Hi, all. New player here, gonna be in my first session this Saturday. Need something cleared up: s-harm. I understand how it works when a PC receives s-harm (just roll the harm move as normal), but how does it work when an NPC receives it?
I’ve looked through the book, and there’s doesn’t seem to be any guidance here. The Harm and NPCs section doesn’t make any reference to it, there’s nothing in the tag lists; if there’s any descriptor of how s-harm is supposed to behave, I’m not finding it. I mean, I can read it like any narrative tag and make assumptions, but considering how often ‘s-harm’ shows up in weapon statlines it would be really useful to know what the game’s baseline expectations for it are.
Edit: one more unrelated question, actually. If you grab one of the ‘take another piece of cyberware’ moves, particularly at character creation, are you restricted to your playbook’s list or can you take any piece you like?
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Normally you would go with the fiction as it plays out and because one of the Principles is to “treat your NPCs like disposable assets” you would kill them with normal damage or stun them with stun damage. I’d even go as far as to say that stunning a non-hardened NPC like a civilian most likely kills that NPC. Basically, if the PCs do something that could harm or take an NPC out of the action just go with that. On the other hand, use those NPCs to hit the PCs hard any time you can. Life is hard in the future.
Note that for PCs, it’s not just “roll Harm as normal”. PCs do have to make that move, yes, but they also have to deal with the fiction of whatever caused s-harm… e.g. if they’ve been shot with a taser, they’re probably unable to do anything unless they Act Under Pressure, etc. The reason they also have to make the Harm move is that while s-harm generally comes from theoretically-nonlethal weapons, there’s still the potential for real injury… especially if the character is already hurt.
It’s the same for NPCs, but since they’re not the protagonists, there’s no roll… they just respond however the MC deems appropriate. If you hit an NPC with a taser, they’re probably going to drop to the ground incapacitated. They probably won’t die, unless the PCs a) want them alive, and b) failed whatever roll caused the s-harm…
s-harm would come up from something that is non-lethal or not as damaging as a conventional weapon. It DOES trigger the Harm move, but as Simon Geard said, PCs have an opportunity to “withstand” it via Act Under Pressure (aka a saving throw).
For NPCs, depending on how well equipped they are with cyberware, they might withstand a stun grenade or a flashbang due to augmentation. Regular Joe Schmo will be writhing on the ground.
For the added question, additional cyberware obtained at the start with chromed (or more meat than machine) can come from the entire list rather than just the cut-down playbook selections.
Let us know how the game goes!