The short answer
A Tech makes the crew more capable by turning a recurring problem into a solvable project. Maker is not permission to produce a perfect answer to every job. It is a set of specialties for keeping gear alive under pressure, making a focused improvement, fabricating a known item, and proposing a new one with the GM.
Choose one problem your Tech wants to own: keeping the getaway vehicle moving, making battered armor usable, finding a field fix for a crew's favorite weapon, or prototyping gear nobody else can buy. That gives repair scenes, downtime, favors, and stolen parts a reason to matter.
Hot take
The Tech is strongest when the crew cannot simply buy the solution.
If every obstacle becomes a catalog search, Maker turns into a discount mechanic. If the crew has a damaged asset, limited time, a missing part, or a device that has to work for one dangerous minute, the Tech gets to make a real decision. Let scarcity create projects. A finished project should change how the crew approaches the next job, not erase the need to plan.
Maker is four different tools
The Core Rulebook divides Maker into four specialties. Each time the Tech's Maker Rank increases by one, the character gains a rank in two different specialties of their choice. A starting Tech has Maker at Rank 4, which works out to 8 specialty Ranks. That makes the question "what kind of Tech am I?" more useful than "what can I build eventually?"
| Specialty | What it does | Best campaign use |
|---|---|---|
| Field Expertise | Supports relevant technical Skill Checks and enables a short-lived jury-rigged repair. | Keep a job moving when a machine fails at the worst moment. |
| Upgrade Expertise | Improves an eligible item in one defined way. | Make a familiar piece of crew gear more distinctive. |
| Fabrication Expertise | Makes an existing item or a previously invented item from materials. | Turn downtime and access to parts into a planned capability. |
| Invention Expertise | Proposes a new item or upgrade for the GM to define and balance. | Create a campaign-specific tool with a clear function and consequence. |
The specialties work well together, but they do not need to be spread evenly. A field-repair specialist creates immediate pressure scenes. A fabricator makes the market and downtime matter. An inventor gives the group a reason to protect a prototype, find materials, or worry about who wants the plans.
Field expertise keeps the job alive
Field Expertise adds its rank to the Tech's Basic Tech, Cybertech, Electronics/Security Tech, Weaponstech, and vehicle-tech checks when they are being used for purposes outside the other Maker specialties. It also lets a Tech with at least one rank attempt a jury-rigged repair as an Action instead of a full repair.
That repair restores the target temporarily, then expires after ten minutes per Field Expertise rank. It cannot be jury-rigged again until it has received a full repair. Treat that limit as the scene's clock: the vehicle will run long enough to clear the district, the armor will hold long enough to reach the elevator, or the door control will work long enough for the crew to choose what it does next.
Do not spend those minutes quietly. Tell the table what is failing, who is exposed if it dies, and what the crew can accomplish before the fix gives out.
Upgrades need a purpose and a budget
Upgrade Expertise offers defined improvements rather than an open-ended wish list. An eligible item can only benefit from one Upgrade Expertise upgrade. The upgrade consumes materials in the same Price Category as the item, and its DV and installation time follow that item's Price Category. The roll is TECH + the Skill normally used to repair the item + Upgrade Expertise Rank + 1d10. Vehicle upgrades are the exception on cost: they count as 1,000eb (Very Expensive) items for DV and time.
The listed options include lowering the Humanity Loss of non-borgware cyberware by 1d6 (if it normally costs 2d6 or more), adding one slot for options, attachments, or Programs/Hardware, halving future full-repair time, making a one-handed weapon concealable, raising an Average Quality weapon to Excellent, adding 1 SP to an item that already has SP, and installing a vehicle upgrade that needs only Nomad Moto Rank 1.
| Price Category | DV | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Cheap / Everyday | 9 | 1 hour |
| Costly | 13 | 6 hours |
| Premium | 17 | 1 day |
| Expensive | 21 | 1 week |
| Very Expensive | 24 | 2 weeks |
| Luxury | 29 | 1 month |
| Super Luxury | 29 | 1 month per 10,000eb |
The same table sets DV and time for fabrication and invention.
Start with the crew's actual friction:
- What piece of gear keeps appearing in jobs?
- What one limitation makes it difficult to use?
- Is a listed upgrade a better fit than a brand-new invention?
- Can the crew afford the materials and downtime now?
- What new attention or maintenance problem will the improved item create?
The Cyberpunk RED Gear Guide helps locate the source for an item and decide whether the campaign's Night Market can plausibly provide it. A Tech turns that access into a project; it does not make availability irrelevant.
Get the Free GM Session Kit
Session Zero template, recap format, and a pricing cheat sheet - everything you need to run a better table and, if you want, get paid for it.
No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Fabrication turns parts into a plan
Fabrication Expertise makes an existing item or an item already created through Invention Expertise. It requires materials one Price Category below the finished item; Super Luxury items instead need materials worth half their price. The item's Price Category also sets the DV and time. A failed check sends the Tech back to the beginning, but the materials remain usable.
This is why a Tech benefits from a clear project board. Give each fabrication a purpose beyond ownership: a tool for a specific break-in, replacement gear for a contact, a spare component before a hostile trip, or a product that proves the crew can deliver on a promise. The time is not bookkeeping. It is a window for a rival to make an offer, a Fixer to demand a cut, or the next job to arrive before the project is done.
Invention begins with a conversation
Invention Expertise can create a new item or an upgrade, but the player begins by describing its desired function and believable mechanism in the setting's existing technology. A simple schematic helps. The GM decides whether it fits the game, writes its rules operation, and assigns a Price Category no lower than Expensive based on comparable power.
That is not a hurdle to work around. It is the process that makes an invention memorable. Bring the GM a small, concrete proposal:
| Good invention brief | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| "A concealed transmitter that can send a short burst through a known wall material." | States one function, one condition, and a useful limit. |
| "An upgrade that makes this battered crew vehicle faster to repair after a chase." | Builds on a recurring asset instead of replacing the campaign's vehicle rules. |
| "A disposable sensor that gives one answer before it burns out." | Creates information without becoming permanent surveillance. |
Avoid proposals that make an entire category of obstacle disappear. The Core Rulebook explicitly notes that inventions may need later rules changes to protect table balance. Treat that adjustment as collaborative tuning, not a punishment. Once the prototype works, the invention can be fabricated or installed through the appropriate Maker specialty - and it may also become something worth stealing.
Build a Tech around recurring trouble
The Tech shines when the character has ties to specific equipment and people, beyond a high skill total. Pick two or three anchors:
- A neighborhood shop, garage, clinic, or back room where the Tech can work.
- A favored category of gear the Tech refuses to see discarded.
- A supplier, scavenger, or Fixer contact who can locate unusual parts but expects something in return.
- A project the crew understands well enough to protect, rush, or abandon.
The Fixer guide covers the access and contact side of those projects. Use it with the Gear Guide to frame who can get the parts and why the price is more than eurobucks.
Keep maker visible to the whole crew
When a Tech starts a project, give other characters a way into it. A Solo protects the workshop. A Netrunner finds a parts manifest. A Media exposes the corporation that owns the design. A Nomad moves the workbench through a hostile zone. A Fixer finds a seller and creates the obligation. The Tech makes the object; the crew helps make the opportunity. With a Nomad in the crew, Upgrade Expertise can add a Moto Rank 1 upgrade to a Family vehicle; see the Nomad guide.
For GMs, the best Maker complication is not "you cannot do that." It is "you can do that, if you can get the part, protect the workspace, find the time, or live with who notices." That preserves the rules' practical limits while turning them into the next job.
Where to go next
Use the Cyberpunk RED Gear Guide to navigate Night Markets and source books before starting a project. Return to the Cyberpunk RED Roles Guide to compare Maker with the other crew functions, or use the Cyberpunk RED Guide Hub and guide directory for the full live library.
For specific gear, the Armor Guide and the Gear Guide's weapons and vehicles sections show what a Tech will spend most downtime fixing.
Sources and scope
This guide summarizes the Tech and Maker material in the Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook, including Field Expertise, Upgrade Expertise, Fabrication Expertise, and Invention Expertise. It includes the DV and time table and a shortened upgrade list, but not the full specialty text, equipment entries, or invention procedure. Use the Core Rulebook for exact rules and values.
