Cyberpunk Red’s crossover with Netflix’s Cyberpunk Edgerunners animated series will expand the story of characters seen in the anime, as well as introduce new characters to the sci-fi universe. The ties between the tabletop RPG and the TV show will be strengthened thanks to the involvement of the anime’s writer and director alongside Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith, Dicebreaker can exclusively reveal.
The Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit was revealed in 2022 as a standalone starter set for the latest edition of the TRPG, inspired by the acclaimed Netflix series set in its universe, and the same one shared by the Cyberpunk 2077 video game. In addition to the Cyberpunk Red core rules – based on Pondsmith’s previous seminal RPG Cyberpunk 2020 – the boxed set will include a set of pre-generated characters to help beginners jump straight into the shenanigans of Night City.
The seven pre-generated characters will include a crew of Edgerunners that will emerge after the end of the anime series, including new Solo character Hardpoint. The new characters are designed to be player characters with a fairly minimal backstory, allowing players to create a full Lifepath or choose them and form their story and personality themselves as they play.
The original mission kit characters were created by Cyberpunk Red senior designer James Hutt, before being visualized with new illustrations by Edgerunners director Hiroyuki Imaishi.
Meanwhile, existing Edgerunners characters will see their backstories expanded with quest kit biographies, delving deeper into the lives of Lucy, Rebecca, and more prior to the events seen in the series. Backstories were written by Edgerunners writer and producer Bartosz Sztybor, while characters were adapted into stat blocks, allowing them to be used in Cyberpunk Red games, by Cyberpunk Red studio R. Talsorian Games, based directly on their appearance and actions in the anime.Edit: This article originally stated that Edgerunners creator Rafa Jaki had written Mission Kit's biographies. R. Talsorian has since clarified that the anime's writer and producer Bartosz Sztybor was responsible for the expanded backstories. The article has been updated to reflect this.
With elements of Cyberpunk Red finding their way into Cyberpunk 2077 and Edgerunners – such as the industrial equipment company Zhirafa, which appears in the Dog Town area of 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion – R. Talsorian has also drawn inspiration from video game developer CD Projekt Red and the anime series. The Neuroport seen in 2077 and the later 2070s era of Edgerunners, which serves as a mix of telephone, shard slot, and augmented reality display, was traced back to its origins to fit Cyberpunk Red’s time period of 2045. Pondsmith and Red line manager J Gray worked with CD Projekt Red to release a free DLC supplement focused on the Neuroport’s predecessor, a cyberware-based phone called the Rocklin Augmentics Neuron, in All About Agents.
The Edgerunners mission kit will also include details on new cyberware and weapons featured in the anime (such as gorilla arms and mantis blades) that adapt 2070s technology to the earlier era. The kit will optionally provide the information needed to play in Edgerunners’ later 2070s setting, as well as lay out the story in the decades after 2045, with a new beginner adventure called The Jacket.
In addition to being a standalone starter set for Cyberpunk Red, the Edgerunners Mission Kit also functions as a supplement to the main Cyberpunk Red rulebook, introducing new rules including mechanics for quickhacking. The quickhacking version of netrunning is seen in the anime where Lucy quickhacks passengers on the subway to eject their shards. In the RPG, quickhacking can be used to gain access through a neuroport and force an augmented character's system to crash for a variety of effects, from going blind or suffering neural damage to targeting their allies.
The Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit will be released for Cyberpunk Red later this year.