The House Rules

Characters
New Role-Catburglar
Character Generation
Early Nomad Ideas

New Role: Catburglar

SA: Savoire-Faire
Streetwise
Awareness / Notice
Pick Lock
Hide Evade
Library Search
Athletics
Dodge / Escape
Disguise
Electronic Security

The Catburglar is a high-end thief specialist: the one most likely to go after rare gems and jewelry, objet's de art or other rare items. He prefers to acquire his rareities from people's homes, but may be contracted for corporate assignments as well. He is smooth, silent, and gone before you knew he was there. He is also very intelligent-he studies the movements of the upper-crust very carefully, and always has an eye on the society page for the best parties.

A good catburglar will spend alot of time on his education, studying art, history and other mental skills while also delving into lockpicking and electronic security. Don't forget athletics for climbing the walls of skyscrapers. This is a very cerebral Role due to the amount of planning a good theft requires.

New Special Ability: Savoire-faire.

This translates to "Know how", and reflects the Catburglar's ability to blend into nearly any environment, whether it be jungle or black-tie party. It is a combination of streetwise, social, and perform used to get him into and out of situations where he is not supposed to be. In effect, the human version of the Jedi mind trick. Saviore-faire is based off your COOL stat. James Bond has a Savoire-faire of 10, Hudson Hawk had about 7.

Character Generation

I was helping a friend roll up a new character the other day, and got to thinking about all the game systems I have done this in: AD∓D, GURPS, Top Secret, Gamma World, RIFTS, Warhammer, and of course, Cyberpunk 2020. It occured to me that I woud like to combine some of the elements of other systems in with Cyberpunk to flesh things out a bit more.

Igor! get me some skin! Muahaha!!!

First, I thought I would bring in the Advantages / Disadvantages system from GURPS. Looking around the 'Net, I see that several others have had this idea as well, namely Ocelot. I have listed some here, either out of my head or from other systems, mainly GURPS.

Advantages

Wealth - (10/20) - Ocelot touched on this, but I think I'll stick with the origional as proposed by SJG. Comes in two levels, Comfortably Well-Off and Filthy Rich. Either one should be strictly limited by the GM, unless he just doesn't care. If this ADV is allowed, make the character give you an exceptionally detailed history as to how they have come into this wealth. Rich kid, son/daughter of the Mob, whatever. Note that corporate CEO would most likely not be allowable for any character other than a Corp.
CWO will cost you 10 Skill Points, Filthy goes for 20. This represents how the average rich kid will have little in the way of real skills other than say, Fashion Sense and Inane Laughter. Roll for your starting cash as per the CP rulebook, then multiply by two for CWO or four for Filthy. This will be your monthly income, as normal. If the following roll turns up you've been fired, then your cashflow stops, no matter what your character history may be. In the case of Rich kid or similar background, the character has been cut off by the parent/gaurdian for some reason or possibly even disinherited, per the GM.

Patron - (variable) - Similar to Wealth, with a few Contacts thrown in. For whatever reason (again, this should be outlined by the character), the PC has someone backing him with financial resources, information, legal assistance, whatever. This person can be counted on to help out often, and may not wait to be asked. The GM will decide on the value of the Patron and what the cost will be.

    Giantism - (10) - The character will be one to two feet taller than those around him, but built in proportion. Seen without reference, the character would appear normal. As an example, the average person with a BODY of 10 will be over six feet tall, about 230 pounds, and physically imposing. Figure a giant to start at a minimum of 6'6" in height and wiegh about 240#. Add 2d6 to this in inches, and add 5# per inch gained.
    This makes you one hell of a target in a firefight, as well as making it nearly impossible for you to disguise youself. This will not affect your MA, but your BODY stat will increase by a third. It will also increase the size of your clothing bills by a third, on average, since most people your size are full 'borgs, and don't require clothing. In addition, all replacement cyberware, such as arms and legs or implants such as body plating and internal organ replacements will be 25% more expensive due to custom sizing. This will, however, give you an extra option space in arms or legs.
    In combat, you will be able to use some of the smaller 'borg weapons, and hand-to-hand damage will of course increase. Your size will give you an automatic +1 to any intimidate rolls, and you may gain a +1 for resist drug rolls at the GM's dicretion.

Disadvantages

Dwarfism / Gigantism - (10) - Considering the state of the planet, the idea of a rise in genetic mutations of this nature is not hard to believe at all. Dwarfism is being a midget: a person in miniature. Your average height will be about half that of a normal grown human, and this will affect your BODY stat and your MA as well, reducing both by a third. You have about a 60-40 chance of being able to use a handgun off-the-shelf, due to the size of your hands. Not only is this a physical disad, it affects how people deal with you as well: be ready to be overlooked and treated as a freak by some. Cyberware will increase in cost the same as for Giantism, but you will lose an option space due to size. The character should be able to shop for clothing in the children's sections. This will not be the case for some armors, as you will rarely find a flak vest in the kiddie department.
Gigantism is where only certain parts of your body, such as arms, legs, torso or a mixture are abnormally large. This is a very obvious and freakish disad, the affects of which will be determined by the GM, depending on the character's deformation. This can possibly be bought off with replacement vat parts, but the pituitary must be replaced first. This can be tricky, and should be expensive.

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