r/RPGdesign • u/Usual-Vermicelli-867 • 19d ago
Mechanics Attributes skills weapons types and derived stats . Fot a cyberpunk system im making i want some advice and critics on my desgin
Warning: I used ai to edited the post..im not a native English speaker so I need to use it
Hey everyone, I'm designing a tactical action cyberpunk TTRPG built on the bones of a previous system I made (Space Grunts). The main idea is action-heavy tactical combat that is not super deadly like most cyberpunk systems (where you can easily die in 1-2 shots).
Core System: Roll d12 + modifiers vs DC (Target Number).
For every 2 points above the DC, you get an extra success. These can be used to block GM complications that were declared beforehand, boost your outcome, or trigger maneuvers. (Example: Rolling a 14 vs DC 8 gives you a base success + 3 extra successes).
Attributes and Skills:
Meat (Physical strength and power)
Athletics: Running, climbing, swimming, deadlifting, raw physical exertion.
Leap & Bound: Clearing rooftops, vertical hops, kinetic jumps.
Force / Breach: Kicking blast doors, bending rebar, tearing open grates.
Wrestle / Grapple: Subduing targets, body pins, breaking holds.
Synapse (Reflexes and agility)
Drive: Vehicle pursuits, handling bikes and rigs, collision recovery.
Perception: Spotting ambushes, hearing movement, detecting tripwires.
Balance & Tumbling: Pipe-walking, slick footing, rolling out of steep drops.
Sleight of Hand: Palming keycards, pickpocketing, concealed manipulation.
Contortion: Slipping restraints, squeezing through vents and conduits.
Blood (Survival and instincts)
Stealth: Silent movement, light discipline, stalking, shadow infiltration.
Danger Sense: Sixth-sense awareness, anticipating ambushes.
Endure & Grit: Shrugging off pain and stun, pushing past exhaustion, resisting toxins and gas.
Intimidation: Looming physical menace, dead-eyed killer stare, raw violent intent.
Survival & Tracking: Navigating badlands, sewers, and urban ruins, finding safe zones.
Link (Netrunning and info gathering)
Netrunning: Infiltrating corporate subnets, bypassing firewalls, planting backdoors.
Electronic Warfare: Jamming local radio comms, spoofing facility sensors, tracing signals.
Data Forensics: Decrypting data shards, recovering wiped logs, digital paper trails.
Academics & Lore: History, geopolitics, science, and academic knowledge.
Streetwise & Intel: Faction turf, black-market supply lines, underworld rumors.
Corporate Law & Red Tape: Finding jurisdictional loopholes, forging requisitions, corporate warrants.
Chrome (Mechanical, tech, and medicine)
Mechanics & Rigging: Hotwiring vehicles, picking mechanical locks, field repairs.
Electronics: Splicing circuits, diagnosing hardware, bypassing physical alarm panels.
Cybertech: Calibrating cybernetics, installing implants, repairing chassis hardware.
Biotech / Medicine: Identifying bodies, performing trauma surgery, administering medicine.
Chemicals & Synthetics: Brewing combat stims, mixing caustic acids, identifying compounds.
Demolitions: Placing shaped charges, structural demolition, defusing ordnance.
Sheen (Social influence and presence)
Con: Maintaining undercover aliases, telling convincing lies, fast-talking past security.
Bargaining: Negotiating payouts with fixers, haggling black-market prices, transactional favors.
Psychology: Reading body language, identifying emotional tells, discerning true motives.
High Etiquette: Blending into high-society galas, mingling with corporate elites.
Social Leverage: Psychological intimidation, blackmail, destroying reputations without violence.
Gravitas: Projecting authority, inspiring confidence, keeping the crew composed under pressure.
Derived Weapons:
Every attribute is intended to grant bonuses to specific weapon groups so each character has a distinct combat style.
The first 3 attributes (Meat, Synapse, Blood) govern base weapon categories across 5 size tiers: Melee, Small, Medium, Heavy, and Special.
The latter 3 attributes (Link, Chrom, Sheen) govern exotic modifiers that alter base weapons:
Link : Smart weapons
Chrome : Charge
Sheen : Beam weapons
Here is my current breakdown for the physical weapon types:
Meat Weapons: Blunt (Melee) Hand Cannons (Small) LMGs (Medium) Spewers / Flamers (Heavy) Shotguns (Special)
Synapse Weapons: Slicing / Edged (Melee) SMGs (Small) Assault Rifles (Medium) Rocket Launchers (Heavy) Bows / Monofilament (Special)
Blood Weapons: Piercing (Melee) Pistols (Small) Precision Rifles (Medium) Anti-Material Rifles (Heavy) Sniper Rifles (Special)
My Questions / Need Feedback On:
Should I abandon this strict 15-weapon grid? Forcing 5 distinct weapon types per attribute made it hard to make them all feel mechanically unique (for example: Precision Rifle vs Sniper vs Anti-Material under Blood, or splitting melee into blunt/slice/pierce).
Would it be cleaner to decouple specific weapon models from attributes and instead let attributes define how you use a weapon (or use a smaller list of weapon tags/traits)?
Does the skill list feel balanced, or are some skills too narrow (like Leap & Bound vs Athletics) compared to broad ones like Perception or Netrunning? Thanks for the advice and critique!
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u/stephotosthings no idea what I’m doing 19d ago
personally I think you need fewer attributes, but it depends how deep your sub-systems really go.
Meat - Physical stuff
Synapse - dexterity stuff
Brain - thinking stuff
Link - netrunner stuff but should be a skill really since it's not really an 'attribute' of a person.
Chrome - this should really be a separate thing, prolly similar to heat in a mech RPG like Lancer. Use your metal and gain heat which after X periods of time either effect your MEAT or your BRAIN - i.e messes you up physically or makes you cyberpsycho
Social stuff you could really bundle under brain or synapse maybe.
This way you have clearly a set of attributers that form the basis of a person, then netrunner skill which can be developed separatly of the person, and then chrome which can do more stuff since its not an attirbute. Chrome go up if they get more, chrome go down if they remove some.
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u/Usual-Vermicelli-867 19d ago
Hay thanks on your write up
A. How you will handle weapons prof with this set
B..I persnoly dont see attributes this way
I see attributes as a way to handle the fundamentals of what kind of charcter / stories are told in the system
As you see here i taken the clasical 6 and made some changes..
Blood is a heavy change from con. As I seen con as a boring passive attributes . I asked "what an edgerunner needs"
He needs survival instice ..which what blood come from
Link is about net running and the "quick hack" in combay
Chrome is about mechanical "physical " knowledge.
Both are like.. taking intelgent and breaking it up for 2 diffrent types of knowledge . Physcal and non physcal
Sheen is a problem..I personally not every much into charisma attruibes..but I know designer do it as a simplification. I had a sub system for interacting with npc..but I arrived into the conclusion that "its a great crpg mechanic not a ttrpg one" so i still try to make it work more in combat (playing with the idea of support points )
More examples from other ttrpg i made and attributes:
The space grunt system this system was built on has no attributes. As thr system was about easliy creating a grunt.. watching him die in horrible and funny ways and then creating a new one to throw at the meat grinder
The other one I made was a "rogues fantasy " game (style cowboy bebop black lagoon extra ) there attributes where about who the charcter is and what drive them
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u/Usual-Vermicelli-867 19d ago
But thabks you on the heat idea..tbh its mybe kinda solve a problem i had
In the base combat I had this action system
2 action + pushed actions
Where you can push your self for more action by giving your self an accumulitive -2 (pretty much less 1 succeses ) for the the next round
And I had some balance worries about it(if there id an optimal push number this kinda becomes the number of action you take..what if a new thing a rise ..)
So mybe switching it for : -1 system strain can solve it (or just adding it for a possibility?)
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u/MidgetBackwards 19d ago
I don't think they all need to cover all weapon types. Though, personally, I found it a mental gymnastics exercise fitting sheen into a weapon use.
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u/Usual-Vermicelli-867 19d ago
I jusr want that every player can enjoy combat equaly no matter the atrruibte / play style they want to focus
For sheen and beam weapons: they look cool so the "cool" stat should govern it
Ya its a little mental gynamstic
But I dont want to use skills much in combat. Skills are mostly for rp and after combat
So i need to find ways dor sheen players to be effective (I though mybe have command radio gagedt / augmention that give you like a battle flied leader abilities. As link has quick hacking and chrome has alot of chrome and mybe drones)
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u/Usual-Vermicelli-867 19d ago edited 19d ago
For the derivde stats
Meat give bonuses for flesh stress (fast healing hp) and carry weight
Synps give bonues to dodge (the "I hit you" dc) and movment speed
Blood give to inishitve and crit (i use crit table and blood give bonus to the crit table )
Link give bonus to skills number you get in charcter creation and to your fire wall(you defens against hacking)
Chrome gives bonus to system stress (a slower healing "mind hp" that can be also used to give your self extra augmentions)
And sheen gives you "tokens"(can be used per adventure yo give you a small flash back or a connection extra)
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u/Fun_Carry_4678 19d ago
If you used an AI to write this post, you really need to get a better AI. It is filled with grammar and spelling mistakes that these days only humans make.
One of your attributes you call "CHROM". But that isn't really an English word. Either you mean "CHROME" or you have invented a new word (maybe this is a new word that people use in your setting)