Gambits for Gunfights

Most cyberpunk games have combat loops that do one of two things:

• Crunch mode: A series of attack rolls, multiple range bands, and to-hit modifiers. Each combat can take an hour or more. (Cyberpunk 2020/RED, Cities without Number, Carbon 2185)
• Vibes mode: You apply tags, talk it out, and handwave the hard parts. You focus on the story over tactical complexity. (Neon City Overdrive)

I wanted a third option: a cyberpunk-genre game that feels solidly OSR/NSR. Sadly, this doesn't seem to exist. Then Mythic Bastionland entered into my life. In that system, you roll a number of Attack dice, take the high die you want to use for damage, and you can spend other high dice to do special effects ("Gambits"). Multiple attackers against a single target? We don't roll five different attack rolls. Pool those dice, spend some dice for extra damage/effects, and resolve the outcome.

So I asked myself: If it doesn't exist, should I just take a crack at it on my own?

The Problem We're Looking to Solve

One of the most common issues is RPG combat is "how do we avoid just trying to maximize damage per round"? Players need to be given meaningful choices besides doing more damage. Is taking another move useful? What if I pin that guy with the shotgun? That guard is hiding behind cover, we need to get him out of there. Suddenly, we're complying with my #1 game design maxim:

"Games are a series of interesting decisions." - Sid Meier

Updating the Combat Loop for Cyberpunk

So how do we update this for a cyberpunk game? Turns out, we really don't need to do that much.

When you attack, everyone attacking the same target rolls their Attack dice from their gun/sword/grenade.

• Any dice of 4+ can be spent to "buy" Surges (Gambits doesn't feel like the right name for cyberpunk). These might be extra damage, moving after an attack, pinning a target, etc.
• The best remaining die is your Damage die.

So the player is choosing between:

• More harm now.
• Position and control that prevents harm later, or achieves a mission objective.

What Surges Look Like

A Surge is a simple, natural language effect. Think verbs:

• MOVE after your Attack, even if you have already Moved.
• IMPAIR the target on their next turn.
• PIN a foe, preventing them from Moving on their next turn.
• DROP one item of your choice that the target is carrying. It lands on the ground in front of them.
• SHRED a piece of Cover the target is hiding behind by -2 Cover Rating.

One thing that I felt was a bit odd about Mythic was that everything in combat plays off of Vigour. That is not the case with this system. The target gets to save against the effect of a Surge, but I want to make sure all of the stats (called Vitals, more on those in a different post) come into play.

Killer Surges

In MB, a die of 8 or higher lets you do a Gambit without a save. This is cool, but I wanted to try something different. Instead, we'll offer things that are almost too good to pass up, but then you're spending a rare 8+.

• Bypass a target's Armor.
• Glitch the target, forcing a DE-SYNC check. (What the heck is that? It's a whole thing...)

I've intentionally left the Vitals save listings off of these Surges. We'll come back to that at a later date.

Micro-example

You shoot your gun (3d8) at a corpo guard hunkered down behind a vending machine.

You roll: 7, 5, 3.

• Spend the 5 to Shred the cover, reducing its rating from 2 to 0.
• Keep the 7 as damage.
• The 3 is discarded.
• Now the vending machine is a shattered husk of metal and glass. Energy drinks are spilling onto the floor, and the guard has lost his positional advantage.

The shooter doesn't need a special ability. The situation changed just based on your Attack roll and the decision the player made based on that roll.

Next Time

These are very minor tweaks that don't even read like they're different from Mythic Bastionland. At least not yet. I want to keep these things short for now, so it's going to start off seeming pretty similar, and then we're going to ramp up into wildly different concepts.

What are the stats in this prototype? What are they called and how do they work? Is this thing really different, or is just Bastionland/Cairn with a different coat of paint? We'll get there.