Every Save You Make

Every Save You Make - Anatomy of Saving Throws

Saving Throws — That Old Standard

I'm not going to claim that Null Protocol is trying to upend the Odd-like apple cart. We have our 3 main Vitals (your stats) that range from 8-13. To pass a Save, roll 1d20 and get equal to or lower than the relevant Vital. If you're in a good position, the referee can grant Advantage (roll 2d20 and take the better result) or Disadvantage if you're in a bad situation (2d20 and take the worse result).

We shouldn't be making saves all over the place. The dice should only be used when an outcome is uncertain, there is meaningful consequence, and there is a ticking clock. Basically, if there's no risk, the dice aren't needed.

It's pretty simple. The biggest "mind bender" here is that we're trying to roll low instead of high, which isn't a big deal, but there will be people who associate low rolls with bad outcomes.

Let's Play Some Blackjack — Opposed Rolls

Now things are getting interesting. There are going to be times where people are directly competing for an objective. Maybe we're fighting over a dropped gun. Classic action movie stuff. In this scenario, we need to determine if someone wins, but ideally, if it's a BODY check, the person with the higher BODY vital should have a better chance to get the gun. Enter blackjack: You want to roll high, but not too high.

Opposed Saves: When two characters are competing in some way, each character rolls the relevant Save. The winner is the character that rolled highest without failing.

So if you're playing a punk with a BODY of 9, and you're wrestling with a chromed-up bruiser with 13 BODY, you're looking for a 9 or lower but the bruiser needs a 13 or lower. Then the higher result wins. Inherently, the bad guy has a 20% higher chance to succeed than you, meaning if he rolls an 11, you can't beat him. This fits nicely into the realm of "you can still beat him, but he has the edge" that we're looking for in this situation without devolving the whole exercise into bonus modifiers.

There is always a chance that both parties fail. That's when the referee might need to decide if you're still wrestling on the floor for another round, desperately reaching for the gun. Or maybe something else happens that raises the stakes. That's up to the referee, but most of the time someone is going to win. (If both characters have a 10 BODY, there is a 75% chance someone is going to succeed.)

Putting Saves into the Game Framework

Outside of Combat and Hacking, Saves are basically the only thing you need to roll. Depending on how combat heavy or light your game session is, players might spend most of the game only rolling the occasional Save. Ideally, this makes teaching the game to newer TTRPG players really simple, since they just need to know which funny die is the d20.

Next Time

One of the most important aspects of a cyberpunk genre game is how it handles hacking. I've worked that out, so next time I'll share what I've been cooking up.