Cyberpunk RED Guide Hub | Netrunning Guide | Netrunner Role Guide | Cyberpunk RED Guides
The Short Answer
A NET Architecture is a local security job in vertical form: the crew reaches a physical access point, the Netrunner works through ordered floors, and every useful result changes the same place everyone is trying to survive. Build it around a real location and a concrete objective, then choose only the floors, defenses, and Control Nodes that make that objective matter.
An Architecture is not a detached dungeon for one player. Its access point has a location. Its cameras, doors, files, alarms, drones, and defenses have consequences in Meatspace. When the crew understands what the Netrunner can change, protecting the access point becomes a shared scene instead of a pause.
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Hot Take
Do not begin an Architecture with Black ICE. Begin with the thing the crew needs to touch, steal, expose, escape through, or turn against its owner.
If the only answer to "what happens when this floor falls?" is "the Netrunner goes to the next floor," the Architecture is not doing enough work. A camera blind spot, a locked freight lift, an archived call log, or a turret that changes sides gives every player a decision. ICE then protects something worth fighting over.
Start In Meatspace
The Core Rulebook's NET Architectures are local. Before choosing a floor, answer the physical questions that give the run its purpose:
- What place owns this system?
- Where is the access point, and why is it difficult to reach or hold?
- What does the crew need the Netrunner to change?
- Which physical defenses, routes, or secrets are connected to that change?
- What happens if security realizes someone is inside?
That first answer also sets the scale. A neighborhood clinic can have a modest system protecting cameras, a records file, and a locked drug cabinet. A corporate lab can support deeper defenses because the physical site, prize, and response all justify them. Do not make a small location feel important by adding arbitrary floors; make its existing security and secrets matter.
Read The Floors As A Sequence Of Decisions
An Architecture is ordered. The Netrunner cannot skip ahead, so the sequence should escalate the job rather than repeat the same obstacle. The Core Rulebook treats the opening floors and the rest of the Architecture differently, but in play every floor needs a reason to exist.
| Floor element | What it means in the job | Useful question for the GM |
|---|---|---|
| Password | A delay or barrier before a more valuable layer. | What does the delay allow the guards or crew to do? |
| File | Information with a cost, leverage, or consequence. | Who suffers if the crew takes, copies, or exposes it? |
| Control Node | A handle on a real system in the location. | What becomes possible for the physical crew right now? |
| Black ICE | A threat that makes time, protection, and escape matter. | What valuable layer is this actually guarding? |
| Demon | An active defender that turns connected systems into an enemy response. | Which Meatspace threat acts while the crew holds the line? |
Build a sequence with changes of pace. A Password can create pressure, a camera node can open a route, a file can complicate the client story, and a defender can make the exit urgent. What matters is not whether every category appears, but whether the ordered path gives the crew new information and sharper choices.
Make Control Nodes The Payoff
Control Nodes are the bridge between the Architecture and the room. Connect them to things the crew can see or immediately use: cameras, alarms, doors, elevators, lights, sprinklers, drones, turrets, or other location-specific systems.
When you place a Control Node, write one short answer beside it: "What does the crew do if this becomes theirs?" That creates a useful table callout:
| Netrunner says | The crew can do |
|---|---|
| "The cameras are blind." | Cross the exposed hallway, move the client, or set an ambush. |
| "The loading door is open." | Bring in equipment, take a faster escape route, or lure pursuit through it. |
| "The security drone is mine for a moment." | Buy time, block a route, or force guards to react. |
| "The alarm log is a file." | Learn who is lying, identify the next target, or decide whether to leave evidence behind. |
Control is temporary when the Netrunner leaves the Architecture. If the crew wants a deeper alteration, the bottom of the Architecture is where the Core Rulebook's Virus opportunity matters. Treat that as a job decision: a lasting change costs time and can make escape more dangerous.
Use Black ICE And Demons For Different Pressure
Black ICE and Demons both make a run dangerous, but they create different scenes. Black ICE is a NET threat that can force the Netrunner to defend, attack, change tactics, or get out. A Demon is an intelligent Black ICE system that can operate connected Control Nodes, making the physical site itself react to the intrusion.
Use Black ICE when the important question is "Can the Netrunner keep moving?" Use a Demon when the important question is "Can the crew stay alive while the building fights back?" A Demon that takes over a camera, drone, or turret creates a direct reason for the rest of the table to act while the Netrunner contests the Architecture.
The Core Rulebook provides the exact program behavior, abilities, and encounter rules. Keep the table-facing description simple: name what the security is trying to protect, say what it is doing in Meatspace, and return attention to the next player who must respond.
A Small Build Workflow
Use this workflow when preparing an original Architecture without reproducing a published map or floor table:
- Name the physical objective: "Get the freight elevator moving" is better than "hack the system."
- Place the access point where the crew must earn it: a guard booth, office, basement rack, roof relay, or vehicle bay.
- Pick two or three systems that can change the physical plan: a route, a defense, and a secret are a strong starting set.
- Arrange only the floor elements that create pressure or payoff on the way to those systems.
- Add a serious defender only when the prize and the location can support the escalation.
- Decide what the owner notices, what the Demon can operate, and what a clean or messy exit changes afterward.
For example, a nightclub's access point might sit in a locked manager office. The run can delay the Netrunner with a Password, reveal the owner's private recordings in a File, grant control of the dance floor cameras and side exit, then put a Black ICE threat between the crew and the deeper evidence. The physical team has reasons to hold the office, use the blind spot, and decide whether the evidence is worth staying longer.
Keep The Netrunner In The Crew's Tempo
The Netrunner Role guide explains how Interface, cyberdeck choices, and clear callouts keep a run connected to the job. Before the first NET Action, ask the Netrunner what result they are trying to create and ask the rest of the crew what they are doing to make that possible. After each important floor, state the Meatspace consequence before the next player acts.
That pacing turns the ordered Architecture into a shared clock. The Solo can hold the access point. The Fixer can redirect a guard. The Tech can make use of a node the system cannot reach. The Media can decide whether the file is a story worth revealing. The run works when everyone gains a new problem or opening, not when the Netrunner quietly clears a list.
Where To Go Next
Read the Cyberpunk RED Netrunner Role Guide for Interface, first-deck choices, and crew coordination. Use the Netrunning Programs Guide for program choices, the Cyberdecks Guide for capacity and upgrades, and the ICE Guide for Black ICE, Demons, and shared NET-combat consequences. Return to the Netrunning Guide for the full job-site procedure and the Cyberpunk RED Guide Hub for the live library.
Use the Core Rulebook for exact program lists, Black ICE effects, Demon abilities, Architecture construction details, and NET rules values.
Sources And Scope
This guide summarizes NET Architecture construction, access points, floor elements, Control Nodes, Black ICE, Demons, and the Netrunning procedure from the Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook. It does not reproduce Architecture tables, program lists, Black ICE statistics, Demon statistics, exact costs, floor recipes, or full rules procedures. Use the Core Rulebook for exact rules and values.
