Cyberpunk Red: One Year Later

Of the two big releases in the Cyberpunk setting late last year, the tabletop one seems to have had the better time of it. Cyberpunk Red sparked some nostalgia in old players while introducing a new generation of players to one of the definitive settings in the genre. Surprisingly, that included me, as I spent my youth (and early parts of my career) over on the other side of the fence in Shadowrun’s Seattle. I was lucky enough to run a few games as part of my duties as host of Theatre of the Mind Players both from the original Jumpstart Kit and the full book. To celebrate the release of some supplementary materials provided by R. Talsorian Games (those mini-reviews will pop up toward the end), I decided to look back at the game now that I have a few runs under my belt.

Cyberpunk Red Core Rulebook​

Cyberpunk Red is an advancement of the timeline between Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077. It takes place in roughly 2045 and overwrites the materials seen in Cyberpunk 3.0 and Cybergeneration. Cyberpunk Red is not a radical revision of the original game. Think of it more like a remastered version that cleans up a few cosmetics and gameplay elements, but leaves the original system in place for better or worse. Seeing this late 80s/early 90s style of game design was jarring on my initial read, but after running it I’ve come to love much of it. The basic stat+skill+d10 roll works pretty well on its own and plays a lot more simply than other games of the time. The exploding possibility on both ends also offers a way to mix in some narrative twists as needed. The wide skills also inspired my players to think creatively. How can I use my Personal Grooming and Style here?

One of the areas that was streamlined well was the lifepath generation system The original game generated a lot of history for characters, while Cyberpunk Red’s version generated just enough. My players loved this part of character creation and didn’t need much prodding to mix each other up in their stories.

The Roles were also improved in Cyberpunk Red. Each skill works in a slightly different way, from the combat analysis of the Solo allowing shifts in attack profiles to the Nomad’s ability to borrow family vehicles for specific runs. I’m usually a fan of unified mechanics but the different Role skills really help give each archetype a distinct flavor.

Cyberpunk Netrunner Deck​

One of the big challenges of the cyberpunk genre is the hacker problem. Games are set up to emulate the fiction, which features hackers dashing through a cool VR dungeon to get the important information. In play, however, that often meant the hacker player monopolizing the GM’s time while everyone else watched.

Cyberpunk Red streamlined this process by giving Netrunners multiple actions based on their Netrunning skill and simplifying data fortress construction to a single path of risk and reward. My initial read on this was that they went too far in the easy direction but in play it felt like just enough spotlight was given to the netrunner during a job. It feels like the netrunner does all the exploration while the game shifts back into the meat world and now we’re just at the challenge points of the run. It’s also easier to add complexity back into a table’s taste than remove it.

As Netrunners are the closest thing to wizards in this setting, the Cyberpunk Red Netrunner Deck is more or less a spell deck for the Netrunner player featuring all the programs featured in the core book. It also includes the ICE programs they might face as well as a small mini deck of nodes that can be used to generate a hack on the fly. Pick this up if netrunning is a focus of your Cyberpunk Red games.

Cyberpunk Red Data Screen​

We didn’t get into much combat during our game, but the moments where we did felt fast and brutal. Things really turn on the critical hit mechanics which ends fights quickly. Beware; if players can’t hit matching sixes, it can be a while to put down an opponent.

The key question for a GM screen for me is always “Does this have useful charts that I will use during play?” The Cyberpunk Red Data Screen fits all the things I wanted for combat in one area, though I think the Jumpstart Kit still has good reference charts for other things like Netrunning. If you only buy one GM aid, get this one because it’s freshly filled with errata, but if you can afford both, this combined with the Jumpstart Kit makes a deluxe suite of GM data.

Cyberpunk Red Data Pack​

This product recalls another relic of 90s game releases: the book of materials that barely missed the cut for the corebook paired with a less sexy accessory. In this case, the Data Pack comes with a stack of double sided character sheets for those folks who don’t want to use their precious printer juice.

There are also battle maps included. Given the dearth of modern battle grids, that alone makes Cyberpunk Red Data Pack a worthy purchase, even if the maps are printed on glossy pages rather than wet/dry erase material. They also look like they could be useful for the upcoming mini combat game.

The real value in this release comes from the booklet which includes a few one-page screamsheet adventures as well as a series of 20 entry tables of everything ranging from contacts to pocket contents. Each of these works as a lovely story hook or as a bit of color to fill out Night City.

Upon my first reading of Cyberpunk Red my thoughts were mixed but after playing it I find that the rules are a solid base refined just enough to appeal to more modern tastes. It’s a great entry point into the Cyberpunk universe, regardless of one’s opinion of its videogame big brother.

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[Thomas Shey]

One of the Shadowrun editions made it fairly easy for the decker (hacker) to hack your cyberware. It didn't quite make sense to me though. If I'm a street samurai, I am not going to keep my wireless network open so some jerk can hack my system and turn off my limbs.

The tradeoff for some versions of such things were there were very strong benefits to the wireless connections. I don't recall if that was true of any of the cyberware.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

One area that's changed is the idea of gaining cyberware someone lowering one's "Humanity" is distasteful for many people. In Red, it's only cyberware that enhances human performance that lowers Humanity and not a simple limb replacement to restore functionality. But it's a change in attitudes that the authors felt needed to be addressed.

This is such a great point that I'm embarrassed I've never considered. Essence loss almost makes sense in Shadowrun, as far as its impact on magic goes (and the vaguely spiritual-made-real element of that setting) but now that you've pointed it out I can't imagine Essence or Humanity loss not seeming really distasteful. Even if you limited it to cyberware or bioware that rewires your nervous system or brain chemistry, that's still oddly ableist.

 

[CubicsRube]

I wanted to like Red. And as you say, it does have interesting connections to modern problems. But the area in which it has lagged behind is in (IMO) the core concept that cyberware and its associated surgical support is cheap, problem-free, and permanent. And that the ruthless mega-corps, who build the gear, produce reliable, simple, and backdoor-free gear.

I mean, a ruthless corporation ready to use murder and more for its profit margin would certainly figure ways to force cyber-users to have to regularly buy better year (what are the users going to do? Go back to living with a stump, or non-functional eye), and pack the soft and hard ware to the hilt. Look at what has been done today with phones, game platforms, smart TVs, and online data mining.

You can get the freemium model arm replacement at a cost of $0. That's right, free! It comes with all the functions you need like pick up cups, shake hands, and wipe your ass. And for a small extra fee you can disable arm-adds and get exciting new features like punch!

*location tracking function is enabled for your safety and cannot be removed.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

The tradeoff for some versions of such things were there were very strong benefits to the wireless connections. I don't recall if that was true of any of the cyberware.

My favorite example of Shadowrun being ham-fisted about adding wireless tech was shuriken and throwing knives in 5th edition:

"...each knife you throw receives a +1 dice pool bonus per knife thrown that Combat Turn at your current target, as the knives inform and adjust for wind and other atmospheric conditions..."

Nothing says cyberpunk like making sure you hold down the button on your Bluetooth shuriken long enough to pair them to your eyeball!

More to your point, in 5th edition "Cyber weapons can be readied via muscle flexture, neural impulse, or wireless signal." I guess being able to think your wireless cyber-spur into popping out is worth leaving it open for hackers to do the same?

 

[CubicsRube]

This is such a great point that I'm embarrassed I've never considered. Essence loss almost makes sense in Shadowrun, as far as its impact on magic goes (and the vaguely spiritual-made-real element of that setting) but now that you've pointed it out I can't imagine Essence or Humanity loss not seeming really distasteful. Even if you limited it to cyberware or bioware that rewires your nervous system or brain chemistry, that's still oddly ableist.

The red book calls it out as a kind of dissociative disorder from reality. Using cyber legs with enhanced functionality makes you feel less human, but a replacement limb restoring functionality wouldn't.

It's not really sufficient though. I think name should have been changed to something else like maybe "cyber addiction" and tie it to addiction mechanics and themes already in the book. That way they can have their cyber psychos as addicts that have completely lost control, rather than having lost "humanity"

 

[CubicsRube]

My favorite example of Shadowrun being ham-fisted about adding wireless tech was shuriken and throwing knives in 5th edition:

"...each knife you throw receives a +1 dice pool bonus per knife thrown that Combat Turn at your current target, as the knives inform and adjust for wind and other atmospheric conditions..."

Nothing says cyberpunk like making sure you hold down the button on your Bluetooth shuriken long enough to pair them to your eyeball!

More to your point, in 5th edition "Cyber weapons can be readied via muscle flexture, neural impulse, or wireless signal." I guess being able to think your wireless cyber-spur into popping out is worth leaving it open for hackers to do the same?

The wireless thing always bugged me.

I'm not a tech guy but the first thing i know is if you want to secure something, make it hardline only and protect the access ports.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

My favorite example of Shadowrun being ham-fisted about adding wireless tech was shuriken and throwing knives in 5th edition:

"...each knife you throw receives a +1 dice pool bonus per knife thrown that Combat Turn at your current target, as the knives inform and adjust for wind and other atmospheric conditions..."

Nothing says cyberpunk like making sure you hold down the button on your Bluetooth shuriken long enough to pair them to your eyeball!

More to your point, in 5th edition "Cyber weapons can be readied via muscle flexture, neural impulse, or wireless signal." I guess being able to think your wireless cyber-spur into popping out is worth leaving it open for hackers to do the same?

I agree about the weirdness of the wireless signal for cyberware, for example. It would be nice if there was ever a throwaway line somewhere about how the need for wireless signal reception on your cyberspurs/skillwires etc was so that if you were having massive surgery, or even bringing a DocWagon clone online or something, that they needed to have a way to activate/test/reboot cyberware when you weren't able to actively control it.

Again, going back to the setting, I can't speak to CP's setting and changes, but... I think Shadowrun's cyberpunk had a really diffused set of themes you could have stories about: 'old world' magic versus nu-tech; the US falling apart, leaving Seattle alone as a free-state compared to Berlin after WW2, surrounded by other countries (the elves and the Native Americans); ... Now, some of the themes hit pretty close to home now, I'd say, like the policlubs and the crimes against metahumans.

I wonder if cyberpunk has reached a point as a genre where it's almost a non-starter to use it to describe a type in the way fantasy or sci-fiction require a little more of a word-handle to get to an accurate description.

 

[MGibster]

This is such a great point that I'm embarrassed I've never considered. Essence loss almost makes sense in Shadowrun, as far as its impact on magic goes (and the vaguely spiritual-made-real element of that setting) but now that you've pointed it out I can't imagine Essence or Humanity loss not seeming really distasteful. Even if you limited it to cyberware or bioware that rewires your nervous system or brain chemistry, that's still oddly ableist.

In Cyberpunk 2020, the cyberware with the single highest Humanity loss was the Mr. Studd sexual implant that would cost you a whopping 3d6. (At least the single largest cost from the main book.) Just for reference, a leg would only cost you 2d6 Humanity. One of the basic themes of cyberpunk is dehumanization through technology and the treatment of others under a capitalistic system devoid of empathy. The idea was that someone willing to trade their meat for chrome had something wrong with them. We didn't know what ableism was back in the early 1990s and while I wouldn't doubt the term existed at the time it wasn't used in the mainstream.

More to your point, in 5th edition "Cyber weapons can be readied via muscle flexture, neural impulse, or wireless signal." I guess being able to think your wireless cyber-spur into popping out is worth leaving it open for hackers to do the same?

Yeah, when I read that I was like, "^$#$ that. I'm just going to turn the wi-fi off while I'm out running missions. I'll update the software when I'm safe at home watching the vid or something."

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Again, going back to the setting, I can't speak to CP's setting and changes, but... I think Shadowrun's cyberpunk had a really diffused set of themes you could have stories about: 'old world' magic versus nu-tech; the US falling apart, leaving Seattle alone as a free-state compared to Berlin after WW2, surrounded by other countries (the elves and the Native Americans); ... Now, some of the themes hit pretty close to home now, I'd say, like the policlubs and the crimes against metahumans.

I still think the original Shadowrun setting is one of the most thoughtful and "realistic" in RPGs, in the sense that it dove into issues of racism and inequality, and where even stuff like magic is quickly appropriated and abused by corporations. In hindsight a lot of the stuff about shamans and indigenous peoples in general is a little cringey, but I think even most of that holds up well. It never falls into "noble savage" stereotypes, and doesn't present one version of magic as being inherently better or more ethical than others (I guess with the exception of blood magic, but even that got sort of recontextualized by 5th edition). And I liked that they followed up the more familiar racism against metahumans with the more off-the-wall discrimination toward people who develop random mutations after Haley's comet swings back around.

I feel like we're hijacking a thread about Cyberpunk Red to talk about Shadowrun, but I'm always here for that.

I wonder if cyberpunk has reached a point as a genre where it's almost a non-starter to use it to describe a type in the way fantasy or sci-fiction require a little more of a word-handle to get to an accurate description.

Yeah I think, in an RPG context, cyberpunk describes a really narrow genre. So narrow that, as in this thread, we can't even discuss Cyberpunk 2020 and Red without it drifting into Shadowrun, games that all have basically the same aesthetic and merc-based play mode. I feel like it's really just a very specific subgenre that imprinted on a lot of us at a young age (I say as someone who remembers where he was when first cracking open Neuromancer and When Gravity Fails, two insanely formative books for me)

Not that anyone shouldn't play games in that subgenre. It's just not, to me, a very versatile one.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

In Cyberpunk 2020, the cyberware with the single highest Humanity loss was the Mr. Studd sexual implant that would cost you a whopping 3d6. (At least the single largest cost from the main book.) Just for reference, a leg would only cost you 2d6 Humanity. One of the basic themes of cyberpunk is dehumanization through technology and the treatment of others under a capitalistic system devoid of empathy. The idea was that someone willing to trade their meat for chrome had something wrong with them. We didn't know what ableism was back in the early 1990s and while I wouldn't doubt the term existed at the time it wasn't used in the mainstream.

What I wrote really makes it seem like I'm dumping on them, but yes, that sort of awareness of ableism, and even a general sense that prosthetics (of all kinds, even of the Studdly variety) are just a reality for some, wasn't on basically anyone's radar back then. It's just another example, I think, of how retrograde the subgenre is, at least in RPGs.