# Cyberpunk RED vs Cyberpunk 2077: How The Tabletop Game Actually Relates > A source-checked Cyberpunk RED versus Cyberpunk 2077 guide: why a tabletop crew is not V, how RED Roles shape a job, and the practical start path for players arriving from the video game. Source: https://theroleplayersguild.com/articles/cyberpunk-red/comparison-guides/cpr-vs-cyberpunk-2077 Published: 2026-08-01 Updated: 2026-08-01 Author: Andrew Blase Site: The Role Players Guild --- *[Cyberpunk RED Guide Hub](/articles/cyberpunk-red) | [Cyberpunk RED Comparison Guides](/articles/cyberpunk-red/comparison-guides) | [Cyberpunk RED Beginner's Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/beginners-guide) | [Cyberpunk RED Roles Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/role-guides) | [Cyberpunk RED Guides](/guides/cyberpunk-red)* ## The Short Answer **Cyberpunk 2077 is a video-game story about V. Cyberpunk RED is a tabletop game where the group creates the crew, the jobs, and the consequences.** The games share Night City, cyberware, mercenary work, and the pressure of a world built to grind people down. They do not ask the player to do the same thing. CD Projekt Red presents *Cyberpunk 2077* as an open-world RPG in which you step into the shoes of V, pursue a central story, take gigs, and shape V's legend. R. Talsorian Games presents *Cyberpunk RED* as the latest tabletop edition, set in 2045 between *Cyberpunk 2020* and *Cyberpunk 2077*. In RED, the table does not continue V's plot. It makes an original crew in an earlier era and decides what that crew will risk for a payday, a principle, or a person it cannot leave behind. ![An original tabletop crew plans a job beside a rain-streaked city window](hero.webp) ## Hot Take The fastest way to disappoint Cyberpunk 2077 fans at a tabletop is to promise them five versions of V. RED gets good the moment the table stops looking for a chosen protagonist and gives each player a problem the crew needs them to solve. Make the first job small enough to understand and sharp enough to matter: get someone out, prove a story, move a package, recover equipment, keep a neighborhood safe, or expose a lie. Give each Role a way to change the plan. That is how a video-game fan discovers the tabletop's real advantage: the consequences are not prewritten because everyone at the table is writing them together. ## Same World, Different Play Contract Both products are Cyberpunk stories, but their play contracts are different. The official *Cyberpunk 2077* site describes an open world where V's choices shape the story. RED's Core Rulebook instead gives players individual edgerunners and a GM who presents situations, people, rules calls, and consequences for the crew's choices. | If you enjoy this in *Cyberpunk 2077*... | RED gives your table... | What to do in session one | | --- | --- | --- | | Building V around a preferred fighting, hacking, stealth, or cyberware style | A full crew with distinct Roles, Skills, equipment, and personal stakes | Make sure every character has one useful contribution and one reason to care about the job. | | Exploring a dense Night City through V | A 2045 Night City that the GM and players make consequential through jobs, contacts, neighborhoods, and fallout | Pick one district, client, objective, and complication instead of trying to map the entire city. | | Choosing V's response in an authored story | Group choices that can redirect the job and its aftermath | Agree on the crew's goal before any player reaches for a Skill roll or weapon. | | Netrunning or quickhacking as V's toolkit | A Netrunner who coordinates with the physical crew around a NET Architecture | Put the access point and objective in the same scene as the rest of the team. | RED is not smaller because it does not render an open city or voice every conversation. Its space for play is different. A GM can prepare the pressure around a job, but the crew decides its approach, its compromises, and what new problem follows success. ## RED Is Set Before V's Story RED's default era is 2045. The publisher places it between the *Cyberpunk 2020* era and the 2070s era of *Cyberpunk 2077* and *Cyberpunk: Edgerunners*. That means a player should not expect V's exact circumstances, the 2077 status quo, or a video-game mission structure to be the baseline at a Core Rulebook table. This is a feature, not a continuity test. The earlier setting gives a group room to make a crew's own local history. Use familiar names, rumors, corporations, neighborhoods, and imagery as invitations when they help your table, but do not turn canon recall into admission homework. | Choose this starting point | When it fits | What to establish first | | --- | --- | --- | | *Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook* | You want the complete tabletop foundation and the default 2045 campaign. | Crew ties, job types, allowed sources, and the first job. | | *Cyberpunk RED Easy Mode* | You want a smaller, low-commitment tabletop tryout. | Whether the table wants to continue into a Core Rulebook campaign. | | *Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Mission Kit* | You specifically want the official 2070s-era starter experience. | Its era, product-specific rules, and whether the group is adapting it into a wider campaign. | The Mission Kit is a different entry route, not a substitute for every 2045 campaign. Its own materials include a path for adapting 2070s content into an existing RED game. Make that a deliberate group decision; do not silently assume that every video-game expectation becomes a Core Rulebook rule. ## Roles Are Crew Jobs, Not Character Classes For One Hero Cyberpunk 2077 lets one player build V's playstyle around skills, perks, weapons, hacking, and implants. RED splits spotlight through ten Roles: Rockerboy, Solo, Netrunner, Tech, Medtech, Media, Exec, Lawman, Fixer, and Nomad. Each Role has a specific Role Ability, but no Role is an order to solve every problem the same way. Use a Role as an answer to "what do I add to this job?" rather than "which build wins every fight?" | If a 2077 player wants to... | A useful RED role conversation | | --- | --- | | Be dangerous when the plan collapses | Consider Solo, then give the character an objective to protect rather than treating combat as the whole job. | | Open doors, suppress cameras, and control systems | Consider Netrunner, then decide what the physical crew is doing around the access point. | | Build, repair, customize, and improvise equipment | Consider Tech, then connect upgrades and inventions to actual jobs and available materials. | | Keep people alive after a costly encounter | Consider Medtech, then make medical pressure and care part of the crew's decisions. | | Find work, access goods, and navigate favors | Consider Fixer, then create contacts who can offer opportunity and demand a price. | | Win by exposing, organizing, negotiating, or moving people | Look at Media, Rockerboy, Exec, Lawman, or Nomad based on the kind of leverage the player wants to create. | Read the [Cyberpunk RED Roles Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/role-guides) before character creation. It helps a group choose roles that cover a job from different angles, rather than creating a set of isolated player builds. ## A Practical Start Path For Cyberpunk 2077 Players 1. Read the [Cyberpunk RED Beginner's Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/beginners-guide) and decide whether the group wants a Core Rulebook campaign or a short Easy Mode trial. 2. Choose a 2045 Core Rulebook campaign unless the group specifically wants the 2070s Mission Kit experience. 3. Make a crew, not a lone protagonist. Give each character a job contribution and one relationship, debt, neighborhood, or promise that can matter later. 4. Use the [Cyberpunk RED Roles Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/role-guides) to choose what each player wants to put in front of the crew. 5. Run one job with a client, objective, deadline, complication, and consequence. Let the group decide how it handles the pressure. Do not begin by converting a preferred 2077 build point for point. Begin with the fantasy behind it. If someone likes stealthy infiltration, decide whether that comes from planning, social access, Netrunning, a Solo's protection, a Fixer's contacts, a Tech's tools, or several characters working together. RED is strongest when the answer includes the crew. ## Where To Go Next - Return to the [Cyberpunk RED Comparison Guides](/articles/cyberpunk-red/comparison-guides) for every live comparison route. - Use the [Cyberpunk RED Beginner's Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/beginners-guide) to choose a first-session route. - Read the [Cyberpunk RED Roles Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/role-guides) to build a crew around real job contributions. - Read the [Cyberpunk RED Netrunning Guide](/articles/cyberpunk-red/netrunning-guides) before treating a Netrunner as a solo side activity. - Read [Cyberpunk RED and the Edgerunners Mission Kit](/articles/cyberpunk-red/comparison-guides/cpr-edgerunners-guide) if the group wants a guided 2070s starter path after the anime. - Return to the [Cyberpunk RED Guide Hub](/articles/cyberpunk-red) for the complete live library. ## Sources And Scope - *Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook* (CR3001): RED's tabletop procedures, Roles, Skills, character creation, Netrunning, 2045 setting, and GM guidance. - [R. Talsorian Games: The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future](https://rtalsoriangames.com/cyberpunk/): publisher framing for RED as the latest edition and as the 2045 bridge between 2020 and 2077. - [R. Talsorian Games: Mixing Drinks-Changing Lives](https://rtalsoriangames.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/RTG-CPR-DLC-MixingDrinksChangingLivesv1.1.pdf): official statement that Cyberpunk RED is the tabletop origin point for *Cyberpunk 2077* and tells stories in 2045. - [Cyberpunk 2077 official game page](https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/cyberpunk-2077): V, its open-world format, skills and perks, and the game's authored story framing. This guide compares format, era, and entry path. It does not reproduce *Cyberpunk 2077* mechanics, full RED rules, character-build math, or video-game story content. Use the respective official game and rulebook for exact details.