> NCB//RULES.CORE v2.2.0 // DAMAGE HAS A BODY. //
Night City runs on a d20. Chrome, corps, and cruelty are the dice's excuse to hurt you — but cover, armor, and smart choices decide who stays standing. And when a hit is big enough, nobody stays standing.
The core mechanic
When an action has a real chance of failure, make a d20 test: roll 1d20, add your modifiers, and beat the Difficulty Value (DV).
- Natural 20 — critical success. It always succeeds; in combat it is a critical hit.
- Natural 1 — critical failure. It always fails and usually creates a complication.
- Advantage / disadvantage — roll two d20s and keep the higher or lower. They never stack.
Ability scores
Six stats define your meat. The modifier is (score − 10) ÷ 2, rounded down. Chrome can push scores past 20; every two points beyond 20 grants another +1.
| Stat | What it does |
|---|
| Strength | Muscle, melee damage, heavy weapons, carrying. |
| Dexterity | Reflexes, ranged attacks, AC, initiative, stealth. |
| Constitution | Guts, hit points, endurance, shock resistance. |
| Intelligence | Tech, netrunning, investigation, systems. |
| Wisdom | Instinct, perception, medicine, street sense. |
| Charisma | Presence, deception, persuasion, intimidation. |
Combat
Combat runs in rounds. On your turn you get one action, one bonus action, movement, and one reaction. Initiative is d20 + your initiative bonus.
Attack: roll d20 + proficiency + weapon tech bonus + ability modifier against Armor Class. Melee uses Strength; ranged uses Dexterity; finesse uses the higher of Strength or Dexterity. On a hit, roll the weapon's normalized damageDice plus the ability modifier and tech bonus.
Weapon scale
Weapons are deliberately kept inside the 5e damage band so that tactics, cover, critical effects, and cyberware matter. Standard weapons usually deal 1d6–2d8; heavy sniper and anti-materiel weapons cap at 2d10. A weapon's special rule supplies identity — armor penetration, wall penetration, EMP, thermal shock, suppression, or control — rather than quietly stacking another pile of damage dice.
Armor and damage reduction
Armor still sets AC, but it also has damageReduction:
- Light armor: 1
- Medium armor: 2
- Heavy armor: 3
- Tech plating can increase the value, up to 5.
After a physical weapon attack hits, subtract the target's damage reduction from the weapon damage, to a minimum of 1 damage. Damage reduction does not apply to critical-hit damage, programs, or environmental effects unless a rule says otherwise. A critical hit is how a round gets through the plating; cover and positioning are how you avoid the round.
Hit points and dying
When you drop to 0 HP, you are dying and roll a death save each turn. Three successes stabilizes you; three failures flatlines you. Damage at 0 HP counts as a failure; a natural 1 counts as two. A critical hit against a helpless target is never softened by armor reduction.
Last Breath. Once per long rest, when damage would reduce you to 0 HP but would not kill you outright, you may drop to 1 HP instead. You gain one level of exhaustion and cannot use Last Breath again until you finish a long rest. This is a desperate escape, not a license to stand in the open. Last Breath does not save you from a hit that would kill you outright — massive damage and annihilation bypass it.
Lethality — the city kills
Night City doesn't pull punches. When a hit is big enough, it doesn't just drop someone — it ends them.
Massive Damage (Overkill). If a single hit, after damage reduction, deals damage equal to or greater than the target's hit point maximum, the target is flatlined outright — no death saves, no Last Breath, no last words. If the hit deals at least double the target's hit point maximum, the target is annihilated: blown apart, nothing left to revive, no chrome salvageable, the body a smear on the street. Armor reduction applies before the threshold is checked — a plated target can survive a hit that would vaporize an unarmored one.
Finishing Blow. A critical hit that reduces a target to 0 hit points flatlines it outright — no death saves. A crit is a kill shot.
Bleeding Out. While you are dying at 0 hit points, you automatically fail one death save at the end of each of your turns. Stabilization — a Medicine check, a med-patch, a friend's hands — stops the bleeding. The clock is short, and the street doesn't wait.
Overkill weapons. Some weapons — heavy anti-materiel rifles, railguns, launchers — are marked Overkill. When an Overkill weapon reduces a target to 0 hit points, the target is annihilated rather than merely downed, even if the hit wasn't massive. These are the guns that blow people up. They can blow you up too — cover is not a suggestion.
Rests and recovery
- Short rest: spend Hit Dice to heal and recover RAM used by class programs.
- Long rest: regain all HP, half your Hit Dice, all program slots, and one level of exhaustion.
Chrome and eddies
Chrome uses body slots and a shared capacity pool. Passive bonuses apply while installed; active implants follow their own cooldown text. Eddies are the street currency. Chrome, treatment, and rescue can create service debt even when they save your life.
Programs and quickhacks
Quickhacks are at-will tier-0 programs. Prepared or known programs use the class's program progression. RAM is the runner's short reserve and returns on a short or long rest unless a feature says otherwise. Program save DC is 8 + proficiency + the class's program ability modifier + chrome bonuses.
Leveling
Characters advance from level 1 to 20. Subclasses unlock at level 3. Ability Score Improvements follow the class sheet. The class file is the authority for features; this chapter is the shared combat contract.
The golden rules
- Style over substance. Cool choices create openings; ugly mistakes create consequences.
- The city is the protagonist. Corps, gangs, factions, clocks, and news move without permission.
- A corpse is a product. In 2097, everything has a price — including survival.
- The dice are the street. Roll, take the hit, adapt, and keep moving.
// END OF TRANSMISSION - NCB RULES.CORE v2.2.0 //