Cyberpunk RED Netrunning: NET Architecture, Black ICE and How to Run It

What changed from Cyberpunk 2020#

In Cyberpunk 2020 a netrunner could jack in from a safe room and play a separate game for an hour while everyone else waited. RED fixes that. The global Net is gone after the DataKrash, so a netrunner now has to be on site, plugged into a local system, with Virtuality goggles that overlay the NET on the real room.

That was a design choice. The goal was to make sure every player has something to do while the hacking happens, and the rules were built to be quick: each floor is one obstacle, not a maze.

NET Architecture: floors and how they work#

A NET Architecture is an air-gapped system on a physical server. It has one or more floors, and each floor holds a Password, a File, a Control Node, a piece of Black ICE or similar. You have to deal with what is on a floor before you go to the next one, and you go top to bottom.

Moving between floors is free if nothing is in the way. It only costs an action when you have to cross an obstacle, so a floor with nothing on it is a hallway. When you jack out, the Architecture resets and you start at the top next time. The exception is a custom Virus left on the lowest floor, which changes the system permanently.

The NET Architecture runs on META, a programming language developed in 2035 to unify what was left of the old operating systems. It does not do fancy graphics, and that is why netrunning looks like a stack of rooms, not a fantasy world.

Interface, actions and the deck#

Interface is the netrunner's Role Ability. It lets you run the NET and take basic actions without any program. On your turn you take either a Meat Action in the real world or a number of NET actions, and your Interface rank sets how many. You still get your real-world Movement Action, so you can walk and hack, as long as you stay within range of the network.

A cyberdeck has built-in functions such as cracking a password, attacking a Hellhound and taking control of a camera. Pathfinder maps the Architecture so you know what is ahead. Decks come with slots for programs: a Poor deck has 5 and costs 100 eb, a Standard deck has 7 and costs 500 eb, and an Excellent deck has 9 and costs 1,000 eb. You also need Interface Plugs, which means a Neural Link.

Programs live in slots. In the Jumpstart Kit rules only one copy of a program can be loaded at a time, and each program can be run once per combat round. Black ICE you bring yourself takes two slots. Official examples include Armor, Eraser, Hellbolt, Speedy Gonzalvez, Superglue and Sword.

Opinion: buy a better deck before you buy a better gun. Slots are the netrunner's hit points.

Black ICE and Demons#

Black ICE is the Architecture's security. It hunts the netrunner and their programs once it spots them. Anti-Personnel Black ICE is built to kill netrunners, and Anti-Program Black ICE is built to kill other programs. The Jumpstart Kit's example Black ICE is the Hellhound.

You do not have to kill Black ICE. Attack it enough and it is derezzed, which means it is inactive, not destroyed. You can also dodge it by sliding to another level, and it waits for you where you left it.

Demons are a separate kind of program. They are intelligent systems that operate Control Nodes, so they defend a network and the physical space around it: turrets, cameras, stun panels, blood swarms. They are too big for a cyberdeck. A Demon is how a hack on floor 3 turns into a problem for the whole team in the corridor.

Here is what actually happens at the table. Redeye the runner finds a Hellhound on floor 2. She boosts her speed, walks into the floor, loses the opposed check, and takes 10 points straight to the brain, because there is no armor for it. That is the Jumpstart Kit example, and it is how RED teaches new players that the NET bites.

The Blackwall at the table#

The Blackwall is the reason the old Net is not a place anymore. NetWatch started building it in 2044 to keep rogue AIs out of what was left of the Net. Behind it, the AIs survive; in front of it, the Net is a patchwork of local systems.

For a GM, the Blackwall does three jobs. It explains why nobody can hack from home, why corporations lock their data in air-gapped boxes, and why a rumor about a netrunner who went too far can work as a ghost story.

Opinion: keep the Blackwall a rumor in a RED game. The moment a player can open it, you have run out of campaign. Read the Blackwall page for the 2077 version and the Time of the Red for the 2045 backstory.

Fixer's notes: GM tips to keep everyone busy#

Run the NET in parallel with the room. Rolls in the NET are quick checks, so give the netrunner a minute on their turn and a one-sentence description of what they see. If a turn takes longer than the Solo's firefight, it is too long.

Make the runner's body a target. A netrunner on floor 4 is standing in a corridor with their eyes covered by goggles. Give the table something to do about the three guards coming around the corner. The Jumpstart example is exactly this: the crew fights guards while the runner works.

Give the others a matching job. A Tech can open the door that is not on the network. A Media can watch the camera feed the runner just took over. The core book includes physical hacking, such as fiddling with wires and switching circuit boards, which gives a Tech or anyone with the skill a part in the same break-in.

Let the NET touch the real room. A Demon that controls a turret or a stun panel turns a hacking failure into everyone's problem. A success that turns the turret off is everyone's win.

Opinion: keep architectures short. Three or four floors will do for a first job, and the Netrunning Deck has 16 Program cards, 30 Black ICE cards, 3 Demon cards and 11 Floor cards if you would rather deal a system than invent one.

If you are running your first session, the first session guide has a one-shot with a netrunner scene, and the Netrunner page covers the 2077 version. For the role itself, see all ten roles.