That's exaclty what I was looking for: a rules-light cyberpunk system, without too much abstraction (like Neon City Overdrive) and less gritty (like CY_BORG, althought it's my second favorite of the genre)! Things I'm missing, though, are vehicle (combat/chase) rules and how to create enemies/NPCs (including drones or robots). A way to convert prices from CPR and CP2020 to improve the equipment list would be intersting, too!
Okay, I did some testing, and found some problems with armor:
Basically, if someone has enough BTM and invest at least 350 creds in armor (kevlar and helmet), they become immune to everything but rifles. I know it's not the most viable thing, but it's certainly possible, specially with the point distribution at character creation. I know armor is mean to protect, but I don't like the idea of someone being straight up immune to an SMG spray in the face using just kevlar and being a sturdy guy.
The armor breaking rules could work, but I think it's too punishing and doesn't stand up for too much time. My idea would be to spend armor points to negate damage equal to its remaining points (same to BTM, but this would heal just like normal wounds), or just straight up ignore the damage taken (still not sure, though). It's not very realistic, but it can keep light armor still relevant against a sniper rifle and add the tension of decision-making about burning resources to keep yourself alive.
Bear in mind that BTM is not like armor, if you ever get to the step when you are subtracting BTM from damage then you always suffer at least 1 wound.
Kevlar has an armor rating of 2. This means that every weapon that does more than 2 damage inflicts at least 1 wound to the target, this includes SMGs, shotguns etc.
Also, a kevlar vest doesn't cover the arms. So 350 cr. would not be sufficient to cover the whole body with at least a rating of 2.
There are some overpowered combos, that's what also happened in the original Cyberpunk2020 (which the combat for this game is based on). If anything I nerfed armors a lot when making this game. The main advice I can give is that players going around with big guns and heavy armor ultimately attract the wrong kinds of people... with even bigger guns and heavier armor.
Regarding rules for vehicles, I don't really know how I should approach it. The way I see it, in a system this lightweight a lot of it is already covered by basic skill checks.
Having rules for quickly creating NPCs could be useful, I'll consider it. Maybe I will write a separate manual with enemies, could be interesting.
When it comes to coverting prices, apart from cyberware and cyberdecks, I think most items could easily be translated with a 1:1 conversion.
The term crunchy here mostly applies to the combat rules. When making attacks you follow a lot of steps, sometimes multiple times (tracking the damage and location of every single bullet for example). So I guess in this case it means "procedures heavy" more than "math heavy" because, even if calculations are done multiple times for a single attack, the math is very simple (mostly adding or subtracting low numbers).
Overall in the game I tried to keep complexity as low as possible (therefore I used the term "streamlined" to describe it), but I kept these rules in because I liked the "realism" and danger that they brought to combat.
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That's exaclty what I was looking for: a rules-light cyberpunk system, without too much abstraction (like Neon City Overdrive) and less gritty (like CY_BORG, althought it's my second favorite of the genre)!
Things I'm missing, though, are vehicle (combat/chase) rules and how to create enemies/NPCs (including drones or robots). A way to convert prices from CPR and CP2020 to improve the equipment list would be intersting, too!
All in all, great job! Hope you keep updating it!
Okay, I did some testing, and found some problems with armor:
Basically, if someone has enough BTM and invest at least 350 creds in armor (kevlar and helmet), they become immune to everything but rifles. I know it's not the most viable thing, but it's certainly possible, specially with the point distribution at character creation. I know armor is mean to protect, but I don't like the idea of someone being straight up immune to an SMG spray in the face using just kevlar and being a sturdy guy.
The armor breaking rules could work, but I think it's too punishing and doesn't stand up for too much time. My idea would be to spend armor points to negate damage equal to its remaining points (same to BTM, but this would heal just like normal wounds), or just straight up ignore the damage taken (still not sure, though). It's not very realistic, but it can keep light armor still relevant against a sniper rifle and add the tension of decision-making about burning resources to keep yourself alive.
Bear in mind that BTM is not like armor, if you ever get to the step when you are subtracting BTM from damage then you always suffer at least 1 wound.
Kevlar has an armor rating of 2. This means that every weapon that does more than 2 damage inflicts at least 1 wound to the target, this includes SMGs, shotguns etc.
Also, a kevlar vest doesn't cover the arms. So 350 cr. would not be sufficient to cover the whole body with at least a rating of 2.
There are some overpowered combos, that's what also happened in the original Cyberpunk2020 (which the combat for this game is based on). If anything I nerfed armors a lot when making this game. The main advice I can give is that players going around with big guns and heavy armor ultimately attract the wrong kinds of people... with even bigger guns and heavier armor.
You're completely right! I completely forgot about the "at least 1 wound" rule! Sorry for the misunderstanding!
No problem!
Regarding rules for vehicles, I don't really know how I should approach it. The way I see it, in a system this lightweight a lot of it is already covered by basic skill checks.
Having rules for quickly creating NPCs could be useful, I'll consider it. Maybe I will write a separate manual with enemies, could be interesting.
When it comes to coverting prices, apart from cyberware and cyberdecks, I think most items could easily be translated with a 1:1 conversion.
Is the game going to be updated? And if so then will we see rules for healing and medical stuff added?
I updated the file with the healing rules and combat stimulants
I'm curious to what do you mean by crunchy. I've seen the term used for several things in ttrpg space.
Do you mean that the game is procedures heavy? Or math heavy?
The term crunchy here mostly applies to the combat rules. When making attacks you follow a lot of steps, sometimes multiple times (tracking the damage and location of every single bullet for example). So I guess in this case it means "procedures heavy" more than "math heavy" because, even if calculations are done multiple times for a single attack, the math is very simple (mostly adding or subtracting low numbers).
Overall in the game I tried to keep complexity as low as possible (therefore I used the term "streamlined" to describe it), but I kept these rules in because I liked the "realism" and danger that they brought to combat.