Gear/Items

Concept: “10 additional Cybertechs for CY_BORG.”

Content: A set of cybertech options for further bodily customization.

Writing: Cybertech names and features are imaginative, suggesting creative opportunities for timely uses. 

Art/Design: Two-column spread, with table of cybertech options on the left and a black-and-white illustration of an individual with significant cybernetic modifications. A black-on-white print-friendly version is also included.

Usability: Table contents are cleanly organized, with color/bold highlights for table row numbers and costs for each cybertech.

Concept: “Gear up with a few new pieces of cyber-enhanced equipment, including some references to popular games and media.”

Content: A set of armor, weaponry, and related tech to add to the marketplace in a game of Cy_Borg.

Writing: Equipment details are offered concisely and in a straightforward fashion, allowing item names to fill in potential flavor/character (whether they’re references to media or not).

Art/Design: Black text on yellow, with a faint caution tape illustration background and a similar pattern around the edges of the page.

Usability: Text is high contrast and easily readable, with a consistent organization for each item to allow quick grasp of and reference for item details as needed, including bolded damage/armor stats and a legend at the bottom of the page for some shared attributes.

Concept: “A bunch of custom APP's for CyBorg, to make hacking and hackers more fun.”

Content: A set of apps for the discerning hacker, whether they work with or against the PCs.

Writing: Imaginative descriptions and mechanicals effects that feel quintessentially cyberpunk.

Art/Design: Two-column layout of white text on translucent pink over a dark blue patterned background.

Usability: Clearly distinguishable app entries provide easy navigation, and text/background contrast provides accessible readability.

Concept: “Avtozak is a Cy_Borg expansion about riots.”

Content: A set of riot-related NPCs, weapons, and a table of riot causes.

Writing: Terse, frank descriptions and stats/mechanics for included content.

Art/Design: Illustrations of riot vehicles and participants (cops and protesters) with highlight colors are positioned alongside relevant high-contrast text.

Usability: Font choices are readable, with headings/labels and background colors for distinct sections that assist navigation and perusal.

Concept: “A custom collection for Cy_Borg ttrpg, that includes:

Content: Tons of material to flesh out a game, from equipment to drugs to gang NPCs/enemies, with a scenario in the slums to take down a sadistic AI (and a map for the location).

Writing: Concise, direct descriptions and explanations of mechanics for a huge number of entries for various categories. 

Art/Design: Mostly two-column page layouts (each with its own color scheme/aesthetic) with content on a translucent background pane over detailed, high-tech images. Map of floorplan includes effective icons indicating room features.

Usability: Text is easily readable with distinct heading/label decoration present in each page’s layout aesthetic.

Concept: “Yum! Delicious Bombles Chewable Grenades, a piece of equipment compatible with CY_BORG RPG. (DO NOT SWALLOW)”

Content: A fun and tasty way to weaponize one’s food.

Writing: Concise, direct explanation of bombles and how they operate mechanically.

Art/Design: White-on-pink (and yellow highlights) advertisement aesthetic with an image of a gumball machine on the right side of the page. 

Usability: Info is easy to navigate and recognize particular content details, from bumble flavors to mechanical effects to credit cost. Supplement is provided as an image file, so text is not searchable or selectable.

Concept: “_EMPORIUM.ltd can not -and will not- be prosecuted or held responsible for damages, accidents, manglings, ablations, amputations, mutilations, rippings, crushings, decapitations or general acts of violence perpetrated by its proprietary software or hardware. (see UGC p.314, 34-95, all responsibility surrendered.)”

Content: A set of ten purchasable cyber-pet options (six “protection” and four “exhibition” options) and several mods to further enhance a given pet.

Writing: Categorical and pet-specific descriptions smoothly blend in-universe sales pitches and mechanical effects to entice an animal companion-seeking connoisseur.

Art/Design: Black text on white in mostly one- and two-column layouts, complemented by black-and-white illustrations of multiple pets sporting red highlights.

Usability: Sections and distinct kinds of content are consistently presented throughout, with visually readable text content. That said, some text is searchable/selectable but some is not, which might complicate some readers’ experience.

Concept: “CY_OPS is a 66 page A6 player-facing CY_BORG zine presented as an in-universe punk zine. No mechanics, no stats, just a chaotic little zine full of worldbuilding, quest hooks, items and a bunch of other cyberpunk stuff for your players to use in your CY_BORG games.”

Content: NPCs full of personality quirks, unique equipment ideas, and scenario/adventure ideas casually scattered across hectically organized spreads mixing hi- and lo-fi design and tech aesthetics. "Activity" pages offer even more direct involvement with the document.

Writing: Infectiously fun, engaging ideas presented as in-universe media, from QR codes to other CY_BORG material to instruction manual pages to chat transcripts and more. “Worldbuilding” feels like an understatement.

Art/Design: Two-page spreads stand mostly independent of one another, with some common fonts and illustration styles that draw attention to a wide range of character, occupation, and gear-related concepts that open up even more possibilities for immersing a party in CY. 

Usability: Different spread layouts may not assist with consistency, but text is mostly high-contrast and readable (some pages’ white on pink might be difficult for some readers, as is text perpendicular to main orientation). Sheer amount of content is likely to keep readers interested and closely perusing each page.

Concept: “404//SAN is the demented frontpage of the NET, where manifold rumors, advertisements, hoaxes, and conspiracies produce a worthless information sludge. Still, more than enough masochistic users flock to the site to be entertained by trolls or cheated out of their life's savings.”

Content: A one-stop shop for adventures/scenarios, NPCs, monsters, apps, cyberware and equipment, additional rules ideas, and more.

Writing: Every page provides dozens of imaginative and enticing ideas for inspiration, with many pages offering highly engaging in-universe descriptions or framing for their game content.

Art/Design: A variety of artistic and aesthetic styles that embody the artpunk philosophy. The browsing experience feels in line with the CY_BORG rulebook itself.

Usability: Requires close, and often slow, examination to identify and make effective use of content (text and image alike), especially when moving across very differently styled spreads–but very worth the effort.

Concept: “In the shadowy depths of neon-lit Cy_, where man, creature, and machine meld into one, enigmatic |0r3N_C0@lM@N3|, a [de]cryptoZoologist, obsesses about cryptids. Offering bountiful creds or cutting-edge apps as rewards, she lures runners into capturing these elusive beings, her true intentions shrouded in mystery.”

Content: A collection of useful cryptid-related information and inspiration: a NPC and their laboratory, several NPCs, and a set of apps.

Writing: Descriptive overviews for entries along with mechanics that reflect the character of each.

Art/Design: Trifold pamphlet layout with pink and white on black, with each panel presented mostly as a single column of text and glitch-aesthetic illustrations.

Usability: Layout and text contrast provides easy reading and browsing for desired info.

Concept: “Gruesome implants and upgrades for a future where the body is irrelevant and flesh has no sanctity. Defile your physicality to keep up in the rat race of society. Set-dressing or inspiration from grim-dark cybernetics.”

Content: A d10 table of bizarre and grotesquely functional options for upgrading one’s imperfect and disappointing meat-suit. 

Writing: Powerfully inventive descriptions of implants that suggest a wide range of uses and reasons for their potential ubiquity in CY–but no stats or game mechanics are attached. It’s all flavor, and it is zesty.

Art/Design: Black text on yellow, with a chaotic-looking font or set of font choices for each entry’s label. An image of disturbing surgeons working on an unseen patient frames the supplement’s title.

Usability: While each label can be difficult to read due to the intentionally inconsistent appearance of each character, the text overall is very easy to read and navigate to consider options or to locate desired info.

Concept: “Guards and Goons got you on the down and out? Drink delicious Cherry BLOOD cola for the pick-me-up you need to get the job done!”

Content: An in-game drink for a punk to chug and get that pick-me-up needed to take down some big business bastards. (Creator notes that content will be updated in the future with additional drink options.)

Writing: Terse description focusing on mechanical effects that ingeniously last until a character (or player?) needs to urinate.

Art/Design: This might be the most diegetic third-party content out as of this entry's publication. Item details are provided as soda can/bottle wraparound labels, with game stats replacing the usual nutrition details. 

Usability: White on red can be difficult for some to read. QR code provided on label takes the reader to a playlist that fits the tone of drinking the cola.

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: “A simple collection of 8 new weapons/tools to use in your  Cy_Borg games!”

Content: A set of items that an enterprising punk might use for fucking shit up.

Writing: Succinct product names and rules to clearly indicate why someone might want and use each one.

Art/Design: Black-on-white “photocopied flyer” aesthetic, with an illustration accompanying each item description.

Usability: Very easy to visually navigate the page and recognize how each element contributes to an understanding of the equipment, from capitalized item names to bolded DR values. However, text is not searchable/selectable.

Concept: “A Fungal themed Zine to Cy_Borg, It contains: 3 Enemies; 4 Themed Items; Hallucination condition.”

Content: A cluster of mushroom-based threats and loot.

Writing: Brief mechanics-focused stat blocks with thematically potent names and descriptions.

Art/Design: Two pages of bright pink and blue with green, with the first page having a fungal background image. 

Usability: Color scheme and layout feel appropriately chaotic for the theme, but color intensity and relative lack of consistent organization may lead some readers to overlook important elements (e.g., small-text Hallucination rule just above the 3rd party license on p. 1).