Who Lives in Night City?

[Netwatch]

Humans and Transhumans

Most people living in Night City in 2077 appear human, often with a few (or more than a few) cybernetic upgrades.

There are also people who look downright alien. As of 2024 (IRL time), we don’t have anyone playing a robot, animal or fantasy creature, but we’d love for that to change!

Organics

An organic or ’ganic is a person with no cyberware installed in their body. Fully organic adults are relatively uncommon in Night City, and most have their reasons for choosing not to install anything. They may be concerned about how it would affect their physical or mental health, or have spiritual reasons to avoid modifying their body.

We don’t have any fully organic characters yet. Sammy Voss is probably the closest. Robert Rainwater in the Cyberpunk 2077 video game is a canon example of a fully organic character.

Augmented Humans

Most of Night City’s residents have some functional cyberware and/or cosmetic fashionware installed in their bodies. What to install is a very individual decision - some people get cyberware to help them do their jobs, for convenience, or just because they like it.

You can also use cyberware from Cyberpunk 2077 - that is the current year, after all - but the Cyberpunk RED list is easier to use for finding interesting upgrades to RP with.

Fashionware generally doesn’t have any mental side-effects, but functional cyberware can. The psychological impact of functional cyberware varies, depending on whether healthy body parts need to be removed as part of the installation and how much the recipient’s capabilities change in comparison to unaugmented people.

Cyberware affects a person’s mind because swapping out body parts tends to wear down a person’s sense of self, and nudge them toward seeing themselves and others as a collection of cyber and meat parts rather than as whole people. Depending on how much cyberware a person has and how strong their empathy and sense of self were to begin with, they might be mostly unaffected, slightly more selfish and less empathetic, become very self absorbed or unkind and display signs of a personality disorder, or at worst, develop cyberpsychosis.

If your character starts with more than 60 Humanity worth of cyberware (see the number outside the parentheses in the Humanity column of this cyberware table), your character will be on the edge of cyberpsychosis and that should show in their personality. If your character has more than 70 Humanity worth of cyberware, they have cyberpsychosis, and you’ll need to play them accordingly.

Violent forms of cyberpsychosis are the most well-known, but the condition expresses itself differently for everyone. A person with cyberpsychosis might instead develop an intense obsession, struggle with self harm, or have other mental difficulties.

Most of the characters in the story are augmented humans - but we’re always happy to have more! Edwin Talbot is an example of someone who’s personality has been heavily affected by installing cyberware. The other characters have been able to handle a cyberlimb or two, or a few gadgets, without any major changes in personality.

Exotics

Your character might have become an exotic, using surgery and/or cyberware to make themselves look like animals, aliens or fantasy creatures. A Cyberpunk RED supplement listed many of the body changes that were possible in 2045, and today in 2077, there are even more cutting-edge options. Yes, you can be an anthropomorphic animal! With cyberware, you can have nonhuman abilities like heightened senses and breathing underwater, too. These procedures are a bit pricey - you might’ve spent a few years working hard and eating nothing but kibble to afford your wolfish good looks.

We don’t have any exotics in the story yet, but we’d love to see some. The Cyberpunk RED DLC Digital Dating in the Dark Future has quotes from Tora the feline exotic and her online date, Mark.

Full body conversions

There are also people who are robots - their nervous systems removed and placed in cybernetic bodies, in a process called a full body conversion. The brain and spinal nerves are kept alive by a biosystem, which is then installed in a robot body, such as the Trauma Team Kildare, Millitech Dragoon and others. Full body conversions are extremely expensive and usually paid for by an employer (and might be downgraded or repossessed if the employee quits or fails to perform). Only people thought to be in good mental health are chosen for a full body conversion, to reduce the risk of the drastic change causing cyberpsychosis.

We don’t have any Full Body Conversions in the story yet, but it would be very cool to see some. Adam Smasher is probably the most famous example in canon.

Others

If you have another idea for a character might differ from the typical human in the Cyberpunk universe, please suggest it! The more, the merrier.

[Netwatch]

Character Archetypes

(The text below is an excerpt from the Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook.)

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There are ten Roles in the Cyberpunk RED future: Rockerboys, Solos, Netrunners, Techs, Medtechs, Medias, Execs, Lawmen, Fixers, and Nomads.

Rockerboys Rock-and-roll rebels who use performance, art, and rhetoric to fight authority.

Solos Assassins, bodyguards, killers, and soldiers-for-hire in a lawless new world.

Netrunners Cybernetic master hackers of the post-NET world and brain-burning secret stealers.

Techs Renegade mechanics and supertech inventors; the people who make the Dark Future run.

Medtechs Unsanctioned street doctors and cyberware medics, patching up meat and metal alike.

Medias Reporters, media stars, and social influencers risking it all for the truth—or glory.

Execs Corporate power brokers and business raiders fighting to restore the rule of the Megacorps.

Lawmen Maximum law enforcers patrolling the mean streets and barbarian warrior highways beyond.

Fixers Dealmakers, organizers, and information brokers in the post-War Midnight Markets of The Street.

Nomads Transport experts, ultimate road warriors, pirates, and smugglers who keep the world connected.

"There’s this whole weird ecosystem to Night City. Execs work the board rooms and pay Solos and Netrunners to wipe out competition. A nd then, there’s all these Medtech and Techs patching up the Solos and fixing everyone’s gear. There’s the Lawmen trying to keep a lid on the whole situation and Medias and Rockerboys writing songs and articles about it all. And pretty much everybody’s gotta go through a Fixer to get anything these days. Hell, half the stuff a Fixer sells blows into Night City on a Nomad caravan! It’s like everybody needs everybody else…. And nobody trusts anyone."

— Danika "The Tundra" MacDouglas

Edited November 18 by Netwatch