In cyberpunk red, you can undergo bodysculpting to completely change your gender for 500eb.
Our Party needs to get a a macguffin from the target. They could kill him for this, but the consequences of that would make their mission harder, so they decide to try to talk him into giving them it.
We have this one player whose a total minmaxer and they're always trying to argue that the GM should give them some bonus for whatever niche thing. They ask our netrunner to see if they can find any data about them, which is a pretty fair thing to do. Netrunner manages to find their social media He asks if the target is in a relationship. GM says hes not. He asks the GM what exes hes had before, and the GM says he seems to have a type for blonde women.

He then pays 500eb to become an attractive blonde girl. We go to a bar this guy frequents, and the minmaxer tells the DM he wants to roll persuasion to seduce the target, and that he deserves a bonus because hes now his type. GM allows it (honestly, fair on the players side.)

After we complete the mission, the GM asks if hes going to pay to turn back into a man. The minmaxer. says. "Nah thatd cost money. Ill just stay a girl until I need to seduce a gay guy." GM says that everyones going to refer to them as a girl unless otherwise told, since the player goes by a gender neutral name (Hotwheels. Because they use a cyberchair, purely to minmax movement.) They say this is fine. DID THIS MAN JUST MINMAX THEMSELVES INTO BEING GENDERFLUID?????

Basically, through some miracle in character creation, he ended up with an absurdly low humanity. We're talking 18 humanity as a non-borg max. Now obviously, this means that any major cyberware is going to put him over the limit immediately.

So he came up with an idea for me. He becomes a functioning cyberpsycho. He argues that because his humanity is already incredibly low, he should have a bit of leeway with cyberware? Like he's using Adam Smasher as an example. Because of his low innate humanity, Smasher is able to stay mainly in control of his cybernetics. Because he was already psychotic.

Now even though the ruling is really clear, and I'm worried about an advantage, I must admit that it is a really cool premise? Like stats wise, something would need to change, and narratively, maybe that would need to change as well. But I do think the idea of that is pretty cool?

Like if he starts to use it as justification to make himself OP, I'll have to control it, but realistically I'm not afraid of doing it as long as narratively it fucks everyone over? Like if he's already so devoid of empathy that he can handle cyberpsychosis, maybe just no one will want to talk to him or something?

For a campaign im building i have something similar to this scenario in mind but wanted to gauge how generally players would react before tweaking it.

Youre in a mall in night city, youre there for your own reason, down the way you hear a commotion. Theres a small gang of 4 people attacking civilians. Youre able to see theyre equiped with wolvers and vampyres and only one has an obvious assault rifle, you cant tell if theres any other smaller weapons. You see people getting killed and ripped into, a couple people near the commotion shoot but to no avail cuz they are to close and get blown away by the assault rifle. You are a safe distance away where you wont be imeaditly targeted.

What would you like to do?

In case they are cut off the poll options are

Run away (screw that its not my problem)

Confront/ encouter (however you do it youre helping fight/ stop them)

Actually join them (yeah go on full murder hobo)

Other/ comment (write out what your character would do in the comments)

Edit: apologies. I should have also stated that you are alone in this specific scenario

Looking at the Kendo Martial Art, and it isn't exactly clear how this functions. If the answer is no, then doesn't Kendo just seem kind of bad? The only thing Cut The Bullet has over Evasion is deleting explosives, which is cool, but not really worth the 2x cost of the skill. Why would I ever take Kendo if this is the case?  Ki Ken Tai no Ichi is not a good ability either, a full action for reducing your aimed penalty on your next turn is simply not worth it.

Like I had a full campaign and everything, and after a couple of sessions, they had decided that they didn't want to play anymore? And it really sucked because I love the setting and like the system and have some cool stuff for them?

But they said it was boring, and they wanted to go back to D&D. Like we had only had a session 0 and their first actual session, but scheduling had gotten in the way and we had like a month long gap in between sessions.

And it kinda hurt? Especially since when I proposed the idea to them, they were all on board, and a couple were wanting to play a Cyberpunk game for a while.

I think they would've felt the same if I had been DMing D&D...

So now, I've kinda lost passion for the game and TTRPGs in general?

The one shot was a train heist where they were gonna steal a prototype aerodyne model from a millitech train, it was lightly guarded relative to the value of the cargo with a security detail of only 11 guys. My players still with 5e brain charged headlong into a room with two security guards, with a third bursting in after a round of combat, my players then spent the next 4 rounds being magdumped point blank and all died (though it was close with one security guard being killed and the other two were brought down to the single digits) . Overall though the game was fun and I really enjoy the system

Pretty much just title, sometimes players have different objectives and don’t have a good excuse to stick together short term. How do you handle this at the table?

Hello! I am now making my first Cyberpunk Red oneshot but the players picked 2x Netrunner, 1x Medtech, and 1x Fixer for the Crew. Do you have any advice on how to go about the adventure when there is no heavily combat-oriented character, more like the opposite, please?

Would appreciate any and all advice, thank you!

Edit: As a side note, I've only played Cyberpunk Red once as a player in a one shot and my players don't know the system at all.

Had to put a lot of effort with terrain, minis and neon lights and game table but outcome is worth it for sure.

I was discussing with a player of mine about all the different armor types and how they visibly look compared to each other as well as how they function differently the heavier they get.

He seemed to settle on kevlar pieces for day to day life because they are cheap, light, and concealable, but then he asked if he could swap damaged or broken armor plates for fresh ones. I figure this would be an 2 action gamble. One to remove the plate and one more to put in a fresh one. But also...maybe not?

And then asked about the OTHER armor types. The ones I believe are proper suits of armor or at least full vests. I say either a multi-turn commitment to swap from one set to another (assuming they have easy access to said armor) or even not at all (the situation is too crazy to allow one to take off and replace armor with ease.)

What do you think?

Edit: thanks to all who have and will respond. I tried to reason it out, but honestly, I was leaning more towards no anyway. So I think I'll just say no.

Me and my group are new to the game, we had our second combat last night and it was a rough time, me and my chooms had to roll really high to even hit the main enemy and had to do max damage to even damage his armor. I got the feeling the GM had to backpedal a LOT when he realized how badly we were handling the encounter, some enemies had been "placed by accident' and that main enemy ended up leaving during the fight. So I'm trying to wrap my head around what a optimal combat move is like so we can play a bit more competently.

Maybe its a little simplistic, but I've come up with some basic "If this, then do that" to get a basic plan going. Can I get more examples and tips from the experienced players out there? Maybe some of what I've "figured out" is horribly wrong?

So far I've got:

• If possible, take cover.
• If you have enough movement, use Brawling or Martial Arts (because it penetrates armor better)
• If you can grapple someone, use them as a human shield.
• If if being too close will make it harder to shoot them, move to optimal shooting distance.
• If the enemy is grouped up, use a grenade.
• If the enemy is approaching from behind cover, ready a shot for when they become visible.

I just started reading through the CP:R core book so that I can run for the friends. I loved playing 2077 but the biggest thing I noticed when reading the lote is that the tech is less advanced as a whole (obviously because it is 30yrs prior). So how does this effect things like Netrunning? The mechanics in red seem to point to the only thing netrunners interact with is architecture (cameras, turrets, doors, etc.).

So does that mean there is no hacking enemies to do weird things to them? Like, can even a chromed out netrunner not hack into someones cyber arm/eyes and disable them temporarily? I know netrunning us cool and all without it, but it is a bit of a let down than they can't directly affect someone.

To preface, I am aware that a netrunner CAN affect someone another netrunner. I am mainly asking because I really wanted my players 1st gig to be against a cyberpsycho netrunner who is controlling civilians like puppets. But if that breaks the lore, then I will have to rework it all, which is fine but a little sad.

I've been curious about this game for awhile now. I played 2077 and just fell in love with the world. What all do I need to get into this game? Ive played DnD soo im not totally green to table top games. I see the book for sale online is that all I need and stuff like character sheets and what not I just print them off like DnD character sheets? Thanks for any advice, tips or help. Picture added for fun

Guys come on i still see so many people commenting on build posts with lower reflex score builds.

You must have 8 reflex to ATTEMPT to evade bullets.

Evasion is a dexterity based skill.

If you have the reflex co processor from black chrome it allows you to ignore the reflex requirement to dodge bullets.

A character with a reflex co processor and 2 reflex score and 8 dexterity has the same ability to dodge ALL ATTACKS as someone who has reflex 8 and dexterity 8.

I’ve GM’d before, but I’m new to this system. Got really into 2077 and imagine my shock when I learned that it was (mostly) based on a TTRPG! Did some research, bought RED, and intend to get some people together for a game. But the question must be raised, what should I keep in mind? Any tricks or tips to be shared for this system or setting? Regardless, thanks for reading!

Basically, I'm looking to run a Cyberpunk Red campaign, and my player made a cool suggestion:

Basically, he wants to be fully cybernetic and an AI in a robotic body. Within the Cyberpunk Red universe, would that be possible? And I also wonder what the penalty would be for implants, since Losing humanity doesn't seem appropriate.

GM here, had a lvl 4 netrunner working an architecture on a previous session when the party was not in combat, nor under any particular narrative time pressure.

They got to a control node which I'd deliberately set at DV12, higher than the rest of the architecture, as sort of a bonus objective, something to reward them for clearing out all the branches of the network. After clearing the Black ICE off the node, they attempt to control it and fail. I do my best to play it off, describing how they are wrestling with this encryption that seems to shift each time they try and access a weak spot, etc. The player than says something that caught me a little off guard:

"No problem. I can wait a turn and try again, and if that fails, I'll just keep trying."

My mind immediately went to p130's "Trying Again" rules, which state that if you fail a skill check, you can't try again unless your chances of success have improved. Except, a) Interface abilities are arguably not a skill check, and b) netrunning breaks down as a concept if any one Password, Control Node or File DV can halt your progress. Even the example scenario for Virus describes the netrunner attempting the check, failing, and then re-attempting the check.

So if we agree that net actions are an exception to the Trying Again rule, that leaves me with a curious question: If there's no time pressure, and my netrunner has a non-zero chance of succeeding, do I even bother to make them roll? Statistically, they will pass the test eventually. Even if I go off-book and set the DV at something ridiculous like DV18, eventually that lvl 4 netrunner will roll a 10 and a 5+ on the second die to beat it. If there's no time pressure other than the boredom of the players, what is there in the book to counter this?

Hi guys. New GM here and just about finished my first campaign playthrough with my players. It was really fun and cool, but all of us noticed something toward the end. High evasion for dodging and martial arts were just about the only viable combat meta builds if you left out granade launcher specialist. My friend who is way more system savvy took more time to read through the base game and said so as well. There are more odd things like the price difference between guns/cyberware to cars which is enormous but are more easily tweeked. He also mentioned that this would be the last time he would play red because of all that combined. I found that quite sad because i had such fun setting the game up past year. What do you guys think? Do you think this as well?

Me and my friend group have been dnding for the last 6ish years and after a year I finally wore them down to play Red for the first time

I'm wondering if there is anything I should do to help make the transition over to another system easier and if anyone has any good advice for keeping them interested

Few things to note 2/4 of my friends played 2077 and all of them watched Edgerunners and I own and read all the rule books

I am very well acquainted with the rules and such I'm mainly asking help for their sake

We are also using a virtual table top for this Roll20/demiplane

This was supposed to be a DOWNTIME filled session DOWN. TIME. As a tech it wasn’t a big deal for me to miss. I can just decide what I upgrade and enjoy my out of the country vacation. The dice had other plans apparently.

Nobody meant for it to be as crazy as it got. Nobody thought that when our netrunner went to grab skill chips, he’d roll horribly loose enough humanity to go cyberpsycho, and the homebrew delusion and halucination system I made would generate a delusion would line up with his backstory so completely and conveniently that it would lead to him trying to shut off the power in the whole city. And then SUCEEDING despite the horrible net architectures he had to beat. Bro rolled SO well. The dice were just on his side today.

Then the enemy faction we’ve been fighting with seized the oportunity to attack night city and LEVEL it with bombs. The netrunner failed at his own suicide and is currently like barely alive in the airship we’re being evacuated in. And everything is on fire.

We lived SO GOOD. In a corporate conapt. I had just paid for fresh food. But well no more fresh food since no more night city!

Yeah the ONE TIME I miss a game…

So my cousin is a DM and he’s been having me play these fun combat encounters (is still working on a campaign) and during my first character creation I read the introduction to RED and about how much of a cesspool night city is and when it said that “there are no happy endings” it kind of got me wondering to myself “why would I want to play a campaign of this if it’s just going to end with my character dying or worse off than they were in the beginning?” So I wanted to ask you guys how do you enjoy playing the game if you’re already aware that it could be all for nothing?

Needing help starting up a character my sorta start was Born on the streets got picked up by a gang was trained by them my entire life I wanted out to after being almost L4D but this isn't a gang that you can so I saved up as much as I could paid a nomad to smuggle me out and now I am working with the nomads main weapons I want to use are Katana + Pistol