Differences between D&D and CPR
INTRODUCTION
Because we have a lot of newcomers who only know D&D... here are a few tips for them. It's a more complete take than my previous one. And I suppressed my previous one from the New GM guide.
LEVEL & CLASS
LEVEL
You don't level up in the CPR. Instead of XP, you earn Improvement Points (IPs), which you spend on improving your Skills and Role ability.
Fighting grants 0 IP by itself, so farming combat for XP is irrelevant in CPR.
CLASS
There is no Class and Subclass in CPR. You have a Role, but it's only a specific ability only this Role can do. CPR is a skill based system, it means you can choose any skills you want. It's NOT related to your Role.
Examples : As a Medtech, You can be a caring Surgeon (Medtech only ability), trying not to use violence, and always willing to help, you will have high level in Human perception, Conversation and maybe Persuasion. OR you can be a highly effective Martial Artist, Combat medic, drugged to the teeth with Pharma (Medtech only ability) and streets drugs. You will be very effective in close combat (like very), but you will lack a bit of empathy and soft skills.
STAT & SKILL
STAT
You have quit a lot of STAT points to spend during character creation, but that's also because you can't increase STAT with IP (XP). And there are very few cyberware that increase a STAT, and it's only BODY. Some drugs can give you a temporary boost in some STAT. Choose carefuly how you are spending these precious point.
Derived STAT are HP, Humanity, Death save and Seriously wounded level (half your HP)
Skill
You will spend you IP in Skills or Role rank.
Some of them increase your "saving throw", other increase you chance to hit / dodge in combat, and other are like proficiency.
Resist Torture and Drugs = saving throw against torture, poison, flash bang, etc..
Cybertech = saving throw against EMP.
Endurance = saving throw against fatigue (when you sleep in the street ... you don't sleep well) <-- rare
Concentration = saving throw against Suppressive fire (an ability that force you to take cover) and combat stress in general.
Evasion = your ability to dodge = Your AC.
Brawling = your ability to escape the Grab/Disarm action.
BASIC CHECKS
CHECK : STAT + Skill + d10 VS Difficulty Value (DV).
Roll over the DV in order to success the check. This is a big difference between 5e and CPR: you have to beat the difficulty value (DV). Ties go to the defender, so it's not meet or beat. If you meet, you miss.
Because we are rolling 1D10, a +1 bonus is Huge in CPR, it's even bigger when fighting someone of your level .
EXPLODING and IMPLODING : The critical success or failure are also very different, because you roll a D10 and there is 10% chance to roll a 1 and 10% chance to roll a 10. This will happen much more often than in D&D.
a "1" will implode, you will roll again and substract the value of the reroll to the final result, but it's still possible to success ! (Roll a 1 then a 2, it's -1 total, because you will add the 1 then substract the 2.)
a "10" can explode, you will roll again and add the value of the reroll to the final result, but it still possible to fail !
a 1 or a 10 will greatly INCREASE your chances of success or failure. That's it, nothing more.
COMBAT
CHECKS
STAT + offensive skill + 1D10 VS DV (if the target can't dodge a ranged attack, there is a DV chart depending on the weapon you are using and the range) OR STAT + defensive skill + 1D10 (most of the time Evasion skill is your defensive skill, but it can also be Brawling).
Rolling damage : Weapons damage range from 1D6 to 8D6 damage.
Critical damage happens AFTER you hit succesfully. The damage roll will decide if it's a "critical injury", roll two 6 and you have a Critical injury against a living target which include +5 HP lost and a special effect that will hinder you.
DODGING
It's important, you need a skill called Evasion. Be careful you can always dodge melee attack, but you need REF 8 or a cyberware called Reflex co-processor (Black chrome addon) in order to dodge ranged attack (bullet, thrown weapon, grenade, rocket, etc..). As a GM you will see that most of the mooks can't dodge, that's fine. As soon as a mook can dodge, it's a dangerous one and it will slow down combat, like a lot.
ARMOR
As you can see Armor concept is different. In D&D armor makes you harder to hit. In CPR armor will reduce (even nullify) damage when you are hit. Each time you take damage, you will substract your armor value (SP) to the damage you have to take. If the damage aren't nullify, you will lose HP AND your armor is ablated by 1 (you lose 1 SP) and become less effective.
Ablate armor is a very important feature.
COVER
It's also a very important concept : You can start your turn hidden behind cover then move, shoot, move behind cover in the same turn. It's better than dodging. Sooner or later you will miss a dodge or they will "explode" a hit dice. When you are hidding behind a cover... they can't shoot at you, period. (well, if it's a thin cover and they have a rocket launcher/grenade... that's another story. But it's an exception)
And there is no half cover, you are either bhind a cover or not behind a cover.
HOLD ACTION
It allows you to wait and do something when a specific trigger happens: "I wait for him to get out of cover and I shoot at him." It will interrupt the other person action, you will shoot at him and then he will resume his turn (and certainly shoot at you). You can't move during the action you were holding. Meaning you can't say :
"I wait for him to get out of cover, I shoot at him and I move under cover."
INTIATIVE
It is important, because you want to take Cover ASAP and because you can't hold action for the next turn. End of turn, everybody lose any action that where on hold and not triggered for whatever reason. If you are the last in initiative, it's meaningless to hold action.
MOVE
Your capability to move is crucial, and it's not linked to a race, it's a STAT. You have to spend point in order to improve you movement. And you really need it if you play a combat oriented character. Even if you focus on ranged weapon. Move, shot, move and Hide behind Cover is a basic tactic.
HP
HP are the same than in D&D, you take damage and your HP goes down. Your HP pool can be raised through cyberware, but you are not leveling up in CPR. You will have between 35 to 60 HP on average. And it's common to starts at 40HP and never takes cyberware that increase HP (costly and can be very visible), which means your character stays at 40HP during the whole campaign.
DYING
Hit zero HP and you start dying, you are still conscious but with heavy malus. While mortally wounded, each turn you roll a Death Save. Fail ONE Death Save and you die. A natural 10 is always a failure here. The difficulty of the Death save is increase by 1 after each turn. I can tell you, it's common to die after the second turn if you're not a combat specialist with the right cyberwares.
Death is permanent, there is no spell to ressurect you. In D&D death can be just an inconvenience, because it's fantasy and kinda heroic. Not the same in CPR.
HEALING
There is only one way to heal while in combat. An injection of Speedheal by a Medtech. And you can have only ONE injection each day. It's WILL + BODY in HP. (average 12, combat specialist up to 20 and a bit more)
CONCLUSION
keep in mind that a fight can go south in a blink of an eye... one grenade (6D6 damage) with a double "6" and multiple members of the party get a critical injury. Some critical injuries are very nasty with strong malus. It could start a vicious circle of death.
KILLING PEOPLE
D&D has monsters and evil human being, CPR has some drone and active defense, but you will mainly kill human being. The world is grey. Of course there are shade of grey and even some truly evil dudes. But, it's mainly grey.
Murder hobos don't survive in CPR.
You are killing people not creature, they have a father, a mother, siblings, childs, friends, allies. Sooner or later you are going to kill the wrong dude and his brother gonna come to kill you.
Reputation is everything for an edgerunner, and if you kill anyone who bothers you without mercy, you'll be categorized as a murder hobo. It can be useful in deterring small-time goons from attacking you. But more seasonned edgerunners will only see you has a threat. That's dangerous, because you are NOT the biggest shark in NC, and edgerunners tend to eliminate threats before they become a reality.
Of course players will have to kill people, that's cyberpunk after all, not my little poney adventure. But you should use the 3 W technique before slaughtering gangers :
Who ? Do you have intel about the person you are going to kill ? Does he belong to a gang ? Does he looks like a corpo guard ? Which corpo ?
Why ? What is your motive here ? Self-defense and contract are fine. But if your motivation is greed, having fun or paranoïa, then people tuned to the street rumors will eventually notice this pattern and you're reputation will take a hit.
Where ? Sometimes it might be not the right place : too many cameras, witnesses, etc..
--> Reputation is essential for an edgerunner. If everyone knows you tend to be trigger-happy, they may pull the trigger before you do. Just to be on the safe side. You're not the only paranoid person on the street.
MONEY
Money is also XP (IP).
In D&D 5e, you can buy some cool stuff from time to time. But in CPR it's central. You need better gears, better weapons, better cyberware and ammunitions (which can cost a lot). The moment you get a bit of money, you will start to spend it. That's a huge part of the game.
That's why it's better to stick to 1.000eb / person for a job. Some of them are even lower : 500eb. The assault on Arasaka tower should earn you 2000eb (it's a reference price from one of CPR's author). As a GM, you don't want your players to have too much money too quickly. Bear in mind that looting a dead opponent's weapons will provide them with pocket money and more.
MEGACORPORATION vs DRAGON
Don't play dumb with Megacorps, you will die sooner or later. Be smart, they aren't dragon you can eventually kill if necessary, it's very hard to take down a megacorporation. Almost impossible in fact. For the record, after the first Arasaka tower attack by Johnny Silverhand in 2013, Rogue and him had to lay low with the nomads outside NC for a quite a long time.
CONCLUSION
Cyberpunk is not D&D, it's a matter of mindset. That's a lite tactical ruleset (compared to D&D) for a non-tactical RPG