Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit Review

I gave the Cyberpunk RED core book a rough review, mostly for how it's laid out. This box fixes almost all of it. It's the difference between night and day... or Night City. When I run Cyberpunk now, this is what I run it with.

What I reviewed

The Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit from R. Talsorian Games. It's a starter box that moves Cyberpunk RED up to the 2070s, the era of the Cyberpunk 2077 video game and the Edgerunners anime. It lists for $35 on R. Talsorian's store, though it's out of stock as I write this. In the box:

• Rule Book: the rules for the 2070s, with new power, tech and smart weapons from the video game, new cyberware, and quickhacks
• Edgerunner's Handbook: world lore, Night City, and what life there looks like
• The Jacket: a mission that picks up after the anime, where your crew sets out to recover a jacket (no spoilers if you haven't seen season one)
• 7 premade characters on 4 pages, with art
• Edgerunners dice: 2d10 and 4d6
• A map of Night City, flip maps of Night City locations, standees, and tokens

I use this box's rules any time I run Cyberpunk now. I haven't run The Jacket itself yet, so this is about the rules and the box, not the mission.

Rules15/20

It's still Cyberpunk, but it's easier to understand. The new weapons make combat a lot more dynamic. A tech weapon pointed at you can punch right through your cover. That smart gun bullet you dodged with your jacked-up Reflexes comes back around for a second try. Then a chromed-up ganger leaps at you with mantis blades. Yeah, I love it.

Quickhacks make netrunners a real threat, and much more fun than they've ever been. The new cyberware is fun and violent.

You still use the range chart to find the DV to hit a target. That's just how Cyberpunk works, and it still slows a round down.

Layout18/20

The core book got a 1 from me for layout. This box gets an 18.

The big fix is splitting the books. The lore lives in the handbook, and the rule book is just rules, so there's no duplicate info and no wading through history to find how a weapon works. The rules are fast to find. They aren't scattered all over the place like they are in the core book. The lifepath charts are still here, but they take 4 or 5 pages instead of dozens.

Even the charts are easier to read. Compare the two range charts in the photos above: the core book's dark red is rough on my eyes, and the box's green and yellow are much clearer. That could just be me.

One small personal nitpick: the Autofire chart is on its own page, separate from the main DV chart. It sits with the Autofire rules, which makes sense, so it's not a big deal.

Setting19/20

I gave the core book's Night City an 18. This is Night City in the 2070s, and it's even better, because the handbook's lore lines up with the video game and the anime that most of my players already know. Season two of Edgerunners is days away. Players and the GM can easily picture the world, and that makes it a lot easier to drop into.

My one wish: I'd have loved the premades to be the crew from the anime. The Jacket does tie into the show, but a mission about the crew themselves would have been a bigger draw. It feels like a missed opportunity.

Value20/20

For $35, it's everything I want in a starter set, plus extras: a full game, dice, standees, tokens and maps. It also has the lore book. When I reviewed the Cosmere Stormlight Starter Set, the setting was the part I missed, and I'd have paid $35 for that box if it had a lore book in it. This one does.

The 7 premades have pretty much everything, including their role abilities, so your players can grab one and jump in right away. For the most part, I run straight from the box.

Who it's for

Anyone who watched Edgerunners or played Cyberpunk 2077 and wants to play in that Night City. It's also for GMs who bounced off the core book's layout and want rules they can actually find at the table.

The verdict

An 18 out of 20, a Hit. It's the best way into Cyberpunk RED right now, and the version of the rules I actually use.