Anyone who has seen Blade Runner or read anything by William Gibson knows that the Cyberpunk setting has been pushing boundaries and conjuring up new ideas for over three decades. And now, a TTRPG like Cyberpunk Red and video games such as Cyberpunk 2077 are bringing this genre back to life.
Everything in Cyberpunk Red jumps between extremes of simplicity and sophistication, campy joy, and corporate cruelty. As perplexing as this approach can be at times, it contributes to a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) that is brimming with attitude and engaging passion.
Cyberpunk Origins
Cyberpunk is a science fiction subgenre that depicts sophisticated science and technology in an urban, dystopian, high-tech future. On one side, there are mighty big corporations and private security forces, while on the other, there is the murky underworld of illegal commerce, gangs, narcotics, and depravity. Politics, corruption, and societal unrest stand in the way of all of this.
Bruce Bethke, who authored a tale with the same title in 1982, invented the term cyberpunk. He coined the term from the terms cybernetics, the science of replacing human tasks with electronic ones, and punk, the cacophonous music and nihilistic worldview that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s youth culture. Gardner Dozois, a science-fiction editor, is often credited with popularizing the word.
The universe of Cyberpunk games is a mirror copy of our own reality, with the timelines breaking somewhere in the late 1980s – conveniently, just around the time the first version of the game was published. There’s a lot of detailed history buried in sourcebooks, but the major developments, in the eyes of the average person, are the collapse of the ascent of cybernetic innovation and the collapse of world order.
Cyberpunk has spread its popularity in three decades with multiple editions:
- Cyberpunk’s first edition released in 1988 with the story set in 2013
- Cyberpunk 2020 released in 1990 with the story set in 2020
- Cyberpunk V3.0 released in 2005 with the story set in the 2030s
- Cyberpunk Red released in 2020 with the story set in the mid-2040s.
The World of Cyberpunk Red
Cyberpunk Red TTRPG intends to immerse its players in the neon-drenched, smog-engulfed streets of an alternate reality in the near future. There, they can experience the highs and lows of a technologically-addicted society, and try to discover some questionably legal method to make it big – or, if that isn’t possible, take their opponents low.
Cyberpunk Red is set in the Night City (sort of a combination of Los Angeles and San Francisco) whose downtown was devastated by a nuclear explosion. An urban environment that extended like a tangled neon anthill along the California coastline. It was hellishly scary, bitterly divided, but also achingly cool, thanks to the corporate cops and apathetic government. After all, it was the domain of cyberpunk – a subculture of high-fashion, high-tech, high-energy survivors who lived to cause trouble, earn money, and become famous. These edge runners, mercenaries, and scrapers use a variety of skill sets to get by and hopefully find a better place for themselves in this futuristic caste-like system.
The corporate tech elite isn’t holding the reins of power as strongly as it once did, and the power vacuum they left created a completely demolished contemporary civilization. The “red” in the name of the game comes from blood-red skies that have been looming for years over the city, reminding its survivors of both heinous weapons that devastated it and everlasting dust that gets kicked up every time such a weapon is used.
On the other hand, the future isn’t so dark in Cyberpunk Red TTRPG, and some curious tiny kernel of hope can be found underneath all the doom and gloom. Night City is being rebuilt, companies aren’t as dominant as they once were, and the skies are clearing. The globe remains a technical and environmental hellhole, but things may be far worse. If you make enough money and do enough crimes, you might be able to purchase some really nutritious food.
The Tech
As expected the whole story and everyday life are intertwined with technology (hence the cyber in the name). Civilians buy food from well-armed vending machines, corporate executives drive about in automobiles they control with their minds, and clothes can harden into body armor at the drop of a hat. Gadgets, weapons, and vehicles in Night City go beyond the limits of imagination and help you immerse in this world even better.
Furthermore, almost every character you play is expected to have some sort of technology embedded in their body, whether it’s razor blades woven into their fingernails, silicon irises that can shimmer whatever color you choose, or a whole set of connectors that enable them to connect directly to their gear.
This isn’t only a place to find great upgrades and methods to customize your characters. One of the world’s primary themes is the concept of technology permeating everyday life, and many of the occupations that cyberpunks do are likely to include hacking into networks, stealing data, and damaging corporate systems. The transhumanism of dystopian adventures in Cyberpunk Red TTRPG is realistic and believable so most people can relate to the technological predictions it provides. For example, the technology has been secretly modified to conform to a current concept of near-future cyber-wizardry. The Cyberpunk 2020 plugs and wires have generally given way to wireless transmitters, and most bodily augments may be as fluid and elegant as you want them to be. Of course, not everyone wants to be subtle with their flashy chrome gear.
Cyberpunk Red and Cyberpunk 2077
It’s really no secret that Cyberpunk 2077 initially disappointed a lot of people. The RPG still offers a terrific tale, engaging NPCs, well-written romances, and a well-developed setting. What it was unable to accomplish was to live up to the enormous expectations that had been built up during the seven years between its announcement and release. Even though many of the flaws that marred the game’s first retail release have already been addressed, it is unlikely to ever measure up to those expectations.
After completing the game, every Cyberpunk 2077 player would be happy to check out Cyberpunk RED TTRPG since it offers a significantly more flexible roleplaying experience in the same environment.
The red sky period of the Night City is known as the Time of the Red and it will be of interest to many Cyberpunk 2077 players, helping to bridge the gap between Johnny Silverhand’s death and the game’s events. Additionally, the Cyberpunk RED book (around 400 pages long) has a wealth of mythology for gamers to delve into. It includes stories such as The Fall of the Towers, Black Dog, and Never Fade Away, each set in a distinct historical period and assisting in fleshing out many of the lore components previously hinted at in 2077.
While the early Cyberpunk TTRPGs risked being somewhat difficult in comparison to the video game’s recognizable first-person perspective, Cyberpunk RED made several beneficial rule adjustments to make it simpler for role-players to jump straight in. The health track concept of Cyberpunk, for example, is replaced with a more approachable Dungeons & Dragons-style hit point system.
Instead of having several varieties of weapons named after their makers, Cyberpunk RED categorizes them by type (medium pistol, heavy pistol, very heavy pistol, SMG, heavy SMG, assault rifle, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, etc.), which helps to keep things consistent and allows players to focus on roleplay rather than numbers. Similarly, Cyberpunk RED’s lifepath system does not affect the player’s numbers or talents at the start of the game, enabling them to focus on roleplaying in the Cyberpunk universe without being bogged down.
Conclusion
If you are adventurous, familiar with RPG games, and prepared to spend some time reading and understanding everything in the rulebook, you’ll find a lot of appeal in Cyberpunk Red’s hands-on approach to gaming. There are several games that exploit the same themes but in the end, nothing beats the original. Cyberpunk TTRPG has some further expansions planned already called Black Chrome and Rusted Chrome.
Each will concentrate on a different facet of the Time of the Red’s economy. Yes, Black Chrome will provide additional possibilities for armor and weaponry, but it will also explain how items are discovered/made/sold. Rusted Chrome, the next installment in the series, will focus on the supply chain and how goods move from one point to another.
