After Gary Gygax was ousted from TSR, he joined Frank Mentzer and Kim Mohan in forming New Infinities Productions. While the company was kept afloat with Gord the Rogue book sales, the trio released the CYBORG COMMANDO roleplaying game.

“In the year 2035, Earth is attacked by aliens – hostile Xenoborgs who selected our planet as the next addition to their galactic empire. In mere days, man’s conventional forces are destroyed, and the earth is overrun by alien troops. Now, Earth’s only hope lies with the CYBORG COMMANDO Force (CCF) – a cadre of super-soldiers who are part human and part machine.”

CYBORG COMMANDO was a flop at the time, and poorly reviewed since then. Lizard’s Gaming Blog has a thorough examination (Part 1 ~ Part 2) of the game, so no need to plow that ground again here. I will All-Caps CYBORG COMMANDO everywhere in this post, inspired by that review.

On RPGGeek, CYBORG COMMANDO has an average review score of 3.25/10.

I was intrigued by a theme running through the reviews:

“Some nice ideas in the books, but…”

“It had some interesting ideas…”

“It’s too bad that the play was so awful because the concept behind the game was a good one.”

I’ve got a set in the shop, and figured that’d be my approach: Flip through the game, noting the interesting bits that caught my eye. Following are the photos from that exercise.

Cyborg Commando Box set

CYBORG COMMANDO: The Battle For Earth
1987 … Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer & Kim Mohan … New Infinities Productions 10-1001 … ISBN 0941993183

CYBORG COMMANDO available in the shop

Check eBay

CYBORG COMMANDO at Amazon

San Francisco KnightsAlthough no further sets were released for the game, 3 modules and 3 novels did see print.

See my reference site for more info about the accessories

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The CCF Manual and Campaign Book share the same art as the box

CCF Manual

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The d10x (d10xd10) mechanic that defines the gameplay
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Of the various artists’ work in the books, I think I prefer Diane Hamil’s pieces
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As others have noted, the skills section reads like a college course catalog

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The brain is stored in the cyborg’s torso, which helps explain the next photo

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This is great! A diagram of the cyborg’s signature knuckle laser
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The fingers have tools as well

Campaign Book

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The entire first half of the Campaign Book is given over to lists of surviving population centers around the world. This would have been better placed in a later accessory book I reckon.

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The second half of the Campaign Book delves into the Xenoborgs, and is much more interesting I think.

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Player’s Adventure Notes & GM’s Adventure Notes

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It’s a 16-page flip booklet

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I thought I’d save this bit for last. Some advice for dealing with cowardly players. This has to be Gygax’s writing! [Edit: I’m wrong! Frank Mentzer corrected me on FB; this is his writing.]

See also: Which BECMI D&D Expert Rulebook do you have?

AD&D Module T1-4 “Temple of Elemental Evil” – 1ST PRINT IDENTIFICATION

Gamma World: Nort and Scar

Gamma World: Treasures of the Ancients (1993)

Polyhedral Nonsense: Gary Gygax’s Cyborg Commando – Fillable Character Sheet for a dead RPG