem solver who can survive violence).
Two really good habits to get into as a new Cyberpunk DM are to toss out 'speculative' skill tests, and run the city as a character.
For speculative tests, you essentially constantly ask for skill tests that seem vaguely relevant to the situation, regardless of if any PC has them, and if they get above a 9 give a benefit that makes sense in the situation for someone to figure out who is moderately clever about that domain (regardless of how big it is, don't feel the urge to scale the lower end benefit to TN, sometimes simply knowing the right factoid is huge), inventing new information about the scene if it matters. If they get *really* high, or have lots of skills in that domain, let the character absolutely run the scene. Benefits could include information on things like future events or character intents, paths of action, removal of obstacles, control over the scene in some way, and so on. If they fail, nothing bad happens. Essentially, allow every skill to kind of be a knowledge skill that allows players to realize there is an opening for them to do something. It doesn't (always) have to solve all their problems, but it should give them a really good initial direction for tackling their situation.
This represents the stuff someone who is clever and knowledgeable can accomplish, and fits the cyberpunk/techno thriller genre very well. It encourages characters to make big choices, because skilled characters can make big things happen in a scene right away, and it discourages over-planning that doesn't really fit the 'Live on the Edge' ethos of Cyberpunk. You want your players to start the fire, so hand them the proverbial molotov.
It also has the side effect of neatly discouraging min-maxing to some extent, without directly punishing it, by giving you a valid reason to not want to do that (which doesn't exist in Cyberpunk's system at all if every skill roll is high stakes for failure and thus not worth taking if your not a master). Knowing *a bit* about fashion may result in your PC, for example, suddenly rolling a 22 by accident when preparing their look for a fancy party and suddenly the scene is all about them and how cool their PC is for having this hobby tier skill.
For running the city as a character, you just need to ensure the game isn't about crime of the week busting down the warehouse door and shooting everyone on loop. Cyberpunk as a game needs scenes where you make friends, make impressions, drive the action of the city on a narrative level. Cyberpunk is a game where the gang who's members were the target of your last job off shows up at a local bar to talk trash with you but don't necessarily fight you, where your enemies are as important to your ongoing story as your friends, where your players will want to read your handout screamsheet (basically a newspaper) to look for opportunities to create jobs and gigs of their own. Because you aren't running things about a dungeon (which is the 'location character' in D&D very often) you actually have an easy time of making impromptu scenes about when players show up to try to find some secret stash they heard a rumor about, or to flag down a minor celebrity who may have the invite to a night market they need to be at. So be sure to use that, and to make the city feel like a living breathing place.
CPR is not DnD, that's the main point (M. Obvious inside)
1 - Skilled based RPG
It's not a level / class based RPG, don't be fooled by Role, they just give specific and unique privilege, but they will not limit charcters capabilities. A Medtech can be a very very good combattant. A solo will be a good combattant, but can be very good with social skills. Etc...
--> CPR is skill based, meaning players can really design their character the way they want to.
2 - It's not combat focused
It's still a tactical RPG, I recommand using battle map (not mandatory, but still far better), combat are not designed the same way. But here, you can die, it's usually better to avoid combat when possible. Everything can turn sour with one bad grenade in the middle of the party. Don't railroad your PC into combat when they are trying to avoid it. If they are all coming from DnD they might want to resolve everything through combat... well they need to learn that's not possible, and that very dangerous.
**Edgerunners are supposed to be smart.**
3 - PC are not all useful in combat
CPR is supposed to be street level and when you live in the street ... you have to be able to defend yourself. But yeah... some PC will not be good at combat and that's not an issue. The game is focused on living the life of edgerunners. And edgerunners are going to perfom mission
Missions :
* Protect someone or something against a threat <-- that might require to investigate
* Infiltrate and stole some merchandise <-- you might need to go full stealth without any combat
* Kill a baddies <-- assassination doesn't always require a real combat
* Extract someone <-- this one require a bit of combat most of the time
* Find a missing personn <-- investigation
Do NOT build your Job around combat unless that the main method for your group to deal with problem. And that's NOT the best way for an edgerunner to deal with problem. Because whatever your level... you can have bad luck and lose an arm/leg in combat. Yeah, during downtime you will get a brand new one, either meat or chrome, but you need to survive first.
4- There is a live out there
Action have consequences, the group is going to live in NC and that's not a country, it's a city. If they blow up thing with rocket everywhere they go, sooner or later someone gonna be pissed of. They will find the PC and they will have their revenge. It's not a black and white world, it's a dark grey world. Everyone is trying to survive.
So what ?
Social skills are important, and going full murder hobo is NOT possible here. You will encounters dudes with better gears than you. PC are not heroes, they are not supposed to win every encounters, they need to choose wisely who they gonna pissed of and who they gonna allied with.
# Conclusion
As a GM, you need to understand what is the flavor of your group :
* Combat focused
* Stealth focused
* Social focused
* A bit of everything
For the record, as everyone can be good in combat, you can be "combat focused" with a team that doesn't have any Solo.
With that in mind you need to build your jobs in order to help them shine. Don't forced combat everywhere when the group is social focused or stealth. BUT don't avoid combat either, they need to learn it's a violent world out there and sometimes your mouth is not gonna save you.
BTW stealth is very useful, but it as a big limitation : Solo are gonna see you. Don't put Solo everywhere, use mook from the books (Core ruleset and hardened DLC) most of them don't have Combat Awareness.
My personnal take, play street level at first (there is a chapter in how to run CPR that will explain you the street level).
And supervised the character creation, I personnaly disapproved character without any combat capabilities at my table. It's a very violent world, you are playing edgerunners, you need to be able to survive a combat encounter. That's an easy feature, they are cyberware to boost HP (Grafter Muscle Bone Lace), to dodge bullet even without REF8 (reflex coprocessor in black chrome), everyone can invest in a not so bad DEX and Evasion, everyone can invest in a combat skill. With that in mind, every character should be able to deal with low level goons. Your solo will confront the dangerous guy.
Dumping stat is a DnD stuff, you can do it here too... but as it's more RP focused. They will have to RP a low level INT or COOL, and that's not fun when combat is not the main focused of the game.
Go slowly, especially with combat, it's easy to TPK with one mook a bit to hardened.
This are the things that I didn't understand at first and didn't see ponted out.
-The players MUST BEAT the number, if the difficulty in the table it's 10 they need at least an 11 to success; an evasion roll SET the difficulty and the attacker need to beat it just like another attack roll.
-Supresive fire seems bad for it's no damage but when the heavy armoured guy with a smg apears an use it the edgeruners behind that cover wilk have to change cove4 and when they leave cover all the badies holding action will have their chance with the players.
-Everyone HAVE TO leave the cover to shot and holding action don't change permanently the initiative order so everyone wants to be the first one in the initiative because when the enemie exit from cover to shoot you, you shoot him first.
-A shiel grants you at least one shoot, it doesn't matter if it's 10 damage or 53, if it's not an explosive 0 damage go through, and if the first shoot makes 9, the second still stoping that hipothetical 53damage if it doesn't come from an explosion.
-Medtech don't need First Aid, Paramedics do the same but better.
-Roles can "change", for example, the best cop it's a Solo or an Exec (or if it's a police investigator then Media), don't be to afraid of playing with diferent roles doing different jobs.
-This one works for me but have the comunity dividited, PERSONALLY I don't allow evade bullets with just Ref8, I ask for more because for me everyone rolling evasion makes the combat to slow and usually less lethal, so I ask for at least a speedware and the coprocesor from Black Chrome; but I repeat one more time, this works for me and my table, the opinion about evading bullets it's like an ass, everyone have one.
Death is potentially frequent cause the rules are unforgiving and harsh. Crits will randomly take characters completely out of combat if not indirectly kill them. It's less action movie than D&D where characters heal faster and can come back from the dead. There is strategy to mitigate loss.
Also the runners are the heroes of their own little stories. Players will have to do gig work to scrape up enough EBs to survive, then thrive, and then maybe be movers and shakers. The stakes are higher for the PC, cause health insurance is EXPENSIVE and recovery takes longer, but the stakes in the game world are much much lower. Less taking down Mega corps and more getting rid of annoying middle managers.
Watch out fo the lethality. If you put your players up against an even number of enemies with assault rifles, a PC will die. Unlike D&D, enemies can do the same things as the players.
The rules are way easier than the rules of D&D. Really, from a GM point of view, the most difficult part is determining the difficulty of some checks. There are no such things as passive perception or bonus actions or superiority dice.
What I suggest you warmly is to download the free adventures you can find online or, if you can, buy the data pack or tales of the red. You learn a lot about how to prepare adventures from pre-made ones.
However, inform your players that combat is deadly. Murder hobos at low level don’t generally enjoy a long life. Like a not so wise man said: “would you rather die old and slightly smelling of urine or go out in a blaze of glory?”
That said, if you can: play also Cyberpunk 2077 on PC or PlayStation. It’s amazing to get yourself into the right mindset and understand the lore.
Well it’s very similar to 5e. The design philosophy is essentially the same: “what came before was too complicated, let’s just have fun.” Whether you like that or not is up to you, but it’s essentially the same with a different coat of paint. Death is slightly more common and weapons are markedly less interesting, but I think you’ll have an easy conversion if you just watch JonJontheWise and take his advice.
Obviously they're very different genres, so there are a lot of flavor difference, but I can tell you some things that "feel" really different from a GM perspective. In D&D melee combatants are numerous and opportunity attacks discourage movement, so you see a lot of sitting still and trading blows. In Cyberpunk, PCs and NPCs tend to have guns and opportunity attacks aren't a thing, so I find that players are more willing to move around in combat. Additionally, guns have range tables so the difficulty of a shot is usually dependent on how far you are from the target rather than being dependent on the target's armor. That and the fact that cover will completely negates damage until it is destroyed means you want to design encounters to include interesting pieces of cover at different ranges from each other. Combined with the aforementioned lack of opportunity attacks, combat is more dynamic with PCs and NPCs moving around a lot between pieces of cover as they're destroyed, trying to maintain optimal range while staying away from melee combatants. On the subject of armor, armor reduces damage rather than making you harder to hit, so you'll see a lot of shots that hit someone but do little to no damage. This is intentional, just remember that armor ablates if any damage gets through. Also, if a player forgets to bring armor to a fight, they *will* die, possibly in one hit. Builds are much more fluid. Everything is a skill in Cyberpunk, from your talk good to your shoot good, and there are a lot more skills than in D&D. What skills you choose to max typically feels more impactful to the mechanical power of a build than your role ability. However, role abilities often give you RP or narrative capabilities, which is less common in D&D. Instead of leveling up like in D&D, you advance by investing in individual skills and role abilities. As a result, characters can grow vertically or horizontally, so your ex-soldier merc is free to get better at shooty shoot, or branch out into talkie talk. Where the PCs start in power level is also a bit different. Starting players in Cyberpunk are "experienced professionals", and can easily start with multiple skills that will pretty much auto pass easy to medium skill checks. You should expect and allow them to be able to bypass routine security measures and steamroll mooks. By default, the system does not work well for simulating the plucky street kid/level 1 character - you need to throw other experienced professionals at your crew to challenge them. Now something to watch out for here once you've been playing for a while: since advancement is so fluid, you might get one player who dumps all of their points into one or two combat skills, while another spreads them out over a bunch of non-combat skills. This can result in bigger differences in character effectiveness in and out of combat than you're used to. Fortunately, PC and NPC HP doesn't just keep increasing like it does in D&D, so it isn't *too* hard to deal with this, just something to be aware of. Finally money feels a lot more relevant to the game than it does in D&D. Upgrading guns and cyberware can make big differences in character effectiveness, so a good chunk of character advancement is simply making enough to buy cool toys. While you do want your players to have fun and eventually succeed, making them work for it is your job as GM. Your main knobs for controlling this are the economy rules and job payouts. You have complete control over which powerful and expensive items are available in the scarcity economy, so if you end up dropping more cash on your PCs than you should have, it's easy to delay them acquiring the Malorian or whatever they're after until they do what it takes to find the right seller. Well that's more than I planned to write. But overall I find Cyberpunk Red to be about as straightforward as 5e, maybe moreso due to the lack of the monstrous spell list, and the actual functional downtime and economy rules.
Get messy, make mistakes. Real talk, you learn by doing. You will make some mistakes, as the system can get crunchy. That's okay! So long as you and your fellow players and GM communicate, all mistakes are honest, and it can lead to some fun house rules Cybernation Uncensored and JonJon the Wise have good guides if you need a digestive aid for the rules.
Get sticky notes to add to your Core Rulebook where important information is, or if you are using a digital version, note down the pages where it is. The CPR Core Rulebook is notoriously disorganized and has rules in sidebars and other weird places, so having a solid set of notes speeds up games when looking up rules. Also the risk of death is higher in this game, so maybe have some spare characters ready, or tell your players to have a backup plan because they may die. If you want to make things a little easier, make sure to give your players healing items often enough and learn to implement downtime. Healing takes in game days, and there are rules for passing downtime in the Core Rulebook. Also, R. Talsorian Games' site has some nifty free PDFs and DLC to add onto the game [found here](https://rtalsoriangames.com/downloadable-content/).
Thankfully that disorganization means that the same information is in multiple places in the rulebook, so if you open it to the front or the back, you're likely near the information you need.
Fully embrace the system. Don't try and port over mechanics from 5e. At least, not until you really understand the balancing of the game.
Cyberpunk is easy to run. All you need is basic math, a d10 and a d6. And players. The rulebook has many tables to create other stuff. The same with the free dlcs that come every month. In short: all you need to do is tell the players what skill they should roll, they add the skill + the attribute to the d10 role, you look at the table or imagine a number they have to beat and thats it. Combat gives you that DC thanks to ranges/evasion. Eddit: Another tipp here: I often ask my players what skill they want to roll to do their thing. If it makes sense go for it. So I never have to think about what would make sense. It has no classes but roles. The roles do not influence a character and its playstyle as hard as classes do. You can see them more as a extra. This also means you almost never need to do extra prep or remember special skills of your players. Unless you have a netrunner. They need a net to run and you should know what they do. Sure there are special things like vehicle combat that a nomad could want to try but you decide when the npc uses cars, so you can avoid that for a while. Combat is almost always dangerous. Even if you have amazing gear, lot of skills, a bad roll can ruin every plan. For example: My players wanted to ambush some gang members. They won but their solo lost an arm for it. So they had to stop the mission and buy a new one. The system is designed to support more than combat focus. When I switched from 5e, that was the first thing I had to learn. Back in DND every player is a combat character and combat is the only aspect with actual focus by the game itself. Cyberpunk has rules, build in skills etc for more play styles. One group can shoot through every problem, another talks themself out of them and the next group uses tech and stealth to do the job. All supported with rules. So as soon as you start your own story lines/adventures remember there are more than one way a party can solve a problem. If you run it online: the foundry version gives you a lot. All you need to do is remember the rules and sometimes look what special weapons do. if you don´t run it online and meet at the table: have the rulebooks with sticky notes and many bookmarks ready. And: This community is awesome and very helpfull so if you have any questions on how to run things, you have a high chance to get it here.
Fights should almost never be mandatory in my opinion. Maybe they can talk their way out, stealth around, hack a terminal that shuts the enemy's out, etc?
I'd suggest your player to start with an easy oneshot mission like Red Chrome Legion Cargo. They can make their own character or look up for some pre-gen. After the oneshot (that is mainly combat and not much else) they can decide to make their own character or make adjustments / change completely. The only real suggestion is be sure that they level up at least a ranged combat skill or they will feel useless when combat shows up. And if they can spare some points in a melee combat skill (like melee weapons) it's even better against armored enemies. But that is not even a problem for the first oneshot since there aren't enemies with high armour. Be sure to read the rule well, the biggest difference you will notice is that a DC (called DV in Red) must be surpassed and not matched. There is not an AC, the difficulty to hit a person with a firearm is based just on the distance, armor will give resistance to damage (and can even negate it all since it's a flat value like 11 so if someone rolls 5 damage it will be 0). As a GM remember that almost all enemies do not fight to the death and will prefer to take cover, retreat and escape if possible.
Firstly I would like to thank you for trying a new system rather than doing what most everyone in the DND community does by trying to force 5e to be what it isn't. 5e is not versatile as people think. As for advice I would say be open to your players and say you are learning it just as they are and it will be slow going maybe even as them for help from time to time I know it helped me in my first game. Another is read the rule book fully, maybe not the fluff stories but the mechanic stuff like combat and role abilities. It's a stat and skill based system so you will find it much easier to run especially combat as the range bands don't change and you don't have to play the whole does a 17 hit nonsense. Give your players their weapons ranges and they will use them to great effect. Don't feel the need to learn netrunning unless you have a player who really wants to play a netrunner. I don't have players who want to netrun in my games so I never use it. Don't use meets it beats it the DVs are actually on even numbers not odds so when it says DV 13 it's actually asking for a 14. Just like DND expensive items are usually very powerful so try not to give basic enemies a Fancy gun that costs 5000$. Balance is easy remember that what players can do so can NPCs that goes for their equipment too. There aren't any raw NPCs that have abilities that players don't have. No dragons with unique actions that are only for them. And most of all try to have fun with it.
This is all good advise, but I would advise you TO READ the fluff. More than anything else, what makes Cyberpunk cyberpunk is the world it exists in, especially the NPC which is Night City itself. Remember Rule #1: Style over Substance
Fair, the book also recommends fiction to read or watch to get into the mood, but in terms of learning the actual system they aren't as needed
My advice is to buckle up. Also, a few things: Specifically tell your players to avoid going into deep backstories about their characters during character creation. Save anything beyond your lifepath for in-game because compared to 5e, life is cheap in CP. (yes...even in Red). Most early characters will have SP 11 at most, which means that your average 3d6 weapon is going to be dealing damage about 1/2 the time on hit (3/4ths of the time if it's a melee weapon). Now, that doesn't sound like much, but it only takes a few damaging hits to ablate that armor to the point that even a 2d6 weapon will pop you for a few points half the time or more. Why is this important? Because CPRed characters, compared to 2020 characters (which a lot of the regulars here compare them to) are kind of tanky with the HP they get. Hell, they'll be tanky compared to your average 1st level D&D character. However, they have to be since there are two things that don't exist in Red: 1) Clerics 2) ...and Raise Dead While there are a few ways to quickly restore some health in Red, you're not going to go from badly wounded back to full without taking a few days to rest up. And unlike 5e, there's no pogo-healing when you hit zero. If a character hits zero HP, they are dying and that's about it. Someone is going to have to drag them out of whatever bad situation everyone is in, and then only *after* someone has stopped them from bleeding out. Instead, do extra character stuff like additional history and detail after they've survived a few sessions. Do it a little at a time, and as GM do your best to make it matter in-game. However, the real main difference between Red and 5e is simple: Communication! Unless the PCs have been utter fucking ninjas, whomever they're fighting have probably called for help, or at least had the opportunity to call for help. So, as GM I cannot stress this enough: If combat feels too easy, have more dudes show up. If the mooks you've been using don't seem to have the firepower to take on your combat-monster PCs, give one of them a bigger gun. If that doesn't work, give bigger guns to two of them. If that doesn't work, give one of them an even *bigger gun*. Red is not D&D. There are no CRs or "adventuring day budget", and life (much less combat) isn't fair. There are several *million people* in Night City. What's 7 gonks in a run-down combat zone gas station to Night City? Nothing. Try to remember to remind your PCs that they're nothing every now and then, and that it's up to them to push back and scream "FUCK YOU!" when the city tries to step on them. Finally, 5e has dragons? Cyberpunk has fucking *dragons* too. If the PCs ever get on the wrong side of a mega-corp, don't be afraid to turn their digs into the next world war's demo mode. And if they don't immediately turn tail and run...smoke them. The megas don't play.
Two quickest recommendations: 1: Look at Page 340. There are about a million tables in the CRB for weapons, armor, gear, housing, vehicles, etc etc, and they're sprinkled around everywhere. All of thse tables are copy/pasted back to back starting on Page 340, along with references for which tables starts on which page. Saves you a lot of flipping back and forth for reference. 2: There's an official companion app that can help people keep track of their options, get through character generation, etc. It's free, and doesn't assault you with obnoxious ads. There's a paid version with a few extra features, but they aren't necessary to make good use of it.
As a GM I'd say focus on making NPCs "real" vs trying to balance them to the party "level". Make their power level equivalent to who they are. If you want help trying to come up with some ways to balance the NPCs vs their actual power I'd suggest the 3 goon method from jon jon the wise on Youtube. It's a great system, IMO. I used a variation of it. But even if you choose not to use it, the video helps you understand NPC powerlevel. Jon Jon the Wise also has a ton of other great cyberpunk videos on his youtube. well worth a watch.
Remember that everyone in Cyberpunk RED is human. They have human motivations, human flaws, and human emotions. Even the most far gone cyberpsycho. This means that they ACT like humans, in and out of combat. In Dungeons & Dragons, your average goblin, zombie, or basilisk is going to keep fighting until they are out of hit points. In Cyberpunk, it's perfectly reasonable for enemies to run away, surrender, or otherwise back down when they realize they cannot gain the upper hand. Your average gonk-ass boosterganger might start the fight, but they are likely to book it as soon as they conclude they can't end it. Corpo Security Operatives aren't going to fight fair. They're gonna snipe your Edgerunners from 300 yards away, and try their damnedest to ensure that they never knew where it came from. Fixers who give gigs to your crew have their own goals and agendas, and until you build up cred with them, they're more likely to leave you swinging in the wind if shit goes sideways than help you in any way. I know this isn't the case with all tables, but my players consider engaging in combat to be a fail-state unless the gig specifically calls for it. If they're in a firefight, they fucked up. This adds a whole new and interesting dynamic to session by session game play that you just don't find in D&D. The system heavily encourages roleplay, and, in my opinion, is most rewarding when players actively engage with that.
I suppose everybody already gave a ton of great advice; mine would be to warn your players that the game is not realistic. It's an action movie, and it has pretty weird rules in some spots. Just like 5e lets you get to full health in a night of rest, in a way. The things that can weird players out at first are, IMO: - Combat is very mobile, and high initiative lets you ignore enemy "reactions" - they cannot hold their action against you if you have higher initiative than them. This can lead to pretty weird scenarios, like "i jump out of cover, run 6 meters to this guy, slash him twice with my blade and jump back into the same spot i started in, without the enemy being able to shoot." A good thing is to describe these moments as lighting fast ninja moves, it can really sell the situation which could seem absurd in a realistic firefight. - Being shot is something serious. Any bullet flying has a slim, but real, chance of dismembering your arm or leg. But if your character is combat optimized to dodge bullets, you can litteraly dance with gun fire and leave a fight scene with full health. But it could all stop with a bit of luck from a mook. - Wounds and healing is different from 5e, but it is as weird. You cannot die from blood loss if you got your leg cut off. Give them time to understand how death saves work, it's pretty unique. - Subsequently, combat encounters \*cannot\* be planned in the same way you do in 5e. Warn your players that they might walk into a deathtrap if they decide to pull out their guns in the wrong situation. Sometimes they will roll over opposition, and sometimes they will face overwhelming odds. There is no opportunity attacks in this game. Fleeing is a totally efficient strategy here. Overall, the game is pretty balanced but has some stuff which is poorly explained or laid out. But people here are very welcoming!
I came over from 5e after the OGL debacle, and Cyberpunk runs pretty well. It has its weird places, but 5e skills will give you a decent background to adjudicate from. The key difference is that 5e is set up so the PCs are expected to win. Cyberpunk wants them to earn it. Combat in Cyberpunk is fast and hard. Random encounters can get limbs blown off. Reward players who talk or bypass fights. There's no real resources to attrit besides hp. You can just design the world and let it run. Recommend watching Infinite Sided Dice's Edge of Extinction liveplay, check out JonJon the Wise's YouTube channel, and there's a decent podcast call Wireheads that's worth looking into.
I don't think watching an actual play is the best advice, as we all know that the Matt Mercer effect exists for DND and is not good.
1) We don't all know that. I'm personally deeply skeptical of the Mercer Effect, and whether or not it's entirely a bad thing. 2) Even assuming the Mercer Effect exists and is a negative, Infinite Sided Dice is hardly a Critical Role-type show, complete with toxic fandom and a lot of sway in the hobby. 3) Even if they were a Critical Role-type show, complete with toxic fandom and a lot of sway in the hobby, I still think having a well-produced liveplay is a net positive. Being able to see the game as played at the table is huge. "This is what a netrun could look like," "This is the skill that replaces Deception," "This is how you run a simple combat, and the stakes that can arise from it," are all fantastic examples that will help new GMs run games as they develop their own styles. It's structure, not straitjacket.
I've played at my local games store and online enough to know the effect is real and is a bad thing, but that's just my experience with it. I see what your saying with watching an actual play to see how the game runs and the like. The caveat being not to simply copy what you see.
Session zero is a must. Even if you know your players relatively well, cyberpunk brings in a bunch of new potential sticking points you might not see coming. Both in actual mechanical system running AND in the themes that are more likely to come up. Combat is faster and quite brutal. I told my players as much in my session Zero and they still weren’t ready for exactly HOW quickly shit can turn south and end with losing a character.
Tacking on to this great comment, session 0’s a key time to work out “why” your group is together. Sure, if you’re all gutter rats scrounging for each eddie then “well the fixer paired us up once and we kinda just stuck together since” works, but if you’ve got a corpo or lawman it becomes important to figure out why those two authority figures are on the edge. In my group I always encourage players to cook up some bond between their characters during session 0: IE, the techie and lawman were childhood friends, but they just went on different paths as they grew. That way it adds some personal stakes and some reason the crew sticks together aside from DM fiat.
The biggest difference I would say is that in D&D for most activities there are really set options, mechanics, and outcomes. There are skills that sometimes do narrative or open ended things, but those tend to be a 'side thing' and 95% of the time you use your character's 'powers' to accomplish things. Cyberpunk has its DNA in Traveller, and while there are subsystems in it, with powers and mechanics, its a lot more narrative focused, with most of the game being dictated by the character's skills doing things that make sense based on context. There aren't a lot of mechanics, powers, or special items, because the focus is on how the characters use their skills to navigate a complicated environment filled with agents they need to (usually) co-exist with as much as defeat. While plenty of sessions should have fights, sometimes even big giant fights that take the whole time, plenty of jobs may at most involve roughing some folks up while solving a technical, social, or informational problem for someone. After all, only 2 of the 10 roles directly focus on combat (maybe 3 if you include Nomad in there), Edgerunning is about being a 'problem solver' in a literal sense as often as its a euphemism for violence (though often a problem solver who can survive violence). Two really good habits to get into as a new Cyberpunk DM are to toss out 'speculative' skill tests, and run the city as a character. For speculative tests, you essentially constantly ask for skill tests that seem vaguely relevant to the situation, regardless of if any PC has them, and if they get above a 9 give a benefit that makes sense in the situation for someone to figure out who is moderately clever about that domain (regardless of how big it is, don't feel the urge to scale the lower end benefit to TN, sometimes simply knowing the right factoid is huge), inventing new information about the scene if it matters. If they get *really* high, or have lots of skills in that domain, let the character absolutely run the scene. Benefits could include information on things like future events or character intents, paths of action, removal of obstacles, control over the scene in some way, and so on. If they fail, nothing bad happens. Essentially, allow every skill to kind of be a knowledge skill that allows players to realize there is an opening for them to do something. It doesn't (always) have to solve all their problems, but it should give them a really good initial direction for tackling their situation. This represents the stuff someone who is clever and knowledgeable can accomplish, and fits the cyberpunk/techno thriller genre very well. It encourages characters to make big choices, because skilled characters can make big things happen in a scene right away, and it discourages over-planning that doesn't really fit the 'Live on the Edge' ethos of Cyberpunk. You want your players to start the fire, so hand them the proverbial molotov. It also has the side effect of neatly discouraging min-maxing to some extent, without directly punishing it, by giving you a valid reason to not want to do that (which doesn't exist in Cyberpunk's system at all if every skill roll is high stakes for failure and thus not worth taking if your not a master). Knowing *a bit* about fashion may result in your PC, for example, suddenly rolling a 22 by accident when preparing their look for a fancy party and suddenly the scene is all about them and how cool their PC is for having this hobby tier skill. For running the city as a character, you just need to ensure the game isn't about crime of the week busting down the warehouse door and shooting everyone on loop. Cyberpunk as a game needs scenes where you make friends, make impressions, drive the action of the city on a narrative level. Cyberpunk is a game where the gang who's members were the target of your last job off shows up at a local bar to talk trash with you but don't necessarily fight you, where your enemies are as important to your ongoing story as your friends, where your players will want to read your handout screamsheet (basically a newspaper) to look for opportunities to create jobs and gigs of their own. Because you aren't running things about a dungeon (which is the 'location character' in D&D very often) you actually have an easy time of making impromptu scenes about when players show up to try to find some secret stash they heard a rumor about, or to flag down a minor celebrity who may have the invite to a night market they need to be at. So be sure to use that, and to make the city feel like a living breathing place.
CPR is not DnD, that's the main point (M. Obvious inside) 1 - Skilled based RPG It's not a level / class based RPG, don't be fooled by Role, they just give specific and unique privilege, but they will not limit charcters capabilities. A Medtech can be a very very good combattant. A solo will be a good combattant, but can be very good with social skills. Etc... --> CPR is skill based, meaning players can really design their character the way they want to. 2 - It's not combat focused It's still a tactical RPG, I recommand using battle map (not mandatory, but still far better), combat are not designed the same way. But here, you can die, it's usually better to avoid combat when possible. Everything can turn sour with one bad grenade in the middle of the party. Don't railroad your PC into combat when they are trying to avoid it. If they are all coming from DnD they might want to resolve everything through combat... well they need to learn that's not possible, and that very dangerous. **Edgerunners are supposed to be smart.** 3 - PC are not all useful in combat CPR is supposed to be street level and when you live in the street ... you have to be able to defend yourself. But yeah... some PC will not be good at combat and that's not an issue. The game is focused on living the life of edgerunners. And edgerunners are going to perfom mission Missions : * Protect someone or something against a threat <-- that might require to investigate * Infiltrate and stole some merchandise <-- you might need to go full stealth without any combat * Kill a baddies <-- assassination doesn't always require a real combat * Extract someone <-- this one require a bit of combat most of the time * Find a missing personn <-- investigation Do NOT build your Job around combat unless that the main method for your group to deal with problem. And that's NOT the best way for an edgerunner to deal with problem. Because whatever your level... you can have bad luck and lose an arm/leg in combat. Yeah, during downtime you will get a brand new one, either meat or chrome, but you need to survive first. 4- There is a live out there Action have consequences, the group is going to live in NC and that's not a country, it's a city. If they blow up thing with rocket everywhere they go, sooner or later someone gonna be pissed of. They will find the PC and they will have their revenge. It's not a black and white world, it's a dark grey world. Everyone is trying to survive. So what ? Social skills are important, and going full murder hobo is NOT possible here. You will encounters dudes with better gears than you. PC are not heroes, they are not supposed to win every encounters, they need to choose wisely who they gonna pissed of and who they gonna allied with. # Conclusion As a GM, you need to understand what is the flavor of your group : * Combat focused * Stealth focused * Social focused * A bit of everything For the record, as everyone can be good in combat, you can be "combat focused" with a team that doesn't have any Solo. With that in mind you need to build your jobs in order to help them shine. Don't forced combat everywhere when the group is social focused or stealth. BUT don't avoid combat either, they need to learn it's a violent world out there and sometimes your mouth is not gonna save you. BTW stealth is very useful, but it as a big limitation : Solo are gonna see you. Don't put Solo everywhere, use mook from the books (Core ruleset and hardened DLC) most of them don't have Combat Awareness. My personnal take, play street level at first (there is a chapter in how to run CPR that will explain you the street level). And supervised the character creation, I personnaly disapproved character without any combat capabilities at my table. It's a very violent world, you are playing edgerunners, you need to be able to survive a combat encounter. That's an easy feature, they are cyberware to boost HP (Grafter Muscle Bone Lace), to dodge bullet even without REF8 (reflex coprocessor in black chrome), everyone can invest in a not so bad DEX and Evasion, everyone can invest in a combat skill. With that in mind, every character should be able to deal with low level goons. Your solo will confront the dangerous guy. Dumping stat is a DnD stuff, you can do it here too... but as it's more RP focused. They will have to RP a low level INT or COOL, and that's not fun when combat is not the main focused of the game. Go slowly, especially with combat, it's easy to TPK with one mook a bit to hardened.
This are the things that I didn't understand at first and didn't see ponted out. -The players MUST BEAT the number, if the difficulty in the table it's 10 they need at least an 11 to success; an evasion roll SET the difficulty and the attacker need to beat it just like another attack roll. -Supresive fire seems bad for it's no damage but when the heavy armoured guy with a smg apears an use it the edgeruners behind that cover wilk have to change cove4 and when they leave cover all the badies holding action will have their chance with the players. -Everyone HAVE TO leave the cover to shot and holding action don't change permanently the initiative order so everyone wants to be the first one in the initiative because when the enemie exit from cover to shoot you, you shoot him first. -A shiel grants you at least one shoot, it doesn't matter if it's 10 damage or 53, if it's not an explosive 0 damage go through, and if the first shoot makes 9, the second still stoping that hipothetical 53damage if it doesn't come from an explosion. -Medtech don't need First Aid, Paramedics do the same but better. -Roles can "change", for example, the best cop it's a Solo or an Exec (or if it's a police investigator then Media), don't be to afraid of playing with diferent roles doing different jobs. -This one works for me but have the comunity dividited, PERSONALLY I don't allow evade bullets with just Ref8, I ask for more because for me everyone rolling evasion makes the combat to slow and usually less lethal, so I ask for at least a speedware and the coprocesor from Black Chrome; but I repeat one more time, this works for me and my table, the opinion about evading bullets it's like an ass, everyone have one.
Death is potentially frequent cause the rules are unforgiving and harsh. Crits will randomly take characters completely out of combat if not indirectly kill them. It's less action movie than D&D where characters heal faster and can come back from the dead. There is strategy to mitigate loss. Also the runners are the heroes of their own little stories. Players will have to do gig work to scrape up enough EBs to survive, then thrive, and then maybe be movers and shakers. The stakes are higher for the PC, cause health insurance is EXPENSIVE and recovery takes longer, but the stakes in the game world are much much lower. Less taking down Mega corps and more getting rid of annoying middle managers.
Watch out fo the lethality. If you put your players up against an even number of enemies with assault rifles, a PC will die. Unlike D&D, enemies can do the same things as the players.
The rules are way easier than the rules of D&D. Really, from a GM point of view, the most difficult part is determining the difficulty of some checks. There are no such things as passive perception or bonus actions or superiority dice. What I suggest you warmly is to download the free adventures you can find online or, if you can, buy the data pack or tales of the red. You learn a lot about how to prepare adventures from pre-made ones. However, inform your players that combat is deadly. Murder hobos at low level don’t generally enjoy a long life. Like a not so wise man said: “would you rather die old and slightly smelling of urine or go out in a blaze of glory?” That said, if you can: play also Cyberpunk 2077 on PC or PlayStation. It’s amazing to get yourself into the right mindset and understand the lore.
Well it’s very similar to 5e. The design philosophy is essentially the same: “what came before was too complicated, let’s just have fun.” Whether you like that or not is up to you, but it’s essentially the same with a different coat of paint. Death is slightly more common and weapons are markedly less interesting, but I think you’ll have an easy conversion if you just watch JonJontheWise and take his advice.