Cyberpunk RED role
Media
Media is a role in Cyberpunk RED: Investigative journalist whose reputation opens doors that money and guns cannot.
Last reviewed
Key facts
- Ability
- Credibility
Overview
A Media makes a living publishing what somebody paid to bury. The role runs on reputation: an audience that believes you, sources who return your calls, and a feed that can put a story in front of Night City before anyone quietly makes it disappear. At the table the Media is usually why the crew has a lead at all. Credibility opens a press conference, a records office, or a corporate lobby with no weapon drawn, and a pending story is leverage on people who shrug off bribes. The cost is exposure: once your byline is on it, every name in the piece knows where you broadcast from.
How it works
Role Ability: Credibility Credibility Description: Your reputation reaches information that is closed to strangers and swings public opinion. Rank measures how far your name carries. Rank: Starts at 4 at creation and caps at 10. Each new rank costs Improvement Points equal to that rank times 60, and it ignores the creation cap of 6 on ordinary skills. Key Skills: Persuasion and Human Perception for sources, Library Search and Education for the paper trail, Perception for what people leave lying around. Typical Equipment: Agent, pocket recorder, camera, and press credentials that pass more often than not.
Tips and playstyle
Best For: Crews that want investigation as the spine of the campaign rather than a warmup to a firefight. Playstyle: Put most of your 86 skill points into social and education skills and accept being fragile. COOL, INT, and EMP carry this role, not REF. A Media wins scenes before they turn violent. Character Concepts: Braindance documentarian, disgraced corporate press officer who kept copies, pirate broadcaster, gossip feed host who tripped over a real story.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Media any use in a gunfight?
Not much alone. Credibility does nothing to a bullet, so most Medias carry a modest Handgun rank and treat combat as the plan failing. The role pays off by making a fight unnecessary, or the aftermath expensive for whoever started it.
What stops a corp from having my Media killed?
A story already queued or lodged with someone else, so your death confirms the piece. That is the closest thing the role has to armor, and it only works if you set it up before you need it.
Does Credibility work outside Night City?
It depends how far your feed reaches, which is what rank represents. A rank 4 Media is a name in one district, while a rank 10 Media is recognized by executives who have never met them.