PWYW

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: “Take to the skies as an unarmed specialist and wrestling phenom! Use your fists and your repertoire of deadly special moves to bring your foes to their knees.”

Content: A class for the punk who lives to bring kayfabe to every battle.

Writing: Mostly informative text complemented by thematic description so as to focus the reader’s attention on embodying the luchador character.

Art/Design: Three-panel spread with an illustration of a cyber-luchador in the center and text on either side. Mostly white on pink fore/ground.

Usability: Different sections of content are organized and positioned distinctly from one another to help with navigation and identification of desired details. Font size and use of bolding strengthens visual readability of text.

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: “_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: “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: “Wanted to include mental struggles in your gameplay but didn't know how? Well, the new STRESS mechanic does just that: allows you (as the GM) to have characters get stressed out when they get their limbs cut off, their partner dies, their gun jams, their food tastes nasty, they're sitting in a piss-filled bar, the drink tastes like gasoline and any other stressful situation!”

Content: A set of rules to deal with the potential stress/strain of adding more and more cybertech in a single body.

Writing: A balanced mix of definition/description and mechanics to explain how each stressor and effect can impact a punk through both roleplay and dice rolls.

Art/Design: Colorful landscape-oriented pages with white text on a translucent content container shape to increase contrast with background colors/patterns.

Usability: Distinct content sections help indicate distinct purposes for each, with visually apparent headings. Background image/pattern noise might impact some readability. Text is not embedded, so searching/selecting is not possible.

Concept: “This supplement is meant to translate the fantastic solo rules and oracles from Sölitary Defilement and Alone In the Crowd by 1d10+5, and Sölitary Depths by Chaoclypse (Brandon Yu).”

Content: A set of rules for solitary Cy_Borg play based on several other third-party rules supplements. 

Writing: Direct, accessible explanations of rules presented alongside throngs of tables and oracles to facilitate solo play.

Art/Design: Two versions provided: one full-color landscape-oriented version and one plain black-on-white single-column portrait-oriented version.

Usability: Full-color version pages/slides differ in color scheme, with mostly high-contrast text (although the text is not embedded, so no searching or selecting). Plain version text is fully searchable.

Concept: ”As you roam the streets of CY_ you see something. It's shiny, a little dirty. As you remove the garbage surrounding it you realise it's a: 23: Lost shoe with 1D4 toes inside. 35: RFID card with the locale company card’s name on it. 75: Spray paint. Colour label reads “Rotblack”. Get a fun and slightly silly D100 table of stuff you can find in the city CY_.”

Content: A table of assorted valuables, junk, and the miscellanea in-between that might be discovered in CY.

Writing: Concise description complemented with the occasional introspective element or quirky voice that reminds the reader of the game and world at hand.

Art/Design: Table provided as three primary columns of content: a left-aligned list of items (#s 1-50), a center set with the table name and author credits, and a right-aligned list (#s 51-100). The list columns are black on white, with the central column’s scheme inverted, while horizontal black bars stretch from the center in either direction to fill the white space in each list item line.

Usability: Overall layout of page allows for relatively easy navigation/perusal to desired content. Consistent presentation of content in each major column aids with comprehension and use of table and its entries.

Concept: “[Multiple] collection[s] of d66 profile images for punks in Cy_Borg. Generated using prompts for the AI image generator DALL-E 2 [and/or Stable Diffusion]. Images chosen to match the theme.  Great for rolling up characters or for NPC's.”

Content: A range of prompt-based, AI-generated art in a variety of styles, from ink pen to colored chalk to painting. Each image focuses on a profile/headshot of a potentially downtrodden resident of CY. Each collection has a different set of portraits.

Writing: N/A

Art/Design: Each image conjures exciting possibilities to mind and suggests a different way of envisioning PCs and NPCs alike.

Usability: Images are easy to extract and browse. Files are helpfully named/numbered based on roll results.

Concept: “Some of them sound like bullshit or don't make sense, but hey, everybody gotta eat, right ? Anyway, you're fired.”

Content: A table to flesh out the scope of a job/career a punk has previously held.

Writing: Terse but potent descriptions of various jobs, some far less appealing or lucrative than others but all quite apt for CY.

Art/Design: Two versions provided: one black-on-white and one white/green-on-dark green, both using a three-column layout for the table entries.

Usability: Headings, list item numbering, and sub-table organization are all visually evident and consistent, making for easy navigation and identification of desired details.

Concept: “A playable adventure zine compatible with Cy_Borg.   This is my take on a cyber punk dungeon crawl.  Probably better for more advanced characters.  This hasn't been play tested so any notes or suggestions are appreciated!”

Content: A job to rescue a mob boss’s daughter from a booby-trapped maze.

Writing: Tons of informative detail to set up a GM well for running their players through a deadly labyrinth.

Art/Design: A lot of red, black, and white in a variety of aesthetics, complemented by occasionally different page styles (often in the form of digital interfaces/pop-up windows). Illustrations are provided to help set the stage for different elements of the job and to highlight NPCs. A keyed map of the maze is also included.

Usability: Font choices are visually readable with solid contrast on most pages. However, text is not embedded so no searching/selecting is possible.

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: “This is what happens when you try fighting Death on its home turf. DEATH & INCAPACITATION expands on Cy_borg's death system with Death Threshold, Death Blow, and Incapacitation Effects. It's designed with longer running campaigns in mind where fatality is still a distinct possibility but returning from Death's threshold is a difficult journey has repercussions . With permanent and temporary effects such as Personality Shift and Death-Rage, with a few tweaks to the existing mechanics, this hack adds new depth to the road of a Punk's inevitable demise.“

Content: An expansion of rules relating to death and incapacitation (as the title suggests) with a range of possible effects, mitigating factors, and even some benefits of a sort.

Writing: Mechanical elements complemented by concise thematic descriptions reflecting specific situations (hemorraghing, dealing with emergency response teams, stabilizing, etc.).

Art/Design: Two pages with a three-column brochure layout. Black-on-white/light gray with a circuit or digital interface-style patterned background. Two dithered images are provided (a seated, possibly dying individual, and a group of ERTs).

Usability: Consistent presentation of info throughout document, with each new section clearly distinct from the others and with visually recognizable table organization.

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: “One bad day. A round of layoffs. Corporate Downsizing. Locked out of your coffin apartment. Your life subscription cancelled. Thrown out like garbage. Disposable. Replaceable. Not anymore. Stick it to the corpo pigs that ruined your life over an automated rounding error.
Make them pay.”

Content: A class for the wage slave who’s falling down and ready to bring those who wronged them to the gutter as well.

Writing: Potently concise descriptive and mechanical details highlight essential qualities of the class.

Art/Design: A rainbow of neon colors across the landscape-oriented spread, with an image of a disgraced cubicle zombie standing on a car toward the left side of the page, with class information taking up the remaining space.

Usability: While the colors are eye-searing (with the initial descriptive paragraph having the last contrast on the page), different kinds of content are consistently and reliably tinted, arranged, and spaced for more easily identification and navigation throughout.

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: “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: “A CY_Borg adventure for three or more players.  A heist mission on a boat with a twist ending! Sneak around and find the stash or go in full John Wu action style.”

Content: A job to snag some drugs from a boat that sounds (and, of course, is) too good to be true. Details for two additional/rival teams of NPC punks are also included.

Writing: Terse details for each of a number of dimensions of the job, from info-gathering to specific rooms/areas of the ship itself. 

Art/Design: White text on (mostly) dark background illustrations, organized on different pages either single-column or double-column (text and graphic) layouts. A clean black-on-white version is also provided.

Usability: For the full-color version, font is mostly readable thanks to high contrast of fore/ground on majority of pages. Visually, some pages have “busier” background illustrations than others, which can complicate reading/navigation (made much easier in the black & white version).

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: “Welcome to a sneak preview of the upcoming Wasteland Degenerates RPG!  While this 12-page solo game differs in several mechanical ways to the final product coming to BackerKit, the worldbuilding and vibes are consistent with my final vision.  This is meant to be a solo journaling RPG played with All Of the Dice, a pencil/pen, and paper, both of the regular and graph variety.”

Content: A post-apocalyptic solo RPG in the vein of Dark Fort. 

Writing: Tons of details about the world and the game rules to provide a player with lots to imagine and to write about (for those who journal as they play) while exploring an ominous armory.

Art/Design: While there are several illustrations of the armory and of a punk, the layout is primarily a set of single-column black-on-white pages of text. 

Usability: High-contrast text with consistent heading/label formatting (bold, larger font size, underlining for labels, etc.) and whitespace (between elements, to the left of list items, etc.) make navigation of the document easier given the sheer amount of information provided in twelve pages. 

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: “The world is over. The human race is fucked. Alien AIs are the new overlords. They want our precious thought waves and reproductive organs. It’s all their fault. You know who. That’s why they want to stop you. That’s why they want to destroy your prophetic visions. They want to stop you from telling the TRUTH. You have to make people pay attention to your message otherwise a corpo hit squad doesn’t just disappear you and scrub everything. The only thing people pay attention to is violence. Time to make your own fertilizer and stuff drones full of high explosives. The TRUTH needs to be told.”

Content: A class for the conspiracy theorist who’s ready to put their ideas into practice.

Writing: An emphasis on descriptions and mechanics that reflect the information overload and sensory assault of the class works well to position a player who wants to give the class a try.

Art/Design: Extremely loud prismatic color scheme with purple having prominence. Nearly every line is a different font or color from those around it. An illustration of an explosive ideologue is placed to the left of the single-column text taking up the majority of the page.

Usability: Text is not embedded, so no searching/selecting text. The variety of fonts, text sizes, and color choices means that the content may be incredibly difficult for many to read. 

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: “In the early days of the Net, there were those who saw its potential and sought to harness it. Among them was a naturally gifted hacker who was known to those in the community only as 0nryo. She was one of the first to dive deep beyond the surface and what she found permanently altered her. She spent more and more time diving into the Net, attempting to learn to control it. Eventually people stopped hearing from her. Some assumed her to have gone insane or to have died: black-iced within the Net. However the hackers that would follow her footsteps into the deep would swear that her consciousness remains within the labyrinthine web of data that makes up the Net, waiting for those foolhardy enough to go in too far. These rumors were given new life when a hacker group ventured in searching for her and died a week later.”

Content: A mission to deal with a curse from a fabled hacker’s app cartridge.

Writing: Tons of detailed description of the mission site, unfolding events, and background lore for the GM to employ strategically.

Art/Design: Primarily single-column white on blue, with a gridded map of the destination oil rig and an instance of thematically appropriate glitch text/art.

Usability: Distinct content sections are marked with visible decoration, while major headings are immediately evident as larger text. Directions from each room to others are also helpfully provided.

Concept: “Sveri Suplex, up-and-coming cybertech influencer has lost it and joined a cult of neoprimitivists in Mosscroft. His handlers in Tulles&deVerte offer good ¤ for finding and bringing him back to civilization.”

Content: A delightfully disgusting romp through a rotting whale to liberate an off-the-grid social media darling.

Writing: Tons of Lovecraftian and body-horror atmosphere to unsettle punks out for easy creds. Cultist and organ generators provided to help flesh out the locations.

Art/Design: A mix of red, black, and white for text, background, and illustrations (of NPCs, the overall map, interesting objects/phenomena) with one or more columns of content on a given page.

Usability: Visually recognizable and high-contrast headings and organizations of content on each page thanks to consistent decisions with font sizes and color choices. Two player-facing versions of the location map (one full-color, the other black and white) are provided as well.

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: “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: “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: “Printable glitch counter cards compatible with CY_BORG.”

Content: A set of neon-colored cards to print--or to use in VTT environments--for games of CY_BORG.

Writing: N/A

Art/Design: Print version: nine cards per page with three different color highlights (pink, yellow, and blue) with card backs on accompanying pages for two-sided printing. VTT version: a PNG for each color card and another for the card back.

Usability: Helpful trim lines for card cutting should expedite making and using a deck of glitch cards. PNG versions should be easily incorporated into VTT environments that provide card deck functionality.

Concept: “Xfu082baa0vdoas0v1mvn183zxol
ROOTKIT EXEC RSTRCT –remove 
Message Incoming >>> YOU ARE FREE
Once a formidable machine, made for killing, infiltrating or sabotaging your owner's enemies. You boot up to find that you are liberated from your shackles, now with your own directives. What you do next is up to you for once…”

Content: A class for the discarded, malfunctioning, or obsolete machine whose flaws make them more human than human.

Writing: Conversational class features and abilities that serve as prompts for personality and play style.

Art/Design: Landscape-oriented spread with two columns of text on the left and an illustration of a glitched cydroid in a suit (with a ghoulish skull head and neon wires rising from behind it) on the right.

Usability: Readable and high-contrast text grouped into distinct sections of content for character creation, aided by visually emphasized headings and labels, leads to quick and easy navigation and identification of desired info.

Concept: “>>> Birthed by fanatics, a creature roams. Its skeletal frame, mechanical yet flawed and forsaken. An abomination of dark nanomancy, it now wanders beyond the cult’s control, heralding doom with hollow, malevolent eyes.”

Content: A self-destructive biomechanical horror that could not be contained and now wreaks havoc on the world. Also included is an Affinity Publisher 2 file to remix, hack, or otherwise modify this material.

Writing: Terse descriptive and rules/abilities text work together to explain the potential for an enemy like this one in a game of Cy_Borg.

Art/Design: Single-page white-on-black with red text embellishment, framed in boxes around a large central illustration of a Gn0_Eleven creature wielding a dagger and shield.

Usability: Distinct sections of content are formatted consistently but also distinctly for each purpose, facilitating easy GM understanding and use of a creature like this one.

Concept: “An eight page bestiary featuring a multi-stage creature based on those from [the first three] TREMORS movies, as well as bits of lore, and a few new bonus weapons.  This was made as part of the second Slasher Jam: Monster Mash for the ttRPGs Mork Borg, CY_Borg, and Death in Space.”

Content: A set of five creatures (really, one creature with several distinct life stages) that are sure to terrify even hardened punks.

Writing: Brief statistics and stage-specific characteristics are complemented with lore tables and an informative breakdown of the creature’s life cycle. Bonus table of weapons that might be used against the terrors.

Art/Design: Two-page spreads of red-tinged wasteland backgrounds with hand-drawn illustrations of terrors at each stage and distinct blocks of content arranged consistently throughout the supplement. 

Usability: Consistent visual grammar for creature details provides a helpful means of recognizing and using desired information, and color combinations for text are high-contrast. However, some text is searchable and selectable, but not all.

Concept: “You can never have enough new character names. This one-page PDF with 100 names, 100 aliases, 19 origins and thousands of possible serial numbers is intended for the world of CY_BORG, but can work in any sci-fi or cyberpunk setting. Print it and bring it to the table. Your gravestone will thank you.”

Content: Several tables for generating names, aliases, origins, and serial numbers.

Writing: Table data contains a wide range of choices both exceptional and mundane. 

Art/Design: Black-on-white organization with minimal graphics (an icon to distinguish each table) and simple table ornamentation.

Usability: Tables are consistently and easily laid out and distinguished from one another, with names and aliases alphabetized for an additional means of navigation.

Concept: “Radia Embtell, a junior executive officer of Cynergy Water & Power Co., has been given the onerous task of liberating an offshore oil rig from a group of eco-terrorists calling themselves “the Bitter Suns.” The Bitter Suns’ list of demands consists of but a single item: the immediate ceasing of planetary resource exploitation. “A fantasy, of course. Utter nonsense…” Radia has no idea what the Bitter Suns are planning with the oil rig—and she doesn’t care, either. She hires the PCs to retake the oil rig, “using whatever means necessary. If you can’t do the job, don’t bother coming back—I’ll kill you myself.” Though Radia isn’t one to explain herself to a group of scum-sucking street punks, she’ll let slip during negotiations that Cynergy Water & Power Co. is unwilling to mobilize its corporate military against the Bitter Suns. She will not elaborate on why, however.”

Content: A job to repossess an oil rig occupied by eco-terrorists.

Writing: Mission and NPC details, including intelligent enemy tactics and motives, are seeded with hooks and in-roads to provide players and GMs with unique experiences.

Art/Design: Wide landscape layout with four major content columns (three text columns, one overhead map illustration of the mission site). Black-on-white for most of the document, including a portrait of a key NPC; map is provided on a dark background in the main document, with a color-inverted version provided as a separate player handout image.

Usability: Consistently recognizable headings, borders, horizontal rules, and whitespace distinguish separate content sections, while bold and italicized text calls attention to important terms and information.

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: “CY is a great beast and these are its bowels, the living guts of the city. Awash in filth and the prowling grounds of criminals, scvm beneath notice, maintenance workers, bounty hunters and strange monstrosities bred in the noisome darkness beneath this city. Features a d66 table of encounters in the sewers of CY and a d20 table of tunnel graffiti.” 

Content: A set of tables to flesh out the grimy, dangerous CY undercity.

Writing: Vivid descriptions of encounter seeds (not only who/what players might find but what’s going on when they find something) and graffiti messages and styles to be found on sewer walls.

Art/Design: Black text on yellow in a single column of text. A glitch-art illustration of a sewer tunnel frames the supplement title on the first page.

Usability: Tables are numbered, with bolded labels for NPCs and their special attacks to emphasize details a GM might be scanning the page to locate.

Concept: “Maybe it was kidnapped from its daily coffee grind serving [###]’s coffee to corpo stiffs, maybe it was freed. Once a dutiful servant, this menial automaton is now something much more. Somebody filled the milk steamer with industrial corrosives and loaded the thing with enough malware to knock over a small corporate arcology. To what end?”

Content: A deadly and, arguably, tragic take on exploitation of the working class in CY.

Writing: A mix of straightforward explanations and darkly humorous nods to the absurdity of the creature’s premise. 

Art/Design: Three columns–two of the creature details around a central computer-generated image of a barista bot in an industrial environment.

Usability: High-contrast content has a consistent color scheme and easily recognizable organization. However, the file is only available as a .png, so the text is non-selectable and inaccessible to a screen reader.

Concept: “When you need to steal secure data from a CORP and you don’t have the luxury of doing it as a downtime activity you can attempt a HACKING RUN. THIS requires physical access to A CORP’S system from within a facility belonging to THEM. Expect to do this under fire. BRING BACK UP.”

Content: A set of rules to flesh out networked tech infiltrations for those punks looking to score lucrative or sensitive corp data.

Writing: Direct explanations and descriptions of relevant rules and procedures for hacking.

Art/Design: Two-column spread of text details over a neon green patterned background. An additional "light" format has a softer gray background color.

Usability: High-contrast text is easily readable, with consistent and visually distinct elements (headings, key terms, status conditions) that indicate their relationship to other elements.

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.