Are you a lover of all things cyberpunk and want a quick, easy TTRPG system to play? Feeling overwhelmed playing rules-dense systems, like Cyberpunk RED and Shadowrun? CY_BORG is a great place to start living your cyberpunk dreams, and StartPlaying has sessions available for you to join right now!

CY_BORG is a reskin of the famous MORK BORG system, allowing players to dive into a high-octane cyberpunk adventure in minutes. Roll across multiple randomized character tables and have a brand new character ready to reign hell over the cybernetic city of Cy. 

RULES OF THE STREETS

Players in CY_BORG are known as Punks: renegades working outside of the system. You are out to do one thing: make money. The bigger the gig, the bigger the payout. If you live, you will become a living legend. If you don’t? Well, don’t think about it too hard. 

CY_BORG, and all other MORK BORG systems, are very open to players and game masters breaking the rules when it is cool to do so. However, there is one rule to CY_BORG that can never be broken: you cannot have any sympathy for corpos, cops, or the capitalist system. No matter the situation, they are always the enemy.

The five abilities of CY_BORG are: 

·      Agility: How fast you move, how well you drive, firing full-auto weapons

·      Knowledge: Using tech, utilizing science, using Apps.

·      Presence: Shooting weapons, keeping up the charm, using Nano equipment

·      Strength: Throwing and lifting things, striking and grappling people

·      Toughness: Resisting poisons and toxic environments, surviving an accidental fall

Whenever you make a check, it will be for one of these abilities. Roll a d20 and add your ability modifier to determine the outcome. The higher the roll, the greater the check success.

 

JUST A ROLL OF THE DICE

The wonderful thing about CY_BORG is that it is a simple pick-up-and-play TTRPG system that you can run in an afternoon. There are endless lists of equipment, weapons, tech, clothing styles, and character quirks to explore and choose from.

If you have a character in mind before you come to the table, pick the stuff you think reflects your character best from the lists. If you want to walk in blind, just roll a few dice, then boom – a full character sheet ready to go!

To build your character, do the following:

  1. Choose a Class (Optional): Before you start rolling stats, you can choose if you want your character to have a class. Classes will give you access to special abilities, alternate hit points, increased stats to help utilize your class abilities, and a decreased stat. Taking a class is entirely optional and not necessary to play.
  2. Roll your abilities: Roll 3d6 to determine a stat number for your five abilities. Your total will give you a modifier, ranging from – 3 to +3. If you have a class, you will roll your key ability with a modifier bonus and another stat with a modifier reduction. If you are classless, roll 4d6 and take the highest three numbers when determining your ability stat numbers.
  3. Determine your Features, Style, and Obsession (Optional): These optional tables will help you flesh out your character’s personalities and visual style. Are you a NuPrep hacker with monochrome skin and a thing for high explosives? Or maybe a Wallgoth gunslinger with an RCD helmet that can talk for hours about puppets. Choose them, use them, or ignore them.  
  4. Randomize your Stuff: Time to roll some dice for your weapons, armor, and equipment. Pick some that work for you, or embrace chaos and let the dice roll.
  5. Roll your Debt: You owe someone a lot of money. Roll to determine how much and to who. Whether you owe a crime syndicate, a fixer, or even your mother, they are coming after you for you with a gun in their hand. Better move quickly.
  6. Roll your Glitches: Glitches are game-bending resources that allow you to change your luck when the chips are down. They can include rerolling dice, dealing maximum damage on an attack, and neutralizing critical failures or successes. Just be careful when you use it – you only regain Glitches when you rest or perform special class actions.
  7. Roll your Hit Points: Classless Punks start with 1d8 + Toughness hit points. Classed Punks have unique hit-point totals you will roll for when you choose your class. Roll to find out how screwed you are once combat begins!

Once you have gone through these steps, your character is ready to go!

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

If you want a tailored experience for your Punk, you can choose a class to help focus your gameplay and roleplay. The classes are:

  • Shunned Nanomancer (Key Ability - Presence): Something is living inside of you. And it is spreading. Whether you were drenched in a strange neo-pagan baptism or infected with a nanotech virus, your body is changing – for better or worse.
  • Burned Hacker (Key Ability - Knowledge): You were one of the greatest hackers across the Net. But that is in the past - you were tricked, trapped, or discovered something too awful to comprehend deep within the techno void. Now you are burned, with no backup plan. It is time to put your skills to use elsewhere.
  • Discharged Corp Killer (Key Ability - Toughness): War is hell, and you have been through hell enough to know when it is time to get out. In the endless battle for capitalist expansion, you were just a cog, trained to use some of the most dangerous weapons mankind ever created. Now you are out. What other option do you have but to join a war of another kind?
  • Orphaned Gear Head (Key Ability - Knowledge): When the flesh is weak, replace it with steel. Equal parts inventor, gear nut, and getaway driver, you can operate heavy machinery of any kind. Just test everything first – you would hate to get out in the field just for everything to blow up.
  • Renegade Cyberslasher (Key Abilities – Strength and Presence): When you are a cold-blooded mercenary, you need the chrome to match. Your body and mind are a perfectly entwined weapon, able to sever body parts while appreciating good poetry. Strategist and blood-letter, dive headfirst into the carnage with intellectual abandon.
  • Forsaken Gang-Goon (Key Abilities – Presence and Agility): You had a chosen family of some of the roughest and toughest criminals in the city. The criminal underworld is your playground. But things have gone south with your gang, and now you are alone. But just because you are alone now does not mean you are giving up. Time to rebuild.

Remember: choosing a character class is entirely optional. If you do not find something that works for you, talk to your game master about potentially building a class of your own.

Now that you have your character, you are ready for adventure. Check out open CY_BORG games on StartPlaying right now to jump into the adventure cybernetic feet first!

Tyson Fraleigh is a professional dungeon master, writer, playwright, and voice actor based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal.

Posted 
May 1, 2025
 in 
Playing the Game
 category