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!

Cyberpunk can be a challenge for even an experienced Gamemaster. Far more than just mastering Skill Checks (Skill Resolution in Playing the Game) and Combat (Combat in Playing the Game), Cyberpunk demands that you create the right atmosphere of grunginess, sleek technology, and pervasive paranoia in your game.

Survival is the hallmark of the setting. You look to your friends, team, family, or clan first. If you can do some good along the way, great. But don't count on it. Cyberpunk Characters are survivors in a tough, grim world, faced with life-and-death choices. Here's the hard part: How do you offer these choices to your players in a way that will immerse them in the setting? The answer is Lifepath, and how you use the Lifepaths your players have rolled (Lifepath) in your game will make the difference between a good session and one they'll remember forever.

First off, use their Lifepath to spark your story off. Threaten their Friends. Have their Enemies plot against them. Kidnap their sister. If they have decided that they own a dog, poison it. If they have settled down, rob them. Give them a reason to fight. This is all a lot more engaging than “You are hired to do a job”. Keep that to a minimum. Focus on their Lifepath and the story will be grounded and street level. The answers they give for those choices you will face them with will matter because they will concern something they care about. How they make these choices will determine whether they end up as vicious animals roaming a ruined world or retain something of their basic humanity. Cyberpunk Characters are the heroes of a bad situation, one you've got to put them in, Gamemaster.

The mission that rounds out the final pages of this booklet is by the numbers and is as much a tutorial for running Cyberpunk RED as it is playing Cyberpunk RED. You're already ready for it, and it can be run without much preparation. You can do this.