In between writing and a recent Battletech obsession, my group has recently switched systems to Cyberpunk Red, and let me say is it a blast to play! I find myself enjoying none-D&D Systems more and more as time goes on and let’s explore why!
The Pro’s of Cyberpunk Red
The pros of this system are very simple- It’s fantastically clear and concise with most of its rules! If you can think about doing it you probably can! While it’s true a lot of this depends on the game, I truly think that character creation, actions that can be taken, and so much more are better in this game simply because there aren’t hundreds of pages of rules to sift through after a session to see if you followed them.
Half of the core rulebook is just an amazing amount of setting information, with unique situations and characters to name-drop, use and world-build with! Every version of Night City will be slightly different and that’s ok, but the RP opportunities for a GM willing to explore them are endless!
The character generator for players is good if a bit generic but my players enjoyed it. I did not have any net runners but the rules didn’t seem terrible.
The Cons of Cyberpunk Red
This is a little odd, but the character improvement system is not very clearly defined and is in the back of the book by world lore, and things only the GM would need to see. This is a bit disappointing to me as I far prefer having everything for player progression in one place.
In fact, the formatting of the book is my biggest and main complaint. There are a lot of sections that feel like they should be together. While the core rulebook for Cyberpunk Red is oddly formatted, I also think their melee rules are a little overly complicated. This is a personal preference of course but it could have been better.
The last Con I have is the lack of generic enemies to use as a Gm in the core book. While online resources are an option, I wish it was done better first.
The Campaign
Running a campaign for this is simple. It is built for a drop-in dropout for players, and one of the PCs chose a fixer which led to a lot of fun RP opportunities. In fact, this entire system works very well for roleplay, with a big emphasis on reputation in the game. If your players enjoy a lot more combat, I would say this might not be the best system for you. The combat rules are not weak, far from it, but they aren’t the best either.
The campaign started with just a simple premise, the heist of the century. It very quickly turned into a comedic masterpiece that has a lot of fond memories attached to it. The best part of it has been the Nomad player who does crazy maneuvers in his car. The system supports this to an extent that I love.
The final session is next week, and I will be doing a write-up of the fun shenanigans they got themselves into.
Another Win
This is another non-D&D system that has remotivated me to be a GM. Next up is a revisit to deadlands. It’s also about time for me to do an update on the years of running TTRPGs as well. If you are one of my repeat readers, I just have to say thank you. You are the reason this article was written. Go out there and try a fun new system, better yourself and try something new!
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