Welcome to Night City

What Cyberpunk RED is, when and where it is set, and the ideas that drive every game.

What is Cyberpunk RED?

Imagine waking up tomorrow to find that mega-corporations run the world like feudal lords, the internet has been shattered by digital warfare, and the line between human and machine has blurred beyond recognition. This is the world of Cyberpunk RED - a tabletop role-playing game set in a dystopian future where high technology meets low society.

Think of it like this: if our current world is a bustling marketplace, Cyberpunk RED's world is that same marketplace after a massive fire, where the vendors who survived now control everything, and everyone else scrambles for scraps in the ash-covered ruins.

Which edition this guide covers: Cyberpunk RED, designed by Mike Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games — the Core Rulebook released in November 2020, with the setting in the year 2045. Everything rules-related on these pages follows that book.

Edition history in one line: Cyberpunk (1988) → Cyberpunk 2020 (1990) → Cyberpunk V3.0 (2005) → the Cyberpunk RED Jumpstart Kit (2019) → the Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook (2020). Older Cyberpunk 2020 rules (Body Type Modifiers, stun saves, wound boxes) do not apply to RED.

The one rule you need today

Almost everything is resolved the same way: STAT + Skill + 1d10, and you must beat a Difficulty Value set by the GM (a tie fails). Roll a natural 10 and you roll one more d10 and add it; roll a natural 1 and you roll one more d10 and subtract it. Neither chains.

Example: REF 6 + Handgun 4 = 10, against a DV 15 shot. You need the d10 to come up 6 or better (counting criticals), which happens exactly 50% of the time. Against a DV 13 task the same character succeeds 70% of the time.

The World After the Fourth Corporate War

timeline title The Path to 2045 Early 2020s : The 4th Corporate War : Arasaka vs Militech : The DataKrash wrecks the Old NET 2023 : Arasaka Tower is nuked : Night City's core becomes the Hot Zone By 2025 : The war is over : The Time of the Red begins 2045 : Present day : Night City is rebuilding

The year is 2045, and the world is still recovering from the Fourth Corporate War, which tore through the early 2020s and was over by 2025. In 2023 a nuke levelled Arasaka Tower in Night City; ground zero, once the Corporate Center, is now the Hot Zone. Along the way the DataKrash — think of it as a digital nuclear bomb — wrecked the old global NET. Fallout and orbital strikes turned the skies red for years afterwards, which is why this era is called "the Time of the Red."

Night City: The Urban Jungle

Night City is a layered cake where each layer is a social class — except these layers are at war with each other. Where you live decides what the law means, who answers your calls, and how long you are likely to live.

The vertical stratification of Night City Three stacked bands. Corporate territory sits at the top with the most power and safety, the Suburbs in the middle, and the Combat Zone at the bottom with the least. An arrow up the left side marks increasing power, safety and life expectancy. POWER · SAFETY · LIFE EXPECTANCY CORPORATE TERRITORY Arcologies, private security, filtered air. Executives decide the fate of millions from behind armoured glass. Law here = corporate policy. Security answers to shareholders. THE SUBURBS Working families holding the line on normality — a job, a door that locks, kids in school. All of it one layoff deep. Law here = whoever the neighbourhood pays for protection. THE COMBAT ZONE Bombed-out blocks the city stopped policing. Gangs hold territory; medical help is whoever can drag you to it. Law here = reputation, and how fast you are on the draw. Most player characters start in the bottom two bands.
Figure 1 — Night City is vertical. The same city block can be three different countries depending on which band you are standing in. Almost every Cyberpunk RED adventure is about crossing those lines: a crew from the Combat Zone taking a job in corporate territory, where their reputation counts for nothing and the rules that kept them alive no longer apply.

Technology and Humanity: The Eternal Dance

The Humanity economy Humanity equals Empathy times ten. A character starting with Empathy 6 has 60 Humanity. Each piece of cyberware deducts Humanity Loss, and each time the tens digit of Humanity drops, the character loses 1 point of Empathy. If Humanity drops below zero the character becomes a cyberpsycho and is taken over by the GM as an NPC. HUMANITY = EMPATHY × 10 EMP 6 means 60 Humanity. EMP drops by 1 each time the tens digit of Humanity drops (60 → 59 is already EMP 5). CYBERPSYCHOSIS below 0 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 EMP 6 EMP 5 EMP 4 EMP 3 EMP 2 EMP 1 EMP 0 WHAT EACH STEP DOWN ACTUALLY COSTS YOU Empathy is the stat behind Conversation and Human Perception. Each time your Humanity slips past another multiple of 10, you get measurably worse at reading people and drawing them out. The chrome doesn't make you a monster in one go — it makes you slightly harder to talk to, over and over. Below 0 Humanity the character becomes a cyberpsycho — and the GM takes them over as an NPC.
Figure 2 — the price is paid in instalments. This is the bargain at the heart of the setting: the arm that makes you dangerous is bought with the part of you that keeps you connected to other people. Note that it is a budget, not a punishment — a character with EMP 8 can carry far more chrome than one with EMP 3, and choosing low Empathy at creation is choosing to become chrome.

In Cyberpunk RED, technology isn't just a tool - it's an extension of your body and soul. People routinely replace body parts with cybernetic enhancements. It's like upgrading your smartphone, except the phone is your arm, and the upgrade might come with the risk of losing your humanity.

The Cost of Enhancement

Every cybernetic implant comes with a price beyond money - it costs you pieces of your humanity. Think of your humanity like a bank account. Each enhancement is like taking out a loan with interest. Eventually, if you're not careful, you might find yourself bankrupt - not financially, but spiritually. This is called "cyberpsychosis."

The Broken Net

graph TB F[Netrunner + Cyberdeck] -->|jacks in within 6 m/yds| A[Access Point] A --> B[NET Architecture<br/>floor by floor] B --> C[Files & Passwords] B --> D[Control Nodes] B --> H[Black ICE] E[Rogue AIs of the Old NET] -.-x|held back by the Blackwall| B style E stroke:#ff0000,stroke-width:3px style H stroke:#ff6600,stroke-width:3px

Remember dial-up internet? The NET in 2045 is like that, but worse. The DataKrash didn't just slow things down - it shattered the global network into isolated local networks, each one a separate NET Architecture you have to physically get close to. It's like having a library where most of the books have been burned, the remaining sections are locked behind multiple security doors, and dangerous guard dogs patrol the aisles.

Netrunning: Digital Cowboys

Netrunners are the brave (or foolish) souls who dive into these digital ruins. They're like underwater treasure hunters, except the ocean is made of data, the treasure is information, and the sharks are Black ICE — programs that can fry your brain for real.

Real World Parallels and Modern Relevance

Cyberpunk RED isn't just fantasy - it's a dark mirror of our current world. Consider these parallels:

Why Play Cyberpunk RED?

Cyberpunk RED offers something unique in tabletop gaming: the chance to explore what it means to be human in a world that constantly challenges that humanity. It's like playing in a philosophical experiment wrapped in neon lights and gunfire.

Themes to Explore

Getting Started: Your First Steps

Starting Cyberpunk RED is like learning to ride a motorcycle in a thunderstorm - intimidating at first, but incredibly rewarding once you get the hang of it. Here's what you need to know:

Essential Concepts

What's Next?

This page has given you a taste of Night City's neon-soaked streets and chrome-plated dreams. On the next page, Character Creation, we dive into building a character - learning how to build a character who can survive and thrive in this dangerous world.

Remember: In Night City, you're not just playing a game - you're exploring what it means to be human when humanity itself is up for sale.

© 2026 Ray de la Paz. The Cyberpunk RED Guide. All rights reserved. · Ray's House of Fun
Cyberpunk is a registered trademark of CD PROJEKT S.A. Cyberpunk RED is published by R. Talsorian Games. This guide is an unofficial fan resource.