2.1 - NeuroSystem Rules
Alpha State
This game system, and the setting in which it takes place, are both in active development. Everything on this site is subject to change. Please hard refresh pages when you visit to ensure you're viewing the latest versions.This game is built on NeuroSystem, which is an RPG rules system built with a narrative focus that allows for maximium flexibility in player intentions and options. WTF does that mean? It means the game is more interested in dramatic narratives than tactical positioning, more focused on player agency than special abilities, and designed to facilitate options rather than provide restrictions.
Telling stories with NeuroSystem is a group exercise, guided by the Narrator. For some groups, this means the Narrator tells a specific story they've devised, and the other players do their part to help the story along. For other groups, the players dictate the story by making choices, and the Narrator is just there to referee. For most, it's probably somewhere in the middle.
Like any RPG, this is a storytelling effort. You and your friends are here to tell a story, the rules and dice are here to help whims of fate.
Complexity comes from the interactions of different choices, conflicting goals, and escalating narrative. When people are at cross purposes, the ways they overcome their differences is what defines a story. Since this is a collaborative narrative, that means everyone at the table or on the stream is part of deciding where the story goes. If you react with hostility to a situation, that sends the story in a very different direction than if you had a more peaceful response.
Game mechanics come into play when things get dramatic or exciting, or when people are doing conflicting things. Or two! Or all three! That's when anyone involved in the action being described rolls dice to decide what happens.
When things get tense, you make dice rolls to determine how things turn out. Whether you're in a tense negotiation with another gang, fighting cops on the streets of Shelby, or just fighting your own inner demons to maintain your sense of self, dice help tell your story.
Types of Dice Rolls
An STK Check is what you make when you're doing dramatic or exciting things, or when someone is trying to stop you. If it's not dramatic or exciting, and no one is trying to stop you, there's no need to Check.
To make an STK Check, roll 1 Style die, 1 Training die, and 1 Knowledge die. Some game rules will specify which stats to use; otherwise, the Narrator will decide which three are most relevant.
STK Check Difficulty Number
The Difficulty Number (DN) of an STK Check is a flat numerical value, usually but not exclusively ranging from 5 to 23; the lowest being a task for which anyone can reasonably assume success, and the highest being a task for which even the best in the galaxy would rely on luck. There are generalized examples included below, and more specific examples throughout the game as a whole, but the Narrator can select whatever DN seems most appropriate. If the STK total is greater than the DN, the Check is successful; if it's lower than the DN, the Check is a failure. If the STK total is equal to the DN, the Check is successful but there's some cost to it. The cost for a tied STK Check is up to the Narrator but should be something minor; anything that makes the situation more dramatic.
| DN (Usage) |
Description |
| 5 (Uncommon) |
A person with minimal ability is almost guaranteed to succeed. |
| 6 (Uncommon) |
A person with minimal ability doesn't need much luck to succeed. |
| 7 (Infrequent) |
A person with minimal ability is more likely to succeed than fail.
Someone with basic ability is almost guaranteed to succeed. |
| 8 (Infrequent) |
A person with minimal ability is as likely to succeed as fail. |
| 9 (Infrequent) |
A person with minimal ability is more likely to fail than succeed.
Someone with basic ability doesn't need much luck to succeed.
Anyone with moderate ability is almost guaranteed to succeed. |
| 10 (Frequent) |
A person with minimal ability is relying on luck to succeed.
Someone with basic ability is more likely to succeed than fail.
Anybody with high ability is almost guaranteed to succeed. |
| 11 (Frequent) |
A person with minimal ability needs pure blind luck to succeed.
Someone with basic ability is as likely to succeed as fail.
Anyone with moderate ability doesn't need much luck to succeed. |
| 12 (Frequent) |
Someone with basic ability is more likely to fail than succeed.
Anyone with moderate ability is more likely to succeed than fail.
Somebody with extreme ability is almost guaranteed to succeed. |
| 13 (Common) |
A person with minimal ability cannot succeed.
Someone with basic ability is relying on luck to succeed.
Anybody with high ability doesn't need much luck to succeed. |
| 14 (Common) |
Someone with basic ability needs pure blind luck to succeed.
Anyone with moderate ability is as likely to succeed as fail. |
| 15 (Common) |
Anybody with high ability is more likely to succeed than fail. |
| 16 (Frequent) |
Anyone with moderate ability is more likely to fail than succeed.
Somebody with extreme ability doesn't need much luck to succeed. |
| 17 (Frequent) |
Anyone with moderate ability is relying on luck to succeed.
Anybody with high ability is as likely to succeed as fail.
Somebody with extreme ability is more likely to succeed than fail. |
| 18 (Frequent) |
Anyone with moderate ability needs pure blind luck to succeed. |
| 19 (Infrequent) |
Someone with basic ability cannot succeed.
Anybody with high ability is more likely to fail than succeed. |
| 20 (Infrequent) |
Somebody with extreme ability is as likely to succeed as fail. |
| 21 (Infrequent) |
Anybody with high ability is relying on luck to succeed. |
| 22 (Uncommon) |
Anybody with high ability needs pure blind luck to succeed. |
| 23 (Uncommon) |
Somebody with extreme ability is more likely to fail than succeed. |
STK Check Bonuses
Some Traits and Equipment will grant you bonuses to some STK Checks. When applying a bonus, simply add it to the total of your dice rolled to determine the final total of your STK Check. Bonuses are always specific, and never apply to anything that is not directly related.
Spending Luck on STK Checks
When you make an STK Check, you can choose to spend Luck. For each 1 point of Luck, add 1d8 to your STK Check. Luck dice are in addition to your normal three dice, as well as any bonuses, but only apply to one dice roll. You can spend Luck on an STK Check any time before the results are applied. For example, your Narrator might tell you an STK Check fails, but you can still spend Luck so long as the Narrator hasn't moved on to what happens next. You can spend as much Luck on one STK Check as you wish; just remember that Luck is shared between everyone in your group.
Pushing an STK Check
If you fail an STK Check, or don't get the result you want, you can spend 1 Resolve to reroll one, two, or three dice originally rolled for the check. This is called a push, or "pushing the check." If you rolled bonus dice for any reason (such as by spending Luck, or from a Trait), they can be rerolled as well, but you cannot reroll more than three dice per 1 Resolve. You can only spend 1 Resolve per STK Check, and you cannot push the same Check more than once.
A Stat Measure tells you how effective one stat is compared to another. To Measure a stat, roll 1d8 per point of the stat being measured; each d8 that rolls 5 or higher is a win, and each die that rolls 4 or lower is a loss. Count the total wins and compare them against another (specified in the rules that told you to Measure).
If the total number of wins you rolled is greater than the comparison stat, the difference between the two is called a positive span; conversely, if the total number of wins you rolled is less than the comparison stat, the difference between the two is called a negative span.
Exactly what happens with a positive or negative span from a Stat Measure depends on what you're measuring, and why. The rules telling you what to measure will specify what happens depending on the results.
A Flat Check gives you a simple pass/fail result from one die roll. This could be any Style, Training, or Knowledge die, depending on which rule, Trait, or effect told you to make the Check. Roll the relevant die: if it rolls 5 or higher, it succeeds.
Flat Checks are never affected by bonuses from Traits, and you cannot spend Luck on them. In rare cases, some Equipment might grant a bonus to specific Flat Checks.
The cyberpunk genre is a lot of things, and one of those things is cool. It's a cool genre, and it's focused on things that are cool. When life is a nightmare, at least you can be the coolest cat on the block. This applies to how you dress, how you talk, what you do, and how you do it.
For that reason, and more, NeuroSystem is designed with the Rule of Cool at its heart. What you care about becomes the core of what you're good at, and when you do the things you're good at then cool shit is more likely to happen. You're not limited to doing only the things you're good at, but when you get a chance to do the things you care about the most, things are just more likely to go your way.
In any situation, try to be on the lookout for the coolest thing you could possibly do, and then do it. Say the coolest thing, who cares if it's cheesy. Do the coolest stuff, who gives a damn how dangerous it is. Make the leap, take the chance, do the thing. The way most people see it these days: you're gonna die anyway, and you can't possibly win, so why not go down with style.
Narrator, let the cool stuff happen. If someone wants to do something stupid, act accordingly, but if that something is also really cool maybe cut them some slack. You and the Players are in this story together, let them hog the spotlight when they think of something awesome.
Rule of Cool in Gameplay
Mechanically, the rule of cool also comes up in dice rolls. Whenever you roll a Style die (for either an STK Check or a Flat Check), if your Style die rolls high enough (detailed on the table below) then cool shit happens. This effect happens whether or not the Check itself was successful.
When you roll cool shit, it's always good for you. Whether the Check succeeds or fails, something cool happens. Exactly what happens is based on context and Narrator discretion, but it is always positive for the person who made the Check that triggered it.
| d4 |
d6 |
d8 |
d10 |
d12 |
Style Effect |
| 1-4 |
1-5 |
1-6 |
1-7 |
1-9 |
Shit happens |
| — |
6 |
7-8 |
8-10 |
9-12 |
Cool shit happens |
Some things do more than hurt or cause setbacks, they are lingering problems. Things like radiation sickeness, combat injuries, starvation, deep cold, and more, aren't just small problems you can shake off. What's worse, they compound each other and just make everything worse.
How Negative States Work
Anything that counts as a negative state will be clearly indicated. Each negative state remains until it is cured or removed (the requirements for which will also be clearly indicated by the effect that caused it). Keep track of your total current number of negative states.
Whenever you make an STK Check or Flat Check, if any Style, Training, or Knowledge die roll is equal to or less than your total current negative states, then bad shit happens. Exactly what happens is based on context and Narrator discretion. Bad shit is separate from whether or not the Check itself is successful; you can succeed on the Check as a whole but still get bad shit, or if the Check is a failure the bad shit just makes it worse.
Negative States and the Rule of Cool
It's possible, if you have enough negative states currently active, to get both bad shit and cool shit on the same Check. This doesn't happen often but it's possible. They don't cancel each other out, it just means that whatever you're trying has some really interesting results.
Pushing Through Negative States
Whenever you roll low enough for bad shit to happen, you can spend 1 Resolve to push through it. When you do this, the bad shit instead becomes cool shit.
One of the biggest threats in the cyberstar wastes is also one of the best weapons in the corporate arsenal: losing yourself. That's it. The best thing that can happen, from a corporate perspective, is when people care just a little bit less, or lose themselves just a little bit more. Everything they do just becomes a little easier.
Apathy separates you from other people, and it doesn't matter where it comes from. When your income fails and you can't make rent, your landlord's apathy toward your situation seeps into your heart a little. When you get assaulted on the street and no one helps, the crowd's apathy stains your soul. When you pass a homeless person begging for food and you don't help them, your heart builds a little apathy as a defense mechanism. It comes from within and without. It's not something you choose; it's instinct, it's survival. And the more it builds, the less fight you have, the better it is for corps running the whole sick show.
Dissonance separates you from reality. When anything around you can be illusion, or become illusions, it's difficult to retain a connection to what's real. Because, in the end, what is real? What does real even mean? Why does it matter? Couple that with regular dips into cyberspace, and it starts to make sense why some people simply let go of reality. The lives we build for ourselves online can be shaped more readily than the ones we experience in realspace. When you get down to it, we have very little control over our everyday lives. But our lives online are designed to be controlled, from the way we look, to what we see and hear, to who can see and hear us. Sometimes, that's just a lot easier to stomach.
Tracking Apathy
The Narrator assigns Apathy situationally, always 1 Apathy at a time. When the Narrator chooses to give out Apathy is often a narrative and roleplaying decision, but can occasionally result from dice rolls (which will usually be stated directly in the relevant rules).
The basic idea is this: when someone harms you or is dismissive of your humanity, or when you harm others or are dismissive of their humanity, you gain Apathy. The overwhelming nature of society can also cause you to close up: whenever you view the news, spend time on social media, or spend time at a corpo job, the Narrator might rule that you gain some Apathy.
It's also possible to build Apathy between chapters. Whenever you roll for the "previously on" montage, some of the entries indicate that you gain Apathy. Almost all of them are only 1 point at a time, but sometimes you might make multiple rolls per montage. See 2.2 - Telling Stories for more details.
Tracking Dissonance
Every time you enter AVI or VRI for any reason, you immediately gain 1 Dissonance.
You can also gain additional Dissonance while you're doing things in either AVI or VRI, but those are largely narrative decisions. If you're a code jockey who comes across a piece of code so clean and efficient it makes you want to cry, that might do it. Or if you're an athlete who plays the best game of VR basketball of your entire life, that could do it. Essentially, whenever you experience something profoundly positive online, you gain 1 Dissonance.
Additionally, whenever you encounter a person, a thing, or even a place in realspace that turns out to be a projection of cyberspace, the shock of it builds another 1 Dissonance. You might come across a footbridge that turns out to be a detailed projection put there by some prankster. A friend you've known for years could turn out to be an AI in display mode with projection indicators turned off. An entire warehouse near the stardock might turn out to be just a projection with its indicators turned off. Anything and anyone can turn out to be an illusion.
Like Apathy, it's also possible to build Dissonance between chapters when you roll certain entries in a "previously on" montage. See 2.2 - Telling Stories for more details.
For the most part, combat isn't something you want to engage in. Not these days, not with the kind of weapon tech available. If you're built for combat and equipped properly, you'll know. If you're not, well then you won't know anything after about a couple seconds. Combat in the cyberstar wastes—combat in Neurosystem—is often very short and extremely brutal. Weapons are so deadly that most people can't hope to defend or survive, and even if you are able to protect yourself in some fashion there's always more powerful weaponry you can't possibly hope to defend against. Quick rule of thumb for combat is: you attack first, you win. Simple as that.
Combat in NeoNeuro is built around this idea. Gangsters make drive-bys because it allows them to attack without much risk of being attacked. Cops are violent and destructive, usually shooting first simply because they're unwilling to risk being shot at. Anyone who gets into a fight without guns is apt to go for killing moves because the longer things go on the more likely they'll go very badly. Everyone is so aware of how horrifically destructive a fight can get that every fight becomes an urgent effort to obliterate an opponent as quickly as possible.
How Combat Works
During combat, each player character needs to make STK Checks when attacking enemies or defending themselves. As per the standard rules of an STK Check, they need to roll the most relevant dice for what they're attempting to do. This system is intended to be fast, intuitive, and flexible, allowing you to focus on the story that's happening rather than getting bogged down in where everyone is facing, exact distance measurements, or special abilities. If I've done my job right you should have plenty of options and nuance for the people who enjoy making combat-based characters, but the people who are just here for character and story won't be overwhelmed or left behind.
Part of this streamlined ideal is that the Narrator rarely rolls dice, and almost never rolls them for narrator characters. The idea is that all the randomness of fate is already included within the other players' dice rolls, so we don't need to slow things down with extra dice rolls just to add randomness to randomness. Additionally, NeuroSystem is designed for narrative focus, not tactical; this means we want to keep all chance and tension focused on what the player characters are doing. Narrator characters are built with static stat values, not die ratings, which serve as the Difficulty Number for any STK Checks the players make during combat.
Players Taking Damage
Whenever a Narrator character attacks a player character, or when some other exterior physical effect would harm a player character, the player can attempt to avoid the damage. This involves dice rolls, with which the player character can avoid some of the damage or just make things worse for themselves. The details of any attack or external threat list one of 7 damage categories, in ascending severity: lightly injured, badly injured, wounded, severely wounded, dying, dead, or destroyed.
Note that those specific damage categories assume an organic target. For a mechanical target there are seven equivalent categories, each equal with their organic counterpart in severity: lightly damaged, badly damaged, wrecked, severely wrecked, shutting down, shut down, or destroyed. At the Narrator's discretion, these categories might be applied to an organic character if (a) the character has a great deal of cybernetic enhancements, and (b) most of the damage was dealt to those cybernetics.
There are no inherent effects or penalties to most of these damage categories, but each damage category is a negative state. You can only have each damage category once, but if you suffer a damage category you're already carrying, then you instead suffer the next worse damage category that you're not yet carrying. For example if you're badly injured and wounded, and someone badly injures you again, then you move up to the next damage category you haven't yet suffered, which means you become severely wounded.
If the player character does nothing, they take the standard damage category listed in the attack or effect details. If it's an attacking NC their standard damage category will be listed under their combat details, but if it's some other effect like a car impact or an explosion then it'll be listed in the effect's description.
If a player chooses to dodge, deflect, or otherwise avoid external damage, they roll a relevant STK Check. Some of these Checks may have a bonus or penalty depending on the character's Traits, cyberware, gear, or temporary effects. The result compared to this table determines the damage category applied by the attack made against them, counted in terms of increasing or decreasing the damage category from its original value.
| STK Check |
Incoming damage is... |
| < 4 |
...increased by four categories |
| 4-6 |
...increased by three categories |
| 7-9 |
...increased by two categories |
| 10-12 |
...increased by one category |
| 13-15 |
...standard damage category |
| 16-18 |
...reduced by one category |
| 19-21 |
...reduced by two categories |
| > 21 |
...reduced by three categories |
No matter how poorly the player rolls, damage cannot be worsened past the "destroyed" damage category. On the other end of the spectrum, damage from an external attack or effect can be reduced below "lightly injured," so that the character is not injured at all by the event.
Players Dealing Damage
When a player character attacks another character in any fashion, the basic principle is simple: roll a relevant STK Check and compare it to the table below. Barring any factors that might reduce the effectiveness of an attack, that roll tells you how the attack affects its target. At a superficial level, that's it! Unfortunately, it's rarely that simple. Most enemies will be taking cover, or they'll be far away, or they'll have some kind of protection tech. Sometimes, all three.
This table tracks physical external damage: weapon attacks, vehicle impact, brawling, wrestling, and the like. Some of these Checks may be made without any sort of modifier, but a weapon will apply a bonus, as will some Traits, the player might spend Luck, or there might be some kind of situational penalty applied to the roll. There's different descriptors based on whether the target is meat or mechanical, but the function is the same.
| STK Check |
Target is... |
| < 9 |
...uninjured / undamaged |
| 9-14 |
...lightly injured / lightly damaged |
| 15-20 |
...badly injured / badly damaged |
| 21-26 |
...wounded / wrecked |
| 27-32 |
...severely wounded / severely wrecked |
| 33-38 |
...dying / shutting down |
| 39-44 |
...dead / shut down |
| > 44 |
...destroyed |
The result of checking against this table tells you how badly the NC is affected by the attack. Since narrator characters don't carry negative states, the results of checks against this table instead produce an escalating damage track. If the result of an attack is an equal or lesser category compared to what the NC has already sustained, then the NC instead moves to the next worst damage category. For example, if an NC is "badly injured" and a player's attack results in "lightly injured," the NC is instead pushed up one category to "wounded."
If the player's roll on this table results in a damage category greater than what the NC is currently suffering, then the NC instead jumps up to that new category. So if that same wounded NC is hit by an attack with a total of 37, they immediately skip right to that damage category, "dying."
The only exception to this is rolling the "uninjured" result, which causes no harm to the NC and doesn't increase their current damage category.
Reducing Damage
Whether a player character is attacking or defending, there are plenty of effects that can make it more difficult to harm someone.
Damage Mitigation is anything that makes it harder to hit the target. Heavy fog or darkness can mitigate damage, so can heavy rain, intersecting cover, high speed movement perpendicular to the attacker, things like that. This category of reducing damage is largely at the Narrator's discretion, but usually ranges between a rating of 1-3. Whatever its rating, reduce the category of the attack by that many rows. For example, if a player attacks an NC with an STK Check of 32, but there's a total mitigation of 2, the attack would be reduced by two categories from "severely wounded" to "badly injured." Alternatively, if a player is dodging an enemy's attack, and there's a total mitigation of 2, then the effect of their dodge attempt is improved by two categories.
Attack Range is the distance between the target and the range value of the attacker's weapon, counted in tactical range increments. You can find more about range increments in [Section TBD], but what matters is that every weapon has an ideal range, and the damage category of an attack is reduced by 1 category for each range increment away from that ideal. For example when an attack is made by a kinetic rifle that has a range value of of 3 (Medium), then that's the point from which you measure: targets 3 range increments away occur normally; targets that are 2 or 4 range increments from the attacker are reduced by 1 category, targets that are 1 or 5 range increments form the attacker are reduced by 2 categories, and so on.
Protection is any type of equipment or feature that protects a person from external damage. These are usually very specific, for example resonance shields only protect against kinetic ranged weapons. Their effect is very simple: the specific type of protection details which attacks it protects against, and how many categories of protection it applies. So if a defender has a resonance shield with a protection rating of 3, and they are attacked by a kinetic weapon, the effective damage of the attack is reduced by 3 categories.
One important note: these effects are applied after all others. For example, when a player character is dodging an attack, they make their STK Check to determine how much damage is dealt, and only then apply any potential mitigation, protection, or range modifiers.
You might be asking yourself; why the three different categories? The answer is: versatility. These three categories stack with each other, but not themselves. If both damage mitigation and range increments would affect the damage a target takes, add their values together and reduce the attack's final damage value by that many categories. Yet if two different types of damage mitigation would apply, simply apply the higher value of the two.
Death is a normal thing for anyone in the cyberstar wastes. People starve to death, they freeze to death, they die from radiation exposure, they get gunned down by gangs, they get crushed by Adjudicators, or any number of other things. There are so many ways to die, all so easy to achieve, and there's very little space for anyone to go when they die... so they usually just die in the street. Most people see their first dead body before they can form memories of it; as they grow up, seeing dead people is just normal.
All of that, of course, becomes a different story when you're the one who's dying. Most people, even regular everyday people, have multiple brushes with death through the course of their life. Gangsters, punks, and other people who fight a lot run risk of death a lot more often. Combat tends to be very short, and the best way to survive it is to act first.
Dying or Shutting Down
Although most negative states don't hold inherent qualities by themselves, some do. The dying and shutting down negative states will eventually kill anyone who carries them for long enough. At the end of every Scene during which a character is dying or shutting down, the character makes a special Measure: 8 dice contrasted against the number of Scenes they've been dying/shutting down. This is called a Death Measure. If the Measure is an overall failure, count the negative span and keep a running total; once that total equals or exceeds 10, the character dies or shuts down.
Alternatively, a character with enough focus and determination can force themselves to keep going. They can spend 1 Resolve to automatically win their Death Measure; they've gotta do this before taking their Measure, they can't do it after, but they can make this choice every Scene. This can allow a character to keep going for quite a while, even on the verge of death, often involving a last stand, a death march, or a final rampage. Keep in mind that, since characters only regain 1 Resolve per Scene anyway, all Resolve spent during this kind of situation effectively shaves down the character's Resolve bit by bit, until there's nothing left.
Making It Dramatic
When a character who is dying or shutting down eventually tallies up enough negative span from Death Measures to finally actually die, let it be dramatic. The Narrator should let that player have final words, even perhaps a final scene, just so long as everyone agrees that no matter what happens during it the character isn't coming out alive. They've made their Measure, they've spent what they have left, but it's their story so they get to have a send-off.
Dead or Shut Down
Unlike most other negative states, "dead" and "shut down" have an inherent effect: the character is dead. For the most part, that's it; the story is over. There are ways to come back from death but all of them require very specific resources and tremendous wealth. Odds are, that means it's out of the reach of player characters.
Destroyed
One of the few negative states that carries an inherent quality, "destroyed" means exactly what it says on the tin. The character or object is absolutely destroyed. There's no way to come back from this, no matter what kind of resources or wealth you throw at the problem. The only potential way to "come back" is to keep a backup copy of your brain somewhere, but that is not only insanely expensive, it means that the original you is still dead. Some people aren't bothered about that, some are.
It's important to note that, when this state gets applied to a character, the narration should make that very clear. Perhaps some partial limbs remain, or a red mist in the air, or a bloody pile of meat, or a smoking pile of hardware, but there's really nothing left to repair or revive. In some situations this might be difficult to describe—such as when one character is destroyed by another character's bare fists, rare but possible. In these cases, use the narrative and the environment to full effect. For example, in the case of someone being destroyed by bare fists, perhaps the fight went severely wrong and one character got pushed off the train platform in front of a monorail. Make it dramatic, make it surprising, use the seeming incongruity as a springboard to tell a dramatic story.