Check — Roll d10 + STAT + Skill + bonuses. Roll a 10 — roll another d10 and add it; roll a 1 — roll another and subtract it.
DV (Difficulty Value) — The number a check has to beat. 9 — simple, 13 — professional, 17 — hard, 21 and up — next to impossible.
Character
BODY — Strength and toughness. Together with WILL it sets your max HP; your Death Save and bare-fist damage depend on it.
COOL — Composure and self-control. Persuasion, Interrogation, Trading and Facedown run on it.
DEX — Physical agility. Melee Weapon, Brawling, Evasion and Athletics run on it.
Effective EMP — The EMP left after the chrome: Humanity ÷ 10, rounded down. Skill checks on EMP use it.
EMP — Understanding people. Starting Humanity is EMP × 10, and cyberware eats into it.
Humanity — How human the character still is. Starts at EMP × 10; each piece of cyberware takes some away with a roll when it is installed.
INT — Intelligence, memory and awareness. Knowledge skills, Perception, Education, Science and Netrunner skills run on it.
IP (Improvement Points) — The GM hands them out after a mission. A skill level costs the new level × 20, or × 40 for a difficult skill.
LUCK — A pool for the session: each point adds +1 to one check, spent before the roll. The pool refills by the next session.
MOVE — How fast the character runs: MOVE × 2 meters per turn. 6 less while Mortally Wounded.
REF — Reaction speed and aim. Shooting and Initiative run on it; only characters with REF 8 or higher can dodge bullets.
Reputation — How widely the character is known: 0 to 10. The GM awards it for loud deeds. If you are famous for cowardice, Reputation goes into the roll as a minus.
STATs — The ten numbers a character is made of: 2 to 8 for a new one. A skill check is STAT + Skill + d10.
TECH — A tech's hands and head: repair, picking locks, first aid, driving and electronics.
WILL — Determination and strength of spirit. Together with BODY it sets your max HP; Concentration and Endurance run on it.
Skills
Difficult skill — A skill marked ×2: it costs twice as much — both in IP and in points at creation. Autofire, Heavy Weapons, Paramedic, Martial Arts.
Combat
How combat works — Combat is split into 3-second Rounds. Everyone rolls Initiative and takes turns; each turn is one Move Action and one Action.
Ranged combat — A shot is REF + weapon skill + d10 against the range DV. Beat the DV — you hit. A target with REF 8+ can dodge instead.
Autofire, shotgun shells and explosives — Special fire modes. Autofire — 10 rounds, damage 2d6 × how much you beat the DV by. Suppressive Fire drives people into cover. Shotgun shells and explosives hit an area.
Melee combat — A blow is DEX + skill + d10 against the target's Evasion. Melee weapons halve armor; fists depend on BODY. Grab, Choke and Throw are here too.
Martial Arts — Unarmed strikes that halve armor, plus the special moves of a style. Damage depends on BODY, as with fists. Styles — Aikido, Karate, Judo, Taekwondo.
Armor and damage — Damage minus armor goes to HP. Got through by even 1 — the armor loses 1 SP. Heavy armor gives a penalty to REF, DEX and MOVE.
Cover and shields — In cover means completely behind something that stops a bullet. There's no half cover. Cover has HP: shoot it apart and you're exposed again.
Fire, poison, falling — Ways to get hurt besides bullets: fire, suffocation, electricity, falling, poisons and radiation. Almost all of it goes to HP past armor.
Vehicle combat — Boarding and starting a vehicle are an Action each. A running vehicle moves the driver to the front of the queue and gives them its MOVE. A maneuver is a driving check; failure means losing control.
Ablation — Armor wear: each hit that got through it takes off 1 SP. Didn't get through — the armor is intact. Repair restores the protection.
Evasion — d10 + DEX + Evasion against the attack roll. Only characters with REF 8 or higher can dodge bullets.
Facedown — A stare-down before a fight: COOL + Reputation + d10 against the opponent. The loser backs down or takes −2 to actions against the winner.
Initiative — Who goes first: d10 + REF. Rolled once at the start of combat, and the order holds until the end.
SP (Stopping Power) — How much damage armor stops. A hit that gets through knocks it down by 1 — that is ablation.
Wounds and Medicine
Critical Injury — Two or more sixes on the damage dice: 5 more damage that ignores armor, and a Critical Injury from the GM's table.
Death Save — While Mortally Wounded: roll a d10 under your BODY. A 10 always fails. Each success adds +1 to the next Death Save.
HP (Hit Points) — Health. Maximum is 10 + 5 × the average of BODY and WILL (rounded up). At zero — Mortally Wounded.
Mortally Wounded — HP at zero. −4 to all actions, MOVE −6, and a Death Save every one of your turns until you are stabilized.
Seriously Wounded — HP at half the maximum or lower, but above zero. −2 to all actions except Death Saves.
Cyberware
Chip — Neuralware slotted into a chipware socket in the head, not into a cyberdeck. A skill chip can be pulled out and another one slotted in.
Chipware Socket — A Neural Link option for one chip. Two chips at once means two sockets, and each takes a Neural Link slot.
Foundational cyberware — Cyberware that options are installed into: Neural Link, cybereye, cyberarm. Without the foundation, options of that kind can't be installed.
Humanity Loss — How much Humanity installing cyberware costs: the roll from its card or a fixed average. A small option — 1d3, a foundation — 2d6, heavy chrome — 4d6.
Maximum Humanity — Humanity can't be restored above it. Each installed piece of cyberware lowers the cap by 2, borgware by 4.
Skill Chip — Raises the chosen skill to 3 if it's lower. It doesn't add: with Handgun 5 the chip gives nothing. A chip doesn't teach — IP costs count from your own level.
The NET
Cyberdeck — A Netrunner's hardware: programs and cyberdeck hardware go into its slots. It only works while plugged in.
Interface — A Netrunner's Role Ability: how many NET Actions per turn, and the number they roll Backdoor, Cloak, Zap and the rest with.
Program — A file for a cyberdeck: Booster, Defender or Attacker. Boosters and Defenders are rezzed and work until knocked out; Attackers are used at the moment of the strike.
REZ — A running program's toughness — its HP. Hits on a program take off REZ; at zero it's derezzed but stays in the cyberdeck.
The Street
Lifestyle — Monthly spending on food and small things: from kibble at 100 to fresh food at 1,500. Paid separately from rent, even if housing is free.
Native language — The language of the character's cultural origin — at level 4. Chosen from the region's languages on the Lifepath.
Streetslang — The language of Night City's streets: a mix of English, Spanish, Japanese and African tongues. Every character has it at level 2.
For the GM
Campaign time — The game world's week. Rent, debts and regular payments count from it; a month in the campaign is 4 weeks.
Party on paper — The GM runs the game at the table, and the players enter what they said into their sheets themselves: IP, money, Reputation, time. Everything lands in the party feed.