One of the joys of playing Cyberpunk 2077 was how much it felt like a classic Cyberpunk tabletop role playing game campaign. The main story arc examines the relationships between so many characters central to the original game in a way that lets players digest mountains of sourcebook lore through dialogue and action scenes. Plenty of game masters have used this experience to inspire and support their own campaigns for everything from story ideas to taking pictures in Photo Mode to help describe their own scenes.
Tabletop role playing games are primarily a social experience but there can be solo fun. The best game books can be pleasurable to read with good art and compelling fiction. Making characters is a great experience for the imagination even if those characters never hit the table.
Solo tabletop roleplaying games have grown over the past few years. Logistics are one of the hardest parts of scheduling games and the social shakeups of COVID have also forced game groups to seek alternatives. Sometimes solo games can be used to make up missed game sessions as well.
There are different styles of solo role playing games that have evolved that work in many different ways. Solo journaling games guide players through a story by asking questions, having players write down the answers and stitching a story together through the process. Oracle games feature charts that the players roll on to answer questions in a similar way to a human game master, though the player interprets the rolls how they see fit.
Single Player Mode, the latest release for Cyberpunk RED, is structured as the latter kind of solo experience. The company sent a digital copy for me to read for this article. Not only is it a great new way to play Cyberpunk RED, the book is a fantastic resource for more traditional games with plenty of ideas and details to spare.
Cyberpunk RED Single Player Mode Contents
The first half of the book discusses the two main types of questions that tell a cyberpunk story. These are questions that are outside of the player’s control and ones that can be viewed as challenges to overcome. The book then contains dozens of charts, called oracles that can be rolled on for inspiration and resolution.
Closed questions are ones that define the setting and situation. The player wants to know if there are guards on duty at the facility and rolls on the chart. The chart answers in one of five ways: no, no with a complication, complication, yes with complication and yes.
The player takes the answer and changes the narrative to fit. If they rolled a no, for example, there are no guards on duty. A complicated answer might be that there are guards, but its’ a shift chance so the player has a small window of opportunity to get into the facility unnoticed.
That leads to open questions. These are tests of the character’s abilities which drive the narrative of the story. Let’s roll Sneaking to see if the player makes it in without raising notice.
Different actions use different systems based on the importance of the scene to the story. If this facility is a simple warehouse, the player might roll three times and describe their success or failure based on how those rolls turn out. If the facility is the headquarters of the big boss, it might end in a full combat as if it were a classic section.
The second half of the book is where the charts live. These have everything a player might need for inspiration from character names to locations in Night City. The details are what makes a cyberpunk story stand out and the charts are full of them.
Players are encouraged to fail forward and keep the plot moving toward a satisfying resolution. If the player triggers the alarm at the facility, they still get whatever clues they need to progress the story. They pay a narrative price by dealing with a complication or cost for the information that could be financial or a favor or the always classic Chandler Rule of gun toting thugs bursting in with murder on their minds and clues in their pockets.
Cyberpunk RED Single Player Mode Impressions
Single Player Mode is aimed at solo gamers but it’s a versatile book that’s useful for anyone interested in playing or running Cyberpunk RED. Books full of charts are always useful to the Game Master and this one has a lot of great elements that can work as background details or main plot points. I found that just flipping through the book inspired some great ideas for an upcoming campaign that I’m planning.
The solo roleplaying techniques are great advice for Game Masters on how to structure events in their games. Pacing is one of the hardest skills to learn and the discussion heart really helps understand that concept in games. While the book is built as a solo experience it functions as a bit of a training manual.
This book of oracles allows for a newer style of game to emerge. All the players use them together for a game where everyone is the Game Master and nobody is. These collaborative games can take the pressure off of groups where one person is stuck being the Game Master all the time or the group wants to learn a new game together.
Many role playing game lines offer GM guides or books full of advice for the central player at the table. Even though the title implies this is for solo games only I think this is a valuable resource for any Cyberpunk Game Master. The pacing advice, the structure of the oracles and the vast amount of details make it a great toolbox to have when kicking off a new story or keeping players engaged when they turn the story down an unexpected street.
Cyberpunk RED: Single Player Mode is exclusively available from DriveThru RPG. Print copies can be ordered from their site and may be available at R. Talsorian convention appearances.
