There is a long and venerable tradition of cyberpunk TTRPGs. For decades, our tables have featured stories set in a dark future, a world ruled by greedy, malevolent corporations and transformed by digital technology (imagine that!). In these worlds, the line between the organic and mechanical has blurred. Humans enhance themselves with machinery, replacing parts of their own body to make themselves stronger.
Yet, these worlds are always dystopian. Technology has only cemented the rule of the powerful over the lowly, and it’s up to the heroes of this world to challenge their power! You’re the punks in “cyberpunk,” here to stand up against the man, both for your own gain and that of the common people. Here are some of the best TTRPGs that embrace this premise.
Updated July 20, 2025 by Davis Collins:Unfortunately for us all, the relevance of the cyberpunk genre and its themes increases with time. As we move deeper into the twenty-first century, we find ourselves with an ever-deepening need for works which critique and analyze the social structures we live under, both in the hopes of spreading ideas that might lead to positive change and to reassure us that other people see them too. We’ve returned to this list to add a few more games that can lead you through different, interesting cyberpunk adventures.
Free League Blade Runner RPG: Core Rulebook
Hunt for the machines among us
Based on one of the founding works of the genre, Blade Runner depicts a world where the lines between human and mechanical minds are blurring (imagine that!).
Blade Runner is one of the earliest works of the cyberpunk genre, so much so that some would argue it doesn’t have all of the elements needed to properly count as one. Of course, we disagree. Blade Runner is an excellent example of the genre with a ton going for it, and it’s very fortunate that this book exists to allow players to explore that universe for themselves.
Blade Runners are bounty hunters whose job is to track down and eliminate synthetics (basically robots) who have gotten loose and begun to live among humans. It is a world of intense moral ambiguity, as it is often difficult to decide whether these machines deserve to be hunted, but Blade Runners are not meant to make such judgments. Of course, your players probably will anyway, and that’s where the fun will come in, along with the fact that they may be secret robots themselves.
Free League Publishing CY_Borg Core Rulebook
Set in the already
Part of the Borg series of TTRPGs, this game is one of many works that blurs the line between dystopia and post-apocalypse by focusing on a relatively developed area within a ruined world.
Borg isn’t just a Star Trek villain. It’s a series of TTRPGs published by Free League publishing, the same company behind the game above. The original Mork Borg is a dark fantasy TTRPG, and, though the game we’re featuring here takes place in a different universe, the original Mork Borg’s bleak atmosphere and vague tinge of heavy metal are, if anything, better embodied by this title than any previous work in the series.
We’ve said before thatthe lines between post-apocalyptic and dystopian settings are often blurry, and this work is a great example, taking place in a cyberpunk dystopia surrounded by an apocalyptic wasteland. All of the hallmarks are here. Robots, technology, a brutal punk aesthetic. If you’re a fan of the other Borg games and are looking for a cyberpunk game, this is absolutely the book for you.
Cyberpunk 2020: The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future
The original smash-hit game
The definitive, foundational example of the genre, Cyberpunk 2020 is a classic game whose core setting set the baseline to which all future examples of this genre are to be compared. Despite its age, it still holds up, and is a worthy starting point for the genre!
Though technically preceded by Cyberpunk 2013, this game’s popularity is what established and codified much of what we now take for granted in Cyberpunk Roleplaying. Cyberpunk 2020 has evil corporations, gang violence, flashy celebrity culture, hacking, brain augmentation, and, most importantly, it’s all about your characters working to resist the might of their corporate overlords.
This game is an early entry in the series that would eventually spawnCyberpunk 2077. If you’re looking for a classic experience that still holds up or are curious to learn about the history of this genre, you should get this game.
Cyberpunk Red
There’s no better place to start!
A successor to Cyberpunk 2020, Cyberpunk Red is the current edition of the Cyberpunk universe. Everything classic about the cyberpunk RPG genre is here, but with updated rules reflecting modern advancements in game design.
This update to the Cyberpunk universe represents the current iteration of that classic game, taking place 25 years after Cyberpunk 2020. The setting has advanced, placing the PCs in the aftermath of yet another corporate war, tasking them with continued survival and resistance in a world still ruled by the same malevolent forces. If you want a modern TTRPG experience in a prototypical cyberpunk world, this is the game for you.
Shadowrun RPG: Sixth World Core Rulebook (Berlin Edition)
Science and magic combined!
Another decades-old giant of the genre, Shadowrun takes the dystopian cyberpunk setting and complicates it with the addition of magic. This game places PCs in the role of “Shadowrunners” who pull of daring ops against the corporations using a combination of technological and magical power.
The sixth world has come. In a familiar dark future,magic has re-emergedto complicate the cyberpunk landscape. Corporations have mages on staff, and some of them are even run by dragons. The shadowrunners who oppose them have the option of spell or cyberware as their weapons.
This game does a ton with the interaction between traditional cyberpunk trappings and urban fantasy, using these combined elements to craft an intricate world in which both elements feel entirely like they belong. Shadowrun is a very old game, with its original edition being just a year or so younger than the original Cyberpunk, and it’s a great option for those who want a rich setting with loads of moving parts that interact with one another brilliantly.
Altered Carbon The Role Playing Game
you’re able to hold a soul in the palm of your hand
In many ways a typical cyberpunk RPG, Altered Carbon places the full potential of the digitized consciousness front and center, presenting a world where the human mind is just a piece of software and bodies are just pieces of clothing.
Altered Carbon has much of what you’ve come to expect out of a cyberpunk TTRPG. However, while characters in other cyberpunk worlds merely enhance themselves with machine parts, Altered Carbon takes place in a transhuman dystopia where nearly every human mind has been reduced to a piece of software.
This allows for human immortality, but comes at the cost of creating an upper class of centuries-old plutocrats who are more capable than ever of tampering with the minds of others. If the wrong person gets their hands on the computer chip that houses your mind, your very soul is vulnerable to tampering, imprisonment, and consumption.
In this world, you can move freely between bodies at your whim, but you’d better hope you can afford a good one, because if a bargain-bin body is the best you can do, you’re in for a rough time.
Aetherium: The Roleplaying Game
I’m sure no one here has ever used a computerized world to escape reality
Set in a fascinating world where humanity has fled to a strange digital realm, Aetherium explores many interesting ideas about reality, utopia, and power.
Aetherium is a fascinating game with a fascinating setting. In it, ‘Meatspace,’ the real world, has been destroyed. War, economic inequality and environmental damage have left humanity in need of a new home. Fortunately for them, just such a home has been discovered.
Though its actual nature is unclear, the Aetherium is a world accessible to digitized consciousnesses. This results in a setting and play experience unlike anything else we’ve ever seen, exploring classic sci-fi ideas about utopia, reality, and power in new and interesting ways, as humans compete for control over this virtual world in all of the same ways that ruined the real one.
Entromancy: A Cyberpunk Fantasy RPG
A cyberpunk variant of the world’s most popular TTRPG
With mechanics specifically modeled on D&D 5e, complete with bounded accuracy, advantage and disadvantage, and character classes, this cyberpunk fantasy game embodies the idea of D&D in a world of cyberpunk technology.
If you loveD&D 5e, and would like to explore a cyberpunk setting in a similar system, this is the game for you. Explicitly modeled after the world’smost popularroleplaying game and full of its fantasy trappings, Entromancy is an elegant and familiar experience that will allow you to explore a new space of play.
Likethe game it’s modeled after, this game is easy to learn and beginner-friendly, even for someone totally new to tabletop role-playing. It’s equipped to handle both combat and intrigue, as the players must navigate its various factions and their constant attempts to consolidate their power.
Starfinder Core Rulebook
Among the best Sci-fi RPGs ever made
One of the best, and most popular, sci-fi TTRPGs of all time, Starfinder is a science fiction fantasy game by Paizo, the company behind Pathfinder. Starfinder is designed to allow tables to play through any sci-fi story they can imagine, and can easily be adapted for a cyberpunk campaign.
From the makers of Pathfinder, a giant of the industry so great as to be a meaningful rival to D&D itself,Starfindertakes traditional RPG fantasy mechanics andmoves them into a spacefaring environment, creating a game where you can tell just about any sci-fi story you can imagine. The game has plenty of mechanics covering essential cyberpunk elements.
Characters can acquire cybernetic enhancements. There are robust systems to deal with computers and hacking. While the setting is a bit farther future than is stereotypical for the cyberpunk genre, many areas of it, especially Absalom Station, with its economic inequality and urban ethos, are perfectly suited to a cyberpunk narrative.
FAQ
Does Cyberpunk 2077 have a TTRPG?
Cyberpunk 2077 is part of the same franchise as Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red, though the games technically take place in different timelines. If you’re looking for a tabletop experience similar to Cyberpunk 2077, those are the games for you.
What is Cyberpunk?
The suffix ‘punk’ has come to denote a setting where a specific kind of technology has become dominant. This is where terms like ‘‘steampunk’ and “clockpunk” come from. However, the term “cyberpunk” predates those, and its use of “punk” originally referred to the fact that these stories focus on rebellious “punks” who fight against the corporate systems that rule their worlds.
