Cyberpunk RED vs Outrunners

Compare Cyberpunk RED and Outrunners side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Cyberpunk RED	Outrunners
Genre	Cyberpunk	Horror, Cyberpunk, Fantasy
Play Style	Combat-Heavy, Skill-Based, Gritty, Deadly, Corruption, Faction Play, Crunchy, Licensed IP	Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Narrative, Fiction-First, Collaborative, Survival, Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Worldbuilding, GM-Friendly
Core Mechanic	Stat + Skill + d10 against a Difficulty Value set by the GM (typically 13 for everyday tasks, scaling to 29 for legendary ones). Combat uses REF + weapon skill + d10 against a defender's active dodge or parry roll. Damage is rolled with d6s and reduced by armor at the hit location. Critical injuries are triggered when damage penetrates armor, rolled on a table with lasting mechanical effects. Humanity loss from cyberware installation tracks a character's slide toward cyberpsychosis.	Each character assigns one die from a d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, and d4 set across six stats, then rolls the relevant stat's die against a difficulty number; if half that die's maximum already meets the DC, the action succeeds without a roll. Rolling a die's maximum value without beating the DC triggers a Twist of Fate, exploding up to the next larger die. Fate Points, earned mainly by failing rolls, are spent to reroll, sway outcomes, or invoke the Hands of Fate at a narrative cost.
Dice	d10	d4–d20
Complexity	Medium	Low
Accessibility	High	High
Runnability	Very High	High
License	Proprietary	ORC 1.0 (free SRD)
Cost	$$	Free / $
Publisher	R. Talsorian Games	Einsol's Razor
Year	2020	2025
Best For	Groups who want a streamlined cyberpunk experience with lethal combat, deep character roles, and a setting that bridges the classic Cyberpunk 2020 era to the world of Cyberpunk 2077.	Groups who want a rules-light, emotionally charged one-shot or short campaign about doomed characters racing to outrun a foreseen death, and GMs who want a portable fate-and-survival horror premise they can drop into almost any setting with little prep.
Highlights	Ten roles each have a branching Role Ability that deepens as the character advances, not a one-time pick. Netrunning is rebuilt to resolve in real time alongside physical combat, so the netrunner acts on the same clock as everyone else. The Lifepath system generates backstory events, enemies, allies, and romances that hook a character into the Time of the Red.	Every character begins with a prophesied glimpse of their own death, which seeds concrete clues into the story and ties each session's tension to a deadline the player already knows is coming. Rolling a stat die's maximum without meeting the difficulty explodes it up to the next larger die, turning desperate long shots into escalating last-second reversals rather than flat failures. Fate Points are earned mainly by failing rolls and then spent to reroll, sway outcomes, or invoke the Hands of Fate, so setbacks bankroll later comebacks and every intervention carries a narrative cost.
Considerations	Hit location and armor tracking remain from Cyberpunk 2020, adding bookkeeping to combat. Night Market equipment tables use randomized availability that can frustrate players looking for specific gear. The Time of the Red setting deliberately limits high-end technology compared to the 2020 or 2077 eras.	The default Adamah setting is sketched in only a few pages and the game expects the table to invent most of the world at session zero, so groups wanting a prepared, detailed setting must supply it themselves. Equipment grants only narrative permission rather than mechanical bonuses, so players who enjoy itemization or tactical loadouts will find nothing to optimize. The foreseen-death premise is built to resolve at the Vision's deadline, making the game strongest as a one-shot or short arc and harder to sustain across a long, open-ended campaign.