Interface Red

A collection for Cyberpunk Red Enthusiasts: Volume 1

Author: Various
Publisher: R. Talsorian Games
Page Count: 64
Available Formats: PDF & Print
PDF (DTRPG) – $8.50
Print – $17

In the aftermath of the Cyberpunk Red core book, R. Talsorian Games recognized a demand for more content. Since publishing books is a long process, R. Talsorian Games devised a temporary solution to satiate their punks’ needs. Each month R. Talsorian Games publishes free Cyberpunk Red content on their website. Interface Red is a compilation of those online articles as well as a previously unpublished article. Interface Red pays homage to the original 1990s Cyberpunk 2020’s Interface magazine.

Old Guns Never Die

The first article, “Old Guns Never Die,” is a step-by-step conversion guide to bringing guns from Cyberpunk 2020 into Cyberpunk Red. A total of five easy-to-follow steps is all that is needed. The process is straightforward, and a finished gun conversion example is provided. Note: all guns will not translate well to Cyberpunk Red. Exotic weapons not already present in Cyberpunk Red will not convert with the conversion guide. In those cases, the player and Gamemaster will have to work together to devise a solution that both will be happy with. Overall it’s excellent to have combability between the two versions.

Red Chrome Cargo

Two street gangs, the Iron Sight and Red Chrome Legion, clash after many months of silence in an all-out war. Night City Police Department attempted to quell the feud in the northern combat zone but required heavier forces to step in. The conflict started when Red Chrome Legion highjacked a shipment intended for the Iron Sights. The stolen goods, four large crates with DNA Encoded locks, are being moved to a friendly facility outside the city by a heavily armed Militetch cargo train that the Red Chrome Legion has hijacked. A well-known fixer offers the characters the opportunity to steal it back for a handsome sum.

“Red Chrome Cargo” is a scream sheet full-throttle adventure, as the player characters execute an old fashion train robbery. Perfect for a single session, “Red Chrome Cargo” is easy to incorporate into an existing campaign. The adventure includes a scream sheet detailing the unrest in the northern combat zone of Night City, scenario details for the gamemasters, and a map of the armored train while NPCs and enemy forces require the core book for their statics.

The Single Shot Pack

“The Single Shot Pack” fills up much of this publication. It includes one pre-generated character of each class and six net architectures. The article opens with a quick guide to reading and understanding how to read the pre-generated characters. The characters are built using the Streetrat character generation method, including a cheat sheet on each character’s Role Ability. Only their lifepaths are missing, which can be performed by the player or Gamemaster if desired. The pre-generated characters can be used as NPCs or handed out to players.

The six net architectures featured are guides and functional architectures to use in-game. Architectures protect drone rigs, apartments, cargo storage facilities and/or transport vehicles, clinics or small businesses, small corporate facilities, and those who want to keep their deepest darkest secrets safe.

Cyberchairs

Introducing the latest in mobility, “Cyberchairs” highlight Rocklin Augmentics’ newest models in personal transportation, the Mercurius Cyberchair and Spider Cyberchair. The Mercurius Cyberchair is a sporty personal mobilization apparatus with an impressive amount of features at an affordable price. It is the consumer version of the Night City’s Murderball team wheelchair, the Night City Nuke, minus some accessories. Interface plugs are required to operate it hands-free.

The Spider Cyberchair is Rocklin Augmentics’ top-of-the-line model. Extra on this chair is a set of four hydraulic spider legs which lift its user into the air. The chair also features the ability for cyberwar options, a feature not offered on the Mercurius Cyberchair. These extra features come at a steep price, 10x the cost of the Mercurius Cyberchair. Both chair listings provide game mechanic details to use within your game.

Elflines Online

When punks need to escape from reality, they can turn to Elflines Online. Elflines Online is a  virtual reality fantasy MMO. It’s a game within a game. Characters who enter this virtual world of sword and sorcery fantasy land can escape the hassles of real life. For gamemasters and players, it’s a change of scenery without moving to another RPG. Much like the Dreamland for Call of Cthulhu, it is an escape for characters to blow off steam or recover from a traumatizing adventure.

When a character enters Elflines Online, they are first prompted to create a character if one does not already exist. The article provides a guide to creating a character for Elflines Online and how to play and win. There are rules for healing, death, and improvements. A special collection of skills and equipment are also provided.

Elflines Online Expansion Pass 1

Elflines Online Expansion Pass 1 expands the game’s content with 10 players that the characters could encounter online. They could be friends or foes. It’s up to the Gamemaster which is which. Each of the 10 Elflines characters is fully stated with background information.

All About Drones

The last article, “All About Drones,” is exclusive to Interface Red. This is the only article not published on the R. Talsorian Games website. “All About Drones” features six new drones with game statistics and mechanics. The first three come from Zhirafa, best known for their industrial animal-inspired drones, GRAF3, the Savannah Eagle, and Savannah Panther.

The GRAF3 is in its third generation and forms the foundation of post-war reconstruction. It is a quadruped construction drone modeled after a giraffe. It is equipped with a long neck for striking and an observation camera.

The Savannah Eagle is the ultimate in-home security. It perches high above its overwatch position, protecting the user’s home. It swoops down on any intruder with its integrated machine guns and on board a sonic shrieker.

The Savannah Panther is a quadruped protector of hallways, grounds, or areas requiring patroling. Equipped with a grenade launcher to deploy teargas, it can also hold incendiary grenades. The drone will attack anyone not wearing the proper pass. The unit also includes a stun baton and heavy melee weapons.

Concept Mechanics provides three models for personal drones: My First GRAF3, The Observer, and The Transporter. My First GRAF3 is a scaled-down 3-foot-tall toy version of Zhirafas. It is for aspiring engineers and pilots of drones. The Observer is the eyes in the sky drone. Made for surveillance, it can broadcast video and audio to its user. It requires the user to stay close, or it will store the footage onboard to be downloaded later. The Transporter is a replacement for the deliveryman. The Transporter can easily lift items up to 30lbs into the air and drop them at your doorstep. It comes with an onboard camera and gripping arms.

Final Thought

Getting more content is always a plus. R. Talsorian Games saw the need and found a good way to appease their customers while working on newly printed, published material. All of the above except “All About Drones” is available as free PDF downloads. The PDFs match exactly the articles published in Interface Red, which brings into question, is it worth the purchase price? Obviously, that is a subjective question. To the casual cyberpunk player, I would say no. The solitary exclusive article is not enough for me to recommend the casual user to purchase the print or PDF version of Interface Red. However, for the die-hard Cyberpunk fans like myself, who own just about everything produced for the game, I recommend purchasing it. Having the physical book broadens my personal experience and is worth it.

Interface Red is the first in hopefully many more volumes to follow. I really appreciate the call back to the 1990s Interface Magazine that broadened the content for Cyberpunk 2020. A load of additional articles did not make it into the inaugural issue. You can download and read them or wait for Issue No. 2 to premiere.

~Stephen Pennisi

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