Trigger Happy Jam

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 relic of a thousand catastrophes’ past. This pharmaceutical playground houses a biochem cult called THE ARGON ANNIALHIT. Nanorobotic blood-treatments, agonizing bodymods, and ‘The Last High in CY’ – a micro-ink shop and ooze lounge – permeate this piss-hole too. But even in the inebriated ruins of this importunate husk, there is worth. Mere pixels of .NET/organic mutter of a sealed organ freezer the ANNIALHIT has yet to open. Open it.”

Content: A mission to infiltrate a cult headquarters in search of chemical riches.

Writing: Job parameters are flexible thanks to “Client” and “Looking For” tables, resulting in a variety of distinct gigs. Site room descriptions provide short, concentrated features and scenery to help GMs bring the place to life.

Art/Design: Trifold brochure layout in black-and-light-tan color scheme with mission parameters on the outer panels and room info with central hand-drawn map on the inner panels.

Usability: Easily navigable pages with visually distinct headings, with a variety of readable fonts. NPC/enemy information is provided in contrasting boxes for quick identification and reference.

Concept: “A minor security intervention in the neighbouring district of Bigmosse has inadvertently spilled over into Svärta. Alliansen’s head of security operations, a Ms. Ah, has instructed you to retrieve one of their drones that was damaged and wandered off.”

Content: A mission to locate and abstain a drone somewhere in a semi-decrepit neighborhood. 

Writing: Copious amounts of detail bring the neighborhood to life, from building and business descriptions to NPC motives & likely actions and beyond.

Art/Design: An overhead map of the locale in orange on black precedes the text, which appears in several high-contrast layout configurations, with an illustration of a threatening pair of eyes appearing amid info about an important NPC and environmental conditions.

Usability: Text is readable throughout, with bold text and color choices emphasizing eadings/labels, key terms, and phrases that a GM should attend to, especially given the amount of text content across these pages.

Concept: “The punks have a mission. Kidnap Lukas Tosk. He's traveling with just his driver today. It'll be a quick 10k¤. Or so they think. VIP Abduction is a pamphlet-sized module for CY_BORG. It includes a map of a Virid Viper safe house and everything you need to put inside to set up the abduction mission. The module includes stat blocks for new characters and page numbers for referencing the CY_BORG rule book for other stat blocks and tables.”

Content: A kidnapping mission with a bonus automotive theft component.

Writing: Job setup and preparation/site location info is provided first, followed by sections on the mission execution and target/enemy NPCs.

Art/Design: Two versions: full-color and black-and-white. Trifold brochure layout with full color outer panels (in full color version), while inner panels are black and white in both versions. An overhead map of the mission locale is also included as a separate file.

Usability: Bolded headers and key labels/descriptors help call attention to important information, and consistent spacing makes it easy to identify individual sections of content. Overall arrangement of info reduces need to jump around between panels to locate immediately useful specifics. Full-color gradient pattern background on outer panels provides decent contrast to maintain text readability.

Concept: “Made for The Rolled Standards Trigger Warning: Trigger Happy Jam, this adventure is a simple assassination mission in a rundown church in the heart of G0. Risk nano infestations while trying to kill off the cult leader Farther Barnos, return his head and a requested item for a fat pay out.”

Content: A job to unseat the head of a local church.

Writing: Intense descriptions of the mission’s most important locations and events/encounters.

Art/Design: A mix of analog hand-drawn and digital illustrations accompany a mostly single-column layout of white, green, and pink on black backgrounds.

Usability: Text is mostly readable and searchable (except for Barnos’ stat block, which is handwritten text) with clear visual distinctions–color, typeface, white space–between sections of content.