CBR + PNK Augmented:
TTRPG Review

I can divide my life into pre-COVID and post-COVID days; pre-parenthood and post-parenthood, since I had my kid in 2020. In the before-times, I had lofty goals of massive ttrpg campaigns, multiple parties interacting and advancing the story of a West Marches style game, and dramatic boss fights with tons of planning. Since 2020, the idea of running a ttrpg campaign or even participating has felt nearly impossible. Only one-shot games have felt like a remote possibility as my energy and free time have slowly begun to return.

It is with this background that I went to PAX Unplugged last year, looking for games that were going to be easy to pick up, try out, and put back down again. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with nice long chunky campaigns, but sometimes, you just want something you can play, get a satisfying story, and put away again.

After a year of playing multiple smaller ttrpgs, I can safely say CBR+PNK has become one of my favorite pen-and-paper games to grab when I finally have a chance to hang out with friends.

Small Package, Big Ideas, And Lots Of Stealing

CBR+PNK as a game and as a product is equally enticing and avant garde. You’ll notice that dynamic throughout this review: this is a game that tries a lot of really interesting new things, offering a great entry point into ttrpgs that are not based on the classic D20 system. This I think mostly works to its credit, but some aspects might throw off certain players who have come to expect certain things from their tabletop games. For context, I've been playing ttrpgs off and on for 20 years, but almost all of that came from d20 systems. In these last few years, I've really had a chance to experiment for the first time, although sometimes with growing pains. I'm happy CBR+PNK landed so well for me, as I feel like its a great way for players to try out other styles of play without expending too much money all at once. Also, thanks to its method of adding or subtracting various mechanics in the included supplements, you can go at your own pace.

The most immediate thing to note is the physical product itself; there is no book. Instead, you have a sleeve that includes just 12 glossy folded brochures, each laminated for use with dry erase markers. To play the game, you just need to hand one of the five included character sheets to a player and take your own GM sheet for easy reference. The only exterior items you’ll need is a fistful of six sided dice and some dry erase markers for everyone to share.

This has been enough for me to run some of the best one-shot sessions I ever have experienced. The game only costs $29.99.

Part of the success of CBR+PNK: Augmented comes from it having a very specific goal and helping set a very particular mood, while also leaving a lot up to the imagination of the players involved. If you are playing a standard session of this system, the concept will be the same every time: you are a runner, very much in the Shadowrun style, who has been stuck trying to earn a living working for corporations or shadowy groups mission-by-mission to earn a living. If you are lucky, this run will be your last. You’ll make enough credits, fulfill your goals, and ride off into the sunset.

Just one last job and then you’re free. Surely, as all cyberpunk movies, books, and games show us, this always goes according to plan.

Creator Creation - Fast, Frenetic, And Fun

I’ve been able to run this game for about 15 different people, and after about fifteen minutes of explanation, nearly everyone has their character sheet ready to go. There’s some questions about specifics and how the actual rules work, but the creation of a new character is made so incredibly easy.

The inside of one of the player files explains it all in just 7 steps:

1. Create a Handle on the front of the Runner File.
2. Enter a few words on the front to make your Look.
3. Choose your Angle: why your runner is in the business.
4. Assign dice to Approaches (your ‘stats’, four in total. You’ll be great in one, okay in two, and weak in the last).
5. Distribute dice to your Skills. You can also choose an Expertise using die if you want to specialize. (This is your most rules heavy step).
6. Create a Signature Modification that your character has. Some augmentation that defines your character’s look or style or role in the party. Don’t worry about specifics of what it does, but have a general idea of its function and how it can help you.
7. Do NOT pick Gear, because you decide once you start playing. Instead, look at what might interest you and maybe circle some ideas and talk with other players.

That’s literally it. 4 ‘attributes’, and 10 skills in a basic game of CBR+PNK for you to give yourself some bonuses in, and a unique cybernetic component. You’ll notice most of these steps are entirely thematic rather than mechanical; you’ll be surprised at how fast you can come up with a character that feels unique and fully formed just using the backdrop of a cyberpunk dystopia.

In character creation, a few things to keep in mind that I’ve seen over the multiple games I’ve run:

• Players should decide if they are a crew that’s run together before or not.
• Players workshopping what sort of archetype they are playing out-loud helps to make a really unique party: you can end up with one dedicated hacker, or two hackers with entirely different backstories and styles.
• Reminding people that they can decide on gear later or the specifics of their cybernetic augment really does help. As long as they get the ‘style’ of who they are correct, details can be made up as needed on the spot.

Giving players have a moment to introduce themselves after everything is done is a good way to end character creation. For the last step, the GM explains the Objective of the run they are going on, as well as some specific details, like how it’s taking place at the docks, or which mega-corporation they are stealing from, or if there’s an NPC that they should know about.

The players choose their Engagement Plan (Go in guns blazing, sneak in, pay someone off, etc) that they will start the adventure with, and you jump directly into the action.

How To Steal From A MegaCorp And Have Things Go Horribly Wrong

For those of you who have played a lot of different ttrpgs, you’ll probably be catching some familiar concepts here. That’s because CBR+PNK was created using the Forged In The Dark system as its backbone, a system created for Blades In The Dark. It was built to be a way to give players more agency, able to leap into action without getting stuck in decision making. So, a quick few points on how the mechanics and systems work, trying to keep each brief.

• Dice rolls work by combining an approach (Stealthy, Smart, etc) with a skill (Coding, Ranged Combat, Influencing, etc). This usually ends with you using anywhere between 1-4 D6s. Getting any six means you have a success. A 4 or 5 means you succeed, but with a Consequence. 1-3 is a failure, and there are Consequences.
• Threat and Effect are where the normal dice rolls become more complicated, but can be really effective with practice. Essentially when dice are rolled, the GM (Game Moderator) has both Threat and Effect set to a balanced level. However, if the enemy is a bunch of trained corp paramilitary with heavy guns, they might up the Threat for a failure to succeed at a fire fight. If the player suddenly finds themselves with a rocket launcher their Effect might go up, meaning successes would matter even more.
• Consequences are how things can go wrong. It doesn’t HAVE to mean damage, although it very much can. It can be guns running out of ammo, enemy reinforcements getting called in, or enemy Progress Tracks getting moved along. Speaking of…
• Progress Tracks are being used in a lot of different ttrpgs now that I’ve moved away from D20 systems. They are ways you can clearly mark down progress towards completing goals or defeating enemies. At the same time, you can set a progress track and name it something like “The Bomb Goes Boom”, and slowly make it tick upwards as players try to solve a problem…
• Augmentations is where CBR+PNK brings in its own specific theming and charm. You make one during character creation, but you spend Stress to trigger them, or even create other related augmentations. You can have players suddenly able to see in infrared, run as fast as a car, and more.
• Stress is sort of like your MP bar, where using it allows you to trigger all sorts of special actions. You can assist other players to add more dice, use augmentations, or suddenly pull a special trick your character was ready for, even if the player wasn’t.
• Flashbacks tie this system back into that Forged In The Dark secret sauce, letting players immediately start playing but still feel bad ass. I’ll go over Flashbacks more later, but when players suddenly encounter a problem that seems impossible to resolve safely, they can reach back in time to say how their crew planned for this event. Maybe someone paid off the guard who’s currently asking you for ID, or maybe someone showed up the morning before to get all the access codes for the eastern wing of the facility you are breaking into.
• Gear works a bit like Flashbacks, because you don’t have to equip your character during character creation. You might think you know what your character would use, but until it’s time to use it, you don’t have to declare it. Different style missions might let players bring three, five, or seven different items based on how conspicuous you want to be, but its a great way to let players have flexibility.

All of this together allows both players and GM to create incredibly dynamic scenes. You can have combat take just a few rolls where players funnel all their resources, or you can have a tense half an hour scene of players very carefully using abilities to avoid conflict, keeping everyone on the edge of their seat as they attempt to not be seen by the very very strong assault gun wielding attack drones, ‘defeating’ them by using a progress track of stealth.

The future-tech aspect is also built into character creation, thanks to every player designing a signature cybernetic augment from the start. I’ve discovered it’s a great initial talking point, signalling to other players what sort of character they plan to be. I’ve had players who created injector pads into their fingers so they can paralyze opponents and climb tall walls. One player gave themselves the “Everyman Handikey”, which let an installed set of wires and metal extend out of their forearm through their palm to be used to hack and unlock doors. Another character literally just filled their augments for ‘super soldiery’, and in a single fight scene, used all their stress to absolutely demolish a security team…and horrify his teammates.

Finally, when it comes to game mechanics, I have to mention the Angle roll that happens at the end of a game session. For me, it is the coup de grace, a moment that highlights how good CBR+PNK is at completing its task. After everything is done, each player rolls the dice for one of their Approaches gives them, adding or subtracting dice based on how well they completed their mission (got paid), if they found other ways to get credits or go into debt, and so on. They declare again why they got into the life, and what they hope might happen… and roll.

On a six, you succeed, and you’ve accomplished your Angle. Anything lower is either a mixed success or an absolute failure, keeping that character as a runner or worse a bit longer. Friends, when I tell you this final roll is magic, it is magic. The stories players can tell with a few sentences about how they vanish off into the sunset or sucked back into the life of a runner takes your game session and bookends it, leaving everyone at the table feeling satisfied. Yes, you can do game creation, a full session, and write the epilogue in just three hours, and have players feel fulfilled at the end of the day. It’s a hell of an accomplishment, and this alone I think sells the game.

Personal Moments Of Success And Frustration As A New System GM

I’ve run this game multiple times now, with a total of about 15 different people throughout those playthroughs. I ran the included starter scenario “Mind The Gap” twice, while also creating my own little cyberpunk dystopian future. In fact, I’ve found myself homebrewing a few pages of connected lore, megacorp names, gangs, and other quick references because I plan on keep running this system even after this review is done. People like CBR+PNK that much in my group - I haven’t had a single person walk away saying it was a bad system.

The question I find myself asking isn’t whether or not CBR+PNK is a good game. It is. Instead, the question is: “is this a good entry point into a new and very different ttrpg system?”

For context, none of the players I’ve played this game with have played a “Forged In The Dark” system before that uses Flashbacks. It’s an incredibly powerful ability, letting you set up for huge moments. In my first attempt at running the game, everyone had a blast, but at the end, players were feeling stressed, like they were out of options. I reminded them about the Flashback rule, but players simply didn’t know how to use them during the scenario in a way that felt ‘fair’. We were all approaching the game as a more classic dungeon crawl mindset.

Compare that to my most recent game I ran. Players made characters, decided they wanted to do a deception infiltration, so they used gear to get garbage truck uniforms and showed up at the docks to clean and shred. After 30-45 minutes of carefully skulking and talking their way into the building deeper, they failed a bunch of negotiation checks, and almost had guns drawn on them.

Immediately, one of the players who had tried the system in a previous game pulled flashback. He recalled going to a farmer’s market, and buying a box of potatoes from his favorite farmer…which, of course, was a crate of potatoes with a bunch of grenades hidden underneath. Flashback again to him calmly wiring the grenades to the bottom of the garbage truck still at the loading dock entrance.

Queue the game kicking back to current time, and the timer going off, creating a massive distraction. Security ran away to find the fire, the team overpowered who was left, the infiltrator on the outside of the building using the Gear mechanic to come up with a subvocal radio with another player to stay in contact, coordinating ambushes against the remaining security while the hacker broke into the system. And downloaded the files needed. It was beautiful.

I had a game where one player chose to backstab the rest, flying away with a chopper with extra cred sticks so they could live out their life in luxury, making the other players come negotiate with a local gang for another escape route… all the while, three players still had enough stress to do a Flashback to say they had a back up boat waiting nearby for a signal to come pick them up. They didn’t think of it until after the mission was done.

I say all this because everyone I’ve played a game of this with has enjoyed their time, but about a third have come away feeling a bit frustrated, as if they knew they could be doing more, but just weren’t sure how. Some of them have been playing a more standard ttrpg system like D&D for years, but just the mental shift this system uses for more collaborative storytelling takes some getting used to.

CBR+PNK has a lot of things going for it - you can jump in and play a game really fast, it’s affordable, it’s easy to carry around, and for the most part, the fact that the basic rule concepts are easily read and fit on just one or two brochures. However, there are a few concepts I wish the material expanded on, maybe giving examples as to how to use Flashbacks, Gear, Glitches, and some of the other more complex concepts. Heck, in one of the other included brochures, there’s a QR code for some soundcloud music samples - if there was a QR code to some added examples or tutorials, it would go a long way for newer players.

Is the classic Blades In The Dark a better way to explore this style of ttrpg? I’m unsure, because some of those games expect you to play them as small or large campaigns, where CBR+PNK explicitly is made for one shot stories. I think the answer will vary based on game group. For those I play with locally, they’ve all loved the system, but it’s been a learning experience, with the second or third games feeling much more rewarding.

The Other Six Brochures

Before I get to my final thoughts, I wanted to cover what else was in this dense package. If you haven’t already picked up on, CBR+PNK packs a lot into just a few lines, but up until now we’ve mostly just talked about the first six parts of this twelve part packet: the DM brochure and the five character sheets. On top of the basics, there is more material here, and even with multiple plays, I haven’t touched 4 of them. So, as a quick rundown:

• Framework: This is the GM’s best friend, as it helps give ideas for how to moderate the game, tips on how to run complications and consequences, and even a section on how to run ‘long shots’, which I haven’t tried yet.
• Hunters: This is probably just for people who know the system really well, but its a great addition. It lets the GM spawn in a high powered NPC of their own, which attempts to hunt down and disrupt the players, creating a whole new dynamic to the game.
• Mona Rise Megalopolis: This is almost like a campaign setting, allowing groups to run games of CYB+PNK as if set in William Gibson’s famous book Neuromancer. Lots of small bits of inspiration you can grab here.
• PRDTR: The second setting in the book and inspired by action films like Total Recall and you guessed it, Predator. It’s set in a collapsing biosphere on the moon, and focuses players into more of a survivalist setting. It adds in new rules for teamwork, playing into your group being hotshots.
• +Weird: You like the idea of Shadowrun, where you can have dwarves with guns and trolls hurling magic? Well guess what, this supplement adds that strange element back, letting you access a new skill called Attune to use magical abilities, and in general let your sessions get even stranger.

I’m going to write separately about Mind The Gap: The included brochure that is suggested to be used as an introductory scenario. It’s phenomenal in many ways, including a soundcloud link to give the GM access to some sound files for immersion. Without spoilers, it’s got a great story arc that again you can fit into one three hour session (If it is your first time, or you have multiple new players, maybe give it four). I’ve run it for two different groups, and everyone liked it, with some falling in love with the system and asking for another game immediately. However, I do wish there was a starter scenario that gave some prompts for players using their flashbacks to succeed, as that’s been a tough spot for me to get people used to. The way the story unfolds in this scenario is awesome, but I’m unsure if its a great introduction for people entirely new to this style of ttrpg.

And that’s it! Again, with only one or two hang ups, I really appreciate all the content that is packed into such a small box. I do wish I had access to more direct played-through examples, and maybe one extra starting scenario for new GMs to really feel like they can settle in. At the same time, I understand why they made their choices to keep the product compact. For those who are already familiar with Forged In The Dark systems, this is probably a slam dunk.

CBR+PNK: Augmented Is A New Favorite TTRPG For Me And Worth Every Penny

To wrap up, I want to talk about how two of my games ended. One of them had characters already injured and stressed as a heavily armored elite soldier chased them down. They opened fire, just trying pin them down and distract while another player tried to open the locked doors to escape. One player, who had taken a 3-D printer lodged in his stomach as their cyberware, spent all their remaining stress to make one more upgrade to their augment: a kill switch explosive. They were an anarchist you see, and wanted to take the corps down. So, to end the fight, he told his comrades “make sure they know it was me”, armed the explosive, and ran at the boss.

The rest lived, and made their rolls to see if they got a happy ending, the team having chosen to take down the corporation instead of cash in. No one got that magical 6… but the players who got a 4-5 spent their half success stating they found their friend’s implants, gathered evidence of the corp’s guilt in a horrific scandal, and used their drones to crash their friends remains through the window into the news conference the Megacorp was hosting to pass on blame.

The players, one by one during their epilogue, met back in an old safehouse, now wanted and being hunted. Raised a glass to their friend and said ‘well guys… time for just one more run?’. Perfect ending.

The second example surprised even me, as I had a player about to make their epilogue angle roll and started chanting I hope I fail I hope I fail I hope I fail. Absolutely confused, we all watched on as he cheered at ‘losing’ the game, his character trapped in the runner life. Why?!

Well, he had made a character named Phonk. His augment had been installed wrap around headphones that he could trigger to get echolocation and super senses like Daredevil. He was an underground DJ that wanted to host the biggest parties, and yes, music was constantly played when it was his turn. He was running for money, but wanted fame too. When there was a pair of teenagers taking a selfie earlier in the run, as a joke he came up behind them and photobombed when he could.

So, when he failed his end roll, he proudly stood up and explained how he took all the money from the run, and poured it into a huge concert. Huge ads, everything. How it was a sell out, how the crowd was jumping, how Phonk was on top of the world… that is, until the last song. With the beat ready to drop, a bunch of corps in black suits and others in tactical jackets filed into the back and started covering the exits. The screens nearby shifting to an image of him being wanted by the authorities… and the images of him photobombing those people during the run, putting him at the scene of the crime.

We laughed so hard; it was a perfect ending to the night. And honestly, that’s what CBR+PNK: Augmented does so damn well. You really can make a character up on the spot, give them one iconic cybernetic, and in just a few hours, you’ve gone on a roller coaster of events with them, allowing for dramatic sacrifices, nasty backstabbing, epic heroics, and sometimes hilarious failures.

If you’ve ever needed an excuse to try something new and expand your TTRPG repertoire, I can’t recommend CBR+PNK enough. While I got this copy for free last PAX Unplugged, I personally backed their expansion on kickstarter this last summer to get more content with my own money. Also, they have a megagame called SCIRE that’s based on this system, and naturally, I’ve already signed up with a full team for PAX Unplugged 2025. I’m expecting one hell of a good time.

If you are at PAX Unplugged this week, stop by the Mythworks booth and see if they have a copy of this game. I don’t think you and your ttrpg group will regret it.