Cy_Borg - Starter guide
What is Cy_Borg?
Cy_Borg is a rules-light cyberpunk RPG about nano-infested punks pulling desperate jobs in Cy, a megacity that is dying loudly. The corps own the towers, the algorithms own the feeds, and you own a gun, a glitchy implant and a grudge. Missions go wrong, money evaporates, and the city grinds on. The only sane response is to burn something down before it burns you.
It is the sister game of Mörk Borg, and it wears the family resemblance proudly: the same brutal simplicity, the same art-book energy, but the grimdark fantasy swapped for neon, chrome and class war. The book screams in pink and acid green, and every page radiates anti-corporate rage.
Cy_Borg was created by Christian Sahlén and Johan Nohr of Stockholm Kartell and released by Free League Publishing in 2022, built on and fully compatible with Mörk Borg. The core rulebook Netherbook carries holds the complete game, including the introductory heist Lucky Flight Takedown.
How does the system work?
The engine is one roll: d20 plus an ability modifier against a Difficulty Rating, usually 12. A natural 1 always fumbles, a natural 20 always crits. And like its sister game, the players roll all the dice: you roll to attack, you roll to dodge, and the enemies just keep coming. It is fast, mean and easy to learn in one evening.
The toys are what make it cyberpunk. Apps are plug-in programs you run on risky Knowledge checks. Cybertech gives you an edge until it glitches at the worst possible moment. Nanopowers are the wildest option: parasitic machine-abilities that do spectacular things and occasionally try to take over their host. Power always has a price, and the price is usually paid mid-firefight.
The world itself keeps score. The game tracks the city's collapse through miserable headlines, randomly rolled bulletins of doom that pile up as you play, until the apocalypse arrives and Cy reinvents itself for another round. Combined with a mission generator full of targets, twists and employers who will absolutely betray you, the book runs a campaign almost by itself.
What do you need to start?
The core rulebook is everything: the city of Cy in all its rotten glory, character creation, classes, gear and guns, apps and nanopowers, more than 25 adversaries, the mission generator and the starting heist Lucky Flight Takedown. It is a compact book of roughly 150 pages that doubles as a punk art object.
Beyond that you need a standard set of polyhedral dice (two d6 cover the d66 tables), some friends with poor impulse control, and optionally a playlist that annoys your neighbours. Characters roll up in minutes, so nobody needs to prepare anything.
Who is this game for?
Cy_Borg is for groups who want their cyberpunk fast, loud and disposable. If you like heists that spiral, gallows humor, and characters whose life expectancy is measured in sessions, this delivers. It is also a gift for game masters who prefer rolling on tables to writing plots: the city generates its own trouble.
It is not for everyone. If you want deep tactical combat, careful character progression or a hopeful story about fixing the system, Cy_Borg will laugh at you in pink neon. The layout is also intentionally overwhelming; readers who want a tidy, restful rulebook should flip through it first.
How does it compare to other systems?
Compared to Dungeons & Dragons, Cy_Borg is a different hobby wearing the same dice. No builds, no twenty-level arcs; characters are cheap, fast and flammable, and the fun lives in what goes wrong.
Compared to its parent Mörk Borg, the engine is nearly identical but the flavour flips: doom metal fantasy becomes doompunk sci-fi, and Cy_Borg offers slightly more gear, more tech and more mission structure to hang sessions on.
And Pirate Borg completes the family portrait: same brutal core, cursed Caribbean setting. Pick your apocalypse: dying fantasy world, haunted sea or neon megacity.
Where do you start?
Roll characters together at the table; watching the dice hand someone a debt-ridden slacker with a malfunctioning arm is half the fun. Then run Lucky Flight Takedown straight from the book. It teaches the rules and the tone in one session.
After that, let the mission generator do the work. Roll a job, roll a twist, and let the players improvise their way through the wreckage. Do not get attached, and keep an eye on the headlines.
Recommended products at Netherbook
The Cy_Borg Core Rulebook is the complete game and the only thing you need.
If the engine clicks and you want more of the family, the Mörk Borg collection gathers the whole doomed clan, including Pirate Borg. And if it is the neon dread that hooks you rather than the dice, the Sci-fi collection and the Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic collection are full of futures that went wrong in interesting ways.