For a game in which half of the missions involve some sort of infiltration (or the consequences of a fail infiltration, you’d think you’d think there would be more of a focus on doors, locks, and other physical, non-network security in the Cyberpunk RED.
You’d be wrong.
The core Cyberpunk RED rulebook dedicates pp. 213-216 of the Netrunning section to defenses and security:
- Active defenses: a variety of drones
- Emplaced defenses: automated melee weapons, automated turrets
- Environmental defenses: observation cameras, tip-floors, ceiling/wall punchers and the ever popular laser grids.
Outside the Netrunning section, there’s little space given to non-networked security. The core rulebook tells you how much damage a steel door can take, but doesn’t talk about mundane physical security like electronic locks, physical locks, reinforced locks, or alarm systems.
I find the lack confusing, but I think it’s part of the culture that grew up around the Cyberpunk games. After all, it fits with the approach of style over substance: who cares about the mundane doors? The edgerunners are going to get past it. Focus on the stuff that will actually give them a challenge. Focus on the flash. Focus on the cool.
I think doors can be the cool.
Edgerunners sneaking their way into a research lab and taking a few rounds to deftly bypass a tough electronic lock without alerting the guards isn’t a cake walk, but they’ve got time.
That same door, after the alarms have been tripped, and corpo thugs are shooting at them, suddenly becomes much more interesting.
You’ve got seconds to live. And the only thing stopping you from taking another breath is the damn door in front of you.
Considering Skills
When I asked about door locks on Cyberpunk RED Discord, the user Clockwork replied:
For more mundane forms of locks? Not really, it’s up to GM Fiat on the difficulty of the roll to either Pick the Lock or use Electronics/Security for it if it’s something more electronic.
Easiest thing you can do on yourself is treat a DV of 13 as a default. Up it by 2 to make it harder, lower it by 2 to make it easier. Up it double on either direction to make it ridiculously easy or much much harder. Just keep a mental note of that and any time you need a skill check or lock or practically anything and you’ve got it on demand in your mind.
Seems reasonable. Cyberpunk RED has a ton of skills. Here are the ones most relevant for dealing with physical or electronic security:
- TECHNIQUE > Basic Tech (TECH) – A catchall for when none of the other categories seem to fit.
- TECHNIQUE > Demolitions (TECH) – Sometimes the best way through a lock is to blow the lock. Use this skill to see if the PC takes out the lock … or the entire door.
- TECHNIQUE > Electronics and Security Tech (TECH) – The go-to for most semi-smart security, which may or may not be hooked up to a Net Architecture.
- TECHNIQUE > Forgery (TECH) – Potentially useful for bypassing physical security measures like biometrics, fingerprint scanners, and voice recognition.
- TECHNIQUE > Picklock (TECH) – For your run-of-the-mill dumb locks.
These are the skills for interacting with the physical devices, and unsurprisingly, they favor tech-centric roles like Netrunners, Techs, and Medtechs, but other classes can lean into tech-skills as well, like Nomad, Fixer, and well, anyone else living in the Time of Red. That said, it’s also easy enough to come up short on practical technical skills (we’re talking style over substance after all) so it’s worth thinking about the social engineering skills that could be used to bypass security.
Alternative skills are helpful for keeping the rest of the crew engaged during a scene (think Han Solo, Leia, and R2D2 trying to hack their way into the Imperial base in Return of the Jedi)
- AWARENESS > Lipreading (INT) – Useful for capturing passphrase and gathering intelligence to infilrate a base.
- AWARENESS > Perception (INT) – Identifying things the tech may have missed while trying to bypass security.
- EDUCATION > Education (INT) – Book learning, applied to burglary.
- EDUCATION > Library Search (INT) – Background research on the security systems in question.
- EDUCATION > Science (INT) – Coming up with a science-based way to bypass security (think of Ant-Man’s liquid nitrogen-based safe-cracking in Ant-Man)
- SOCIAL > Bribery (COOL) – Why hack your way through a lock when you can bribe the guard at the door?
- SOCIAL > Streetwise (COOL) – Gather intelligence (and the little known backdoors) about a building’s security.
- SOCIAL > Persuasion (COOL)
Difficulty Values for Barriers & Security
The Cyberpunk RED core rulebook (p. 129) lays out the difficulty values (DV) for skill checks. Here’s an abbreviated version for quick reference:
| Difficulty | Description | DV |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | Something most people can do easily. | 9 |
| Everyday | Doesn’t require a lot of training, but is challenging for people who don’t have it | 13 |
| Professional | You actually need to know what you’re doing | 17 |
The difficulty values go up from there, peaking out at “Legendary” at DV 29. Given this progression, Clockwork’s recommendation makes sense; a DV 13 lock is a “keep good people honest” lock. It’s not going to stop anyone who’s determined, but it’ll keep everyday people from messing with your stuff.
Put into practice, your average low-rent storage facility (you know, the kind of place people used to keep their junk, but is now considered living space) will have Simple (DV 9) locks on most things. The door to the storage facility itself might be DV 13, and there might be a basic Net Architecture keeping track of cameras and automated locks.
For a corporate facility, things move up a rung, with most security (locks, control panels, HVAC systems) default to DV 13, but the server room might be DV 15 or DV 17. Same for any secure storage (safes, biolab freezers, etc.).
For a top-notch facility, the DVs move into the 19 to 21 range, which would require a trained crew and someone exceptional with physical security.
Hit Points and Armor for Defenses
Figuring out how to bypass the physical security is one thing, we still need to know how tough the defense is. The Cyberpunk RED core rulebook (pp. 182-183) addresses this in terms of gunfire and cover. In the Time of Red, cover is ablative – it might protect you in the short term, but you’ll have to move after a few good shots from a hand cannon or assault rifle.
The most immediately useful for our purposes is “Cover Material and Thickness Examples”:
| Example | Material and Thickness | HP |
|---|---|---|
| Metal Door | Thin Steel | 2O HP |
| Shipping Container | Thick Steel | 25 HP |
| Wooden Door | Thin Wood | 5 HP |
How does this stack up against weapon damage? A medium pistol (2d6 damage – average 7 damage), would make short work of a wooden door, but would require a few rounds to get through a shipping container.
Meanwhile a shotgun or assault rifle (5d6 damage – average 17 damage) is going to blast its way through most cover in a round or two.
Armor Rating
That said, what I think this chart is missing is an Armor rating. In Cyberpunk RED, Armor soaks damage, but is also degraded by it (so if something has an Armor rating of 5, it’d go down to a 4 after one shot, 3 after a second shot, etc.). I can see a Bank Vault Door having an Armor rating of 10 or higher.
I personally have never fired shotgun at a shipping container door, but I imagine it’d take more than a few shots to get through it.
Adding an Armor rating to certain doors and containers won’t stop the PCs, but it helps reinforce how valuable the target behind the door might be.
This is one place where the pen-and-paper RPG and the video game Cyberpunk 2077 differ greatly: in the video game, you can’t defeat a door by blasting it a few times with your favorite gun (I know – I tried).
In a pen-and-paper RPG though, that makes total sense. Shooting your way through a corporate facility, blasting doors off their hinges if they impede you, is a legitimate strategy.
Maybe not a successful one, but it’s legitimate.
Doors & Barriers
Since I wanted the doors in my campaign to have a little more heft, I expanded on what you find in the Cyberpunk RED rulebook, adding more door/barrier basic options, and augmenting them with armored upgrades.
| Type of Barrier | Material and Thickness | Armor | Hit Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metal Door (Light) | Thin Steel | N/A | 20 HP | Typical door for residences, small businesses. |
| Metal Door (Medium) | Thin Steel | — | 20 HP | Standard for businesses and some low-end corporate offices |
| Metal Door, Hardened (Medium) | Thin Steel | 5 | 20 HP | For when you have customers who just won’t take “no” for an answer. |
| Metal Door (Heavy) | Thin Steel | 5 | 25 HP | High-end corporate and military grade doors, for when you want to keep the world out. |
| Metal Door, Hardened (Heavy) | Thin Steel | 10 | 25 HP | For when you have company coming. Heavily armed company with light explosives. |
| Vault Door | Thick Steel | 50 HP | Exceptional door for exceptional security. | |
| Vault Door, Hardened | Thick Steel | 10 | 50 HP | For the vault that needs everything. |
| Security Window (Light) | Thin bullet-proof glass | — | 15 HP | Low-end bulletproof. Sufficient to protect the C-Store personal from the occasional stray bullet. |
| Security Window (Medium) | Thick bullet-proof glass | — | 30 HP | Standard bullet-proof glass, found in corporate compounds and higher-end businesses. |
| Reinforced Security Window | Augmented, thick bullet-proof glass | 5 | 30 HP | For when you really don’t want whatever is in that science lab escaping. |
| Wooden Door | Thin Wood | — | 5 HP | Crap-tastic doors for people who can’t afford better. |
Locks & Electronic Security
While GM Fiat works, I like to have a table I can reference when designing a scenario or on-the-fly during a session.
Physical locks: Includes mechanical door locks and door locks. As established by Mythbusters and other sources, simply shooting a lock and having it pop open or fall of the door isn’t likely. In 2045 and 2077, this is likely still true with regular ammunition, but locks would likely fall before higher-end ammo.
Electronic locks: Electronic locks often have fail safes attached to them which makes tampering with them – or simply shooting them – unhelpful. Possible consequences of failing to bypass an electronic lock include:
- The lock triggers an alarm.
- The lock starts to smoke uncontrollably.
- The lock catches fire.
- The lock electrifies the door, making it dangerous to touch.
In addition, shooting an electronic lock disables it, but doesn’t cause the door to open. The tactic works best when preventing people from following you, not when you are following other people.
| Device | Difficulty Value | HP | Related Skills | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Lock (Flimsy) | 9 | 3 | Pick Locks | Pick it or shoot it. Either way, it’s opening |
| Physical Lock (Simple) | 11 | 5 | Pick Locks | Got the time? Pick it. Need to get through fast? Shooting might work. Maybe. |
| Physical Lock (Everyday) | 13 | 5 | Pick Locks | Keeping honest people honest. |
| Physical Lock (Professional) | 17 | 10 | Pick Locks | Better call Jimmy. He does locks right? |
| Electronic Lock (Simple) | 11 | 1 | Electronics and Security Tech | Basic security setup (e.g. a keypad) |
| Electronic Lock, Multifactor (Everyday) | 13 | 3 | Electronics and Security Tech, Forgery | A routine security setup (e.g. a keypad) augmented by a second factor (fingerprint, voiceprint) |
| Electronic Lock, Multifactor (Professional) | 17 | 5 | Electronics and Security Tech, Forgery | Professional security setup, including three or more factors for authentication. When you want to keep the bad guys out and annoy the hell out your employees. |
| Retinal Scanner (Everyday) | 13 | 1 | Electronics and Security Tech, Forgery | Off-the-shelf retinal scanner, for your basic home and small business protection. |
| Retinal Scanner (Professional) | 17 | 3 | Electronics and Security Tech, Forgery | You don’t have to be a god to bypass this, but it wouldn’t hurt. |
“Locked Out: Doors, Locks, & Security Homebrew Rules for Cyberpunk RED” is unofficial content provided under the Homebrew Content Policy of R. Talsorian Games and is not approved or endorsed by RTG. This content references materials that are the property of R. Talsorian Games and its licensees.”