Frequently Asked Questions

I don't want to write a total newbie, do I have to start at level 1?

All characters must start at level 1, but that doesn't mean they're a total newbie. Player Characters should be considered more experienced/skilled than the average person by default, and even at level 1 they will start off with skills and abilities. Your character can't be the world's greatest swordsman off the bat, but the fun of the game is growing your character over time.

Can I create someone who works for a Megacorp, or a soldier in the MCDF?

Short answer, no. This is for two reasons: firstly, we want to focus on the 'punk' part of cyberpunk, meaning corpos and cops are the enemy. Secondly, due to the variable party composition for quests, it's much nicer for the GMs to deal with a party of freelancers rather than trying to figure out how to accomodate a corpo spy or active duty soldier into a mission to rob a corpo warehouse. So, characters should be created with the idea that they will be fighting against the forces of oppression in some way or another - either because they believe in the cause, or they'll take any job.

I want to import one of my OCs, but their skills don't match what's available from Midnight City's system. What can I do?

Feel free to chat with a GM to try to figure out how we can best translate your character to this system. It's possible that the custom Species ability granted by the Traveller species can cover some of it, but also, your OC is going to gain skills over time as they level up. The act of being transported through a Nexus Gate into this world, where the rules of magic are different, could have transformed your character and this can be the justification for selecting a different set of skills than they had before.

What happens if I get some lore wrong?

We aren't going to yell at anyone for getting some lore wrong. There's a lot of it! A GM might offer a gentle correction for something major (for example, mixing up the magic system with something from a different game or calling the Cortex the Matrix instead) but there's a lot of flexibility in most of the lore. You can make up corporations, brands, celebrities, media. You can make up cities, towns, or villages for your character to come from. The lore on the site is there for you to build from. It's not there to limit you.

Can I make up different weapons/armour than what's in the shops?

As long as you aren't changing the function/stats of a piece of gear, you are free to modify it aesthetically so it fits with your character. So if you buy a 9mm handgun it should still be a handgun, but it can have a chrome finish with a snake engraving on the slide, or it can be an heirloom passed down from your character's father, et cetera. Mods also offer further customizability so you can really make your character's gear their own.

What about the rest of the world? What's happening in India or the Middle East?

We offer broad strokes about many nations and regions around the world, but the information on site is not all there is to the world. If you want to come up with some lore for a region without any currently on the site (or to add/expand on the regions currently outlined), by all means let us know! We'd love to work with players to incorporate ideas into site lore, especially for areas where our knowledge is lacking.