The Rules of the Street

Game Mechanics in Cyberpunk Red

The Foundation: How Dice Tell Stories

In Cyberpunk Red, everything revolves around a simple concept: rolling a ten-sided die (d10) and adding your relevant skill and attribute. Think of it like this - the dice represent chaos and uncertainty (the random elements of life), while your skills and attributes represent your training and natural ability (what you can control).

It's like trying to hit a bullseye while riding a motorcycle in a thunderstorm. Your skill determines how steady your hand is, but the storm (the dice) can still throw you off target - or give you that perfect moment when everything aligns.

Interactive Dice Roller

Try your luck in Night City!

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The Core Mechanic: 1d10 + Stat + Skill

The Universal Formula

Roll: 1d10 + Attribute + Skill vs. Difficulty Value (DV)

If your total equals or exceeds the DV, you succeed. It's that simple - and that brutal.

Anatomy of a Cyberpunk Red skill check One d10 plus your STAT plus your Skill, compared against a Difficulty Value. The d10 is the only random element and spans 1 to 10; STAT typically runs 2 to 8; Skill runs 0 to 10; the DV is chosen by the GM from the difficulty ladder. 1d10 1 – 10 Luck. The only part you don't control. + STAT 2 – 8 Who you are. Set at creation, rarely moves. + SKILL 0 – 10 What you trained. This is what IP buys you. ≥ DV 13 / 15 / 17 / 21 / 24 Chosen by the GM from the ladder below. WORKED EXAMPLE — HACKING A CORPORATE DATABASE INT 7 + Cryptography 5 = 12 before the die is even thrown Against a Difficult job (DV 15) you need a 3 or better → 80% chance Against military ICE (DV 21) you need a natural 10 → 10% chance
Figure — every roll in the game is this one shape. Notice how little of it is the die. A specialist with STAT + Skill of 12 clears Everyday and Difficult tasks most of the time and fails Heroic ones almost always; the d10 decides the middle. That is the whole design: characters are defined by which rungs of the ladder they own outright, not by lucky rolls.

Think of it like this: you're constantly taking tests in Night City, but instead of getting a grade, you either succeed or face consequences. Sometimes those consequences are embarrassment. Sometimes they're bullets.

Difficulty Values: The Mountain You're Climbing

Cyberpunk Red uses five named difficulty steps. The GM picks one, you try to match or beat it.

The Cyberpunk Red Difficulty Value ladder Five difficulty steps: Everyday DV 13, Difficult DV 15, Professional DV 17, Heroic DV 21 and Incredible DV 24. Bars grow longer as the DV rises. For a character with STAT plus Skill of 10, the chances of success are 80 percent, 60 percent, 40 percent, 10 percent and 7 percent respectively — the top two steps are only reachable by rolling a critical. A character with STAT + Skill = 10 (competent professional) attempts each step: DV 13 EVERYDAY Driving in traffic · picking a cheap lock · patching a cut needs 3+ on the d10 → 80% DV 15 DIFFICULT Tailing someone through a crowd · hotwiring a modern car needs 5+ → 60% DV 17 PROFESSIONAL Field surgery · forging corporate credentials needs 7+ → 40% DV 21 HEROIC Beating military-grade ICE · talking down an armed Solo crit only → 10% DV 24 INCREDIBLE The thing they will still be telling stories about in ten years crit + 4 → 7% Above DV 20, only a natural 10 gets you there — no amount of skill makes a Heroic task routine.
Figure — the DV ladder, and who can actually climb it. The five steps are fixed by the rules; what changes is your STAT + Skill total. Because one d10 only spans 1–10, a character can be mathematically incapable of a task no matter how they roll — and equally, once STAT + Skill is high enough, Everyday tasks stop needing dice at all. Both are features. When a roll cannot fail or cannot succeed, don't call for it.

Critical Success and Fumbles: When Dice Go Wild

flowchart TD A[Roll 1d10] --> B{Natural 10?} B -->|Yes| C[CRITICAL SUCCESS
Roll 1d10 more and ADD it] B -->|No| D{Natural 1?} D -->|Yes| E[CRITICAL FAILURE
Roll 1d10 more and SUBTRACT it] D -->|No| F[Normal result
roll + STAT + Skill] C --> G[Compare total to the DV
a second 10 does NOT crit again] E --> G style C stroke:#1f6f5c,stroke-width:3px style E stroke:#7a2450,stroke-width:3px style G stroke:#2a3f6e,stroke-width:3px

Critical Success (Natural 10)

When the d10 comes up a natural 10, roll one more d10 and add it to your total. That is the whole rule — if the second die is also a 10, it does not trigger another critical. The dice do not explode in Cyberpunk Red.

This matters more than it sounds. A single bonus die means the best possible roll is 20 + STAT + Skill, so the ceiling on any check is knowable. A character who cannot reach a DV even on a critical simply cannot do the thing, and the GM should say so instead of asking for a roll.

Example: Your hacking attempt doesn't just break in - it gives you admin access and erases all traces of your intrusion.

Critical Failure (Natural 1)

When the d10 comes up a natural 1, roll one more d10 and subtract it from your total. As with criticals, a second 1 does not compound.

Note what this is not: it is not an automatic failure, and it is not a licence for the GM to invent a disaster. A character with a high STAT + Skill can roll a 1, subtract another 6, and still clear an Everyday DV. The mechanic makes a bad roll worse, not fatal.

Example: You still pick the lock, but the subtracted die drops you under the DV — so it takes long enough that security notices the door ajar.

Think of criticals and fumbles like life's extreme moments - sometimes you have the perfect day where everything goes right, and sometimes you spill coffee on your shirt right before the big meeting. Cyberpunk Red captures both these extremes.

Combat: When Talking Stops Working

Combat in Cyberpunk Red is like a deadly dance where everyone's trying to step on each other's feet with bullets. It's fast, lethal, and unforgiving - just like real violence should be in a game about consequences.

Initiative Phase

Roll: 1d10 + Reflexes

Determines who acts when. In gunfights, going first often means going home alive.

Action Phase

Each character gets one Action and one Move per turn. Common Actions include:

  • Attack: Shoot, stab, or punch someone
  • Aimed Shot: −8 to hit in exchange for targeting the head (double damage), a held item (disarm), or a leg (Broken Leg critical injury)
  • Reload: Because running out of bullets is embarrassing
  • Get Up / Take Cover / Use an Item: The unglamorous actions that keep you alive
Not a Cyberpunk Red rule

There is no generic "aim for +1" and no "full defense" stance — those are Cyberpunk 2020 habits. In Red, the only way to trade accuracy for effect is the Aimed Shot, and the only way to avoid a bullet is the Evasion skill, which most characters cannot use against firearms at all.

Resolution Phase

Roll damage, apply armor, check for critical injuries. Combat is over when one side is dead, unconscious, or runs away.

Attack Resolution

flowchart TD A[Attacker rolls
1d10 + REF + Weapon Skill] --> B{Beat the DV?} B -->|No| D[Miss — no effect] B -->|Yes| C[Roll the weapon's damage dice
e.g. 2d6 for a medium pistol] C --> G{Two or more 6s
among those dice?} G -->|Yes| H[CRITICAL INJURY
roll 2d6 on the table
+5 damage straight to HP] G -->|No| E H --> E[Subtract the target's armor SP
from the dice total] E --> F{Any damage got through?} F -->|Yes| I[Lose that many HP
armor SP ablates by 1] F -->|No| J[No damage, armor undamaged] style B stroke:#8a5a10,stroke-width:3px style G stroke:#7a2450,stroke-width:3px style H stroke:#7a2450,stroke-width:3px

Damage and Death: The Price of Violence

Health and Injury System

Your Body Type modifier determines how much damage you can take:

The Cyberpunk Red Hit Point track and wound states Hit points count down from maximum to zero. From full HP down to just above half you are Lightly Wounded with no penalty. At half maximum HP or below you are Seriously Wounded, taking minus 2 to all Actions. At zero HP or below you are Mortally Wounded, taking minus 4 to all Actions and making a Death Save every turn. Max HP = 10 + (5 × the average of BODY and WILL). Shown here for a typical 40 HP character. LIGHTLY WOUNDED No penalty at all — you just have less cushion SERIOUSLY WOUNDED −2 to every Action you take MORTALLY WOUNDED 40 HP 20 HP — half of max 0 HP below 0 THE TWO THRESHOLDS THAT MATTER There are only two lines on this track, and both are computed, not looked up: ½ max HP → Seriously Wounded, −2 to all Actions 0 HP → Mortally Wounded, −4 and a Death Save every single turn A Death Save is 1d10 against your BODY. Roll your BODY or under and you cling on for another turn. Every save you survive makes the next one harder. Note: the −2 applies the moment you cross half. It does not scale further until 0.
Figure — hit points count down, and the penalty is a cliff, not a slope. This is the single most misplayed part of the system. Nothing happens as you take your first 20 points of damage — then you cross half and everything you attempt gets −2 at once. Crossing zero doesn't kill you either; it starts a clock that a friend with a Medtech skill can still stop.

Critical Injuries: When Bad Gets Worse

Critical Injuries are not triggered by a damage threshold. They are triggered by the damage dice themselves: whenever two or more of the d6s rolled for a single melee or ranged attack come up 6, the target suffers a Critical Injury — roll 2d6 on the appropriate table. Every Critical Injury also deals 5 bonus damage straight to Hit Points, bypassing armor entirely.

This is why a light pistol is never truly safe to stand in front of, and why an assault rifle rolling 5d6 is terrifying: more dice means more chances to pair up sixes. These range from annoying to life-changing:

Real-world parallel: Critical injuries are like the difference between a paper cut and a car accident. The system reflects that some wounds change you permanently, which is realistic and terrifying.

Netrunning: Digital Warfare

Netrunning is like being a digital warrior in a virtual battlefield. While your body sits safely jacked into a cyberdeck, your mind fights for its life in cyberspace against security programs that can literally kill you.

Architecture Recognition

Roll: 1d10 + Interface Rank vs. DV

Map out the digital fortress you're about to assault. Knowledge is survival.

Backdoor

Roll: 1d10 + Interface Rank vs. DV

Sneak past the front door security. Sometimes stealth beats brute force.

Cloak

Roll: 1d10 + Interface Rank vs. DV

Hide your presence from security programs. Being invisible is better than being dead.

Control

Roll: 1d10 + Interface Rank vs. DV

Take command of enemy systems. Turn their weapons against them.

graph TD A[Jack In] --> B[Architecture Recognition] B --> C{Security Detected?} C -->|No| D[Navigate Safely] C -->|Yes| E[Combat with ICE] D --> F[Access Target File] E --> G{Survive ICE?} G -->|Yes| F G -->|No| H[Brain Damage/Death] F --> I[Jack Out Safely] style A stroke:#4ecdc4,stroke-width:3px style E stroke:#ff6b6b,stroke-width:3px style H stroke:#8e44ad,stroke-width:3px style I stroke:#96ceb4,stroke-width:3px

ICE: The Digital Guardians

Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics (ICE) are like guard dogs made of code. They patrol cyberspace looking for unauthorized users, and when they find you, they try to delete you - sometimes literally.

Skill Interactions and Complementary Actions

Skills in Cyberpunk Red work together like instruments in a jazz band - individually they're good, but together they create something greater than the sum of their parts.

Complementary Skills

When you use multiple skills for the same task, you can get a bonus:

  • Primary Skill: The main skill for the task
  • Complementary Skill: A related skill that helps (+1 to +3 bonus)

Example: Using Education (complementary) to help with a Technology (primary) roll when analyzing ancient computer systems.

Teamwork and Assistance

Multiple characters can work together on tasks:

Real-world analogy: It's like having a study group for a difficult exam. Everyone brings different strengths, and together you can tackle problems none of you could solve alone.

Advanced Mechanics: Beyond the Basics

Autofire and Suppressive Fire

Automatic weapons change the game completely:

Vehicle Combat

Car chases and vehicle combat use different rules:

Reputation and Face

Your reputation precedes you in Night City:

Game Master Tools: Running the Mechanics

For GMs, these mechanics are like the engine of a car - players don't need to understand every detail, but you need to know how to keep things running smoothly.

When to Roll vs. When to Roleplay

Scaling Difficulty

Adjust DVs based on circumstances:

Making Combat Flow

Common Situations and Their Mechanics

Social Encounters

Investigative Scenarios

Survival Situations

Putting It All Together

Cyberpunk Red's mechanics serve the story, not the other way around. Every rule exists to create tension, consequences, and dramatic moments. The dice don't just determine success or failure - they determine how your character's story unfolds.

Remember: In Night City, the house always wins eventually. But the mechanics give you tools to fight back, to carve out your own space in a hostile world, and to tell stories worth remembering.

The key is understanding that these aren't just game rules - they're the physics of a world where style matters as much as substance, where a single roll can change everything, and where the most important victories are often the ones that let you keep your humanity while gaining power.