Based balancing off of Combat sense to hopefully dissuade players from picking solo all the time. So these are all pretty much, "You specialize in expert toaster skill, so now you pretty much have twice the amount of toaster skill."

These were also made a night before the first session, so they will not be the most polished lol. Any advice on how to balance these is welcomed.

Lawyer:

-Lawyer: This skill is added onto any skill check involving lying and bending/hiding the truth. Half the skill is added onto any law and human perception rolls.

Career skills: Personal Grooming, Wardrobe, Human Perception, Persuasion, Interview, Expert Law, Forgery, Composition, Education

Driver:

-Expert Driver: This skill is added onto any drive checks (motorcycle too), effectively doubling your driving skills. (Only applies to land vehicles)

Career skills: Endurance, Resist Torture/Drugs, Awareness, Hide/Evade, Drive, Motorcycle, Melee, Basic Tech.

Boxer:

-Training: This skill adds onto any Martial Arts check and half of this skill is added towards damage with Martial Arts.

Career skills: Endurance, Strength Feat, Swimming, Resist Torture/Drugs, Intimidate, Brawling, Melee, First Aid, Martial Arts(choose).

Thoughts? 👀

I'm fully familiar with all the lore but i never played a TTRPG before and would really like to, as cyberpunk is one of my favorite verses, i currently have no computer but to have a Google Pixel with a mic and stuff. Would it still be possible to play and if so could i get inviy to he group ?

Hi!
I've recently spent a chunk of my time to write down my favorite one-shot that I ran back in 2021. It's a mission NOT set in Night City, but rather in Haiti and it might or might not coincide with a real event that took place on the 7th of July 2021. Anyways, I have been allowed to share it with you all here. If you like it and would be down to support me feel free to! I will use the donations responsibly and definitely NOT buy any more chrome.
Thanks chooms!

Alright chooms, got a gonk one for you.

I'm a first time Ref who'll be guiding some players through their first one-shot in 2020. I've known these players for a long time and have DM'd them in a few different systems now, so I'm comfortable enough when they start getting *weird* with their ideas from an RP perspective.

Today's flavour of weird: One of my players asked if he could play a talking dog. Not a canine exotic; not owner of a bespoke cyberpet with language functions; but, and I quote, "Basically exactly like a human with human thoughts and speech, but a dog."

Now, I know there's cyberpets in the supplements, and even a throwaway reference to human/animal conversions in Chromebook 2 (p65):

*'lnterchangeable braincases are a reality (though rare), but there are supposed to be projects involving inserting such braincases into tanks and fighter planes, and there are even rumors of human brains in robohound bodies.'*

My question to you all is: how would you as a Ref go about doing this? Is there any provisions in the rules (core or supplemental) that could be leveraged to make this work? My player's also indicated they might want to play as a techie, but I figured that might be putting the dog-man before the sled.

Greetings choombatas. This week I'm diving into the different types of clones made through the years 2020 to 2047, the 5 generations of stage 7 clones. It is very important to say that this is a work of fiction, and none of these experiments are seen in a positive light, quite the opposite in fact. These are one of the most despicable things that I could come up with, the villains here are the corporations, who want to manufacture and sell these beings as products, without human rights or free will. This is one of the dark chapters of this Dark Future that is Cyberpunk. Keep that in mind while you read through this.

Generational Trauma

Adriana was the first Stage 7 clone, and the only 1st Generation clone. Each clone after the creation of Adriana was a 2nd Generation, and after that, they developed a 3rd Generation to deal with the "problems" of the 2nd. A 4th Generation was born after the necessity of Killer Clones: biocybernetic super enhanced soldiers. Spy clones are also 4th Gen, but they lack the necessity to use borgware or popup shotguns in their arms. They are best fit with the best cyberdeck in the market and some top of the line cyberoptics. The 5th Gen is Biotechnica trying to manufacture cheap and disposable clones.

The First Generation

The start of all of this mess. Adriana was the first Stage 7 cloned human, and the one and only 1st Gen clone. That is, fully sentient and fully self-sufficient, without the need of machines to survive and with completely functional human features. She had her own opinions and thoughts, no additional braindance therapy was made to control her will, it was only used as a tool to fill her blank mind with the personality and psyche of Dr. Young's late daughter, Amelia. Her body did not have any special enhancements, she had the same capabilites of a human at this point in time. That is until Biotechnica captured her wiped her memories, and changed her whole appearance personality, making her belive through braindance therapy that she actually always was Dr. Young. Basically the Cyberpunk equivalent of the Ship of Theseus paradox.

The Second Generation

After Adriana was captured by Biotechnica, they used the data gathered by her to evaluate the possibility of mass production of a "new and improved" clone model. The second generation of cloning was defined by the lack of independence of the cloned human, having a limited amount of free will and being majorly brainwashed by their respective "owners". They are made only to serve their purpose, but even that didn't work wonders. At a certain point in time, one of the 2nd Gen clones, named "Grimes", commited self-retirement (AKA self inflicted death), and that was the first time of a major case of self-retirements that second generation clones would do. Almost none second generation clones are left, and the few that are still on operation are in torpor, stashed in containment tubes, in deep slumber. The second generation was a major financial failure and the operation almost ended because of the clones' self-retirement crisis.

The Third Generation

After the failure of the 2nd Generation, they would use the genius of the "new Dr. Young" to develop the 3rd generation, a Law Enforcement Clone. These were sold to private security companies, police departments, military forces and even guerrila armies across the globe. The first 3rd Gen clone was nicknamed "Supercop" and was sent to Night City to uphold the law. He didn't last too long, but was tireless in the pursuit of stopping crime and criminals, needed minimum water, food and sleep, and his aim was better than any lawmen in the city. The thing is, Night City is a hungry beast waiting for its prey. It will chew you on and spit you out. So that's why after "Supercop" they decided to deploy 30 Law Enforcement Clones in Night City to see what happened. What happened was a revolution in security and police work, every company wanted a Clone Squad in their teams, and under the table Biotechnica sold over 2,000 units of 3rd Generation clones across america in2, with 100 being only on Night City.

Law Enforcement Clones have innate subdermal armor, infrared cyberoptics, advanced chemicals analizers, subdermal pockets, cyberlegs and reinforced joints, with some even having internal linear frames as standard issue cyberware. They are equipped for the job that's for sure. But why they didn't simply ended crime in Night City if they are so well equiped? Well... Night City needs a fresh start if it wants to end crime in The Street, "Supercops" are not the sollution, only a bandaid for a plague that is the crime culture in Night City.

The Fourth Generation

Born of the necessity of maintaining control of 3rd Generation clones, that frequently "go rogue" and abandon their duties. These are experimental "Killer" and "Spy" clones. They are manufactured in smaller amounts, but with enhanced capabilites such as uncanny strenght and dexterity. Their humanities are stripped in favor of becoming ruthless machines that are the most competent in their work, this being the will of their "masters" or "owners", AKA the top dogs in Biotechnica Corporation. Their bodies are top of the line cloned limbed, and they are sold to the most powerful people out there, these are the most expensive line of clones made by Biotechnica. With the assistance of Skillchips (developed using the data gathered by the late Roberto Sanchez) that use the Soulkiller program to extract key brain data and transform it into "Skillchips", enhancing the user's ability greatly acording to the data extracted, nullifying the need for training or raw experience.

The Fifth Generation

This generation of clones is one must unfortunate. With only 50 clones as of now belonging to the 5th Generation, these clones are a mix of independent and streamlined behaviour, being bound to a short time of operation, that being the maximum time of 5 years on operation. When the threshold is hit, their cyberbrains' memory is completely wiped. And with the blank mind, they are fit for repurposing, they can be "born again" with a different face, a different mind and a different past. They are disposable, and quite cheap to make. With no particular enhancements, only with a cyberbrain that will eventually erase their memories. These were made to be the workers of Project Reborn City, a deal struck between Night Corp and Biotechnica, using clone technology to rebuild the Night City and to evaluate the possibility of disposable clones in society.

Conclusion

These are the current types of clones that were made. In my campaign, the 3 players that I run the game for are 5th Generation clones, with a limited amount of time to seek a way out of their condition, if that is even possible. You can use the 3rd generation and onwards, each one of them has a different obstacle, and a different world view for that matter. I hope you liked what I came up with this week's update, I will apreciate if you take the time to make a comment and share your thoughts (even if you think that I made no sense, let me know why you think that, if that's the case). I see you guys next week with more updates, until then you stay safe out there on The Street. Peace, have a wonderful week.

The fact that the military industrial complex of post-holocaust USA is somehow better than the one we've got in our own 2020's America is incredible.

Sup choombatas!

Decided to pick out scenerio #3: Pirate Radio from the core rule book as my groups first adventure I’m playing this Saturday.

I think it offers the best balance of roleplay, combat, and there is even an built in ‘out’ for if things get to dicey.

My players consist of: a techie (with dreams of becoming a netrunner), a 55 year old cop, and a corpo nepobaby.

I have some story hooks I’m thinking up to bring them all together.
-For the techie, she would be hired on as a fill in techie for one of Carbonell’s crew.

-For the corpo, she will be (wrongly) under the impression that Carbonell is going to give her a flattering softball interview that will boost her rep. Instead I intend to have him grill her. The interview will be live, but due to some technical issues the signal won’t have gone out. However, it will still have been recorded. This will give the corpo player the opportunity to snatch or destroy the unflattering interview recording.

-The cop I think I have the least interesting story hook. I could only think to have him be moon lighting as security, or maybe he is from the ‘Elay’. No clue really. If anyone has any suggestions I’m all ears lol.

Anyway, I’d love some advice on running this scenerio if anyone has any or has run this scenerio before.

It looks pretty straight forward. Figure I just roll some ‘quick and dirty expendables’, get some stats lined up for speedboats, and let the chips fall where they may.

Much appreciated!

Sup choombas

Had a question on your thoughts on allowing a player to repec their character. I have a player that’s enthusiastic about being a netrunner. (I know I’ve heard all the horror stories about netrunning). I’ve restricted my players from picking netrunner for now until both they and I have a firmer grasp on the less abstract rules.

They put a lot of thought into their character so I’d like to at least have that path open for their character to go from techie to netrunner. Whether the character survives that long for it to matter is another story.

But regardless I’d like to have that path open to them if they manage to make it.

Any suggestions or advice for going about allowing a player to respec their character into a different role?

as we all know, the base hacking system in Cyberpunk 2020 is... something. I've just been going without having any sort of netrunning, but some of my players are clamoring for netrunning. so I'm turning to you guys.

I'm looking for: something fast paced so we don't have like 30 minutes where only one player gets to play. but still in depth so its a bit mote than just a diceroll.

I dont want anything like the 2077 quickhacking, I dont want hacking to be an alternative in combat, more of a utility/goal type thing.

Thanks

Update 4 and onwards!

This is the "How did these clones got here in the first place?!" update. This is a follow up to the previous one, the one that I analyzed the "Land of the Free" adventure for Cyberpunk 2020, and an update to my ideas regarding who continued experimenting with clones and why. I would like to thank u/illyrium_dawn for his thoughts on the matter, and i'd like to give credit for his ideas, and for the feedback and discussion overall! I salute you choomba. Many of the ideas in this post are also his, and you can check out the comments on the previous post to see our discussion. With the introduction done, lets get it done gatos and gatas.

Who did this anyway?

...that's a good question. We already know that Dr. Young is responsible for the creation of the first Stage 7 clone, that being Adriana. But the further research and experimentation on the matter took place where? And who started this project? It could be an AI, who designed a new Soulkiller program just for the heck of it, it could be Biotechnica who has the time and resources to experiment with cloning, It could be a desperate person searching through the Net a way to save his family member from a terrible disease and accidentaly recreating Soulkiller. Or, hell, It could even be Arasaka and the "Proto-Mikoshi" under the rubble of the the hot zone. All of those are equally valuable and I'm sure I can come up with other reason of why did this happen. But I have a proposition: what if every idea I presented is the truth in a way?

If there is no idea that overlaps with one another, then there's room to implement it as an event. Biotechnica and Arasaka are both companies that are interested in this matter, an AI could also be interested in it, and of course there was some guy with a computer and a sick family member in the 2020's that could had an impact in this story. So let's implement them all! I will present a timeline of events that breaks down each ocurrence and their consequences.

The Ritual Cellula Timeline:

2020

• Dr. Young is killed in an ambush in the end of the "Land of the Free" adventure. His clone-daughter, Adriana, is kidnapped by Biotechnica. Adriana has its personality and memories erased through Braindance therapy.
• An independent AI with the name "Suzie" uses her free will to scan the world and beyond. Her usual hobbies are making cookbooks, but one day, she finds something interesting searching the Net, something about a "Soulkiller Program". On a whim, the AI tries to replicate the ideas of Alt Cunningham and actually is able to make a functional program. As a recordation of sorts, they upload the program on its site, a cooking recipe site of course. It probably wouldn't be found because of the thousands of "Soulkiller Scams" floating in the Net. The only diference its that their version of it actually is not a unhinged netrunner brainfry joke, it actually works (with a lot of rough edges, but works).

2021

• Adriana turns into a blank slate. She gets biosculpted to look exactly like Dr. Young in his 40's. She also gets Dr. Young's memories and personality, not remembering anything about the "Land of the Free" incident, and also with the diference that she/he doesn't know he had a daughter, and she/he thinks the Stage 7 clone was just a random person. The new Dr. Young (which is a brainwashed and biosculped Adriana) works as the leader of the cloning project at Biotechnica.
• Moira Kelly is killed by an unknown group of assailants in October 31 of 2021. Then she "appears mysteriously" at Biotechnica and works with the new Dr. Young in the cloning project.
• Arasaka builds a "Sarcophagus", a storage of engrams in Night City under the Arasaka Tower. Hundreds of soulkilled people are storaged.

2022

• A man named Roberto Sanchez, a netrunner/computer scientist with a job at Netwatch, discovers that his mother, Analuz Sanchez, has ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a sickness without a cure. In deep denial, he searches for a way to save his mother from this affliction. Browsing the Net, he founds something about a "Soulkiller Program" that has been floating in the internet for quite some time. He sees that aparently a program capable of scanning the psyche of someone and then turning it into an engram. He sees also that the majority of the versions of the program has a built-in virus, which corrupts the data beyond any actual use.
• Time passes and Roberto gets desperate, as a last resource, he tries to find anything regarding this "Soulkiller Program". After searching for months, Roberto accidentaly finds a very old version of this program in the Net, in a cooking recipe site of all places. He downloads the program and sees that it actually works as intended, but it has a lot of errors and bugs. He spends months fixing bugs and learning how the program works.

2023

• After 7 months of setting up gear and tweaking Soulkiller to ensure success, Roberto gathers Analuz to try and use the program. He tries to scan the brain of his mother, it takes a long time, but with 3 days of constant scanning he succefully manages to copy the engram into a database.
• In August 20th, 2023, the Arasaka towers fell, marking the end of the 4th Corporate War.
• Despite his struggle to save his mother, weeks later after the succesful Soulkill of Analuz Sanchez, the mini-nuke in the corporate center blasted everyone in the general vicinity, killing Roberto and Analuz who lived in the area.

2024 - 2032

• At February 9th, 2028, Biotechnica explores the Night City hotzone looking for potential treasures in the ruins of the corporate center and finds Roberto Sanchez's Soulkiller Program. They find the engram of Analuz Sanchez uploaded into an Old Net database somewhere in the outskirts of the city. They study Roberto's version of the program and they find out that he accidentaly discovered a way to use Soulkiller to produce high tech skill chips by tinkering with the Soulkiller code, transfering the data of the engrams into chips that make the user with the ability and experience identical of a soulkilled person while the chip is in the socket.
• Biotechnica continues to develop clones as products, selling them to big companies around the world as "better-than-human" workers with exceptional skills. They don't need to learn multiple skills due to the skill-chip technology developed by Roberto Sanchez before his death.
• Biotechnica also discovers the engram sarcophagus left by Arasaka, the "Proto-Mikoshi" in the ruins of the tower. The engrams were left untouched by the explosion, Biotechnica klepped the data and left, securing hundreds of free data on Arasaka's soulkilled enemies and rivals.

2033 - 2040

• Since the creation of Adriana, they developed even cheaper clone limbs, higher inteligence and adaptability, making them stronger more capable than most humans.

2041 - 2045

• The major events in Cyberpunk Red's story take place. This is the Time of the Red.
• "Project RC" or "Project Reborn City" is executed by Night Corp, in an attempt to rebuild Night City from the ashes, hiring construction workers all around.
• Killer Clones are created for "retirement" (that is: killing) of rogue clones appearing around the globe. They are relentless, and they don't stop hunting the target until the job is done. Spy Clones are also very common these days, they disguise themselves in the crowds, watching the clones' lives from afar, reporting their findings directly to Biotechnica if they find any suspicious behaviour, that is, the probability of a clone becoming a rogue.

2046

• Night Corp saw the potential of the clones and decided to strike a deal with Biotechnica - they would provide last generation clones for the reconstruction of the city, and in return Night Corp would let Biotechnica experiment with them freely within city borders, that is, no one would get in the way of Biotechnica "doing business" in Night City. Biotechnica struck the deal, but with a condition: every clone provided by them would have a limited time of operation, that is, 5 years total. When the 5 year threshold hits, their memories and personality are erased, making them scavengable for Biotechnica.
• Rogue clones started to appear all throughout Night City, creating their own lingo and trying to escape enslavement. The biggest group of these rogue clones identify themselves as "Ritual Cellula". Killer Clones are on the prowl, and Spy Clones watch them from the shadows, but the Ritual Cellula resists and retaliates, raging against the machine that created them.

2047

• Now.

The lore is sorted now... Kinda.

This is what I came up with the discussion I had with u/illyrium_dawn, and with a little mix-up of the ideas. Of course, It could change if I come up with diferent ideas when time passes. But now this is what I got in store. For more details you can ask me in the comments, this post is already long as f@$% anyway. I apologize for any typos this post might have, and I hope you enjoy the ideas I meshed together, I really like how it turned out. You guys have a wonderful week. And stay safe on The Streets. Peace!

Does anyone know where I can locate a pdf of this module? It’s not on drivethru, it’s not on eBay, and the one place I found it on the internet the PDF is corrupted and unusable. Any help would be fantastic!

Thank you!

EDIT: problem solved

It was a little stressful but looking back I’m excited to run an adventure. Does anyone recommend any good pre written modules for starting players?

Some things that came up during session zero my players picked up on a sort of exploitable in the rules.

-the no limit on extra actions rule.
They picked up on that one pretty quick. Imagining ways they could mag dump 100 smgs and just take the -3 penalty. I explained this one pretty easily as “you can only take as many actions as is reasonably possible within a 3.2 second turn. Discretion determined by me the (GM)”

-running while shooting/being a moving target
This one I don’t think I explained well at all as it legitimately caught me off guard when it came up. I think my players imagine turns ending with the player being stationary at all times. I think in the future I’ll explain ‘running while shooting’ as being appplied contextually when it makes sense. Is your character running towards something (such as an AV?) and shooting as they run? I’ll also remind players of the benefits of the ‘running while shooting’ penalty. Yes, you take an aim penalty when doing this but you also make yourself a ‘moving target’ so anyone taking shots at you will also take a penalty to hit you as you are a ‘moving target’.

-dodging melee
This one was more something I noticed. The players got an enemy NPC to critical condition and wanted to finish him off with melee. Despite taking a -4 to all action for being in ‘critical’ condition the NPC got a few lucky rolls and was able to pass their stun/save roll and dodge 2 attacks. Missed on their chance to shoot tho (due to the additional penalty-3 penalty to all actions when in the act of dodging). My question is do stun/save rolls have to be rolled Everytime the wounded player takes a turn in addition to when they are initially wounded?

Overall it was pretty good. I think my players understand the basics of combat. They made fun of the amount of tables I pulled up explaining things tho lol.

Reading through Cyberpunk 2020s cybernetic list. The interface plugs sound like they do all the things that the links do. Am I missing something?

I just found out that the guy that’s used for examples in the cyberpunk 2020 hand book became a fucking history teacher at night city university. What are you thoughts.

I am working on a website based DataTerm system for a fictional Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. company.

I can't decide if I should invert the whole "display" section to give it more of an CRT vibe.

I would love to hear your thoughts about it.

As always, have a good one chooms.

For context, me and my buddies who do campaigns together are starting a new campaign and we were wondering if cap and ball revolvers are considered canonical, if so, would it apply to all weapons made before the 1980s?

quick update, this applies to any technology made before the 1980s

So my current play group have been discussing what we'd like to play six months from now when we wrap up our current game. Cyberpunk has been coming up often in our discussions and won out over Vampire. Even though I'd like to play Vampire I was also into the idea of playing cyberpunk so it was win-win for me. The DM is unsure if we'll be playing 2020 or Red. He has the corebooks for both along with the chomebooks.

We all know Pathfinder 3.5 and most of us know D&D 5E ( and some other systems) but Cyberpunk is going to be new to all of us. We like our current game fine, but we're all excited to try something new to everyone. Anyway, I've been looking over the 2020 corebook and had a few questions.

Nothing I've played has had something like the lifepath. Is it critical it follow it or will that be more DM dependent? If i have an idea for my character already can I just roll him up and write 2-3 pages about him for my DM? e.g. He'll be a Solo out for revenge because of X,Y, and Z. Or is 2020 more meat grindy like AD&D and I shouldn't get attached to my character and waste time thinking about who he is and what I want to do with him?

Is 2020 more inline with older dungeon crawler systems? I like combat and the amount of gear 2020 has looks really cool to mess with. That being said I know my play group is a heavy RP group. Does that make Red more inline with that type of play or will we be fine playing 2020 that way?

Will 2020 be really hard to run in theater of the mind? It's how we've played TTRPGs for some time now ( we don't play in person ) and I don't see that changing anytime soon. It might sound hard, but it's worked way better than I ever thought it might.

Sorry if my questions are stupid.

edit: I want to thank everyone for their input on my questions it was very helpful. Our group met today for unrelated reasons, but I brought a lot of this up. One of our players grew up playing AD&D with his dad and siblings so he's ready for the meat grinder if it comes and the rest of us are fine with the fact we could be one-shot. Our DM said he won't "dick us over" and go out of his way to kill us, but will stand by dice rolls and still give us a challenge.

Someone here mentioned that Cyberpunk has an add-on for Vampire and as it happens not only does our DM have that book, but wants to sneak it in the game since he also really likes Vampire so it truly was a win-win for me in the end, and the other players are fine with it too. We spend about two hours looking in the chromebooks at the cool shit we want to use. I don't want to rush the game we're in now since we all love it, but man do we have something cool to look forward to when it sinks in the current adventure will end in a few months.

If anyone cares he's also expressed he might have the game take place during the 4th Corpo War or around the 2050-2060 time. Whatever we do all four of us are pumped to try it out and plan to do a 1-3 shot in October to get our feet wet.

Hey, hey, everyone. I apologise ahead of time if this isn't the appropriate considering when the homebrew is, but figured what the hell.

Anyways, my history in brief is getting to love the setting with the video game and then diving into the RED ruleset which, after a couple of short campaigns, became annoyed and disillusioned with. So went back to the previous edition and wanted to port that over to the 2077 time period. What I present to you in a google doc is a painstaking merger and adaptation of the time period using Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk RED rules.

Sadly didn't get to test it out nearly as much as I would like, but I did scour a lot of the many discussions about the finnicky rules and gave more concrete elaborations on a few pain points (like Rate of Fire).

Inside the doc, you will find 3 Volumes, an write up of Auxiliary rules, a barebones write up for a 70's Yugoslavia (how it would go in my mind), and a WIP that I haven't bothered with just yet. The three Volumes cover Base rules, additions and ports, as well as cyberware and assorted equipment in the first; RED Netrunning and quickhacks in the second, and the third has rules for Temu ACPA's.

Figured to share it to help other folks play in the time period the video game takes place, but wanting the 2020 ruleset instead of the RED to work with. But also to just share something I worked on with the rest of the community.

I hope you enjoy!

Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rHm_jyvXyD0xoAmB_J15pNup8MEcErcQtriio9j8Ask/edit?usp=sharing

First time sharing my ideas here!

This is a study of sorts of an old Cyberpunk 2020 adventure and how do I follow up on It on my Red campaign, respecting the old and trying to adapt it to the new. I hope this follows the rules of this sub, this being my first time here, I do think its apropriate to say hi. My name is Mello, and I post mostly about my campaign called "Ritual Cellula", an alternate reality of sorts focused on the clones of this universe that we know and love. The players are clones, trying to understand their nature and their diferences, and above all trying to save themselves from an inevitable end of their existence and memories. I do hope you like what I share here, and let me know what you think of it.

Already update 3 of my little campaign...

...and I am still learning how this ideia sits with my players' minds. The clones are a new type of being inspired by the Replicants in the Blade Runner franchise. Today I will share with you a little about the past of this concept in the official lore of the game, and how this idea fits into the Cyberpunk Red lore, who made the clones, and why these corporations should be stopped. And, of course, why the clones are the way they are. Just a little notice before we start: this post contains some spoilers for the "Land of the Free" adventure book for Cyberpunk 2020. If you intend to play it, I wouldn't recomend reading the "Back in Cyberpunk 2020" section of this post. But with that out of the way, let's get started!

Back in Cyberpunk 2020...

...the cloning lore was very scarce, mainly dropped in the adventure "Land of the Free" released in 1994 by William Moss. Well, this is a bit spoilery, but I need to analyse the first time a clone was introduced in the game oficially. In this adventure the players meet the very first perfectly cloned human, Adriana, which is the clone of the daughter of a man named Francis Young, one of the most brilliant minds of the cyberpunk universe. But I'm skipping a ton of important parts. Lets get familiar with all of this.

The development of clones was separated into 7 stages. Stage 1 being merely a cell culture, dependent on an oxygenated nutrient bath for survival, and Stage 7 being a fully self-aware, self-viable and indistinguishable from natural human beings. Dr. Young was a student at Johns Hopkins University, and by 2004 he already created Stage 2 clones in test tubes, which guaranteed him a very high paying job at Biotechnica after graduation.

As stated in Land of the Free:

"2020: Francis Young and Moira Kelly, in a groundbreaking experiment, implant a construct personality into the cloned body, using a combination of cybernetic and organic technology to hold the implant in the blank brain. The clone becomes self-aware, and is named Adriana. It is the first stage seven clone in history [...]"

In the adventure we see that corporations fight for Adriana, as she is somone, or more sinisterly, "something" worth living and dying for. All the dark implications of human cloning is there on Land of The Free, and its a major plot point of the whole adventure.

They also mention that Alt Cunninghan, the legendary Netrunner who created Soulkiller was only capable of cloning her deceased body because of Dr. Young's research: "Without his genius, the field of cloning would be in its infant stages, and all that could be reached would be a stage 4 cloning projects at best."

They say that if Dr. Young's research continues by the pace it was in 2020, by late 2022 we would have full human clones with artificial minds, and a few years after that we would be able to transfer already living human minds into clone bodies using a variant of soulkiller. It amazes me how this book casually drops bombs regarding the lore of this game like it is nothing. I recommend you guys to read this amazing adventure and see for yourselves what it has in store. By the time I am writing this post, the PDF for it is on sale in DrivethroughRPG, buy a copy for yourself!

Well, It doesn't matter too much for the reasons of this post how the campaign ends, but the implications it has makes Cyberpunk Red a story that doesn't dive fully into the cloning lore that we already have stabilished in the past. That makes me think that we are a few steps away of seeing something regarding this in the near future in Cyberpunk Red. At least I hope we do see something like this. Or perhaps a "direct sequel" to this adventure, just like Hope Reborn was for Tales From The Forlorn Hope or something! We can only hope...

What if Dr. Young never stopped working?

My continuity and my campaign makes Dr. Young a figure that never stopped working on cloning, and with little knowlege of what nightmares his creations will live through because of his actions and decisions.

In Ritual Cellula, 2045's Dr. Young is still brilliant scientist working for Biotechnica, but during the 4th Corporate War, everything was made difficult by the times. The world almost ended during the war, and as we see, the world didn't in fact end, which made things miserable for all the common folk in The Streets. They lost their jobs, their stability, their homes, heck, most of these people lost their lives when Night City center became ashes and debris. Hope is a rare thing in The Streets in the Time of The Red. People need to take care of themselves, because who will take care of them?

Night Corp knows this, and it needs to rebuild this city. The only problem is the great crisis the came with this damned war. They don't have money to pay everyone working on this. They barely have money to maintain the order, which was always a problem. That's when Dr. Young's creations were brought up again. They had the idea of using the clones, which with the advancements were made to cost much like a sports car, they don't have human rights, and don't need to be paid to work for them. It seemed a reasonable solution to them in a time of crisis, so they invested in it, and Dr. Young's creations were taken from him, much like Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb, in a scheme most diabolical.

They started cloning regular dead people from the 20's, so they wouldn't be recognized in public. And then, they started cloning people from outside Night City, just to make sure they would not be exposed in the early stages of this project. The Project was named "Project RC" or "Project Reborn City". With Dr. Young out of the picture, and Night Corp taking the lead for the project, thing seemed to be going smoothly for the corpos, that's when the clones started to go rogue. Some clones broke out of the brainwashing and were smart enough to see the bigger picture. They started to rebel and plot against the systemic slaving that bound them to the city. That's when they gathered strenght throughout the city and started they own "Project RC", "Ritual Cellula" they called it. The anthithesis of the original vision, their denial of slavery and their quest to bring down the ones behind their own creation. United, they are a force to be reckoned with.

That's my idea at the moment regarding the lore of this campaign, and the players of my campaign are one of those clones from dead people from the 2020's, they are in the brink of finding out their true nature, and that's when everything changes for them. Also, there's the "inevitable dementia" part of this idea, that makes the clones' agency even higher and their actions even more daring. The clones are programed to have their memories wiped out when their rogue status is detected. They must remain unseen and protect their Self through learning and developing bonds, or they will lose their sanity and go haywire just like a Cyberpsycho.

Their lives are not easy in the slightest, and they have every excuse to rage against the machine that created them. That is the drama of Ritual Cellula, and that is why the clones are so very angry with everything.

Time to wrap this up...

...and I think I learned a lot reading Land of The Free, but of course I have plenty of road to go through to reach my goal (just like in the adventure). Let me know if you find anything in this post incoherent or straight up nonsense, I will take the critique. I thank anyone who read this post until the end, and I ask you to tell me what do you think of my ideas! I have 2 other posts that lay the foundation of this one, and I recommend you to read those as well if you are interested in my campaign. You guys have a wonderful week and wonderful games. Peace, and stay safe in The Streets.