Friday Night Firefight (Done Right)
This is a collection of house rules and, in one case, the errata of existing rules related to combat in Cyberpunk 2020.
Damage & Wounds
Cyberpunk 2020 made changes to the Friday Night Firefight combat system from the original rules in Cyberpunk 1.0. These changes were pretty much the only problem I had with the 2020 rules, so I abandoned them and went back to a version of the Damage & Wounds rules from 1.0 adapted to be compatible with some of the other changes in 2020.
These rules effectively replace the Damage rules from the Friday Night Firefight rules in the CP2020 rulebook.
Damage Location
The first step to determining damage, presuming the attack hit, is to determine where the target was hit. If the attack was a called shot for a specific location, then job done; but if the attack was not aimed at a particular location the location should be determined.
Use the Random Hit Table below, rolling one D10 to determine a random hit location. If the target has partial cover and their legs would not be exposed, roll one D6 to determine the location. For greater degrees of cover use your best judgment on whether the location result from the roll is exposed and can be hit or not, and reroll if needed.
The table includes the option for a second D10 roll for an even more precise hit location, but this is mostly for descriptive purposes but could be used to help determine the Wound effect (see below), or for determining if cyberware is hit rather than flesh and bone.
Random Hit Table
Die Roll | Location | Specific Location (D10) |
1 | Head | 1-2: Eye, 3-4: Ear, 5: Nose, 6-7: Jaw, 8-0: Skull |
2-4 | Torso | 1-4: Upper Chest/Back, 5-8: Gut/Lower Back, 9-0: Groin/Buttocks |
5 | Right Arm | 1-2: Wrist, 3-5: Upper Arm, 6-8: Lower Arm, 9-0: Hand |
6 | Left Arm | 1-2: Wrist, 3-5: Upper Arm, 6-8: Lower Arm, 9-0: Hand |
7-8 | Right Leg | 1-2: Ankle, 3-5: Thigh, 6-8: Calf, 9-0: Foot |
9-10 | Left Leg | 1-2: Ankle, 3-5: Thigh, 6-8: Calf, 9-0: Foot |
Damage
For these rules damage is categorized into two types, Killing and Bludgeoning. Killing damage is the damage done by weapons against a living target; Bludgeoning damage is the damage done by hand-to-hand attacks. The fundamental difference between the two is how Wounds are determined. The Wound table below is based on Killing damage, so to determine the Wounds from Bludgeoning damage, divide the damage by 5 (rounding down) and then comparing the result to the Wounds table.
Cyberpunk 1.0 had different damage rolls for weapons, including ballistic damage drop-off at longer ranges, but for these rules the damage rolls for Weapons (ranged or melee) and by Martial Arts and Brawling attacks remain the same as described in the CP2020 rules.
Armor
Armor reduces damage in the same manner as described in the CP2020 rules. For convenience here are the New Armor Rules that were originally described in the CP2020 errata sheets and were later included in the version 2.01 edition of the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook.
Bludgeoning Damage: remember that damage from Martial Arts Attacks, aka Bludgeoning damage, is divided by 5 before applying the damage reduction from armor SP.
Maximum Armor
Now, in addition to Encumbrance Values, only a maximum of 3 layers of Armor can be worn at any one time; no more than one of these layers can be Hard Armor (see the CP2020 rulebook for a list of Hard and Soft armors). The 2nd layer has an extra EV penalty of -1; the 3rd layer, an additional penalty of -2. Subdermal Armor and Bodyplating cyberware options are considered to be armor layers; Skinweave is considered a layer, but receives no penalty.
Proportional Armor
When layering armor, or wearing armor behind on obstacle or cover, subtract the smaller SP from the larger one. Find the difference on the table below and read across to the other column. This is the bonus number you add to the larger SP to determine overall protection from the armor/armor, or armor/cover combination. If you have three or more layers of protection, calculate in pairs from the inside out. (Example: for armors A, B, C, you compare A and B; determine the bonus number, and then compare the new strength of the larger of the pair to armor C.)
Proportional Armor Table
Difference in SPs | Bonus Number |
0-4 | +5 |
5-8 | +4 |
9-14 | +3 |
15-20 | +2 |
21-26 | +1 |
27+ | +0 |
Wounds
This is the crux of the FNFF rules adapted from Cyberpunk 1.0. In this version of Friday Night Firefight there are no "hits" for tracking damage. Wounds are recorded against the Location that was hit, so it is possible for a character to have multiple Wounds of different severities at the same time.
To determine the severity of the Wound taken at the location, use the Wound Table below. Look up the amount of penetrating killing damage taken from the attack in the Damage column of the table. Penetrating killing damage is the amount of killing damage that gets past the Armor SP on the location that was hit. Once you have the row for the amount of damage done, cross-index in the table to the column representing the character's Body Type. The indicated code tells what kind of wound has been taken. There are five levels of damage: Light Wound (LW), Serious Wound (SW), Critical Wound (CW), Mortal Wound (M#) and Dead (D). Mortal Wounds have multiple levels of severity, ranging from M0 to M6; this is an aspect of the CP2020 rules that have been retained, making these rules slightly less fatal than the Cyberpunk 1.0 FNFF rules they are based on.
Note: penetrating killing damage from a Head hit is doubled when determining the Wound severity of the hit.
Obviously if the location hit is a limb that has been replaced with a cyberlimb then the character will not take a Wound to that location, rather the cyberlimb will take damage. As noted in the CP2020 Cyberware rules, in general a cyberlimb can take up to 20 points of structural damage before it is rendered useless, and up to 30 points of damaged before being effectively destroyed (meaning it cannot be repaired and must be replaced with a new cyberlimb).
Wound Table
Dmg. | VW | WK | AV | ST | VS | SH |
1-2 | SW | LW | LW | LW | LW | LW |
3-4 | SW | SW | LW | LW | LW | LW |
5-6 | CW | SW | SW | LW | LW | LW |
7-8 | CW | CW | SW | SW | LW | LW |
9-10 | M0 | CW | CW | SW | SW | LW |
11-12 | M1 | M0 | CW | CW | SW | SW |
13-14 | M2 | M1 | M0 | CW | CW | SW |
15-16 | M3 | M2 | M1 | M0 | CW | CW |
17-18 | M4 | M3 | M2 | M1 | M0 | CW |
19-20 | M5 | M4 | M3 | M2 | M1 | M0 |
21-22 | M6 | M5 | M4 | M3 | M2 | M1 |
23-24 | D | M6 | M5 | M4 | M3 | M2 |
25-26 | D | D | M6 | M5 | M4 | M3 |
27-28 | D | D | D | M6 | M5 | M4 |
29-30 | D | D | D | D | M6 | M5 |
31-32 | D | D | D | D | D | M6 |
33+ | D | D | D | D | D | D |
Wound Effects
Light Wounds: These include contusions, cuts and tissue damage. Tissue trauma is moderate, and the wounds are messy but not incapacitating.
Serious Wounds: These cause massive tissue trauma, blood loss, internal organ damage and possible bone fractures. Victims with a Serious Wound suffer a -2 penalty to all actions until the Wound is healed.
When taking a Serious Wound, roll an additional 1D6 to determine secondary effects.
- Limb & Torso: On a 1 or 2, you have broken a bone. A broken arm or leg renders the limb useless. A broken rib reduces your MA by half and reduces your ability to attack or defend by -2.
- Head: A skull fracture causes massive, blinding headaches, reducing your INT, REF and COOL stats by half. On a roll of 3, the victim takes no skull damage, but has lost an eye.
A Serious Wound that is untreated for more than 20 minutes automatically becomes a Critical Wound.
Critical Wounds: These cause dangerous tissue trauma, have severed a major artery or vein, and have caused severe damage to internal organs (where present). Limbs are unusable; in fact, they will immediately require attention as they have been nearly severed. Victims with a Critical Wound suffer a -4 penalty to all actions until the Wound is healed.
Roll an additional 1D6 to determine secondary effects.
- Limb: On a 1 or 2, the limb was severed or must be amputated. On a 3 or 4 the bone is shattered and the limb is useless, the victim is a -4 to attack and defend.
- Torso: On a 1 or 2, the lungs have been punctured. The victim cannot move. On a 3 or 4, there has been major damage to the abdominal organs. The victim can still move, but INT, REF and COOL stats are reduced to 1 automatically. MA drops to 1 (crawling). On a 5 or 6, there is major damage to the lower abdomen and groin area. The victim cannot move, attack or defend; he's too busy writhing on the ground in pain.
- Head: On a 1, skull has been crushed or shattered, suffering 1D6/2 points each from INT and REF stats (brain damage). On a 2, the victim suffers amnesia, and must forever after make a Difficult task attempt (INT) to remember people, places, incidents or things from his past. On a 3, the victim is blinded indefinitely. On a 4 the jaw has been shattered. On a 5 or 6 roll again and consult the Head result for a Serious Wound above.
If a Critical Wound is not tended to within 2 minutes (about 40 combat rounds), it automatically be-comes a Mortal Wound.
Mortal Wounds: These are essentially killing wounds. The victim is, in effect, dying. He may not move, attack or defend. Each turn, he must roll a 1D10 Death Save, rolling a value equal to or lower than his Body score, subtracting the level of the Mortal Wound (0 to 6) from the base chance to save. On a successful Death Save he lingers on for another full turn. The victim will have to continue to make Death Saves every round until they fail (and die) or they are stabilized as described in the CP2020 Friday Night Firefight rules.
As noted above, these rules adopt the CP2020 type of Mortal Wound where there are seven levels, M0 through M6. As there are several levels of severity to Mortal Wounds, the penalty to actions the victim suffers from the Wound ranges from -6 (for M0) to -12 (for M6).
Roll an additional 1D6 to determine secondary effects.
- Limb: On a 1 or 2, the limb was severed completely or effectively destroyed. On a 3 or 4 the bone was completely pulverized and the limb is useless. On a 5 or 6 roll again and consult the Limb result for Critical Wounds above.
- Torso: On a 1 the lungs have been punctured. On a 2 the heart has been punctured. On a 3 the rib cage has been shattered and the victim cannot move. On a 4 there has been major damage to most or all internal organs. On a 5 the spinal column has been damaged and the victim is partially or completely paralyzed. On a 6 there is massive internal bleeding. For all results the victim cannot move, attack or defend; he's too busy writhing on the ground in pain or has been paralyzed.
- Head: On a 1, skull has been shattered, suffering 1D6 points each from INT & REF stats (brain damage). On a 2, both the victim's eyes have been destroyed. On a 3, the victim's neck has been broken, paralyzing them. On a 4 the victim suffers significant brain damage, reduce INT and REF to 1. On a 5 or 6 roll again and consult the Head result for a Critical Wound above.
If the victim suffering a Mortal Wound is not stabilized the wound will increase in severity level (M0 becomes M1, M1 becomes M2, etc.) every 1 minute (about 20 combat rounds), assuming they have continued to make their Death Save each round. Even if they continue to make Death Saves, a victim with an M6 level Mortal Wound who has not been stabilized will automatically die after 1 minute if not stabilized.
Dead Instantly Wounds: With these, the victim has instantly expired from the severity of his wounds. Even so, with the wonders of technology it might still be possible to revive the victim even after they have died. See the Death State section in the Trauma Team chapter of the CP2020 rules to determine if the victim only mostly dead or if they are dead, dead, dead. Finito. Adios. Write up a new character.
Recording Wounds
Write the type of wound in the appropriate area of the outline-figure on the FNFF Combat Sheet. For example, to list a serious head wound, you would write "SW" in the head part of the outline-figure. Do not bother to write down Bludgeoning damage unless it is severe enough to become Killing damage (greater than 5 points). The character sheet on the Screamsheets page includes the FNFF Combat Sheet.
Treating/Stabilizing Wounds
As noted Serious, Critical and Mortal Wounds will get worse if not treated relatively quickly. Treating a Serious or Critical Wound, or stabilizing a Mortal Wound, is a roll of the treating character's TECH stat and any Medical skill plus one D10 against a difficulty based on the Wound severity. If the victim has taken multiple wounds, each wound must be treated or stabilized separately. Having suitable medical equipment on hand will provide bonuses to the roll. Some examples can be found in CP2020 Friday Night Firefight rules for stabilization.
Wound Level | Difficulty |
Serious | 10 |
Critical | 15 |
Mortal 0 | 20 |
Mortal 1 | 22 |
Mortal 2 | 24 |
Mortal 3 | 26 |
Mortal 4 | 28 |
Mortal 5 | 30 |
Mortal 6 | 32 |
Consciousness Saves and Stun/Shock Saves
The Cyberpunk 1.0 FNFF rules use a Consciousness Save, compared to the Stun/Shock Save rules from CP2020. The two Saves have some similarities but are distinct, so depending on how cruel the GM wants to be one, the other, or both Save rules can be used.
Consciousness Saves use the Consciousness Save Table. When a victim takes a Wound, check the table cross-indexing the victim's Body Type with the severity of Wound taken. The victim must make a roll on 1D10 equal to or lower than the listed value. If the roll is failed by less than four points, the victim is stunned for one consecutive round. He cannot move, attack or defend; instead, he is staggered in place by the impact. If the save is failed by greater than 4 points, the victim is unconscious for 1D10 consecu-tive rounds following the attack.
Stun/Shock Saves work as described in the CP2020 Friday Night Firefight rules.
Consciousness Save Table
Body Type | VW | WK | AV | ST | VS | SH |
LW | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
SW | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
CW | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
M0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
M1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
M2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
M3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
M4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
M5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
M6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Cumulative Wounds
Realistically, if one were to take a lot of small wounds, it would be as bad as taking one big wound. Bleeding, shock and pain would begin to add up. The Cumulative Wound State is a running tally of how successive wounds affect the body. The next time a victim takes a Wound on a location that has already sustained a Wound, go to the Cumulative Wounds Table, cross-index the current wound state with the level of the new wound just taken, and change the wound state on the location to the new wound state indicated from the table. If the new wound state is higher than the existing one on the location, roll Wound Effects based on the new, cumulative wound state. Remember; with enough little wounds, you can still end up dead.
Cumulative Wounds Table
Prev. Wound Level | New Wound State | |||||||||
LW | SW | CW | M0 | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | |
LW | LW | SW | CW | M0 | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 |
SW | SW | CW | M0 | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | D |
CW | CW | M0 | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | D | D |
M0 | M0 | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | D | D | D |
M1 | M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | D | D | D | D |
M2 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | D | D | D | D | D |
M3 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | D | D | D | D | D | D |
M4 | M4 | M5 | M6 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
M5 | M5 | M6 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
M6 | M6 | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
Healing and Recovery
After the firefight, assuming you survived, comes the healing and recovery period. The CP2020 Trauma Team rules do a good job of covering healing, but are tailored to the "hits" method of recording damage. For these Wound rules, the base for recovery is the Wound Recovery Table. Without assistance, wound recovery rolls are made once per week. For each wound, cross-index the victim's Body Type with the severity of the wound. One full week after each wound was sustained, roll one D10; if the roll is equal to or less than the number from the table then that wound reduces in severity one level. So Light Wounds are completely healed, Serious Wounds become Light Wounds, and Critical Wounds become Serious. Mortal 0 Wounds will reduce to Critical, but higher level Mortal Wounds will reduce to the next lower level; Mortal 1 becomes Mortal 0, Mortal 2 becomes Mortal 1, etc. until the Mortal 0 reduces to Critical. After another full week another roll can be made for each remaining Wound, until all have been completely healed.
Medical care can help speed up recovery. The base recovery rate assumes the victim is being cared for by someone who at minimum has the First Aid skill, even if it is the victim himself. Being treated by someone with the Medical Tech skill, as long as they have the proper equipment, allows recovery checks to be made once every four days instead of once per week. The use of speed heal drugs will ef-fectively double the healing rate, so a character being treated by First Aid who uses speed heal drugs can make a recovery check every four days, while one who is being treated by Medical Tech and uses the drugs can make a recovery check every two days. More advanced medical technology, like nano-technology can halve the recovery time again.
Recovery also assumes that the victim is resting, or at least not performing any strenuous activity. If the victim did not spend the recovery period (one week for normal recovery) resting then feel free to increase the time required before they can make a recovery check and/or increase the difficulty of the recovery check. As long as a wound is not completely healed, the victim will continue to suffer the action penalty associated with the current wound severity, though the use of pain-killing drugs or other means can reduce this penalty.
Wound Recovery Table
Wound Level | VW | WK | AV | ST | VS | SH |
LW | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
SW | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
CW | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
MW | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Special Ammunition
The CP2020 Friday Night Firefight includes rules for Armor Piercing ammunition, but there are many other types of ammunition that can offer benefits, at a cost. Where a cost of x/y/z is indicated, x is the cost for light calibre weapons, y is the cost for medium, and z is the cost for heavy.
Pistol and Rifle Rounds
Armor-Piercing (AP): Armor SP is halved, damage that penetrates is also halved. Cost is x3
Hollow Point (HP): Armor SP is doubled, damage that penetrates is times 1.5. Cost is x3
Depleted Uranium (DPU): Damage is increased by 3d6, 4d6+3, or 5d6+3 depending on the calibre of the weapon (light, medium, heavy). Armor SP is halved, damage that penetrates is divided by 4. Metal armor heats up and delivers 1d10 points of damage per turn for 1d6/2 turns. Cost is 10/15/20 per round
Dum Dum: Armor SP is normal, damage that penetrates is doubled. Cost is 1/3/5 per round
High-Explosive Penetration (HEP): Armor SP is ignored and loses two points of staging. Damage is half real and half-stun. Cost is 2/4/6 per round
Armor-Piercing Incendiary (API): As for armor piercing plus target takes 1d6 points of damage the following turn and 1d6/2 the next. Armor does not stop this extra damage. Cost is x4
High-Explosive Armor-Piercing (HEAP): Armor SP is halved, damage that penetrates is x1.5. Cost is 3/6/8 per round
Shotgun Rounds
Slug: Damage: 4d6+2, Armor SP is halved, damage that penetrates is unchanged. Cost is x 4
Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS): Damage: 6d6, Range: 25m, Armor Piercing. Cost is 10 per round
High-Explosive (HE): Damage: 4d6 in a radius of ½m per shell fired. i.e. 10 shells = 5m radius. Cost is 5 per round
Hiqh-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT): Damage: 4d6, Armor SP is halved, damage is unchanged. Cost is 6 per round
Non-Lethal: Damage: 4d6, at least half will always penetrate Armor (except Hard Armors) but damage is Stun only. Skinweave has no effect, rigid armors prevent damage. Whether damage penetrated or not, targets must make an Easy (10) REF save or be knocked down.
Flechettes: Damage: 4d6, Armor SP is ¼, damage that penetrates is ¼. Cost is 8 per round
Monomolecular Weapons
Soft Armors are at ⅓ SP, Hard Armors are at 2/3 SP versus monomolecular weapons. On a natural 10 on the attack roll monomolecular weapons do double damage.