Cyberpunk RED skill
Sea Vehicle Tech
Sea Vehicle Tech is a skill in Cyberpunk RED: Maintenance and repair for boats and watercraft, often far from any yard.
Last reviewed
Key facts
- Stat
- TECH
- Category
- technique
Overview
Sea Vehicle Tech is mechanical work on boats: marine engines, hulls, pumps, and the constant corrosion damage that salt water inflicts on anything left in it. Boats fail differently from cars, and they fail somewhere you cannot walk away from. At the table this is a support skill for a specific kind of campaign. If your crew moves cargo through the port, works the flooded districts, or keeps a boat as an exit route, somebody needs to be able to fix it, because a breakdown on the water is not an inconvenience. It comes up rarely, but in coastal games the crew that has no marine mechanic eventually discovers exactly why that was a mistake.
How it works
Linked Stat: TECH Category: Technique Resolution: 1d10 plus TECH plus skill level against a DV set by the damage, the conditions, and what you have to work with. A natural 10 rolls again and adds; a natural 1 rolls again and subtracts. On the water: Working at sea or in weather raises the DV, and a hull breach is a time-limited problem in a way that a broken engine is not. A proper yard lowers the difficulty sharply, which is why smugglers pay to keep one available.
Tips and playstyle
Best for: Coastal and port campaigns, and crews whose exit route involves water. Character concepts: A dockside mechanic, a Nomad family running coastal freight, a former harbor patrol engineer, a smuggler who keeps their own boat because nobody else can be trusted with it. Synergies: Pilot Sea Vehicle is the other half of the same package and usually sits on the same character. Basic Tech covers general mechanics, and Trading is how you source marine parts without a paper trail.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sea Vehicle Tech ever worth taking?
Only in a campaign that uses the water. Ask your GM whether the port and the coast are part of the story before spending any of your 86 creation skill points here.
Can Basic Tech fix a boat?
Simple problems, at a penalty. Marine engines, hulls, and salt-water corrosion are their own discipline, and a general mechanic will struggle with anything beyond the obvious.
What is the worst failure case?
A hull problem in open water. Unlike a car, a failed boat does not just stop, which is why crews that work the water tend to keep a mechanic aboard rather than on call.