With the advent of the Christmas season, my groups splintered into Those Who Go on Holiday and Those Who Do Not. (Also, a special mention to my Monday group who found Christmas occurring on Monday, then New Year’s Day, then the birthday of a player’s wife…) So, in the spirit of holiday cheer for those still around and wanting a game, I ran a session of Cyberpunk RED. Four players, two from each campaign, found themselves in the dark future of 2045 AD. Well, their characters did, at least.
I intend to keep running Cyberpunk RED sessions whenever I get a chance. Playing a lot of Cyberpunk 2077 (over 900 hours) has ignited my interest in the RPG. But then there’s the fact that the RPG is pretty damn good.
I set this scenario up as an extraction: The characters were hired through their fixer to retrieve an asset that some Maelstrom gangers had stolen. What was the asset? A piece of equipment, tube-like, reasonably heavy. Details were thin on the ground. Whoever had contacted the fixer wasn’t telling everything.
I knew we had limited time for this session (less than 3 hours), so I skipped over the initial stages of investigation to take them directly into a confrontation with four Maelstrom goons in a warehouse. Opportunities to take cover were limited. The rules for cover are fascinating in Cyberpunk RED – as in, it rarely applies. Either you have full cover or no cover. I must work out exactly how to run with that in the game. Is running out from behind a wall, shooting, then running back how the game should work?
Anyway, this was the set-up for the first fight:
Maps are by Lion Banner Games. (One pictured is the Cyberpunk Gang Hideout).
These Maelstromers used the basic boosterganger stats. (I was quickly putting this adventure together, so I went with basic rulebook stats for the most part.)
I appreciate that Cyberpunk RED has guidelines regarding the type of opposition a party can face. In this case, four mooks were a fair fight for four PCs. The players would win, even if they took some damage. I set up the enemy tokens had three bars – all visible to players, though the numbers weren’t. Green=Hit points, Blue=Body Armour, Red=Head Armour. The green wireless icon was the access point for a netrunner – alas, no netrunner was in the party.
The fight was relatively short. One of the ganger’s guns jammed very early, and he spent the rest of the battle failing to unjam it. The rest fell to unrelenting firepower. Two players were playing Solos; there was one Tech and one Lawman. Although they killed most of the opposition, the Maelstrom punk who’d had his gun jam was captured and questioned. And apparently, Maelstrom had been hired to retrieve the asset – and directed to this abandoned warehouse. There was a secret lift in the wall that their leader, the client, and the asset had gone down in.
The Tech, a security specialist, easily bypassed the protections on the lift, and the party piled in and went down to the secret bunker beneath.
Oh my – it was a Militech bunker!
Another map by Lion Banner Games. (Cyberpunk Corporate Lab).
Mines, turrets, and a lack of Maelstromers met them. Going through the files they found on the various computer stations, this looked like a secret bunker built during the Fourth Corporate War. And the specialisation? Cybernetics repairs and medical assistance. There’s a long, complicated history around the fourth Corporate War that I only vaguely grasp. I believe Militech were banned from Night City, and had set up this covert base for their operatives to use just outside the city – in the area that, by Cyberpunk 2077, would be part of Northside. (My grasp on Cyberpunk lore is a little fuzzy at present).
Scrape marks on the floor indicated that the “asset” had been taken down the mined corridor. The mines were proximity triggered and set on the walls. (And yes, I was taking much inspiration from Cyberpunk 2077 at this point). So, someone had to disarm them. That someone? The techie!
Sammy made his way down the corridor. He had done well with the locked doors and computer systems, but his specialisation was not in explosives. He rolled well and disarmed the first, but the second? Not so well. He took an explosion to the face – hurting him badly, though not fatally.
When nobody came looking for them, they just shot and exploded the third mine.
A door at the end of the corridor slid open to reveal two sentry guns. This situation wasn’t great –Sammy and Poe were using shotguns (Poe’s player had greatly enjoyed using shotguns in Cyberpunk 2077, so she’d chosen one here, but the range wasn’t favourable). Poe and Sammy had to get up close, and the sentry guns were targeting them! Aurora (Lawman) and La Amiga (Solo) stayed back and used assault rifles at range, like sensible people.
Poor Sammy – taking shot after shot! They finally managed to blow apart one of the guns, and Sammy reached the other and did his techie magic to deactivate it.
They found the “asset” in a side chamber – an empty medical transport pod. Continuing their exploration, they discovered its contents: a young girl! Her father, a Militech employee, guarded her. Also present were the remainder Maelstromers, including their leader.
It was revelation time! Her father related that his daughter had fallen seriously ill, and Militech had entered into an agreement with Kang Tao to cure her (why Kang Tao? Mainly because I like the name. Perhaps Biotechnica would have been a better choice.) But after Kang Tao had used experimental technology to stabilise her, they didn’t give her back, and Militech was fine with this situation (it’s what was in the contract). Her father had disliked this development, so he’d hired the Maelstromers to get her back. All of this led to the current situation: a rogue Militech employee stole an “asset” from Kang Tao, and someone hired the players to get it back.
Which led to a decision point: Did they follow through with the contract (worth a cool 2000 eddies each?), or did they let the girl go with her father? He offered them 500 eddies each as compensation. And of course, they’d be burning their reputation as well.
They chose to repudiate their contract. Feel good time! As I’d designed the scenario, this would have been the last encounter if they chose to take the girl: a big fight against the Maelstrom leader and his goons. But I had considered that they’d be nice, so the OTHER ending came into play.
And the other ending? The Militech agent who had hired them showed up outside the warehouse as they left.
Now, they tried to bluff him with the empty medical transport pod, so they’d get paid, but he wanted to see the secret base, where the girl and her father were still hiding out until they could escape safely.
They could have left, but instead, they started firing. Leading into a very tough gun battle against the agent (a Security Officer) and his two sidekicks (Security Operatives). Poor Sammy was already low on hit points and began very close to the action! He dove into one of the cars and used it to pin the officer against the wall. The others took hits, but eventually, their superior firepower came through. Three of them were seriously wounded – only one of them was basically unhurt! They limped out of the area knowing they’d done a good deed.
Who knows how that will come back to bite them, huh?
My plan is to run additional Cyberpunk RED one-shots when, for one reason or another, we can’t run our regular campaigns. Same characters, same world, but just irregular sessions. (And likely different players each time). I’ll try and gain inspiration from their lifepaths for additional scenarios, plus the other resources R. Talsorian Games has made available. Until next time!