Cyberpunk has become one of the big new franchises in the past few years. What began as a tabletop role-playing game released in 1988 has become a hit video game, a collection of comic books and more. The anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners marks the IP’s latest triumph as a popular and critically acclaimed Netflix series.
Today things come full circle with the launch of Cyberpunk Edgerunners: Mission Kit. This boxed set allows Cyberpunk fans to take steps into the year 2077 on the tabletop. The concept began in the mind of the award-winning creator of the Cyberpunk universe.
“It began with a simple statement from Mike Pondsmith,” said said J Gray, Cyberpunk RED Line Manager. “He said ‘We should do a box set, like the Jumpstart Kit, but themed around Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.’ We then worked with CD Projekt Red (CDPR) on exactly what would be in the box — what lore, what art, which characters, and so forth. Then we work, work, worked in an iterative process. For rules we began with our earlier released Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode and added as made sense. For example, Easy Mode doesn’t include rules for autofire but the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Mission Kit absolutely needed them. James Hutt, our senior designer, sat down with both the anime and Cyberpunk 2077 and worked out rules for weapons, cyberware, and economic upgrades based on what was presented there. We playtested, playtested, playtested, then changed some more. For the lore it was a similar process. We began with Mike’s run on the lore, then refined it by working with CDPR until we finished with a book that not only consolidates existing lore from the books, anime, video game, and comics but adds quite a bit of new lore, too.”
The boxed set allowed the designers to take advantage of art, concepts and other ideas from the 2077 era. On the crative side the company was able to tap Cyberpunk: Edgerunners director Hiroyuki Imaishi and writer Bartosz Sztybor for new characters and deeper information. The boxed set also introduces rules for quickhacks which allow netrunners to hack personal technology in addition to stealing information for their own purposes.
“James Hutt wrote stat blocks for the seven characters so we would know key visuals like cyberware and weapons,” said Gray. “Then we wrote art scripts and passed them along. [Hiroyuki] took our art scripts, worked some magic, and sent back some amazing characters who looked as if they stepped right out of the anime. Smooth as butter. [Quickhacking] is an option available to Netrunners. It does not require additional gear beyond what they’d buy normally in character creation. It allows them to do quite a few neat things, ranging from impairing movement to puppeting their body to perform a specific action — like pulling a pin on their own grenade. It can be defended against in a few different ways, so there’s a tactical aspect as well. What’s in the [boxed set] focuses entirely on quickhacking people but we’ll dive into other forms of 2070-era specific Netrunning in a future product.”
Physical copies of Cyberpunk Edgerunners: Mission Kit start shipping on June 24th, 2024. Digital copies will also be made available on websites like Drivethru RPG and Roll20. Like everything in Night City, the designers are excited to see how fans use the boxed set at their tables.
“Lore mavens will tear it apart,” said Gray. “Reading every line for juicy tidbits. There should be some great new lore videos on YouTube coming out of this because much of the lore here is new. Existing Cyberpunk RED players will grab hold of the new rules surrounding 2070-era weapons, cyberware, and economy and plug them straight into their game — or start new campaigns. Homebrewers will see the new design work and feel inspired to create their own gear and systems. And best of all, people who watched the anime or played the video game but have either never played a tabletop roleplaying game or only played the best-selling fantasy game will discover the joy of telling their own stories in Night City. That’s what’s most exciting: each person getting something they really want out of it and making it their own.”
