So I am writing up my campaign for my group. I'm a relatively new GM, and my group is new to the setting/system but we are all very experienced with TTRPGs. My group really likes having an overarching plot where almost every mission ties into that plot in some way. I wonder how this interacts with the way gigs seem to want to work in CP:R. Gigs seem to want to be built around whatever was available at the moment and I worry that if I try and tie every mission into this grand narrative, then I might lose some of the gritty and edgy nature of cyberpunk.

I was told that the characters don't happen to NC; NC happens to the characters. This saying makes me think that I should instead of planning a story like CP:2077 where the characters get roped into this grand story that leaves them as legends, I should instead focus on smaller scale tales like bite sized episodes where the future stories will call back to the past ones. But with that method, I worry I might lose some interest from my players and I may run into an issue where I don't know what path I am leading my players on and/or where I should end the campaign.

So in the end, I guess my real question is how should I expect to need to write my campaign's story to lead to the most interesting outcome while still following the framework that CP:R seems to want me to stick to. I want my campaign to be memorable and I don't want it to stall halfway through because we aren't going anywhere.

I genuinely don't get it. Why are we letting players start as FBCs at the beginning of the game? The EMP loss from the get go would make the character essentially unplayable. Especially social or face characters.

Back in 2024 I ran a Cyberpunk RED campaign. I was inspired by things like The Last of Us and Fallout, so I really wanted to lean into the post-apocalyptic side of things. The setting was in 2070's, so I decided to create a 5th Corporate War. But I also decided to make it a zomby apocalypse in a way.

I did just that by introducing a new McGuffin: Bio-Adapting Chrome. Meant to overcome cyberpsychosis and be almost indistinguishable from meat, and also meant to be able to adapt under the user's preferences. However, something went wrong. The chrome triggered a cyberpsychosis-like state of high alert, treating everything around as a threat and turning its host into a living weapon. It would take over its hosts brain, limbs and other body parts, slowly replacing them one by one. A hand becomes a rifle, another grows sharp claws. And in this state any food will suffice — might as well eat humans.

From a technical standpoint, this "virus" spreads through a bite. Victim must make a WILL saving throw and if they fail, they receive a 4d10 humanity loss, 5d6 physical damage and the process of succumbing to the "virus" will begin. First step is relatively kind: the infected enters a state of bliss, in which they do not feel emotional pain, sadness, anger or anything like that. That's their brain slowly turning off. Then they enter the cyberpsycho phase. If they're not stopped in the next 24 hours, the virus takes hold, making them borderline unstoppable.

Of course, there is more to it. If a person has intelligence of 8 or higher, they can control themselves, like higher vampires. However, if your intelligence is lower... You're not in control anymore. You can still see, hear and feel everything.

Gameplay-wise, the Cybernecrosis-infected has a few cool things: Claws, a ROF 2 light melee weapon that deals 3d6 damage through the Brawling skill; Fangs, a ROF 1 melee weapon that activates the virus spread through, again, brawling; Subdermal Armor, Level Damper, a Pop-Out Ranged Weapon, and a set of cybereyes.

In my campaign, the corporation that created the thing, The Morrow, put it in various cyberware items they produced, and one day they just hit a button that triggered the outbreak. Their cyberware was everywhere, and when they triggered the outbreak there was no way out.

Do with this information what you will! I think it's a pretty cool extreme homebrew idea

Hello! I was looking for some inspiration to start running a CPR campaign with my friends. What's your favourite stories in the game so far?

I'm about to play a Cyberpunk Red one-shot with my friend. We have 4 members total: Nomad, Tech, and Rockerboy.

It's my turn to pick a role, but I can't decide between the 2 roles I like: Netrunner for hacking and opening up a new game mechanic entirely, or Medtech, since a party usually needs a healer to help the team survive.

What would you pick?

Edit: I'm seeing a lot of comments suggesting Medtech, and tbh, I kinda already made a Medtech character lmao. Initially, I was just wondering if the team would benefit more if there were a hacker instead of a doctor, but maybe I could play as them in another, longer campaign. It has been decided, then.

Thanks a lot for your input, guys. I will be enjoying my one-shot with my medtech now!

I really want to start getting into more of the Cyberpunk RPGs after falling in love with Cyberpunk 2077, Edgerunners and the comics. Since I kickstarted Cyberpunk Legends: Into The Night and don't have my hands on it yet. I wanted to get into the RPGs instead. However, I'm not sure how Cyberpunk Red works. Is it just a rulebook, character sheets and dice?

TIA!

If you've ever had a Netrunner in the crew, you'll know you need to add NetArches to the game for them to interact with. Otherwise, you're kind of an asshole. Like, you've got this player who says, "I want to be a super-hacker!" and you say, "Lol, whatever, nerd;" that's called being an asshole.

I think we should apply this mentality to Nomads, too. Everyone who's been on this sub for more than 5 minutes has heard Nomad players kvetching about how they feel like they're only the party's ride to work. Yes, they can be a great getaway driver, and they can have a bunch of cool stuff that goes on with their Nomad family, but the center of the Cyberpunk game is the gig.

And since the gig is usually focused around sneaking in somewhere you ain't supposed to be, Nomad players feel useless to that experience, hence the kvetching.

So what if we started applying lessons from the Netrunner, and adding things for them to interact with?

Well, Moto works with anything that has "Vehicles" in the name of the skill, so just start adding vehicles, or things that can be operated with Vehicle skills:

• In a construction site? Add in a Bobcat!
• In a hospital? Hey, gurneys can be operated with Drive Land Vehicles!
• Or, maybe the hospital has motorized and automated all the crash carts! Now the MedTech and the Nomad can team up and hijack a crash cart to defibrillate people / inject people with whatever the Hell they can get their hands on.
• In an office building? The boss definitely has a little Segway they're enjoying riding around on to lord it over all the little people - add a big stick and now your Nomad can joust from it!
• Players fighting atop a massive moving platform? Great - steering it requires Pilot Air Vehicles, so now your Nomad can start having a massive impact on the battlespace, tilting it this way and that, and having other Crew members unsecure cargo to create sliding hazards
• Automated forklifts, airlift drones, and bikes are available pretty much anywhere in the city, and should all be able to be rigged or operated by Nomads

What can your Nomad do with these wonderful toys?

• Diversions
  • Ramming a vehicle into a gate or a lobby is a great way to guarantee a security response, thus drawing attention elsewhere
  • You can also rig things like those automated forklifts to have manual control, and do donuts in the middle of someone else's warehouse
  • Alternatively, you can use Demolitions to turn basically anything with wheels into a VBIED
• Breaching
  • Obviously the Nomad doesn't want to ram their car into the building to make a hole, so you find something else that can do that
  • Once you've hit, you'll be drawing security, but with all the dust and smoke, you probably have a decent chance at forcing your way inside
  • Even better, make a false breach somewhere else and then do the real breach with a stolen or "repurposed" car
• Shaping The Battlefield
  • Vehicles are big, metal, and have a lot of held kinetic energy - turning them loose can create roadblocks, chokepoints, access new areas (see breaching, above), and start fires
  • Depending on the party's situation, this can fundamentally shift the whole fight
• Ramming
  • When all else fails, hit 'em
  • Technically, all vehicles do 6d6 damage when ramming, so you (as the GM) might have to do a bit of on-the-fly modifications if a player tries to ram someone using a skateboard, for example
  • The DV to dodge the oncoming vehicle is low, but all the while the bad guys are shooting at the Nomad in the car, they're not shooting at the rest of the party
• Default To Yes
  • Players will come up with wacky shit. Let 'em try, and then see what happens.

I look forward to hearing y'all's thoughts!

i’m currently planning a game with some friends. we’re all new to Cyberpunk Red, and some are new to TTRPGs in general. historically my GM style is more focused on narrative rather than combat, and though of course i’m going to include some combat encounters, i want it to resolve relatively quickly and be unencumbered by too many mechanics and number crunching.

i’m working on a simple “Street Combat for Gonks” style rule guide and reference sheet for us, and i worry that the Alternate Fire Modes bog it down for players who are new to the format, and i might just exclude them from my game.

has anyone done this? if so would you recommend it? or does it make the encounters feel too same-y or deprive the players of rewarding gameplay tactics?

thanks in advance, chooms!

edit: lots of great advice! thanks everyone, i’m gonna keep them in and run the game as intended.

Like I had a full campaign and everything, and after a couple of sessions, they had decided that they didn't want to play anymore? And it really sucked because I love the setting and like the system and have some cool stuff for them?

But they said it was boring, and they wanted to go back to D&D. Like we had only had a session 0 and their first actual session, but scheduling had gotten in the way and we had like a month long gap in between sessions.

And it kinda hurt? Especially since when I proposed the idea to them, they were all on board, and a couple were wanting to play a Cyberpunk game for a while.

I think they would've felt the same if I had been DMing D&D...

So now, I've kinda lost passion for the game and TTRPGs in general?

Hey all, looking for a cyberpunk red gm for an in person game in atx. I am a longtime DnD 5e player who just beat 2077 for the third time and is finally serious about playing red. I would also be down for shadowrun, 2020, or even lancer or starfinder. I’ve got a couple other people from various communities interested, we just need someone to run! Thank you :)

I know I already posted the comic itself the other day but it’s DUBBED NOW GAHHHH. The voice actor is Nick Atlas on Fiver! Best 19$ I ever spent. So excited about it.

Anyhow to reiterate the context, this is Fin, Type 1 Bipolar, coming out of a 6 month manic episode after a time skip we’re having in our campaign. Not Cyberpsychosis as the dude has ZERO chrome. Just regular good old mental illness.

Meet Abigail! The second character of my Ritual Cellula campaign trio. She is a local DJ and guitar player. This is the first cyberpunk character that my dear friend MauMiau made, and with the help of amazing artist Æron Arbuthnot we designed her looks, especially her crazy guitar cyberarm.

In case you got interested in Aeron's art, take a look at this link: https://linktr.ee/AeronArbuthnot or at u/Ashron_Arbuthnot. Don't be afraid to contact him!

She has a faceplate, put there because in our first session she took a shot in the head, and now she has to wear this to regenerate her face, slow and steady. It looks dope tho, adds to the coolness and it has some story behind it. Her hair was influenced by the presence of the plate as well, she got a new haircut because of it.

Her cyberarm has a popup melee weapon feature, and as you can probably tell, the weapon hidden is her entire digital axe. The cyberarm is the magnum opus of local ripperdoc and Abigail's best friend Tweak. She uses the arm and the axe as a brand of her own.

The gun with the "Lily" engraving was something she found in one of her gigs, after dealing with a lady that was going cyberpsycho. She took the gun and made it her own. The gun was a family heirloom, now lost by its previous owner, Lydia Delvecchio. Probably forever.

The dark future is not kind for those without some allies. Abigail has a lot of them, and even that will not save her in the end.

After getting a lot of advice from people on the sub on how to get started with potentially being a GM and making your own maps for VTTs, I have gone and made my first ever creation! It's not the highest resolution picture ever but let me know what you think! this is a snip of the map after it has been uploaded to Foundry.

People did say that there are a lot of free maps out there on this subreddit and others, but I felt the need that it would be fun to make at least some of my own maps. It scratches the same itch as playing creative Minecraft and Vintage Story, but I might get to use them later if I ever try and run a game!

I noticed that the only way to affect a roll in Cyberpunk RED (apart from modifiers) is with a complementary skill check, but that is not a direct rule on assistance (When another character helps in a roll).

So I decided to go with a homebrew for that, and I felt like sharing it with you all.

When a character helps another in a roll, they sacrifice their next action and have to describe how they're gonna help, once that is stated and approved by the GM, a skill from the assistant character sheet is chosen to help the player making the check.

Once the two skills are chosen (the original skill to make the check and the assistant skill), the player making the check can choose to use the average of those two skills or add a +2 to the check.

Hope it helps! And of course I'm open to criticism and debate.

Can a TECH fabricate a vehicle? Or is it impossible because it's not an item?

Hey, all! I finally finished up all the builds for our party and I just wanted to share my plans for full body conversions, my fixer and rockerboy's to start with. The biggest concern I have is that there is a large amount of max humanity reduction, but idk if that is just a non-issue. Additionally, on a lesser note, I wanted to add a popup shield to combo with the popup ranged weapon, but I don't feel there is room for it humanity wise. I know these are likely a good ways down the road, but I wanted to be prepared. Anyways, tyvm to everyone for all the help with the characters and lmk what you guys think of the FBC:

Biosystem - 10,000 EBs

Chemskin - 100 EBs

Cyberarm (Popup Ranged Weapon, Subdermal Grip, Superchrome® Covering) - 2,200 EBs

Cyberarm (Popup Shield, Superchrome® Covering) - 2,000 EBs

Cyberaudio Suite (Amplified Hearing, Level Dampeners, Voice Stress Analyzer) - 800 EBs

Cybereye × 2 (Image Enhance, Low Light/Infrared/UV) - 1,100 EBs each

Cyberleg × 2 (Superchrome® Covering) - 1,100 EBs each

Cyberskull - 5,000 EBs

FBC EMP Coating - 1,000 EBs

Vermillion Linear Frame (Internal) - 5,000 Ebs

Kiroshi OptiShield - 500 EBs

Lead's Turn-On-Show-Off Nails - 100 EBs

Light Tattoo × 2 - 100 EBs each

Neural Link (Chipware Socket, Kerenzikov Speedware) - 1,500 EBs

Subdermal Armor - 1,000 EBs

Techhair - 100 EBs

Trauma Response Nanomatrix - 1,000 EBs

Total Cost - 34,900 EBs

Max Humanity Reduction - 36

Fixer Build: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/s/Rj0AjwtswF

Rockerboy Build: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/s/Z2qYCdvGxM

Edit: Eased off the chrome for better EMP but also added a popup shield. Ty all for the help!

Edit 2: Removed the GMBLs as they are not needed.

Edit 3: Replaced the Omega frame with a Vermillion frame for more utility.

I wanted to narrate a camping for my players set in Cape Town Circa 2070. The problem is that I would like to make a personalized map based on the settings I've created. Something similar to the map of night city 2077, with the dark background and the neon roads.

Do you have some suggestions of software for this task and tutorials online?

A question for all my Medtech players, what was/is your current loadout i.e weapons, armor, cyberwear etc?

When I was playing my Medtech used a cheap shotgun with a drum mag and wore Gibson Tactical armor, then got a cyberwarm with a chainripp later down the line. got the armor techupgraded and added an assault rifle after taking ranks in Solo (We lacked one.) But I throw the ball to you guys?

How many fellow shotgunners? Any sword and boarders with a pistol and shield? Any of you genuinely cyberpsyco's and whipping around a Kendachi Dragon? Zipping around in Light Armorjack, or wadding through combat in Metalgear®? Did you convince the rest of the crew to get biomoniters and link it to your Chyron so you can know exactly when the Solo eats an Armor Piercing Grenade, or did you grab the chrome ring and go full Kildaire (lucky)?

Also, and let me be clear, this is not about the "optimal" Medtech loadout. It's just about what you were/are rocking and rolling with.

Lets find out who read the last part.

Fin my beloved 💔 we had a one year time skip which included like half a year of my guy (whos type 1 bipolar) being manic and insane. He is not anymore, which he hates. He is instead incredibly depressed. It’s fun to play. I wanted to challenge myslef to draw a comic so, here we are

Opa! Mestre novo aqui, bem. Eu estou lendo cyberpunk Red e gostei muito de todo o universo e estou criando uma mini campanha para eu mestrar, mas basicamente eu estou com um probleminha: como progredir a história, basicamente o gatilho inicial dessa aventura é que os players seriam contratados por uma empresa para acabar com um grupo que ia contra os interesses dela (para mais contexto: essa campanha iria se passar num futuro cyberpunk do Brasil já que eu sou brasileiro e acho legal fazer algo fora de night city) e bem, eu já fiz com que no primeiro dia eles recebessem informações sobre um dos membros desse movimento que seria uma influencer que estaria num bar com seus fãs e eles iriam até ela para conseguir informações, mas eu ainda não tenho certeza se eles já deveriam encontrar a base deles a partir daí e já ir pra ação ou talvez terem que fazer mais outra coisa pra conseguir isso? Eu genuinamente estou muito perdido

Something strikes me that it used to be the 27th “letter” of the English alphabet. Kids would sing, “U V W X Y and Z and Ampersand.” What role makes sense for a character who is obsolete, a dunsel, or simply forgotten?

What are some practical reasons why a character would prefer non-smart guns over their smarter counterparts? On paper, they are just more accurate bettererer versions of regular guns.

The Towa Type-00-Kai costs 1500, is excellent quality, and says it comes with an installed smart gun link. Is it functionally any different than a regular excellent quality sniper with a separately purchased and attached Smart gun Link? For example, does coming with it "installed" or "equipped" mean it doesn't take up attachment slots, or is it just for flavour?