Corpo characters are generally not legion among Cyberpunk players. However, I happen to have one among my players. And what could be more unpleasant than a corpo asking what is the purpose of the investment skill and you find yourself with no rules to apply. So here is a little house rule that will simulate stock market investments for corpo wanting to gain fresh money.
The corpo will feel, thanks to a difficulty 15 Stock Market roll, the temperature of the market, whether investors are currently in full euphoria or whether they prefer to wait for the end of a temporary crisis.
The GM is free to determine the state of the market according to the context of its campaign or to leave it to chance.
Depending on the trends, the player will find it more or less difficult to find the right investments.
Trend | Bonus/Malus to the next roll |
Total euphoria | +3 |
Rise | +2 |
Confident | +1 |
Calm | 0 |
Nervous | -1 |
Worry | -2 |
Panicked | -3 |
It's time to choose what to invest in and preferably in stocks that will pay off.
First of all, draw up a table of the stocks of the moment.
The more uncertain the stock will be, the more likely it is to plunge, but if it doesn't, it will return much more.
Value | Malus | Risk : required result on 1D10 | Additional gain |
Suicidal | -10 | 10 | x10 |
Very risky | -8 | 8 to 10 | x6 |
Risky | -5 | 5 to 10 | x4 |
Profitable | -2 | 3 to 10 | x2 |
Placed | 0 | 2 to 10 | x1 |
The corpo indicates how much he invests in his portfolio, the GM determines if the stocks have plunged by making the risk roll for each stock (if the stock collapses, the gains will be considered negative), and then the corpo makes his investment roll(s) based on the investments it has taken into account, taking into account the market modifiers and the choice of value.
Depending on his result, it will more or less multiply or divide his stock portfolio.
Consult the table below to evaluate the gains or losses. I consider that the simple difficulty level (10) allows him to keep his initial bet. Below 10 he loses his bet.
The player is free to stop speculating whenever he wants, but he will lose 25% of the sums committed on the stocks not carried out.
Difficulty | Gain |
10 | Starting bet x1 |
15 | Starting bet x2 |
20 | Starting bet x3 |
25 | Starting bet x4 |
30 | Starting bet x5 |
The GM is free to let the player use his Luck or not, as well as other modifiers depending on whether the corpo is investigating the company he is investing in, if he gets wind of rumors, etc.
John Parkernight is a corpo with 10 in intelligence and 4 in investment, and it just happens that he has just collected 10000 eb in a recent deal. He decides to invest in the stock market hoping to reap a little more. For the moment he asks himself about the state of the market (successful roll, 20 for 15). This one is rather calm (no bonus) and our friend John decides to try the devil anyway. He distributes his portfolio as follows :
2000 eb in Placed
3000 eb in Profitable
1500 eb in Risky
1500 eb in Very risky
1000 eb in Suicidal (he believes in it hard)
The GM secretly carries out the risk rolls. Alas, the risky and very risky values collapse, becoming losses to be deducted, but luck smiles to him because the placed, profitable and suicidal stocks remain stable. He still has a chance to make a profit.
Our dear John now makes a throw for each invested value :If he was smart he would stop now and will collect like this :
10000 + 12000 - 12000 + 2500 - (2500/4) = 11875 eb
But John is hotheaded and continues to the end.
He narrowly saved his funds and finished with the sum of 11000 eb
It's not much, but he now knows that he will be more careful with risky stocks or maybe wait until the market gets better.