In the world of Cyberpunk Red, the tabletop RPG tied to the Cyberpunk franchise, players take on the roles of mercs, cyberpunks, and edgerunners, trying to make a decent living in Mike Pondsmith's unforgiving Night City without dying in the process. What sets these people apart from the average citizen is a special "edge-running" culture that grew out of an obsession with modifying their bodies with cybernetic enhancements known as cyberware. In the tabletop game, the cyberware system is not only one of its unique draws, but it also helps to reinforce the culture of the game world.
One of the main ways cyberware differs from magic items or special equipment in other TTRPGs is how customizable it is. Rather than simply picking one piece of equipment to install, players are able to mod and customize their cyberware however they want. This customization especially extends to fashionware, a special kind of cyberware that is purely cosmetic, ranging from neon hair to gold skin and everything in between. However, what most players are drawn towards are the more meaningful implants: cyberlimbs, eyes, neural ports, and many more.
Cyberpunk Red's Cyberware System Is Highly Customizable
The main way in which Cyberpunk Red allows players to customize their cyberware is through the modular upgrade system. For example, rather than buying a cyber-eye that allows a character to see in the dark, the player instead buys the eye itself. They can then purchase a certain number of upgrades for the eye to allow for various attributes, such as night vision. Cyberlimbs are another great example of this, allowing players to choose not only the specific limbs in which an implant is installed but also the various abilities that limb might possess.
Cyberlimbs specifically come along with a number of inherent qualities as well. Cybernetic limbs never tire or lose grip strength over time, so if a character wanted to hang onto a ledge indefinitely, they wouldn’t have to make any check to stay there -- at least nothing related to the arms. A limb can also hold multiple additional pieces of cyberware, such as a nanowire, a hidden gun, a smartlink for a weapon, a medical scanner, or even a built-in cyberdeck for hacking and netrunning.
Players' Draw to the Cyberware System Mimics the Culture of the Franchise
Cyberpunk Red uses all these powerful upgrades and customizable limbs to encourage players to modify themselves extensively. Since multiple powers can be associated with one piece of equipment, it's hard to resist kitting out their characters with as much cyberware as possible. This is exactly the sort of attitude the games wants to encourage since it's placing players in the role of edgerunners in a subculture heavily associated with cyberware and modification. One of the things this subculture is known for is that cyberpunks will continue to modify their bodies beyond the point at which a normal person would likely be satisfied. Some even kit themselves out with what is known as borgware -- cyberware that takes the concept to an even more extreme.
While most edgerunners, or even most normal citizens of Night City, would be satisfied with having a cybernetic arm to make their everyday lives a little easier, mercs that take on borgware may get additional shoulder sockets implanted, so they can have an additional pair of arms. One of the main drawbacks to borgware, aside from the fact that most citizens would likely fear that character or actively avoid them, is the enormous Humanity cost associated with it. Every piece of cyberware that isn't purely aesthetic or medical comes with a cost to a character's Humanity pool. The more extreme the augment, the higher the Humanity cost. Cyberpunks tend to start losing themselves when they augment too much, and this is reflected in the game's Humanity stat.
Use of Cyberpunk Red's Cyberware Is a Careful Balancing Act
The Humanity stat is where Cyberpunk Red excels as a system, presenting players with the struggle faced by their characters: choosing whether to augment themselves and lose some Humanity, or not take on cyberware but potentially be underpowered in upcoming challenges. This decision is at the core of a number of Cyberpunk stories -- most recently depicted in Studio Trigger’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners show. Loss of humanity in pursuit of a goal is a familiar story all across Night City, and many mercs and cyberpunks are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. Cyberpsychosis, as this loss of humanity is called, is a dissociative identity disorder that can occur when the edgerunner's mind no longer recognizes their body as their own, or even that of a human.
Many campaigns have to face the very real threat of Cyberpsychosis at some point, either due to a character modifying themselves too heavily or by a character having a negative reaction to a piece of tech. The system is specifically designed to facilitate this kind of storytelling. It tempts players with powerful cyberware in the same way in-world characters would be, and the consequences often catch up to them. This plays perfectly into something Pondsmith is often quoted as saying: "In Cyberpunk, you can't save the world, you can only save yourself."