WeirdCo CEO Luohan Wei explains the design choices that turn a sprawling Cyberpunk RPG into a competitive trading card game
Just when you thought the market for trading card games couldn’t get any more competitive, the world of Night City expands onto the tabletop. CD PROJEKT RED and WeirdCo Games are bringing the Cyberpunk 2077 universe into the TCG space – and it’s been a little bit popular! The campaign, which features characters from Cyberpunk 2077 and Edgerunners, reached its $100,000 goal in seven minutes.
On March 31, 2026, the Cyberpunk Trading Card Game officially became the most-funded game in Kickstarter history, raising over $15.4m and beating the previous record-holder, Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere RPG ($15.1m). As we write this, it’s surpassed $22m (£16.2m) with a little more than two days of the campaign left to go.
The appeal of this adaptation was obvious to Luohan Wei, CEO at WeirdCo, as the Cyberpunk universe is already rich with stories, factions and characters that naturally lend themselves to strategic deckbuilding.
“We love the stories that inhabit the world of Cyberpunk 2077,” Wei explains. “Just looking at the different arcs between Edgerunners [the TV series] and 2077 [the video game], you can feel that Night City has a lot of stories to tell. That’s awesome for a TCG where we have room to explore storylines from the entire franchise, including characters from the comic books, novels and more that exist in this vibrant landscape.”
That breadth is key. The Cyberpunk universe already spans games, animation, comics and novels, and Wei believes the card game offers a way to weave those elements together. Factions also play a crucial role. In the video game, Night City is divided between powerful groups competing for influence.
“We also love the factions that are inherent in Cyberpunk 2077,” Wei says. “Corpos, gangs, nomads… All of these factions contribute to a rich environment that is perfect for TCG deck expression. Combined with the various ‘roles’ you can have, like netrunner, fixer, merc, ripperdoc and so on, Cyberpunk 2077 has all the ingredients for a naturally diverse and expressive TCG adaptation.”
Since CD PROJEKT RED already has a strong history with card games through the popular Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, that legacy made a Cyberpunk card game feel like a natural next step.
“We feel the broader CD PROJEKT RED community has had a special relationship with TCGs, given its history with Gwent,” he says. “We feel it is only fitting for Cyberpunk to also get its own interpretation in the card game space.”
Translating a sprawling RPG into a competitive tabletop format, however, required careful design choices. The team focused on replicating the core activities players associate with the video game.
“There are some obvious elements that we wanted to include, like equipping gear and upgrading your character,” Wei says. “And we wanted to build the core game around what you do in Cyberpunk 2077 – taking on gigs to earn Street Cred and become a Night City legend.”
That idea forms the centrepiece of the game’s design. The developers created a unique Gig system that uses dice to represent the jobs players take on during a match. “We chose to represent Gigs by a series of dice from d4 to d20 – we believe this is real innovation in the TCG space,” Wei explains. “Players roll a dice that represents a Gig at the beginning of their turn, then fight with their opponent by stealing Gigs from each other, and win by having six or more Gigs at the start of their turn.”
Dice might raise eyebrows among traditional TCG players, but Wei believes the mechanic balances unpredictability with strategy. “We really love this system, and while we know card game fans are cautious of dice, rolling high isn’t critical to advancing your gameplan, especially as both players can compete for any dice rolled in the game,” he says. “We believe TCG players will love the way we’ve incorporated Gig dice to make things feel unique, yet familiar.”
The game also promises plenty of fan-service for followers of the franchise. Several iconic characters have already been revealed, including V, Jackie Welles, Judy Alvarez and Adam Smasher, alongside Lucy from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. “We’ve revealed a ton of fan favourites already,” Wei says. “We have a lot of room to explore all avenues of the franchise across the many sets of Cyberpunk TCG we plan on releasing. So we hope players look forward to seeing all their favourites appear at one point or another.” At the same time, WeirdCo hopes the game will attract newcomers as well as dedicated Cyberpunk fans. Wei emphasises that community building will be just as important as the mechanics themselves. “Our goal is to build the best community in the TCG space,” he says. “That means creating a welcoming environment for new players too, where existing members are eager to lend a hand in teaching the game and showing what the community has to offer.”