Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit Review

We’ve all been craving it like a fresh can of Smash. Don’t try denying it. Whether you loved the video game Cyberpunk 2077, or the anime Edgerunners, we’ve all wondered what the already fantastic TTRPG Cyberpunk RED would look like with mantis blades and tech weapons and quick hacks. Maybe you love the post-scarcity setting of the 2040s but long for a time even more lavish, fully controlled by the corporations we miss from yesteryear.

Well, the longing is over.

The Edgerunners Mission Kit is here, and it’s hauling out the heavy caliber stuff. I don’t think we had any doubts it would, given R. Talsorian’s track record of quality releases (both paid and all the free stuff on their website). That’s not why you’re here though. You’re no gonk. You wanna look past the screamsheets and see what’s really going on, so sit tight while we flick you the deets.

The Start Of A New Job

Let’s just ask this up front: what kind of edgerunner are you? I ask because your preferences will determine how you rip through the packaging, a Netrunner plucking the most choice files from a database; what do you hone in on? Are you new to the Cyberpunk TTRPG setting? Are you a lover of the 2070s and longing to update your RED game into the latest era? Or are you a Cyberpunk veteran hoping that some of the goodies are backwards compatible, slottable into the RED games you’re still enjoying? We’ll address all three of these players in turn, and in so doing you’ll have a great idea of whether you want to add this shiny box to your gaming library.

(As a side note, we won’t be delving into the core rules of this system. If you’re not familiar with them, and you’d like an overview, I suggest hitting up my review of Cyberpunk RED!)

First up is the new edgerunner to the streets. You haven’t played RED before, and you’re either relatively new to TTRPGs in general or you’re branching out from the one that’s been your home since you started. Likely a love of the genre, or exposure to the anime or video game, has brought you here. But you’re ready to jack in! You want to run a game for your friends and see everything this setting has to offer, so what does this box have to offer you?

The Edgerunners Mission Kit, in a nutshell, gives you everything you need to run a game from start to finish, even if you’ve never been a GM before! There are several small books that break down everything you need to know: an intro sheet with basic TTRPG terms and setting specific concepts, a handbook with a primer on the world and its history, a separate rule book for the nitty-gritty stuff, and of course a booklet with the module itself. You’re also handed a slew of pre-made characters covering most of the game’s professions. What I love about this setup is that someone who’s new to the setting has info on everything they’ll need in Kibble-sized bites, and folks who are familiar with some of the basic concepts or who may have perused the RED book can skip what they already know. As a reminder, this mission kit is based on the core rules from RED, something I’ll touch on again in the next section.

Even if you’ve never run a TTRPG of your own, the module booklet makes things easy and simple. It might seem like a lot to read at first, but frankly it’s got such an entertaining story that you’ll find yourself burning through it like the last dozen pages of a good novel. It makes clear all the basic rolls players might need to make, along with higher and lower difficulty values (DVs) for players who have certain traits or take certain actions preemptively. It marks clearly what is read aloud to the group and briefs you on behind-the-scenes happenings so you as a GM can understand the workings of all the major characters as you follow them through the adventure. There are also branching paths laid out to cover the preferences and actions of the group.

All of this is to say that while the game gives you the freedom to invent new rolls and dialogue as you wish or even adjust the enemies, if you do nothing but stick to the script your players will still probably think you’re some kind of storytelling genius. It really does that good of a job planning out interesting beats, compelling characters, and smooth gameplay.

The Complete Package

If you’re like me, more of a vet to the setting, you’re probably here for the new toys. Mantis blades, gorilla arms, and mono wire (no more of this slice-n-dice predecessor scop). You’re after the gun upgrades, power, smart, and tech to blow the gonks out of your way. Quickhacks. Yes, finally we have quickhacks! We can look at our target and take them out with just a glance! And the good news (as if that wasn’t good enough)? While all these things are new to the RED core rules, none of them are particularly rules-heavy. The result is that, whether you’re dropping into an Edgerunners era game or having a wily 2040s tech invent what will become the gear of the future, everything makes sense and is easy to play with!

Anyone familiar with the 2077 video game will immediately be curious about making their iron even deadlier. Can we finally bank shots around cover with power weapons? Do tech weapons really shoot through cover? And how are the smart weapons any different from the ones we already have? Yes, yes, and and I’ll get to that, respectively. Power weapon ricochet shots incur a -4 penalty to hit, but they are capable of ignoring cover by shooting around it. Critical injuries inflicted by power weapons also do 5 additional damage! Tech weapons ignore thin cover altogether (by shooting through it), and they also bypass half a target’s SP (their armor). Smart weapons are capable of ignoring all penalties caused by darkness, smoke, or obscurement, similar to having the UV/IR/Low Light cybereye upgrades on your character. Their improved ammo also rerolls missed shots that miss the target DV by 5 instead of 4, and they roll the shot again with a base 14 instead of older smart link’s base of 10. Want one of these on a gun that’s not inherently power/smart/tech? It costs 1000eb in materials and 2 of a weapon’s 3 upgrade slots. That’s it!

I love everything about these upgrades! They are thematic, powerful, and feel like what we know from the video game while remaining balanced in play. The -4 to ricochet on power weapons is a nice touch, in my opinion. Headshots at -8 are always juicy to go for, but they either require a hefty dose of luck or a lot of planning. Or both. By adding a shot option with a smaller penalty, players can now make more tactical decisions on less risky but still rewarding shots. Similarly, with tech weapons needing to charge before firing, an edgerunner will need to spend their move action building up charge in their weapon. The charge will hold for 1 minute or until fired, whichever comes first. This keeps action snappy (no need to spend multiple turns shooting), but what if you’re caught out in the open? What if an enemy turns to run? Sacrificing movement for a powerful shot is another fantastic decision introduced into combat.

I’m always a fan of making players decide on trade-offs and choices in combat, and these weapons absolutely nail this aspect of game design without slowing down any of the heart pounding action. The smart weapons and their improved ammo may be the least exciting of the bunch, more or less an improved version of the tech from the 2040s, but for folks that really like hitting what they aim at you can’t complain. Smart weapons are a serious step up from smart links. As someone currently playing a character with the aforementioned cybereye upgrades, the ability to shoot through smoke or complete darkness cannot be overstated! Having this function alone on a weapon is very powerful in its own right. Trust me, this one earns it’s place alongside the other weapon upgrades.

The cyberarm upgrade weapons are all similarly interesting. All of them offer some side benefit in addition to the regular weapon damage they grant. Mantis blades can be used as climbing tools if you have them in both arms. Gorilla arms allow you to wield weapons as if you had BODY 11 on your character, no linear frame required! You can also pry open doors and move cover with them as you’d expect. Monowire can attack opponents up to 3 squares (6 meters/yards) away, and any critical injuries inflicted are rolled twice with the attacker deciding which to inflict. The blades and wire can also be concealed without a check, as you’d expect if you’ve seen them in other media. Like the guns, I find these all fantastic additions, giving players new ways to play, new decisions to make, and out-of-combat utility besides being fantastic as the weapons they are.

Then we have quickhacks. I’ll be honest, if there was any single place I expected the rules to swamp down the game, this was where I figured it was going to happen. How little faith I had in R. Talsorian. Mr. James Hutt, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry for being a massive gonk. Quickhacks are—well—quick! Netrunners will spend one round hacking into a target’s neuroport, a new piece of tech most folks have in the 2070s, and then they’re free to do their worst. In a nutshell, all quickhacks work off a Netrunner’s Interface ability and the DVs are set by the severity of the quickhack. Choose the quickhack, make the roll, do the thing. Many of these will feel familiar, again, to anyone who’s watched the anime or played the video game, but perhaps even more importantly, because the system is so streamlined the door is wide open for all sorts of homemade programming! Players and GMs alike can “script” their own malware as they wish. All the two need to agree on is a proper DV for the effect. I love the precedent this sets, a system that, by the words of its own designers, is free and open to modding, laid bare from the beginning for players to have fun with!

Want to import any of this backwards into the 2040? Quickhacks may be grounded in the 2070s, thanks to the invention of the neuroport, but the guns and cyberware just need a tech to help them get invented. All the rules and costs remain unchanged. Wily GMs will weave these threads into their existing games with all sorts of hooks for their ongoing stories, I’m sure. Bravo, R. Talsorian games. Bravo.

And Then There Was More

You didn’t think it ended there, did you? I mean, it’s ok if you did. I did when I opened up this kit. Hey, don’t judge me! Who knew that, in addition to everything a new GM needs, in addition to a solid module included in the box, in addition to all the signature tech from the anime/video game, and in addition to quick hacks, we’d get—well, even more? Honestly I did not see it coming. Berserk tech? David’s experimental Sandevistan? A bunch of extra gear goodies? Tons of named weapons with the power/smart/tech tag from the show/game? They’re all here. Even those experimental drugs that stave off cyberspychosis. We also get some new rules for humanity loss over time and humanity gain over time (tracked on a monthly basis, like lifestyles). That’s right, chooms. Living a good life can actively improve your mental state! Who knew?

I won’t spoil anything, but we also get stat blocks for all the goons the edgerunners could encounter in the included module, including one particularly deadly one that—well let’s just say your players have to screw things up pretty badly to have them come out to play. I won’t say who it is, but you can probably guess. This kit is a treasure trove of goodies, through and through. For as small as it is, it’s been packed to bursting. You love to see it.

Wrapping Up The Job

In my opinion, R. Talsorian Games has released yet another must-buy for fans of the Cyberpunk system. Whether you want to take your adventures into the 2070s or backwards import goodies into your current 2040s game, this here is eddies well spent. For new players looking to get into Cyberpunk, there has literally never been a better time to jack in. Between the show and the video game there’s enough extra material on the lore out there that slipping into the setting, or onboarding new players, has never been easier. And this kit is very good at what it does.

There’s some allusion in the Edgerunners Mission Kit that we may be getting more for the 2070s down the road. For example, deep dive ports are not discussed in this kit. This is by no means a comprehensive supplement into the next era of the Cyberpunk universe. As if reading my mind, right before publication of this article R. Talsorian Games released a free DLC on their download page for the mission kit! What more we can expect and how long we may wait for it are all purely speculation at this point, but what we’ve got now is a solid foundation for most of the bits we know and love. My advice, if you’ve wanted to play a tabletop RPG in the rebuilt, high-tech Night City we all love to hate (or hate to love), or you just want more goodies to add to a RED game in progress, grab this mission kit. And I will join you in waiting to see what the future holds.