How to Run Your First Cyberpunk RED Game: Easy Mode, Lifepath, a One-Shot and Three Hooks

Which product to start with#

Easy Mode, the Jumpstart Kit and the core book all run the same game at different depths. Easy Mode is a free, 48-page introduction with core rules, five pregenerated characters (a Rockerboy, a Solo, a Tech, a Medtech and a Media) and a mission, Getting Paid, by James Hutt. Print-on-demand copies are sold at cost. It came out in September 2022, the week Edgerunners premiered.

The Jumpstart Kit debuted at Gen Con in 2019 and is a boxed starter with a rules booklet, a lore and adventures booklet, six pregens, a quick reference sheet, maps, standees and dice. The core book is 456 pages with all ten roles and three Screamsheet adventures.

Opinion: start with Easy Mode, and only buy the core book if your table wants a second session. Easy Mode has no Netrunner pregen, which is a feature for a first night: you can leave netrunning for session two.

If you own the Jumpstart Kit, R. Talsorian has a free Jumpstart Kit Conversion Guide that shows how to run its missions in the core game.

Lifepath: build characters together#

Lifepath is a series of tables that generate a background: cultural origins, personality, style, what you value, your family, your environment, a family crisis and more. For each table you can roll a d10 or pick, and you can swap a result you do not like. It gives you connections, rivals and plot hooks, and it does not change your starting stats or skills.

RED also adds a role-based Lifepath: whether your Netrunner has a partner, what venues your Rockerboy plays, where your Tech gets spare parts. Do it together at the table, and write each character's best hook on an index card. You will use them all night.

If you are using the Easy Mode pregens, still have each player roll or choose two Lifepath results so the character belongs to them. The character creation page walks through the build methods.

A one-shot structure that works#

A three-to-four-hour job needs about five beats. The core book includes a scenario-building tool called Beat Charts, and the official Screamsheet adventures show the format. Here is a loose structure you can run with or without them.

• The offer (15 minutes): A Fixer or a contact lays out the job and the money. Edgerunners get paid per job, and the book gives guidance on how much.
• Legwork (30 minutes): The crew gathers what they need. This is where Lifepath contacts, the Media's rumors and the Fixer's sources earn their keep.
• The obstacle (40 minutes): A security layer or a rival crew. Make sure it can be solved by talking, by sneaking, or by shooting, and give the netrunner something to do here.
• The complication (30 minutes): The job is not what you were told, or the client lied, or a third party shows up.
• The fight or the escape (40 minutes): Pick one big scene. RED is lethal, so a single well-set fight beats four small ones.
• Payout and aftermath (15 minutes): Pay the crew, hand out consequences, ask who they now owe.

Three original hooks#

These are written for the Time of the Red in 2045 and use the setting's texture without lifting from any published mission.

• Blood Rain Delivery: A Fixer needs a sealed cooler moved across a container-housing district to a back-alley clinic before the next blood rain. The cooler is locked to the clinic's own NET Architecture, so the netrunner has to be at the door when it opens. The clinic's Medtech is lying about who ordered it. Spotlight: Netrunner, Medtech, Nomad.
• Lights Out in Block Nine: A tenants' committee hires the crew because the building's access system has locked every door, and the landlord says the residents owe fees. A Demon runs the stun panels, and a corporate Exec insists nothing is wrong. Spotlight: Netrunner, Tech, Exec.
• The Last Set: A famous Rockerboy plans a farewell show at a club on the edge of the combat zone. Someone wants it to fail, someone else wants it filmed, and a fan has smuggled in something that was not on the permit. Spotlight: Rockerboy, Media, Solo.

Safety tools before you start#

Cyberpunk is a genre built on violence, addiction and body horror, so talk about limits before you play. The X-Card, created by John Stavropoulos in 2013, is the simplest tool. Anyone can tap an index card marked with an X and the group removes or changes the content without asking why. Lines and veils is a pre-game conversation: lines are things that never appear, and veils are things that happen off-screen.

RPG author James D'Amato calls the X-Card reactive, not preventive, which is why a short chat at the start of the night matters. Opinion: ask three questions at the start of session one. What do you want from the game? What should we not show? Who is allowed to veto what?

RED is deliberately lethal. Designer James Hutt has said lethality is core to the experience, and Critical Injuries make combat bloody. Tell players that up front so a dead character is not a surprise.

Common beginner mistakes#

Here is what actually happens at a lot of first tables, and how to avoid it.

• Treating hit points like D&D: RED uses hit points, but armor wears down, Critical Injuries stack and a mortally wounded character takes extra injuries from each hit. Players who stand in the open get dead.
• Running the netrunner as a solo game: Keep the runner on site and the actions short. The RED netrunning guide has tips.
• Skipping Lifepath: You lose the hooks that make the plot personal. Do it, even for pregens.
• Buying every piece of chrome: Cyberware costs Humanity, and enough of it ends a character. The character creation page explains how.
• Making every job a fight: Give every scene at least two ways through. If the Media and the Fixer have no scene, you built a shooting gallery.
• Ignoring the setting: Open every session with the red sky, the container housing, the Night Market. The Time of the Red page has more.

Fixer's notes: what to read next#

Read the role guide before you pick characters, the product guide before you shop, and the Cyberpunk RED overview for the big picture. If your table has Cyberpunk 2020 veterans, hand them 2020 vs RED.

Choosing between systems? See Shadowrun vs Cyberpunk.