This week is loosely themed around cyborgs. We start with Cyborg Commando (1987). It was the first game from New Infinities, a company formed by Gary Gygax, Kim Mohan and Frank Mentzer after Gygax was run out of TSR. Gygax outlined the game, while Mohan and Mentzer designed it — Gygax was too busy writing the Gord the Rogue novels that were keeping the company afloat to do more than that. As it turns out, Cyborg Commando is a terrible game and released to become one of the biggest flops in the hobby’s history, which probably doomed New Infinities.

Xenoborgs have invaded Earth, oh no! The only thing that can stop them is CYBORG COMMANDO ™ Force. They do this by rolling 2d10 and multiplying the results. I don’t really understand the math, but that rolling mechanic seems to make skill progression inconsistent — increasing the value of a skill doesn’t proportionally increase the chances of success. Better keep that in mind when testing your Household Organization skill? That is a real game skill contained in a list of seeming hundreds of skills, of which only scant few seem useful in shooting lasers at aliens. Which makes sense, because as far as I can tell, the combat system doesn’t take into account the skill system at all. Similarly, the player book provides information on how cyborgs work, next to none of which has real mechanical or even narrative impact.

Which brings us to the sourcebook, which details the invasion and the aliens. Sort of. There are lots of lists of things like population data. A lot of latitude and longitude coordinates. Very important for running a campaign. Half the book is dedicated to the aliens, which are giant bugs that grow organic guns. Like the info on the cyborgs in the player book, it is hard to see how useful knowing how xenoborg cells work is for play, or in crafting scenarios.

Nice art, generally though, provided by Diane Hamil, Valerie Valusek, Gary Williams and Todd Hamilton. And, while the game is a stinker, I do think that Dave Dorman cover art is pretty classic.