R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk: The Tabletop Game (Cyberpunk, 2020, RED, etc)

After going back several pages, the closest thread this subforum had on the topic was about creating characters for this system. With no recent general thread and the release of Cyberpunk 2077 on the horizon, a thread to discuss the game system in general might be interesting!

I'm just trying to find the rules for now so that I can begin to get my head around how the system works, and my brief search has already turned up a frankly absurd and confusing amount of sourcebook PDFs, since I believe that until Cyberpunk RED crops up, all the versions are currently Out Of Production. I suppose 2.0 is the definitive edition (3 wasn't well-received I gather) until we see what RED looks like.

2020 is the usually most-used version IIRC. I believe R Talsorian is selling them again if you're interested in buying them.

Now, RED is tentatively planned for an August release last I heard, but 2020 is probably going to sit a little more firmly in the retrofuture category if that aspect interests you! The splatbooks add flavor, but you can override them at any time (or, make an entirely separate alternate history as a setting).

Drive Through RPG allows the companies involved with it to POD whatever supplements you want.

I've got paperback versions and hardback versions printed up of Cyberpunk 2020 and Vampire: The Masquerade products.

Humorously enough, an August release sees it hit at the same time as the new Shadowrun.

Lol, rolled a character last night just to learn the character creation process - used the "roll 1d10 re-rolling any 2 or lower for every stat" method, and got so many 8s, 9s and 10... it was something like 74 points in all.

Oooooh, you have a lot of potential in this character. Most of the time they avarage out to in between 50 and 60 points, so with 74 you caan really become a Jack of All Stats, Master of All. I'm curious, which class are you going with? ^note Also, just to interject an opinion in, but of all the systems I've used for character creation, Cyberpunk's Lifepath system probably had the best. A while back I was bored and ended up making a bunch of characters for fun, because doing so was entertaining in its own right.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Jun 27th 2019 at 10:46:41 AM

Yeah, I was just reading the rules and then reached the lifepath bit and went "I HAVE to try this out". I think I was always intending on building that character as a fixer, seems like a lot of interesting interactions can happen when you're the "I can get that for you" dude. And a fence/crime boss who can actually DO stuff other than set up connections and boss people around would be cool.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Jun 27th 2019 at 4:10:08 PM

I was thinking of throwing down some cash to get the source book, maybe try a Discord server for a game. Find the rules daunting but the lore fantastic.

How easy is it, overall, to pick up? I know Shadowrun is dice HEAVY so how does this compare?

I have no idea how dice heavy Shadowrun is, or necessarily what that means (heavily reliant on dice? Having to roll a lot of dice?) but I can give a quick rundown of a few things.

Skill tests are roll a D10, add the relevant stat and add any bonus from a skill. Easy tests have to beat 10, and it goes up each five until 30 (nearly impossible). Combat seems fairly streamlined, albeit with large easy-to-reference tables. Damage can be as much as 8d10 dice - that's probably the most dice you'd roll in one go.

That makes sense. And seems fairly straightforward. SR seems to have a load of random modifiers, rule shifts depending on circumstance (Apparently a criticism of the last edition was how it over complicated even basic engagements and thus made it more challenging to RP)

Going to check out drivethru see what's on... I was a bit daunted by the, what, 30 possible books on there.

IIRC (I do not have my sourcebook handy on me right now) the entire game uses D10s and D6s for rolls. Depending on how many D10s you have having a couple might be advised.

Modifier wise, there are things like armor, but those are explained and easy to grasp. The real complicated thing is Netrunning. It plays almost like a different game and has a huge chunk of the sourcebook dedicated to explaining how it works. I've read the sourcebook a couple times and still don't fully understand. Worse, it happens at a different timescale from the rest of the action, so you can't really use it side by side to the party doing the rest of their actions!

That's going to be the most complicated thing, I'd reckon. I haven't tried it yet, but it may work a little better if the timescale is flattened out so Netrunning and regular play can happen simultaneously. That way the rest of the party does not sit bored while the Netrunner does their thing.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Jul 16th 2019 at 1:33:47 PM

Apologies for the double post, but some new information is pertinent.

The starter kit for Cyberpunk: RED is now out. The full rulebook, however, is not. The starter kit includes 6 pregenerated characters, and is apparently designed to help ease new players into the game.

I've always wanted to try out Cyberpunk 2020 and I'm going to see if I can get an old copy off of Amazon, and I'm definitely buying Cyberpunk Red when it comes out.

So both me and my buddy Greg have gotten a copy of Cyberpunk RED, and he's gonna be running it for our group that so far has been playing Interface Zero. Looking forward to it; gonna be playing a Rockergirl named Chloe Chaos who aims to be the next Johnny Silverhand.

I've got one on the burner, waiting for my copy to arrive before we (virtually) play.

Just got my copy of Cyberpunk Red.

I wonder what the setting looks like now.

It doesn't seem to be on Amazon at all...

You can order a physical copy from the company's website, or get a pdf from Drivethru RPG's site. I got the pdf, my buddy Greg got his copy from a local game shop.

Gotta say the ruleset in this is slick. Also my Rockergirl, Chloe Chaos, might be my favorite TTRPG I've ever played, slightly beating out my Irish storm sorcerer Connor O'Cullen.

Might be of interest, they are kickstarting funds for Cyberpunk Red

Edited by jormis29 on Apr 23rd 2021 at 1:19:10 AM

I became interested in the setting after finishing Cyberpunk, so I picked up a hardcopy of the 2020 rulebook and the Red Jumpstart. Haven't openned up the latter but the former is interesting, even if it does show it's age.

Cyberpunk RED is hella preem. I love the rule system; it's smooth as hell. Me and a buddy have a game going on Sundays and another buddy have one on alternating Thursdays.

Despite being an April's Fool joke, Cyberpunk Red has a crossover with VA-11 HALL-A.

You can get Dlc officially over here.