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Personal grooming (Cyberpunk RED)

Skills

Definition

Personal Grooming is control over your own appearance: hair, face, condition, the small details that make someone read as belonging or as out of place. In a city where a great deal of security is a person deciding at a glance whether you look right, that is a functional skill rather than vanity. At the table it works alongside Wardrobe and Style as the two halves of appearance. Clothes are what you put on, grooming is the state you are in underneath. It also covers changing your look, which matters after a job that put your face on a camera. For Rockerboys and Medias, whose whole professional existence depends on being seen, it is a working tool.

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How it works

**Linked Stat**: COOL **Category**: Social **Resolution**: 1d10 plus COOL plus skill level against a DV based on the standard of the setting and how far your natural state is from it. A natural 10 adds another roll, a natural 1 subtracts one. **What it affects**: First impressions and access, and the DV of social rolls made by someone who looks wrong for the room. It also covers deliberately altering your appearance, though a full false identity is Acting and Wardrobe and Style working together.

Tips

**Best for**: Rockerboys, Medias, and Execs, plus infiltrators who need to pass as staff or as guests. **Character concepts**: A performer whose image is the product, an Exec who never looks tired, a Media who cleans up between a Combat Zone story and a broadcast. **Synergies**: Wardrobe and Style is the other half of the same effect. Acting builds a person on top of the look, and Persuasion benefits directly, because people listen differently to someone who looks like they belong.

Frequently asked questions

Is Personal Grooming useful?

In social and infiltration campaigns, yes. It changes how NPCs react before anyone speaks, and it is the difference between being escorted into a corporate lobby and being escorted out of one.

How is it different from Wardrobe and Style?

Grooming is your person: hair, face, condition. Wardrobe and Style is clothing and the ability to read what an outfit signals. They stack, and neither substitutes for the other.

Can I change my appearance to avoid recognition?

To a degree. It covers meaningful changes to how you look, which helps after your face lands on a camera. A full assumed identity needs Acting and the right clothes as well.

Further Reading

Persuasion SkillAll Cyberpunk RED Skills
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