this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2026
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Okay, but if your cyperpunk RPG has "d20 plus modifier vs target number" action resolution, 4-8 ability scores, skill bonuses, feats, classes, races/ancestries/backgrounds... You're going to need to explain how it's NOT like D&D. And if you proceed to describe PbtA, I will laugh at you.
I won't shame you for being like D&D. I will shame you for pretending you're not.
It depends what you mean by "like d&d". I've heard the phrase is used by different groups to mean:
FYI your line breaks get collapsed. Don't worry, it's still comprehensible. Formatting tip: bullet lists would've worked here. Alternatively, for a single line break you can end the line with 2 spaces or a backslash (\)
Thank you! Must be an mbin/lemmy diference cause it was correctly formatted for me. I just made it bullet points so it's clear for all.
For me, at least, "like D&D" can mean a lot of things. There are some games where you can tell their starting design point was just D&D, and everything else is either a tweak, a replacement or an addition. It doesn't matter what gets changed, so long as it's obvious what it was changed from.
The Fantasy Age system does a lot of things differently, but you can still tell they were working with D&D as their base design. You roll 3d6, but you still add your ability (and a skill bonus if you have the skill) and compare it to a target number.
Pathfinder, but towards Argentina?
Powered by the Apocalypse
No I think viking hippie was right
He's close: Pathfinder, but towards Albania.
Peanut butter the Archmage?
nah its just piles and piles of d6s and 9 in-game seconds of combat take 3-4 hours of irl time (and 2-3 months off GM lifetime) guess what are we playing 😌
No need to guess - it's Shadowrun, chummer.
I knew it was too easy
Shadowrun pitches d6's like Warhammer does and is the only RPG I know of that uses them so egregiously
We've been playing for years and dropping 30+ is totally normal at our table, 40+ if someone went overboard with dermal armor or if your APC just collided with an earth spirit
Specifically 2nd edition
I want to throw a frag grenade into a 4m x 4m room that has two adjacent exterior concrete walls, one interior wooden wall and and another interior wooden wall that has the physical barrier spell cast next to it (mostly to block a door but it covers the whole wall). How much damage will the two orcs in the room have to soak? Assume the grenade lands in the middle of the room. One orc is in the corner of the two concrete walls, the other is next to the wooden wall without the barrier. . DV 18P(f) AP -5 BLAST -1/m. Edit: forgot to include the barrier was cast at force 5
I don't see the map but I'll assume there's 1 interior wall and 1 physical barrier between the orcs and the grenade.
End of the turn, it explodes. Starting damage is 18p.
First the blast meets the Physical Barrier spell with 5+5+5 resist pool (5 structure 5 armor and +5 from frag grenade's AP which is actually positive rather than negative). Roll, 5 damage down, 13 to go. The barrier sustains more damage than it has structure and winks out, the mage gets it 2 sustain dice back.
The interior wall, 1+2+5. The orcs are lucky, another 3 damage down and 10 to go. The wall turns into wood chips and glue.
Blast weakens as it travels 1 meter, 9 damage.
These orcs weren't born yesterday and wear armor vests, they have 6+5=11 armor, which is more than grenade's 9 so it turns from physical to stun. 5 body + 11 armor = 16 resist pool, one takes 4 stun the other 5, both manage to stay on their feet.
The blast gets to exterior walls with 10+21 resist pool, shreds the wallpaper and doesnt do any structural damage (21 armor > 9 damage, turns to stun, wall doesnt care)
The blast is absorbed, because naturally we not crazy enough to play with chunky salsa rules and we want this combat to end somewhere before 4am.
next turn.
I don't think the AI understood that the orcs are in the same room as the grenade, and it is only 2m from any wall when it goes off. Plus chunky salsa is the whole reason to specify what the walls are made of so failure all around.
you do actually need to specify regardless, brick and wood have different structure\armor values.
what ai fam this is straight from the dome piece.
Warhammer
That's grimdark, not cyberpunk though
The d20 System, used as the basis for D&D 3rd edition, was in fact explicitly made to accommodate different settings and additions.
That's why a proper cyberpunk RPG needs to be entirely D6. So many D6s that you need both hands to roll them all, and a baking sheet to keep them from rolling off the table.
D12 is objectively the best dice and I need to find a system that'll let me use them more.
SWADE rolls lots of d12s at higher advancement levels.
Daggerheart is a 2d12 system for players, but it remains a d20 system for GMs
D4 is objectively the best because you can use them as dice and weapons.
One Ring is 1d12 + d6. TN is based on the characters attribute score. It creates a system where a lot of actions are only possible on critical success for anyone who doesn't specialize in the skill. 11 is crit fail, so your non-crit maximum is 10+skill*6. Even with one skill level in something associated with an attribute you are weak in, you may have a max of 16 and a TN of 18, making it impossible unless the DM adds a modifier.
Each 6 on a roll lets the player add a little subtle magic to the result though, which is a cool way to implement magic being everpresent and a result of getting really good at ordinary things.
Og cyberpunk used a d10
GURPS would like a word.