PWYW

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).

Concept: “There's been a hushed-up incident at the Naiman Cybernetics factory in Bigmosse. The corpos are sweating and they need it cleaned up- fast and off-the-books. Head in and clean house, but stay on your guard: this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Content: A clearance mission at a cybernetics facility where the situation has gotten dangerously out of hand. Content provided in three versions: a “classic look” black-on-yellow scheme, a “nite mode” black-on-gray scheme, and a “squeaky clean” black-on-white scheme that uses standard fonts.

Writing: Detailed breakdowns of locations, NPCs/enemies, potential events that might unfold (including an alternate plot hook), and an optional set of bonus goals for the PCs to achieve.

Art/Design: Each version makes use of a single-column text layout, simplified location maps, and illustrations of enemy cyborgs.

Usability: Very easily readable and navigable, with consistent use of distinct headings/labels to indicate different sections and kinds of content and important elements.

Concept: “A low-level, mid-tier manager type from Aegis Conglomerated—using the screen name Mr. Greensleeves—needs an Aegis BioTech prototype implant recovered. This rare tech was “mistakenly” put down the recycle chute and ended up in a Mosscroft junkyard, Big Dumpers. As reward for recovering the implant and saving his job Mr. G promises to provide a backdoor into Aegis Financial for potential debt reduction. It’s simple: get to Big Dumpers, search for the implant, get the fuck out, and return it to Mr. G. What could possibly go wrong?“

Content: A simple search and rescue operation–but the PCs aren’t the only ones performing it.

Writing: Tons of character packed into the junkyard location (with a dozen areas of interest) and NPC details.

Art/Design: Trifold pamphlet layout that includes a map of Big Dumpers and relevant specifics on the inner panels, while job and NPC information appears on the outer panels. Color scheme is a mix of black-on-white and white-on-blue/yellow-on-blue.

Usability: Organization is easily recognizable, with headers and important information consistently distinguished from body text by font choice, size, color, and inline bolding.

Concept: “You were a cog in the massive machine that feeds the city of Cy. Now, for one reason or another, you had to abandon your algae farm. All you have is the clothes on your back, a couple pieces of gear, and whatever the fuck you found out in the emerald muck of the vast algae fields.”

Content: A class for the “rural” outsider who’s ready to make a mockery of the hero’s journey.

Writing: Really engaging, flavorful text pervades the entire document; mechanics information is distinguished by underlined phrases amidst the descriptive core content.

Art/Design: A lo-fi image of an algae farmer, surrounded by imposing stalks of their crop, supports bright green, yellow, and white text content.

Usability: A variety of visual markers–boxes, clearly labeled list items, color choices–very effectively organize the presentation of class information across a two-page spread.

Concept: “This scenario was written to tie two separate groups of PCs together into one central narrative. One group of PCs are fleeing from the Reaper Repo scenario (included in the CY_BORG Asset Pack) while another group of PCs are waiting in a getaway car.”

Content: An intricate means of integrating multiple PC parties into the same story, making skillful use of the Full Auto supplement for support (required for this adventure’s vehicular component).

Writing: Focused direction for how to set up & run the encounter components (including individual NPCs) is valuable for the GM unsure of how to handle everything. Tons of ambience provided in descriptions of the scenario location.

Art/Design: Simple three-column layout across three pages, with a map illustration and room descriptions across p. 2.

Usability: Content is pretty easily navigable thanks to simplicity of layout, with some accent color and bolding choices to help distinguish section headers and important details.

Concept: “A collection of Sixty-Six profile images for punks in Cy_Borg. Generated using prompts for the AI image generator DALL-E 2. Images chosen for their stylistic properties.”

Content: Portraits of a diverse variety of punk characters perfect for CY residents.

Writing: Each image is labelled/named descriptively with the DALL-E 2 prompt that generated it, which offers an expressive sense of the goals for generating it.

Art/Design: Hand-drawn aesthetics (despite being AI-generated) suggest a DIY/custom creation effect that might speak to many players.

Usability: Very easy to navigate to the image(s) that seem interesting from their descriptions for examination & use.

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: “The pumping beats of the last Post-Grunge Blitz-Rave still course through your veins.”
Content: A class for the circuit-bending audiophile who’s long wanted to use their love of sick riffs and beats to obliterate the enemy.
Writing: Brief glimpses into a fully-formed lingo for the class detonate idea-bombs about how to live, and not just use, the vividly described mechanics provided here.
Art/Design: Filtered neon cityscapes and a close-up of a soundfiend on the prowl stand out as strongly as the bold, distinct headings for each set of class details/features.
Usability: General organization is quite navigable, although some font choices can make reading tricky; similarly, HP & Glitch calculation details blend into the background image.

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: “An easy job !  Just sit around and babysit some corpo doctor and this box. Easy money?”

Content: A gig to retrieve, guard, and escort a person and their cargo to a designated safehouse.

Writing: Prolific details to flesh out the mission and the various groups with interests in its success–or failure.

Art/Design: Trifold brochure format provides initial parameters on the inner panels and later-stage conflicts on the outer panels. Predominantly white/yellow text on black, with NPC stats in black on brightly colored boxes, with portraits and street scenes complementing text. An additional page is provided with a safehouse location map and player-facing ‘breaking news’ info. 

Usability: Color-coded text references draw attention to different NPC interactions, and consistent use of content section color and shape makes for easy identification of desired info.

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.

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.

Concept: “They took everything from you. You’re gonna make them pay.”

Content: A class for the vengeful arsonist on a path of destruction.

Writing: Concise, intense text that merges pathos and mechanics into intriguing features.

Art/Design: A stunning illustration of a firestarter in red, framed on either side by a column of class features in white on black.

Usability: Text is easily readable and navigable, with helpful bolding for headers and horizontal rules for separating different class details.

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.