In a secret pre-holiday update to Cyberpunk 2077, developer CD Projekt Red added a little tabletop-shaped gift. A spokesperson from Cyberpunk publisher R. Talsorian Games told Polygon that “any person who owns Cyberpunk 2077 and can access their Bonus Content folder can now find Cyberpunk RED: Easy Mode in there, of course for free.”
Without mention, Cyberpunk 2077’s update 2.2 quietly offered up the quick start guide to the tabletop role-playing game. Easy Mode has abridged rules and an introductory mission to onboard new players quickly to using dice pools instead of controllers and keyboards. Players will be able to act as one of five pre-generated characters in the quick start: the charismatic Rockerboy, the lethal Solo, the inventive Tech, the lifesaving Medtech, and the hard-hitting Media. Though the guide includes a brief dive into the history and landscape of Night City, fans of the video game should feel intimately familiar with the prequel world of Cyberpunk RED.
Though the preview was released at Gen Con in 2019, the full version of Cyberpunk RED originally released alongside Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020. The tabletop game is latest edition of the original Cyberpunk 2020 RPG (which was released in 1989). The franchise explores the gritty sci-fi fiction of an end-stage capitalist technofuture where, according to the game’s description, “corporations control the world from their skyscraper fortresses.” Perhaps a little on the nose. Set in 2045, Cyberpunk RED takes place midway between the events of Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077.
Polygon has confirmed the gift is available to PC users. To check for your copy of the PDF on PC, navigate to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\music\Cyberpunk 2077 Bonus Content.” Polygon has not been able to verify how to get the PDF on Xbox or PlayStation, though the spokesperson said it “should have been” confirmed for those platforms as well.
