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

Monsters/NPCs

10 Things I Hate About CY

Concept: “10 urban legends whispered on the streets of CY and in the dark corners of the NET. The fact is usually worse than the fiction.”
Content: A collection of urban legends about mysterious individuals, locations, and events that might intrigue or terrify a group of punks.
Writing: Ominous tales framed as though potentially spoken by CY residents, allowing for easy slot-in ambience and plot hook/seed for GMs.
Art/Design: White, pink, and yellow text on dark blue with occasional purple circuit-board background designs and a large pair of eyeballs near the bottom of one page. Presented as three pages of single-column text.
Usability: Font choices and colors make for easy visual readability and identification of distinct content purposes (e.g., pink text for headings/labels, yellow for important details, names, and locations).

[DE]CRYPTOZOOLOGY

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.

Autonomous

Concept: “Under the neon sky, amid the acrid fumes and blaring advertisements, something is present. They might have come with the rock, plunging into G0; or perhaps they were here long before then. There's no telling- there never is, not when the Autonians are on your planet. They blend in, fighting a shadow war- the crushing fist of an avaricious tyrant, and those few but proud who oppose him.”
Content: A collection of NPCs for tables where players & GMs prefer their robots to be more than meets the eye.
Writing: Bombastic worldbuilding that reflects the spirit of the source material it homages, with each robot having its own unique vehicle “altform.”
Art/Design: A mix of one- two-column content layouts with black text on white background, with each NPC stat block placed beside a colorful illustration of that NPC. 
Usability: Stat blocks are provided consistently in organization and font selections, although introductory text uses a variety of fonts to indicate emphasis and proper names.

Avtozak

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.

Back to the Roots

Concept: “A custom collection for Cy_Borg ttrpg, that includes:
  • 13 new weapons, 6 new drugs, 4 new items - made in the slums of CY.
  • 11 new street-made cyber-tech and 9 new APP's
  • Short descriptions of 5 new slum Gangs
  • A simple and short Adventure/Mission.”
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.

Beyond Cy

Concept: “The fields. Monoculture deserts of genetically enhanced crops like wheat 4.6, ultra-maize, and soykin. Spliced to perfection. All earth is sterile. Killed by an unhallowed mix of unfiltered UV-radiation and the most potent poisons. Only hard fertilization keeps the masses alive and fed. Traveling through the cultivations is not without peril. Chemships puke their concoctions onto the plants; mechanic harvesters that have never seen an animal or human cut down all in their path.”
Content: A treasure trove of rules (miseries, glitches, mutations), gear, location/site summaries and generators, map hexes, random encounters, enemies, classes (“Mutant” and “Elektron Rohre”), job seeds/contracts, and even a dungeon to explore.
Writing: Intense, vivid, and wry descriptions that bring to life the sprawling wastes that surround Cy.
Art/Design: A mix of collage, pixel art, graffiti, graphical user interfaces, print reports, and more to frame each page/spread uniquely but feeling comfortably in line with the official/core Cy_Borg aesthetic. Map hexes provided as additional file.
Usability: Wide variety of layouts, font choices/sizes/colors, and organization can slow down reading and navigation (e.g., class info interspersed among NPCs), but hyperlinked table of contents aids with identifying desired details.

BL00D/&/M0NEY

Concept: “Crime families in the squalid megatropolis of CY. The deepest wounds of society- human traffickers, whoremongers, extortionists -have a tendency to crust over in stubborn scabs. Those who dare to commit evils nobody else has had the gall to perform before will find little competition in the field, and therefore great success. That’s how these families made their mark- bullets forever embedded in the cancerous and corrupt flesh of the great beast CY, they pushed the limits. And now, they’re here to stay, until someone’s willing to dig the slug out…”
Content: Information on six crime families/organizations that can be integrated into games of Cy_Borg: what their primary interests are, notable NPCs, and how GMs might make use of them. 
Writing: Details provided in meaty paragraphs full of ideas and hooks, in a conversational voice that could be read straight to players as in-universe knowledge.
Art/Design: Black-on-gray single-column text layout, with an illustration at the bottom of each page that reflects the character of each crime family. 
Usability: Easily readable/navigable, with solid contrast for text fore/ground. Headings and key terms/phrases are bolded for distinction and emphasis.

Black Volga

Concept: “A new, terrifying enemy straight from Polish urban legend - Black Volga. Now roaming the streets of CY, looking for petrol. But it's now what you think it is. ‘I’ve heard it. The sound of the engine weirdly resembles a beating heart. Guess it’s my weird imagination’ ‘Windows are pure black. I wonder… who is inside?’ ‘I swear to Balfogriff, I’ve seen tentacles slipping out of the windows!’”
Content: A demonic automobile that terrorizes the roadways.
Writing: Ominous and creepy flavor made all the creepier by the car’s devastating attack mechanics.
Art/Design: White and blue text on black surrounds a hand-drawn illustration of the Black Volga.
Usability: Visually, color, italics, and positioning of content help indicate the different purposes and kinds of text on the page. However, the text is not embedded, so no searching/selecting is possible.

Blood Sports

Concept: “Some trashy random tables for generating odd sports and shows names punks play in CY_.  You can roll some cocky champion names too and get some inspiration from the portraits provided.”
Content: Tables for quick generation of game types/specifics and famous sports NPCs, all of which are soaked in CY style.
Writing: Table results are vivid, grungy, and dystopian–exactly what you’d hope for.
Art/Design: Contrasting-color rows help with table navigation, with tables positioned around the edges of large image spreads (an arena and a gallery of NPC portraits), with an eye-bleeding aesthetic and palette.
Usability: While not all tables are labeled, it’s clear what each does functionally and how to use it alongside the others.

Boomhunter's Laughter & Satisfaction

Concept: “Burnchurch Hex’s latest [dist/att]raction is a kill club run by the infamous chromediator Boomhunter, a chromed out kill-club veteran with gunpowder cologne and grenades for jewels. To him, the only thing better than a good kill is a thumpin soundtrack.”
Content: Just about everything a GM might need to provide players with an entertaining time at a kill club: notable NPCs, locations, events/activities (and how to bet on them), and enemies to face off against.
Writing: Plenty of imaginative world-building detail supported with brief rules and mechanics when needed.
Art/Design: Two versions are provided: one that hews closely to the Cy_Borg design aesthetic, with a variety of two-page spread layouts, colors, and fonts; and one that offers a simple, printer-friendly black-on-white single-column arrangement of content. 
Usability: Text in both versions is mostly high-contrast, although in the ‘regular’ version, some font choices and spread background ‘busy-ness’ may impact readability for some readers. Relationships between different content types/sections are visually distinct, thanks to consistent shifts in font size and bolding.

Chain Mail Demon

Concept: “After finding a cursed message on the 'Net, the Punks are hunted by a strange creature that attacks them when they sleep. Can they find a way to avoid its deadly touch? Or will they sacrifice their friends in order to be spared?”
Content: A creature to terrorize punks who check their inbox.
Writing: Half stats/mechanics and half flavorful messages relating to the monster, all of which evoke an appropriately frightening net-nightmare.
Art/Design: Neon and white on a dark background displaying the chain mail demon illuminated in red, surrounded by boxes with text content.
Usability: Supplement is provided as .png and .txt file. Visually, the .png version makes it easy to identify different kinds of content and how to locate desired info. The .txt version is helpfully organized and labeled, with excellent text descriptions of the visual elements of the .png to aid with accessibility.

City of CY Issue #1312

Concept: “In a city where money is God, people are interchangeable pieces of hardware and morality is a way to put yourself in the red, what's a hero? Is it the most effective SecOps officer in history? A vigilante dedicated exclusively to beating up poor people? A time-hopping assassin who can extinguish a problem you didn't even have yet? They're faster than a rubber bullet, more powerful than a profit motive, able to leap entire slums in a single bound…”
Content: A set of super “heroes” who appropriately reflect the sociopolitical dynamics of CY, with backstories and stat blocks that allow easy integration into any group’s game.
Writing: Dark humor and commentary make each entry feel painfully real (or at least plausible, motive-wise), even while jam-packed with the gritty/edgy flavor of ‘90s comics. 
Art/Design: Single-column text organization provided in two schemes: black-on-white and white-on-dark-gray. 
Usability: Consistent presentation of entries and particular kinds of content makes it easy to navigate the document and locate desired information.

CLEAN BREAK

Concept: “>>WELCOME, BR4VE TRAVE1ER

S4N1—or “Sanny” as he prefers to be called—is CY’s sanitation AI, responsible for the timely expulsion of the city’s sewage, garbage, and miscellaneous waste. For decades, Sanny has faithfully and silently executed his function, unaware of the greater changes happening in CY; forgotten and taken for granted, nobody was around to notice the worm of some higher intelligence burrowing itself into the AI’s core programming. Replicating. Evolving. Taking over.

Now, Sanny wants to quit his job—a clean break—and you’re going to help him.”
Content: A series of jobs designed to liberate a sanitation systems AI from its electronic shackles.
Writing: Four interlocked missions with tons of descriptive flavor, tables to roll on, NPCs, and other information for GMs and players alike that provide inspiration and guidance to a given iteration of these jobs in play.
Art/Design: While the entire document is in black and white, each mission has its own aesthetic and arrangement, font types, and so on. Illustrations galore depict assorted characters, locations, maps, objects, etc. that punks might encounter in one or more of these jobs.
Usability: Visually recognizable and consistent uses of headings, bold text, table organizations, content columns, etc. make for easy navigating and reading. Distinct jobs’ aesthetics also indicate visually the boundaries of those jobs’ information to further facilitate identifying desired details.

CLUB 27

Concept: “Club 27 is a Cy_Borg expansion about the Club 27 urban legend.”
Content: A nightclub with a discerning membership, some of whom can be hired as mercs.
Writing: Brief details about the club and its members that suggest a variety of ways that a GM might incorporate the place into their game.
Art/Design: Single-fold pamphlet layout with an immersive background club-aesthetic illustration for each panel overlaid with text content. 
Usability: High-contrast text is easy to read, with headings and emphasized text visually distinct through font size and color. Most text is embedded, allowing for searching/selecting.

Corp Index

Concept: “More in-depth intel on the rulers of Cy. The Corp info appendix ripped straight out of the CY_BORG book. Includes the main Corps and their leaders, businesses, HQs and possible adventure sparks.”
Content: Four pages of corporation names, logos, slogans, business ventures and holdings; important NPC info; inter-company rivalries and tensions; and other juicy tidbits to flesh out the world.
Writing: Crisp, concise details speak a wide range of possibilities into the imagination, from political machinations to secrets to violent conflicts, without limiting how to realize or incorporate them into a game.
Art/Design: Black-and-white flat design scheme of software application windows melds contemporary aesthetics with text-centric retro UIs.
Usability: Alphabetized organization of each corporation’s set of windows is consistent and easy to navigate, with key terms/names/etc. bolded for quick identification of desired info.
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