Another fun gig I've used is security for night markets. The pay is good (even if the first paycheck gets gutted for 'background check fees'), players get to meet the fixers and big names of their community, and if they do a good job they might find more work or make the right kind of friends.
I've been running a 6 month campaign with two different groups running about Night City at the same time. GMing for them is interesting. One group is Combat heavy with a fixer, the other is a Media group running a podcast. Team 1 Missions typically look like what you describe. Team 2 Missions have varied greatly from investigation to outfitting the university with a new security network to selling chips which update a crucial flaw in Neuralware they discovered. They do everything from running an expose on the council so a corp can get their members on the council to dumping Militech secrets into portions of the Garden. (One of them may have a significant bounty on their head). When it comes to gigs, I find leaning heavily into what the group enjoys while providing them with variety really helps. The roles have a lot of variety and you can really use them to make players feel impactful.
One of my biggest grips with Red is that the cover system makes me want to cry, and really hurts my players. They implemented aimed shots, but if a pinky toe is out of cover then you're just completely out of cover. This guide is one of the best I've seen for teaching new GMs how to 'run' a gig, and prepare for all options players could do. I will say though, my own personal opinion is in order to make missions not seem like insane shootouts all the time. Take 2020's cover system, and mix that in with Reds. It's taken firefight missions, or missions gone wrong from hide and go seek to full blown JohnWick Moments.
Great info. Ive thought about possible gigs that tie into the specific roles of my players, Having a lawman could potentially bring opportunities with being hired to arrest criminals, or the Nomad being contracted to deliver goods and supplies to different groups, etc
Get the gig, do the gig, get paid? No no no... in my experience it's get the gig, try to do the gig, find out the gig is something other than you thought, sort *that* out, then do as much of the gig as you still can, try to get paid, get screwed over, threaten a bunch of people, *maybe* get paid...man I need a new Fixer...
An idea I would like to do is a netrunner gig focused on a penetration test. The PCs are hired by XYZ corp's CSO/CTO to penetrate the company's data system and retrieve certain data, a file whatever. They are doing it to test XYZ's Corps net defenses and like in a real pen test the PCs have rules to follow and must write reports etc. It's totally legit. And let's say they have 72hrs to do it. This is how it works in the real world, and depending on the mood of the GM or how the players are acting acting here are some options... 1. It's a screw job. The CIO/CSO is fake and used the PCs to steal the data, once the CIO/CSO gets it he runs off with the goods, the PCs don't get paid and XYZ corp are looking for them. Oh and CIS/CSO didn't really work for XYZ corp either. Oops. 2. Since this is a data penetration test, the PCs can't use violence (although limited non-lethal force might be okay) against the XYZ Corp employees. This forces the PCS to focus more on role playing and not roll playing, however if the group is rowdy and loves causing chaos like in a KODT comic, like one or two of my buddies were, then let the PCs kill, mix, maim as their hearts desire, but the moment they do, they will be burned. The CSO/CIO who hired them will destroy all information about them and deny they had any involvement. XYZ Corp, NCPD, Arasaka, Militech, (Why Not) Booster Gangs, Rogue, lovers, ex-lovers, friends, ex-friends, family and anyone else who wants to make some big E$ will come hunting them down. Call it petty reprisal, but it might teach some of your trouble making players a lesson about consequences. I wish I did this more back in the day when I was GMing. 3. Just play it as an actual legit gig. The players can learn how a real world Cyber Security Pen test is done (with a Cyberpunk twist), they get E$, a good reputation etc, and it makes the net runner as the focus with the other PCs as backup.
I wanted to add a few more types that i could think of Escorts/delivery, Survivals, death games/high stakes game (maybe you have to play neo/Russian roulette with a cyber psycho or get put into a version of squid games beneath Pacifica playground.)
Damn you'sssssssss JonJon! Started watching your videos a few days ago and suddenly my wallet is $220 lighter with all the Cyberpunk stuff I just ordered to be delivered tomorrow. Now.. to find some poor Gonks to be my players.
One other great inclusion to this topic is twists, mostly because Cyberpunk is known for them. I kind of feel like you can’t have a good gig without a decent twist.
If every gig has a twist / inverts on itself, that can get stale. Don't be afraid to have a gig where there isn't some traitor or double-cross or overarching complication in that vein. Sometimes, the gig to ice some booster in his home is just that, and that's okay.
@@geoffdewitt6845 again if every single job has some sort of turn-about, at that point they aren't twists or surprises. They're the norm. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a gig to ice a solo is just a gig to ice a solo.
@@brairag5744 I think you're misunderstanding the nature of the word "twist." A twist is any information that was previously unknown making itself known to the party. So twists are not GM screwjobs - they aren't always about "oh, that solo is actually a hero!" or "The kidnapped client is actually a soulkilled AI engram." It could also be, "The guards are doing their walkthrough half an hour early," or "The password's been changed," or "Oh shit, Saburo Arasaka just showed up..." Moreover, if the crew expects a twist, it encourages them to do more research, actually talk to the NPCs, look for clues any way they can, make contacts, leave viruses, etc. It makes them want to stack the deck in their favor, as opposed to just getting surprised all the time. So they shouldn't be getting bored if you're varying the kinds of twists you're employing. I would argue that twists of variable caliber and type are crucial to getting Edgerunners invested in creative, challenge-based play. Now, I don't run your table, so if you think that it's better to just have a job that the PCs can plan and execute with no hiccups, that's great! Personally, I think that twists are a fantastic way to challenge players, which is why I asked Jon Jon for more information.
What I kind of notice a lot with our sessions is that it's sometimes difficult as a GM to distribute information "futuristically". Most of the time we'll still ask people about everything, look for documents as if they would be around as printed files. Do you have any tips for making that part cyberpunk?
Instead of printed, they’d be on a tablet. Or it’s a relic shard that goes in your neural slot. Always try to make it Cyberpunk. Also I think it’s ok if some things are low tech. It’s realistic. That stuff is reliable
So, I was comparing some numbers. In 2077 there are 12 megabuildings. It says these buildings have over 8000 apartments and can house 128,000 people at 16 per apartment. That means 12 buildings can potentially house 1.5 billion people. That said, the population of night city is 6 million people. I find this all very odd because the projected population of new york city in 2025 is 20 million and tokyo is 3 times that. If people die at the rate suggested in night city, the place should be a ghost town. Also, 16 to an apartment is way too much. In a game Im planning I think a larger population would make more sense and I'm thinking of going with 2 billion people. With 2 billion people, 1 million could die and you probably wouldn't notice. Alsoit makes items scarce and shelter of any kind precious. This crowding would push people into the combat zones, abandoned buildings and give the wealth a reason to want to keep people out of certain areas. Kibble as a cheap, non perishable food source makes sense, with "fresh" foods being reserved for the 1%.. Still have to do research on the surrounding cities but I'd imagine, if the cities around night city failed, people would rush in.....causing the population explosion. Feels right. At any rate, 6 million is far to little.......and Im not starting in 2077, probably closer to 2050. Megabuilds started going up around 2040, I'm guessing at a rate of 1 every 2- 3 years, so at 2050 I can have 3 with a 4th and 5th under construction.
So as a game master you have any tips or made up rules that could possibly help keep players on track like penalties of sorts? The hardest thing with my group is getting everyone to pay attention the majority of the time sometimes, which can be extremely frustrating as a GM.
It sounds like you’re trying to go against the wave instead of riding it. If your players are distracted then that means that they’re not engaged with your ideas. Get them involved and committed to your game by using their backstory. Find someone in their enemies or friends to be the focus of your next campaign plot. Ambush! Intrigue! Action! If they aren’t paying attention after that, then it’s time to have a talk with the players and ask why they can’t focus. Introducing penalties for not paying attention is stuff you do in kindergarten for children.
