The Cyberpunk Red (and 2020 version) Media Role is a strange one. While it has a spot within the genre, it takes an unusual place as a character archetype. It is also a role where many players new to the game stare at with confusion, wondering what they can do with it. My position is that the Media, along with its cousin the Rockerboy, are probably the most “punk” of all of the roles. I’m looking at you Spider Jerusalem.
What is a Media?
The Media role in Cyberpunk Red focuses on investigating corruption, gathering intelligence and using public truth as a weapon against powerful adversaries. They excel at information warfare and are typically thought of as one of heavier “roleplay” roles in the game. Within the narrative agency of roleplay the Media can shape public opinion, expose corporate malfeasance and bring down corruption with a vidscreen, their voice, and the written word.
James Hutt (A Senior Designer at R. Talsorian) said something like this in a podcast who’s title I can’t remember (sorry!) about the Media role; ” It’s not a role that wins battles but a role that wins wars”.
How does a Media win the war? Well, with risk, a focus, and dedication to their talent for persuading the masses. The role ability for the Media is called “Credibility”. It has two main mechanics; the first, used most often, is the ability to gain passive and active rumors. The second involves how much the public trusts you and how broad your audience reach is.
Passive rumors are gained by doing, well, not much. A couple times a week the GM makes a role on the player’s behalf to see if anything of interest crosses the Media’s path. If something does catch their eye they can go and investigate further. They can also go out and actively search out rumors. The player makes the skill roles for investigating rumors actively.
The second part of Credibility outlines four criteria:
- Access/Sources: People who the Media can reasonably get in touch with to interview or gain information from.
- Audience: How many people stories can reach.
- Believability: How well the story goes over with the audience. The higher the Credibility, the higher the chance people will believe.
- Impact: How much change is elicited from the story. The better the Credibility the more a story can effect change.
Media for Medias!
This role lends itself easily to reskinning. In it’s purest form, a Media is a seeker of facts and truth. They are also an individual who can manipulate those same facts and truth. Here are some recommendations that may help.
All the President’s Men (Movie)
Battlestar Galactica (Television)
Confess, Fletch (2022 with John Hamm)
Fletch (1985 with Chevy Chase)
Knives Out (Movie) The second and third movies in the series are good as well
Transmetropolitan (Graphic Novels)
The X-files (Television) The Lone Gunmen bits
Homebrew
With Credibility, a Media can become their own plot hook generator using passive and active rumor generation. The player, however, does need to take it by the reigns and show some ambition or have a plan. A player who is used to having things handed to them or who has a hard time thinking flexibly should be discouraged from the role.
That being said, the Media role doesn’t really need significant homebrew. A skill based system like Cyberpunk Red and the generous multiclassing rules allow a Media to be reskinned easily. Are you a hard hitting gonzo journalist? Are you a social media influencer? Are you a political satire pundit? Do you use print, pirate radio, the Net or television/film to get your message out? Are you a corporate sell out or an anarchist documentary maker?
Other opportunities abound as well:
- Private Investigator
- Street Preacher (there is some overlap with Rockerboy here)
- Union Activist or other social advocate
- Spin Doctor (if you can control the narrative, you can control public perception)
Conclusion
The type of Media a player wants to embody is the real story and can power great plot arcs for themselves and the rest of the players at the table. Media’s aren’t as popular as the more stereotypical genre specific roles like Fixer, Netrunner, Solo and Tech but they aren’t niche either. Given the chance and the right player they can define an entire campaign.
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