In the Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode - Free Basic Rules, just the basic rules and lore to get started have been included. For the full Dark Future lore and all the advanced rules, check out the Cyberpunk RED Core Book!

Now that you know about the world of Cyberpunk RED, here’s the basics of how to play.

Stats

Each character in Cyberpunk RED has two major categories of attributes: STATS and Skills. STATS are numbers that describe a Character’s abilities in the game. This helps you compare abilities.

For instance, a person with a STAT of 5 might be better off than a person with a STAT of 4, but not as good as a person with a STAT of 6. The ten STATS used in Cyberpunk RED are:

Intelligence (INT): How generally bright, clever, and aware you are.

Reflexes (REF): Your response time and coordination. Used for ranged weapons.

Dexterity (DEX): Your athletic ability. Used for melee and brawling attacks.

Technique (TECH): Your ability to manipulate tools and instruments.

Cool (COOL): Your ability to impress and influence others.

Will (WILL): Your determination, courage, and ability to keep going in the face of adversity.

Luck (LUCK): A special STAT. See Using Luck (below) for more details.

Movement (MOVE): Your speed of movement when running, swimming, climbing, and so forth.

Body (BODY): Your raw strength and endurance.

Empathy (EMP): Your ability to relate and care for others.

Skills

Skills represent things your character can do via training and learning. The higher your Skill Level, the better trained you are at that Skill. Each Skill is linked to a specific STAT. For example, the Melee Weapons Skill is linked to the DEX STAT. For more information on how they’re used together, see Skill Resolution below.

The following Skills are used in Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode.

Accounting (INT)

Skill of balancing books, creating false books and identifying them, juggling numbers, creating budgets and handling day-to-day business operations.

Acting (COOL)

Skill of assuming a role, disguising yourself as someone else, whether real or fictitious, and faking emotions and moods.

Athletics (DEX)

Skill of jumping, climbing, throwing, swimming, lifting weights, etc. It combines the basic elements of any high school-level sports program. This Skill also covers thrown weapons.

Brawling (DEX)

Skill at fighting and grappling with brute strength.

Bribery (COOL)

Skill of knowing when to bribe someone, how to approach them, and how much to offer.

Bureaucracy (INT)

Skill for dealing with bureaucrats, cutting red tape, knowing who to talk to in a bureaucracy and how to extract information from bureaucracies.

Business (INT)

Skill regarding knowledge of basic business practices, laws of supply and demand, employee management, procurement, sales, and marketing.

Composition (INT)

The required Skill for writing songs, articles, or stories.

Conceal/Reveal Object (INT)

Skill for hiding objects and finding objects that have been hidden. This is the Skill used for concealing weapons under clothing and detecting concealed weapons.

Concentration (WILL)

Skill of focus and mental control, encompassing feats of memory, recall, and physiological control.

Conversation (EMP)

Skill of extracting information from people without alerting them through careful conversation.

Criminology (INT)

Skill of discovering clues by dusting for fingerprints, doing ballistics tests, examining evidence, and searching through police records and files.

Cryptography (INT)

Skill of encrypting and decoding messages.

Deduction (INT)

Skill of taking several clues and leaping to a non-obvious conclusion or medical diagnosis.

Drive Land Vehicle (REF)

Skill of driving and maneuvering land vehicles.

Education (INT)

Skill of general knowledge, equivalent to a basic school education, allowing you to know how to read, write, use basic math, and know enough history to get by.

Electronics/Security Tech (TECH)

Skill of identifying, understanding, repairing, countering, and installing complex electronic devices like computers, cyberdecks, personal electronics, and electronic security systems/

Evasion (DEX)

Skill for getting out of the way of someone attacking you in melee.

First Aid (TECH)

Skill of applying medical treatments to a wounded person to keep them from dying, and treating the most common Critical Injuries.

Forgery (TECH)

Skill of creating and detecting false documents, works of art, and identification. Forgery is most often opposed by Forgery.

Handgun (REF)

Skill for accurately firing handheld projectile weapons.

Human Perception (EMP)

Skill of reading a person's facial expressions and body language to discern their emotional state and detect lies or deception.

Interrogation (COOL)

Skill of forcibly extracting information from people.

Library Search (INT)

Skill of using databases, the Data Pool, libraries, and other compiled information sources to find facts.

Local Expert (INT)

Skill of knowing a specific area well and knowing the agendas of its various factions, both political and criminal.

Melee Weapon (DEX)

Skill for fighting with melee weapons.

Paramedic (TECH)

Skill of applying medical treatments to a wounded person to treat all Critical Injuries not requiring Surgery and keep them from dying. Surgery is only available to Medtechs through their Role Ability.

Perception (INT)

Skill of spotting hidden things, like clues, traps, and people using the Stealth Skill, but not objects hidden with the Conceal/Reveal Object Skill.

Persuasion (COOL)

Skill of convincing, persuading, or influencing individuals. Also, the ability to talk others into doing what you want. This may be used individually or on large groups.

Photography/Film (TECH)

Skill for producing professional photographs, motion pictures, or braindances.

Pick Lock (TECH)

Skill for picking non-electronic locks and countering non-electronic security measures.

Pick Pocket (TECH)

Skill for picking pockets and shoplifting small items without being noticed.

Play Instrument (TECH)

Skill of professionally playing a musical instrument.

Resist Torture/Drugs (WILL)

Skill of resisting painful effects, including interrogation, torture, and drugs.

Shoulder Arms (REF)

Skill for firing shoulder-braced projectile weapons.

Stealth (DEX)

Skill of moving quietly, hiding, doing an action discreetly, or otherwise evading detection. Other Characters can try to find you with their Perception Skill.

Streetwise (COOL)

Skill of knowing where to get illegal and contraband things, talking to the criminal element, and avoiding bad situations in bad neighborhoods.

Tactics (INT)

Skill of managing a large-scale battle effectively and efficiently. A Character with this Skill usually knows what must be done to direct a battle, and how an enemy force may react.

Tracking (INT)

Skill of following a trail by observing tracks and other clues left behind.

Trading (COOL)

Skill of striking a good bargain with a merchant or customer.

Wardrobe & Style (COOL)

Skill of knowing the right clothes to wear, when to wear them, and how to look cool even in a spacesuit.

Skill Resolution

The Heart of Cyberpunk: Skill Checks

Whenever your Character tries to do something, there's always the question of whether they'll succeed or fail. Sometimes the task is so easy that it's obvious; for instance, taking a step forward without falling. In those cases, tell the GM what you're doing, and no die roll is needed. But if you're trying to take a step on the deck of a ship pitching wildly in a driving rainstorm, walking might be very difficult indeed. These are the situations that call for a Skill Check.

There are two ways to resolve Skill Checks.

The first is to resolve your Skill against another living thing or person's Skill (like trying to persuade someone to do something for you). To do this, you, the Attacker, add your relevant STAT + Skill + 1d10 die roll against your opponent, the Defender's own relevant STAT + Skill + 1d10 die roll. The result of your opponent's STAT + Skill + 1d10 die roll is also known as the Difficulty Value, or DV, the amount your STAT + Skill + 1d10 will need to beat in order for you to succeed. In case of a tie, the Defender always wins.

Attacker's STAT+ Skill + 1d10 vs. Defender's STAT+ Skill + 1d10

The second way is resolving your Skill against the difficulty of a situation (like picking a lock or driving a car). The GM determines how long the task you want to perform will take and uses the table below to decide which rating best describes the difficulty to perform the task, the Difficulty Value (DV). Then you add your STAT + Skill + 1d10 and try to beat the Difficulty Value (DV) the GM assigned to the task using the Difficulty Values (DV) table below.

Attacker's STAT+ Skill + 1d10 vs. Difficulty Value (DV)

Difficulty Values (DV) Table

▶ Critical Success ◀

When you roll a natural 10 on your d10, you've scored a Critical Success. Roll another 1d10 and add the result to your first roll. If you roll another 10, you do not score another Critical Success.

▶ Critical Failure ◀

When you roll a natural roll of 1 on your d10, you've scored a Critical Failure. Roll another 1d10 and subtract the result from your STAT + Skill + the first roll. If you roll another 1, you do not score another Critical Failure.

▶ Trying Again ◀

If you fail a Skill Check, you can't try again unless your chances of success have improved for some reason— you took longer, used a better tool, or you (or one of your friends) made a Complementary Skill Check.

▶ Complementary Skills ◀

Complementary Skill Checks are where the use of one Skill directly affects the use of a subsequent Skill. At the GM's discretion, a good roll in one Skill (which can even be rolled by another Character) may confer a +1 bonus to the subsequent use of a related Skill, so long as the complementary nature of the two Skills makes sense. This +1 bonus only affects a subsequent attempt once, and Complementary Skill bonuses do not stack.

▶ Taking Extra Time ◀

Taking Extra Time can also give you a bonus to your Skill Check. When the GM tells you how long a task will take to complete, you can get a single +1 bonus to your Skill Check for taking four times longer.

▶ Using Luck ◀

Before you roll, you can dedicate a portion of your remaining LUCK Pool (which holds LUCK Points equal to your LUCK Statistic, and which refills at the beginning of each game session) to a Check, which increases the roll by +1 for each point in your LUCK Pool that you expended. LUCK is a powerful force that can allow the otherwise impossible to become attainable.

▶ When You Don't Have A Skill ◀

When you just don't have a Skill to use, but you want to try anyway, you have one option: Simply use the STAT that the Skill you don't have is linked to and add it to 1d10. That's all you get. You are relying purely on your STAT.

Combat

Now that you know how to use your skills, here’s how to get violent.

▶ Initiative and Combat Time ◀

Combat is divided into Turns, each of which takes approximately 3 seconds. The amount of time it takes each entity involved in the combat to take a Turn is a Round. One Round is approximately 3 seconds long.

When a combat starts, everyone rolls Initiative

Initiative = REF + 1d10

All participants in the combat place themselves according to their Initiative Roll into what we call an Initiative Queue in descending order. Resolve ties by rolling again until the higher number wins. Combat proceeds in Initiative Queue order, with each entity in the Initiative Queue getting a Turn. When the bottom is reached, the Initiative Queue starts again from the top in a new Round.

▶ Actions ◀

Actions are the meat of your Turn in Cyberpunk RED.

Your Turn = 1 Move Action + 1 other Action

Every Turn, a Character gets 1 Move Action and 1 Action

Here is the quick version of all the actions you can choose from on your turn. Read on to learn about them in more detail.

Move Action: Move up to as many m/yds as your MOVE STAT x 2 each Turn (or squares equal to your MOVE STAT).

Attack: Make a Melee or Ranged Attack.

Choke: Choke an opponent you have Grabbed.

Get Up: Get up after being Prone. While Prone, until you use this Action, you cannot use a Move Action.

Grab: Grab and hold an opponent or take away an object they are holding.

Hold Action: Hold an Action until later in the Initiative Queue. You must choose a specified event to trigger the Action or a specific number in the Initiative Queue when the action occurs as well as what the Action is, and what its intended target is.

Reload: Fully reload and replace a weapon's magazine.

Run: Take an additional Move Action, but only if you have already taken a Move Action this Turn.

Stabilize: Stabilize a target to begin the natural healing process or pull them out of the Mortally Wounded Wound State to save their life.

Throw: Throw a grabbed opponent to the ground.

Use a Skill: Use one of your Skills to accomplish a quick task. A longer task will require multiple Actions over the course of multiple Turns, rolling only when the full time has been paid for in 3-second increments.

Use an Object: Manipulate an object in a way that doesn't require a Skill. Drawing an easily accessible weapon into a free hand or dropping a held weapon onto the floor does not require this Action but stowing a held weapon on your person does.

#DATA
The Cyberpunk RED Core Book has rules for Headshots, Martial Arts, Netrunning, and Vehicle Combat too!

▶ Movement ◀

▶ Move Action

Every Turn, a Character gets a Move Action, which can only be used to move a number of m/yds equal to their MOVE x 2, or a number of squares (if playing on a grid) equal to their MOVE, which can include moving diagonally. If you are playing on a grid, you cannot stop in between the squares.

▶ Other Forms of Movement:

Swimming, Climbing, and Jumping with a running start all cost 2 m/yds of movement for every m/yd traveled or 2 squares for every 1 square. When jumping from standing you can clear half the distance that you could with a running start.

▶ Being Prone

When you are Prone, you can't use your Move Action until you use the Get Up Action.

▶ Rate of Fire (ROF) and Splitting Movement

Combat in Cyberpunk RED is fast-paced and fluid. Whenever you Move using your Move Action, you can take your Action in the middle of that Move Action, and then keep Moving afterward. We call this Splitting, and it's not just for Move Actions. Some types of attacks are faster than others, capable of striking/ shooting twice with a single Attack Action. These are called 2 Rate of Fire Attacks (or 2 ROF). All attacks from 2 ROF sources can be "split" across a Move Action. You can move, shoot, move, shoot, move. You can even make a single attack from each of two different 2 ROF sources by "Splitting" your two attacks across the two of them, allowing them both to be used in a single Turn. So yes, you can use the Heavy Pistol in your left hand to take a shot down the hallway, then walk down that disgusting hallway to stab your victim with the machete in your right hand. Attacks from 1 ROF sources are slower and take your whole Attack Action, but you can still split movement around them.

▶ Ranged Combat

Ranged combat is any attack made at a distance. When using the Attack Action with a Ranged Weapon, you make a number of attacks equal to the weapon's ROF (Rate of Fire). Ranged Combat is resolved as follows.

Attacker's REF + Relevant Ranged Weapon Skill + 1d10
vs.
Defender's DV Determined by Range to Target and Weapon

If you beat the DV (Defender wins in a tie), you damage the Defender.

The Defender's armor reduces the damage you do, as detailed in Taking Damage below.

Ranged Combat DVs Table

▶ Melee Weapon Combat

Trained use of a melee weapon includes fencing, knife fighting, and club or other bludgeoning weapons, like baseball bats. When using the Attack Action with a Melee Weapon, you make a number of attacks equal to the weapon's ROF (Rate of Fire). Additionally, when dealing damage, all melee weapons ignore half of the Defender's armor. Melee Weapon Combat is resolved as follows.

If you beat the Defender's Check (Defender wins in a tie), you damage the Defender. The Defender's armor reduces the damage you do, as detailed in Taking Damage below.

▶ Brawling Combat

Brawling comprises bare-knuckle boxing, street fighting, and grappling. When using the Attack Action to make a brawling attack, the damage for which is listed on your character sheet, you always make two attacks. Additionally, the Brawling skill covers the Grab, Choke, and Throw Actions, which are detailed below. Brawling Combat is resolved as follows.

If you beat the Defender's Check (Defender wins in a tie), you damage the Defender. The Defender's armor reduces the damage you do, as detailed later in this section in Taking Damage below.

▶ Grab

As an Action you can grab and hold someone, take an object they are carrying, or escape a grapple. You need a free hand to initiate a Grab, which cannot be used to do anything else for the duration of any Grapple that results from the Grab. To determine the outcome of a Grab, both you and your target within your reach roll DEX + Brawling Skill + 1d10. If you win, you can choose to either grab hold of the Defender or take one object the Defender is holding in their hands into a free hand. If you win and choose to grab hold of the Defender instead of their stuff, both of you are now considered to be in a Grapple and take a -2 to all Actions for as long as you both remain in a Grapple. While Grappled, the Defender cannot use their Move Action, and is dragged with the Attacker whenever the Attacker takes their Move Action.

No Character in the Grapple can make use of a weapon that requires them to use two hands, even if they have more than two arms. The Attacker can end the Grapple at any time without using an Action, but the Defender, or any other Character, must use this Action to roll a successful Grab against the Attacker to break the Grapple, which ends the Grapple for everyone involved. Grabbing a person is a prerequisite for Choking or Throwing them.

▶ Choke

If you are currently the Attacker in a Grapple, you can use an Action to Choke the Defender you are grappling, dealing your BODY STAT directly to their Hit Points in damage. If damage dealt by a Choke would reduce a target with more than 1 HP to less than 0 HP, they are instead left at 1 HP and are Unconscious.

This damage ignores the Defender's armor and doesn't ablate it. Additionally, if you Choke the same target for 3 successive Rounds, they go Unconscious regardless of their Hit Point total. While unconscious, a Character is temporarily gone from the world. The condition always lasts one minute.

▶ Throw

Throw a person you are Grappling or an object you are holding. If you are currently the Attacker in a Grapple, you can use an Action to Throw them onto the ground, dealing your BODY STAT directly to their Hit Points in damage. This damage ignores the Defender's armor and doesn't ablate it.

Throwing your target ends your Grapple with them (freeing you both of the -2 to all Actions imposed by being either participant in a Grapple), and leaves them Prone, unable to use their Move Action until they use the Get Up Action.

▶ Taking Cover ◀

You can always duck behind cover if you don’t like the taste of lead.

The Golden Rules of Cover:

You are considered to be in cover if you are fully behind something that could stop a bullet.

If they have line of sight on you, you aren't in cover.

There is no "partial" cover. It can either stop a bullet or it can't.

If it cannot stop a bullet, it provides no cover and thus has no HP.

Anything you can take cover behind has HP, and each 2 m/yds by 2 m/yds (1 square) section of it can be attacked just like you can. At 0 HP, cover is destroyed. If a cover's HP drops to 0, excess damage is lost and doesn't harm any targets hiding behind it. See the Cover Materials and Examples table for more information.

Cover Material Examples Table

▶ Taking Damage ◀

You are going to get shot. Here’s how much it will hurt.

Whenever you take damage:

1. Your Attacker rolls the damage for their attack.

2. Subtract your armor's SP from the damage and subtract any remaining damage from your Hit Points.

3. If you ended up taking any damage, reduce your armor’s SP by 1 point, until it is repaired.

▶ Critical Injuries ◀

If the Attacker rolled two or more 6s on their damage dice, you suffer 5 damage directly to your HP in addition to a Critical Injury. Roll 2d6 on the Critical Injuries table to find which Injury the defender suffered.

Critical Injuries Table

#DATA
These are only half of the Critical Injuries you can cause in the Cyberpunk RED Core Book.

▶ Wound States ◀

As you take damage, you cross Wound State Thresholds, eventually becoming wounded in ways that impair your performance. Each new Wound State replaces the effect of your previous Wound State.

Your Wound State is determined by the amount of Hit Points you have remaining.

You are Lightly Wounded if you are at less than your full Hit Point total. There's no penalties for being Lightly Wounded.

You are Seriously Wounded if your Current Hit Points are equal to or less than 1/2 your Full Hit Point total. In Easy Mode, we calculate this for you and put it on your sheet. When you're Seriously Wounded, you take a -2 penalty to all Checks.

You are Mortally Wounded when you have less than 1 Hit Point. When you're Mortally Wounded, you take a -4 penalty to all Checks and a -6 to your MOVE (minimum 1). Plus, you have to start making Death Saves.

▶ Death Saves ◀

At the start of each of your Turns where you are Mortally Wounded, you must make a Death Save. Roll a d10. If you roll under your BODY, you live, and can take your Turn as usual. Otherwise, you fail. If you roll a 10, you automatically fail your Death Save no matter your BODY. Every time you roll a Death Save, your Death Save Penalty increases, meaning each future Death Save you roll is made with an additional +1, making it progressively harder to stave off death. This Death Save Penalty continues to add up until you are brought back to 1 HP by Stabilization. This also resets to your Base Death Save Penalty, which can be increased by the nastiest Critical Injuries.

If you fail even a single Death Save, you die.

▶ Stabilization and Healing ◀

Assuming you don't end up dead, you'll want to heal up so you can get back on The Street and do it all over again. To begin the natural healing process, you must first receive Stabilization.

The DV to Stabilize a target (or yourself) depends on what Wound State your target is in.

Stabilization takes an Action and is rolled: TECH + First Aid Skill or Paramedic Skill + 1d10.

Once successful Stabilization has been reached, the target will heal a number of HP equal to their BODY for each full day they spend resting, spending the majority of each day taking it easy and doing only light activity, until they are at Full HP again. If the patient pushes it, they will gain no HP that day, their wounds reopen, and they will need to receive stabilization again to restart the natural healing process.

▶ Healing a Critical Injury ◀

There are two ways to heal a Critical Injury: a Quick Fix and a Treatment. Depending on the severity of the Critical Injury, either option may not be available, or they may require different skills.

The worst Critical Injuries require the Surgery Skill which is only available to Medtechs through their Role Ability. The DVs for attempting either a Quick Fix or a Treatment can be found next to the Critical Injury on the prior table.

A Quick Fix will remove the Injury Effect for the rest of the day. Each attempt takes a minute. You can Quick Fix yourself.

A Treatment will remove the Injury Effect permanently. Each attempt takes four hours. You can't do a Treatment on yourself.

▶ Facedowns: Another Kind of Combat ◀

Not everything on The Street is determined with fists or guns. In a world where combat can end your life in a hot nanosecond, other methods have evolved to determine who is going to be the top dog in a potential conflict. This duel of wills between heavies that happens just before things really get violent is called a Facedown. The GM will call for a Facedown whenever they feel the scene calls for it.

When making a Facedown, both participants will roll:

Cool + 1d10

In a tie, nothing happens. Otherwise, the loser has the option of either: