Cyberpunk RED: The Tabletop RPG Set in 2045, and How to Start Playing

What it is#

Cyberpunk RED is the tabletop role-playing game for playing in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 with friends and dice. The publisher describes it as set in 2045, midway between Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077, after the Fourth Corporate War has ended and the corporations have retreated to lick their wounds.

It uses the Interlock system: you roll a ten-sided die, add your stat and your skill, and try to beat a Difficulty Value set by the gamemaster. The first Cyberpunk game was among the first tabletop games to use that idea.

Editions: where RED sits#

The game has had four editions. The first was published in 1988 (later called Cyberpunk 2013), the second was Cyberpunk 2020 in 1990, the third was Cyberpunk V3.0 in 2005, and the fourth is RED. V3.0 used a different system (Fuzion), and its timeline is separate from RED's. Our read: most fans pretend the third one never happened.

R. Talsorian showed a Jumpstart Kit at Gen Con in August 2019. The core book was delayed, first so the lore could line up with Cyberpunk 2077 and then by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it came out in November 2020, weeks before the video game.

What is in the core book#

The core book runs 456 pages. The parts that change how you play are these.

• Ten roles: Rockerboy, Solo, Netrunner, Tech, Medtech, Media, Lawman, Exec, Fixer and Nomad. Each has a special ability. The roles page breaks them down.
• Hit points: RED replaces 2020's health track with hit points. To keep fights lethal, armor values were lowered and a critical-injury rule was added: two 6s on a damage roll means 5 extra damage straight to HP and a brutal injury.
• Streamlined gear: Weapons come in generic categories (medium pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle) plus a short list of exotics like the mono-katana. Less shopping, more shooting.
• Lifepath: The background generator is now for roleplay only and does not change your starting stats or skills.
• Netrunning: Netrunners wear VR goggles that overlay the Net on the real world, so they stay with the party. The Net is a NET Architecture the runner descends level by level, like floors in a building. See Cyberpunk RED netrunning.
• Three stories: Never Fade Away (set in 2013), The Fall of the Towers (2023, the operation inside Arasaka's Night City HQ that ended in the nuke) and Black Dog (2045, the Time of the Red).

How it connects to 2077#

In the RED timeline, the Fourth Corporate War ends in 2025, after the Night City Holocaust in August 2023 when a nuclear device destroyed Arasaka Towers. The sky turned red for two years, hence the Time of the Red. The Net was lost to the DataKrash virus, released after the death of Rache Bartmoss.

Night City is rebuilt. By the time of 2077 it is an independent city-state again. The Cyberpunk timeline page has the dates from the 1990s through 2077, with each event tagged by edition.

Mike Pondsmith has described the relationship like this (in an IGN interview): 'If 2020 were Star Wars, then Cyberpunk RED is basically Empire Strikes Back. And then 2077 is Return of the Jedi.'

Products around the core book#

Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode is a free introduction, and the Jumpstart Kit is a standalone starter. Sourcebooks include a gear book, a book of character profiles, a GM-tools book, a Night City 2045 sourcebook, volumes that collect the downloadable content, and adventure books.

In June 2024 R. Talsorian released the Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit, which uses the RED rules for missions set in the 2077 timeline. At Gen Con 2025 R. Talsorian announced Single Player Mode, which came out in September 2025 and lets you play RED solo. A miniature game, Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone, was released in 2023.

A Cyberpunk 2077 Campaign Book was announced at Gen Con 2025, aiming for 2026. No release date has been confirmed.

Fixer's notes: how to start playing#

Opinion: get Easy Mode or the Jumpstart Kit before you buy the core book. If your group sticks, the core book is the full game. Physical copies are on the R. Talsorian Store, digital copies on DriveThruRPG, and RTG lists Roll20, Demiplane (Cyberpunk RED Nexus) and Fantasy Grounds for online play. R. Talsorian says it is on the third printing of the core book and recommends the errata document if you own a first or second printing.

Pick roles that overlap with what the group wants to do. A Solo, a Netrunner and a Fixer cover combat, hacking and jobs. Run the jobs through a fixer, as the genre does. Our read: first-timers should run the first session as written and resist the urge to homebrew.

If you want the context first, start with what is cyberpunk, then read the cyberpunk slang glossary before your first session.

For the designer behind the game, see Mike Pondsmith.

If you are weighing RED against other tabletop games, see Shadowrun vs Cyberpunk.