Author Topic: Cyberpunk Red: Style Over Substance. Attitude is Everything. Take it to the Edge  (Read 4188 times)

Offline Skyrock

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Cyberpunk Red is the newest edition of the game probably better known for its 2nd edition Cyberpunk 2020, and its recent CRPG adaption Cyberpunk 2077.

The year is 2045. The timeline diverts from the real world around 1990, with mass-marketed cybernetics, power-hungry megacorporations, seedy slums and all the other staples you'd expect from the genre.
The big recent event is the 4th Corporate War, which culminated in good parts of the pivotal metropolis Night City in Cali being nuked. Red plays about 20 years after the nuke. Good chunks of the city have been reclaimed, repaired and repopulated by now, but there is a still a lot of a mess to deal with, and a power vacuum which corporations, county and state governments, boostergangs, nomad clans, cults, hacker cells and many other pressure groups seek to fill out and reshape in their favour.
It's a good place and a good time to make the big score as an unscrupulous edgerunner, but also a good place and good time to die bleeding out in a gutter when the attempt goes wrong.

The usual core story is a rag-tag team of edgerunners working odd jobs for big cash and prizes, although you could also go for something more specific, like a corporate exec and their entourage, or a media and their team going for the big scoop.

The following roles are available:
  • Rockerboys: Hard-rock heroes fighting for change with music & revolution!
  • Solos: Corporate cybersoldiers— more machines than men!
  • Netrunners: Superhot hackers who can crack any Data Fortress!
  • Medias: Hightech reporters going to the wall to get the truth!
  • Nomads: Cyberbiking renegades cruisin' the lethal hghways of the Postholocaust!
  • Execs: Slick business raiders playing the deadly corporate power game!
  • Techies: Masters of technology in the heavy-metal age!
  • Medtechs: Combat medics and cybersurgeons stapling lethal wounds and making cybernetics go round!
  • Fixers: Streetsmart middlemen who know all the angles!
  • Lawmen: Maximum lawmen in the big-city jungle!
Solos, Netrunners and Techies are ubiquitious roles fitting into almost any team.
Nomads, Medtechs and Fixers are a bit more specialized, but still useful to have on your side.
Rockerboys, Medias, Execs and Lawmen may need a particular campaign to really shine or to even make sense at all.

Offline Stratovarius

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Count me in

Offline Raineh Daze

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Well, I provoked this, so. xD
« Last Edit: December 18, 2020, 08:22:18 PM by Raineh Daze »

Offline Nanshork

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I'm most likely in once I finish reading the book.

Edit: I like it, I'm in.

Offline Skyrock

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Any preferences for a team composition? Or for a role (of which some might necessitate a certain team)?

Common team types include:
  • Edgerunners: Your typical ragtag team of misfit solos of fortune working odd jobs for the patron of the week.
  • Corpo: You work under a (PC or NPC) Exec seeking to advance the interests of your patron corporation, undermine and sabotage the competitors, gun for their superiors and watch out for underlings gunning for your patron's position - not necessarily in that order.
  • Cops: You are here to protect and serve, or at least that is what your image still is among the gullible. This can be either more on the investigative side, like in many crime procedurals, or you can be part of a special weapons and tactics team like MAX-TAC that is short on wordplay and big on gunfire and fists. Not that investigative teams are short of fists, some noses need to be broken to make witnesses speak up and suspects confess.
  • Enforcers: Similar to Cops, but you are working for a private security company that is at least honest about advancing the interests of their paying customers first and upholding the law and the peace only where it is convenient and/or profitable.
  • Press: Under patronage of a (PC or NPC) Media, you go to the wall to not only uncover the truth, but collect proof of it and get out alive to broadcast it to the masses. Your patron could be a respectable crusader journalist of a major network having to wrestle with executive meddling as much as with actual fieldwork, an illegal pirate station, or a crackpot loner warning the public about chemicals in the water turning the frogs gay while peddling dubious ads to keep financially afloat.
  • Trauma Team: 'member the ambulances of old that had unarmed EMTs rush in to save their patients? Would be suicidal to do that today. Ambulances are heavily armed security contractors shooting their way in to search and rescue their well-paying clients, often also having to duke it out with ambulances of competing medical networks seeking to snatch away their patient and charge them through the nose to their financial benefit.

Offline Nanshork

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Roles I am willing to play:

Netrunner
Exec
Fixer

Trauma Team doesn't really interest me, I'm fine with any of the other listed teams.

Offline Stratovarius

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Edgerunner, Corpo would be my first preference for teams, but could do others too.

As mentioned on Discord, first choice of role would be a Shadowrun Rigger style, but can do others if not on the table.

Offline Raineh Daze

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Haven't looked at roles yet, but I'm also on the Edgerunner/Corpo bandwagon. Definitely want to stay the hell away from Press.

Edit: As for interested roles, Solo, Tech, Medtech, Nomad, and Rockerboy in no particular order.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2020, 08:25:48 PM by Raineh Daze »

Offline Skyrock

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As Corporate team seems to be of very likely interest, some notes on the megacorporations of the time of Red:

Arasaka: Japanese zaibatsu that is heavily involved with corporate security, arms manufacturing and maintains a standing army larger than many first world nations. Expect long hours, obligatory after-work binge drinking and to be ready to die for your corporate overlords in exchange for their undying loyality (or at least that is the image that Arasaka seeks to maintain).

Biotechnica: Californian biotech company focussing on genetic engineering, micobiology and bio-chemistry. They maintain a green image and resemble more an overgrown start-up run by scientists and bioengineers.

Continental Brands: American food and beverage company that not coincidentally has a red and white logo and not coincidentally has an important branch office in Atlanta. They run their food brands and franchises very aggressively and seek to discourage and undermine competitors, the urban gardening trend and other intruders into their captive market, with "mine" sometimes being meant literally.

Danger Girl: Small but upcomping Japanese-American private investigation and security company founded by a granddaughter of Arasaka Saburo, the old black-hearted patriarch of the zaibatsu of the same name. Danger Girl presents a cutesy, inoffensive and glamourous image.

Merril, Asukaga & Finch: A financial counseling and investment company from New York, MA&F moves a lot of money for its size and maintains some very powerful business relations. Their image is conservative, discrete and highly exclusive.

Militech: American arms and private military company grown out of the US defense industry. They maintain an All-American, patriotic image, but aren't all that squeaky clean under their propaganda, especially when it comes to undermining their main competitor Arasaka.

Network News 54: American news and media company. While it grew out of a reputation for tough, accurate, hard-hitting journalism, it has since long branched out into general entertainment.

Orbital Air: A French-Kenyan aerospace company controlling most of the passenger and cargo traffic between earth and space, and a good chunk of the orbital and lunar facilities. The recent uprising in the orbital colonies when the Highrider Confederation declared its independence has hurt their bottom line, and they seek to re-establish their grip on them.

Petrochem: Texan fuel company that has grown out of the petrol industry of its home state and gone with the times to slake the world's fuel thirst with CHOOH2, the alcohol-based replacement fuel. Despite this shift Petrochem still maintains a great number of oil fields producing polymeres and other petrol-based goods not as easily replaced, and is always eager to add some more, or to slap the greedy paws of some local government seeking control over their homeland resources.

Rocklin Augmentics: Texan cybernetics company with an All-American image of producing American and employing American, especially those who have been disadvantaged in the recent crisises.

Sovoil: This petrol company is what happens when ruthless Russian oligarchs of tomorrow plunder the USSR's state companies and their monopoly on natural resources. The company has been asleep at the wheel during the technological shift towards CHOOH2, but is now aggressively pushing into the market for replacement fuel and adjacent industries like aerospace after having consolidated their economic hold on the former USSR and its client states.

Trauma Team: The premier healthcare provider of North America, especially notorious for its armed, ruthless but very effective ambulance service for those who can afford it.

Ziggurat: A cyberspace company from very Night City itself that controls much of the backbone and physical infrastructure of the modern internet. It maintains an image of unorthodox avantgarde out-of-the-box thinking of a plucky tech start-up.

Zhirafa Technical Manufacturing: This Russian robotics company is especially involved in the development and application of drones and robots, especially the industrial variety. Their sudden rise is a bit of a mystery, which many attribute to their connections to the Russian mob.

Offline Kuroimaken

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Late to the party, but still here!

What have we got? What do we need? Anybody got any preem content for their choom?  :D
Kami darou ga akuma darou ga, ore no michi ni tateru mono NASHI!!

Give me internets. Now.

Offline Skyrock

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Group is going Edgerunner.

Roles that have been picked so far:
Fixer
Netrunner (focussed on drones)
Solo

Offline Raineh Daze

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Solo is very focused on killing people.

And looking good.

Offline Nanshork

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I'm willing to step back from Fixer if you want that role and I can do something else. I'm not done with my character yet

Offline Kuroimaken

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Had a concept for an Arasaka Solo, but might move mechanically in a different direction if role diversity is more important.

Am I correct in assuming peeps are going to need to run on a single corp?
Kami darou ga akuma darou ga, ore no michi ni tateru mono NASHI!!

Give me internets. Now.

Offline Raineh Daze

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I think we wound up as independent edgerunners, not joined to a corp. As sad as that was for the ability to sell my soul for more cyber toys.

I'm still trying to work out which corp I annoyed someone enough to get as an enemy.


Offline Kuroimaken

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Gotcha, that can work into the concept I've got.

Think I'll go with a Rockerboy then. Singing about the bygone times of honor and manly passion with stereo audio implants to supplement the instrumental backing.  :D
Kami darou ga akuma darou ga, ore no michi ni tateru mono NASHI!!

Give me internets. Now.

Offline Nanshork

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Are you thinking of going party face when it comes to skills (conversation, persuasion, etc)?

If so that's what I was going for with my fixer (because someone has to negotiate for our pay) and am happy to leave that duty to you and will adjust myself accordingly.

Offline Stratovarius

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Gotcha, that can work into the concept I've got.

Think I'll go with a Rockerboy then. Singing about the bygone times of honor and manly passion with stereo audio implants to supplement the instrumental backing.  :D

Not at all saying it's a requirement, but much of the discussion for the game is going on in the discord, if you want to drop by.

The actual game will be on the forum, of course.

Offline Nanshork

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Kuro, I'm dumping social skills into your lap.  You're party face now.   :P