What was your beef with Cyberpunk Red?
We had a lot of beef with Red. Where to start?
Let's start with the character Roles. The Roles include Solo, Lawman, Corporate, Nomad, Netrunner, Tech, Med-Tech, and Rocker Boy and each one has a special skill accessible only to them. For example, the Solo gets Combat Awareness which allows him to choose to get a bonus to noticing things, combat initiative, or lower damage taken during combat.
The Nomad's special ability is Moto which gives them access to one or more vehicles such as a motorcycle, small boat, compact car, small flying vehicle, etc., etc. The higher their Moto skill the better vehicle they'll have access to including after market addons like armor, weapons, etc., etc. Practically speaking, this means the Nomad's special ability is that they get to be the group's chauffeur. Which is incredibly lame.
For the Lawman and the Corporate, their special ability is they can call for backup or they have an assistant. i.e. The Lawman can call for help from his law enforcement buddies and the corporate has a personal assistant who might be a Solo, Netrunner, Tech, etc., etc. and can help do things for them. From a personal preference point of view, I dislike it when a character's special ability is that they have some NPC who can do things for them.
I dislike the setting for Red. It's more of a post apocalyptic rather than a dystopic cyberpunk future to me. The economy is especially stupid for a myriad of reasons. I get that they were trying to go for an economic environment where scarcity of goods was a problem but the prices just don't work. To get an extended magazine for your weapon will cost you 500 eddies which is the same price for a cyber leg. That's just crazy. Cars are pretty much unaffordable, so if you don't have a Nomad in your group it means you're taking public transportation to that edge running job, choomba. Used goods trade at their full value which means it is often more profitable to take a job just so you can rob your enemies than it is for the job itself.
Rules wise, well, they simplified the Friday Night Firefight rules from Cyberpunk 2020. But they do so in such a way that seems counter intuitive and takes away many options leaving combat flat and boring. Combat should not be boring in a cyberpunk game. I remember having a particularly hard time when I tried looking up how much a knife would do in the hands of someone with a cyberarm. Turns out the damage is no different than just having a cyberarm.
Red was just a bunch of little issues that added up to a negative experience for my player and I. It pains me to say that because I loved Cyberpunk 2020 so much. When my first Red campaign came to and end I told my players I'd never run it again.
