Cyberpunk RED Review

Cyberpunk has never been bigger. Cyberpunk 2077 brought it back, the Edgerunners anime made it a hit, and season two lands on Netflix on October 20. I've been around since Cyberpunk 2020, back in the day. I won't pretend we played it a lot. It wasn't our table's thing. But I loved it. I remember the rules being rough back then. Let's see how the new one stands up.

The short version: Night City is incredible, the rules are fast and deadly with some real friction, and the core book is the worst-laid-out rulebook I own.

Rules11/20

The rules are fast, and the game is mostly skill based. Your role gives you a special ability, but your skills decide what you can actually do. You can build a stealthy medic or a gunslinging netrunner. It might not be optimal, but you can do it.

The game only uses d10s and d6s. That has its upsides and downsides: you don't get to use all the fancy dice you've bought, but new players always know which die to pick up. Checks are d10 plus a stat plus a skill, and the d10 explodes both ways. Roll a 10 and you roll again and add it. Roll a 1 and you roll again and subtract it. Damage is d6s, and two 6s on your damage dice is a critical, which makes those 5d6 weapons terrifying. Armor stops some or all of the damage, and every hit that gets through wears it down by a point.

This game is dangerous. There are no levels, and your HP doesn't easily go up.

It has friction, too. The charts for hitting a target are a lot: first you find your weapon type, then the distance to the target, and that gives you the number you need. I understand why they went that route, but it slows down the round, and a GM screen is pretty much required. With all the skills, the character sheets can overwhelm players who are new to the game. Luckily, there's a great app, Cyberpunk RED Companion, that helps.

My biggest gripe, one I'll raise again in our Invincible review, is that systems without levels make sessions hard to balance. Instead, Cyberpunk RED hands out Improvement Points to raise stats and skills, and figuring out how many each player earns means working through a laundry list of questions at the end of every session. It's rough and a slog.

The rules aren't a hundred percent, but they are Cyberpunk.

Layout1/20

This is one of the worst-laid-out books I own. It hurts how bad it is. I don't even know where to begin, so I'll start at the front.

It opens with world info, which is fine, but it's a lot of information to dump on you first. Then street slang, which again is a lot to start with. Then the roles, with a pointer to way later in the book for what their role abilities actually do, instead of putting it all in one place.

Next come flow charts for building your character: pages of random tables for your motivation and background, then role-specific flow charts for role-specific background. Then stats and skills, then weapons and armor, then cyberware, then more lore.

Then comes running the game, and then the full skill descriptions. Why aren't those back where a player is picking skills? Then role abilities, the ones that pointer back at the start was sending you to. Why aren't they with the roles in the first place?

After that: combat, then netrunning, then critical injuries and healing, with the same critical injury charts already printed in the combat section. Street drugs show up, oddly, in the healing section. Then another lore dump. Then gear and weapons again, repeating what was covered earlier. Finally, "Running Cyberpunk," the GM section beyond the rules, with the dreaded Improvement Points tables, some NPC and encounter stat blocks, and random encounter tables. And to wrap up the book? Another lore dump, this time as a story.

As you can see, it's a bit of a mess.

Setting18/20

Night City is an amazing setting, and it's scary how much it's starting to mirror real life. The anime and the game help players and GMs picture it even more. It's gritty and dangerous.

It's also not what most players are used to. They're used to the hero fantasy, and Cyberpunk isn't that. It's a survival game. You're trying to make it through the day without dying, and if you don't, hopefully you go out in style, with your name remembered, or even made into a drink at the Afterlife.

I know it isn't for everyone. This isn't D&D or Daggerheart. (Read about the time I killed my wife's character in the first session.) But if you want gritty and dangerous, in a dystopian city where capitalism has run its course and the corporations run everything, this is for you.

Who it's for

Players who want danger, style, and a world that doesn't care if they live. GMs who are willing to learn the book well enough to work around its layout, and who'll keep a screen and the companion app close.

The verdict

A 10 out of 20, a Miss.

I'll be honest: I was tempted to bump a couple of numbers to push this into a Graze. I didn't, because that wouldn't be fair to you or to the scores. My numbers landed where they did, and that's okay. I love the world, but the system, and the layout especially, need work. It isn't a system for everyone. The setting is an 18, the rules are fast and deadly, and the book they're printed in is a 1. I still love it.