How to play Cyberpunk RED

How to play

Roles and special abilities: Choose one of ten Roles, each with a Role Ability nobody else has: Rockerboy (Charismatic Impact), Solo (Combat Awareness), Netrunner (Interface), Tech (Maker), Medtech (Medicine), Media (Credibility), Exec (Teamwork), Lawman (Backup), Fixer (Operator) and Nomad (Moto). You start at Rank 4. Build your character with ready templates (Streetrat), customised templates (Edgerunner) or points (Complete Package), and roll a Lifepath for your past. You have ten Stats: INT, REF, DEX, TECH, COOL, WILL, LUCK, MOVE, BODY and EMP.

Core mechanic: Roll 1d10 + Stat + Skill and try to beat a Difficulty Value (13 everyday, 15 difficult, 17 professional, 21 heroic, 24 incredible), or an opponent's own Stat + Skill + 1d10. Ties go to the defender. A natural 10 lets you roll another d10 and add it; a natural 1 means you roll another and subtract it. Before you roll, you can spend points from your Luck pool for +1 each; it refills every session.

Combat: Initiative is REF + 1d10. On your turn you get one Move Action (MOVE × 2 m/yds, or MOVE squares on a grid) and one Action, such as Attack, Reload, Run (a second move), Stabilize or Use a Skill. A ranged attack is REF + weapon skill + 1d10 against a DV set by the range; a melee attack is DEX + skill + 1d10 against the defender's DEX + Evasion + 1d10. Damage is rolled in d6s, minus the target's armour SP, and armour that is penetrated loses 1 SP. Two or more 6s on the damage dice add 5 damage and a Critical Injury. Cover is all or nothing: if it can stop a bullet and blocks line of sight, it protects you until its own HP run out.

Wounds and Death Saves: At half your Hit Points or less you are Seriously Wounded (−2 to all checks). Below 1 HP you are Mortally Wounded (−4 to checks, −6 MOVE) and make a Death Save at the start of each turn: roll a d10 and you must roll under your BODY. Each save makes the next one harder, and a single failure kills you, so a teammate must Stabilize you fast.

Cyberware: Implants make you faster, tougher or deadlier, but installing them costs Humanity. Humanity starts at EMP × 10, your EMP falls as it drops, and each piece also lowers the most Humanity you can have. Therapy can win some back; if your Humanity runs out, you slide into cyberpsychosis.

Night City structure: Between gigs you live in Night City. You pay rent and a Lifestyle each month in eurobucks (eb), source gear through vendors, a Fixer or a Night Market, and build a Reputation that shapes the work you are offered.

Strategy

Cyberpunk RED rewards a crew that covers its bases, with each player building their character to excel in their Role rather than trying to do everything alone. Play to your Role: Role Abilities are exclusive. Only a Netrunner can Netrun, only a Medtech can perform Surgery on the worst Critical Injuries, and a Fixer's Operator ability sources gear that others can't easily find (without one, you can buy items costing up to 100eb, or whatever a Night Market has). A crew with a Solo, a Netrunner, a Medtech and a Fixer or talker is ready for most gigs. Weigh every piece of chrome: Cyberware is powerful, but its Humanity cost drags down your EMP, and EMP drives social skills such as Conversation and Human Perception. Each installed piece also lowers your maximum Humanity for good. A Solo can carry more combat chrome than a Rockerboy who lives on charm. Buy what your Role needs, not what sounds impressive. Manage your money: Rent and Lifestyle come due every month. The cheapest Lifestyle, Kibble, means you pay separately for nearly everything above it. A standard job pays about 1,000eb per person, which disappears fast into ammunition, repairs and medical bills. Use cover and movement: Getting shot is genuinely dangerous. Get fully behind something that can stop a bullet, because there is no partial cover. Remember that cover has its own HP, so thin wood or plaster won't last. Weapons with a ROF of 2 let you split your attacks around your Move Action: move, shoot, move, shoot. Fight smart, not fair: Aimed shots to the head double whatever damage gets through the armour, and melee weapons ignore half the defender's armour. Spend Luck on the attacks and saves that decide a fight, not on routine checks. Protect the Netrunner: A Netrunner jacks into a NET Architecture and works through it floor by floor against Black ICE and other defences, while their body stays in the room with everyone else. Put someone between them and the guns. Talk first when you can: A Facedown (COOL + 1d10 against COOL + 1d10) can end a confrontation before it starts; the loser backs down or takes −2 against the winner.

Tips

- Know your Role Ability inside out: it's the one thing no one else on your crew can do. - You must beat the DV, not just meet it; ties go to the defender. - Spend Luck before you roll, on the checks that matter; your pool refills every session. - Get fully behind something that can stop a bullet: there is no partial cover, and cover has its own Hit Points. - Keep someone with First Aid or Paramedic close: stabilising a Mortally Wounded friend is DV15, and one failed Death Save kills. - Every piece of chrome costs Humanity and, with it, Empathy; buy what your Role needs. - Budget for rent and Lifestyle at the start of each month; they eat gig money fast. - Taking four times as long or getting a helpful Complementary Skill Check each give +1 when a roll really matters.

Players and time

One GM and a crew of players. One-shot gigs work well, and campaigns let your crew build Reputation, contacts and chrome over many sessions of a few hours each.

Jumpstart Kit and other starting points

The Cyberpunk RED Jumpstart Kit (2019) was the first boxed introduction, but some of its rules changed before the core rulebook came out; a free conversion guide updates its missions. Today the easiest ways in are Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode, a free quickstart with enough to play a single mission, and the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Mission Kit (2024), a starter box themed to the anime. Beyond the core book, look at Black Chrome (gear), Danger Gal Dossier (factions and NPCs), the Tales of the RED mission books, Single Player Mode (solo play, 2025) and Night City 2045 (2026), the definitive guide to the city. R. Talsorian also releases a free downloadable article every month.

Connection to Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk RED shares its world with the video game Cyberpunk 2077 and the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime, but it is set in 2045, the Time of the Red after the 4th Corporate War, three decades before the game. The Edgerunners Mission Kit adds rules and items for play in the later 207X era.

Common beginner mistake

Every character spending all their creation resources on combat stats and cyberware, leaving the crew with no Netrunner, no Medtech and nobody who can talk. Only a Netrunner can Netrun past electronic security, only a Medtech can perform Surgery on the worst Critical Injuries, and many gigs are won or lost at the negotiating table. An all-Solo crew struggles as soon as a job needs more than bullets.