Ex Libris CY_BORG A directory of content, tools, and resources

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Mechanical Cannibal

Concept: “They Own Everyone. Cybertech was marketed as a revolution. Each new installation : security, improvement, an edge, PROMOTION. Then you found your first backdoor. These technologies were a leash, not liberation. Reborn as a true revolutionary. Now you jailbreak and reverse engineer corp tech. If you have to, you’ll rip the implants right from the CEO’s skull.”
Content: A class for the body mod-loving insurgent.
Writing: Flavor oozes from every pixel on the screen and is interwoven masterfully with the provided class mechanics.
Art/Design: Distinctive font and color choices frame an atmospheric depiction of a mechanical cannibal character mid-scavenge. Spread is impressive in both “Print Killer” and “Ink Vegan” versions.
Usability: Layout offers easily distinguishable content and splashes of red call attention to assorted elements/mechanics.

Obsolete Dumpster Diver

Concept: “You were state-of-the-art for an instant, until the new model made you OBSOLETE and they threw you away. Now, you scour the cy-waste pits searching for operable cast-off mods and implants to combat your CONTRIVED DURABILITY.”
Content: A class for the DIY/found-art self-improvement addict. 
Writing: Class details focus on mechanics explanations with bursts of powerfully thematic descriptors. 
Art/Design: Eye-searing pink and yellow contrasts well with black background and comparatively muted white text on this two-page spread. Illustration of an example obsolete dumpster diver serves as a centerpiece for idea generation.
Usability: Class information is easy to read and navigate, with excellent use of text tracking to indicate important ability-related information.

Protect Thy Neighbour

Concept: “In 20 hours Alliansen Inc. is sending an automated Xplorer Mk I , a heavily armoured drone operated by an AI, to clean up an old tower in Bigmosse. The drone will be deployed from the Security Centre in South Central and is to make its way to the housing block in the slums. This is a routine operation so unimportant that the only verification required is a geo-located live feed of the pile of rubble after the explosion. Which makes it the perfect occasion to put corpo property to public use.”
Content: An escort mission perfect for fans of two- and four-wheeled mayhem.
Writing: Focused and direct descriptions of involved parties, locations, events, and conditions that should help kick GMing this adventure into high gear.
Art/Design: Trifold layout (with a screen-based version as well) with a cityscape image serving as a general map for the escort route.
Usability: High-contrast fore/ground with occasional blue highlighting, bolded text, and particular fonts used to indicate different and specific kinds of content throughout the pamphlet.

Remaindered Cyber-Ape

Concept: “You were uplifted for slave labor but that ended up being one Corporate abomination too far. Protests, boycotts and misfiring PR got the project swept under the rug and you drop-kicked into the sprawl. Smart as any human and twice as strong but you being you makes everyone morally queasy.”
Content: A class for the downtrodden uplift who’s ready for gorilla warfare.
Writing: Witty descriptions of class features with integrated mechanics. 
Art/Design: Sketch of a cyber-ape in a trench coat complements several distinct boxes of class details.
Usability: Class details are easily identifiable and navigable thanks to different font choices and fore/background color pairings.

Repossession

Concept: “Your biology is no longer compatible with the industrialised planet around you; the toxins you’re exposed to daily burn your flesh and poison your organs. Lungs struggle to draw breath, your heart stutters like a dying fly, your blood corrodes your kidneys. The deadly atmosphere of Cy slowly eats away at your inferior meat. Fortunately for your withering body, GeneMed has long since perfected its procedures to install cybernetic biomechanical prosthetics. Thanks to GeneMed ’s groundbreaking biotech research, you can replace those useless chunks of meat. And thanks to GeneMed ’s astronomical finance rates, you’ll be paying off the debt for the rest of your life. For those who can afford the highly discriminatory price points, GeneMed also offers luxury, deisgner prostheses; ostentatious and opulent pieces of cybernetic technology, flaunted by the ultra rich like the latest fashion.”
Content: Rules for body modification debts for GeneMed parts, reaperdocs and unlicensed prostheses, and repo agent NPCs who might come knocking to reclaim their employer’s property.
Writing: Stark, ominous descriptive text and rules explanations that underscore the significance of dealing with GeneMed and its licensed agents.
Art/Design: Simple black-on-white single page layouts with strategic font choices and a corporate software landing page-style UI complete with logo/branding.
Usability: Cleanness of layout makes for easy perusal, especially when combined with bolded key terms and labels to call attention to important details a reader might be scanning for.

Seething Luddite

Concept: “You were automated out of a job and lost everything. Now you want revenge on this digital world.”
Content: A class for the analog-oriented anarchist.
Writing: Concise and generative class detail descriptions keep the focus on the luddite’s resources and motivations.
Art/Design: Stark, straightforward layout that makes effective use of 1-3 columns of content within several distinct sections. White on black text with intense pink emphasized elements.
Usability: Incredibly readable, with a simple and high-contrast color scheme that allows for immediate recognition of each element’s purpose and relation to other content.

System GLich

Concept: “Hiding in the pixels at the edge of your RCD. An undead error made manifest. Hard to see. Harder to kill. Shoot at the static in the rain.”
Content: A glitch-wielding ghost in the machine.
Writing: Brief but intensely haunting and thrilling explanation of creature abilities and description.
Art/Design: Neon pink static-based design serves as central motif for spread, with relevant text off to the side.
Usability: Content is easy to navigate and read, with consistent presentation of body text and labels.

The Cold Storage Club

Concept: “All of that great punk rock flavor you love, none of the added cyber implants! Bar, lore, ambiance, events menu & more.”
Content: The skeleton for an action-packed adventure or atmospheric encounter–a bar location complete with map; tables for ambiance, food, drinks, and events; and NPC staff that PCs are likely to encounter.
Writing: Lists of categorized material to flesh out the club provide a range of adventure seeds and motivations while leaving plenty of room for a GM to expand further as desired.
Art/Design: Black and white and red all over in two-page spreads with a background photo of club activity on each, and several illustrations help bring the club and its staff to life. 
Usability: Consistent organization of content throughout, creating a recognizable grammar for navigation that helps when maneuvering frequently between pages. A few blocks of text are somewhat difficult to read due to relative lack of contrast (black on dark red).

The Derelict Android

Concept: “Purpose-made. A monument to corporate ingenuity. The modern slave. You’ve lived well beyond your best-by date. Now, there are newer, flashier models doing your old job better than you ever could. So, the old master littered you into the city like the dreg of silicon and flesh you are.”
Content: A class for the forsaken and abandoned who want to find and create meaning post-obsolescence.
Writing: Crisp description establishes class features/details and underscores the precarity of life as product/property.
Art/Design: Muted but powerful color scheme with a 1980s font choice vibe from the title; close-up of android face with gaunt, damaged features focuses attention on the punk philosophy informing CY_BORG.
Usability: Spread layout uses contrast well to distinguish text blocks, and highlights emphasize mechanics.

The Simian Experiment

Concept: “You are an ape ‘gifted’ with human intellect. The experimentation you went through to get here gave you perspective on many things; mortality, pain, the self, ideology. Mostly, it just made you realize how evil humans can be.”
Content: A class for those whose vengeful rage is more augmented than their uplifted intelligence.
Writing: Class details are concise and evocative of the myriad permutations of modification and torture that could result in a charater.
Art/Design: Two-page spread layout displayed around an illustration of a simian experiment, with text styled as crisply organized research documentation. 
Usability: Consistent presentation of class details facilitate quick navigation and accessible reading, with occasional bold or underlined text for emphasis.

The Terminated Contract Killer

Concept: “You made problems disappear, terminate contracts, and anything else the client told you to do. All assets in this corporate hellscape are disposable to some degree, your expiration date just came sooner than expected.”
Content: A class for the professional hitman who’s burned, bitter, and bloodthirsty.
Writing: Intriguing ideas provided in a calm, straightforward voice that evokes the professional mindset of the contract killer.
Art/Design: A two-page layout emphasizes a terminated contract killer in action on page 1 and a set of distinctly styled boxes for assorted class details on page 2. 
Usability: Distinct partitions of class content makes for quick identification of and focus on desired information; one minor exception is the large header across the top page 2, which relates to the left-side boxed list of corporations beneath it.

Upcycled Cyber-Undead

Concept: “You died. Through means fair or foul, you departed this plane of existence, of that you are mightily certain. Then? Your cyber-attachments brought you back online. Or maybe it was some sort of nanoplague or something. In any case, you’re back. Except no one wants you back. You smell bad. You sound bad. You look very, very bad indeed. You’re way too deep into the Uncanny Valley to pass as one of the living. Sorry.”
Content: A class for those inhabiting the venn diagram overlap of “zombie lover,” “cyborg-curious,” and “body horror fanatic.”
Writing: Class detail descriptions are not for the faint of heart but are a must-read for anyone vaguely interested in the idea, with dark humor balancing the gore with levity. Mechanics are concise and complement the descriptions well.
Art/Design: Eye-searing colors faithfully reflect the unsettling nature of the class concept, and a sketch of an upcycled cyber-undead further brings the idea to (un)life. Text is sectioned into boxes set askew with distinct color and font choices that indicate different purposes.
Usability: Askew text angles support recognition of distinct purposes for each text box, inviting closer examination of enticing class possibilities. However, text is non-selectable and inaccessible to a screen reader.

Vaporslave

Concept: “You are constantly jacked into your Vapestim-Pack, emitting vapor clouds. You have to stay sedated! Drugs for everyone! Down with the luxury elite!”
Content: A class for the languid lotus-eater and sedate spice fiend who wants, or needs, to constantly moderate their mood–and who wants everyone else to, too.
Writing: Class detail descriptions and mechanics explanations support one another well to present a cohesive concept through the document.
Art/Design: Two-page pink-heavy spread layout highlights a vaporslave illustration, a rendering of capsules, and an early GUI in addition to distinct sections of text framed as a cassette track list.
Usability: Class details are organized for quick identification of desired information, and different aesthetic components invite further exploration and engagement.

Void-Warped Freefaller

Concept: “It was nothing like they advertised; there were no off-world colonies, no bold unknown, no strange new worlds–only more cramped corridors and self-devouring consumerism in the name of the tourist industry. And then one night SOMETHING shocked the shuttle systems, and you began floating in a most peculiar way…”
Content: A class for those who were changed in irrevocable, horrifying ways when they walked among the stars–and who are now shackled to the earth once again.
Writing: Vivid, evocative descriptions of features and mechanics are both illuminating and unsettling in the best way.
Art/Design: Two two-page spreads with class details and a set of alien infestations, with white text on dark background throughout. An image of a void-warped freefaller emphasizes the cosmic horror at the core of this class and the effect it has on the character.
Usability: Easy to navigate, read, and comprehend, with key components visually embellished for identification of their significance and purpose.

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