If there’s any place Kaze (“wind” in Japanese and pronounced “Cah-zee”) is more comfortable than astride a nimble motorcycle, it’s the cockpit of a good air vehicle — like the AV4s he flies for Trauma Team. Kaze is part of the Nomad Wyvern Pack, a small pack that specializes in air cargo transport. The pack is mostly Native American (Navaho/Diné and Hopi) with Japanese and some North American blood in the mix. Kaze himself had a full Japanese mother, who had married into the Wyverns, who gave him the name Kazuhiko.
Kaze is one of several young adults being considered for leadership positions in the Wyverns, including Pack Head, in the future. It’s a little because he is a grandson of the current Head and that he has a knack for reading people. Mostly however, it’s because Kaze, at a young age, stepped up and took responsibility for a “debt” even the elders agreed he didn’t have to.
When Kaze was about 15, his parents (the son and daughter-in-law of the current Head and her predecessor) died within hours of each other due to injuries in a road vehicle accident. They had just completed a deal that was to have gotten the Wyverns a second aerozep. A few days later, pack leaders setting the couple’s affairs in order, realized that the deal was a subtle scam that left Wyvern Pack on the hook for many Eddies with no new vehicle to show for it.
Although no one else had detected the scam, and there was no evidence Kaze’s parents were anything but victims, the youth had insisted on paying his pack back. At first he took on extra work for the Wyverns and odd jobs for others. When he was older, Kaze became a Trauma Team pilot, a skilled and high-risk job that pays accordingly.
Design & Play Notes: Kaze is one of the earliest PC concepts I created for Cyberpunk RED. Recently, Kaze made his debut as an NPC in a play-by-post CPRED game I am in, as both a regular player and a sometime GM. The NPC version doesn’t have formal stats, as he appears during downtime between gigs. But the NPC version (who probably has a Role rank above 4) inspired me to write up the Nomad 4 stats.
The original concept was the pilot for a Trauma Team centered game. Kaze can work in a variety of CPRED campaigns, however. A Nomad-centered game is obvious, but a typical Night City crew, or a corporate team are others. For some, you may want to change the Family Vehicles Kaze is allowed to use.
I find the purely descriptive parts of the LifePaths (e.g. Personality, Hair, Clothing Styles, etc.) too limiting, so I often mix a couple things up. Kaze is serious, as you’d expect for someone who took on a large debt as a teen, but he’s also outgoing. Indeed, he’s popular with women, and he enjoys their company as well. Take a ride above – or on – Night City’s streets with Kaze!
Disclaimer: “Kazuhiko ‘Kaze’ Wyvern (Nomad for Cyberpunk RED)” is unofficial content provided under the Homebrew Content Policy of R. Talsorian Games and is not approved or endorsed by RTG. This content references materials that are the property of R. Talsorian Games and its licensees.
Linda Whitson
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