Cyberpunk has been on a rampage since 2020, and 2024 is the year they’re tying it all together. Today the media embargo lifts, so it’s time to look at the Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit!
NOTICE: R. Talsorian Games provided me with an electronic copy of the Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit and additional media for review purposes.
Background
As an IP, Cyberpunk was nearly dead in the public consciousness when the trailers for Cyberpunk 2077 dropped in 2013. But at that point, the tabletop game was mostly a fond memory for most, and the long development cycle for Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t help the situation. But then, in 2020, the revivification began. Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk RED dropped almost simultaneously. But 2077 was janky, and RED was set in an interim period between the last edition of the game from the 1990s and the new videogame. Things were looking up, but it wasn’t until 2023 that everything truly exploded, thanks to the Netflix anime series, Cyberpunk Edgerunners. The much patched 2077 got a massive blast of attention, and RED burst fully back into the mainstream of the hobby. But of course, now people wanted official support for the visual feasts they’d enjoyed, so we got the Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit!
Now, here’s the thing about this review. There’s way too much going on in this boxed set for me to give it a single article so this is going to be part one of three where I look at the Intro Sheet, Rule Book, and Edgerunners Handbook. The adventure, The Jacket, will have its own article.
To catch up on the TTRPG and anime series, check out my reviews for Cyberpunk RED and Cyberpunk Edgerunners.
What is it?
A lot.
It’s more barebones than Cyberpunk RED, obviously, but it presents enough information that anyone familiar with the anime or videogame could slide pretty easily into the tabletop game. It’s also the new starter kit for Cyberpunk RED, which, to me, indicates that RED is likely to start seeing content released to start moving it forwards on the timeline.
CEMK is also a vector for new rules. Cyberpunk RED is still very much Cyberpunk 2020 in a lot of ways, and lacked the mechanics to do the things we see in the anime and videogame. The biggest example of which is “Quick Hacks”, where Netrunners can actively target opponents through their cyberware. So we get this here, and even in the basic form it’s presented in (it is a starter kit after all), it’s solid.
The Intro Sheet
This is super straight forward. It’s a brief description of the IP and its genre, a “what is roleplaying” section, the contents of the boxed set, a keyword list and the definitions, and then the credits. Nothing crazy exciting here, but for people coming in from the videogame or anime, it’s going to be a valuable bridge into tabletop gaming. The keywords section is particularly useful; it’s short, succinct, and approachable.
The Rule Book
This book does a lot of heavy lifting at 42 pages. It condenses and presents the rules and mechanics of Cyberpunk RED with clarity. But where it really stands out for mechanics is for Netrunners. The mechanics for hacking and Quick Hacks are fast and dirty; and feel a lot like the kind of hacking seen in 2077. And it’s GLORIOUS. Cyberpunk RED took a lot of steps towards getting Netrunners into the action and away from being their own mini-game in the game, and this book finishes that work. Netrunners are now a legit Problem™ for both NPC opponents and players alike.
Character creation is familiar for anyone who’s played any edition of Cyberpunk. But it’s condensed, and, in my honest opinion, better. I appreciate the effort to make role’s life path a bit different in RED, but this just goes smoother. Also, the reality of Friday Night Firefight can make characters short lived, so being able to slide through character creation faster is a net win.
The Edgerunners Handbook
This is all sweet, sweet world building. At 42 pages, this book presents the world of Cyberpunk Edgerunners (so just prior to the events of 2077), Night City, and gives up some background information on the Maine/David’s Crew. If you’re into lore, this is the book you need to sit down with and pair with the World of Cyberpunk 2077.
The Good
There’s a lot of good happening.
Updated game mechanics. The Netrunner mechanics are in the top of the field, just ahead of the mechanics that differentiate Power, Tech, and Smart weapons. The rule book does a very good job at taking the bulk of the 2077 videogame mechanics back home to the tabletop and I appreciate it. The tweaks to the Role Abilities are good too, adding some increased flexibility to them where needed.
The streamlined lifepath and condensed/concise core mechanics and character components. It’s not easy to slim down a brick like Cyberpunk RED to a starter box size, but the effort made was worthwhile. I especially love the cheat sheets provided and supporting cards. If the next edition of Cyberpunk standardized on this design ethos, I don’t think there would be too many complaints.
Lore updates. This book canonizes a lot of stuff we saw in 2077 and Edgerunners to the tabletop and it’s good. It even includes an entry on Dogtown, so all the Phantom Liberty DLC stuff is a few steps towards being canon to the game as well. It’s a comprehensive if compacted collection of information that paints a great picture of the state of things in 2076. It was also great to get deeper information on the characters from the Edgerunners anime.
The Bad
There’s a definite lack of art in the game. I get there’s limited space, but visuals sell and some character art with the items/cyberware etc… described in the books would have gone a long way to increasing immersion and approachability. And what art there that’s present is carrying on the mixed bag vibe from previous RED books. And given the clear connection to the anime, I was hoping to see a shift in art style to something closer to that for the original art included, but no luck.
The game isn’t as self contained as it needs to be. CEMK was ambitious in its scope and as a result falls short in a few areas. To me, a “starter set” should never feel like it needs the core game to run, and that’s the feeling I get with this. There’s also missing information, but that’s for the next category. Essentially, CEMK is trying to be a world update, rules update, and starter kit all at once, and as a result it struggles in the starter kit area, especially compared to the older Jumpstart Kit.
The Ugly
There’s key information that’s missing. Specifically, it’s to do with Roles and armour.
On the Role side, there’s no Role Abilities described. There’s notes on tweaks to Role Abilities. There are a few examples on pre-generated character and NPC sheets, and they’re mentioned a lot, but there’s no Starter Box geared down versions. And I get that space is an issue, but this is a fairly notable oversight. The original Jumpstart Kit avoided the issue by simply not including any Role Abilities except the Netrunner’s because that Role specifically needs it to work; they also reduced the number of Roles presented. I think this was a better approach than the one taken in CEMK, because it makes CEMK less playable.
There’s no armor table. Armor gets mentioned a lot, and there’s some examples of it on the pre-gen character and NPC sheets, but there’s no actual table I could find. So again, a situation where the new starter kit isn’t holding up the standard set by the Jumpstart set. There needs to be a solid baseline of kit, equipment, weapons, and a whatnot to make a starter kit work, and it’s just not there in the way it needs to be.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to give this a Rank S rating so bad because I love the game and the setting so much, but I can’t. Like I said earlier, CEMK was an ambitious project. It had three goals in mind; to update the mechanics and rules of Cyberpunk RED to meet the needs of playing in the Edgerunners and 2077 era in a way that meets expectations, to update the canonical history of the setting to finish the bridge from Cyberpunk 2020 to 2077 that RED started, and finally to be the new starter kit. It succeeds very well at the first two, but as a starter kit, it’s a pale follow-up to the older Jumpstart Kit. So as an update to RED to take it forward to 2076 and beyond, it’s Rank S product. But as a starter kit, it’s a Rank B at best because it’s not as complete as it needs to be. So taking it all into account, I give the rules and world part of the Cyberpunk Edgerunners Mission Kit a Rank A rating. It’s definitely worth picking up, and preorders are ongoing at this time here.
