Rache Bartmoss: The Netrunner Who Killed the Old Net
The short version
Rache Bartmoss is the netrunner blamed for the DataKrash, the 2022 collapse of the old Net, which he did by seeding it with his R.A.B.I.D.S. viruses. In Cyberpunk 2077, V finds a frozen corpse and a booby-trapped cyberdeck in the Badlands that might be his.
On this page
Timeline#
- 2004Works a year at CCI Development, creating the Demon programs. Fired for hiding a political movie in the database code; the company is bankrupt within a week.
- September 2014Stays in the Net as the Ihara-Grubb Transformation Algorithms reshape it, and plants the R.A.B.I.D.S. viruses.
- 2020His body dies. Life support super-cools it, and his consciousness stays in the Net.
- 2075The cryogenic freezer contract expires and the freezer is dumped at a landfill in Red Peaks, in the Badlands.
- 2077V finds the freezer and a cyberdeck inside.
Who he is#
Rache Bartmoss is a legendary netrunner in the Cyberpunk series who became notorious as the man who caused the DataKrash and killed the old Net. He invented the Demon and Bloodhound families of programs and co-wrote two books with Spider Murphy, the Guide to the Net and Brainware Blowout.
He is a character in the 2020 sourcebooks first, and a rumor in 2077. The Blackwall page covers what the Krash left behind, and the Net explains how the Net worked before and after.
A short biography#
The 2020 lore has him netrunning from a very young age, double-crossing every company he worked for, and then cleaning his record and moving on. His one year at CCI Development ended with the company bankrupt. He later sold the Demon source code to several software houses and never needed a job again.
He ran the Pacifica region of the Net with Alt Cunningham, who later called it her best netrunning memory. Spider Murphy was his protege, and he considered himself her big brother.
When the Ihara-Grubb Algorithms were released in September 2014 to reform the Net, everyone else unplugged. Bartmoss stayed in to plant R.A.B.I.D.S. His heart stopped for ten seconds.
The DataKrash and his death#
The Krash is dated 3 June 2022 on the Blackwall page. Bartmoss's viruses corrupted huge amounts of data and freed military AIs, and NetWatch built the Blackwall to wall them off.
By then his body was already gone. In 2020 his heart stopped for reasons nobody knows, and his life support deep-froze him. Because he was connected to the Net at the time, the lore says his consciousness lived on.
Cyberpunk 2020 game stats#
Cyberpunk 2020 gives him high stats where it counts:
- Interface: 12
- System Knowledge: 13
- Programming: 11
- Cyberdeck: SGI Technologies Elysia
Fixer's notes: using Bartmoss at the table#
Opinion: Bartmoss works best as the ghost in your netrunner's story. The Net is a mess because of one man, and the details are a legend, which is all a campaign needs.
R. Talsorian Games has said it is not certain that the corpse in the freezer is Bartmoss, because Johnny Silverhand's memories are unreliable. Use that. A runner who finds a Bartmoss deck in your campaign is either holding the most valuable thing in the city or the worst trap ever laid, and the right answer is both.
Mike Pondsmith has said Bartmoss was inspired by several hackers he knew in his youth, and the closest real person was Harlan Ellison. That is a good voice reference if you play him.
See Cyberpunk RED netrunning for how the post-Krash runner works, and netrunners for the role as a whole.
Spoilers The freezer in the Badlands
In 2077 V receives a signal that leads to coordinates in the Badlands, where the freezer sits at a landfill. Johnny's digitized psyche recognizes the man inside as Bartmoss. This is the Kold Mirage quest.
V takes Bartmoss's Elysia cyberdeck to Nix at the Afterlife for analysis. Nix jacks in without knowing every security measure and springs one of Bartmoss's traps, and would have died if V had not reacted quickly.
Explore#
- Official