The lore of Cyberpunk.
Cyberpunk does not describe a distant future, but ours pushed to the edge: corporations stronger than states, a coastal city that survived a bomb, and people selling their bodies piece by piece to make it through another month.
Here is that setting gathered in one place, in the order it comes up at the table. The Time of the Red and what caused it, the corporations that hold the world, the gangs that hold the streets, Night City district by district, and the Net after the crash.
What is the Time of the Red?
The Fourth Corporate War set Arasaka against Militech in the early 2020s, on every continent at once. It ended in 2023 when a nuclear bomb levelled the Arasaka tower in the middle of Night City. The sky kept a red tint for years afterwards, and that dust gave the era its name: the Time of the Red.
Cyberpunk RED is played in 2045, a generation later. The great corporations came out of the war weakened, states never took back control, and the centre of Night City is still a ruined zone nobody has finished rebuilding. It is a world after the catastrophe where everything is still negotiated, only on a smaller scale: this month's job, the rent, the next dose of metal.
The corporations that hold the world.
The Japanese security giant, victorious on paper and thrown off American soil after the war. It comes back sideways, never under its own name.
Arasaka's American rival, so close to the government that nobody can tell which one gives the orders. It sells the guns everyone turns back on it.
It made its fortune on the synthetic fuel that replaced oil, and now sells engineered life the way others sell spare parts.
The other fuel giant, owner of whole fields and of the roads that serve them. Its guards shoot before asking who you are.
It equips half the netrunners in the city and fits everybody's implants. Its terms of service are more dangerous than its products.
An airborne ambulance arrives within minutes, provided you hold the card. Without it, you bleed on the pavement watching it fly past.
The gangs that hold the street.
They replace their flesh with whatever they can find and live one step from cyberpsychosis. Nobody negotiates with them for long.
They run the bars, the gambling halls and the clubs of Japantown. Elegant, always on a bike, and far quicker to draw a blade than to talk.
The best netrunners in the city, holed up in Pacifica, digging through the old network and speaking to what still lives in it.
The largest gang in Heywood, deeply attached to its blocks, its saints and its cars. You can deal with them, never humiliate them.
Former soldiers protecting Santo Domingo where the police no longer go. The line between protection and extortion vanished a long time ago.
Whole families live in convoy out in the Badlands and move what the corporations would rather not be seen transporting themselves.
Night City, district by district.
Night City was built on the Californian coast as an ideal city, funded by corporations that wanted a harbour and a showcase. Its founder was murdered before the opening, which says most of what follows. The centre still carries the mark of the 2023 blast: gutted towers, building sites without end, and a population living there regardless.
Around it, every district has its own law. Watson holds the markets and the new arrivals, Westbrook sells luxury and nightlife, Heywood stands by its families, Pacifica is a resort project abandoned halfway through, Santo Domingo runs to the rhythm of its factories. Past the last barriers begin the Badlands, the desert of nomad convoys and fuel farms.
The Net, after the crash.
In 2022, a netrunner named Rache Bartmoss released a virus into the global network and destroyed it within days. Whole continents of data became unreachable, and what lived there, autonomous programs and artificial intelligences, stayed locked inside. The old Net became a graveyard nobody crosses without a reason.
What remains sits in local architectures: a building's security, a factory network, a lab's data, guarded by black ICE that can kill whoever insists. An organisation, NetWatch, maintains a wall holding back what the virus left on the other side. Every netrunner knows it holds, and nobody really knows why.
Using this lore at your table.
Pick one area, three places and two faces. Your players will remember a bar and an alley far better than a full map of the city.
They bring the jobs, call in favours and remember debts. One well played middleman replaces ten pages of background.
They have money, old rivalries and no scruples at all. Almost every adventure hook can start with one of them.
Rent, ammunition, the ambulance, fixing an arm. Handing out the bill after each job sets the tone better than any speech.
Move a gang, invent a local corporation, wipe out a district. Nobody at your table will go and check it in a book.
The books describe 2045, the video game tells 2077. Take what serves your story and leave the rest on the shelf.
Bringing Night City to life online.
A setting like Cyberpunk lives on atmosphere: an alley in the rain, a neon sign, a rock track drowning out the voices. Describing all of it in words, session after session, takes energy the game master would rather spend on the story.
Tomeus brings the backdrop, the music, the sheets and the dice into one window. You prepare your scenes ahead of time, switch image and mood in one click, and your players join from home with their character in front of them, with nothing to install.
Go further with Cyberpunk.
How to start playing Cyberpunk?
Free starter kit, dice, character creation and a first session: the guide to getting started with Cyberpunk RED, around a table or online.
The basic rules of Cyberpunk
The d10 and the difficulty value, the ten stats, the rolls, the combat round, armor, wounds and Humanity: the rules of Cyberpunk RED explained.
The roles of Cyberpunk
The ten roles of Cyberpunk explained: Solo, Netrunner, Fixer, Tech, Medtech and the rest, their unique ability, and how to choose yours as a beginner.
The cyberware of Cyberpunk
The implants of Cyberpunk explained: the main families, the Sandevistan and the claws, the cost in Humanity, ripperdocs and cyberpsychosis.
Go further with tabletop RPGs.
How to Play a Tabletop RPG: the Beginner's Guide
How a session unfolds, what the game master does, dice, character sheets and how to play a tabletop RPG online. A complete guide for beginners.
How to Find Players for a Tabletop RPG
Game shops, clubs, conventions, Discord, online listings: where to find players for your tabletop RPG and how to write an ad people answer.
The Best Tabletop RPGs for Beginners
Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Alien, Monster of the Week: six easy tabletop RPGs for a first session, and how to pick the right one.
How to Create a Tabletop RPG Character
Concept, class, ability scores, skills, backstory and bonds: the full method to create a tabletop RPG character who will carry a whole campaign.
Frequently asked questions.
Do you need to know the lore to play Cyberpunk?
No. Three sentences carry a first session: corporations replaced states, the city is dangerous, and everything has a price. The rest is learned by playing, job after job, exactly the way the characters find it out themselves.
Do you have to play in Night City?
No, although the city concentrates everything the game is about and saves you from inventing a setting. Plenty of tables play elsewhere, in another megacity, out in the Badlands or in Europe. The system works anywhere corporations, gangs and desperate people share the same pavement.
How does the tabletop game relate to Cyberpunk 2077?
The video game is set in the same universe, in Night City, but thirty two years later. It borrows the corporations, the gangs and the characters of the tabletop game, which has been around since 1988. Knowing 2077 helps you picture the city, but it does not replace the book, and the reverse holds too.