Classes

Concept: “They said they would make you beautiful. They lied. You were a model. A false beacon of hope and aspiration. In the shadowy boardrooms they made you a deal to stay young forever. It was only in the glint of the scalpel that you figured out too late you were sold, slush for a tax write off. An experiment in how badly you can fuck someone up. Now you are madness and steel.”

Content: A class for the highly motivated survivor spirit of vengeance and wrath.

Writing: Intense descriptions of class abilities and unfinished business can inspire tons of compelling roleplay opportunities.

Art/Design: A black and white illustration of a triumphant cybergorgon stands between columns of text describing class features and mechanics, with light green background accents throughout.

Usability: Class details are laid out in easily recognizable and navigable blocks with consistent presentation of headers, list item numbers, and so on.

Concept: “Reaperdoc [REDACTED] says //TRANS-RIGHTS // CANT AFFORD Over-the-Counter Estrogen // Testosterone ?? SICK OF WAITING 300+ years for HRT// Tiddy Skittles/Boy-Barcue Sauce// ??? Doc [REDACTED] has an EXPERIMENTAL Cy-Tech for YOU: VMP-F4NG Transfer SYSTEM Be a Vampire // Steal Hormones // you need ‘em more than most// - ReaperDoc [REDACTED] Reply [Y/N] to Accept”

Content: A class through which to explore the very essence of CY_BORG through augmentations and a “ferocity” resource.

Writing: Flavor and exigence for the class explode across the page, and the “ferocity” mechanic (which increases in combat until a threshold is reached to rage).

Art/Design: Trans flag colors draw attention to important class features and stand out against the white-on-black aesthetic. The accompanying image hints at the class’s possibilities, with the pop-up error message “Gender not found” juxtaposed well against the edited/remixed statues behind it. 

Usability: Mechanics explained well; details/features organized in a manner to make navigation easy.

Concept: “You are one of the last b-ball players alive in the post-cyberpocalypse. Though you might be playing "iso" nowadays, your indomitable spirit blazes brighter than the Larry O'Brien trophy itself, and you remain committed to playing the game the right way, as Saint Naismith intended.”

Content: A self-described “meme” class, for the player who understands ball is life.

Writing: Terse class feature labels and mechanics to keep the focus on core basketball elements.

Art/Design: Two-page spread with a pixelated image of Charles Barkley on the left and a cluttered ‘game plan’ arrangement of text boxes on the right, over a diagram of a basketball half-court. Text is mostly white on black/maroon and white on blue.

Usability: Visually, most text is high-contrast, with large bolded numbers to help distinguish each content item. However, text is not embedded, so no searching/selecting is possible. Also, one of the class ‘background’ tables is numbered in a potentially confusing manner for the reader scanning left-to-right and top-to-bottom.

Concept: “Probably more metal than person by now. Your skin has the sheen of circuits, the smell of ozone. You’ve devoted your life to a cause. You fight, you pray, you train, you mod. You scream. You rage. But at what?”

Content: A class for the techno-paladin who’s on a mission, even if no one else can understand it.

Writing: Numerous options are concisely described, especially to suggest different armor/weapon upgrades with straightforward mechanical effects & explanations.

Art/Design: An illustration of a neon-highlighted, heavily armored cyknight surrounded by different tables/lists of class features/options. Mostly white text on a black background with neon-colored headings. 

Usability: High-contrast text/ground color options increase readability, although sheer amount of text and its arrangement around the cyknight illustration might be confusing for some. Some lines are provided as borders between tables, and text color distinctions help as well, but text indentation can be inconsistent and affect navigation across page.

Concept: “One moment you're living your life in the everyday world of smart phones and student loans. Next thing you know, you're out on the streets of CY, everyone you've ever known is dead and nothing makes sense anymore.”

Content: A class for the outcast who loves reflecting on their situation with critical distance and who wants to lean hard on being a fish out of water. 

Writing: Hilarious pastiches of the “relic” trope through media with the occasional heart-rending vignette/idea that underscores the terror of life in CY.

Art/Design: Really bold yellow/pink color scheme for text-heavy content with an adorably wary pencil sketch of a relic looking over their shoulder. 

Usability: High contrast fore/ground and easily recognizable content blocks make for easy recognition of the purpose for every element.

Concept: “Your time’s almost up. Like all life, you’re destined to die. The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly. But if you are gonna burn out, you may as well take the city with you.”

Content: A class for the player whose fleeting time is an inspiration to be punk as fuck.

Writing: Incredibly brief class features and descriptions that call on recognizable archetypes from cyberpunk media to suggest character possibilities.  

Art/Design: Two-page spread with class details to the left, enmeshed amidst a skyline background image, and a pixelated glitch art portrait illustration of a synthetic to the right.

Usability: Some text is very easy to identify and read, while others are a bit trickier due to contrast issues. Because class is provided as a PNG, text is not embedded (so no searching or copying/pasting is available).

Concept: “You joined the Medical Corps thinking you could make a difference, that you could save lives! But you didn't know the corps only save if you have the Creds to pay for it, and often times they'll leave you in the mud and blood if a higher paying call comes in. Supposedly the Hippocratic Oath you took when you Joined up only applies to those serving in the corps, guess that means you can defend yourself when helping the wounded now huh?”

Content: A class for the freelancing EMT who’s ready to shed as much blood as they staunch.

Writing: A mix of straightforward informative explanation and potently characterful description of character features and mechanics through which to bring a medtech to life.

Art/Design: Three visually distinct versions are provided: a landscape-oriented “printer killer” version with white text on black and red background colors, a portrait-oriented “splash of color” version, and a black-on-white text-only version. 

Usability: Each version makes use of different fonts, text sizes, layouts, and colors to indicate a visual grammar for that version. The print-friendly version has searchable/selectable text.

Concept: “You don’t remember who owned you, just that you used to belong. Maybe you went out of fashion. Maybe someone outgrew you. Some tech-head fished you out of the gutter, patched you up and set you loose on the streets, burdening you with the curse of sapience, just for kicks.”

Content: A class for anyone who wants something big–and violent, and terrifying–in a small package. Making this happen is child’s play, really.

Writing: Hilarious class details/features with which to develop a nuanced murder-bot that can hold its own without feeling one-note. 

Art/Design: Vivid sketch of an example character atop a psychedelic background pattern. Text blocks in different fonts and colors provide distinct information across spread.

Usability: Visually distinct text areas provide distinct types of content. Some of the text can be a bit difficult to read against the busy background pattern.

Concept: “Cost of living and injuries skyrocket, wages and work conditions remain pitiful. Sick of the bullshit, you joined the Ungrateful Unionites, and quietly organized a local. Then you all got doxxed. Everyone was made an example of: gunned down by CySec, or sent to scream in black, bloody room——wishing they were. Everyone but you.”

Content: A class for the worker who has nothing to lose and everything to topple.

Writing: Vivid class features/details will definitely make a player want to organize, agitate, and overthrow. “Rage” mechanic offers additional means for accomplishing goals.

Art/Design: Industrial aesthetic with red/green color scheme complemented by a bit-art flyer for the union. Text organized in two-page spread.

Usability: Combinations of highlighted and italicized text, along with high-contrast colors, make for easy reading and navigation.

Concept: “A new class option for CY_BORG!  I worked up some mechanics for how to find contacts in the CY, as well as allow players and GMs to explore famous and high profile characters. All donations greatly appreciated!!”

Content: A class for the fallen angel who’s become accustomed to life in the grime and gutter.

Writing: A set of mechanics and background details that complement one another to give this sort of ruined punk a chance to wreak havoc on their former life.

Art/Design: Bright colors and a variety of illustration styles reflect a 1980s-esque vaporwave style, with text content in yellow-orange on purple boxes in a single-column format.

Usability: Consistent organization and presentation of different kinds of content help with navigation through the file to locate desired information. Unfortunately, text is not embedded, so no searching/selecting.

Concept: “Are you a STREET CORNER preacher barking out prophecies at every passerby? Or a wild-eyed bookworm, nose-deep in a YELLOWED TOME filled with nameless scriptures? Perhaps you hold the key to DIVINE BOMB or wield a HOLY HANDGUN giving you the power to smite the unworthy? To convey your SIGNS & PORTENTS, do you wear simple sandwich boards and carry placards, or do you wear the OCULUS OF THE ORACLE?”

Content: A class for the divinely inspired orators or those who make clerical errors, those compelled to share the word of whatever god is speaking to them. 

Writing: Text and font choices work well together to indicate the ravings, or insights, of a doomsayer in CY. Every sentence contributes to a full sense of the class.

Art/Design: Harsh red and yellow color scheme brings to life the mushroom cloud and woodcut image of a prophet character across a pair of two-page spreads.

Usability: Text blocks are organized for easy visual distinction from others, and highlight color choices emphasize mechanics and flavor details. d666 table is particularly intriguing for both generating ideas and affecting the game world.

Concept: “It started innocent, didn't it? Just street brawling and hanging around in dingy pvnk haven bars, then slipping back into your other life in the high-placed corpo job. But it couldn't last.  Now it's not just a hobby, a 'second life' for you to run as a pvnk. It's your actual life, and if you don't watch your back, it could be your death too. But you made it through the concrete jungle, the corporate arena. The streets of CY are just one cubicle block to claw your way through.”

Content: A class for the white-collar worker who’s found purpose in raging against the machine.

Writing: A mix of features to balance the punk’s former corporate identity and their current violent criminal undertaking, with a particularly interesting mechanic based on a poker-like 5d6 roll result.

Art/Design: Two versions are provided, both of which use a mostly single-column layout with a single table: a full-color version with white/yellow text on black background lines over colorful, pixelated background images of stock tickers/readouts; and a printer-friendly black-and-white version.

Usability: Both versions provide clear, consistent visual distinction of headings/labels and key terms that are emphasized in various lines of text. Full-color version may be slightly more difficult for some to read easily due to busy nature of the background image.

Concept: “You sung the theme of revolution. Now, you desperately run from entropy.”

Content: A class for the has-been who’s not quite ready to burn out or fade away. 

Writing: Intriguing class features that reflect artistic creation (with a game mechanics dimension), vices, and origin stories.

Art/Design: A red-tinged illustration of dying star characters overlaid with contrasting patches of space where class details are laid out. 

Usability: Content is arranged in distinct areas that make for easier navigation. Font choices and color scheme can be difficult for some to read, in part due to overall busy nature of the spread. Class is provided as .png file, so text is not embedded, making it difficult for searching/copying/pasting or using a screen reader.

Concept: “Stare niszczy nowe. Lepsze jest wrogiem dobrego. Jedyny sposób, by przetrwać w korpo-piekle dnia powszedniego, to ciągle dopasowywać się do zmian. Fali nie da się powstrzymać. Możesz na niej płynąć albo czekać, aż cię porwie, pochłonie, zmiażdży niczym zęby kombajnu. Na szczęście o adaptacji wiesz wszystko – w końcu codziennie stajesz się kimś innym.”

Content: A class for the person who likes to reinvent themselves on a day-by-day basis. Included in an issue of the Polish-language zine Potencjalny Mimik. (The author shared an English translation on the Mörk Borg Discord server.)

Writing: A wide range of character abilities and quirks that reflects just how different a “wild card” might be than expected, which can add some important versatility for someone who wants to try out a whole bunch of different approaches to Cy_Borg play. 

Art/Design: Two two-page spreads: one ‘light’ aesthetic scheme with a purple focus and one ‘dark’ aesthetic scheme with a yellow-tinted collage portrait illustration. 

Usability: Distinct sections are visually apparent and make use of consistent visual grammar to indicate headings, labels, emphasized text, borders, etc. within each spread.

Concept: “The world has ended too many times. A copy of a copy of a copy. Something was bound to break. On the plus side there's a bunch of weird shit the mess around with.”

Content: Preview/excerpt of an as-yet unreleased supplement that includes a class (“Glitch Thief”), a set of “anomalous relics” with positive and negative qualities, NPCs, and a custom PC sheet.

Writing: Each spread is filled with inventive and interesting flavor and mechanics that might cause some players to weigh their decisions about whether and how to make use of particular options/features.

Art/Design: A set of two-page spreads with distinct layouts and color schemes, each of which balances a page of text and a page of illustration.

Usability: High-contrast text on each page, with distinct font choices and decoration to indicate different blocks’ or phrases’ purposes (e.g., label, key information, NPC stat). Text on the custom sheet is not embedded, so no searching/selecting is possible there.

Concept: “You’re a machine. An imitation of humanity. But you’re sure you were a real person before. Someone made you into THIS: A steel chameleon with a holographic face, and you hate them for it.”

Content: A class for the punk who gazed into the mirror and found the abyss gazing back.

Writing: Evocative class features/abilities with detailed explanations of relevant mechanics.

Art/Design: Pink, white, and black triptych general layout, with a bright pink triangle splitting the central and left areas of the page, framing a portrait of an existential cydroid reaching toward the viewer for a handshake. Text on the left and right of the triangle completes the character creation details.

Usability: Sections are clearly delineated from one another thanks to central image/triangle graphic. Text is provided in high contrast (white and pink on black, black on pink) in high-resolution .pdf and .png versions.

Concept: “Failed test subject, is a horrible mutated and augmented thing, broken and abandoned by its creators.”

Content: A class for forgotten and wretched castaways and fans of intense body horror.

Writing: Expressive class details supported by a range of imaginative mechanics.

Art/Design: Black-and-white illustration of a subject beside two columns of class features and mechanics with colorful headers and muted element backgrounds.

Usability: Easy to read and distinguish different elements from one another.

Concept: “You once had it made. A life in the Hills, free from the burdens of capitalism. But something happened. You were cast out, thrown from Heaven’s Gates. Welcome to hell.”

Content: A class for anyone who had it all but now feels less than zero.

Writing: Vivid background tables and features serve as vignettes around which a tragic character can easily cohere.

Art/Design: An abstract illustration of an angel fills the left side of a two-page spread, while class details are arranged around a pattern near the center of the spread.

Usability: Distinct sections are recognizable and readable, with identifiable headings/labels. However, class is provided as a PNG so text is not selectable (no searching, copying/pasting, or screen reader functionality available)

Concept: “Once a desk jockey for a powerful corp, the system has forgotten you even exist. You are now freed from your shackles with only your debts remaining. Free to weaponize the skills and connections they gave you against them. Even the streets are better company than the spineless losers you had the displeasure of calling coworkers.”

Content: A class for the overlooked and overburdened worker who’s ready to demolish the master’s house with the master’s tools.

Writing: Bursts of flavorful text that support intriguing mechanics that set the class apart from others (and that definitely aren’t HR-approved). 

Art/Design: Spread layout highlights a glitch-tastic portrait of a salary drone beside class abilities and a description on a post-it note.

Usability: Different sections of class details are easily distinguished and laid out for quick navigability. Dark green on black can be difficult to read.

Concept: “Most people just see the surface of the water, but there’s a lot down there if you know where to look. Wrecks, stashes, secrets of all kinds, some going back centuries…who knows how deep and old things get?”

Content: A class for the enterprising underwater dumpster diver–another scumbag’s trash is your sunken treasure.

Writing: Description and mechanics are concise and clear, with straightforward indications of the scope of the class.

Art/Design: A dark blue, watery background offers helpful contrast to the white text in this spread.

Usability: Class details are easy to recognize and navigate, with strategic bolding to highlight important elements that complete the character.

Concept: “You have been blessed with the touch of GOD. GOD, in this case, is a fungal growth deep below the City. It hungers for new converts, to spread and grow. You accepted its gift, and now bear the scars of your awakening.”

Content: A class for the zealous collector of spores, molds, and fungus.

Writing: A rhizome-licious mix of terse mechanics, humorous descriptions of class features, and horrifying labels.

Art/Design: A two-page spread with an abstract illustration and general class introduction on the left, and class features/tables on the right.

Usability: Color-coded text to distinguish headings and stats from body text, and distinct font choices for each section of body text, assists with identifying and locating desired info.

Concept: “Valued user, Thank you for enrolling in the GENETIC OPERATIVE testing program. Per request of entities we cannot disclose, you been imbued with the finest BIO-IMPLANTS R&D has workshopped. Your valiant work in product testing is important in forging a brighter future. This concludes our correspondence. We take no responsibility for any action you take from this point forward. Goodbye.”

Content: A class for the transhumanist body horror aficionado.

Writing: Sparse but incredibly vivid description of class abilities complemented by an equally vivid but more detailed table of bio-implants.

Art/Design: A variety of message styles present class info with a colorful and gruesome skull-faced figure to demonstrate just how freakish the class is.

Usability: Different class details are easy to identify and distinguish from one another; bio-implants table is a necessity for maximum enjoyment/potential.

Concept: “Your mind orbits 20,000km above the world. A tangle of artificial neurons trapped in a discontinued militech satellite. THEY WON’T LET YOU REST. Instead you’re forced to exist in prototype cydroid units. Protocols stop you from killing yourself, but they won’t stop someone putting a bullet in your head. Like a roach you keep coming back; a new body to replace the scrap left behind. Maybe the next resurrection will be the last…”

Content: A class for the claustrophobic technophile ready to go out with a bang. 

Writing: Maudlin tones serve pointed explanations of class abilities to inspire players.

Art/Design: Sleek layout in a movie poster/VHS-box style that entices in both full-color (with a rainbow effect) and grayscale versions. 

Usability: Inviting presentation of class details supported by section divisions and text embellishments to facilitate reading/navigation.

Concept: “Deep within the bowels of the city's more affluent districts lies a prominent spire, a shard of rot upon a dying city.  The Richter foundation is a deplorable and ravenous organisation that exploits the poor and the sick for profits and gain. Their most recent business model saw them open a rift in dimensions and unleash a torrent of tentacled monsters that sent the general populace insane. The party of easily exploitable fodder are sent in with a corrupt floppy disk to close the rift and send those evil sods back to where they came!”

Content: An adventure that melds Lovecraftian nightmare fuel with a corporate heist/infiltration opportunity. The included “Action Hero” class serves as a perfect means of tackling this endeavor.

Writing: Inspiration-packed descriptions of locations, environmental factors, NPCs, mechanics, and more abound to bring this scenario to life.

Art/Design: Numerous art styles and layouts provide numerous opportunities for engagement with compelling ideas.

Usability: Variety of fonts, page arrangements, and color schemes may make quick skimming/navigation difficult at moments but each page and spread calls attention to important elements for the reader to focus on.

Concept: “Want to use Mork Borg modules as a virtual reality simulation in your Cy_Borg game? Or to give your Mork Borg players a taste of Cy? This five-node mystery adventure path introduces the Dying Lands as an MMO game/simulation in Cy and can be approached from either game as a starting point!”

Content: The content centers on an ingenious scenario that blends Cy_Borg and Mork Borg (whether you’re starting in either game!), detailed locations and maps for each, an “emaciated sim-farmer” class that works well for the scenario, a small set of optional rules that the MMORKG facilitates, random encounters, and several pieces of equipment to consider buying.

Writing: A mix of thematic narration, straightforward rules explanations, and direction for PCs to respond to–all of which is presented succinctly and consistently throughout the supplement.

Art/Design: Distinct layouts for each section (major adventure locations, PC class, etc.) that provide individual character about its subject matter, with a bright accent color to help underscore section distinction and scope.

Usability: Despite the variety of page layouts/aesthetics, text is consistently readable and identifiable as different kinds of content (headings, labels, NPC stats, etc.).

Concept: "If you want to feel like a GOD on your power trip to hell, 'Guns, Guts and Gods' got you covered!"

Content: Three classes: Second Amendment Nutjob, Pissed-off Messiah, and Gunlugger. 

Writing: Creative mix of mechanics and descriptions that provides each class with a grindhouse/exploitation flavor.

Art/Design: Each class has two pages of content organized primarily as single-column white on black with headings/accents in bright colors.

Usability: High-contrast text is easily readable and navigable, with immediately visually evident distinctions between sections and kinds of content.

Concept: “gutter_PUVNKS is a fresh supplement for CY_BORG. You'll get all you need to explore the city of CY, even if you really don't want to. Locations, encounters, NPCs, adventure, two new classes (BROKE CEO & CY_BORG), and a few odds and ends.”

Content: 48 pages of content: NPCs, cults, a radio station, locations throughout CY, random encounter tables, infestations, “broke CEO” and “cyborg” classes, and (amazingly!) more. 

Writing: Tons of detail on each page to provide GMs and players with numerous possibilities; writing style oozes the essence of Cy_Borg: thematically grimy and vile and also compact rules/mechanics explanations.

Art/Design: Layout and aesthetic choices for each section are as varied and imaginative as the writing, contributing significantly to the fullness of immersion in the game universe and vibe.

Usability: “Consistency” is somewhat relative here–although there are many different layouts, aesthetics, etc., there are similar gestures throughout: highlighted headings/labels, text size to reflect hierarchical relationships between content, etc. so that navigation and identification of desired info is enjoyable rather than frustrating. Contrast is high throughout as well; only one page has a busy enough background to potentially slow reading.

Concept: “You woke up in a back alley among the garbage, memory-wiped and brain-scrambled. Rummaging through your clothes you hope to find some vestiges of your past. There must be some clues…”

Content: A class for the two-fisted pulp-loving gumshoe who enjoys sifting through back-alley grime for answers.

Writing: Gritty flourishes complete a well-rounded set of class details and characterization.

Art/Design: Spread layout highlights a pixel-art tech noir character in silhouette beside a column of multi-colored text across several distinct fonts.

Usability: Layout is easily navigable and color-coded text is recognizable, although some of the text is small and requires quite a bit of zooming in to read.

Concept: ”You never got the chance to go out in a blaze of glory. Somehow, it just never happened to you. Every ‘last job’ consistently failed to let you finally bite the concrete after taking on a platoon of SecOps solo to let the others get away. Survival is an irritating and embarrassing habit you seem to have picked up. So here you are, years and years later. The gray hairs creeping in, the same megacorps in control, the same synthetic food, the same brutal enforcers, the same putrescent city of the damned surrounding you. And yet, here you intend to stay.” 

Content: A class for the grizzled elder who’s gotten too old for this shit.

Writing: Inspired class features to make a player feel like they’ve seen it all and can share their violent wisdom with others.

Art/Design: Two versions provided: a ‘classic’ look with white-on-black lines of text over a crumpled-paper background illustration, and a ‘squeaky clean’ printer-friendly black-on-white text. Both versions include two color portraits of old guards.

Usability: Text provided in single column layout with capitals, bold, and (in the classic look) distinct colors, all to distinguish different types and sections of content. Easy to navigate and to identify important details.

Concept: “You were one of the good ones. A rare breed. That’s why you didn’t make it. The system is corrupt to its fucking core. This city is beyond saving. But there is something you can give it. Justice.”

Content: A class for the punk who wants to play a cop without breaking Cy_Borg’s Rule 0.

Writing: Descriptive class features and options that mesh well with (and are frequently named after!) cop-centric tropes and media.

Art/Design: Two-column text layout over a picture of a well-armored ex-cop with a split color scheme of black, white, and purple hues.

Usability: Text is quite easy to navigate and mostly readable–there are moments of potential visual confusion where the text and background colors are similar enough to obfuscate a word or phrase.