JUmPSTART KIT

world book
ANSELM ZIELONKA

Jumpstart kit world book

Jumpstart Kit Cast and Crew
1
WELCOME TO THE TIME OF THE RED
An introduction to world of Cyberpunk. Writing and Design: Mike Pondsmith, David Ackerman, J Gray,
page 2 James Hutt, and Cody Pondsmith
Business Management: Lisa Pondsmith

2
DARK FUTURE COUNTDOWN
A Cyberpunk timeline. Project Management: Cody Pondsmith and Mike Pondsmith
page 8 Art Direction: Jaye Kovach
Covers: Anselm Zielonka

3
NIGHT CITY 2.0 Illustration: R Bago, Neil Branquinho, Alexander Dudar, Hélio
A tour of the city of the Dark Future. Frazão, Maksym Harahulin, Adrian Marc, Eddie Mendoza,
page 13 Angelina Stroganova, Sebstian Szmyd, and Anselm Zielonka
Cartography: Matt Francella

4
EVERYDAY THINGS
Map Elements: Michael K. Tumey of Gamer Printshop
A taste of the Cyberpunk life.
page 22 Layout and Page Design: J Gray, Jaye Kovach, and Cody
Pondsmith

5
RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED Proofing and Editing: David Ackerman, J Gray, James Hutt, Cody
Advice for the Gamemaster. Pondsmith, Lisa Pondsmith, Mike Pondsmith, and Jessica Ross
page 31 Product Consultation: Aron Tarbuck
Playtesting: The thousands of Players of Cyberpunk over the

6
ADVENTURE:THE APARTMENT years. Thank you all!
A full, ready to run adventure.
page 38 Dedicated to the amazing
people of R. Talsorian Games,
7
SCREAMSHEETS
News articles and one page adventures. past and present. Together, we
page 45
make the future.
CR3000 •• ISBN 978-1-950911-01-1
Copyright©2019 by R. Talsorian Games, Inc., Cyberpunk is a registered
trademark of CD Projekt Red S.A. All rights reserved under the Universal
Copyrights Convention. All situations, governments and people herein are fictional. Any
similarities portrayed herein without satiric intent are strictly coincidental.
 NEIL BRANQUINHO

1 WELCOME TO THE TIME OF THE RED

Pay attention, punks. My old man used to say History will bite you in the
ass if you don’t learn about it. It’s like a rabid dog that will go after you if
you keep going back to its hideout. So, I’m going to fill you in with some
history you’d better learn pronto, now that you’re on the Street.
Because you do not want to get bit by this beast.
–Trace Santiago

THE WORLD BEFORE THE WAR

The Time of the Red is not all that unfamiliar to someone who has lived through the twenty–teens (2013 to 2019) and through
the boom–town years of the 2020s.
What follows is a brief overview of just a few of the major factors that have shaped the Cyberpunk world since the 4th Corporate
War ended and where things stand in the Time of the Red.
In the United States, thirty–two years of corrupt government and financial destabilization had resulted in a nation divided—by
class, by race, and by economics.

2
 WELCOME TO THE TIME OF THE RED

America in the Dying Light The Golden Time of Cyberpunk

By the end of the 1980s, it was evident that the nation was in It wasn’t all bad though. In the crammed megacities that
trouble. Most social norms had dissolved under an all engulfing replaced the many small towns and suburbs that died in the
wave of competing special interest groups, media–fueled fads, Collapse, a feverish explosion of technological wonders and
and an overall “me first” world view. By 1994, the number of headlong capitalism created a glitzy, super–powered world
homeless on the streets had skyrocketed to twenty–one million. dominated by huge Megacorporations that strode through the
The technical revolution had further torn the economy apart, world like nations. They raised armies, fought for international
creating two radically divergent classes—a wealthy, techni- domination, and shaped everything around them, while below
cally oriented, materially acquisitive group of Corporate pro- the glittering towers of the ultra–rich seethed an ever–growing
population of destitute, starving people scrambling just to sur-
fessionals, and a poor class of economically unstable, unskilled,
vive. The only leveler was technology, as the masses trapped
blue–collar workers. The middle class was nearly eradicated. It
on the “Street” used cyberware, weapons, and raw cunning
was this dismal beginning that led to the American landscape
to beat their implacable Corporate foes. Whether they were
of the 2000s. called Edgerunners, Cyberpunks, or just plain rebels, they were
In large cities, business areas were clean, neat, well–lit show- the ones who stood up against the power of the Megacorps
cases, free of crime and poverty, controlled by powerful Cor- and fought to win against all odds.
porations. Ringing the central areas were the Combat Zones— And this was the world as it was before the devastation of
decrepit, squalid suburbs and burned out ghettos teeming with the 4th Corporate War.
boostergangs and other violent sociopaths. The outer suburbs
were also Corporate–controlled zones; safe, well–guarded
tracts where executives raised their families in relative security.
THE 4TH CORPORATE
Throughout the Midwestern states, many small towns were
abandoned, as local farms, businesses, and banks collapsed in
the wake of drought, famine, and economic chaos. The farms
WAR
were bought up by huge Agricorporations, and were main- Like the 1st and 2nd Corporate Wars, the 4th Corporate
tained with hired workers, machine labor, and well–equipped War began when rival Megacorps flexed their military muscle
guards. The open freeways became battlegrounds, as armed to achieve a financial objective. In 2021, IHAG, a Megacorp
packs of boostergangs travel from city to city, looting and pil- specializing in underwater shipping and technology went bank-
laging like mechanized Visigoths. rupt, leading to two rival ocean–based Megacorps (CINO and
OTEC) squaring off for a hostile takeover of IHAG’s remaining
assets. At first, both Corps engaged in the typical opening

All Right rounds of this kind of battle; stock manipulations and economic
warfare, but as the conflict grew out of hand, both companies
began to engage in outright warfare.

pipsqueak, time The Hot War

Unable to gain the advantage, both Megacorps then moved
to see if metal up to the next level of the war; each hired the forces of still
larger Megacorps to provide troops and military material—in
this case, OTEC hired Militech, an armaments and security force

really is better based in the United States, and CINO hired Arasaka, a security
Megacorp based out of Japan. As the two largest paramilitary
Corporations in the world, both Militech and Arasaka had been

than meat. spoiling for a fight for most of the late teens and early 2020s,
and the CINO–OTEC conflict provided the perfect excuse.
As major international Megacorps at the absolute apex of

let's dance. Corporate power in the Cyberpunk age, both combatants were
at a military scale equal to many of the smaller nations of
WWII, fielding armies with tens of thousands of troops. Both
morgan blackhand sides also possessed extremely advanced transportation and
logistics systems, allowing them to strike at each other any-

3
WELCOME TO THE TIME OF THE RED
where on the planet. This combination of sophisticated military
technology and lightning tactical movement made it all but The Party Ends
impossible for many legitimate nations to stop conflicts within The Night City Holocaust was the last straw. Within hours,
their borders. Small engagements soon flared into major show- then–US President Elizabeth Kress nationalized Militech, plac-
downs, until the battle reached a fever pitch worldwide, with ing it thoroughly under the control of the still sizable United
forces from both Megacorps engaged in major battles that States military, and banished all Arasaka forces from the conti-
embroiled entire cities. nental US under the threat of a retaliatory strike on Arasaka’s
Tokyo headquarters. Other nations swiftly followed the US’s
The Orbital War lead, nationalizing and/or interdicting assets of both partici-
pants of the War.
By mid–2022, pitched battles involving aircraft, AVs, tanks,
power armor, and thousands of troops were the rule. Interdic- The War was finally over. Now came the Aftermath.
tion strikes on international trade were common as were strikes
on energy production and transportation systems. Cyberattacks
disrupted banking, information, and media services; orbital
space narrowly escaped becoming another battlefield only
THE TIME OF THE
because the space–dwelling “Highriders” began to hit both
sides with lethal suborbital “artillery” strikes capable of wiping
RED
out most of a small city. In the aftermath of this worldwide conflict, atmospheric par-
The world was literally in the midst of the long anticipated ticles from the nuclear blast in Night City, as well as debris from
Third World War, albeit without the obligatory hurling of orbital weapon strikes, conventional explosives, and the war-
nuclear weapons between sides. Then came the Night City time burning and annihilation of cities and agricultural areas
Holocaust. created an eerie red pall over skies worldwide. For nearly two
years, skies were tinged with a bloody red color, which eventu-
The Night City Holocaust ally died down to brilliant red sunrises and sunsets through the
next decade. Known as the Time of the Red, this would be the
On August 20th, 2023, unknown forces detonated a “pocket backdrop for the first years of the post–War recovery, only
nuke” on the upper floors of the Arasaka Towers complex in fading away as the battered populations of the world began
Night City (on the western US coast). The Nuke, while not a to reconstruct their shattered cities. But despite the weakening
city killer, reduced most of the central city to rubble and killed of the atmospheric effects, the name has stuck among the sur-
thousands of people. It was never formally decided who had vivors of the worldwide conflict, and, much as the 1920s was
triggered the Nuke—some partisans blamed Militech’s over- known as the Roaring Twenties and the 1930s as The Great
zealous desire to crush Arasaka, while still others blamed the Depression, in future histories, the period between the end of
detonation on an Arasaka area denial weapon set off to pro- the 4th Corporate War and the present will probably always
tect its headquarters. be referred to as The Time of the Red.

ADRIAN MARC

4
 WELCOME TO THE TIME OF THE RED
total Arasaka control by the tail end of the War. Street to
THE UNITED STATES IN street fighting was already savage, and in the last few days
before the Nuke, had approached a fever pitch. In some ways,
THE TIME OF THE RED the detonation was to become a “clean” end to a landscape
already littered with burned buildings, wrecked vehicles and
Superpower No More dead bodies. Over all of this was a dense red pall (The Red)
Since the end of the 4th Corporate War, the United States that painted everything the color of blood and poisoned the
has lost much of its superpower status; but that doesn’t mat- air for miles around.
ter much as most of Europe and the Far East are in the same Post–War Night City was a wreck, but a wreck that was
position. What US military exists is organized as Combined determined to rebuild. And one of the things that helped the
Operations Groups (COGs); task forces that combine ships, most in the rebuilding process was the creation of the Pacifica
aircraft, armor, and infantry into a cohesive fighting battal- Confederation.
ion; their main mission is to deal with threats to the BosWash
Corridor and the Federal Government’s interests. On the other The Pacifica Confed
hand, since the 4th Corporate War, several of these COGs
After the War, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern Cal-
have broken away from the United States and are operating ifornia, and British Colombia unified into an ad hoc, loose
as private armies for hire, running personal mini–kingdoms, or union called the Pacifica Confederation. In the Time of the Red,
even acting as marauding packs of well–armed raiders. the Confederation is busy rebuilding their infrastructure. They
also host several large US Government bases which have per-
Fragmented America manent leases, but do not otherwise exercise much control over
the local population.
In many ways, the United States is very much as it was in the
late 1800s—a “civilized” East Coast controlled by the Federal
Night City is a Dangerous City of Dreams
Government in Washington DC, a “Wild West” of independent
territories west of the Mississippi River, and an unincorporated This alliance has allowed Night City to survive as an inde-
West Coast from Seattle to Mexico. The territories are pretty pendent “city state” on its own. The rebuilding city has become
much on their own, hiring local militia or mercenary armies to a free trade zone for the Confederation, as well as an entry
keep the peace, while the sprawl of Night City is maintained by point for the rest of the world when it doesn’t want to deal
its own system of interlocking local factions and power blocs. with the rest of United States. In the Time of the Red, Night
City is a cybernetic Casablanca, and like its famous cinematic
The United States Government is still primarily centered in
counterpart, it’s dangerous, nearly lawless, and a great place
the Boston–Washington Corridor (aka BosWash) from New
to make the Big Score.
York to Miami, where it operates as the effective regional gov-
ernment much as the regional councils do for Night City. The
Sasquatch is Watching
branches of the Federal Government still operate as before;
there is an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch—these One other useful thing: in the process of rebuilding, the
just have little or no effect on anything past the Mississippi, and Washington/Oregon part of the confederation has allowed
their members come almost exclusively from the East and near the one time Petrochem subsidiary, Biotechnica, free reign to
Midwest. design and release a number of experimental plants and ani-
mals which they hope will restore the once burgeoning ecology.
President Kress So be careful out there in the woods, kids.
The current President is Elizabeth Kress; a hard–nosed, ex–
Maintaining the Power Balance
military officer who was elected a year before the start of
the now infamous 4th Corporate War. Honest, fair, and tough Overall, the Pacifica Confederation is a powerful economic
enough to face down any threat to US sovereignty, Kress has region (a main trade port to what remains of Asia) with access
held the job for over a decade; re–elected four times in a total to a lot of military power too (the local Combined Operations
disregard for the rules on term limits, she is pretty much the only Groups at Bremerton and Ft. Lewis–McChord have generally
thing holding the US together after years of war and collapse. supported the stable and sensible locals over the unstable
main US Government.) Kress’ New United States is going to
have to work hard indeed to woo this confederation into an
Night City allied membership where they can work with Washington DC in
Night City was the place hardest hit during the War, and exchange for a great deal of independent governance.
the damage is STILL everywhere nearly twenty years later. For The Confederation’s members are also willing to work with
starters, the city was surrounded by Militech forces and under the rising new Megacorps, but on their own stringent terms—a

5
WELCOME TO THE TIME OF THE RED
sort of “Screw up, Mister Megacorp, and we’ll call on our
friends at Lewis–McChord to flatten you.” policy. But they are
The Middle East
too economically powerful to need to actually sell out to the The Meltdown of the 90s left vast areas of Iran, Libya, Iraq,
new Megacorps and that’s not going to change much in the next Chad, and the Arab Emirates as radioactive fields of glass.
few decades. So, while the Corps are ubiquitous in Night City, Only Egypt, Syria, and Israel survived intact, and because of
they walk a much more careful line knowing that the locals are their already ruined state, were mercifully left alone for most
capable of waging their own Corporate War against them. of the War. But new alliances and power blocs are struggling
to take control once again now that Megacorporate power has
In the Time of the Red, this relationship is in the process of been curtailed. With the world trade in oil and raw materials
being defined and the Corps are currently learning the hard disrupted by Corporate conflict, there is a new interest in min-
way that the Seattle/Vancouver/Victoria boys do not fool ing the remains of the Meltdown nations, and in response, many
around. In the Time of the Red, everyone walks lightly in the of the national groups in the Middle East are starting to band
Pacifica Confed. together to reform and resist the invaders.

Africa
THE WORLD BEYOND IN Once a fractured continent of warring countries under a
bewildering array of dictators, democracies and socialist
THE TIME OF THE RED states, the New Africa was born as Euro–nations negotiated
with these scattered nations to build the Kilimanjaro mass
Beyond the borders of the remaining driver. The African states have since established solid footholds
United States is a world in flux. in space—nearly one third of all space construction workers
are African, and the majority of spaceport facilities and con-
The Eurotheatre struction areas are on African soil. The resulting population has
evolved into a “national” group called the Highriders; a space–
The Eurotheatre has been badly battered by the War and based, high tech society linked by Pan–African roots and a
the subsequent loss of its ESA and Orbital colonies to the determination never to be victims of colonial oppression again.
Highriders. Declaring their independence during the War (and enforcing it
with commandeered orbital weapons), the Highrider Assembly
The World Stock Exchange and the Common Market have is carefully neutral in the Time of the Red, ready to deal with
managed to maintain a stable economy in which most of the all sides as long as their sovereignty (and control of space) is
European nations participate—the exceptions are Italy, Spain respected.
and Greece, all of which are now suffering violent, chronic
political upheavals. Here, the international Corporations still Asia
have a great deal of power, but various Euro–governments
have skillfully used the War to keep the Euro business barons The Far East and Asia are now a hodgepodge of damaged
under control. Only Great Britain has suffered major economic nations, with Japan slowly recovering from the ravages of the
trouble—swamped by massive immigration and an antiquated Arasaka Corporation’s abortive coup. China is still recovering
from the loss of Hong Kong through a biological terror attack,
technological base, its streets are still almost as explosively
and fierce battles in both the South China Sea and the Mon-
dangerous as the United States’. The rest of Europe is in recov-
golian Plateau for access to strategic resources has left the
ery mode, as individual nation states struggle to rebuild dam- government exhausted and almost tottering. Korea, both North
aged financial and industrial hubs affected by the War. and South, have become strongly isolationist, although North
Despite the massive reforms of the early 1990s (and the Korea, drawn into the conflict by promises of Arasaka support,
subsequent purge of hardliners in 1991), New Russia is still has collapsed into a chaos of warlords and petty fiefdoms.
weakened by antiquated technology and still cannot feed its Hammered by the savage fighting over trade routes and oil-
hungry population, although the War has leveled the playing fields, much of Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Australia are
isolated, damaged, and potential prey for the next powerful
field a bit. With the continuing failure of the region’s economic
group that comes along.
and social reforms, hardliners are once again gaining strength
and a showdown between the surviving cold warriors and a
new generation of aggressive oligarchs is coming fast. These Central and South America
oligarchs are similar to the Megacorporates of the roaring After several lengthy wars with the United States in the
2020s; hungry, dangerous, and willing to use heavy amounts of 1990s and early 2000s, Central America emerged as a strong
bribery, murder, and mayhem to accomplish their aims. union of independent states, working under a pact of mutual

6
 WELCOME TO THE TIME OF THE RED
cooperation. The US was expelled from all but the Panama smaller Corps. And there are even a fair number of Edgerun-
Canal Zone (which it still holds by sheer military force against ners who are using the open market to start their own “baby
ongoing guerrilla aggression). But during the War, Nationalist Corps” to take on the tottering “old guys.” There’s a new and
factions in Brazil and Columbia used the Corporate fighting to dangerous game to be played out in the marketplace, and in
support their own bids for land and influence—the result was this fragmented new age, everyone can play.
a shattering of the old alliance that only now is beginning to
be rebuilt.

THE MEGACORPS IN So welcome to the

THE TIME OF THE RED Time of the Red,
The 4th Corporate War ended the age of Corporate dom-
ination. Even if they were not involved in open combat, many
Megacorps found their operations fatally wounded through the choombatta. It's more
breakdown of communications, NET information systems, global
transport disruption, and collateral damage.
dangerous than the
The New “Corpos” Survive...
But the Megacorps aren’t out of the picture entirely. In once glamorous and
many cases, local or regional offices continued to operate in a
reduced capacity—if they could get the materials and funding
to do so. These companies sometimes renamed themselves but hyper charged Lost
continued where possible, to provide the services they were
known for. Some Corps (like Raven Microcyb and Kiroshi) broke
into smaller units that shared a common trade dress, but were
Time of the
often run by entirely different Corporate officers. Still other
Corps just fell apart entirely, but found their assets seized by
competitors or ambitious regional managers hoping to cobble
Cyberpunk 2020s. The
together a personal Corporate fiefdom.
The result is that in the Time of the Red, the Megacorps aren’t body count is higher
all that mega anymore. These “Corpos” (as they are dubbed
on the Street) are closer to what Corporations were in the
mid–20th century—local companies powerful on a regional,
and the stakes even
or even national scale, but without the enormous international
reach of the roaring 2020s.
nastier.
...And Are Still Dangerous
This doesn’t mean they’re toothless—far from it. Corps in the
Time of the Red are, if anything, more rapacious and power
But that's not
hungry. There’s fewer rules out there and ambitious Players in
the front office are willing to do practically anything to gain going to stop you, is
an advantage over a resource or market. They may not be
able to field giant armies with tanks and troops, but they can
still deploy powerful covert ops squads and bribe the right it? Didn't think so.
governmental overseers to allow them to take out their ene-
mies when it’s important enough to them. It’s just that in this
Trace Santiago
post–War environment, the most determined Edgerunners can
also field hardware and advantages that can often equal these

7
 NEIL BRANQUINHO

2 DARK FUTURE COUNTDOWN

• The Treaty of 1992 establishes the European Economic
1990—1993 Community. A common currency unit (the Eurodollar) is
• A secret ‘coup’ launched by “The Gang of Four,” a coali- established.
tion of government agencies, effectively ends federal
democracy in the US. Many states begin ignoring federal • The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) develops and
authority, declaring themselves “free states”. spreads several designer plagues worldwide, targeting
• Start of First Central American Conflict. American Imperial coca and opium plants. Governments of Chile, Ecuador,
ambitions, justified as part of the war on Communism and and Afghanistan collapse.
narcotics, kills hundreds of thousands. American veter- • A savage drug war breaks out between Eurocorp–backed
ans return home dismembered and maimed, driving the
drug dealers and DEA all over the Americas.
demand for cyberware.
• Breakup of Soviet state. From this point, the USSR begins • First use of high energy laser lift arrays. Simple mass driver
a new era of rapprochement with Western Europe; by established in Canary Islands by Eurospace Agency.
the 2000’s, the “Neo–Soviets” are the Eurotheater’s most • First TRC biologic interface chips developed in Munich,
powerful allies.
United Germany.
• Eurospace agency launches Hermes spaceplane.
• AV–4 aerodyne assault vehicle developed to deal with
• CHOOH2 developed by Biotechnica.
increasing riots in US urban zones.
• First arcology built on ruins of Jersey City. Sixteen “arcos”
begin construction over the next five years, until the col- • In retaliation for US attacks on Bogotá, Colombian drug
lapse of 1997, leaving the huge structures half completed, lords detonate small tactical nuclear device in New
filled with squatters and homeless. York. 15,000 killed.

8
 DARK FUTURE COUNTDOWN
• Crystal Palace space station begun at l–5 Lagrange point.
1994—1995 • Wasting Plague hits US and Europe, killing hundreds of
• World Stock Market Crash of ‘94. The US is caught manipu- thousands.
lating European and American stock markets, a worldwide
financial meltdown results from the news being made pub-
lic.
2001
• US, European Community, and the Neo–Soviets start a new • The framework of the NET firmly in place with construction
space race, seeking economic and military advantages of the Worldsat network.
over each other.
• Kilimanjaro mass driver begins construction, under joint 2002
agreement between ESA and Pan–African Alliance.
• Food Crash. Mutated plant virus wipes out Canadian and
Neo–Soviet crops. US agribusiness crops survive due to
1996 new biological counter agent. Neo–Soviets accuse US of
biological warfare.
• The Collapse of the United States. Weakened by losses in
the World Stock Crash, overwhelmed by unemployment,
homelessness and corruption, many city governments col- 2003
lapse or go bankrupt. The US Government, snarled in a
• Second Central American War. US invades Columbia, Ecua-
staggering deficit and the machinations of the Gang of dor, Peru, Venezuela. The War is a disaster that costs thou-
Four, is totally ineffective. sands of American lives and leaves thousands of troops to
• Nomad Riots. By now, 1 in 4 Americans are homeless. Hun- struggle home on their own.
dreds of thousands riot for living space throughout the US, • WNS media star Tesla Johanneson exposes secret NSA
Nomad packs spring up on the west coast and spread transcripts of the First Central American conflict.
rapidly through the nation.
• The remainder of the Gang of Four is swept away on a
• First appearance of boostergangs. wave of reform. Elections resume, although heavily influ-
• US Constitution suspended. Martial law established in US. enced by the Megacorporations.

1997—1998 2004
• Mideast Meltdown. A very limited thermonuclear war • First cloned tissue growth in vitro. Micro–sutures, sterilizer
destroys much of the Middle East. Radioactive fallout fields developed.
spreads around the world. World oil supply drops by half. • Tesla Johanneson assassinated in Cairo.
• ‘Rockerboy’ Manson killed in England. • 1st Corporate War (2004–2005). Commando raids and
• The Drought of ‘98 reduces most of the Midwest to parched cyberspace attacks between EBM and Orbital Air intro-
grasslands. Between agribusiness Corps and drought, the duce the world to the age of direct Corporate warfare.
family farm all but disappears.
• 10.5 quake shatters Los Angeles; Pacific Ocean inundates 2005
35% of the city. An estimated 65,000 are killed. • Cybermodem invented.

1999 2006
• Millennium cults begin to appear, predicting an apoca- • First human clone grown in vitro. Mindless, it only lives for
lypse on 1/1/2000. Thousands migrate to isolated com- 6 hours.
munes and temples to “await the end”.
• Tycho Colony established. A mass driver is constructed to 2007
provide raw materials for orbital platforms.
• 2nd Corporate War (2007–2010). SovOil and Petrochem
2000 fail to negotiate with each other over newly discovered
oil fields in the South China Sea, and begin blowing each
• Millennium cults run amok on 1/1/2000 in orgy of suicide other up instead. Even cynical observers are shocked at
and violence; most destroy themselves. the level of violence.
• First “extended family” poser gangs established. • Braindance developed at UC Santa Cruz, California.

9
DARK FUTURE COUNTDOWN

2008 2020
• US assault on Russian weapons platform MIR XIII. Euro- • Carbon Plague incident. A Corporate AV crash releases a
space agency intervenes and the Orbital War breaks out nanotech plague on the outskirts of Night City. The plague
between the “Euros” and the “Yanks”, until Tycho colony ravages the city for two weeks, then mysteriously stops.
mass driver drops a two–ton rock on Colorado Springs. An • Chicago Rebuilding Project begins. Financed by visionary
uneasy peace is reached. Dr. Richard Storm of Storm Technologies, project joins
Nomad groups under the unifying banners of the Alde-
2009 caldo and Jode Families.
• Corporations eradicate mob rule in Night City.
• Abortive takeover attempt by US “terrorist group” of
2021
Crystal Palace construction. ESA discovers Defense Intel- • Euro Aquacorp CINO attempts to acquire bankrupt Aqua–
ligence Agency plot and drops five–ton rock off the coast corp IHAG. Rival Aquacorp OTEC attempts to act as “white
of Washington D.C. as a warning. knight” in the hostile takeover. As both Corps line up allies,
a dangerous war at sea begins.
2010
• Network 54 now controls 62% of all media broadcasting
2022
in US. • Covert operations expand as Arasaka Security and Mili-
tech spar to see who will control the outcome of the
• Human clones are now viable, but no technology exists
CINO/OTEC War.
to implant personalities or intellect into them. They are
primarily used to provide body parts for the super–rich. • Rache Bartmoss, Netrunner supreme, is killed in a Corpo-
rate raid. Two weeks later, the dead man switch for his
2011 DataKrash virus activates.
• 4th Corporate War. Covert operations explode into a shoot-
• Crystal Palace is completed. ESA now has a permanent hold
in the High Orbit zone. ing war as Arasaka and Militech move front line troops
into battle. The ensuing conflict involves operations all over
• ESA/Soviet mission reaches Mars. After a landing, the mis- the globe, with heavy combat in major cities worldwide.
sion returns and Mars is abandoned for a decade.
• The Chicago Rebuilding Project collapses as Arasaka
2013 Corporate factions detonate virus bombs in an effort to
deny the city to Militech.
• April 13, 2013. Johnny Silverhand concert spirals into a • DataKrash virus now infests 78.2% of the NET. Aware
riot in Night City. The rioters kill 18, wound 51. Old Ara- of the virus’ potential, Saburo Arasaka sets out to create
saka complex gutted. a secure database in the new Arasaka Towers facility in
• Soulkiller virus developed. Night City.
• Netwatch, previously a private organization, is estab- • Seven Hour War. Fed up with the fighting, Highriders at
lished worldwide by joint US/ Eurotheatre treaty. O’Neill 2 declare independence, using deltas and scav-
• First true Artificial Intelligence developed at Microtech’s enged mass drivers to drop dozens of lunar rocks at key
Sunnyvale, CA facility. sites all over the planet, causing widespread death and
destruction. US and Japan officially recognize the new
2014 Highrider government.

• I–G transformations redesign the NET. During this time, 2023

renegade Netrunner Rache Bartmoss plants the DataKrash
virus into the architecture of the NET. • Total breakdown of international trade. Container ship and
air travel have been totally disrupted. Supplies and food
2016 sit on the docks worldwide, unable to reach stores, facto-
ries or suppliers. Many Megacorps collapse.
• 3rd Corporate War (2016). Unknown cyberterrorists attack • August 20th, 2023. Night City Holocaust. An incursion
the networks of Corporations world–wide, causing billions team led by Solo Morgan Blackhand and Rockerboy
of eb worth of losses. Johnny Silverhand attempt to steal/destroy the Arasaka

10
 DARK FUTURE COUNTDOWN
Secure Database in the Arasaka Towers facility. During everything in HK is dead, the Chinese government puts a
the assault, an area denial nuclear device is detonated, 100–foot wall around HK to keep the plague contained.
which destroys much of central Night City. Over a half • Japanese government almost breaks down. By repudiating
million people are killed. Another quarter million die in the Arasaka, national face is saved. Arasaka is reduced to a
resulting aftermath. Japan–only Corporation for the next decade. European
• Militech is nationalized by US President Elizabeth Kress Union is pretty much restored.
through the expedient of reactivating Militech CEO Gen.
Donald Lundee’s reserve commission. 2026—2030
• Beginning of the Time of the Red. Atmospheric particles • The Diaspora begins. Groups displaced from wrecked cities
from the nuclear blast in Night City, as well as debris now set out to reclaim nearby cities abandoned since the
from orbital rock strikes, conventional explosives, and the Collapse. They are supported by Nomads who set up con-
wartime burning and annihilation of cities and agricultural voys between cities.
areas creates an eerie red pall over skies worldwide. For • There is massive looting of old tech and abandoned store-
nearly two years, skies are tinged with a bloody red color, houses. Only scattered Corps are still functioning on a
which eventually dies down to brilliant red sunrises and very reduced basis, while local businesses take up the
sunsets through the next decade. slack.
• Very limited VPNs within Corporate parks. AIs occasionally
2025 creep into the wrecked city’s old NETs to seek out other AIs
to join the Ghost World.
• End of the 4th Corp War. This includes a three year wrap up
• Arasaka breaks into three warring factions. The Bakafu
as pockets of fighting are quelled by Militech and national Faction, headed by Hanako Arasaka; the Princess Faction,
armies. While there is only one nuke dropped during headed by Michiko Arasaka, Kei’s youngest daughter, who
the war, the world’s infrastructure is severely impacted, as a US citizen, allies with the new US Government; and
although not destroyed. the Rebel Faction, headed by Kei’s rebel son Yorinobu).
• NET is officially down. Alt Cunningham establishes the • The United States is now a functional dictatorship under
Ghost World in the ruins of bio–destroyed Hong Kong. As Pres. Elizabeth Kress’s State of Emergency.

ALEXANDER DUDAR

11
DARK FUTURE COUNTDOWN
• Rise of the first Mega Buildings to handle population
2030—2035 expansion. These are “all in one” arcologies designed to
• Resettlement of Suburban Night City. In time, Night City create safe habitable zones rapidly
Central will be rebuilt, but for now, the foothills and the • Beginning of first new factories, replacing, upgrading, or
small cities around Night City are over–packed with refu- repairing old and scattered tech.
gees who fled the radioactive ruins of the Corporate Zone.
• Reestablishing of Nomad High Roads. Nomads now oper-
ate ports and container ships. Corporations are now mostly Have you ever seen
local, but as Nomads establish trade routes, Corps branch
out regionally.
• Start of CitiNets, local VPNs established in some of the
the sunlight/
Reclaimed Cities. These networks are usually “airgapped”
with only limited (and strongly controlled) access between Screaming fast and
them. Netwatch oversees the development of this new
series of networks, with Corporate backing.
mean and low?
• Rumors that Rockerboy Johnny Silverhand’s body has been
found in cold storage in a body bank in the wreckage of
Old Night City arise. Although this is never substantiated,
the claim is that it has been stored there by a full–borged
Get yourself
fan of his who recovered it from the Arasaka blast site.
• Start of Night City Reconstruction. Gigatons of fill are illuminated/
shifted from the radioactive ruins of the central City, uncov-
ering the previous buried Morro Rock. Much of the old Bay
is filled in. The shape of Night City begins to change.
Get yourself that
2035—2045 (Present Day) cyber glow.
• First Wave Cities start Reclamation under support from
local governments and remaining Megacorps. These
First Wave Cities are ones that require only a limited
amount of resources to rebuild.
Made of steel and
• “We have no United States until we have a country again”
Pres. Elizabeth Kress. While local elections resume, there hard emotion/
will be no national elections until a treaty exists between
Free States and remaining United States. Give my love and face
• Rebuilding of old factories and individuals starting to
replace lost tech. New Corps start to rise from the wreck-
age of the 4th Corporate War. the day/
• Rumors spread that legendary Solo Morgan Blackhand
has been spotted in various First Wave cities. In your face and here
• Netwatch attempts to clear out the R.A.B.I.D.S. and rees-
tablish the Old NET. After a losing three–year battle, they
give up and shut down all the major Nodes into the Old
to party.
NET (although some Netrunners still try to go there to loot
the abandoned systems).
• Establishment of first Data Pools, information servers and Never gonna fade
exchange systems designed for open use within the
limits of a city. Data Pools produce free, open content cre-
ated through the collaborative efforts of a community of
away.
users. In design, they are similar to the hyper–stack “page”
system attempted and then abandoned for the NET in the Johnny Silverhand, Never Fade Away
early 90’s.

12
 ANSELM ZIELONKA

3 NIGHT CITY 2.0

NIGHT CITY: THE OVERVIEW

Name: Night City
Founded: 1994
Population: 5 million
Businesses: Technical, light industry, trade, electronics

Night City was founded rather recently as cities go. Before 1994, the
area was just a clutter of unincorporated suburban sprawl between San
Francisco and Los Angeles.
The core of this suburban area was a small coastal town originally known as Morro Bay. Located at a junction between Northern
and Southern California, it boasted a fairly large and sheltered port as well as the (by then defunct) Three Fingers power plant.
But in the chaos of the Collapse, the small town fell on hard times and only periodic North/South traffic kept it alive.

13
NIGHT CITY 2.0
random violence, and cybernetic terrorism
TRACE SANTIAGO The Morro Massacre soon became the rule of law. By 2005, the
In late 1992, a band of roving boost- name Night City had taken on a grim and
Trace Santiago is the son deadly new meaning.
ergangers descended on the tiny coastal
of famed Aldecaldo Family
hamlet and nearly razed it to the ground
leader "Nomad" Santiago.
Although he was raised on the
in a four–day orgy of murder and looting The Corporate
before troops from Fort Ord were able to
Road, he has become well–
reach the town and destroy the invaders. Takeover
known as a leading Media of
the 2030–40 period, writing In 2009, the Corps decided they’d had
several exposes and books Night’s Gamble enough. In lightning strikes, covert Solo
about the 4th Corporate War squads eliminated most of the gang leaders
In the aftermath of the Collapse, an and established a Corporation–controlled
and the Age of the Red. This
enterprising land developer named Rich- City Council. The newly elected Council,
document is in the collection of
ard Night bought up the entire town of faced with chaos in the City, deputized
his twelve year old niece Val-
Morro Bay, the majority of which would Corporate security forces and allowed them
entina, who, at the time was
later become the Corporate Center and full authority within the City limits. The Cor-
asking Trace for help on her
City Center areas. Night was able to buy porate and City Centers were cleaned out
Rolling School homework. In
the entire region cheaply because the local and restored to their pristine state. The old
this archive, Trace's personal Harbor Mall (originally built in the 1980’s),
economy was destroyed after the shutdown
comments are in the sidebars. was demolished and the New Harbor Mall
of the Three Fingers power plant, the infa-
mous massacre, and a devastatingly small constructed.
“So you wanted to population.
know more about Night City in 2013
Night’s Vision By 2013, much of the worst excesses
the whole history of the City had been crushed under the
Night proposed starting a new, safe,
of the City, neh? clean Corporate city, free of crime and ruthless heel of the Megacorps. The basic
services such as police, fire and support
Just harass your urban blight. By offering lucrative tax
services had been reestablished, and if
packages to several major Corporations
Media uncle for the Corporate masters were oppressive,
(PetroChem, for example, had established
at least to the average punk on the Street,
the answers, so you drilling rights off the coast), he was able to it was better than dodging gunfire on the
establish a strong economic base as well as way to the Vendit booth.
can pass the School an instant population of Corporate employ-
ees.
Tests and get your Night City in 2020
pa to give you a Things Fall Apart By 2020, Night City was a rapidly
new cyberbike? I growing urban region, still rife with urban
As planned, Coronado City was a clean, violence and street crime, but with strong
promise, choomba, open community with rapid transit, and safe economic growth in the Corporate sector. It
streets. Unfortunately, Night’s plan went was the quintessential city of the Cyberpunk
this is gonna cost awry. In using his own advanced building future—gritty, dangerous, but possessed of
techniques and materials, he excluded a
you. I plan to make number of established unions and construc-
an urban slick and stylish cool that made it
unique. As Bes Isis, Net 54 newscaster and
you wash my bike tion firms, many of which were controlled one of Night City’s most well–known public
by organized crime syndicates. Four years figures put it at the time…
for a month to pay after initial construction, the powerful gang
me back.” bosses murdered Night and took over the
“Night” City project, renaming the city in
Richard Night’s memory. Nobody ever
Between selling contracts to their cronies,
setting up drug and extortion rackets, and
leaves Night City.
generally inviting the scum of the Collapse
into the area, the gangs managed to turn a
Except in a
relatively clean, modern city into an embat-
tled war zone. Crime, drugs, prostitution,
body bag.
14
 NIGHT CITY 2.0
Because of its Free State status, Night bomb.” It was designed to utterly demolish
City was home to units on both sides of the the master database and make it unusable “I know all this
4th Corporate War. Perhaps as a result, the in any way to a rival Megacorp. The Nuke
War was not kind to Night City. There was was prematurely detonated at floor 120 because my dad,
constant street to street, building to build- (1200 feet), in Kei’s apartments where the Old Man Santiago,
ing fighting throughout the City, especially Soulkiller lab was located.
around the Corporate Zone where both
The blast pretty much obliterated the was there as part of
factions maintained substantial office com-
plexes. Even before the nuclear event that
twin towers, splitting them in half and caus- the assault on the
ing them to collapse outward. The entire
wiped the center area out, people were
abandoning the city in droves, doing what-
center of the city became rubble in seconds. Towers. He doesn't
Most people in the area died instantly
ever they could do to avoid getting sniped talk much about it,
by drones, crushed by tanks, or just gunned A lot of Night City was built on fill,
down by Corporate kill squads. A big chunk because the original elevation was only but if you get him
of the City was wrecked and people were sixteen feet above sea level. So, the Ara-
climbing all over themselves to get to safer saka nuke caused a minor earthquake that
drunk enough, he
spots like Heywood and Pacifica. liquefied parts of the fill and flooded the occasionally breaks
inner city.
Then both sides went over the line and
some bright boy set off a bomb.
down and spills
The Bomb some details. He
Night City During the The explosion was technically an air blast lost a lot of people
4th Corp War (2022) since the detonation went off at roughly
1,200 feet. (Little Boy, by comparison, in that mess, and
In retrospect, it was just Night City’s bad had a detonation height of about 1,900
luck that it was a Free City in an area not feet). While this lessened overall long–term he always swears
controlled by a larger national power. radioactivity, most of what remained pene- that in the end, they
Neither of the Corporate combatants was trated only the huge skyscraper towers sur-
stupid enough to drop a nuke in the middle rounding the blast (they were later scraped weren't the ones
of some place where the remnant US or off and buried as fill in the Bay). The high
the still powerful Eurotheatre held the reins. blast area and the tons of raw concrete who set the Bomb
In fact, probably the only thing that kept and steel there was instantly converted into off.”
then–President Kress from wiping out every particulate debris which rained down on
Arasaka stronghold on earth was the fact the entire NorCal region and far out to sea
that Night City wasn’t technically part of for many months. Later, when this was uncov-
the US. The dust cloud spiraled up into the sky, ered in the early 2040's
So, they dropped a nuke. turning it red for almost two years. Even thanks to Trace Santiago's
several years after the blast, suspended revelations, it would back fire
The twin Arasaka Towers were 140 floors spectacularly, driving Night
tall, making them among the tallest build- particles caused the skies at dawn and
dusk to glow a lurid crimson, inspiring peo- City to realign itself with Ara-
ings existent at the time. They were joined saka rather than Militech and
by a high bridge around the 60th floor ple who lived through that time to call it the
Time of the Red. the New United States
mark. With the exact location of the Ara-
saka master database unknown, Militech Editor
decided the best course of action was to use After the Fall: Survival
a pocket nuke (carried by a hand–picked
black ops team) to level the entire structure. Mode (2023–2025)
The Militech team didn’t really care about Night City was inhabitable within 24
the loss of life, as they had already written hours of the detonation. Many people were
the City off as a loss to Arasaka months unaffected as they were heavily cybered
earlier in the War. up or had radiation filters installed in
The bomb triggered in the Arasaka their bodies already. However, the Nuke
Towers was roughly twenty–five percent and its aftermath destroyed a large part
as powerful as the bomb at Hiroshima. A of Night City’s housing, forcing people to
tactical nuke a bit larger than a “suitcase move out to the suburbs or to areas even

15
NIGHT CITY 2.0
further out from the city’ center. Worse, the
“The Old Man says liquefaction of the fill the city was built on
In the Realm of
that if the nuke had broke gas mains, water pipes, and electri- Conspiracy and Rumor
cal grids. Streets became twisted chunks of
been detonated asphalt, strewn with wrecked ground cars,
Very few people knew anything about
the Militech–backed strike team or its
where they planned, while fallen AVs lay scattered among the composition. Rumor has it that the veteran
the heavily shielded debris of broken skyscrapers. Night City Solo, Morgan Blackhand, operating as a
might technically be inhabitable but it was hidden government asset, passed the infor-
underground far from pleasant. Even then, it wasn’t as mation about the failed raid onto President
complex would have Elizabeth Kress independently; this is still
bad as some other cities like Rio and Hong
only in the realm of legend, as no one has
absorbed the main Kong.) seen Morgan Blackhand or his corpse since
the Fall of the Towers. In any case, Kress
blast and saved the Much of the area beyond Greater Night
used this (and the reactivation of General
City had been abandoned during the
rest of the City. I Collapse. But now, people started moving
Lundee’s commission) to gain leverage over
Militech, bringing it to heel and national-
don't know if he north, south, and east as soon as they could. izing its assets as part of a resurgent US
was right, but I aim Neighborhoods found a new unity and pur- Government. Bringing the full force of
her military and propaganda resources
pose, even if it was grudgingly built on a
to find out.” shaky foundation. They weren’t looking for
to bear, Kress painted a lurid picture of
Arasaka as an evil foreign Megacorp run
rebuild yet. They were looking for food, by a madman, who wantonly destroyed
“Night City’s clean water, and shelter. In a wasteland of an American city in the pursuit of personal
ruins, gangs, renegade Corporate fighters, power. Arasaka’s charters to operate in the
seductive but and radioactive wreckage, the denizens of United States were immediately revoked,
remember you’re a Night City were in survival mode. And sur- its members and board declared terrorists,
and its assets either seized or driven off-
Nomad. vival is what the inhabitants of Night City shore.
do best.
That means guns. Yet, for all of this political theater, Kress
showed little or no interest in helping Night
Guns and cyber- After the Fall: the City recover. Much as previous Presidents
during the Collapse had done, she wrote the
bikes. That's how Recovery (2030–2040) city off as unrecoverable and offered sanc-
we hold the line. President Kress blamed the Night City
tuary in a new United States to the surviving
refugees. There were two reasons for this;
We don't have attack on Arasaka, although she was soon first, with the resources of the United States
any home except able to determine that the actual weapon already stretched to the breaking point,
used had been supplied by a Militech strike there really were very few options left to
the caravan. We team. The Big Lie was that Arasaka blew Kress. Second, the flinty and farsighted
American President saw this as the perfect
don't have any up the Corporate Center in an area denial way to bring the wayward “Free State of
rights except what attack to stop Militech from seizing the NorCal” (and its lucrative technology base)
Arasaka’s Night City office. In point of fact, back into the Government’s control.
we take. We get Arasaka did actually have a much larger But stubborn to the end, Night City fought
run out of town by thermonuclear device buried in the founda- back.
cops; we get raided tions of the Towers for just that reason, but
the explosion of the Militech pocket nuke
by the roadwarrior rendered this plan inoperable. No one
packs, and we knows where the Arasaka Bomb actually Night city....
survive because wound up after the Fall of the Towers, and

Ahwoooo!
since only a few of the upper echelon of the
we've got guns and zaibatsu (such as Kei and his father Saburo)
bikes...” even knew about this fallback, the knowl-
edge of the Arasaka weapon has since UNknown
passed into the realm of legend.

16
 NIGHT CITY 2.0
and jury–rigged main battle tanks (abandoned by both sides)
After the Bomb: to shove the debris into the Bay. Most of Night City’s inner
the Rebuilding (2040–Present) neighborhoods had already been razed to the ground in the
ceaseless battles preceding the Fall of the Towers. Now, the
Roughly two million people in the greater Night City region wreckage became the land that new mega–buildings and old
were left homeless due to the Bomb, either directly or because cityscapes rose upon, once more ready to challenge the smog
of flooding from the liquefaction of the city’s foundations. Sur- filled skies. And the building keeps going on, despite gangs,
vivors fled into overcrowded tent cities in the surrounding sub- plagues, riots, and all the other inconveniences that are just
urbs of North Oak, Westbrook, Pacifica, Heywood, and South another part of the Time of the Red.
Night City. But tent cities aren’t real homes and it was obvious
This ongoing rebuilding period has also cemented Night
that something needed to be done fast.
City’s relationship to the outer world. Abandoned by President
The remnants of the Night City government turned to outside Kress and her “New” United States, Night City has no intention
resources, calling in old markers and favors from a wide vari- of ever yoking itself to that tottering governmental shibboleth
ety of Edgerunners. Recovery was lead by the Nomads of the again. Kress’s successors are going to be in for a really long and
Aldecaldo Clan and their allies in the StormTech Corporation. ugly war if they want to take this particular Free Zone back into
With a lot of experience in city rebuilding due to the Chicago the fold; frack, they might even ask Arasaka for help if it comes
project, StormTech and the Aldecaldos were uniquely equipped to that. As for the European Theater; the Euros can go their own
to construct extensive temporary housing from shipping contain- way just as long as they don’t mess with Night City’s particular
ers and later formocrete modules brought in by rail and sea. path. Like a cyberfighter who’s been hit, knocked down, and
But first, the ground needed to be cleared to put up even has risen again with a scream of heavy metal rage, Night City
these rudimentary structures. Most of central Corp Zone had has dreams. It dreams of becoming the biggest, baddest, most
been destroyed. The wreckage was far too vast to dig up important city on the planet one day.
and cart to distant landfills, so the survivors used bulldozers And it’s a big dreamer

MAKSYM HARAHULIN

17
NIGHT CITY 2.0
never stops, and the Center is awash with the slam of heavy
NIGHT CITY IN THE machinery and brilliant with construction arc lights.

TIME OF THE RED The Over Packed Suburbs

Back before he returned to the High Road, my dad used to In the aftermath of the War, most of central Night City was
hang out in Night City a lot. He said that for all the grungy, uninhabitable, not because of residual radiation, but due to the
dangerousness of the place (and trust me, I’ve got no illusions loss of power, sewer, and water services. The suburbs became
that my dad wasn’t in the middle of the most grungy and most host to a huge number of tent cities and unregulated refugee
dangerous parts)—there was a glittering, gorgeous center that camps smack in the middle of what had previously been safe
was the flip side of the eurobuck coin. Back then, if you had the Corporate “beavervilles.” While huge megabuildings are
money and the connections, Night City could be the best place under construction to house the refugees, this region is crowded,
on earth—filled with the beautiful, the cybered up, and the crime ridden, and on the edge of disaster all the time.
powerful. Of course, if you were (like he was in those days) a
young hired gun looking for a job, it could bounce from super The Reclaimed Perimeter
slick and glam all the way to miserable and homicidal just like
that. When Night City was the regional hub, it was surrounded by
a constellation of smaller towns and suburbs. Most of these were
Today, just like in my old man’s day, what life in Night City abandoned during the 2000—2020 period, as they were too
is like depends on where you are. Neighborhoods and zones far out to protect from the roving go–gangs that plagued the
vary wildly, depending on what faction/gang/Corporation area. Now, supported by Nomad Families and private security,
controls the local turf, and even then, conditions can change on the Reclaimers are attempting to transform ghost towns into
the flip of a euro. But overall, the Night City region can pretty new homes for the dispossessed of the City.
much be divided into five zones.

The Hot Zone Wasteland The Open Road

In the 2020s, the Open Road was home to roving go–gang-
This is the area that used to be the central Corporate Zone. ers and well defended Nomad caravans. But as the Nomad
While much of this area had been bulldozed into the Bay as Families take greater control of the world’s commerce and
fill, the remainder is still a haunted landscape of wrecked, shipping routes, they’re using surplus military hardware to drive
twisted skyscrapers, burned out vehicles, and the entombed out the go–gangs and make the roads safe for travel. The
bodies of the unlucky. roads are still open, wide and dusty, with dead and burned
Although the radiation has subsided, it’s still present and most out vehicles littering the landscape, but increasingly, the Open
people have abandoned the area to the worst of the gangs. If Road is looking more Route 66 than Route 666.
you go here, you probably are either a ganger, suicidal, or a
scavenger looking to find something that’s hidden in the endless
wreckage.
Change is Coming
In the Time of the Red, Night City is a city in the midst of
The Rebuilding Urban Center massive change. Areas are constantly being rebuilt. The first
temporary housing is rapidly being replaced by a new gen-
Not all of Night City was obliterated in the Holocaust. eration of gigantic mega–buildings; modeled after the old
Already heavily built up with skyscrapers and densely packed New Harbor Mall Arcology (which was destroyed by shellfire
urban construction, a considerable amount of the urban center in 2022), these towering structures encompass living spaces,
has survived. But the detonation and subsequent destruction has entertainment, food courts and shopping malls, all in their
damaged the seawalls and breakwaters that kept the Bay and centralized hubs. As time goes on, these will probably evolve
the outer Pacific Ocean from rushing in. Periodic flooding is a to be the main habitable space in the Night City megacity,
regular occurrence, and power and water are chancy at best. especially in such depressed and razed exburbs as Watson
The NCART subway still runs, when the tunnels aren’t flooded; and Heywood.
the City planners are working to raise the majority of the track
into a new monorail configuration, but that will take time and The New Un–Normal
money the city doesn’t have. Services are spotty, the law is chancy; you can’t run the NET
In the Rebuilding Center, cranes and construction gear are to the edge of space anymore, much less grab an Orbital Air
everywhere. The looming skeletons of new Corporate towers luxury flight up to the Crystal Palace, but in general, things
rise from the broken bones of the Old City, patrolled by vig- still work in Night City. You may not be able to get the latest
ilant private armies and mechanical sentry drones. The work digital Agent or the best weapons on the market (there is still

18
 NIGHT CITY 2.0
a major problem with supply chains that were disrupted by the • Freelance PI and Police licensing.
War), but thanks to the explosion of rooftop and green–wall • City contracts for construction and justice services.
gardens, bandit solar collectors, and refabbed hardware from
your friendly neighborhood Tech, you’re actually eating better There is no Mayor or strong central leadership, and fights
(when you eat), have access to more reliable power and gear, between factions are frequent and are sometimes settled on
and can even count on the local Fixer setting you up with new the Street with weapons instead of in meeting rooms through
drugs and new cyberware right off the (illicit) Streets. negotiation. No one faction holds the upper hand and between
the shifting alliances and agendas, things generally get done
without descending into open warfare on the Streets too often.
Although badly underfunded and strapped for supplies,
It's not the each area of Night City has its own Fire and Emergency Ser-
vice Departments. Maintained by a levy on the local Corps and
Golden Age of the neighborhoods, these small units are heavily armed.

2020's, choomba. But Public Services

the Street still Hospitals
works. The two public hospitals established in the 2020 years (City
Medical Center and Crisis Medical Center) still exist in the
Trace Santiago Central Night City area, but they suffer from lower level flood-
ing and regular disruption of basic services such as water,
power, and communications. The hospitals are, however, the
last stand when it comes to major surgery and the ability to
PARTICULARS handle periodic plague outbreaks like those that were common
in the period right after the Fall. There are now a number of
“Political power grows out of the barrel of constantly shifting clinics scattered across the area which have
a gun.” become the Red period’s main source of medical care; out-
growths of the often covert ripperdocs of the 2020s, they are
—Mao Tse–Tung where most people go to get medicine, emergency care, and
moderate level cyberware installations. The City also maintains
Political a large cryo body bank, a holdover from the days immediately
Politically, the current Night City is more or less run (and we following the Fall when corpses were choking the Streets; these
use the term loosely, indeed) by a junta of old city government, cavernous, refrigerated chambers, filled with racked cold slabs
Edgerunner and Nomad factions, and the few Corporations for cadavers, support a booming business in illicit body part
whose assets have survived the War. This City Council is domi- trade.
nated by the most aggressive or charismatic members of these
disparate factions, including: Information
• The Nomad Families Data Terms, established in the 20–teens, are still located on
the corners of many (30%) City Streets, and can be used to
• Edgerunner factions, including Netrunners, Solos, Rockers, access information, computer services, fax–mail and NET input.
and other “Cyberpunk” types. It’s a testament to their indestructibility that they still operate
• The old City Government. even with the NET broken. However, enterprising Netrunners,
Techs and Fixers have taken to rewiring some Data Terms to
• The Corporate interests of Zetatech, Biotechnica, Petro-
require a CredChip or other form of payment in order to gain
Chem, and (recently and covertly) Arasaka.
access. Most Data Terms are also patched into the local Data
A District Manager chosen by their group is nominally in Pool system, allowing them to be used as phone booths, mes-
charge of their part of the City. The Council and District Man- sage boards, news readers, and PopMedia access points.
agers are theoretically in charge of:
• The local Data Pool.
Data Terms also make great cover, in
• Zoning designations for Corporations and neighborhoods.
case you were wondering.
• Road and infrastructure taxes (collected from Corps, fac-
tions and neighborhoods).

19
NIGHT CITY 2.0
The NET are efficient, dangerous, and reasonably moral, making them a
safe investment for all of Night Cities District Managers.
Overall, the War has totally wiped out most NET traffic; what
little survived the destruction of server and wiring infrastructure Hammerman himself is a man on a crusade—to maintain law
was severely compromised by a deadly cybervirus that rav- and order and protect the innocent. NCPD has an impartial
aged the Grubb–Ihara protocol–based systems at the War’s code that it follows to the letter. It ends fights, no matter who
end. This “DataKrash”, rumored to be the creation of deranged starts them; if you’re a security service guy fighting a bunch
master Netrunner Rache Bartmoss, has made running the old of boosters, you’d better put your weapons down when NCPD
NET an almost suicidal proposition; the remnants of Netwatch shows up, or they’ll open fire on you, too.
(the global police of the NET), have done their best to ban
Netrunners from large sections of the NET to keep the Krash I Don’t Need No Stinking Badges
from spreading. This is implemented by literally destroying key
NET nodes in the system and taking still others offline. What While Night City (and many Reclaimed City Zones) maintains
NET traffic still exists in the Red period is limited to heavily their own police forces, other areas just hire a Security force
secured VPN or “airgapped” systems which network together to protect key city buildings, like the local Records Hall and
a single group, building, or campus. Council Offices. For these guys (and others) law enforcement
services are instead licensed to a variety of professional,
The Data Pool NeoCorporate, private police and local forces, deputized to
patrol/control a specific area by the owners of that area.
The Data Pool is a Citywide information network that is built
on the backbone of the earlier Data Term systems of the pre– These include:
Red era. It connects information servers and exchange systems
designed for open use within the limits of a city. Data Pools Security Services
produce free, open content created through the collaborative
Private businesses that employ hundreds of uniformed “rent
efforts of a community of users. In design, they are similar to
a cops” hired to patrol urban areas, office blocks, and upscale
the hyper–stack “page” system attempted and then aban-
living areas. The largest of these in Night City is the local branch
doned for the NET in the early 90’s. In Night City, the Data Pool
has replaced the NET as the primary means by which residents of Lazarus Security, the heir to the 2020s ubiquitous Arasaka
communicate and share ideas and information. and Militech. These Security Services have arrest authority in
Night City, but maintain no jails.
Law and Order Corporate Security
Between the Corporate battles during the War and the Fall Similar to Security Services, but loyal to one specific Corpo-
of the Towers, law enforcement in Night City literally fell apart. ration, Corp cops do not have arrest authority beyond their
During the first years of the Time of the Red, random Solos employer’s facilities or the right to maintain jails, but who’s
and Law Enforcement Officers gradually began to reassert going to stop them?
control over the roving gangs and looters on a neighborhood
by neighborhood basis. The more money and resources the Personal Bodyguards
locals had to throw at the problem, the better these ad hoc
police units were, with Corporate “rent–a–cops” getting the These are individuals who have been licensed and bonded
best vehicles and hardware overall. Perhaps because of their by the local District Manager, similar to the way Private Investi-
limited assets, bribery is common and corruption standard. As gator’s licenses were given out in the old days. Personal body-
for the old NCPD, the only real survivors were the members of guards are licensed to use maximum force only in the event that
MAX–TAC or “CyberPsycho Squad”. Incorruptible to the last their clients are in immediate physical danger. Without arrest
and still led by their commander, Max Hammerman, this lone authority they must call whichever group is legally active in the
bastion of the NCPD maintained an iron–fisted control over any area to take prisoners.
and all incidents involving suspected cyberpsychotic elements
in the City. Slowly, Commander Hammerman and MAX–TAC Freelance Police
began asserting more control over the districts of Night City, A variation of personal bodyguards, these are Solos hired to
pushing out protection cartels and recruiting freelance Solos provide security and protection for a neighborhood. Protectors
into their ranks. By 2030, Max Hammerman and MAX–TAC “patrol the beat” of their area, dealing with threats as they
had reestablished the NCPD, operating as an independent law turn up. Freelance Police have arrest authority, as granted by
enforcement department maintaining contracts with each Dis- the neighborhood they work for. They sometimes have holding
trict Manager in Night City. The NCPD is the only public service cells, but more often as not remand prisoners to the local Secu-
in Night City that is uniformly provided across all districts. They rity Facility.

20
 NIGHT CITY 2.0

Transport “Okay, Miss

Public Transportation Valentina, that's
Astoundingly, the Night City Transit Corporation (NCTC) provides for bus service on most what your uncle
major city thoroughfares. NCART (Night City Area Rapid Transit), a public Corporation with
some private (read: Corporate) funding, sometimes functions but is often submerged under knows about Big
several hundred feet of salt water due the collapse of the Night City water table. There
are plans to rebuild the flooded sections above ground and extend the new monorail way
Bad Night City.
to cover the growing suburban areas of North Oak, Westbrook, Pacifica, Heywood, and Now you get back
South Night City.
there and write up
Night City Metro a good report—in
The local airport would handle both domestic and international flights if there were any.
Unfortunately, the chaos of the War disrupted most regular transit—private jets and aero- your own words—
dynes exist only for the wealthy. yes!—and get your
As part of the reclamation of the City, plans are underway to establish an orbital space-
plane /delta rail–driver launch site on the recently uncovered mass of Morro Rock. As a
precious bike. And
volcanic batholith, it is the most geological stable area in the entire region and the perfect remember; I want
ground for launching things into space.
my bike washed
Freeways and waxed by next
Night City is on State Highway 828, which runs east to connect to I–5. Ground transit to
San Francisco is about four hours due to road gang activity and bad roads; to LA about six Tuesday, neh?”
hours.
The Nomads
The most reliable transportation in or out of Night City is offered as a service by the Nomad Clans. Individual Clans sponsor
heavily armed convoys to Cities along the Coast, throughout the West, and even to the edges of the New United States. These
convoys, often made up of over a hundred vehicles ranging in size from giant multifamily combis to small and armed escort
cycles, are capable of standing off even the most determined road–gangs and rogue mercenary groups. Sea–based Clans have
commandeered everything from abandoned luxury liners to gigantic container ships and pressed them into service; these are the
only reliable way to get out of Night City via the sea lanes.

By Air and Even Space

Need to travel faster? Nomad Clans now control a sizable percentage of the aero–zep (modern cargo blimps) traffic around
the region and overseas,. usually backed up by satellite snub fighters and AV’s. There are few actual commercial jets or other
winged aircraft available (too expensive to operate), but if you’re really in a hurry, there are an assortment of ex–ESA (Euro-
pean Space Agency) or Orbital Highrider pilots commanding their own suborbital scram–jets; like the legendary Han Solo, these
“Deltajocks” go out of their way to avoid legal entanglements and will move any cargo (including you) for the right price.

ls.
The City of the Fallen Ange
thE ChromerS,
Not to mention the Legion,
s...
the Gilligans, the Inquisitor
NCPD
Lt. Strawberry Morressey,
21
 E DDI E M E N DOZ A

4 EVERYDAY THINGS
So, you’re just in from the Open Road, neh? You’re a Family member
and I wouldn’t be a good member of the Pack if I didn’t take care of a
brother. Let me fill you in on how they do things in the Big Bad Night City.
–Trace Santiago

STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE

Background
Let’s start with the cops (which is the first thing you’re gonna need to know in the City). First of all, most are now called Lawmen,
since their ambit covers a lot more than the old school City Beat. The Lawmen of the Time of the Red, whether civil or one of the new
private contractors, are organized much as they were during the 20th century with Homicide, Vice, Burglary, and Traffic Squads;
about 5 men each. There has also been great efforts to retain the venerable –and necessary–Maximum Force Tactical Division
(also known as the Psycho Squad or MAX–TAC), whose main job is to deal with cybernetic criminals. While the average beat cop
hits the Street in an armored squad car, wearing an armor jacket, helmet and carrying a smart–chipped Militech sidearm, the
Psycho Squad detail employs aerogyros, AV–4’s, miniguns, assault weapons and missile launchers.

22
 EVERYDAY THINGS
City cops can patrol all areas of the city. Corporate Cops one well–placed .44 slug at point blank range. They are also
are deputized to patrol only Corporate facilities. However, empowered to hunt down escapees from Death Row.
in areas where a large number of office areas are side by
side, this effectively can turn an entire downtown region into
Corporate Cop territory. Corporate Cops are usually better
armed and armored, and often have full Trauma Team medi- HOW YOU STAY
cal coverage. They are also more vicious, sadistic and likely to
shoot first—after all, they know the Corporation can cover the
incident up.
IN TOUCH
In the Time of the Red, the cell phone of the 2000s has been
There are also Lawmen on the open highways as well. Since
replaced by a device that is a generational step beyond its
a lot of new Reclaimed Cities don’t have police forces set up
predecessors. Even back in 2013, cellphones could make calls,
yet, these wandering marshals are much like the range–riding
record information, take pictures, and play music. Some could
Wyatt Earps of the Old West—hard riding and fast shooting.
even download videos. But the Agent, introduced just before
the world went to hell, is a new tech solution and goes a lot
The Uniform further than just taking your calls.
Civilian Justice Code What makes your Agent unique is its Self–Adaptive AI. SAAI
is the programming that operates your Agent. It is not a true
In 1999, the US Government established a Uniform Civilian AI, but rather an interlocking program set that manages data
Justice Code to replace the many laws and regulations that and “learns” how to do things by interacting with its owner.
had previously governed the nation. The Code is the guideline That’d be you. This allows the Agent to manage your life—to
for all criminal procedure in the United States of the 2040s and make sure you have the time to do what you need to do (crimes,
in Night City. Here are the important rules: killing people, getting out of trouble, and so forth) instead of
going to the store to pick up something you forgot.
Murder vs Self–Defense
Self–defense is defined as “any instance in which the assail- What Your Agent Can Do
ant can show just cause that their life, or the life of another • Make phone calls in voice, flat–screen, or 3D holos.
party was threatened, in circumstances where a duly appointed
officer of the law could not be summoned, or where it was • Record calls, forward calls, or send them to voice mail.
impossible to restrain the injured party by any other means. • Scan the Data Pool to locate a person, place, or thing, and
display the result as a map, a GPS guide, or a vocal file.
Drugs
• Send or receive text messages as well as download scream-
Theoretically, narcotics may not be possessed within the sheet (news) updates keyed to particular subjects you want
premises of the United States. However, bio–engineered plant to keep track of.
diseases developed through the 1990’s by the Drug Enforce-
ment Agency wiped out 96% of the coca and opium plants in • Keep your schedule for you and act independently on events,
existence, making the point moot. The law also does not cover like ordering a gift, paying from your cred account, and hav-
“designer drugs” such as endorphins and some synthetic narcot- ing it delivered to the recipient.
ics, which are defined as medicinal. • Maintain a personality complete with name, voice, and even
Besides, you’re in Night City. It’s not PART of the United States a holographic face/body. Some lonely souls stationed on
anymore, choomba. Smoke ‘em if ya got em... distant transport runs or orbital stations have been known
to reprogram their Agents to act as surrogate lovers, as well
Hard Time as personal assistants (with the aid of specific cybernetically
Nailed for a Crime? Plea bargaining (pleading guilty to a driven “enhancements” to meet very specific needs.)
lesser charge to speed up a trial) has been eliminated. Pro- • Find information on a topic by cruising the Data Pool, look-
bation is almost unheard of. The death penalty is standard for ing for facts, and compiling simplified reports (you choose
murder cases—there is a three month appeal process during the report parameters) that can be delivered through text,
which new evidence can be introduced. Most felonies have graphics, or speech.
mandatory prison terms of 5 to 10 years. Lesser crimes are
• Link to most of the appliances in your conapt.
covered by exile or personality adjustment.
• Monitor supply use, order when low, and have everything
Bang. You’ve Got Justice delivered to your door.
The simplest method of punishment is still execution. Most • Talk to your clothes and make recommendations for tailoring
states have a State Executioner who administers justice with or replacement.

23
EVERYDAY THINGS
• Store thousands of hours of programming including music, 10 or 8 round clip of caseless ammunition, retail at 150eb to
video, and games, and display them on its own on–board 300eb, and are usually available anywhere firearms are sold.
LCD or holoscreens, or automatically seek out any unused They combine practicality, durability, and style in potent little
video/audio device in the area and project though that. packages. The somewhat ancient Cyberteen™ line includes
airbrushed casings with colorful shapes and artwork molded
• Word processing using voice or a VR keyboard, downloading
right in—making them the perfect gift for the young consumer
the output to Data Pool or a hard–copy printer.
interested in personal defense. And who isn’t in Night City?
• Record images in 2 or 3D (depending on model) or sound in
stereo or surround and upload the files to the Data Pool.
Agents come in three types, each about the size of an old
school cellphone. Basic (stripped down without a lot of extra
HOW YOU GET
bells and whistles), Expensive (with most bells and whistles and
extra functions), and Luxury (Everything you can cram in). AROUND
You’ll need a service provider to sell you connectivity. No one Surprise, surprise. Contrary to expectations, the Dark Future
company owns connectivity. There are dozens of providers in has not yielded any staggering new developments in transpor-
Night City and new ones rezzing in every day. tation. Years of economic strife and civil unrest have discour-
aged research into new ways to travel—in fact, the very act
of travel has become very restricted. Don’t expect the inner
WHAT YOU'RE city world of the Time of the Red to be much like the 20th
century—a network of crowded freeways, packed trains, and
swarming airports. Instead, think of it as a patchwork of badly
PACKING up–kept roads, abandoned airports, and trains plagued by
gangs and intermittent service.
Melee weapons in the Time of the Red range from knives
to swords, clubs, tasers, and a host of other lethal damage
dealers. Its rough out there and everyone is packing something.
Ground Car
There are guns, too, and they are generally designed to use Power plant: CHOOH2 or methane fueled internal combustion.
a specific class of ammunition based on the size of the gun. Structural Damage Points: 50. Armored cars may have up to
These are grouped by Light (up to 9mm), Medium (9mm to .45), 30 SP of armor on all surfaces including windows.
Heavy (magnum rounds), and Very Heavy (specialized “super
There haven’t been any major changes in automobiles since
guns”) types. Shoulder arms follow the same classification sys-
the 1980s—externally. Most cars are still basically a box on
tem, allowing almost any local Tech to produce ammunition as
wheels, with smooth or hard edges. The Cyberpunk ethos being,
needed.
“if it works, keep it till it doesn’t work.” In the cash poor envi-
Where do you get weapons? There aren’t any Militech show- ronment of the 2000s, auto manufacturers kept to conservative,
rooms these days. But any decent Fixer can hook you up at the unimaginative designs, so that by the end of the 4th Corporate
local Night Market. There’s a ton of options—after all, there War, the average family car was little changed from its prac-
was a War less than two decades ago—but you’ll have to take tically antique roots.
potluck. Who knows! You might score an old Malorian, or a Almost all cars available in the Time of the Red are powered
classic wheel–lock. In most cases, if you want to get a good gun, by tanks of liquefied methane or meta–alcohol fuels such as
you’re going to have to talk to the local Fixer or hit the Night “CHOOH2.” Electric cars are the exception, not the rule. Control
Markets when they pop up. systems are roughly similar to those of the late 20th century
While there’s a certain style in using an old model sidearm employing a few more digital displays and push button con-
like a Colt .357 or .45, the sensible Cyberpunk knows that a trols.
more modern pistol makes a good backup. Since the introduc-
tion of the Glock 17 automatic in the mid–1980s, most major
handgun manufacturers now produce polymer resin pistols in a
Cybercars
variety of calibers. The biggest change to automotives in the last several decades
came with the introduction of cybernetic control systems. These
Polymer One Shots employ servos at the wheels, throttle, and transmission, all of
which are controlled by a modified cybermodem in the dash.
The most ubiquitous of these weapons are the various models The driver simply “studs” into the cybermodem and thinks the
of polymer plastic handguns. Easily created using 3D print- car through the motions. Even decades after their introduction,
ing, they are cheap and even available from some Vendit cybervehicles are relatively uncommon—the upgrading price is
machines. Manufactured in a variety of bright, designer colors, steep, and the removal of external controls renders the vehicle
these so–called “Polymer One–shots” carry an easy to load useless to anyone but a cybered driver.

24
 EVERYDAY THINGS

Cyberbikes McDonnell–Douglas AV–4

Power plant: Alcohol or hydro fueled internal combustion. Tactical Urban Assault Vehicle
Ground speed: 100 to 160mph.
Power plant: One Pegasus II Vectored Thrust Turbofan (21,180
Structural Damage Points: 25. Armored bikes may have up to lbs. thrust).
15 SP of armor on all surfaces including tires.
Performance: Max airspeed 350 mph.
There’s a huge number of bikes and trikes out there these Operational radius: 400 miles.
days as well. Most are hydro or CHOOH2 fueled, with inputs
Structural Damage Points: 100. Most AV–4s are armored to
for direct cyberlinkage if desired. Models include Kundalini, an SP of 40.
BMWX, Harlon–Dawson and Toyo–Tomo.
The nearest thing to a science fiction jet–car, the AV–4 Tac
F–152 Aerogyro Vehicle was developed as a light assault aircraft capable of
operation in close urban areas where rotary and tilt–wing air-
Power plant: One 2600 rotary aircraft engine. craft cannot penetrate. Short, bulbous, and equipped with only
Performance: Max airspeed 300 mph. rudimentary maneuver wings, the AV–4 has the aerodynamic
Operational radius: 50 miles. characteristics of a rock, relying on the brute force of its huge
Structural Damage Points: 40 jet engine to keep it aloft (the original Pegasus engine lifted a
19,550 lb. Harrier jump–jet, while a fully loaded AV–4 weighs
The riots of the late 90’s required new tactics for operating
about 8,600 lbs.).
in urban areas. Chief among these was the introduction of light,
one–man helicopters or aerogyros. Even in the Time of the Red, The AV–4 is used by those security forces that have them
the F–152 is used by police units, Corporate defense teams, for urban assaults (using 2 belly mounted GAU–12U mini–gun
Solo assault operations teams, and Nomad clans. A civilian ver- pods). They are also useful as emergency vehicles—specifically
sion, known as the Bell–15, was a popular recreational vehicle by the Trauma Team (See page 33) organizations—or as Cor-
before the War. porate vehicles for special deliveries and meetings.

MAKSYM HARAHULIN

25
EVERYDAY THINGS
hundreds of Data Terms across the area, which produce the
HOW YOU paper on demand using a high–speed printer. The result is a
slick, flimsy newspaper known in street slang as a screamsheet.
GET WORD Screamsheets have many advantages over previous newspa-
pers. You can dial the Data Term to print only the sections of the
Data Term paper you want, paying 0.1eb per page printed. New editions
can be compiled in hours, allowing the public to keep abreast
The Data Term is a street corner computer terminal, built into
of a story even as it happens (although most scream sheets are
a heavily armored concrete post. Data Terms have a direct link
updated at 6:00 am, 12:00 pm, 5:00 pm, and 10:00 pm).
to a central Data Pool in their home city, and can provide hard
copy “flimsy” maps of the area, information, news updates, These days, screamsheets can also be downloaded onto a
phone numbers, current event listings, entertainment informa- personal Agent and read entirely on screen or via holo.
tion, and shopping services. Data Pool Rates are about 1eb
per minute. Data Pool
Most Data Terms are operated by a DT service, which is Data Pools are information servers and exchange systems
often a subsidiary of a local MediaCorp.
designed for open use within the limits of a city. Data Pools
produce free, open content created through the collaborative
Screamsheets efforts of a community of users. In design, they are similar to the
To stay competitive with television, most newspapers now hyper–stack “page” system attempted and then abandoned
use holo–digital technology. Pages are rendered on computer, for the NET in the early 90’s. They are free to use by anyone
then translated into digital code. This code is transmitted to who has access to a Data Term or an Agent.

E DDI E M E N DOZ A

26
 EVERYDAY THINGS
Data Pools Can Be Used As: hookups are integrated into the lining or other parts of the
clothing.
• Message networks allowing voice, text, or video to be sent to
and received from other phones or Data Pool accounts • Can harden themselves into effective body armor.
• Information exchanges; media boards that can be shared by Digital Fabric is not only used in clothing. It is also used to
members of a group. make “floppy” hardware—video screens that can be worn
like bandannas, musical key–boards and keypads that can be
• Research and information databases. Similar to an encyclo-
rolled or wadded up into a pocket, and computer peripherals
pedia, but with information added freely by users and then
that can be stuffed into a purse or backpack. Digital “cha-
vetted or voted for inclusion.
meleon” fabrics are used to hide vehicles or operations from
• Shopping services allowing users to post items for sale or observation, while digitally reactive fabrics can harden them-
request items that they want to buy. selves to steel–like consistencies to stop bullets.

WHAT YOU WEAR WHERE YOU GET

If you’re barely surviving, you’re probably wearing rags. If
you’ve got a little money, clothing in Night City becomes more STUFF
interesting. There aren’t many stores around in the Time of the Red. And
Digital fabric integrates micro circuitry into the weave of if you’re looking for a convenience store for a bag of soy chips
material, allowing the cloth to have properties beyond mere (or to hold up for a few bucks), forget it.
adornment and protection. Some weaves incorporate light
emitting threading that allows the material to act as a video Vendits
receiver. Some weaves are made up of vibrating monofibers
that allows the cloth to emit sounds. Other weaves involve In 2045, most low–cost, day–to–day purchases are done
embedded pheromone sprayers that emit perfumes or other via Vendits—self–contained vending machines that dispense
scents. Still others have temperature regulation systems or sen- everything from meals to clothing to weapons. All you have to
sors that can pick up the body’s natural electrical fields to gain do is swipe a CredChip over the scanner (Vendits do not trade
important information on the wearer’s condition. Most buttons in hard currency), press a few buttons or say a few words,
and zippers incorporate microcomputers to control these func- and within moments your desired purchase drops out the slot. A
tions. Heat sensitive patches and badges also allow the user Vendit can be placed almost anywhere; they are self–powered
to control functions of the digital fabric. By adding a patch or using a small thermal battery good for five years, and use an
badge, you can often integrate new functions into an existing on–board data link to call for repairs, refills; even protection
piece of clothing. (although most don’t need much protection, as Vendits are typ-
ically armored to SP50 and have built in taser and stun–gas
High–end Clothes in the Dark Future AP systems to discourage vandals). Vendits are programmed
• Can know if they are ripped or dirty and can report this to answer simple questions and often have on–board digital
information to Agents or other readouts. Their “tags” not printers to deliver custom items based on templates stored in
only contain cleaning and wear data, but also manufactur- the machine. Because they’re durable and easier to maintain
er’s codes, order numbers, and sizes. The Agent can order than an actual storefront, Vendits are often found in even the
replacement clothing based on this data. most destitute areas of Night City.
• Can adapt themselves to temperature changes by monitoring
your body temp and tightening /relaxing the weave to let Night Markets
air in or out.
These are markets that can spring up anywhere in the City,
• Can receive digital information from an Agent or other trans- often without warning; whenever a good shipment comes in
mitters and use it to adapt themselves to hostile conditions, off a transport or something really useful is uncovered by the
becoming weatherproof, acid proof, or fireproof. Nomads or Fixers, a Night Market usually comes into being
• Can change color or project 2D images on the cloth itself. to sell it. Night Markets are mobile shops mounted on trailers,
vehicles, shipping containers, and whatever else has mobility
• Can change colors or textures by using simple controls or
and some spare volumetric to display stuff. Getting to a Night
mini–cams with chameleon matching programs. Market is as much about connections as it is about money. Some
• Can power small electrical devices by incorporating heat or of the best markets are top secret affairs and require an invi-
solar sensitive threading into their composition. Plugs and tation or access codes just to find them. Night Markets can pop

27
EVERYDAY THINGS
up for a couple hours, then vanish forever, or regularly show developed green thumbs—tearing up previously abandoned
up at specific sites if they can depend on enough security and lots and revealing the soil beneath—kitbashing the materials
space to set up shop. needed to make rooftop gardens, acid filtering rain barrels,
and water sprinkler systems. Within a couple years post–War,
there were a lot of gardening sites in Night City; small, care-
WHAT YOU EAT fully tended and feeding the populations of local conapts and
neighborhood squats. It was actually good food for a change
(if you didn’t mind the radioactivity and toxic waste traces).
Synth–Food
Killing for Cabbages
Pollution, toxic waste, and wanton resource stripping (not to
mention a massive global war) has left many croplands barren This didn’t go unnoticed by the non–farming communities—
and many food staples either endangered or outrageously like the Boosters, go–gangers, and other groups not particu-
expensive. America’s response has been to create processed larly interested in raising their own crops. Savage wars broke
substitutes for whatever it needs. out over these guerrilla gardens spaces, with the body counts
growing (but reprocessed into fertilizer when possible) monthly.
Kibble Whole neighborhoods armed up and started patrolling their
Upper Forties, ready to maim and kill anyone who had a han-
Kibble is the standard base–line food product. It is a mass– kering to steal a tomato.
produced nutrient made primarily of kelp, plankton, and soy
proteins (none of this “Kibble is PEOPLE!” drek) that fulfills most Meet the Meat
nutritional requirements, but smells and tastes about as good
Things got even more heated when some enterprising farm-
as its canine namesake. NeoCorps often dispense this to labor-
ers began raising real chickens, dwarf pigs, and even goats
ers as part of their “support” programs (of course, the cost is
deducted from their pay). Most people in the urban zones have (cows are still rare). Individual animals and herds were shipped
at least one meal a day of kibble, but try to have something through Nomad convoys with heavy Solo protection, creating a
with more variety as their main meal, if they can afford it. A new form of “cattle drive.” Needless to say, there were attempts
kibble diet runs about 30eb a week. to rustle the range that ended up with many of the would–be
rustlers buried in the Night City equivalent of Boot Hill.
Prepack The Market Price
The next step up from kibble is Prepack: meals that can be By the present day, things have died down a little bit. A
microwaved or self–heated for consumption. They still tend to detente was reached, especially between the Growers and the
be largely soy and grain–based “faux food”, but they are
NeoCorporates. In exchange for some heavy security from the
usually flavored more effectively and may even have a few
Corporate types, the Growers provided their partners fresh
bits of real meat or veggies inside. Good Prepack has a higher
percentage of natural food and is almost like restaurant fare, food, and both sides profited. So, while there are still raids
just in a bag. Just press the tab and its heat and eat. A Prepack on individual city farms and rooftop gardens, on the whole,
diet runs about 100eb a week with Good Prepack pushing everyone involved is benefiting. And if you happen to know
the price up to 250eb per week. Prepack is far more common or work with someone who’s growing fresh food, you’ve got a
in Executive and wealthy homes; if you want Prepack in Edg- good chance of scoring some every so often.
erunner turf, you’d better hope your local Fixer has a supplier,
choomba.
HOW YOU HAVE FUN
Fresh Food
Fresh food had always been standard fare for the City elite Television and Radio
and a rare luxury for the average person. It’s gotten even
No longer as pervasive a force in the Age of the Red as it
rarer in the Time of the Red, with a one exception.
once was, broadcast has returned to its roots as a locally based
Guerrilla Gardening form of entertainment. Far fewer channels and stations crowd
the airwaves, and most are subscriber services, limited to a
Right after the War, getting any kind of food into the single city or to small audiences of cities within a few hundred
Cities (and past the raiding gangs, the warring Megacorps, miles of each other. If you don’t pay the bill, you don’t get
and the issues of just plain lack of transportation) was nearly the codes to descramble the signal. Programming runs across a
impossible. Faced with starvation, many Edgerunners suddenly range of interests, including sports, news, music and music vid-

28
 EVERYDAY THINGS
eos, old movies, foreign shows, religious programming, debate,
erotic and adult programming, business news, and weather. In Then Came the War
addition, there are still many single band pirate radio stations Then came the 4th Corporate War and the DataKrash. The
scattered throughout the post–War world. MediaCorps were the hardest hit by these events, since they
depended on the NET’s instantaneous communication and
Network Programming access to huge TV/radio transmitters to broadcast their pro-
In the Euro and Asian theaters, most programming is still gramming. But as established media outlets fell apart, new
state–controlled; the BBC in Great Britain, and NGK TV in ways to disseminate information and programming arose to fill
Japan, for example. Before the 4th Corporate War, three the gap. And the main format to make the cut was PopMedia.
privately owned entertainment networks dominated the media PopMedia is entertainment and news programming created
landscape of the United States: New Century Broadcasting by independent producers instead of huge MediaCorps. Com-
(NCB), World Broadcasting Network (WBN), and Network bining audio, data, and visual images in a short and easy to
News 54. These networks were the broadcast divisions of three consume format, PopMedia provides much of the Time of the
massive entertainment conglomerates, each producing data Red’s programming (as well as an ungodly amount of trash).
chips, games, streaming content, videos, movies, and books for Most PopMedia comes from five main sources; New Medi-
the masses. Their product was bland, mindless, and catered to
aCorps, Rockers, Idols, Independents, and Medias.
the lowest possible denominator. With the collapse of the NET,
however, getting consistent network–produced content from sta-
tion to station has proved nearly impossible. As a result, radio New MediaCorps
and television face fierce competition from new entertainment
In the Age of the Red, a New MediaCorp can be a as big
forms being shared via the PopMedia and the Data Pool. as a multi–city operation, or as small as a few talented artists,
techs and producers working to get content out.
Sat Feeds
There are still a few satellite feeds for those who can afford Rockers and Idols
(and guard) reception dishes, featuring programming from Rockers are usually performers or agitators who operate
around the world (many of the sat feeds of the late 2020s without the support of a new MediaCorp. They provide per-
were casualties of the War). There are also a large number
formance “shows”, combining concert footage, music tracks with
of “pirate” TV stations, operating out of hidden locations and
visuals, personal observations, and even braindance experi-
through cable and pirate Highrider satellite patch ups. These
ences. Idols are similar to Rockers, but their programming also
are often a major source of news and information untainted by
mixes in formatting similar to the old–style “reality” show of the
Corporate or government interference.
2000s — it’s all about them.
In addition to the standard high definition flat–screen TV
of the pre–War era, experimental (and expensive; up to
10,000,000eb per set) holographic TV systems are still avail-
able if you know the right Fixer.
the music takes
MediaCorp Media
By the mid–2020s, most media in America was controlled by
one or more gigantic multimedia Megacorps, such as the ubiq- us to the heart
uitous Network 54 or its most aggressive rival, DNS. Even news
was channeled through a Megacorporate filter, with World
News Network (WNS) dominating the airwaves through its 22
channel, 24–7 cycle news programming (heavily laden with
of our culture
subliminals and talking head commentary). The problem was
that as the 21st Century wore on, these mighty media megaliths
become little more than house organs for their parent Corpo-
rations, or mouthpieces for the dominant political party of the
and allows us to
time. With a corrupt FCC controlling access to the airwaves,
there wasn’t much chance that a dissenting voice could break
through, so for most of the early Cyberpunk Age, people were monitor its pulse
resigned to a diet of insipid reality shows, mind–numbing enter-
tainment vids, bad movies, and Corp–sponsored sports shows.
rockerboy magazine

29
EVERYDAY THINGS
Independents and Medias may start out only occupying one time slot, but as subscribers
Independents and Medias produce news, gossip, vid/brain- mount and word gets around, it may end up dominating a huge
dance shows, investigative reporting, and commentary on cur- percentage of the overall possible bandwidth. This also means
that competing shows often find themselves battling for band-
rent events. They also create “talk” shows as well as documen-
width; that means small outfits go toe to toe (and gun to gun)
taries and informational programming.
with the MediaCorps, new and old.

The Data Pool Braindance

What makes PopMedia possible is the Data Pool; a Citywide
An offshoot of the same neural interface technology that
LAN network that links the Red world together in lieu of the old
spawned the cyberware revolution, braindance is considered
NET. Each City has its own version of a Data Pool, requiring
by many to be the purest form of entertainment around. A
the user to set up their own account in order to log on and use
braindance box consists of a memory chip playback unit and a
its facilities. Data Pools are also limited; their LAN structure, a
cable that can stud into an interface plug or convert to surface
requirement in a world where rampant NET sabotage is the
trodes. It plays chips which contain recorded experiences—not
rule, is a fully hardwired system and just doesn’t have the same
just visual and auditory sensations, but complete emotional
flexibility as the old, satellite supported NET.
and tactile information as well. Braindance chips let you feel
Since the Data Pool is an open–ended database, anyone what the performer was feeling at the time. As with most tech,
can easily drop new PopMedia programming into it, with new braindance is a double–edged sword; it’s been used to pacify
entries easily found by Agent search functions. Getting a new prisoners almost as much as it has been used to entertain the
PopMedia download is as easy as clicking a link—and once masses. In the 2010s, it looked as if braindance technology
you’ve loaded it into your Agent once, it’ll keep download- was to be the next great step in entertainment. However, psy-
ing that program or similar ones until you say stop. PopMedia chological addiction and the expense of producing quality
is also flexible and viral; since the Data Pool has integrated brain dance chips has made this format less popular. In the Age
feedback, this means that it can track how many times a pro- of the Red, braindance is an occasional luxury for most and a
gram is accessed and react accordingly. A PopMedia program dangerous obsession for a select few addicts.

ADRIAN MARC

30
 E DDI E M E N DOZ A

5 RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED

So, How Do I Run This Game?

Glad you asked. We’re here to help guide you through your first foray
into game mastering. Cyberpunk Red is a challenge for even an experienced
GM, in that you must create the right atmosphere of social decay, inva-
sive technology, and pervasive paranoia throughout your entire game.
We’re here to give you a few tips for running game sessions highlighting
these elements and the unique flavor that is Cyberpunk Red.

THE ENVIRONMENT
The urban environment is critical to your Cyberpunk Red world. It’s a maze of towering skyscrapers, dangerous alleyways, and
burned–out ruins. We concentrate on Night City in this product, but whether you use our city or create your own, remember that
your setting has to have all the right elements. There should be garbage–strewn alleyways and bodies lying in the gutters. There
should be wild–eyed lunatics, staggering through pre–dawn streets, muttering darkly and clutching sharp knives. Taxis don’t stop

31
RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED
in the combat zones. There are firefights at the street corner as or preparation. Heroes may have to do something illegal or
the local gangs slug it out. Players should find their apartments distasteful to accomplish something good; villains may have to
regularly broken into, their cars vandalized, their property do a little good once in a while. Building a group that has your
stolen. Crossing town should be like crossing a battlefield, filled back is essential if you’re going to last long.
with looters, rioters, and boostergangers.
The 4th Corp War has left parts of many urban centers burnt Contrast
out husks, martyred monuments to militant capitalism that are
The Red Era should have staggering contrasts. In the glitter-
only now being reclaimed by scavengers and Corporations
ing citadels of the rich, there should be fine food, expensive
alike. The former site of the Arasaka Towers in the Night City
vices, and beautiful scenery. On the Street, things should be
is one of the most extreme examples: a blasted area blocks
cold, hungry, and desperate. This divide only widened when
across where the residual radiation keeps out all but the crazy
or the desperate. And Night City has plenty of both. the 4th Corporate War shattered transport and information
systems. Food shortages and data blackouts became all too
While many stories start in the urban zones, Cyberpunk Red common. There’s no middle ground between the haves and
doesn’t have to be limited to that. Beyond the cities are the have–nots any more. It’s all or nothing.
sprawling wastes and the dust–choked, lawless highways of
a brutalized United States. These areas were left barren in
the wake of climate change, economic collapse, and industrial Know the World
abuse, but are now dotted with scattered Reclaimer settlements Immerse yourself in the genre. We’ve given you a start with
and Nomad encampments. This is a land of dust, sweat, and the background and adventures in this book, but you should
CHOOH2; where convoys of scrap vehicles and megacombis also hit your local video store or streaming service, the library,
keep the lifeblood of food and tech flowing between the cities. and the Internet for source material. Also, the Cyberpunk Red
Here Players can find everything from Mad Max maniacs in
core rulebook will flesh out a lot of more details of the world
spiked out war trucks to determined families looking to defend
of 2045 and the Red Era when you’re ready for it.
their freeholds.
Most days will be grim, gloomy, and overcast. Rain slick
streets are a staple of the genre. When the sun does come out,
Play for Keeps
it should be the overly bright crimson of a smoggy Los Angeles Play hard and fast. You should not be afraid to kill off Player
day. And the stars never come out, due to the smog and lunar Characters. You should constantly be getting them into fights,
particulates. But it doesn’t always rain. At least, not since the traps, double crosses, and other soap opera situations. Trust
Time of the Red messed up the upper atmosphere...which is should not come easily and no place should be absolutely safe.
what you get when you throw lunar rocks into the Earth. Expect Keep the pressure on. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play fair,
wild shifts in weather patterns as things are still settling down. but you should always play for keeps. If they cache weapons
The ozone layer decayed, the greenhouse effect took over, the
or supplies somewhere, steal them. If they stop for a rest, send
air is full of hydrocarbons, and the ocean full of sludge.
in the boostergangers. If they can’t handle the pressure, they
There are no birds singing in Cyberpunk Red —at least not shouldn’t be playing Cyberpunk Red.
in the city—but they are starting to creep back into the outer
areas as some of Biotechnica’s more experimental projects
come to fruition (spoiler: some of those things are not birds—at
Set the Mood
least as we know them). Create an atmospheric gaming room. Get out your heaviest
There are laughing children these days, but they may be rock, techno, or rap music and play it during your run. Encour-
laughing over things you and I would be appalled at. Growing age your Players to dress the part with leather overcoats, mir-
up in a nuclear bomb zone gives you an odd perspective on rorshades, and punk fashions. Adopt the slang and invent your
life. Kids don’t get much parenting on the Street, and what own. Replace all the lights in your room with dim red bulbs. This
raising they do get usually involves drugs, guns, and unhealthy is the dark future here.
extracurricular activities.
Teamwork: We Can
It’s a Matter of Trust... or Not
Paranoia is important in a Cyberpunk Red run. Players
Do More Damage Together!
shouldn’t always be able to tell who’s good or bad just by Finally, put the Players into teams. You’ll notice Cyberpunk
looking at them. Choices between sides are often ambiguous— Red groups are not typically social. The Players will have few
there should be no clear–cut sense of good and evil, much like reasons to trust anyone, and the conventional reasons (stop evil,
real life. Sworn enemies may be thrown together without notice kill monsters) for an adventuring party won’t work.

32
 RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED
For this reason, you’ll need a more solid “hook” on which to and Fixers will be needed to protect the supplies and group
hang a Cyberpunk Red adventure. And one of the best hooks while they work. Netrunners and Techs may want to exploit any
is the team. A team is a group of people who are already abandoned computer systems or old technology.
thrown together by Fate in some way which forces them to
cooperate. They don’t have to like each other, but they have Trauma Teams
to work together. PCs can be given assignments from a “higher
power,”, be connected by blood, or the entire group can be Trauma Team was a major service Corporation before
faced with a problem which requires mutual cooperation to the war. Since then, independent franchises have maintained
solve. The group works together or it dies. Simple. groups of licensed Paramedics who patrol the city responding
to the calls of accident victims who subscribe to their service.
They usually operate from an AV–4 Urban Assault Vehicle,
redesigned into an ambulance configuration and armed with
MEET THE TEAMS a belly–mounted minigun. A typical Trauma Team includes a
driver (can be a Fixer or Solo, although Nomad is best), one or
Below, we’ve listed a number of teams which might nat- more Characters with the First Aid Skill, and two or more Solos
urally evolve in the Cyberpunk Red world. Each proposes a acting as “security.” The team may also have a Dispatcher
good mix of Character Roles and offers many ways in which (usually a Fixer but possible a Netrunner) in charge of sending
all the Player Characters can become equally involved. Not them on their missions.
every team presented will fit with the pregenerated Char-
acters in this Jumpstart. They are included to give you a
feeling for what types of teams you’ll see in the Cyberpunk
Mercenaries
Red Core Book. Mercs are commonly hired throughout the Cyberpunk Red
world. A typical merc group could include at least one Fixer
NeoCorporate Teams (to handle contracts), one Netrunner (to handle security sys-
tems, computer assault, etc.), one Tech (for weapons), and any
Corporate teams are groups that are oriented around a combination of Solos or Nomads (as grunt soldiers and vehicle
specific Corporation, working together to accomplish the com- operators). A merc group could operate out of a club, a bar, or
pany’s goals. The main base of operations is the Corporation’s a former military base camp left over from the War.
offices or security areas. A Corporate team might consist of a
Fixer (making deals and watching out for Corporate interests),
a Netrunner (who runs the team’s intrusion and computer sys-
Cults and Boostergangs
tems), a Tech (to maintain Corporate equipment), a Solo or two While typically reserved for bad guys, Characters can
(who handle the combat), and even a Rockerboy (to act as the aspire to be part of a boostergang or cult. The Characters
team’s spokesperson). may have been born on the Street or ended up there due to
job loss, personal tragedy, or simply from a desire to find a
Bands (somewhat) socially acceptable outlet to kill, loot, and pillage.

Bands are any group of Rockers who have gotten together But gangs can also be created for positive purposes —
to play music. The band travels from place to place, getting neighborhood defense, to stop other more violent gangs, or to
into trouble at each new gig, holding concerts, and raising hell. resist a major invasion by government or the Corps. In this con-
The main base of operations can be a practice hall, a club, or text, you could look at Robin Hood or WWII resistance groups
a road bus. There may be any number of Rockers in the band as gangs. A typical Gang would have lots of Solos, Nomads,
itself (typically three to four). In addition, there will be at least and Fixers. There might be a Tech around, and possibly a
one Fixer (who acts as manager), a possible Tech (to handle Netrunner to handle equipment and computers. A gang might
equipment needs), a Nomad (someone needs to drive the bus!), even have a Rockerboy friend who parties with them. Gangs
and several Solos (who are both bodyguards and roadies). typically operate out of clubs, bars, and deserted buildings.
Any Role can join in on the fun as a groupie.
Nomad Packs
Reclaimers Nomad Packs are natural teams—they are already together
Reclaimers represent a new movement in the Time of the Red. in one group, and everyone knows each other. A good Nomad
Pioneering sorts with a desire to carve homes out of the aban- pack could include a few Fixers (to handle in–town negotia-
doned cities of Old America, Reclaimers come from all walks tions), a Netrunner (who handles the pack’s intelligence work),
of life and have all manner of reasons why they have banded Techs (for vehicle repair and scavenging work), and any num-
together to build their homestead. A Nomad leading the group ber of Nomads and Solos. The pack operates from the Cara-
on its journey to the new location is an excellent idea, and Solos van—an assemblage of RVs, trailers, buses, and cars running

33
RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED
goods across the blasted landscape of freeway America. The
team could travel with the main caravan or as scouts traveling
Intrusion/Heist
ahead in their own vehicles. The classic heist scenario is a mainstay of the genre. A patron
contracts the team (or they decide for themselves) to steal
Lawmen something —software, prototype technology, gene templates,
food— from a target. The team has to gather information
The Lawman team could work for one of the many security (maps, NET/physical security, etc.) and then plan how they’ll
forces or Corporations providing for profit law enforcement in infiltrate the location, deal with security, get the loot, and then
Night City or they could be an independent group hired by a get out again in one piece. A variation on this is the Insertion:
neighborhood to keep the peace. Their squad could work out The team is secretly planting something in the target location
of a heavily fortified building and might include Fixers to run rather than removing it, such as a software virus, a recording
things or work investigations, a Netrunner to keep an eye on device, a bomb, or even a person.
computer crimes, a Rockerboy to interface with the public, a Of course, then they have to actually pull it all off ... and
Tech to take care of equipment, and Nomads to drive the beat. few plans survive contact with a clever GM. These missions are
Don’t forget a few hardened Solos to take on the cyberpsy- particularly good for involving a wide variety of Roles as the
chos. Lawman teams allow the GM to break the group into team designs their caper. Binge some episodes of Leverage
smaller units of “partners” if needed. The team might also be and take notes.
a band of hard–driving Marshals who scour the open road
The adventure Precious Cargo (page 46) is a simple Heist
seeking out the go–gangs and road warrior wannabes who
mission.
infest the highways.

Media Teams Assault

This is the brute force version of the Intrusion. Here the team
Media teams go anywhere and do anything to get the story.
is supposed to directly attack a target, usually with a specific
A Media team can operate out of a Data Pool hub, a scream-
objective in mind (such as kidnapping, overt theft, to act as
sheet office, or even a major network news bureau. A good
a diversion, or to just plain blow stuff up). An assault often
Media team might include Fixers or Rockers to investigate the
features planning similar to that of the Intrusion, but everyone
story and report on it, a Netrunner to run communications and
do a little digital snooping, a Tech for the equipment, and a knows that serious violence is the endgame. Note that The Hit
few Solos or Nomads to provide muscle, protection, and trans- (i.e. assassination) is a one–shot variation on the Assault. Ide-
portation. ally.
We advise caution here: Assaults can end up with a lot of the
Don’t Give Up Your Day Job! PCs being carved up for parts at the local Body Bank.

Any one of these Teams can fit a Character Roles that isn’t The adventure Definitely Not Kansas (page 50) is an
described. A Rockerboy could moonlight as a Trauma Teamer example of an Intrusion that could easily be played as an
to experience life on the Street or a Nomad might do a little Assault.
time with a Corporate team to represent their Pack’s interests
in the city. In these cases, the Character part in the team should Investigation
be treated as a hobby or side job, which may evolve as time
passes. This is a subtler mission where the team has to ferret out some
specific information in order to solve a problem. It could be for
a contract to find a missing person or looking into why the last

MISSION BUILDING 101 two Nomad food convoys haven’t made it to the drop point.
Investigations are characterized by lots of leg–and NET–work,
We include a full adventure for you to run in the Cyberpunk trying to use Street and Corp contacts, data raids, deduction,
Red Jumpstart Kit, as well as several screamsheets that act as and occasional arm–breaking to discover the nature of the
seeds for further adventures, but you don’t need to stop there. danger and how to deal with it. These are great opportunities
You can build your own adventures, too! for Characters to interact with your NPCs (other than through
their HUDs) and are great for building up the landscape of
A Cyberpunk Red game session will generally involve a Mis-
Night City.
sion: a task that is set before the team. Here are just a few
suggestions for the kinds of missions you can present to your Sometimes determining the truth is enough to fix things, but
Players, but, trust us, keep playing and they’ll be coming up an Intrusion or Assault mission may be necessary to ultimately
with ones of their own soon enough. solve the problem.

34
 RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED
can be based on the orientation of the
Defense PCs’ Roles. SOME EXAMPLES
Here the Characters are forced to react • NPCs are people too. Make the non–
to something that somebody else is doing,
OF MOTIVATION
Player Characters in your game memo-
such as a direct attack on the team or an rable by giving them unique mannerisms
Technical: Access to new
attempt to steal something from them. In and descriptions. If you can act them out,
this case, the NPCs drive the action and the all the better. Have that Fixer look like technology or abilities.
team has to decide how to respond. Steve Buscemi if he fell asleep in a tattoo Dangle some shiny new
The Apartment (page 39) and the Just parlor and got his suits from Goodwill.
cyber or netware and see
Like Real (page 48) are examples of He’s got a lazy left cybereye and talks
in clipped, nervous phrases, using slang if they bite.
Defense missions.
that’s at least ten years out of date. He
Escort missions, where the Team is Combat: A direct threat or
says he’s got a lead on a dataslate ship-
assigned to protect something or someone ment that’s coming into port tonight and is other physical danger. Two
as they get from Point A to Point B, are a ripe for the taking. Whaddaya say, bud? gangers with guns break
variation. Are they ready to get that tanker
• Try to find something for each member into the room...
full of CHOOH2 past those amped–out go–
of the team to do in each mission. Give
gangers blockading the road ahead? Sure Persuasion: A con job or
them a variety of tasks and encounters,
they are.
so everyone gets a chance to shine. And chance to talk themselves
remember even Netrunners can help
out of (or into!) danger.
during a combat if they remember they
KEEPING IT can hack into the building’s HVAC system "It's a solid op. A surefire!
and make it billow smoke into the ene- Would I lie to you?"
RED my’s eyes!
Community: The needs
Tips for Running Any Mission of the many outweigh the
• Keep it Street level. The PCs should have MAKE IT needs of the few. Can
good basic skills but always know there they swing the deal that
are bigger guns out there. YOURS gets the antibiotics in time
• Add some twists. Each mission should have to save the kids in the
Now that we’ve shown you a bit about
betrayals, surprises, and unexpected
how we do things, it’s up to you to make freehold?
events. Ideally, the seeds of these twists
Cyberpunk Red your own. Remember that
have been right in front of the team the Reputation: Street cred
story ideas are everywhere: films, TV,
whole time. Remember: Trust is a slippery books, even the news. Steal from the best, that can give them the
thing in the Time of the Red. crib from the rest. But in the end, it’s the
clout they're looking for.
• Always make it personal. Most threats inspiration that you bring to the game that
should start as aimed straight at the PCs, matters most. "We crash this concert and
but, as the plot grows, they may realize Cyberpunk Red is a setting where many every NET service will be
that the issue is much bigger than they of the our worst fears have come true, leav- begging to sign us."
knew. ing a world that’s beaten, battered, and
• On the flip side, no matter how big the torched. But it’s also a place of hope, where But whatever hook
plot is, the Bad Guy should know the PCs’ cunning, courage, and a righteous attitude
names and be carving them onto bullets. can make all the difference to those strug- you use, never
They’ll keep showing up on their doorstep gling to rebuild.
with bigger and bigger threats until they
lose sight of the
So what’s your story going to be, choom-
get what they want. batta? main story you're
• Think about what will motivate your team cyberpunk is
to take the mission. Sometimes it’s a Pull,
looking to tell.
an opportunity to get something the PCs what you
want, and sometimes it’ll be a Push: a
threat or attack the PCs have to deal make it.
with. The specific hook for each mission
Maximum Mike

35
RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED
tols, Knives, and Speedware. (use Booster;
GANGS OF NIGHT NIGHT CITY Replace Slice & Dice with Knives)
CITY
ENCOUNTERS (25–30) Street Punks
Six smashheads, looking for credit to feed
Bradi Bunch Welcome to the mean Streets of the City. their habit. If you’re not wearing Corporate
These encounter tables are fast and nasty or gang colors, they try to rush you right on
The Bunch is a poser gang
ways to keep your Players moving, thinking, the street. Armed with fighting knives; no
who use bio–sculpting to look and living in Cyberpunk Red. Just roll a armor. (use Street Scum; Replace Rippers
like members of an old sitcom. percentage (2d10, with one representing with Knives)
They are an extended family the tens’ place) to determine the outcome.
gang which protects runaway Each listing refers to one of the three NPCs (31–36) Nomad Truck
children. A few older “adults” on the Encounters handout, sometimes with
Three Nomads from the Steel Vaqueros
modifications. Remember, just because we
run the gang and protect the are dealing with a broken down truck. Two
give you stats doesn’t mean each encounter
turf, while the younger mem- of them are facing off with a group of eight
should result in combat; use these as role- local gangers while the other tries to fix the
bers steal and deal. They’re playing opportunities whenever possible. motor. If you ignore them, they ignore you,
territorial and fiercely pro- Feel free to alter the participants or the but the Nomads may take an offer to help
tective of their members. locale for extra variety. (Roll 1d10: 1–6, Yes; 7–10, No). (Nomads:
use Booster; Replace Leathers with Kevlar
Red Chrome Legion (1–5) Local Law and Slice & Dice with Rippers. Gangers:
Two patrol officers, armed with Assault Use Booster)
The Legion is a neo–fascist
Rifles, armored in Kevlar. If you are wearing
hate gang; young people (37–42) Boostergang
visible weapons or armor, they stop you and
united around a certain hate demand identification. If you’re argumenta- Six members of the Iron Sights gang,
group ideology. Uniforms tive, they call for backup (3) officers to take armed with Medium SMGs, Rippers, Low
and militaristic slogans are you in. If you reach for a weapon, they’ll Light Cyberoptics, and Speedware. They
the rule. The Red Chromers shoot first, fill out the paperwork later. (use hassle anyone in the party who stands out,
will attack anything that they Private Security) shake you down for money, and gener-
ally are spoiling for a fight. (use Booster;
think isn’t “right.”
(6–11) Corporate Guards Replace Very Heavy Pistols with Medium
SMGs and Slice & Dice with Rippers. Add
Metal Warriors Four Corporate guards patrolling the
Low Light Cyberoptics)
area. Wearing Light Armorjack, and car-
The Metal Warriors are rying Medium SMGs. Unless you work for
a combat gang, with their their Corporation, they don’t think you have
(43–44) Techs
activities centering around a any business hanging around where they’re Two Techs, with Shotguns, wearing Kevlar
“warrior’s code”. Elaborate operating. Move it, punk. (use Private Secu- vests. Roll 1d10. 1–2, they’re lugging a
combat rituals, ranks, and rity; Replace Kevlar with Light Armorjack crate of tools into an AV–4. 3–5, they’re
and Assault Rifles with Medium SMGs) working on a City system in your path.
body armor are all part of
6–10, they’re walking toward you on
the mystique. Combat gangs (12–17) Nomads their way to work. (use Private Security;
are dangerous, because once Replace Assault Rifles with Shotguns)
A mixed group of six Nomads. Wearing
they declare a war on some-
Kevlar, carrying Knives and Very Heavy
one, they never give up. Pistols. Moderately drunk and looking for a (45–50) Culties
fight. They hassle anyone they find attrac- The Reckoners are out in force. Six of
Piranhas tive in your group. Face it: they want a them, armed openly with Knives and Heavy
The Piranhas are a typical fight. Give them one. (use Booster; Replace Pistols, corner you to preach that the red
Leathers with Kevlar and Slice & Dice with sky was a sign of the End Times. If you just
party gang. They party, drink
Knives) blow them off, they try to beat their truth
Smash, take and deal drugs, into you. (use Street Scum; Replace Rippers
and mug people, all as part (18–24) Boostergang with Big Knucks)
of a “just because” lifestyle. Five low–level street punks from the Pira-
To these guys, the Party is nhas boostergang. If you look like easy (51–54) Private Investigator
everything. prey and have money, they’ll rough you Roll 1d10. On 1–3, they are ahead of
up. They’re armed with Very Heavy Pis- you, hassling an informant on the street

36
 RUNNING CYBERPUNK RED
corner concerning the whereabouts of a Medium SMGs. Increase Marksmanship to
suspect. 4–7, they are shadowing someone +4) Inquisitors
ahead of you. 8–10, they stop you and
The Inquisitors are a cultie
ask you whether you have seen the person (76–80) Reclaimers gang; like the hate gangs,
they’re following. The PI is armed with a
You run across a well–equipped group they center on a specific
Very Heavy Pistol and is wearing a Heavy
trying to hot–wire an abandoned building ideology, but in this case it
Armorjack. (use Private Security; Replace
into the local power grid. Roll 1d10. On takes religious overtones. The
Kevlar with Heavy Armorjack. Remove
1–5, they ignore you. 6–8, they send two of Inquisitors think cyberwear is
Assault Rifle)
their own to “check those guys watching us.” blasphemous, and think noth-
(55–57) Corporates 9–10, they blow out a local transformer and ing of tearing it right out of
the entire block goes black. General panic your body. They consider this
Four Corporates from a local firm, trying ensues. (use Private Security; Replace “saving your soul.”
to find a taxi. They are wearing suits woven Assault Rifles with Shotguns)
with Kevlar and carrying Heavy Pistols. Roll
1d10. 1–4, they’re being followed by thugs
Iron Sights
(81–85) Medias
intent on robbery. 5–8, they think you’re The Iron Sights are a small
boosters and open fire at any provocation. A camera and interviewer team, staking but surprisingly tough combat
9–10, they think you’re trouble and call for out a building on a hot assignment. Roll gang of borderline cyberpsy-
Corporate backup (see Corporate Guards, 1d10. On 1–5, they’re spotted by their chos. Once funded by Ara-
above). (use Street Scum; Remove Rip- story–subject and a conflict ensues. You, of saka, they fell on hard times
pers. Add Kevlar and Radio Cyberaudio) course, are right in the middle of it. (Media: after the war. But word on
use Booster; Replace Leathers with Kevlar the Street is that they have a
(58–64) Locals and Very Heavy Pistols with Heavy Pis- new benefactor and are once
tols. Remove Slice & Dice and Speedware. more flexing their rippers.
Young people from the local neighbor-
hood (use Street Scum; Remove Rippers Add Camera Cyberoptics and Amped
and Heavy Pistol). Roll 1d10. 1–5, they Hearing Cyberaudio. Story–subject: Roll Reckoners
are being held up by two thugs from the again on the Encounter Table)
The Reckoners are one of
Metal Warriors gang (use Booster; Replace the many apocalyptic cults
Leathers with Heavy Armorjack). 6–10, (86–88) Major Criminal
that have sprung up after the
they are being beaten severely by Inquis- You’ve walked into a major operation of war. They roam the streets,
itor cultists for the sin of having designer the ruthless Vilshenko syndicate. Four Solos
preaching the coming Har-
eyes. (use Street Scum; Replace Rippers armed with Very Heavy Pistols and Shotguns
with Knives) vest of Souls, recruiting from
and wearing Heavy Armorjack are unload-
the homeless, and looking for
ing contraband cargo out of a truck. Roll
(65–70) Firefight donations, often taken from
1d10. 1–4, they don’t notice you. 5–8, they
your unconscious body. A few
Great. You just walked into a major alter- notice you and one warns you off. 9–10,
are serious crazies who want
cation between the Bradi Bunch and the they decide you’re a witness and ought to
to evoke the End Times right
Red Chrome Legion. Each side has 6 mem- be totaled right now. (use Private Security;
now with blood and C9.
bers who are wearing Light Armorjack and Replace Kevlar with Heavy Armorjack
wielding Very Heavy Pistols and Cyber- and Assault Rifles with Shotguns)
weapons. Pick a side, or pick a target.
Steel Vaqueros
(use Booster; Replace Leathers with Light (89–00) Scavvers A Nomad Pack out of Sali-
Armorjack. Keep Slice & Dice or replace Four dirt poor scavengers rooting through nas, California, their ragtag
with other Cyberweapons as desired) the ruins or garbage near one of the burned convoys make the coastal
out city blocks. All have filthy Leathers and highway run from the Santa
(71–75) Trauma Team are armed with a variety of makeshift Cruz agriplots to the southern
The AV–4 hits the ground in the middle Knives and Heavy Pistols. Roll 1d10. On a cities. They take in anyone
of a recent firefight and the medics start 1–6, they beg you for hard cash or any- who displays skill, depend-
tending to the half–dozen wounded gang- thing you can spare. On 7–8, they ignore ability, and who can keep up.
ers. Roll 1d10. On a 1–5, the Team decides you. On 9–10, they try to rob you. At the Smart and relatively honest,
you’re bystanders and ignores you. On GM’s discretion, the scavvers may have up they have supply deals with
6–10, they figure you’re part of the problem to a dozen fellow scavs nearby who come several Reclaimer groups try-
and the Solos open up with Medium SMGs. to assist if violence ensues. (use Street Scum; ing to repopulate and rebuild
(use Private Security; Replace Kevlar with Replace Rippers with Knives. Add Leath- Night City.
Heavy Armorjack and Assault Rifles with ers)

37
 STOP!
Everything beyond this point is for Gamemasters only. If you
are a Player, don’t read beyond this point or you’ll spoil the
adventures your GM plans on running for you. Sure, it sounds
like that’ll give you an advantage during the game but role-
playing isn’t the sort of thing you cheat at. Things are more
fun when you don’t know what’s coming. Trust us.

If you are the GM, read on! On the following pages you’ll find The
Apartment, a full adventure ready for you to run. You’ll also find the
Screamsheets, which are one–part “in world” news articles (you can
share those with your players when the time comes) and one–part
adventure seed. With just a little work you can use the Screamsheets as
well as the maps and the punchout “standees” which came with the
Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit to run more adventures for your Players.
And don’t stop there! Got an idea for an adventure! Fantastic! Use the
advice in the How to Run Cyberpunk Red chapter and create your own
thilling tales in the Dark Future. Remember, Cyberpunk is what you
make it.

38
 ANSELM ZIELONKA

6 ADVENTURE:THE APARTMENT
Introduction
“The Apartment” is a short adventure for first–time Players. It’s designed
to be played straight out of the box with the included pregenerated Char-
acters but could easily be run with fully customized Characters from the
core Cyberpunk Red book. If your Players happen to be verifiable badas-
ses, they could probably handle one additional unit in every combat. If,
for some reason, you want them to suffer (perhaps for the sin of power
gaming), have WorldSat undertake two separate strategies in Part Three
simultaneously.
The concept of the adventure is simple: The Characters all live on the third floor of the same apartment complex, which is owned
by one of the Player Characters. How they came to own the building is your call, but we suggest you pick one of your Players
with dead parents and say that they inherited it three years ago. It’s one of the few non–Corporate owned apartments in Night
City, four blocks away from the Combat Zone. The Characters aren’t alone; their families might be with them, depending on their
Lifepaths. The building is also full of other tenants, some of whom are listed in Part One. Their rent helps cover needed repairs and
bribes needed to keep the building safe, and it all breaks even, barely. This close to the Zone, nobody comes to collect property

39
ADVENTURE:THE APARTMENT
tax. The downside of this is that there are no government ser- to answer on principal, because she refuses to use the word
vices available in the area. So long as the relevant Fixer (Rex) “pet” to describe them. According to her, she has three room-
is paid, most of the boostergangs don’t bother the building’s mates. Strangely, all three of these animals are totally natural,
inhabitants. It’s a good situation, and paradise when compared and not, like most animals in the dark future, created by Bio-
to the rest of Night City. technica. Gina doesn’t like to talk about where she got them,
The roof has a view of the city that could be on a postcard. but she sometimes refers to them as “rescues”. If she doesn’t
Of course somebody wants to take it from them. WorldSat has trust you, she won’t let you anywhere near Rico, Puddles, or
Spooky. Gina used to be a member of a “pro–nature group”
already determined that the Characters’ apartment complex
that used “direct actions” to fight back against Corporations,
will be the location of their latest communications tower and
until her name and face got too recognizable and she was
won’t give up their plans without a fight. WorldSat’s actions are
forced into hiding. Biotechnica would love to get their cloning
up to you, but we’ve included some options in Parts Two and
reference animals back and would pay good money for infor-
Three that we know work well depending on what Roles your
mation leading to her arrest by Corporate security. She keeps
Characters are playing.
a loaded shotgun for the day they try. Use the statistics of the
Here’s the short version: In Part One, you’ll get Characters as Nomad pregenerated Character for Gina.
invested as possible in their apartment building. In Parts Two
and Three, a Corporation will try to take it from them. Char- Rico Robinson
acters must fight hard to survive and defend their little slice of
Rico is another long–term tenant of the building. Everybody
urban paradise. Simple, right?
seems to know Rico, his music, or his old band. Each morning on
the fourth floor of the building is accompanied by Rico’s music,
Part One: Meet Your Neighbors which begins with several scales and evolves seamlessly into
experimental melodies. Though he typically begins in the morn-
After you’ve explained their situation with the apartment,
ing with the trumpet, Rico switches between several instruments
one by one have your Players introduce their Characters. Ask
before the afternoon, recording as he goes. During lunch, he
them about their Lifepaths. Are they in a relationship? Are their
mixes his recordings together, adding guitar and drums. He
parents dead? Do they have a younger sibling to take care
doesn’t stop playing when asked, but nobody has asked in a
of? Remember, as a GM, NPCs from Characters’ Lifepaths are
long time. When Rico was younger, he was part of a band
useful for making them feel invested in the world. Your Players
called The Night Children, who broke up almost as fast as they
have control of their Characters, but you have control of damn
got famous. Nowadays, Rico is semi–retired, and occasionally
near everything else, including their friends and families. If
plays the clubs around the Combat Zone as a solo act, accom-
they fit well, feel free to make some of the included neighbors
panying himself with his own recordings. He is good friends with
into their friends or family members. Maybe they live with the
Gina, and they often share meals. Her salmon–crested cocka-
Character in their apartment, or next door. It’s your call. If a
too isn’t named after him—that’s merely a coincidence. Rico is
Character really doesn’t want to board with their relative, ask
good friends with the bird that shares his name; whenever he
them if they would have kicked them out onto the street. It’s a
comes over to visit, it always greets him, “Hello Rico!–squawk–
tough world out there.
Hello Rico!” Use the statistics of the Rockerboy pregenerated
Once all the Players have introduced themselves and shared Character for Rico.
their Character’s Lifepath, it’s time to introduce the world
around them, starting with their neighbors. This area of Night The Andersons
City attracts those driven out to the fringes by the circumstances The Andersons, led by twenty–five–year–old matriarch Molly
of the dark future. Some would be eaten alive if they lived Anderson used to live on the street in the Combat Zone until
any closer to the Combat Zone, and this is the furthest they they were able to pool enough eurobucks together to crawl
can afford to run. Others like living near the criminal element out of that hellhole. A total of five people live squeezed into
because it makes it easier to find work. We recommend picking their single apartment, all members, biologically or otherwise,
at least three of these colorful Characters to share a wall, ceil- of Molly’s family: Judie Anderson, the tall one, Maurice Ander-
ing, or floor with any of the Characters: son, the short one, and Marco and Andy Anderson, the twins.
“Family” is Molly’s word for it, but from an outside perspec-
Gina Zepada tive, the Anderson Family is clearly a gang, and their match-
Gina has been living alone in her apartment since before ing A–N–D–E–R–S–O–N knuckle tattoos make it very easy to
the Characters moved in. She’s an animal lover. Sounds of make that inference. Having survived the daily trauma of life
squawking and mimicked human speech can be heard coming in the Combat Zone together, the Andersons have become one
from her apartment. When asked which of her three pets, Rico, cohesive unit that serves Molly’s will without question. They all,
her salmon–crested cockatoo, Puddles, her aldabra tortoise, however, claim they have never killed anyone they didn’t have
or Spooky, her veiled chameleon is her favorite, she refuses to. Nowadays, the Andersons do much less crime, violent or

40
 ADVENTURE:THE APARTMENT
otherwise, than they used to, and as a rule, never steal from Grant Jung
anybody living in the apartment building. Lately, Molly has
Grant is a Solo who works primarily for the local Fixer, Rex.
gotten into the good graces of the local Fixer, Rex, to keep the
Professionally, he goes by the handle Royal. Grant’s room is
family’s criminal acts sanctioned by the local underworld. Use
paid for as part of the building’s yearly payment to Rex that
the statistics of the Fixer pregenerated Character for Molly,
keeps the building safe from the area’s many boostergangs
and the street scum statistics for the rest of her family.
who would love to terrorize it. Rex has made it known far
Dr. Carver and wide that Royal lives in the apartment building, and that
information alone is a great deterrent. Despite his reputation,
Dr. George Carver moved into the apartment building only
Grant isn’t a bad neighbor to have. When he isn’t running
recently, to cut down on his nightly commute between Trauma
jobs for Rex, Grant loves to unwind by playing cards. Every
Team shifts. Moving closer to the “action” also allowed Dr. Carver
month, he organizes a community poker night on the roof of
to set up a second source of income for himself, an unlicensed
the building. Bets are made exclusively in mini liquor bottles.
surgery ward for illegal cyberware, colloquially referred to
as a Ripperdoc. George isn’t a medical doctor, but he knows Nobody cheats. The younger members of the Anderson family
his way around machines, which lets him get by, as most of his learned quickly not to play pranks on him after one of them
patients are more machine than human. Shortly after he moved had to visit Dr. Carver afterwards, for which Grant apologized.
in, he rented the apartment neighboring his, converting it into Grant doesn’t like people standing behind him, and his eyes
a sterile environment. He spends most of the day sleeping, as reflexively scan any room he enters. Even when relaxing, he
every night he works in a high–stress environment and he needs doesn’t like to take his armor off, except behind his apartment’s
to stay fresh. To drown out the ambient sounds of gunfire, Rico’s specially installed reinforced door. He won’t talk about it with
guitar, and Rico the cockatoo’s squawking, Dr. Carver lined his anyone who wouldn’t understand. Use the statistics of the Solo
walls with sound–dampening foam, which has helped him get pregenerated Character for Grant.
a lot more sleep. The foam also keeps the screaming of his
patients to a minimum, which helps the rest of the apartment Part Two: Something’s
get more sleep. It’s a win–win. He would be happy to repair
any of the Characters’ damaged cyberware in exchange for a Wrong in the Neighborhood
break on the rent. Use the statistics of the Tech pregenerated
The Characters should have some time to interact with their
Character for Dr. Carver.
neighbors before they notice a black car has been parked
across the street from the apartment all day. Near the vehicle,
two private security in Militech uniforms guard a man standing
in front of an easel, making measurements while operating a
Nothing's free. set of cameras mounted to each of his shoulders. The Char-
acters can’t see what’s displayed on the easel unless they get
closer. If Characters go investigate and are spotted, the private
And if a security will approach and tell them to move along or they will
be shot. One warning is all they get. If they approach again,
the security goons will open fire.

corporation In the event of a combat, use the booster statistics for the
man behind the easel, who gets into the car as soon as possible
to drive as far away as he can. An extraction team of four

made it, private security will arrive to secure him in an hour if he’s cap-
tured or unable to escape. Characters who get close enough to
the easel to get a glimpse, or beat information out of the man,
learn WorldSat is planning to tear down their apartment build-
the hidden costs ing to install a communications tower in its place. Even more
distressing, scribbled near the bottom of the plans is tomorrow’s

are double... date. Judging by the fact that they haven’t already asked, they
probably aren’t going to. Characters who aren’t able to get
this information, either by the means listed above, or their own
Unknown
research, simply aren’t warned in advance of what’s coming for
them in Part Three.

41
ADVENTURE:THE APARTMENT
ing. Should the Characters attempt to hang up the call, the
Part Three: Corporate Wrath Agent won’t be able to drop it. The person on the other end of
Later in the day, the CitiNet goes down in a quarter mile the phone claims to be an employee of WorldSat who wants
radius centered on the Characters’ apartment building, ren- to end this situation without violence. They offer the Character
dering communication via Agent useless, and the Data Pool 100,000 eurobucks for the building, and will show them the
inaccessible. Simultaneously, discreetly placed radio jammers money if they come to the window to see it. If the Character
all over the same area shut down radio–based communications. goes to the window, two Private Security 25m away on the
WorldSat giveth, WorldSat taketh away. People panic, and 90 street shoot at them. If they don’t fall for the bait, combat begins
percent of the apartment goes into hiding. The remaining 10 shortly thereafter—the shots meant for the owner destroy the
percent arm themselves. The neighbors from Part Two are part window. When combat starts, two additional private security
of the 10 percent. What happens next is up to you. What fol- breach the apartment building’s first–floor entrance. They
lows are four options that we know work well. We recommend arrive at the third floor in three rounds. The voice on the other
you pick one suggested for the specific Roles that your Players end of the line taunts the Characters during the firefight. That
are playing. voice is Julian Adder, better known by his handle, Streamline, a
Solo that works almost exclusively for WorldSat. Use the statis-
Where There’s Smoke tics of the Solo pregenerated Character for him. He’s watching
the firefight from hiding on the sixth floor of the building across
Recommended if you have a Tech in the party.
the street, putting him 25 meters away from the action on the
During the chaos, a fire truck speeds toward the apartment third floor of the apartment building. A DV20 Perception Check
building with its lights on, parking across the street. A team uncovers Julian’s hiding spot before he reveals himself. When
of five fully armed firefighters (use Private Security statistics) the tide of the battle seems to be turning against his forces,
begins earnestly doing their job, setting off the fire alarm and he enters the firefight. If possible, he does so from range. If
ushering people out of the building. While they may be dressed the fight has moved away from the window, he fires a zip line
like it, they aren’t actually firefighters. And there isn’t actually down to the apartment nearest to the fight and crashes through
a fire, either. They’ve been hired by WorldSat to empty out the window to engage in close quarters. After the firefight is
the building for demolition. Their disguises are excellent, and over, no additional reinforcements arrive. WorldSat backs off,
they’ve rehearsed their Roles well. After they clear out some of forced to re–evaluate their plans, having lost a key asset.
the first–floor apartments, they set up smoke emitters in some of
the rooms to add to the ruse, locking the doors to said rooms to It’s Just Business
keep them from being discovered. Seeing through their costume Recommended if your Players fall deeply in love with
requires a keen eye, and a DV16 Perception Check. The smoke their neighbors.
emitters are also a dead giveaway. If the firefighters suspect
they’ve been discovered, they open fire immediately. The The Characters wait for something bad to happen, but noth-
second phase of WorldSat’s plan begins: The smoke emitters ing does. Two of the neighbors you introduced in Part Two stand
planted on the first floor are rigged with timed C9 explosives, beside the party, ready to defend the apartment building
which were set to explode in one hour. When the Characters alongside them... or so it seems. One of the neighbors has an
learn of this, twenty minutes remain on the timer. Defusing one idea, to search the building room by room for jammers blocking
is a DV18 Basic Tech Check. Half of the time remaining on the radio–based communication, starting from the top floor. They’ll
timer disappears whenever the Check is failed or the bomb is need half of the party to accompany them to speed up the
jostled. There are three such bombs hidden on the first floor. search. Another neighbor wants to gather a group to go talk
If all of the bombs go off, the building crumbles in on itself, to Rex, the Fixer in charge of this area. The streets aren’t safe
completely demolished. If only one or two bombs go off, the after dark, so they invite the other half of the party with them.
apartment building falls into the building on its left or right, If the Characters agree, one group heads into an alley where
crunching its neighbor in the process, nearly causing a domino a single private security waits to ambush them, and the other
effect. If all of the bombs are disabled, the threat is contained, group heads to the fifth floor of the apartment building where
for now. WorldSat must re–evaluate their plan for the commu- another private security hides for an ambush. Both ambushes
nications tower, and they settle on a new location with fewer happen simultaneously, and the Characters realize their trusted
local risk factors. neighbors betrayed them when they turn their guns on them
during the ambush. Combine both of these encounters together
Unknown Caller if the Characters refuse to split the party but still follow their
neighbors into one of the ambushes. Their reasons for betray-
Recommended if your Players (or you) love combat. ing the Characters are as follows: Gina was blackmailed by
During the chaos, somebody’s Agent rings, which is strange WorldSat with information from her past. Rico’s old band
because everybody’s Agent is jammed. The voice on the phone member is WorldSat’s hostage. The Andersons were offered
asks to speak to the Character who owns the apartment build- a great deal of money to betray the Characters, as was Dr.

42
 ADVENTURE:THE APARTMENT
Carver. Grant was hired through Rex by WorldSat to betray
the Characters. Whatever the reason, their betrayal culminates, Conclusion: What Happens Next
most likely, in their death. After the tragic scene, no reinforce- If the apartment building is still standing in the morning, the
ments arrive from WorldSat. The failure causes the Corporation Characters are victorious. Sometime during the following day,
to rethink their plans, and they decide on a new location for the jammers hidden in neighboring buildings are discovered
their communications tower. and destroyed. The CitiNet is also restored to the area. The
other tenants in the apartment building throw a party for the
Hack Attack Characters, and for a short few months after the incident, pay
Recommended only if you have a Netrunner in the party. their rent on time with greater frequency, which makes their
landlord's job much easier. While the Characters are no richer
Amid the chaos, a helicopter approaches the roof of the than they were before, their reputations have grown to level 3
apartment. It’s carrying a strike team, composed of five private around their neighborhood. Jobs will be considerably easier to
security and a secretive Netrunner known only by her handle, find—and will pay better. Who knows where the Characters
Crunch. Use the Netrunner pregenerated Character for her will go from here? You should. If you need help figuring that
statistics. After the strike team lands on the roof, they split into out, check out the screamsheets for adventures the Characters
two groups: Three of the private security head down the stairs can take on next. The screamsheet Precious Cargo is a good
to eliminate the owner of the building, who they know lives on next step if your Players are newer to roleplaying. If they
the third floor. The other two private security back up Crunch are more experienced, the screamsheet Definitely Not Kansas
as she accesses the building’s network via a company backdoor might be more up their alley. There is so much more to explore,
built into the satellite dish on the roof. Once in the building’s both in Night City and beyond.
NET, Crunch quickly gains access to the building’s control nodes.
Using the nodes, she can mess with the building’s sprinklers, fire
alarm, apartment lights, hallway lights, and elevators. Immedi-
ately, she triggers the sprinklers and fire alarm in the building
owner’s room on the third floor, killing the lights as well for
good measure. The combined annoyance gives a -5 to any roll
attempted in the room. The strike team’s plan is to flush the
owner of the apartment into the hallway, so the team of three
on third floor can gun them down. If the Characters hide in
another room, Crunch makes that room equally awful. If one of
the Characters is a Netrunner, they can enter the building’s net-
work via access points located near the fire alarm or elevator
to put a stop to Crunch’s meddling. If the Characters dispatch
the team of three private security, Crunch orders the remaining
two to go finish the job. Once they reach the third floor, if she
is still in control of the building’s network, Crunch cuts all of
the building’s lights and shuts down the elevator. Using the fire
escape on the roof, she abandons her Corporate gig, as she’s
not about to get killed over it. Once the fifth shooter expires, no
reinforcements arrive from WorldSat. For now, the apartment
building is safe.

The Apartment Building’s Network

Level Encounter Ability (DV)
1 Password (Backdoor DV15)
2 Control Node (Control DV12)
Sprinklers,
Fire Alarm
3 Control Node (Control DV12)
Elevators
4 Control Node (Control DV12)
Lights
ALEXANDER DUDAR

43
 HALLWAY AND INDIVIDUAL APARTMENT MAPS
Players can use the following floorplans to determine which apartment is theirs and personalize their home.
 7 SCREAMSHEETS
WEATHER &
GOSSIP OPINION TECH LIFESTYLES ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS WORLD NEWS
HAZARDS

Calvano Brings Exclusive

Southern Neo–Italian
Flavors to Night City
Night City • 6 Hours Ago

Renowned chef Leonardo Calvano brings his unique served in the garden: Spaghetti alla Carbonara. The
take on Southern Neo–Italian cuisine to Night City with flavors of pork cheek, aged parmesan, and black
his new restaurant, Paradiso Terrestre. Our reporter, pepper, glossed with a freshly beaten egg. I am there
Jericho Hunt, caught up to him for an exclusive inter- with you, personally attending to your experience.
view to discuss the opening. Secondi is where the creativity comes to a crescendo,
JH: Mr. Calvano, thank you for your time. I’m sure you Lobster al Night City. It is a new taste—one that
must be quite busy with work from the opening. I’ll captures the magic I spoke of. Ammunition. Truffles.
get right to it: Why bring Paradiso Terrestre to Night Gasoline. This is followed by insalata, to cleanse the
City? palate. Slices of pear are served, accompanied with
a creamy tangy cheese, from my own goat. Before
LC: Magic, Jericho. Night City has the magic I need to we must part, I serve Torta Caprese, my mother’s
make culinary miracles. It’s the culture. It’s the atmo- recipe, in her memory. After that, our aerodyne will
sphere. The people. The music. The soil of culture here take you wherever you wish to go. Many choose the
is rich with nutrients. Here I will build a paradise of opera.
luxury cuisine. It is my vision. I look forward to sharing
it with those who dine at my table. JH: Wow. Sourcing all of your ingredients must be quite
the challenge. How have you approached it?
JH: Tell me more about your vision. What would a din-
ner at Paradiso Terrestre entail? LC: What freshness demands, we exceed. Despite the
challenges of the world today, we are above them,
LC: An hour before your reservation, our private aero- solely focused on the future of Southern Neo–Italian
dyne picks you and your party up. Inside its custom Cuisine. When authenticity is demanded, we import
interior, my exclusive mixologist will create for you directly from Italy. Our resources are not meager
an aperitivo to engage your senses while you travel enough to accept substitutes. Our supply chain is
to our compound beyond the noise and trouble of immaculate, just like our dishes.
the city. Antipasto is also served in the air: olives,
my prized coppa and mozzarella, on country bread. JH: Congratulations again on your opening. One last
The meal is precisely timed for freshness. You are our question. How does one go about getting a reserva-
only guests for the evening, and everything must be tion at Paradiso Terrestre?
perfect. When you land in our compound, primo is LC: A bird flies by using its wings.

45
SCREAMSHEETS
house the Fixer has set up in Night City so that they
Scenario 1: Precious Cargo can unload its cargo. The Fixer will not reveal what the
armored car is carrying, except to stress that it is frag-
Players’ Information ile, but not toxic, and that if the cargo gets destroyed,
A well–known Fixer approaches the Characters while nobody is getting rich here.
in Night City. They offer them a combined 30 percent At the weak point, when the armored car enters the
stake in an armored car heist they’re bringing together Characters’ view, two private security are inside it, and
if the team is willing to run point on it and finance their it’s escorted by one more private security on a motor-
own equipment, other than an anonymous vehicle the cycle. The Fixer’s info wasn’t completely correct. When
Fixer is willing to provide. While they’re cagey about the private security realizes what’s going on, they open
the details of the heist until an agreement can be fire. The highway map can loop around itself to simulate
made, they’re upfront that the team has to overcome a long straight stretch of road. For dramatic purposes,
armed resistance to rob an armored car. High risk, high the Characters’ vehicles and the armored car should
reward. stay neck and neck so they can enjoy a high–speed
Could be a big score, if it all goes down in their gunfight. To keep the game moving quickly, treat all
favor... vehicles as having SP10. Cars can take 50 damage
before they can’t move, and motorcycles can take 25.
GM’s Notes Characters can target a double damage weak point
on a vehicle at the cost of taking a -6 to their roll, just
The Fixer offers to provide them with an anonymous like trying to hit a head shot.
vehicle for the job at a 30 percent stake but would
be willing to increase their stake to 35 percent if they After they’ve had their fun, they find the tracker in a
use their own vehicles instead of his. They also provide pack of cigarettes on the dashboard of the armored
the option of a 25 percent stake for the Characters, car. The motorcycle has a tracker hidden in a storage
where the Fixer also provides the crew with a motor- compartment under the seat. If they forget to disable
any of these and give away their position, two Solos
cycle (in addition to the anonymous vehicle) which does
on motorcycles intercept the crew during their trip back
not need to survive the job. A Character can negotiate
to Night City. Otherwise, they arrive at the safe house
with the Fixer to make a minor concession (5 percent
without further incident. The trunk of the armored car
additional stake, add an additional vehicle, etc.) in the
is refrigerated and is carrying 25,000 eb of authen-
terms of the agreement assuming they are convincing
tic Parmigiano Reggiano. The Characters are paid
enough with a DV17 Persuasion Check or a DV15 Brib-
according to their stake in the heist. If they were smart,
ery Check.
maybe they have a new bike, too!
Once an agreement has been made, the Fixer will
reveal an important piece of dirt they have on one
of the Characters (from their Lifepath) to discourage
betrayal. They stress that they don’t like to threaten
people like this, but needs to for their own safety. They
are not lying and will send an armored car driven by
a Nomad and carrying two Solos to punish betrayal.
The Fixer goes into detail about the plan for the heist:
In two days, a lone armored car will leave Night City
for a heavily defended compound in the mountains. At
one point during its trip, when it crosses a single strip
of road between Nomad territories, the car will be
particularly vulnerable. At that point, the Characters
are to stop the car, disable the tracker it’s probably
equipped with, and steal the car, taking it to a safe

46
 SCREAMSHEETS
WEATHER &
GOSSIP OPINION TECH LIFESTYLES ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS WORLD NEWS
HAZARDS

The Dangers of
Interactive Braindance
Entertainment
by dawn davis, concerned mother from del coronado harbor • 1 Hour Ago

Am I the only parent worried by my child’s use of

interactive braindance? Stop me if you’ve heard this
before: My child spends more than five hours every
day in braindance. When he comes home from Del
Coronado High, he hardly even says hello before he
locks himself in his room and hooks up to that infernal
machine. Who knows what sorts of unsavory Charac- from
ters and lifestyle criminals he’s interacting with on a
daily basis? Is he in a juviegang? I heard him say the
word “choomba” once. That’s an illegal drug refer-
ence, I’m pretty sure. Whenever I call him to dinner, he Feel the RUSH like never before with Segotari’s RUSH REVOLU-
takes ages to unplug himself from his stupid elf game. TION®, the first system to support the latest innovation in VR gam-
ing: Interactive Braindance! All actions are now possible in brain-
Sometimes I have to message him on my Agent to even dance, including death! You will never want to go back to your
get him to respond. I’ve heard this same story from old VR system. Play over two hundred of the hottest games, like
other mothers in our Del Coronado Harbor community, Kung Fu Fighter IX and Elflines Online. Multi–Player Adapter
and we all share the same concern: This rampant use and Total Environment™ upgrades are now included standard
for complete freedom of movement and realistic sensation. Older
of interactive braindance is melting the precious minds games from the RUSH® era are backwards compatible. Online
of the youth and will lead to a degeneration in our connectivity is limited to your local CitiNet for safety purposes.
small community’s cherished morals if left unchecked. Interactive Braindance is now possible through proprietary
Use must be limited to no more than four hours a day. Segotari software that prevents death of user upon experiencing
a death during braindance. Segotari reserves the right to remove
said proprietary software remotely in cases of digital piracy.
NIGHT CITY NEEDS YOU Console is 600EB; Games are 150EB. A limited–edition con-
sole with novelty elf ears sculpted into the sides of the headset
Think you have what it takes to clean up the that comes pre–loaded with Elflines Online is also available for
700EB.
streets? Think you have the unwavering sense of
justice and excellent marksmanship of a true pro?
We’ll be the judge of that. Graduates from the
Night City Police Academy receive a free Heavy
Pistol and a career! What are you waiting for?
Take your shot today!

47
SCREAMSHEETS
are equipped with whatever they walked into the police
Scenario 2: Just Like Real academy wearing, so that they feel familiar with their
equipment. All of the Characters’ stats are the same as
Players’ Information they are outside the simulation, and being in the simula-
After buying the Characters some drinks, an off–duty tion changes nothing about the game rules–wise. Before
NCPD cop strikes up a conversation with the Characters in the simulation, a DV15 Basic Tech Check can confirm that
a karaoke club and asks them if they would like to make the Segotari RUSH Revolution systems being used for the
some easy money—and maybe even have a little fun, too. simulation are malfunction–free.
Officer Lantz is trying to recruit a team of serious–looking When the simulation begins, a long present in pat-
edgerunners to play the part of a ruthless booster gang terned wrapping paper that alternates between cacti
during an upcoming simulated hostage situation exercise and cowboy hats rests on the boardroom table near the
at the police academy. Since the exercise takes place in hostage. It’s a single use missile launcher. The present is
a new and improved interactive braindance, there will addressed to whichever of the Characters Officer Lantz
be no danger to the Characters (as long as the hardware liked the most.
doesn’t malfunction). The department will be able to pay There are ten police academy students taking part in
each of them 300 eb and will buy them lunch afterwards the simulation. Nine use the “private security” stats; Ten
at the mallplex. Lantz is particularly interested in making Gallon is a Solo.
the simulation as hard as possible for the recruits, espe-
cially for a rookie sniper nicknamed Ten Gallon, who she Ten Gallon spends the entire simulation 150m/yds
thinks needs to be knocked down a peg. If he isn’t able to away from the building in a police aerogyro, which is
shoot any of the Characters in the head during the exer- piloted by another student, attempting to line up per-
cise, Lantz will hook up each party member with 20eb out fect shots on the Characters with his assault rifle. He only
of her own pocket. aims for the head, which imposes a -6 penalty to all his
attacks, and he only takes a shot when he has a clear
line of sight. The helicopter moves to another side of the
GM’s Notes building occasionally to keep the Characters on their
On the day of the simulation, Characters arrive at the toes. The Characters might want to barricade themselves
Night City Police Academy, where the receptionist waves in, but there isn’t enough material to cover every window.
them through the weapons detector without inspection It’s also dangerous to set up a barricade while someone
and calls the simulation instructor to come meet them in is aiming at you. Treat the edges of the provided office
the lobby. The instructor takes the Characters into a side map as floor to ceiling windows.
room and briefs them. He notes down their weapons and An hour into the simulation, four of the police academy
capabilities and assures them interactive braindance has students will attempt to breach the thirty–second floor
no chance of killing them, unlike those old illegal brain- of the building through the windows on the side of the
dances. He echoes the claim that dying is completely safe building that the Characters are defending the least, by
in the new interactive braindance, and if it weren’t, he rappelling down from the thirty–fourth floor.
would have already killed off most of his students. Not Two hours into the simulation, the power suddenly comes
that he has as many students now as he used to—before back on in the building, and the remaining four police
the nuke. The NCPD is struggling just to retain control academy students attack from the elevator. The Charac-
these days. ters weren’t informed during the briefing that the power
The Characters learn the simulation is a simple hostage would come back on suddenly; the instructor wanted to
situation. In the simulation, the Characters will play the surprise them so this could simulate a raid. Should the raid
role of a ruthless boostergang holding a VIP hostage fail, the instructor will end the simulation then and there.
in their Corporation’s thirty–second–story boardroom After the simulation is over, as promised, the instruc-
during a power outage (which has shut down the ele- tor takes the Characters to the mallplex for a slice of
vator and created a standoff). The Characters’ goal is pizza... along with all ten of the police academy students
to protect their hostage for three hours until the end of who participated in the simulation. The students are a bit
the simulation. The students’ goal will be to rescue the annoying, and ask a few too many stupid questions, but
hostage from the building. In the simulation, Characters hey, free pizza.

48
 SCREAMSHEETS
WEATHER &
GOSSIP OPINION TECH LIFESTYLES ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS WORLD NEWS
HAZARDS

Biotechnica Delays
Release of
Designer Drug
by Jackie mcgee • la jolla, SoCal • 25 hours ago

NIGHT CITY SECURITY ADVISORY

Combat Zone Worse Than Usual
by J.E. Munroe
The freaks and murderers of the Combat Zone
have been out in force lately. After three weeks
of a sustained increase in the rate of killings, we
began to suspect something new may be going
A spokesperson for Biotechnica announced today that the on in the Zone. We drew straws to decide which
upcoming release of their designer drug Securicine has been
delayed for a month. The company assured customers that intrepid reporter to send to uncover the truth. I
pre–orders will be honored in the order they were received drew the short straw. A new street drug, known
and the delay has been caused purely by a shipping issue
as “Emerald City” seems to be the culprit. It
caused by high demand for the drug. When Biotechnica
revealed the project to the public early last year, they touted it appears a new player is pushing it, but I was
as a “revolutionary all–day prevention against disease, poison, unable to get specifics due to my abundance of
and pain, designed for your unique physiology.” Since their
announcement, a representative from Militech at their Night
self–preservation instinct. I don’t get paid enough
City regional office has commented on the status of their order: to do this shit. Nobody is editing this anyway.
“Despite the delay, we stand behind our trusted business part- Watch this see print. Those on the drug seem to
ner Biotechnica. Securicine performed well during our internal
tests, and we look forward to receiving our order as soon as
feel no pain and display increased aggression,
possible.” often directed at things only they can see. While
researching for this report, I saw a booster throw
a grenade at a screamsheet box behind him
because it was “following” him, and then walk
off with shrapnel sticking out of his back. My
advice is to try to stay out of the combat zone a
little more than you usually do for a while. These
types of things have a way of sorting themselves
out—violently.

49
SCREAMSHEETS
apple in a typically not–so–bad Corporation, especially
Scenario 3: Definitely Not Kansas by Corporate standards.

Players’ Information The C9 explosive packs the Characters receive are

indeed remote detonated, but they have been set up
Biotechnica quietly approaches the Characters with a with two separate remote detonators. The Characters
lucrative job offer. A new drug, “Emerald City” has hit can discover this if they are paranoid enough to make a
the streets of the combat zone; it eliminates its users’ thorough inspection of the explosives. A Basic Tech Check
ability to feel pain, with side effects including aggres- of 15 could remove the second receiver in each of the C9
sive behavior and massive delusions (at only 225 eb per blocks, foiling the sabotage plan.
highly addictive eight–hour dose). Biotechnica wants it
Biotechnica sends a Solo to shadow the Characters as
taken off the market so they can study it without worry-
soon as they enter the combat zone, with plans to blow
ing about competition. While normally taking any drug
the charges and bring the building down on the Charac-
off the black market would be impossible in Night City,
ters after they deal with The Yellow Brick Road. They are
at present, Emerald City has only one supplier, a rela-
in direct connection with the Exec via Agent. A Perception
tively new posergang called The Yellow Brick Road, who
Check of DV15 can notice him following them faintly in
have undergone elaborate bodysculpt jobs to look like
the distance. You should give the Characters a chance to
Characters from The Wizard of Oz. In addition to blowing
make this roll unless they are being willfully ignorant of
up the gang’s drug operation (located in the basement
their surroundings. If they are confronted early, the Exec
under their combat zone hideout) with remote detonated
aborts the sabotage plan immediately, and orders the
C9 explosive packs, 4 units of which the Corporation will
Solo to get out of there asap.
supply to the Characters for the job, Biotechnica wants
them to acquire at least 30 kilos of the drug to deliver to The Yellow Brick Road is made up of twenty–four mem-
them for study. bers, half of which use the “Booster” statistics and have
bodysculpted themselves into shiny tin men; the other half
Biotechnica is willing to pay 10,000 eb upfront, and use the “Street Scum” statistics and have bodysculpt jobs
another 7,000 eb on delivery of the drugs. that make their bodies lanky and thin. Given that they
also wear almost exclusively burlap, this makes them look
GM’s Notes like scarecrows. Not all of them are present in the hideout
An Exec within Biotechnica has planned to betray the at any given time, as many are busy selling drugs all over
Characters from the very start. The street drug Emer- the combat zone. All of them are breaking the first rule of
ald City is actually an old prototype of their upcoming drug dealing —they’re high on their own supply—which
designer drug Securicine, which was accidentally left in makes them immune to the Seriously Wounded Wound
one of their secret facilities in the combat zone when State. It also makes them likely to do aggressive, delu-
it was decommissioned. This building later became the sional things like shoot a wall or stab their friends.
hideout of The Yellow Brick Road, who began to pro- The leader of their boostergang is a Tech who goes by
duce it in their old facility and put it on the black market. “Dorothy, Queen of OZ”, who is only ever present via a
The existence of an early prototype on the black market custom–built projector and speaker system she installed
has the potential to lead to large losses for the company behind a green curtain in the back of The Yellow Brick
as its prototype form would be much easier to reverse Road’s headquarters. Dorothy’s private network can be
engineer than its final form, Securicine. The Exec who was accessed by a Netrunner through this projector. She’s also
responsible for decommissioning the combat zone lab taken control of the secret cameras Biotechnica installed
would certainly lose his job if this information got to his in the club that the company used as a front and in their
boss, so he’s hiring the Characters to cover his tracks. It’s secret office/testing facility underneath the floorboards,
worth mentioning that underhanded sabotage is typically where the gang now keeps their drug lab. Dorothy is
not how Biotechnica operates, and this Exec has effec- actually in the building next door, in a room only acces-
tively gone rogue in an attempt to save his job, which he sible via the roof, where she keeps her aerodyne. She
believes to be easily worth more than lives. He’s a bad would have liked to be further away if it was possible,

50
 SCREAMSHEETS
but this was the farthest she could stretch Biotechnica’s NET architecture, and she really enjoys the dramatic allure of
interfacing with her gang in this way.
When the Characters arrive at the gang’s headquarters, five scarecrows are outside in the street, protecting the main
entrance. Two tin men are inside the first floor of the club, talking to Dorothy’s projection about business. One tin man is
in the alley where the headquarters’ side entrance is, smashing his head against the side of the wall repeatedly. Four
more scarecrows are in the drug laboratory in the decommissioned Biotechnica office under the floorboards cooking
up a fresh batch; the entrance, under a loose tile in the club’s bathroom floor, has been left open. Approximately 400
kilos of Emerald City are stored in yellowed bricks that line the laboratory.
If the Solo shadowing the party is still around to watch the party clear out the facility, they detonate the charges
the moment he sees them come back onto the first floor from the basement. An Athletics Check of DV15 could get a
Character out of a building falling down around them, allowing them to avoid taking 5d10 damage from the collapsing
ceiling to their body, which can be soaked by armor. It all happens much faster than it does in the movies. The Solo waits
ten minutes to see if any of the Characters survived the blast and attempts to eliminate any found alive. Biotechnica
plays dumb about their sabotage if confronted about it but still pays the 7,000 eb, so long as the Characters held up
their end of the bargain.

Dorothy’s Private Network

Level Encounter Ability (DV)
1 Password (Backdoor DV12)
2 File (Eye–Dee DV8)
Contents: Turn Back Last Warning
3 Hellhound
Custom Icon: Lion
4 Control Node Cameras (Control DV12)
5 Password (Backdoor DV12)
6 Hellhound
Custom Icon: Terrier
7 Control Node (Control DV:12)
Projector, Speaker, Dorothy’s Microphone

The best Cyberpunk games are a combination

of doomed romance, fast action,
glittering parties, mean streets, and
quixotic quests to do the right thing against
all odds. It's a little like Casablanca
with cyberware...
Maximum Mike

51