Learn the ins and outs of edgerunning and create your dystopian punk with this step-by-step guide to the Cyberpunk roleplaying game's character creation.

How to Make a Character for Cyberpunk RED

The nine attributes are Intelligence, Reflexes, Cool, Technical Ability, Luck, Attractiveness, Movement, Empathy, and Body. The minimum attribute value is 2, representing a uniquely debilitated individual, and the maximum is 10, representing peak human capability.

What are the attributes in the Interlock System?

Typically, you'll need one or two d10s for making skill rolls and occasionally for rolling percentile dice, and at least one d6, usually for damage rolls. The d6's result might occasionally be divided by 2 or 3 and rounded up, indicated by a d6/2 or d6/3 roll. 

What dice do I need for the Interlock System?

Combat works like most other skill rolls in the Interlock System, though it brings in the statistics of weapons and cover as well, and either hit points, which determine how much damage you can take before you're killed, or hit locations, which has different consequences depending on where you're hit, depending on the version of the game you're playing. Most of the time, you'll be rolling your relevant combat skills opposed to your opponents' attempts to dodge, evade, or fight back. On the defensive, these roles (and rolls) are reversed.

How does combat work in the Interlock system?

The Lifepath system is a unique character generation method that ensures a three-dimensional character who feels like part of the world of the game. In older versions, a character's Lifepath affected their stats, skills, and equipment. In more modern games, it's more roleplay-oriented, determining personal connections, origins, style, and motivations.

The Lifepath system presents a series of d10 tables where players can either roll randomly or choose an option that appeals to them. These tables concern things like your family's national origin, your childhood environment, life goals, motivations, personality quirks, and even tragic love affairs! The number of potentially unique characters that can emerge from this process is mind-boggling, and Lifepaths can inspire characters who might have felt flat and out-of-place without it.

Mike Pondsmith, owner of R. Talsorian Games and creator of the Mekton and Cyberpunk roleplaying game series, originally designed Interlock in 1986 and continues to refine it to this day.

Interlock System

The Interlock System is R. Talsorian Games' proprietary roleplaying game system, originally created for its Mekton and Cyberpunk series games. The system uses ten-sided dice, nine attributes, and is skill-based, rather than class-based. Character creation also uses a unique Lifepath system for semi-randomly generating a character's background.

The core mechanic of the Interlock system is rolling a d10 and adding the relevant stat and skill bonus, both rated on a scale from 0-10. The final result is compared to a target number set by the game master based on the difficulty of the task at hand, usually ranging from 12-20. Meeting or exceeding this difficulty means the action is a success. There is also the potential for critical success and critical failure depending on the d10 roll.

Characters in the Interlock system are the sum of their attributes and skills. Attributes have a minimum value of 2 and go up to 10, and skills start at 0 but can also raise to 10, representing the maximum possible skill level. There are no character classes in Interlock, with players defined by the skills they specialize in, though some games include "profession packages" of suggested skills for particular jobs in the world.

Interlock also includes a character background generation system called Lifepaths. Through a unique combination of random rolls, you can produce a unique character with an eclectic blend of life experiences. These create narrative hooks for the character, like personal connections, style, family, life events, and employment history.

The Interlock System is probably best known for its use in the Cyberpunk RPG series, including Cyberpunk 2013, Cyberpunk 2020, and Cyberpunk RED.

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