[Free RPG Day 2026] Kaguya Protocol

 Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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CBR+PNK—Cyber plus Punk—is a stripped down Cyberpunk roleplaying game, published by Mythworks, using a streamlined version of Forged In The Dark. The players take the roles of ‘Runners’—mercs, criminals, and activists who live on the edge of society, not legal, but not necessarily illegal, though whether made to earn money or done out of principle, their runs in the shadows always are. CBR+PNK is designed for one-shots and notably, its format consists of a series of four-panel pamphlets.

Kaguya Protocol, subtitled, ‘A Neon-Fantasy Tale of Glitches and Legacy’ is a two-part scenario that shifts the tone and feel of CBR+PNK. In Kaguya Protocol they are descendants of ancient Shinobi guardians in the year 20XX, not ‘cyberpunks’, but ‘cyber-shinobi’. They are descendants of ancient Shinobi guardians who are tasked with infiltrating the fortress island home of a Trillionaire tech-bro off the coast of Japan and recover a Sacred Relic that the Trillionaire has stolen and is exploiting its power to his own ends. Which of course, will unleash more evil into the world. In this case, mining BambooCoin crypto currency through an eldritch code!

The first part of the scenario is the infiltration of the island. This hampered by the implemented Security Protocol Threats which seemingly scramble the Trillonaire’s mansion layout. Once past this, the Runners can confront him-in both Meatspace and Cyberspace and eventually recover the Sacred Relic, which it turns is not an artefact, but a baby—Princess Kaguya! In the second half of the scenario, the Runners race to return her home to the Moon, chased across MegaTokyo to MegaTokyo Spaceport. If the Runners succeed, they will each receive a generous gift and change the world as Princess Kaguya ascends. The Player Characters get to decide what these are. 

Kaguya Protocol is based on the publisher’s forthcoming Onigami roleplaying game and is inspired by Japan’s classic fairy tale, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (animated as The Tale of the Princess Kaguya by Studio Ghibli), and when the Runners first find her, Princess Kaguya is a blank slate. During the second half of the scenario, as the Runners literally babysit her, she will witness their behaviour and actions and be influenced by them as she grows from a baby into a child and finally from a child into a teenager. This is tracked by the Game Master which will unlock powers and new aspects of her personality, giving her an interesting and rapidly changing NPC to portray.

The Game Master will still need CBR+PNK to run Kaguya Protocol and the players will need to create standard Runners. However, they have all accepted a deal with the Onigami (their players need to decide why) and instead of Augmentations, they receive an Artefact each. Five are listed, suggesting that Kaguya Protocol is best played with a maximum of five players and each has a power that can be activated and a Wicked Power that can be unleashed if it is pushed past its boundaries. This has its consequences. For example, the ‘Hōrai Tree Tattoo’ enables a Runner to stretch out like the branches of a tree, but its Wicked Power lets him teleport a short distance into concealment, though not without leaving behind an item of importance that he was carrying.

Kaguya Protocol is well presented. The only illustration is on the front cover. Otherwise, the pamphlet compacts a lot of information into a relatively small space. but it is accessible and easy to read.

Kaguya Protocol is decent little scenario which neatly combines Japanese folklore with the Cyberpunk genre for a good little one-shot. It has plenty of scope for player input and an interesting NPC for the Game Master to portray as Princess Kaguya grows up.