CYBERPUNK RED: How to Play 3 Actual Play - We have Cyberware, but no affordable housing...

Welcome to Night City, where housing is a shipping container, breakfast is kibble, and your most reliable neighbor is a rat named Greg. This week, Marky Day and Dave Costanzo accept a perfectly normal freelance job involving stalking, blackmail, corporate espionage, breaking and entering, and possibly assault. Fortunately, Marky has love in his heart, a mandolin in his bag, and the negotiating instincts to voluntarily reduce their payment by half. Dave, meanwhile, is an elite Netrunner capable of defeating corporate security, provided nobody asks him to walk quietly across a lobby without falling directly onto his face.

Show Notes

Marky Day and Dave Costanzo officially enter Night City for their first Cyberpunk RED adventure, but not before Tyler reveals that peer pressure convinced him to contact Brennan Lee Mulligan and possibly recover DiceGoblin.com. Having exhausted all responsible business decisions, the group finally turns to crime.

Marky wakes in his increasingly hot storage container, works out, eats some kibble, and contemplates writing a song about how love could solve society's problems. He is a rockerboy, vigilante, and aggressively compassionate street philosopher who will never judge someone too harshly, though he may beat them up for their own personal growth.

Next door, Dave Costanzo lives among cables, computer equipment, and spilled kibble. His breakfast is quickly claimed by Greg, the local rat and apparently the most dependable member of the team.

Their morning changes when Marky receives a call from J-ZK, a colorful fashion designer and 3D weapons artist who helped support his music career. A rival artist calling himself Gangster 3D has been stalking her, threatening her, attempting to hack her agent, and using stolen private material to blackmail her. She believes he may also sabotage an important presentation to Sanroo.

J-ZK asks Marky and Dave to break into the Discom corporate building, find Gangster 3D's operation, and steal the incriminating information from his computer. She initially offers them 5,000 eddies, but Marky decides that is far too generous and successfully negotiates their pay down to 2,500 each. Somewhere in Night City, a fixer feels a sudden disturbance in the economy.

To get inside, Marky uses Charismatic Impact to locate one of his corporate fans at the Afterlife. John John may not work for Discom, but he works for Biotechnica and is willing to escort them to the building and vouch for them at security. Marky supports their cover story with a crumpled folder of sheet music masquerading as confidential briefing documents.

Once inside, the pair begins searching for a network access point. Marky moves through the lobby like a seasoned professional. Dave rolls a critical failure on stealth, falls directly onto the floor, and explains to the nearby security guard that his shoe came untied. This works because security in Night City has apparently seen much worse before lunch.

While Dave connects to the building's network, Marky provides cover by pretending to conduct an important corporate conversation. Dave bypasses a password, takes control of an employee-only door, and searches the network for information about Gangster 3D.

He discovers the appointment calendar of Mr. Fromider, an executive on the twentieth floor. Fromider has met with Gangster 3D five times in the past two weeks and has also been meeting with several minor local artists. The pattern suggests that Gangster 3D may be involved in poaching artists like J-ZK for some larger corporate scheme.

Marky and Dave slip into the private elevator, but Marky's incredible perception reveals a hidden sleep-gas system designed to incapacitate unauthorized passengers. Dave disables the device by cutting the correct wire, proving that he is significantly better at defeating electronic security than standing upright in public.

The elevator still requires authorization, forcing Dave to jack into the network again. This time he must pass a Wisp Black ICE program to reach the elevator controls. He activates his Armor program, races past the hostile software, and successfully takes control of the elevator.

The Wisp catches him before he can escape and attempts to damage his brain while reducing his available Net Actions. Dave's Armor absorbs the damage, allowing him to slide away from the pursuing program and safely jack out.

The episode ends as the elevator begins climbing toward the twentieth floor. Marky and Dave are officially inside, Mr. Fromider is waiting somewhere above them, and the part of the mission where everything becomes violent has probably just begun.

Key Takeaways

• The episode demonstrates how Cyberpunk RED combines social interaction, stealth, investigation, physical security, and Netrunning within the same mission.
• Marky's Charismatic Impact turns his fans into useful contacts. John John helps the team pass the building's first layer of security without violence.
• Marky and Dave complement each other well. Marky handles persuasion, distractions, and social situations, while Dave manages computers, access points, and electronic security.
• Critical successes and failures have immediate narrative effects. Marky repeatedly notices hidden dangers, while Dave's critical stealth failure nearly exposes the mission.
• Netrunners connect through physical access points and enter a layered Net Architecture containing passwords, files, control nodes, and Black ICE.
• Pathfinder allows a Netrunner to map parts of the architecture before moving deeper, reducing the risk of blindly encountering dangerous programs.
• Control nodes connect the digital and physical environments. Dave uses them to unlock an employee door and activate the private elevator.
• Disconnecting from a network resets most changes. A Netrunner must reach the bottom of the architecture and install a virus to create a lasting effect.
• Black ICE can attack a Netrunner directly, causing brain damage or interfering with their available Net Actions.
• Dave's Armor program completely absorbs the Wisp's damage, demonstrating the value of choosing and activating defensive programs before engaging hostile architecture.
• The team learns that Mr. Fromider has met repeatedly with Gangster 3D and several local artists, suggesting a broader scheme beyond J-ZK's personal blackmail problem.
• The adventure closes on a cliffhanger as Marky and Dave ascend toward the twentieth floor, having successfully completed the portion of the infiltration where nobody has shot them yet.

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