The city doesn't care about you. It never did. But here you are anyway, running jobs, keeping your head down, trying to scrape something worth calling a life out of the wreckage.
Welcome to Night City.
Try not to die.
Welcome to our play-by-post game of Cyberpunk Red. Before we dive in, I need everyone to read this post and confirm they've understood and agreed to the rules below.
This is a Session Zero post, so no in-character content yet. Use it to ask questions, flag concerns, and get comfortable with each other and the format.
Note: This is quite long so if you struggle to process or focus on long-form content, for accessibility reasons, please let me know. I am happy to explain on a discord call.
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The Threads
- SESSION ZERO
You are currently here. It is an introductory post that goes through how things will work and how the threads are laid out.
- Rules - it's self explanatory, please read them.
- In Character (IC)
All written story posts go here. We are all creating a story together! Write in third person or first person, I don't care because it's your choice. Just please be consistent and stay in character. Rules questions, jokes, dice rolls and reactions go in OOC, not here.
- Out of Character (OOC)
Dice rolls, rules questions, scheduling, and general chat that is not in character goes here. This is also where you flag if you're going to be away. Keep it friendly please. We're here to have fun! :D
- Player Lounge (GM-excluded)
This thread is yours. I will not read it, and I ask that no one share its contents with me. If you share things with me accidentally I might cry, so whisper amongst yourselves. Use it to theorise, plan, share memes, vent about your character's bad luck, or coordinate what you want to do next. Think of it as your team's private channel but remember that even though I am not watching, the moderation team of this website are. One or two of you should volunteer to "own" this thread and keep it organised.
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Refresh Rate / Response Window
- Roleplay scenes: If you haven't posted within 4 days of it being your moment in the spotlight, I'll move the scene on. Your character hangs back at bit, stays quiet, or follows the group's lead. No judgement from me, I know life happens.
Recommendation: I want to keep it quite casual so it doesn't have to be a novel unless inspiration strikes you. Quality matters more than quantity. A focused paragraph beats five one-liners but if you feel mentally constipated and you feel stuck, just write what you can, even if it's just one line or you can give me a nudge in the OOC thread and I can give you a little more direction, inspiration or context.
- Combat scenes: You have 24 hours to play your turn before the combat round moves onward.
Recommendation: During combat you should describe what you want your character to do, it does not have to be lengthy, just a sentence or two is fine.
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Are you going to be gone a while?
Just post in the OOC thread. You don't have to tell us why but it helps to know how long you might be gone. If you are not sure how long you will be gone just say so and we'll try to find the next most reasonable checkpoint to park your character. If there is no-warning silence for 4 days means I start managing your character conservatively until you're back if they are present in a scene, especially in combat. I am happy to update you on what has happened in the story when you come back.
Real life always comes first. If something is going on, just say so. We'll work around it.
What Happens If You Drop Out
If you need to leave the game, I'd much rather you tell me than vanish.
If you give me a heads-up: We work together to write your character out gracefully. Night City has plenty of ways for someone to disappear e.g. a job gone wrong, a better offer from a rival fixer, a one-way trip to the free states, your character joins a gang or embarks on an alternative career, etc. We can create an ending together or they may become an NPC.
If you go quiet without warning: Your character moves to the background. They're present but not driving anything. I'll use oracles such as Mythic Game Master Emulator 2nd Edition, Cyberpunk RED Single Player Mode, Vox Profundus, etc to keep your character functional if the story needs them. These are dice and card oracle systems, not AI, so your character's fate stays genuinely unpredictable and rule-bound. If you are gone for quite some time I may carry your character until the next reasonable checkpoint for them to leave the story, if they are caught in a battle while you are gone, they will play defensively but I cannot guarantee they will not be injured. Abandoned characters may eventually become an NPC if enough time passes so you might want to just tell me what kind of ending you would like or how you would like to park them while you are on hiatus.
If you come back: You're welcome back if we can make it work narratively. Talk to me in OOC.
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Tone, Content and Safety Tools
Cyberpunk RED is a game about people trying to survive in a system designed to grind them down. It can be a bit dark but humour is welcome too. Cyberpunk can contain themes of corporate exploitation, urban decay, violence, moral compromise, and moments of genuine humanity in a world that's running out of them. This world also has sex, drugs, brain rot entertainment and all that comes with it in the franchise and the source books too.
Before we start, I'll be asking everyone to complete a brief Lines and Veils check-in in OOC:
- Lines — content you will not engage with under any circumstances (I will not enforce this on your character)
- Veils — content you're okay with happening but want handled off-screen or fade-to-black
No one needs to justify their lines or veils. We're here to have fun, not to push anyone's limits.
Time out: Anyone can call a timeout to pause the scene if it makes you uncomfortable. Just say "timeout" in OOC and don't look at the IC thread until we restart the game and move on.
Tone dial: Combat can be fatal. An edgerunner's life can be fleeting. Be smart, take your rest seriously and remember that small wins matter.
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Platform and Dice
We're playing on this forum for the introductory Edge Runners campaign / arc. We may vote on moving to a different platform once we've found our feet. Nothing is permanent.
Please roll your dice in the OOC thread. To use the cyberpunk exploding dice system you must search for Cyberpunk RED from the dropdown when you roll.
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Characters - Edge Runners:
Live upto your character and make it worth it. The golden rule for Cyberpunk is always style over substance.
Death and Custom Characters:
If your character dies unintentionally you may create a new one and also try another role if you want, although it may make more sense to replace them with a character in the same role. As an extra step, tell me what your character wants and what they're afraid of as these are the hooks I'll use to make the story personal. If your character has family that are still alive and present this is also good to know.
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Momentum
Play-by-post lives and dies on momentum. The biggest killer is silence and people drifting away because it felt like too much effort to post. If something isn't working e.g the pacing, another player's style, etc. Then just bring it to OOC early. I'd rather have an awkward conversation than lose the game. Please note that this Edge Runners kit does have a lot of combat so be prepared for that.
Combat can slow things down a lot so I have changed how we will do the initiative order to fit with faster combat rounds to compensate for the play-by-post format. If you struggle with the combat I am happy to do some hybrid play on battle mats with roll20 to help you visualise what is happening.
I will post an update of the battle map round by round, if a fight happens in a place without a map we will use the theatre of the mind.
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Combat
Since we are in the early phases of Cyberpunk RED via play-by-post, I am going to give you two options.
At the very beginning of combat I am going to give an option for you to pick between the full combat / netrunner rules or the new Quick & Dirty Combat / Netrunner rules from the new Single Player Mode. This will be a group vote.
- Full Combat: Full combat is the round by round combat you see in the core rulebook. It takes longer with multiple rounds but gives more detail. You describe what you want your character to attempt and you can roll your dice if you know what dice to roll. If you are unsure which dice to roll or what checks to make, please let me know what you want your character to try to do and I will advise you in OOC. If I think you have made the wrong check or rolled the wrong modifiers I will let you know and update things accordingly, I may even ask you to roll an additional dice roll or two.
- Quick & Dirty: If this was a movie, this option is more like a montage of moments that happen in a longer battle scene. It is resolved in one round of dice rolls made by the players and the GM. I would tell you how many roll checks you would need to make, you choose which weapons or method of fighting you want to use (e.g ranged, melee, martial arts, etc) and it would be resolved against opposed (and sometimes unopposed) roll checks.
Time window per round:
Combat rounds have to be fairly quick because there is a potential for a lot of combat in this campaign.
- You have 24 hours per round to make your roll and let me know what you want your character to attempt to do in combat. If you miss your turn your player will try to take cover if they can, if they can't then they will try to move toward where they can take cover.
- It's unlikely to happen but if combat stalls completely, if it gets stuck or if not a single person responds within 4 days then I'll roll quick and dirty, resolve the combat and to move the plot forward.
Specificity: Who, where, what and how?!
Tell me who, where, what and how...if you don't then I don't know who you are attacking, where you are targeting or moving, what you are attacking with and how you are attacking. The same goes with defence!
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Improvement Points (IP) and Progression
Improvement Points (IP) are something you can use to improve your character's stats.
It can be spent on improving skills, learning new skills, improving your roll ability.
As you gain IP you will need to track this in the IP area of your character sheet.
When you've collected enough points you can spend them on your skills or role ability. IP is non-transferable.
IP Awards
- Guaranteed IP:
- Every week: At least 5IP is guaranteed every once a week if you post at least twice/
- Every Month: You will be awarded based on playstyle usually between from 10 up to 80 IP max. You don't have to roleplay every week to be awarded some points but you won't be awarded for silence either.
- If you finish a mission: You get a lump sum of IP when you finish a mission based on how well you did as a group.
- Extra IP: I will sometimes give bonus IP and the IP awards are quite subjective so you may gain more or less IP based on subjective things like playstyle, humour, etc.
- The main way to gain extra IP is with Play-style based improvement.
Unlike other tabletop games, Cyberpunk RED uses a system called Playstyle Improvement. This type of improvement allows the GM to reward each player based on their preferred type of gameplay and their level of participation in that gameplay type. In classic Bartle Taxonomy, these types are Socializers, Explorers, Achievers and Killers. But in Cyberpunk RED, we describe the types as:
- Warriors: Combat oriented Players like to engage in tests of skill against adversaries. They want to build the strongest fighter in the group, as well as have the best weapons or combat abilities.
- Socializers: Social-oriented Players are all about the overall game experience. They like to tell jokes, record stories, and contribute in ways that are not directly within the game. In and out of the game, they tend to take supportive roles.
- Explorers: Exploration oriented players like to find new things in the world. They like to make friends and alliances and find new places and things to experience. They also love to solve non-combat related puzzles and mysteries.
- Roleplayers: Roleplay oriented Players like to concentrate on playing their character as accurately to type as possible. They enjoy constructing elaborate backgrounds for the character, often including personal props, pictures and even special diaries. They enjoy "acting out" important scenes with speeches or elaborate descriptions.
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What Type of Player Am I?
But what kind of playstyle is yours? We figure this out by having each Player take a small quiz after they finish
character creation. This helps both the GM and the Player to determine what playstyle best approximates their
type. Check out the boxes below, the Player should choose the 5 things they find most important when playing. Circle them. The
box with the most circles is their primary play style. The box with the second most circles is their secondary
play style.