Statistics
What are Statistics?
Statistics (also called STATs) are numbers that describe your Character's abilities in the game, as compared to everything else in the universe. All people and creatures can be described (or written up) using Statistics. This helps you compare Characters' abilities, which is often important in the game. For instance, a person with a STAT of 5 might be better off than a person with a STAT of 4, but not as good as a person with a STAT of 6. Statistics are generally rated from 1 to 8, but can go higher. In a Cyberpunk RED campaign, Characters will have Ten Primary Statistics, arranged into four groups: Mental, Combat, Fortune, and Physical. ▶ Mental Group ◀ Intelligence (INT): How generally bright you are. As a rule, this is more than sheer intelligence, but also includes cleverness, awareness, perception, and your ability to learn. Willpower (WILL): Your determination and ability to face danger and/or stress. This STAT also represents your courage and ability to survive longterm privation. This STAT is important for determining how much damage you can take. Cool (COOL): Your ability to impress and influence people through your character and charisma; how well you get along with others; how you interact in social situations. Empathy (EMP): Your ability to relate to and care for others, and take others into consideration. Particularly important as it offsets the effects of cyberpsychosis, a dangerous mental illness common in the Dark Future. ▶ Combat Group ◀ Technique (TECH): Your ability to manipulate tools or instruments. This is not the same as Reflexes, inasmuch as this covers the knack of using tools. One Character might have a high Technique but might not be able to fence or juggle. On the other hand, another might have high Reflexes, but might not be able to rewire a computer or hot-wire a car. Reflexes (REF): Your response time and coordination, as used in aiming, throwing, juggling, etc. A stage magician, for example, would have a high Reflex STAT. Most importantly, this is the STAT that affects your ability to hit things with ranged weapons. ▶ Fortune Group ◀ Luck (LUCK): How the gods of chance see you. With a high enough Luck, you can tip the scales in your favor. In a game mechanics sense, you can apply points from this STAT to offset die rolls in your favor. However, this pool of points only refills at the beginning of the next session. ▶ Physical Group ◀ Body (BODY): Your size, toughness, and ability to stay alive and conscious due to physical mass, structure, or other qualities. This STAT is important for determining how much damage you can take. Dexterity (DEX): Your overall physical competence, as it pertains to balancing, leaping, jumping, combat, and other athletic activities. A gymnast would have a high Dexterity. Most importantly, this is the STAT that affects your ability to hit things with melee weapons and can help you dodge attacks. Movement (MOVE): Your speed of movement: running, leaping, swimming, etc.How Do You Get Your STATs?
▶ The STAT Block ◀ When creating a Character, you will be placing your STATs in a STAT Block like the one below:
▶ The Three Ways to Generate STATs ◀ ▶ Method #1: Streetrats (Templates)
When using The Streetrat Option, you'll roll 1d10 and then copy the numbers adjacent to the result of that roll onto your Character Sheet. You may not move your STATs around; you must transfer them as written on the table for that Roll. The good news is that these tables have been computer-generated to give you an optimal Character for that type of Role.
▶ Method #2: Edgerunners (Fast and Dirty) ◀ When using the Edgerunner option, you will once again move to the Templates for your Character's Role (see above). This time, you will roll 1d10 for each STAT individually, comparing the roll for that STAT against the value on the column for that STAT.
▶ Method #3: Complete Packages (Calculated) ◀ This method allows you to build the Character from the ground up, using a pool of "Character points" to "buy" the Character's STATs. While it's the most flexible method, it's also the most time-consuming and is not recommended for novice roleplayers.
When using the Complete Package option, you will get a specific number of points with which to generate your Character's STATs (in this case 62). The only limit is that no STAT may be higher than 8 or lower than 2. Now divide up your 62 STAT points between the ten STATs in the block. On average, you should be able to put at least 6 points in each STAT with a couple of points left over. Fine tuning these numbers is the fun part of the Complete Package option.
Required for Everyone: Derived Statistics
Regardless of the method you have chosen to generate your original STATs, you'll still need to calculate two more values: Hit Points and Humanity. These are your Character's Derived STATs, called so because they are derived from the original numbers in your STAT Block. These are STATs that are determined by doing something to an already existing STAT, like averaging, multiplying, or subtracting. ▶ Hit Points (HP) ◀ Hit Points are what we count to tell if your Character is dead, or still just bleeding on the floor. Every Character in a Cyberpunk RED campaign has this derived STAT. Hit Points represent the Character's will to live and overall physical condition. As the Character takes damage and injury from external sources, they'll subtract that damage (also described as points) from their pool of Hit Points. As the Character's HP reaches certain thresholds, there are penalties that represent cumulative damage that makes the Character physically slower or mentally hazier. When your Character falls to zero Hit Points, they enter the Death State (a measure of how fast they are dying). We'll go further into Wound Thresholds, penalties, and Death States in the Combat Section on pg. 186. You have Hit Points equal to 10 + (5 [BODY and WILL averaged, rounding up]). But since the math involved can be a real pain sometimes, we've made you a table to use instead. Refer to the Table below to see how many Hit Points your Character has. Your Character's Seriously Wounded Wound Threshold is half of their total HP (rounded up). Their Death Save is equal to their BODY Statistic.
▶ Humanity (HUM) ◀ Humanity is a measure of how well you interact with the world and other people in it. People with very low Humanity STATs have a lot of problems in human interactions. They may become sociopathic, withdrawn, disassociated, or even homicidal. If your Character's HUM drops below zero, that represents the death of your Character's emotional life; they slide into a state called cyberpsychosis, in which aberrant traits like homicidal mania, or mental disassociation can occur. While the addition of large amounts of cyberware (more on this later. See pg. 230) most often triggers this state, other traumatic situations can also push the Character over the edge. For every point of Empathy the Character has, they gain 10 points of Humanity (HUM). For example, a Character who starts with 5 EMP would have 50 Humanity. Once again, here's a handy table:
Plug these values into the Humanity, Hit Point, Seriously Wounded, and Death Save boxes on your Character Sheet and we're ready to hit the next stage: Skills.
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