PWYW

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.

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: “Maybe you're tired of Players rolling Presence to charm/snipe/shoot their way in and out of any situation, especially that Discharged Corp Killer who, for some reason, rolled a +3 on his Presence. Well, do not worry anymore, as this hack aims to fix that.”

Content: An expansion of stats and skills to add a bit more crunch to games of Cy_Borg. 

Writing: Focused, direct explanation of optional mechanics to integrate into a game, along with an insightful rationale for the hack’s existence and a character sheet organized to include the new stats & skills.

Art/Design: Single-column white text on a dark black-and-purple patterned background. Character sheet mixes hand-drawn illustration, photo collage, and fillable fields.

Usability: Text in both files is high contrast and has consistent font use for headings/labels and body content. Unfortunately, text is not embedded in either file, so searching/selecting is not available.

Concept: "’Some desperate Alliansen admin put out a plea to rescue her AI program. Not sure why she doesn't just use company muscle to get it back, but she's promisin' the reward of "anything within her abilities," so here we are. Hope ya brought your earplugs though, cuz the goons that stole it are LOUD.’”

Content: A mission to recover an AI stolen by musicians.

Writing: Concise bursts of info to guide a GM toward notable encounters and fitting atmosphere.

Art/Design: Red and blue on black, with an aesthetic that mixes graffiti/tagging with software terminals, arranged in mostly one- and two-column layouts. A map of target location is provided in pink.

Usability: Consistent presentation of content elements throughout the document, making visual identification of headings etc. very easy. However, text is not embedded so no searching or selecting is possible.

Concept: “Chiphead. Holobob. Eyerot. People talk a lot of shit. Let them. You know something they don’t: the whole world’s a stage, and you’re a motherfucking star. All you gotta do is keep dancing, and let the brain-tape roll.”

Content: A class for the talent, the face, the influencer, the fame addict.

Writing: Intriguing class features that evoke a mix of excitement and outright horror that feels completely appropriate for the streets of Cy.

Art/Design: Two-page spread with a portrait illustration of a brain dancer on the left with class features in creatively organized tables on the right.

Usability: For the most part, each section of content is visually distinct from the others, which makes for easy navigation on the page. However, the file is provided as a PNG, so text is not embedded (no searching or copying/pasting available).

Concept: “Narrow and crowded. The BugGrub Burger shines green and purple. Sounds of wet smacking. Insectoid mascots crowd the outer walls and ceilings, shrieking adverts … an explosion rains glass on all of it. The Heirs of Kargoz advance. Get in and out before they do.”

Content: A scenario for assassins and data thieves who prefer fast food to fine dining and want to know how the sausage gets made.

Writing: Inspired descriptions and scenario components bring the Burger joint to life and provide GMs with a plethora of dangerously grimy and horrifying details.

Art/Design: Primarily black-on-white text with colors to accent headings/labels and helpful images–a map of the site, employee portraits, etc.

Usability: Layout and color scheme is easy to make sense of for quick navigation and identification of desired info. While content is in PDF form, the text is not embedded, so no searching or copying content to clipboard is available.

Concept: “Obsessed with chrome and power, one man army, murder machine.”

Content: A class for the cyberware-focused ship of Theseus.

Writing: Brief bursts of evocative flavor and mechanics hint at intriguing possibilities for a unique character.

Art/Design: Bright colors draw attention to the content arranged around the page, with a large skull in the center that stares at the reader. 

Usability: Text is very readable, and several different fonts and colors provide highly visible distinctions in content and purpose.

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.

Concept: “You were just another dreg waiting for death. But then that explosion happened inside your prison transport. Your face is on every city corner, but your more concerned with the electricity shooting from your fingers. You don't hunger but crave the power of energy. You need answers, and you suspect you're not the only one of your kind. Will you blaze an unforgiving war path, or be a paragon of hope?”

Content: A class for the player whose relationship with electronics–or even static–is “complicated.”

Writing: Direct explanations of class features provided to situate the player toward the class and its assorted benefits and detriments.

Art/Design: A spread of class details in two columns beside an expressive image of a conductive convict rendered in chalk.

Usability: Layout facilitates navigation between sections and understanding content. However, the class is provided as an image, so text is not searchable or accessible as a result.

Concept: “Royal West Shipping has hired your gang for a non-union haul to their warehouse in Mosscroft. Only the desperate, or foolish would participate. Are you willing to sacrifice everything for the creds?”

Content: An adventure that involves transporting cargo through the city, complete with a number of hazards, obstacles, and other dangers that might await the unsuspecting punk.

Writing: Tight, concise descriptions of relevant details for GM and player creative elaboration/interpretation of the scenario events.

Art/Design: Two-column spread with a left-side glitch art illustration and a right-side single column of scenario text.

Usability: While the font choice is clean and sections are distinguished with whitespace and indentation, text is not embedded so not searchable or capable of copy/paste. A high-contrast version of the document is included.

Concept: “Unlike some people, you actually have a job. Wake up, shower, force feed, commute, grind, commute, wind down, brush teeth, sleep. Repeat until put out to pasture.”

Content: A class for the everyman who’s working hard but yearns to be hardly working.

Writing: Succinct descriptions and class features to situate a player amid tedious labor conditions.

Art/Design: Black-on-white two-column spread layout with touches of static, glitch, and photocopied aesthetics.

Usability: High-contrast text in distinctly organized blocks of content make for easy identification and navigation throughout spread.

Concept: “While the VIPs were doing drugs and having sex in Ports You studied the blade. And when Your parents kicked you out You put your skills to use.”

Content: A class for the inner edgelord who wants to viciously dual-wield the tropes of anime and anime fan.

Writing: Helpfully clear mechanics drenched in the flavor of this class concept.

Art/Design: Clean illustration of archetype complements a minimalist layout.

Usability: Readable, navigable text with visually clear distinctions between types of class features/details.

Concept: “New Location Pad Entry. A Strip Club Dungeon inhabited by a strange Candy Cult for TRIGGER WARNING Jam compatible with Cy Borg.”

Content: A mission to liberate a cultist from their organization’s lair. A pair of player-facing handouts (including a map) is also included.

Art/Design: Two-column layout with black, pink, and white elements. Job details and NPC stats provided on the left, complemented by illustrations of candy, cultists, and–to the right–two levels of Club TITS Unlimited.

Usability: Text is mostly high-contrast and easy to discern purpose for, allowing for easy perusal and use. Only some text is embedded, which can complicate searching or selecting text.

Concept: “A sampling of cults from across the stricken districts of CY, peddlers of false hope to the rasping masses that congregate in the shadows of avarice and oppression. Each of these cults has a leader, an ideology and a specific trouble they cause to the already troubled city. However, where there is trouble to be caused there is opportunity to be seized, and pvnks with few scruples could make significant creds in the employ of these deranged zealots by doing their dirty work for them.”

Content: A collection of six cults and details about their goals, backgrounds, vices, and leaders.

Writing: Detailed descriptions and explanations of cults to be found in CY, with plenty of scenario/plot potential for a GM to develop further.

Art/Design: Layout is primarily a single column of text, with an evocative image reflecting each cult placed amid that cult’s descriptive paragraphs. Color scheme is black on yellow.

Usability: Layout is extremely easy for identifying particular elements and navigating to desired info. Cult entries are provided in a numbered list, and key information is bolded or highlighted.

Concept: “What are you looking for? There isn’t anything here. Nothing. At all. Stop searching. Certainly not a digital ghost. A flicker on each camera, closer and closer to the penthouse suite. A single vital minute’s disruption in security. The scanner bleep you simply overlooked. A shadow in your programs. A knife in the neck in the time it takes to hit refresh. No, nothing like that at all. Probably just a glitch. You can probably ignore it.”

Content: A class for the player who lives and breathes stealth and evasion. 

Writing: Colorful descriptions of class features provided mostly in engaging, full-sentence format addressing the player rather than as stat blocks or succinct phrases.

Art/Design: Two versions provided: a white-on-dark background version, which is overlaid on glitch art of a hooded figure and uses some yellow highlighting for emphasis and key terms, and a simple printer-friendly black-on-white version whose only embellishment is bolded text for emphasis and key terms.

Usability: Consistently readable visually (and as embedded text) and accessible in language. The calculation of SHADOW (as part of the “Haunting” feature/mechanic) might temporarily trip up some at first.

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: “There are creatures from worlds beyond our own, and all of them fucking hate you.”

Content: A nightmarish behemoth you’ll want a BFG just for the chance to frag it.

Writing: Deadly stats combined with a mesmerizing world-building overview of the creature’s origins.

Art/Design: A brightly colored two-page spread with an image of the monster and its stats next to its origin description.

Usability: Assorted content blocks are easily distinguishable, although the longer descriptive text block may become difficult for some to read over the background pattern near the bottom of the page.

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: “Alternate character gen rules, for a slightly more forgiving dystopian hellscape.”

Content: A set of rules to alter character creation, including increased HP and an adjustment to stat bonuses/penalities. 

Writing: Explanations are terse and easily understandable.

Art/Design: Single-column layout with a stats table sidebar, with light gray text on a dark background.

Usability: Large headings and horizontal rules help indicate distinct sections and their purposes. Rule adjustments should provide quick adjustments to play.

Concept: "Random tables to spice up your PCs." 

Content: Two tables for customizing living dead creatures: d6 heinous powers and d6 ways to become undead.

Writing: Flavor is hilariously macabre, and mechanics are explained clearly but also in line with macabre flavor.

Art/Design: Black/yellow color scheme accents the image of a deranged living dead creature surrounded by table entries.

Usability: Content is easy to read but tables are “exploded” across the page.

Concept: “Modern design layout of the metro systems of Cy including over 60 stops, express lines and an accompanying shitty mobile app to route yourself around Cy. What more do you want?”

Content: A browser-based “transit terminal” that provides users with a text-based breakdown of the stops involved from Point A to Point B. Accompanied by a PDF of the city transit system map.

Writing: Succinct and direct explanation of the route from starting location to the desired destination.

Art/Design: Browser functionality provides a simple, terminal-like functionality with two selection lists and a button to generate the output. System map closely resembles many metro transit systems’ official maps, complete with multiple routes distinguished by different colors.

Usability: Incredibly easy to use both components, although many are likely to have a personal preference for the presentation/function of one over the other.

Concept: “Emily Radfield, a ripperdoc based in westside Laketon, received a postmortem message from her friend, Sarna---a dead man's switch. Emily hires the PCs to infiltrate a cyber-scav chop shop and recover Sarna's remains. She also wants the PCs to ‘kill as many of those scum-sucking assholes as humanly possible.’”

Content: A gig to infiltrate and retrieve a body from a scavenger stronghold.

Writing: Plenty of details to outline what the deal is, who’s involved and why, and what a GM can spring on the PCs as they seek out their target.

Art/Design: Ultra-wide four-column layout, with three columns of text on the left and a map of the chop shop on the right. Black-on-white color scheme complemented by color highlights in and around the map.

Usability: Each section of content is consistently presented, with distinct whitespace and border use to indicate particular kinds of content. Bold and italics help to emphasize key elements GMs may want to attend to.

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: “1EDX is the biggest viscpop band in all of CY. Now, their songwriter has contacted a bunch of punks to try and 'kidnap'--that is, free--them from the clutches of the band. Currently, they're in 1EDX's luxury mansion compound. But it's just the time for a rescue op, as 1EDX is opening their doors to a few lucky winners of a raffle for a tour of their mansion. Act fast.“

Content: A scenario to infiltrate, locate, and liberate the abused talent from the city’s biggest pop stars. Two versions of content included: "Classic Look" and "Squeaky Clean."

Writing: Plenty of engaging detail to flesh out the locale, the situation, and the NPCs that the PCs might encounter, including some juicy secrets for the GM to incorporate or have the players discover as appropriate. 

Art/Design: Primarily black, single-column text on yellow, with some color-coded labels to indicate particularly important details and (near the end of the supplement) approaches to the mission. Clean, lo-fi overhead map layouts of the mansion with color-coded layouts and labels. An image of a massively populated concert frames the adventure title on page 1.

Usability: Color-coding helps tremendously to relate particular elements to one another, and layout allows for quick navigation and identification of desired info. “Squeaky Clean” version is included for even easier reading, and more printer-friendly, experience (black on white with less color use throughout).

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: “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.