Welcome to the Dark Future

In the aftermath of this worldwide conflict, atmospheric particles from the nuclear blast in Night City, as well as debris from orbital weapon strikes, continent-wide firestorms, conventional explosives, and the wartime burning and annihilation of cities and agricultural areas, cast an eerie red pall over skies worldwide. For nearly two years, skies were tinged a bloody red, which eventually died down to brilliant red sunrises and sunsets through the next decade. Known as the Time of the Red, this would be the backdrop for the first years of the post-War recovery, only fading away as the world's battered populations began to reconstruct their shattered cities. But despite the weak- ening of the atmospheric effects, the name has stuck among the war's survivors and, much as the 1920s was known as the Roaring Twenties and the 1930s as The Great Depression, in future histories the period between the end of the 4th Corp War and the present will probably always be referred to as the Time of the Red.

Night City is so 2045...

Time has elapsed in the world of Cyberpunk, and it is now the year 2046. Major developments have occurred in cyberware, netrunning, medicine, weaponry, and, of course, finance. Our focus shifts beyond the limits of Night City, starting in the American Rocky Mountains. Explore new locales such as:

• The Salt Flats of Utah where Nomad families fight and enslave each other, competing to find the legendary Lost Treasure of Joseph Smith.
• Salt Lake City, now an independent city-state, serves as yet another center of greedy and corrupt corps as well as opportunistic Edgerunners. The surrounding rural areas, called the Foothills, are united under The Church of Humanity, a sect of neoluddites that grew from the Mormon church that has sworn to destroy Salt Lake City and its sinful inhabitants.
• New Rome, a megalopolis consisting of the old cities Denver and Colorado Springs as well as their suburbs, operates under a fascist and imperialist regime disguised as Libertarianism that seeks to conquer all of the Old United States. In a constant state of war and civil unrest, many still believe the city to be one of the safest and flourishing parts of the country due to its booming military economy and reliable supply of real food supported by slavery and conquest.