Cyberpunk RED role
Rockerboy
Rockerboy is a role in Cyberpunk RED: Rebel performer who moves crowds, and therefore moves the city, with a show.
Last reviewed
Key facts
- Ability
- Charismatic Impact
Overview
A Rockerboy treats an audience as a weapon. The instrument varies (guitar, synth, poetry, a braindance rig, a pulpit) but the function does not: you say out loud what everyone in the room already felt, and then several thousand people are angry at the same target on the same night. At the table the Rockerboy is a social heavy weapon with terrible aim. Charismatic Impact turns a hostile crowd, rallies a shaken crew, or rattles an opponent mid-scene, at a scale no ordinary Persuasion roll reaches. What it cannot do is stay quiet. Corporations do not send lawyers after a Rockerboy who is landing.
How it works
Role Ability: Charismatic Impact Charismatic Impact Description: Your performance and presence sway crowds, inspire allies, and demoralize opponents. Rank determines how large a crowd you can move and how hard the effect lands. 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: Play Instrument or Acting as your medium, Persuasion and Leadership for everything said off stage, Wardrobe and Style because the image is half the act, Streetwise for venues that will still book you. Typical Equipment: Your instrument or rig, a wardrobe built for photographs, and a fanbase that will hide you for a night.
Tips and playstyle
Best For: Campaigns with a political or cultural spine, and players who want reputation to be a live element rather than background detail. Playstyle: COOL and EMP are your primaries. Aim Charismatic Impact at scenes that have an audience, since it is wasted where Persuasion would do. Decide what you are for, because a Rockerboy without a cause is a musician with enemies. Character Concepts: Combat Zone punk with a message, a corporate pop act who went off script on a live feed, a street preacher, a braindance artist publishing what happened.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to perform for the ability to work?
Some kind of presence is the point, but it need not be a concert. A speech, a broadcast, or walking into a bar where they know your face all count. You need an audience, not a stage.
Does Charismatic Impact work on one person?
It can, but that is its weakest use. Against a single target Persuasion or Interrogation is usually the better roll. Save the role ability for when a room, a crowd, or a feed is watching.
Can a Rockerboy fight?
As well as you build them to. Nothing stops you spending skill points on Handgun or Brawling. Just note the role grants no combat bonus, so anything you do in a firefight came out of the same 86 points.