CBR+PNK Designer Spotlight: Michael Elliott

Hey Runners! Here's another designer spotlight for CBR+PNK: OVERLOAD, this time featuring our recently unlocked stretch goal designer, Michael Elliot!

Michael is the one that introduced me (Ray) to cyberpunk roleplaying through his excellent game NEON BLACK. He's a fantastic designer with work across a variety of genres.

When he pitched KILL PARTY, both my and Emanoel's jaws dropped. I personally can't wait to run the scenario for my table. Let's dig into it...

1. What inspired your Pamphlets?

I was inspired by two things: the various reports on novel hedonistic acts that the modern ruling class has access to, and cyberpunk fiction in general. Rich people these days have a habit of engaging in ethically perverse behavior, and putting players in a spot to expose and stop these acts feels like it would be empowering and educational.

A cyberpunk setting levels the playing field. When the runners can have access to technology similar to magic, all the wealth of the ruling elite is less of an immediate issue. You can create larger than life characters similar to real world members of the ruling class, so folks feel safe engaging in fantasies of justice and empowerment. But you’re still left with drama and moral tensions that are the backbone of what I enjoy about TTRPGs. Do you blackmail the rich? Expose them? Kill them? Get wrapped up in all the limitless hedonism? How will you deal with the fallout?

2. Describe your Pamphlet in three words, then explain why you chose them.

KILL PARTY is a Violent Murder Buffet.

VIOLENT: There is the day-to-day violence on display that the ruling class enact on their servants and the workers that give them their wealth, but also novel acts of violence when wealthy people don’t have to worry about the public seeing them. KILL PARTY is a pressure cooker. How much of this shit can you stand to watch, how much violence can you endure, before something breaks.

MURDER: I mean it’s called KILL PARTY so let’s be clear: if you don’t get what you want and get out, the party reaches its climax. All these rich assholes have clones, consciousness back-ups, etc. and so they are here to indulge in killing people and being killed without consequences. Will you take part or get got?

BUFFET: You’ve gotten into a party meant for the elite, so how will your crew take advantage of this situation? The rich are immoral, but as we have seen over the last few years with AI, crypto currencies, and nun-fungible tokens, they are also incredibly gullible. They won’t get any smarter in the future. They will fall for a con as sure as the economy collapses every few years. So what will it be? Convince them you have the next best tech startup to rob them?  Expose past misdeed for a quick payout? Pick some pockets? Or will you wait until the lethal climax to shed some blood and collect some expensive cybernetics you can sell or give to folks who need them?

3. What’s a design element - either as part of your Pamphlet or otherwise - that you’re particularly proud of?

Honestly fitting a whole adventure in a pamphlet is great in and of itself. You get to make so many interesting choices about how to make your text concise, how to lay things out, and how to get the most out of each panel.

But the countdown clock to the party’s finale is probably the thing I’m most looking forward to.

4. Do you have any advice for someone designing their first TTRPG or module?

Start small. No, smaller. Is your book a hundred pages? Too big. Make it smaller. Make it 36 pages. Make it something you can finish so you can see every part of the process from writing, layout, testing, to publishing. Doing every part of the process not only teaches you what is involved, but lets you discover which parts you like, which parts you hate, and which parts you can improve next time.

Also you can playtest your game by yourself.

5. What’s your signature drink in the CBR+PNK universe—and what’s in it?             

Whatever they are serving at the socialist commune outside the megacity. Y’know, the one squatting in the ruined suburbs made temporarily uninhabitable after the last flood, fire, or storm. Maybe the drink is homemade moonshine, maybe it’s some diamond label whiskey with an atrocious price tag that fell off the back of the truck. Whatever it is, it tastes better when you drink it with friends.

5. Any other projects or thing’s you’d like to plug?                                                 

I just made a new Magic the Gathering format called PUNK MAGIC where you can make your own cards, play single player mini games, and more. It’s free and gives you something to do with all those bulk cards in your collection: https://notwriting.itch.io/punk-magic 

I also just released a print and play single player card game called Escape the Kronos: https://notwriting.itch.io/escape-the-kronos 

Also I make games full-time so every purchase helps. Backing me on Patreon helps a lot too: https://www.patreon.com/c/notwriting 

6. Where can people find you?  

I mostly post on Bluesky these days: https://bsky.app/profile/notwritinggames.bsky.social

You can follow my work on itch.io too: https://notwriting.itch.io/

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Make sure to check out Michael's other work on itch! Don''t forget, CBR+PNK: OVERLOAD runs through the month of June 2025!