Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2020, and the relevant logo(s) are owned by the mega-cool-corporation known as R. Talsorian Games! Proj on!

Bribery: A New Role-Playing Tool

Submitted by Cash

Player (To GM): "I want a REF of 12."
GM: "Sorry.. The limit is 10, without cybernetics of course."
Player: "I'll give you ten bucks"
GM: "SOLD!"

Critial Miss with One-Shot Adventures

Submitted by DanieL

One day, we were playing this one-shot adventure. Basically, it was the four PCs trying to get some files out of a safe in the Chilean consulate. So we hatched a plan: we would smuggle some smoke grenades into the building and have them detonate at a set time in the ventilation ducts. Then, with the alarm going off, we would wait outside for the fire brigade to show up, and enter the then evacuated building in fire fighter disguises. Really - it was one of the best plans we ever made. And, true to the nature of plans, it went wrong, and horribly so.

First of all, the Solo manages to get the smoke grenades inside. He enters the toilet and starts to unscrew a lid from the ventilation system. The GM gives us a 10% chance that someone enters just right now. He rolled a 1 on a D10, and a clerk stumbled into the restroom, seeing some stranger fiddling around with the ventilation. The Solo tries to intimidate him, and fails. The clerk promptly leaves to inform security who seize our unfortunate Solo and hand him over to the police.

So we came up with an alternative: my character would go in with a few cans of hairspray and a lighter and start a fire in one of the (mostly plastic) restrooms. That should suffice. And, indeed, it worked. Soon, a merry fire was blazing in the building, the fire brigade arrives, and the remaining two PCs can enter, dressed as fire fighters.

We make our way up to the level of the consulate which, we discover, is not wholly evacuated. After a short, but intense, firefight with the two guards (during which one PC manages to shoot another PC as the result of a botch), we find the safe. Unfortunately, the Solo was the only character with a score in Demolitions and he was the one supposed to crack this safe open for us. He had left us, however, a prepared time bomb, for this one purpose.

So my character tries to fit it to the safe, botches and drops it on the floor, whereupon the timer display goes blind. Tries again, manages to fix it and set it in motion. Originally, the bomb was set to 10 secs, but after almost a minute of waiting, we decide that the whole contraption must have been damaged in the fall and are just about to leave our secure hideout when the bomb goes off. One character gets injured by the blast.

So then the GM says: "Okay, you have a 70% chance that this is enough to crack the safe." Of course, he rolls a 9 on a D10. By then, we were suitably frustrated, and the fire had been all but put out downstairs, so we scrapped the whole mission and managed to get out of the building in the nick of time.

But that was not all: not only did we botch the whole attempt, but our Solo finally gets interrogated at the police station and is supposed to make a Resist roll. This guy has the relevant scores through the roof and could only fail on a 1. He rolls, you guessed it, a 1. So he spills his guts in front of the surprised officer and tells everything about us, our hiding place and, most of all, our employer.

I can tell you, I was REALLY glad that this only was a one-shot!!!

"Why Does Everyone Pick On Me?"

Submitted by Ray

In a nice game o' Cyberpunk 2020, the group had been hired by a nomad (Gypsy) group to guard them... One catch, it was out of town... WAY out of town.

So, we went on a roadtrip with a nomad driver at the wheel of the VW Bus. Well, ALMOST all of us. One player didn't want to leave behind his motorbike.

A few klicks down the road, we saw red and blue lights flashing behind us in the bus, and then pass us... And a voice came over the loudspeaker of the car going, "You on the bike! PULL OVER!"

Gamer: "OK, I pull over..." (Roll roll) "Made it. I turn to the cop and say, 'Problem officer?'"
GM (As Cop): "You're joking, right?"
Gamer (To me, out of character): "Why are they picking on me?"
Me: "Now, let me get this straight... You're in the modern version of full plate armour, riding around on a Harley with a bad muffler, and have an assult rifle strapped to your back, correct?"
Gamer: "Ya! So why are they picking on me?"
Me: "Haven't the foggiest!"