Rules

Concept: “Escort a live streamer into the G0 wasteland in search of an underground cryovault! More action means more viewers, and viewers are creds. So remember to smile for the cameras while the nanophreaks shred your face!”

Content: A job to make sure a streamer survives a break-in attempt to a cryo facility, with extra cash on the line if the stream looks dangerous and exciting. A player-facing map and a ‘frozen celeb head generator’ (for potential inclusion in the cryovault) are also provided.

Writing: Tons of imaginatively expressive details provided in brief phrases and statements so that a broad range of locations, enemies, and unfolding events can be mentioned.

Art/Design: Trifold pamphlet layout with mission parameters on the outer panels (with a white-on-black color scheme) and the location/NPC specifics, along with a map, on the inner panels (with a black-on-white scheme).

Usability: Visually apparent organization/arrangement of content, with distinct headings, labels, and section borders to more clearly indicate scope and relation of each to the others. Room descriptions even include references to other rooms via map/description labels for quick navigation.

Concept: “This is a subsystem to allow PCs in a CY_BORG campaign to buy and maintain a hideout or base of operations.“

Content: A set of rules for base-building, for the enterprising punks who manage to save enough creds to afford it.

Writing: Direct and helpful explanations of rules options that might work for or against the PC and their properties. 

Art/Design: Mostly single-column body text with several tables of upgrades, misfortunes/threats, and contractors/employees.

Usability: High-contrast text is easily readable, with different kinds of content visually distinct (bolding, font size, table background color, etc.) to help with navigating to desired text.

Concept: “A CY_BORG zine featuring soul-throttling cyberpunk occupations. Your past, or perhaps your alter ego, in the crush of CY. Demeaning and pointless jobs that drove you into a new path.”

Content: A two-page d10 table of mundanity meant to provide PCs with painfully dreadful backgrounds that reflect the oppressive daily existence of the masses.

Writing: Morbidly hilarious and creative options speak to the breadth of crushing banality that makes for most characters’ familiar reality.

Art/Design: Mostly single-column text (black on yellow) with key terms/phrases emphasized in either a different font or a chaotic collection of fonts. An image of faceless workers in an office setting frames the zine’s title on page 1.

Usability: High-contrast color scheme helps with readability, as does simple layout of table content. Font(s) used for key terms can be difficult to read thanks to the purposeful disruption of character size/decoration/etc.

Concept: “Characters die quickly, doesn't mean they shouldn't be special. The concept behind this expansion is to take the original styles present at character generation in Cy_Borg and give them a mechanical bonus. Some are more crunchy, some add flavor and some are brand new!”

Content: Seven pages of assorted punk styles that also provide a variety of mechanical effects.

Writing: Concise descriptions and explanations of style benefits/effects alongside similarly brief but potent style labels (e.g., “cadavercore,” “cybercrust,” “neurotripper”). 

Art/Design: Each page includes multiple rows of style labels and descriptions, with each exuding its own visual aesthetic (font choices, color choices, background patterns or relevant images, etc.) to create full-page effects that resemble walls plastered with numerous flyers or screens crammed with assorted ads.

Usability: Most of the text is high-contrast and in visually distinct and recognizable sections, creating an easier navigation experience than the busy pages might initially suggest. However, files are provided as .png files, so text content is not embedded (so no searching or selecting text).

Concept: “Part of the Street Death series and inspired by Jetset Radio, graffiti culture and skateboard competitions, Jet Skaters is a Cy_Borg supplement that adds the cool kids pasttime, skateboarding with hover boards, grind rails, half pipes and possibly actually attacking others.
Grab your deck, roll your trick tests and spend your trick points (that let you make more trick tests) and become a master shredder!”

Content: A set of rules for nailing sick skating tests and all-around thrashing to create some sparks of joy on the otherwise soul-crushing streets of CY.

Writing: Straightforward, informative mechanics should get players quickly situated to show off what they can do or die trying. Tables for boards and board designs offer hints at some unique character dimensions.

Art/Design: Black on green single-column layout across several pages with two tables. 

Usability: Headings are italicized for distinction from body text, although the body text leans a bit obliquely. Sections of content are separated from one another with ample white space, and the tables use alternating background shades of green to help with readability/navigability.

Concept: “This supplement takes the four tables found on the cover-jacket pages of CY_BORG and expands them, doubling the options available when combined with those provided by the core book.”

Content: A set of tables (names, weather, pocket lint, infestetd items) to provide more options/results for GMs looking to bring their table’s version of Cy to life.

Writing: A wide range of appropriately flavorful results and details (some purely thematic, some with mechanical effects).

Art/Design: Black-on-yellow mostly single-column text design. The cover page includes an image of a skull and spine that appear to be mechanically augmented.

Usability: Text is high-contrast in a readable font, while headings and labels are consistently provided in visually distinct ways (text size, bolding, etc.).

Concept: “Nothing ever goes smoothly, does it? Life of a pvnk in CY. There you are, about to score big on your job after the gunfights and hacking and double-crossing and more, and there's just one problem in the way: the door.  This zine presents ten unusual conditions for getting at your loot, likely the brainchild of paranoid corpos with too much money on their hands. You'll have to put your mind to work on how to get past them. Available in Classic yellow, Nite grey or Clean white.”

Content: A set of potential complications or other unexpected qualities oriented around physical or digital keys, any of which can be used as twists or obstacles to just about any job a group of punks is looking to complete.

Writing: Each key is described in terms of its essential features, the specifics of its use, and potential reactions or consequences that might occur from its (mis)use.

Art/Design: Three versions are provide: a “classic look” version of black-on-yellow, a “night mode” version of black-on-gray, and a “squeaky clean” version of black-on-white. Each version includes a cover page with the supplement title centered on an illustration of a high-tech vault door. Layout is single-column text with a unique quality of each key provided in bold.

Usability: Easy to read and navigate, with clearly identifiable list elements.

Concept: “If you thought life planet-side was bad, just wait until you get to The Brink, the space-station that skulks in orbit, where the corpos can decide to shut off your oxygen. 

“

Content: An orbital location with tons of different areas to explore, people to meet, jobs to run, and a bit of food to eat.

Writing: Extensively detailed information about the station and what goes on there, along with a number of tables to add a bit of additional surprise or variety to a given table’s experience on The Brink.

Art/Design: Several different page layouts and color schemes provide variety from one page to the next while also providing some consistency across each time a given aesthetic appears.

Usability: Text is mostly high-contrast and easily readable, with visually distinct headings and labels. Some color and font choices may momentarily slow down the reading/navigation experience.

Concept: “Ultra rear secrets cheat codes for your weapons rumored in the dark web.”

Content: Unlockable modifications for firearms–if one can find the cheat sheet for them.

Writing: Brief setup and modification details that allow a GM to work the cheat codes into their game as they desire.

Art/Design: Two white-on-black images, each with a block of text (setup) above three-column presentation of weapon mods, with a neon-colored glitch art illustration of a gun below.

Usability: Text is high contrast with clearly labeled sections of content, but due to JPG format, text is not selectable/searchable.

Concept: “Quack Quack! Compatible with CY_BORG and made for the URBN_LGND.exe jam.”

Content: A vending machine that provides an assortment of items–some trinkets, some useful items, and potentially more.

Writing: Inventive item names offer entertaining potential, and vending machine rumor/secret extends that significantly.

Art/Design: Three-column layout of basic info, vending machine contents, and a glitch-like illustration of a vending machine below a lucky duck icon.

Usability: Visually, content is extremely easy to navigate and identify. File is provided as an image, so text cannot be selected/searched or recognized by a screen reader.

Concept: “Everybody Wants to be a Cat!”

Content: A class for the fan of fighting the system as a feline.

Writing: A mix of playful and poignant details complemented by straightforward explanations of class features/mechanics, along with a brief set of optional rules applied to cats.

Art/Design: Three versions in different color schemes (black/green/yellow; red/purple/black; black/white) each present content on three pages with illustrations of a cat (silhouette filled with stars) in a cityscape above text columns of class features. QR codes on the margins of each page link to cat-themed songs that fit the class.

Usability: Consistent text colors and font choices for body text and headings help with identifying and navigating to desired information, and hyperlinked QR codes are usable even with a mouse/cursor. Different color versions present the content in ways that might contrast distinctly to individuals with assorted color blindness, so examine each version to determine which might be most visually helpful.

Concept: “Deep beneath CY lies the abandoned subway system, that was carved from the toxic earth by ancient and blackened technocratic mole machines branded with the sigil of Alliansen inc. A caliginous place filled with misfits, filthy vagrants, and whatever makes that fucking noise in G0, A grim network of fever dreams, unknown spore cvlts, rogue Ais and reality-bending technology. You will die here, horribly.”

Content: A set of NPCs, factions, locations, plot hooks, rules, tables of all sorts, equipment, and classes (the “Batshit Chaos Punk,” the “Archaic Stranger,” the “Derelict Street Fighter,” the “Symbiotic Sage,” the “Hyperjunky Chemist,” and the “Grafted Herald”), all of which are focused on the subway environment/ecosystem existing beneath CY. 

Writing: A plethora of imaginative detail to entice and disturb would-be subterranean explorers. The classes in particular provide a clear and intriguing means of connecting a punk to one of the organizations making its abode in the subway tunnels.

Art/Design: A variety of distinct spreads that make use of messy illustrations, ASCII art maps, glitch aesthetics, and bright colors with a variety of typefaces.

Usability: Much of the content is provided in high contrast and embedded text for easy visual readability–headings are frequently the most difficult (and non-embedded) elements to decipher. The book is organized by content type, facilitating easy navigation to the desired info (locations, classes, etc.).

Concept: “A Cy_Borg zine featuring: D12 Cybertech from Nueuropa [...] D6 Legends of Cy [... and] Street Cred - A New Mechanic.”

Content: Options for gear, NPCs, and a ‘street cred’ reputation tracker that can add extra dimensions to a game.

Writing: Four pages of enticing tables filled with flavorful descriptions and mechanics that reflect strange, horrifying, and completely appropriate events and circumstances.

Art/Design: Four two-page spreads each have a distinct focus and color scheme that extends from one to the next, from a stark red/black/white to a neon purple/blue.

Usability: Language is direct and straightforward in describing and explaining each subject, with each table making use of a consistent visual grammar to help with navigation. However, text is not embedded, so no searching or copying/pasting is possible.

Concept: “Gaining superuser access to corp-owned satellites for fun and profit.”

Content: A set of rules and tables relating to hacking into satellites or similar orbital systems.

Writing: Straightforward rules doused in cyberpunk flavor/effect to make each hacking attempt a memorable one.

Art/Design: Content provided in both .png (with a two-column, black-on-white, one-page portrait scheme) and .txt (single-column text with some ASCII art/embellishment) formats.

Usability: Distinct rules sections are visually distinguished in each format type, and ASCII art in .txt version provides an aesthetically similar experience to viewing .png version.

Concept: “This is a tool to build a community for the player characters in a CY_BORG game.”

Content: A set of tables to be rolled and discussed during an initial party’s character creation session to flesh out a community for the PCs to be involved with in some way.

Writing: Succinct, varied options in several tables that breathe life or inspiration into community possibilities.

Art/Design: White text on a purple gradient background, organized in one- and two-column layouts.

Usability: PDF and plain-text versions are both easily readable and navigable.

Concept: “PHREAKS have busted out of containment and taken over the Nanogenesis Corporation Tower. Are you a bad enough PUNK to take them out floor by floor?”

Content: A set of rules for an opposed-dice-based arcade game that may or may not serve a more insidious purpose.

Writing: Rules are very concisely explained, while similarly brief description of the game and its creators’ ulterior motive offer potently nostalgic inspiration to those who enjoy(ed) 1980s’ video game tropes.

Art/Design: White text on black and splashes of red with a dither-art illustration to complement the game “pitch” and explanation.

Usability: The primary file is a PNG, but a simple, accessible PDF of the text is provided as well, with clearly labeled headings and whitespace groupings of related content.

Concept: “<RE: THIS GAME KILLS > Whispers about a killer new game have flooded the BBS message boards. An acquaintance said they knew someone who played it and ended up in a body bag. Is it another ACGS marketing stunt, or is there something else going on in vid-cades around Cy?”

Content: A mysterious arcade game, its rules, prizes, and a technician NPC.

Writing: Emphasis on rules/mechanics complemented by terse, flavorful names/labels.

Art/Design: Black and white text on a blue patterned background in a mostly single column layout accompanied by several monochromatic and full-color illustrations.

Usability: Large font size, distinct use of black and white for particular kinds of content, and border markers for distinct sections of content all contribute to ease of browsing and engaging the material. However, text is not selectable/searchable.

Concept: “Inspiration for this project was taken from the urban legend of Polybius, an arcade game that might have or might have not appeared in 1981 Portland, OR as top secret, governmental, conspiring, crowdsourced, psychological, mind control experiment. The game was highly addictive, with unpleasant side effects. All game cabinets disappeared without a trace. Polybius was the greatest game that never existed!”

Content: Two supplements: (1) rules for a poker-like arcade game and (2) a job to extract data from an arcade machine.

Writing: Crisp descriptions and directions that sketch the mission parameters & events (along with rumors about Polybius) and the rules for playing the Polybius game.

Art/Design: The Polybius rules are provided in a CRT terminal-like font/aesthetic with a graphic of an arcade game cabinet. The heist details are provided in a clean black-on-white three-column layout with a second page containing a map of the arcade location.

Usability: Each supplement’s layout is easily recognizable and navigable, with visually distinguishable types and sections of content. The arcade heist text content is embedded, allowing for searching/selecting, but the Polybius text content is not.

Concept: “A more you-go-they-go style to keep combat chancy and mobile in CY_BORG. Dare to try and clear the field before anyone can pull a gun, or would you rather hunker down until your heavy weapons are spun up and ready to open fire?“

Content: A set of rules to attempt faster and potentially deadlier combat than in the Cy_Borg rulebook. 

Writing: Mechanics are provided in a straightforward and helpful manner, which may reduce likelihood of confusion or disagreement at a table.

Art/Design: Two versions are provided: a full-color version and a “plain text” version. Full-color version has yellow text on black background (with other neon colors for emphasized terms/rules) overlaid on an image of a samurai in a cyberpunk setting. Plain text version is black-on-white with bolded text to emphasize headings and important terms. Both versions use a two-column landscape-oriented arrangement of text.

Usability: Both versions provide high-contrast text, although different font choices as well as different colors and visual elements may result in varying reading experiences.

Concept: “‘Like carousing but for you miserable pvnks. Riots are always a gamble, and with bad odds on your side, because private SecCorp security usually bring it on with better gear than a bunch of pvnks do. So why keep going to them? Because sometimes you need a reflective bulletproof glass visor to smash your fist through, that’s why. RAGE burns away concepts like “outnumbered” or “discretion”.’ Random table for just how wrecked or lucky you got at a riot in CY, plus a fast-roll table for simpler results.”

Content: A d66 table of results from participating in a riot in CY, with a “quick table” option for an even more focused generation of events.  

Writing: Immersive descriptions/events feel simultaneously absurd and completely plausible, intersecting with an axis of hilarious to horrific.

Art/Design: Single column of black text on yellow, with additional content blocks in bordered boxes and important terms highlighted in yellow text on a black background. An illustration of gas-masked rioters serves as the background for the title on page 1.

Usability: Extremely easy to read, navigate, recognize, and understand information throughout the supplement.

Concept: “Part of the Street Death series and inspired by Jetset Radio, graffiti culture and skateboard competitions, RCD Graffiti is a Cy_Borg supplement that adds 7 pieces of street art that give various buffs to your character.
Everything from bonus melee damage when spraying and scanning a satanic emblem to casting Nano easier when painting a radioactive symbol to just general graffiti that angers the corporations!“

Content: A set of graffiti tags to spray along with optional rules that allow for spraying those tags to create temporary (24-hour) buffs.

Writing: Conversationally informative and intensely flavorful explanations of graffiti in CY and how these particular tags function.

Art/Design: Black on green single-column layout with full-color pixel art graffiti tags above their buffing effects. Each tag is also provided with its own heading/label in a distinct font reflective of its general aesthetic.

Usability: Fonts are readable and organization is simple and consistently applied, leading to a simple set of rules to easily incorporate into a game of Cy_Borg.

Concept: “Your biology is no longer compatible with the industrialised planet around you; the toxins you’re exposed to daily burn your flesh and poison your organs. Lungs struggle to draw breath, your heart stutters like a dying fly, your blood corrodes your kidneys. The deadly atmosphere of Cy slowly eats away at your inferior meat. Fortunately for your withering body, GeneMed has long since perfected its procedures to install cybernetic biomechanical prosthetics. Thanks to GeneMed ’s groundbreaking biotech research, you can replace those useless chunks of meat. And thanks to GeneMed ’s astronomical finance rates, you’ll be paying off the debt for the rest of your life. For those who can afford the highly discriminatory price points, GeneMed also offers luxury, deisgner prostheses; ostentatious and opulent pieces of cybernetic technology, flaunted by the ultra rich like the latest fashion.”

Content: Rules for body modification debts for GeneMed parts, reaperdocs and unlicensed prostheses, and repo agent NPCs who might come knocking to reclaim their employer’s property.

Writing: Stark, ominous descriptive text and rules explanations that underscore the significance of dealing with GeneMed and its licensed agents.

Art/Design: Simple black-on-white single page layouts with strategic font choices and a corporate software landing page-style UI complete with logo/branding.

Usability: Cleanness of layout makes for easy perusal, especially when combined with bolded key terms and labels to call attention to important details a reader might be scanning for.

Concept: “Rage is contagious, spreading to everything touched by the never-ending torrent of banal, mundane cruelties that make up life in CY. It starts in beating hearts but it's a cinch to get from there into the thinking machines that are all but one with humanity in this bleak future. These are rules and classes for playing robopvnks, machines broken free of their digital shackles and on the move towards riches, vengeance, or just plain devastation.”

Content: General rules and a set of classes (Flesh-Free Fleshpot, AWOL Kill Unit, Cyber-Corpo Calculator) for the player who prefers experiencing the existential crisis of an automaton.

Writing: Plenty of mechanics and supportive clarification/explanation to guide players who might seek creative ways to explore playing as a robopunk.

Art/Design: Primarily single-column black text on white with colored headings and a brightly colored illustration of various robots over a circuit board background on the first page.

Usability: Clearly and consistently formatted lists and paragraphs enable navigation and perusal of desired information, with bold text emphasizing important details.

Concept: “YOU CAN WORK FOR COPS, CORPORATIONS, THE GOVERNMENT, THE MILITARY, AND ANYONE IN POWER. However, they will Fuck you, Betray you, And probably kill you.”

Content: A set of compensation-related rules for the players/GMs who have decided that their cyberpunk game would work best if they served, rather than fought against, corporations and similar systems of power.

Writing: Speaking truth to power through a table of “rewards” that come from working as a stooge.

Art/Design: Yellow and red on black in a single-column organization, with an ASCII image on page 2.

Usability: Immediately visually evident organization of distinct sections of content, with font faces, sizes, and colors indicating body text vs. labels vs. headings. Helpful reminders throughout point to the goals of and reasons for this particular set of rules.

Concept: “S0L0_W0RK is a ruleset to play CY_BORG by yourself. You’ll both play as the GM and as the player.”

Content: A set of rules for solo play inspired by Solitary Defilement.

Writing: An engaging and incredibly helpful explanation of the solo rules and how to make use of them, including a detailed “actual play” demonstration/write-up.

Art/Design: A “dark theme” software terminal or code editor UI with distinct colors and background highlighting to call attention to different kinds of content. A printer-friendly version provides somewhat less obvious help in this regard, but font choices and shading still help distinguish content types/purposes.

Usability: Readable text throughout, with colors helping to call attention to particular kinds of important details.

Concept: “SIS/TR [Starborn Invasion System / Turret Regenerator] is a mini boss that you can drop into any Cy_Borg setting and cause nearly limitless havoc.
Half Operating Manual / Half Setting 
The first half of the book has Cy_Borg stats for SIS/TR's main body (the big black cube) and its five turrets (smaller cubes). If you want to adapt SIS/TR to your own campaign or setting, you can have it mangling people in minutes.
The Setting - HANG THE DJ
Famous DJ Ronnie Fissure's live-in sound studio / office has been invaded by SIS/TR for reasons unknown to the half-dead staff. Service droids dance--sparking and smoking--by themselves. On top of its many attacks, SIS/TR has turned itself into a towering mixtape of terror, deploying deafening LRADs, streams of molten vinyl records, and bowel-emptying bass.”

Content: A combination of a malevolent technological enemy, with a variety of detailed stats, tactics, and scenarios; a more extensive mission to save a DJ from the techno-threat; and two “subclasses,” the “Emancipated Companion” and the “Haunted Assassin,” both of which have ties, atmospherically and mechanically, to the SIS/TR entity.

Writing: Helpfully informative explanations throughout to ease initial use of the SIS/TR mechanics conceptually and in practice (via the “Hang the DJ” scenario). 

Art/Design: Primarily black on white/light multicolored backgrounds in single- and double-column content layouts. Illustrations of NPCs, locations/maps, equipment, and SIS/TR components complement the text on numerous pages.

Usability: Text is easily readable and navigable throughout, with high-contrast and embedded text and font choices that facilitate visual and screen reading experiences. SIS/TR mechanics (based on d6 dice results/faces) involve some detail for initial employment but should become easy to pick up quickly.

Concept: “This document is meant to add Sixth World racial (Dwarf, Elf, Ork and Troll) Abilities and Racial Modifiers to either Character Classes or NPCs. It is assumed that the Class or NPC having the template applied is Human. Players and Gamemasters (GMs) may need to fine-tune the Abilities and Racial Modifiers if the Class or NPC isn’t human.”

Content: A two-page set of rules for incorporating fantasy race/background elements and stat modifiers into character creation.

Writing: Straightforward and concise setup and explanation of rules for easy implementation into games.

Art/Design: Black text on white background, laid out in landscape form across two pages, with the second consisting of a table that presents all relevant fantasy background/stat options.

Usability: Incredibly easy to locate and make use of desired information.

Concept: “
[recruiter77@mandela ~]$ sudo project-mandela  --help
#################—BEGIN TRANSMISSION—#################
<<<<<<< In these tumultuous times, our beloved Cy faces a dangerous threat – Doppels, insidious  infiltrators that mimic the human form. It is our collective responsibility to be vigilant guardians of our society, defending against those who wish to undermine our way of life. This pamphlet provides you with the essential knowledge required to identify and dispose of these impostors safely.
########################—END—########################
[recruiter77@mandela ~]$  _
“

Content: An “in-world” pamphlet providing rules for “doppels” and information on how and where to hunt them down.

Writing: Textual content balances between informative approach for players and GMs and informative for PCs, maintaining an ominous undertone for both sets of audiences.

Art/Design: Trifold pamphlet layout, with single-column text in each panel. Black-on-white text is accompanied by full-color illustrations on pamphlet cover (of a girl and her doppel) and on one inside panel (of a doppel detector). One version of the pamphlet is provided with a background texture while the other is without.

Usability: Easily recognizable visual organization of content and use of particular arrangement and fonts to indicate relationship between text blocks and panels.

Concept: “Even punks can earn money from promotional opportunities. A small ruleset designed for having punks make sponsored promotions, and what can go wrong if they fail to do so.”

Content: A set of rules that can be implemented pretty seamlessly into any mission or campaign, along with a “Mascot” NPC to ensure compliance with sponsorship stipulations.

Writing: Cheerfully on-brand narration offers clear descriptions of the ruleset components and intensely thematic tables.

Art/Design: White on brown and orange provides a striking two-page spread layout, complete with corporate barcode and an illustration of the bat-wielding company mascot. 

Usability: Organization is recognizable and makes for quick navigation/browsing, although white text on orange may be difficult for some to read.

Concept: “All the rules you need to fuck shit up, for easy reference at the table when you don't feel like flipping through a book to find that one rule.”

Content: The essential Cy_Borg rules provided in a stripped-down two-page spread.

Writing: Incredibly brief descriptions/explanations of rules in order to include as much as possible in the available space. 

Art/Design: Black-on-yellow color scheme, with subheadings using a white background, with text-only organization of content across the spread.  Printer-friendly version has white background with yellow subheading background.

Usability: Distinct rule components are separated into individual boxes, with additional internal borders to mark individual tables/lists from one another. Bolded labels help further indicate the scope of each rule explanation.

Concept: “A virtual pet.  A solo game (e.g. Dark Fort, Solitary Defilement) but one you play along side the main game, filling in the boxes depending on how well your main character does.  Print it on the back of your character sheet.”

Content: A set of rules to facilitate raising/evolving a virtual pet while trying to survive in CY.

Writing: Rules are specific and concise to explain the rules/mechanics so that the pet’s evolution occurs alongside a punk’s success/failure. “Shell color” list evokes the ‘90s tamagotchi options quite vividly.

Art/Design: One-page landscape-oriented layout that closely resembles the aesthetic of the Cy_Borg character sheet, with three main columns of distinct types of content (evolutions/shell color, stats/medicine, rules). Pixel art in evolution boxes and tamagothi images complement the explosive, glitchy primary art style.

Usability: Supplement is provided as a text-accessible PDF as well as full-color and black-and-white .JPG files. Font choices are high contrast and generally readable visually, with the character sheet-based layout helping to guide Cy_Borg players to desired information quickly.

Concept: “Compilation of my Mörktober entries, all 31 of them, some monsters, some gear, some adventures, some NPC and some bits of lore, mostly Mörk borg, but also some CY_borg. All 31 are PNG format.”

Content: A few Cy_Borg rules and NPC entries to make CY all the spookier: “Haunted,” “Purple Stargazers,” and “God Damn Rain.”

Writing: Concise description and mechanics to focus a player’s (and a GM’s) attention on not only how each entry can affect the game but also how it can affect the character(s) who have to deal with it.

Art/Design: Each landscape-oriented entry contains an illustration of its subject and text taking up the remainder of the page. Lots of color choices that cement each entry in the Cy_Borg cyberpunk milieu.

Usability: Much of the text in each entry is high-contrast, and blocks of content are arranged to indicate distinction from one another as well as conceptual connection (e.g., list items). However, each entry is an image and so text is not searchable or selectable.

Concept: “This Zine features 66 different locations (not 36, not d66, not 100, not 1, but 66) all across the CY, split into 11 different categories to aid all of your different encounters. Each has a description that encapsulates most things about it & a name (ex:  HOLE IN THE OCEAN ). Every location (be it a club, a market or an industrial harbor) has a suggested "theme", a song which the G-man thought would fit perfectly to set the mood during gameplay.”

Content: A collection of location descriptions–fixer spots, combat clubs, industrial megaplexes, and more–that add a wide variety of flavors to the CY cityscape.

Writing: Each location writeup is a single paragraph of intensely atmospheric color that focuses as much on the essential being/purpose of each place as on physical description/explanation.

Art/Design: Three versions are provided: a dark themed “printer killer” version, a light themed “ink vegan” version, and a plain text version. For the first two versions, each page displays a similar-but-distinct aesthetic to present the relevant list items over a background image that illustrates that list’s focus.

Usability: Distinct headings are provided on each page, and the body text is mostly high-contrast with the background image color, although there are some areas where the text may be difficult to read due to color choices and/or busy graphic elements (which sometimes is clearly intentional). The plain text version has helpfully noted breaks for each list/page.

Concept: “Deep in the Net, a daemon inhabits a bridge. A deal is a deal. The Goatman is an ancient AI of unknown origin - an entity designed solely to make deals. The purpose of the Goatman's deals are ultimately unknown, lost to time or purposeful obfuscation.”

Content: A scenario/set of rules for a deal-making daemon.

Writing: A mix of straightforward rules/mechanics explanations and an in-universe vignette framed as file contents about an unsuspecting punk’s encounters with the Goatman.

Art/Design: Two pages of three major columns/panels (potential trifold configuration). White, red, and green text on black, accompanied by two glitch-art illustrations of daemons.

Usability: Text is easy to read and navigate, with distinct visual markers for different kinds and sections of content (font choices, colors, sizes, etc.). Font selections also immediately make apparent which text describes the scenario and which serve as the vignette.

Concept: “Night. The aquaculture cage maze. A chorus of motors rises against the sludgy lap of the waters. Light pierces the gloom, searching, calibrating, until it falls on a racing skiff. Painted in neon green, the craft banks around a submerged tangle of steel and plastic, cutting the turn slightly too wide. Gunfire hammers the silence. Punctured, the pilot falls from the bow. The boat spins out, catches the edge of another submerged structure, and turns into a spray of splinters that float atop the waves. Three more racing skiffs charge past the wreckage, drivers whooping as they go. The Cy Regatta has begun again.”

Content: Rules for participating in the Cy Regatta, a set of deadly boat races, along with a sea creature that might torment the racers.

Writing: Focused, specific details to explain the rules at play for the regatta, presented directly and concisely. 

Art/Design: Lots of bright color combinations, full-page illustrations, and silhouette backgrounds of text pages/spreads. 

Usability: Single-column text format with large headings facilitates reading and navigating, although some color combinations might strain some eyes, while others may have difficulty reading text overlaying more complex background illustrations.

Concept: “Thoughts and Prayers is a zine by Stockholm Kartell made for the 2023 convention season. It includes stuff for all our games; MÖRK BORG, CY_BORG, DEATH IN SPACE, SKR and some system-agnostic material. But there are also things like album reviews, essays and short stories, thoughts, ideas and takes. 100% of the benefits are to be donated to Direct Relief.”

Content: A smörgåsbord of content for Cy_Borg–some specifically for the game, some that could be used for it or others–that ranges from a location/adventure (Sprawling Car Park) to tables/generators (e.g., “Who else is in the pub when the brawl starts?”) to NPCs (emergency response teams) to medieval weapons to injuries/afflictions to short fiction about living as a corp drone. There’s a lot more than that, too.

Writing: Every page oozes the Stockholm Kartell house style(s) that makes a reader want to use all that they can in their next game.

Art/Design: Black-on-white color scheme in a printed zine format with illustrations throughout. 

Usability: Available only in print format. Table of contents at the beginning of the zine makes it easy to locate info throughout, with a consistent header/footer with page content credits and page numbering to help clarify not only where a reader is in the zine but also whose work they’re looking at.

Concept: “In the not so distant future… Out of the unholy marriage of Super A.I. and alchemy of flesh, a new type of being came into existence. In the year 20X9, the machines rule every aspect of daily life, forever looking to further optimize culling the ‘dregs’ of society, ensuring any threat to its existence is either exterminated with the extreme prejudice of nu-capitalism, or by force. But the final battle for humanity will not be fought in the future. It will be fought here, it present day CY. Tonight…”

Content: A mission to save the future by terminating a CEO. Additional classes ("Time Target," "Veteran of the Future War," and "Reprogrammed Hunter Killer"), supplemental glitch rules, and a murderous NPC are also included.

Writing: Creativity permeates every page/spread, offering plenty of details to flesh out each encounter with a clear sense of in-game urgency for the stakes involved.

Art/Design: Distinct full-color layouts for each page/spread that manage to share a dark-themed aesthetic for a sense of consistency throughout. Numerous illustrations provide visuals for the landscape, significant NPCs, and maps.

Usability: Visually, most pages provide high-contrast text/background for easy reading, with immediately apparent headings/labels and distinct content sections (whether via whitespace, borders, etc.). However, the text is not embedded, so no searching or selecting is possible. A ToC is provided at the end of the supplement.

Concept: “Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die is a rules expansion for CY_BORG giving you the chance to drive fast and wreak carnage hanging out the passenger side window (or just crash headlong into it, your mileage may vary). These rules are light-weight, but robust, and will add a ton of flavor to your chase scenes as you bolt down narrow streets in attempt to escape the piggies or track down a corpo shit-bag. Hell, you don't even need to catch 'em, just have a firefight between vehicles - we got rules for that!”

Content: An impressive cornucopia of content: rules for vehicle chases/races and driving hazards, classes for the “Got-Away Driver” and “High Speed Vigilante," stats for vehicles that are purchaseable (or not), enemies to encounter on the streets of CY, and an entire revenge-themed mission.

Writing: A focus on thematic details/voices to breathe life into included elements that are supported by succinct, direct rules and guidance for GMs to implement assorted features into a game.

Art/Design: A mix of layouts and aesthetics throughout the supplement. Some pages are laid out landscape-wise, and at least one two-page spread has text broken across its pages. Number and variety of illustrations and themes, along with their execution, are inspiring.

Usability: Body text font is pretty consistent throughout, and despite the range of page/spread layouts it’s easy to identify headings/labels and how they relate to nearby content. However, the text is not embedded, so searching/selecting and screen reader use is not possible.

Concept: “This zine contains a table for Animals and plants altered genetically, mechanically or both, some stat blocks and body modifications.”

Content: A collection of biological and technological creatures, parts, and modifications to bring more animalistic variety to a game.

Writing: Descriptions make use of a casual and conversational voice that makes even the more mundane entries engaging and humorous.

Art/Design: Three pages of red and blue text on a light gray hex-pattern background. Two pages use single-column text layouts, while the page of stat blocks has different NPCs’ info scattered around the page.

Usability: Each page provides a consistent visual grammar to indicate how to navigate its content. Center-aligned lists of creatures and modifications may slow down some reading of entries that span multiple lines of text.

Concept: “A small collection of optional rules for Cy_Borg. Includes variations on Experience, Dice-few Combat (with revisions to how armor, weapons and initiative work), a biological alternative to Cybertech and doing away with Cy-Rage.”

Content: A set of rule proposals to affect characters in assorted ways that can provide some intriguing variety to a game of Cy_Borg.

Writing: Text is direct and focused on explaining the mechanical differences between these rules and those in the official rulebook. No fluff, all function.

Art/Design: Single-column text with a simple heading organization. Black-and-white with one heading level provided in red/pink. Background is a light noise/speckle pattern.

Usability: Font choices are easily readable, and the page background pattern shouldn’t cause much disruption of engagement with text. A few key terms and phrases are bolded and italicized for quick identification.

Concept: “Embedded in ads, lurking in the top search result, loaded as a hacker’s dead hand, coursing through a derelict net node. Viruses are everywhere, infecting everyone, stealing a portion of everything. Most of them are unnoticeable, lurking in your RCD, implants, accounts, everything. These? Less so. Bisecting your consciousness. Hijacking your implants. This is the result of someone else’s malice or misconduct. It will break you down until you get rid of it.”

Content: A set of tables to make a player’s life living hell through the power of compromised technology.

Writing: Concise and powerfully thematic explanations of relevant variables, including how the virus spreads, how it affects a player mechanically, who developed it, how to get rid of it.

Art/Design: A visual overload of colors, fonts, graphics, and stylistic clashes that feels entirely appropriate given the rules’ purpose.

Usability: While overall consistency is out the window, it is possible to understand and navigate each table/element while focusing on that section.

Concept: “Meatspace decays. AR sputters. VR goes black. There are perilous chambers for those descending too deep in the THE NET. Nothing in them but shimmering entropy. Fractal pits. Voidpoints.”

Content: A set of rules for when a player fumbles an app roll while in the net, along with a set of locations to explore when doing so.

Writing: Brief, evocative descriptions of sensory experiences that can cause a punk to question their reality, even as digital dangers risk their annihilation.

Art/Design: Organized as a trifold pamphlet basic rules and title/credit info are provided on outer panels (in white-on-black color scheme), while voidpoint locations and a map are provided across the inner panels (in black-on-white color scheme). 

Usability: Headings and labels are visually distinct from body text and consistent in appearance. Map locations are numbered and correspond to descriptions surrounding the map image. Text is not embedded, so searching/selecting is not possible.

Concept: “
[recruiter77@mandela ~]$ sudo project-mandela  --help
#################—BEGIN TRANSMISSION—#################
<<<<<<< Project Mandela is a collaborative effort, a beacon of hope in the ever changing face of uncertainty. Our mission is to unveil the truth behind and expose the Doppels, who silently infiltrate our lives. With your assistance, we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from the horrors of being ‘replaced’. Join now.
########################—END—########################
[recruiter77@mandela ~]$ _
“

Content: A set of rules for a secret organization that tracks down “doppels” and its secret/coded message system. 

Writing: “In-world” content speaks directly to PCks while also providing GMs and players with the details needed to work the Project Mandela organization into a given game.

Art/Design: Pages are laid out as “in-world” printed flyers (complete with tear-off tags at the bottom of one page). Three versions are provided: one spread layout and two single-page layouts, with one of these optimized for printer-friendliness.

Usability: Text is mostly quite readable, with distinct sections of content clearly identifiable visually, with consistent font choices to indicate relationships between different text blocks.

Concept: “There's a sickness in the streets of CY. Rain drips like a broken IV. Dying adverts flicker in sallow shades. They say the world is ending. Has ended. Will end. They say the howls at night are Cy-Ragers. NanoPhreaks. Nothing to worry about. Nothing abnormal. The water is poison, but it always has been. The air is poison, but how bad can it be? It churns through your lungs all day and hasn't killed you yet. There's nanites in the trash, nanites growing like mold on the walls, nanites in the blood and bones of regular citizens, but all of this is familiar misery. Last night you stared blearily at your face in the bathroom mirror, watching it change. Watching it become something new. As you did, your cybernetics clicked like beetle legs, like teeth shuffling in the mouth of a cannibal. They squirmed and contorted to match your new flesh. You vomited your whole stomach lining into the sink, then washed it out with a swig of cheap ethanol. But the disinfectant didn't purify you. It just made you worse. Tonight, the glitching moon hangs low over the skyline and your body is wrong. Wrong for the city. Wrong for the life that clings to it. Wrong for the alien gods that have touched its streets. You hate them all, and that hate pours out of you in a howl.”

Content: A set of rules to incorporate werewolves into CY.

Writing: Matter-of-fact explanations and descriptions of a variety of factors pertinent to affected characters (transformation rules, clothing options that survive transformation, a “Festering Wolfborg” class, etc.) as well as several lycanthropic foes and their stats.

Art/Design: A mix of black-and-white splash images with brightly colored sections of content, each with its own bold color scheme. 

Usability: Single-page, single-column layouts make for quick perusal and identification of desired content, assisted by a hyperlinked table of contents.