R. Talsorian updates on Cyberpunk RED, The Witcher, and a new secret project

R. Talsorian Games made several announcements in a pair of posts this week. On Monday, the company posted the Gen Con 2023 Update with several product updates for the previously announced Cyberpunk products including the Danger Gal Dossier faction and NPC sourcebook and the stand-alone boxed set Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit to advance the game’s timeline to the 2077 setting of the video game. There were two big announcements included, however.

First, a new six-mission campaign for Cyberpunk RED was announced, Tales of the RED: Forlorn Hope. Set in and around the classic Edgerunner bar from Cyberpunk 2020, the adventure includes six interlinked missions from Eddy Webb, Chris Spivey, Linda Evans, Tracie Hearne, Paris Arrowsmith, Francis Stewart, and Mellissa Wong. No release date has been set at this time, but it’s listed as “the next book in the Cyberpunk RED line”.

The Witcher TTRPG will go on hiatus as CD Projekt Red begins development on the fourth Witcher video game. In order to make sure that the tabletop RPG products stay in line with the lore from the games, several products including the Rodolf’s Guides series have been placed on hold. From the blog post:

The Witcher TTRPG line is not dead, and we have many plans for it when things are more solidified, but we don’t feel that we can move forward at the moment in a way that will produce books of quality as part of the broader Witcher canon.

“We will be looking at compiling some DLC material based on pre-existing concepts that will not be changing, but I don’t want to promise anything until I’m certain of it.

However, it’s not all gloomy news from R. Talsorian as Witcher TTRPG designer Cody Pondsmith has a new project on the way. So far, all we have is the codename “Blue Moon” and a brief tease:

You’ve seen beyond the mask and now you must make a choice: forget what you’ve seen or leave what you know behind. If you join us, you’ll be able to protect everything you’ve ever known and everything beyond your wildest dreams. Our enemy lurks in the darkest corners of reality. They hide behind masks of deception, waiting to strike.

But remember, once you step through the gate you cannot go back.

The site promises a larger reveal on August 31.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Oh that Blue Moon project teaser and art is a GOOD HOOK

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I hope it's something actually exciting, like an RPG properly inspired by things like Jujutsu Kaisen and the more horror/magic end of shonen anime in general, not just WoD by way of Studio Ghibli, which I slightly fear it is.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit is a good idea. I brought up the idea of running Cyberpunk Red after our D&D campaign finishes and I'm already getting players asking about hacking cyberware in the RPG like you do in the videogame.

 

[TheSword]

I feel like the wasn’t a lot released for Witcher or am I being harsh… the core book, a GM screen, a book on magic and a book of 6 short adventures. Did I miss any?

 

[Eurohobbes]

I feel like the wasn’t a lot released for Witcher or am I being harsh… the core book, a GM screen, a book on magic and a book of 6 short adventures. Did I miss any?

A Witcher's Journal

Take a glimpse into the Golden Age of Witchers, when monsters roamed the world and you could hardly travel into the next town without running into a cyclops or a foglet! Through the journal of the founder of the Griffin School of Witchers, Erland of Larvik, you'll encounter many new monsters...

talsorianstore.com

This one. Seems to be a monster/GM supplement. I've only read the core book (and remember little to nothing about it) so I don't know how good any of the other books are.

How popular is the Witcher ttrpg? I don't see it get mentioned here often.

 

[Jaeger]

How popular is the Witcher ttrpg? I don't see it get mentioned here often.

It's not.

Because it's not a very good game. I know. I have it, and have played it.

I'm a big Witcher fan (Books). I really, really, wanted to like this game.

The System just has way too many fiddly bits for what it is trying to do.

The Witcher RPG is as if someone set out to design an Interlock Fantasy RPG; but they had only ever played Interlock RPG's, and the Witcher video games. (It is clearly more closely modeled on the Video game than the books...)

R.Tal just has sloppy game design these days. Even CPRed has known system issues from the jump. Seth Skorkowsky did a good breakdown of it's issues. (And he's a fan...)

In my opinion; The Witcher RPG was a missed opportunity for R.Tal. They could have distilled Interlock into a tight fantasy system, that played fast at the table, and delivered a solid Witcher RPG fix. Instead you get a game that has all needless fiddly bits of previous R.Tal games brought forward to today.

Don't even get me started on the pagecount devoted to crafting in the game...

 

[Elodan]

...
R.Tal just has sloppy game design these days. Even CPRed has known system issues from the jump. Seth Skorkowsky did a good breakdown of it's issues. (And he's a fan...).
...

The Cyberpunk Red core book is horribly organized and laid out. Combined with the layout of the character sheet, it really killed my enthusiasm for playing it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Cyberpunk Red core book is horribly organized and laid out. Combined with the layout of the character sheet, it really killed my enthusiasm for playing it.

Yeah the presentation and organization of Cyberpunk Red is just inexplicably appalling, and genuinely makes the game drastically harder to reckon with than it needs to be. It's not like RTG are new to the TT RPG sphere, either, so there's not really any excuse. Literally Cyberpunk 2020 was significantly better laid-out.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The System just has way too many fiddly bits for what it is trying to do.

The Witcher RPG is as if someone set out to design an Interlock Fantasy RPG; but they had only ever played Interlock RPG's, and the Witcher video games. (It is clearly more closely modeled on the Video game than the books...)

For me the subsystems (crafting and more) in The Witcher RPG really killed my interest in it. For an IP that conceivably could have drawn new people into the hobby, it really should have been more accessible to new players. Heck, I even balked at running it.