Cyberpunk Red is everything you could want out of a base sourcebook. Everything you need to start a cyberpunk game is right here as well as an incredibly developed world and hub city. I, as a GM, greatly appreciated their tools and resources included.

I will say, the Cyberpunk Red Companion App is a must for running games. It really revolutionized the GM process for me and I am happy I was made aware of it before starting my first campaign.

Back to the book though, one problem I ran into is the lack of a glossary for quick references. I found myself jumping back to main headers and then having to scan through sections to try and find what I was looking for. But, overall, Cyberpunk Red is an excellent starting point and I, also, highly recommend the expansion books, especially for GMs. Tales of the Red really helped me run the campaign as I was getting a feel for where I wanted the actual story to go, Black Chrome gave my players some preem spending goals and gave me some great bonus loot to hide for the players to find. The Interface Volumes are also a great compendium of the free DLCs with a splash of extras to really earn their price. Highly recommend all RED products.

Everything but the Exotics is free on the R Talsorian site. So if you're buying this you either want to support RTG or want to be an anthroporphic animal.

Pros:

• The cyberware added from the exotics is very cool.
• Having everything in 1 hyperlinked pdf is great.
• The bonus ads are also hilarious.

Cons:

• You're paying for the exotics, ads and convinence. May not be worth for some people.

Clearly well thought out. Fun to read, the art is great and the writing is funny. If this is the quality of all future CPR books, that's good.

5 sessions in, a lot of fleshed out mechanics with the end result being fast and fun gameplay. As someone who came from D&D and players who have this as either their first ttrpg or also came from D&D, they all find it quite simple (only d10s and d6s). Can be overwhelming to being with as a DM. Would reccomend the JonJon the Wise youtube channel as he has some good stuff on how to run some of the stuff I found that I skimmed over but turned out to be important. Fun game, play it.

This supplement is so cool and fun to play with on pdf format, it's layed out resembling a website and you can even click on catagories to take you to specific spots in the book! You wanna find a new vehicle in black chrome? Just hit the vehicles category, it'll take you straight to the first page of the category. Theres so much in the book. Even has night markets with fixers that run em and maps of what they look like towards the back of the book. This was a must buy for me.

"The fashion and attitude of the Cyberpunk setting seeps through on every page, successfully hammering home the gulf between a corporate wearing nothing but holo-clothes and a nomad who can’t afford ammo and has to figure out how to shoot rocks." - Aaron Marks

Read the full CHG review here: https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2023/03/08/black-chrome-review/

«A Tome of Chaos» is a book dedicated to magic in the world of «The Witcher». Here, in general, as with the bestiary «A Witcher's Journal» - not bad, but nothing special and fundamental. (So don’t expect something like «Realms of Sorcery» for WFRP). A new heroine in the manner of Erland is the elf Glynnis. The stories about her are generally interesting, especially the last one about the demon. Book contains some information about magical training, local religious cults, and priest and druid now are full-fledged separate classes. There’s also a little bit of everything as usual - new spells, few new monsters, examples of famous magicians, etc. There are sections about local forbidden practices like necromancy or demonology (but they are quite small), also a couple of small fragments about ley lines and weak mages with only one ability (but they look like there was no place for them anywhere in the book and therefore they are just crammed somewhere between chapters).

keep 'em comin RTG Crew! And to those complaining, 90% of the material in the Interface Red series can be found for free on the RTG Website under the Downloads tab.

Absolutely brilliant, but not perfect

I have fallen deeply in love with the world of Cyberpunk because of this game, and my group has been enjoying it immensely!(we have just run The Apatment). It's my second ever ttrpg system outside D&D 5E and I have been thoroughly impressed by the system's nuance and flexibility for things like called shots and critical injuries in combat, not to mention the dizzying array of skills listed to cover just about anything you can think of. After reading through the core book and watching some great youtube videos (JonJontheWise and Seth Skorkowsky are invaluable) I feel I have a handle on the system to a competent level now and I am looking forward to exploring the Time of The Red with my group.

The art in this book is stunning and the narrative thread throughout the whole book really adds to the feeling of authenticity. I loved the stories and particularly liked how they were used as examples for other sections like the Beats Breakdown (also invalubale for any GM/Writer).

My only criticisms are that the combat system (whilst fun, exciting and deadly) is quite diffciult to understand without outside clarification like interviews with the designers or veteran players breaking it down for you. The rules for things like cover are very unclear in particular (turns out it's more like XCOM with overwatching and holding actions to shoot people popping up). Another criticism is that whilst the number of skills on offer is comprehnesive, I found it can really slow down gameplay when you are trying to figure out which skill to roll from the list if it isn't immediately obvious (isn't bribery persuasion?).

Overall this is still a brilliant game that is well worth your time and investment. The book is phenomenal both as a system and a collection of stunning art, stories and more that will transport you to Night City and make you feel like Trace Santiago himself is laying it all out for you.

P.S. The advice for GMs in this book is top notch and compatible with any system. Highly Recommend.

It's what CPRed needed and we now have. A great book of treats for the GM and player alike. The PDF design is great, why use the sidebar bookmarks when you can use the tabs directly from the pages, just like a real kiosk!

There are some great ideas in here and some improvements on older system, there are also some really dumb things in here.

Been playing cyberpunk since I picked up a copy of the original in 1989.

I love the new cyberspace rules.

The combat system is a joke compared to the previous systems.

2 examples:

• Suppressive fire does no damage, just makes people run for cover. No chance of anybody being hit, at all?

  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=THE+SOMME

• Shotguns - This is not how buckshot works. Diagram shows 6 yards by 6 yards from the muzzle of the shotgun.

  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=effective+range+of+buckshot+12+gauge

It seems the crit system is the fudge that makes the combat system more dangerous.

EDIT I saw a podcast with the combat desginer and the guy is a completely uneducated and has done zip research. Also I noted a flip comment about his suppressive fire rules stopping "people climbing out of trenches like in wonder woman" Ahem, how a bit of respect for the people who did in real life? Especially when you release a product that close to armastice day. Typical attitude from his type.
More proof, if needed that they let the intern do the combat system. Check out Twilight 2000 for some better ideas.

Pros:

Cyberspace rules

Item Creation

Cons:

Combat system

Information repeated too many times, including a couple of pages just after it has been written.

50/50:

Generic economy and items.

Rest of system has some small tweaks if any to previous versions.

Overall:

it moves the timeline on, handy for the 2077 tie in.

Seems like 5th Edition A&D but for cyberpunk.

Bland and weak.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY TRYING TO POLISH THIS TURD.

I'm a bit underwhelmed by the book, it has a great quantity of new stuff, that's for sure, some of them are little nice additions, like the NCPD App, or the multi jointed option for cyberlimbs, etc, but many of the most impactful features kinda ruin the game balance even more than it was. Tackling this issues (which are already pointed out in some reviews):

1- The only reason why people don't always wear a light armorjack everywhere is that it's not concealable, so if the party goes to the Glen they'll probably wear kevlar, and if a fight starts they have 4 less armor points, making combat faster and scarier. Now though even light armorjack are completely concealable with a little fee, turning everyone in the party in a bullet sponge again. 2- I think dodgin bullet is overpowered, calls for too many extra dice rolls during combat and makes it less tactical since a player who invested there can even stand in the middle of the arena and be unscathed. At least some players less combat focus or interested in different stats (the netrunner in my campaign dumped a glorious 3 in reflexes, evasion is at 12 though) still had to heavily rely on cover, making combat scarier if they couldn't find a cover in time. Now with the co-processor everyone can dodge bullets.. really, giving the chance to slow down combat through extra dice rolls was THE LAST THING the game needed.. I'm really disappointed, for what it's worth (very little, I assume) 3- A cyberware option that lets players (and mooks) fill up their armor mid combat with a single action is another really bad design choice, that aims to turn combat into a slower grind instead of making it faster and more lethal, I can't see the benefit of that option.. on youtube someone pointed out that this option was already available by RAW, through the field repair skill of the tech.. to think that a tech repairs an armor in 3 seconds mid combat while people are shooting around him was such a silly thought that I never even occured to me, I hope I'm not wrong, but anyway the option is kinda there now.

I'm still gonna buy the next expansion but I really hope in a better one next time.

i bought the PDF of Black Chrome, and i blame my self for getting caught up in the hype of a new chrome book. new gear and lore for 2045 and the time of the red,then i started reading the book...

TL;DR - a decent book to add more gear to your campaign, however a good chunk is either unless or WAY overpriced, what's to stop a Fixer, Techie, or Nomad to get these items? not a must have as the hype would have you believe.

longer review: i bought the pdf and started to do my inital skim, looked very promising, then i sat down and begin to read the content. the pdf is really optimized to find everything you want. however that's where the positives end with this book. first outfits, youg gotta look cool for the dark future, however this section is a bit underwhelming, i was hoping some early 2077 outfits, like proto-2077 outfits before they got it down for 2077, one the red neon jacket was there, and the trench coat is pretty cool, i appriecate the Bladerunner look. then that's it, i mean the armored corpo suits are nice, but if you did the conversions already, then it's pointless. next cyberware, i was hoping for some more selections and maybe some early tech as well, but nope. under 20 items (15 items if i remember correctly) if it was quality over quanity i understand the small selection, but again, only maybe 3 items are worth it. what's up with the hand cyberware anyways? same thing maybe 1-2 useful things.

the weapons are a mixed bag. a few amount weapons are worth their investment like weapons that have 2 modes (pistol/SMG mode, Shotgun/crossbow mode), however, Gun Mart while fun in theory, why is it exotic? if it's easily made and accessible shouldn't be readily available? it's cool seeing katanas and such, but those are just 2045 versions of 2020 weapons so nothing of note there. again, a bit underwhelming.

cars and copters are cool, i love the rust buckets and future tech cars and bikes, one point: why are cars so expensive? i read the thread on it being like New York: it's cramped that you don't want or need a car. the problem with that logic is that while yes it is cramped, how is it that you're suppose to get around? not just for transportation, night city is huge, and to my understanding public transportation isn't back up. this is one of those RAW issues where, simply hand waving it just doesn't fix the problem, it only highlights it. maybe i lack the foresight to plan for the players to pay it off, but it's really jarring nonetheless.

one thing i was really disappointed were the apps, i was hoping for more apps but while all of it is essential, i feel this should of been a DLC for the Interface RED line, not for the Black Chrome.

the lore while interesting, it isn't answering the questions of who's who. it sort of does, but doesn't at the same time. some gangs are named and fixers as well, but it feels like they are missing some details. one thing that stood out that nomads, fixers, and techies, have a chart to get items, and it's one of those, what's stopping them from making the weapons? techies are already doing that already, so it's one of those what the hell moments.

overall, this book had a lot of hype and build up behind it, and its content is milquetoast at best, underwhelming at worse. i'm not a grodnard that played CP 2020 back in the day. this game can be good but the way it's written and designed and supported, i don't know if it'll last. don't want it to be like V5: convoluted, messy, and bland.

I never played any earlier versions of Cyberpunk, but have been playing RPGs for 25 years. I am running a red game after watching some 2020 reviews and just know tuning red would be easier to get the books in physical form. The rules are simple to pick up and run. It is a pain to convince some players they have to find jobs. My group is used to working for guilds, so jobs are just listed. For the book itself it is okay. I love the art and it is easy to understand a rule when you can find it. The layout is a pain. You have to jump all over the book to make a character. The flow chart helps, but you have to dig to find information out about the chrome you just got.

I really had hope that this book would improve the system, but somehow it's biggest impact is making it worse.

There is some good to it. Some of the items add cool functionality and character options. Some items fill niches that were sorely missing in the corebook, some are just cool flavour items that are nice to have or just funny jokes to look at. The economics section is cool, though a little short compared to the rest of the book.

However, the good items are mostly overshadowed by what takes up the vast majority of the book, which is mostly pointless items that do nothing but pad the length of the book. The weapons are all exotic weapons that don't interact at all with the existing modularity of the system and most of them don't really add much to the existing options. The vehicles are too pricy for non-nomads and don't do much for nomads beyond allowing them to get more upgrades per moto rank. Some of the cyberware options are fine, but many of them suffer by how poorly designed the max humanity mechanic is. Worst of all, nearly all the fashion items are either terrible, or just simply recreate mechanics that already existed in the core rulebook by just making them needlessly more complicated.

Beyond the options that are useless, even worse are the options that actively make the system worse. Cyberpunk Red already had an existing problem with balance. There are options that simply vastly outperform all other options which have a tendency outside of a very good group to produce the same characters over and over again. As well, the bullet dodging mechanic grinds combat to a halt and makes it much too easy to simply trivialize encounters and turn them into effectively rocket tag. For some reason, this book includes items that make all these options even better or easier to achieve, while doing nothing to improve other possible choices. Where once you had to sacrifice stat points to bullet dodge (Which nearly everyone did), now you simply need to pay an incredibly cheap amount to do it. Linear frames are now not only the most optimal piece of cyberware in the game by far, they now also carry the functionality of other cyberware at no further humanity loss and you can make them immune to EMP. The end result is that the system is an even less balanced one as a result of this book.

Overall, it's incredibly dissapointing. If this shows the direction the system will continue to develop in, I think it will ultimately fail to live up to its potential.