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Here's some new content they've been working on - the Ninth World Guidebook - coming out in 2015. Looks like a nice big setting book expanding on what they presented in the corebook.
Two-year update: Can't even give it away. If someone wants it, I'll even pay the postage. Just give me your address and trust that I won't rape and murder your entire family, then dissolve them in industrial barrels of acid like I saw on the TV once.
Two-year update: Can't even give it away. If someone wants it, I'll even pay the postage. Just give me your address and trust that I won't rape and murder your entire family, then dissolve them in industrial barrels of acid like I saw on the TV once.
Assuming someone is considering biting the bullet, knowing full well that it's likely going to be shit, are there any house-rules or things that I should consider? I'm already considering a few, but I want to have it sorted out in my head first. Also, since I have "access" to all the books, including The Strange and the Cypher Systems book(s), is there anything I should be aware of? Any system updates or reasons I should use the Cypher Core or The Strange as the fundamental ruleset, or anything like that? Or is it just the exact same core rules reprinted with a fresh coat of paint?
I was already thinking I'd allow all 6 Types, and allow additional Descriptos and Foci on a case-by-case basis (to avoid misfits and shenanigans).
I'm going to take a stab in the dark and summon forth Prime Junta, who I know have actually played it, because I know he's also got an online character creator that locks up my browser when I try to use it, suggesting he's got some familiarity with the system.
Ok, I got this game (+ 9th World Bestiary, I think it was called) and The Strange from a friend who backed them in KS but was rather disappointed with the results, had to move to another city and wanted to get rid of some books, and since I keep a large library of roleplaying games, I didn't mind what seemed to be a high-quality addition to my collection.
The impression I got from Numenera is that it wanted to be a sci-fi game with a thin veneer of fantasy (any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and all that, plus megastructures, Dyson spheres and all that - a less dystopian "Blame!") but ended up being a generic fantasy game with a thin veneer of sci-fi, or at least that's the way it looks to me (I haven't read the whole book yet, though). A simplified (or dumbed-down) D&D where the troll regenerates because it has fucking nanites and shit, for example, and that'd be a good example because it's something from a fantasy game that's had a sci-fi explanation for its abilities bolted on - something that happens too much in that game, hence my "fantasy with a touch of sci-fi" impression. Also, they went with something latin-like for the geographical features' names and half of them sound funny if you speak Spanish (one of the seas is called "I'll be a faggot"). It's a good thing they're not in the car-naming business, or we'd have Toyota Priapuses rolling down the street.
The Strange has a similar system, but as a setting it's much more original and consistent (the closest I can compare it with is "The Secret World", the MMORPG). I shan't discuss it here, though, as there's another thread for that game.
It's less of an RPG and more of an interactive storytelling experience, players will never save their fucking pool points and commit suicide in doing so, you should allow players to scavenge for cyphers 2-3 times per session and it should be emphasized that you find more each time. Give each player a useful in the short term cypher to start, something like a 10 foot teleport, etc.
Allow players to re-roll 3 sessions in because 99% of my 25ish players made super gigger niggers who were designed to rape everyone around them and found that's only around 30% of the game.
I actually like the idea of the players committing suicide, I tend to think of it as a form of poetic justice for the horrors they put me through. I don't think I'll have the problem of giga-niggers in my game, though. If I emphasize the wacky span of options, my group will take it and run with it. It's actually a bigger risk that they'll opt for things like Explorer and just pick Foci and stuff if they want to hatefuck things, ending up with little-to-no combat prowess. Either that or they'll all snowflake like nanos.
My idea was to run it as a "filler" game for our ongoing WFRP2 game, for when the current GM inevitably falls short, and given how WFRP2 is pretty hardcore and is very much a mud-covered deadly slog (which are honestly the things I really love) I was thinking Numenera as an easily-picked-up system full of retarded shit would be a change of pace once in a while. I think that the setting is also pretty flexible, and potentially interesting if you ignore some of the more stupid stuff, which is really easy in Numenera.
Right now I'm actually thinking about allowing each player to take two foci, instead of just one, because most foci just give options anyway, and you're still limited by your statpools, and I just feel like there's so many foci, but many are ridiculously narrow, making it hard to have a rounded theme; most seem like one-trick-pony tropes.
I'm also thinking of waiving cypher limitations, because I feel like it's just a metagame incentive to use cyphers regularly, which is fine, but it feels very artificial. It's easier for me to simply tell them that they should use ciphers regularly, and then increase the risks of Intrusions if they seem to start hoarding. I was thinking I'd couple this with playing up the difficulty in identifying cyphers (or numenera in general), because I feel that it's bullshit that you'd just know how things work or what it is. With the waiving of the Cypher limitation, this also means that there can be times where they semi-fail on things, allowing me to say "You think it's a grenade of some kind", and then when they throw it, it's a digistruct flotation device. Or something.
The Strange has a similar system, but as a setting it's much more original and consistent (the closest I can compare it with is "The Secret World", the MMORPG). I shan't discuss it here, though, as there's another thread for that game.
I dunno, I'm thinking "Dying World" and 70's-90's fantasy, where the whole sci-fi/fantasy crossover was actually pretty common, although not always apparent and eventually increasingly downplayed, including in games like Might & Magic, Wizardry, Ultima, and many more. And while I can heap various criticism on Numenera all day long, I actually think that it's a very nice realization of the whole Science Fantasy idea, although I would've wanted a greater sense of "dark ages"-realism, rather than the whole SJW narrative. Numenera is almost utopian in it's post-apocalypse pre-civilization science fiction, and that really rubs me the wrong way.
As for The Strange having it's own thread, should we perhaps make a general Cypher Systems thread? Given the mechanical compatibility and the potential crossovers (narrative or not) between Numenera, The Strange and the Cypher System Core (and it's first published setting, Gods of the Fall) it might be prudent.
If nobody else does it and nobody objects, I'll probably make a thread in the next couple of days, maybe.
That's kinda the vibe I'm getting too, about the ideas actually being good, but execution suffering. I haven't played it, but the way all the flat damage interacts and how there's no set combat rules or solid skill tables really throws me the fuck off. It's one of those things that I'm sure works great for whomever designed it, because they have all their assumptions clear, they know what to recommend to players, and so on and so forth, but to someone trying to actually play, it's shit.
And since this is probably pretty fun to actually play with, say, Monty Cuck himself, I think part of the issue is that they're blind to the issues - because they're clearly happy with the system, since they've made two major core rulebooks more, without heavy revisions (that I know of, at least). The last Core Rulebook, intended as a general core rulebook for the entirety of the Cypher System, isn't a "Cypher System 2nd Ed." or anything, assuming that Numenera would've been 1st Ed. At least it doesn't look like it at a glance.
Since you mentioned Gods of the Fall, though, I must say that I was flipping through the Gods of the Fall book yesterday, and I'm now considering running that instead, using the Cypher Core Rulebook as the core, and then just taking stuff like monsters and character options (again, case-by-case) from Numenera/The Strange. Gods of the Fall actually looks very interesting, and it's got a pretty cool premise without it sounding derptastic.
The only thing that worries me is that it's got a lot of added numbers, such as increasing maximum difficulty of tasks from 10 to 15, and things like that. Having no experience with the core system, I'm hesitant to get involved in things that so clearly deviate from the norm. I also dislike how the GotF Types differ rather heavily from the Cypher Core ones, and already have some "Flavor" options baked into them, whereas my plan would've been use certain flavors based on what kind of nascent god the players would choose to be. I still might, I just think that the listed options needlessly pigeon-hole you a bit.
There are actually references to going to level 15 in the normal base Numenera game, it's just that you typically don't have a chance against enemies like that unless you're tier six.
Don't waive cypher limitations, they actually come up with a decent explanation every time and it's one of the few successful implementations of inventory limitations in TTRPGs
I guess that if I end up running Gods of the Fall instead (and I'm heavily leaning towards that at the moment) the issue of Cyphers (or whatever it's called there, I actually have no clue) become more of a matter of spooky-wooky magic, rather than a matter of the inverse polarity fields in these hyper-aglets interacting on a nanoscale level with this hydrophobic thermobaric grenade. For reasons I cannot entirely explain, I'm actually a lot more OK with "A wizard did it" and opposing metaphysical forces than I am with rationalizing technobabble.
Alright, so, there's one thing I'm not getting. The Cypher System(s) don't have set skills. That's all well and good. But all the Character Sheets all look like something akin to this: https://i.imgur.com/WjVqLmr.png (this one is specifically from Gods of the Fall).
But at the same time, skills aren't necessarily defined as "Intellect", "Might" or "Speed", and if you have two skills that apply to a given situation (such as "Pleasant social interactions" and "Persuasion"), you count as Specialized instead of just Trained, and so forth. And depending on the skill and somewhat depending on this, it might sometimes be Intellect or it might sometimes be Speed, and so on.
So wouldn't a single list of general "Skills" be more appropriate? Or have I misunderstood something? Looking at the sheet, it just makes me feel like I've missed something and I have no idea where to place some "Skills".
The skill system in Cypher sucks balls. Really. It's terrible. And it's trivialised by Effort and Assets anyway; past tier 1 your skills won't matter because the players will just be using whoever has points left in the Pool in question.
In my campaign, I houseruled it into something slightly more manageable: first, I made it so that "Trained" is always in what's called in the rulebook a "broad skill" -- something like Social Interaction for example. And "Specialised" is always in a "narrow skill" that's a subset of the "broad skill." And finally, I doubled the bonuses you get from it, so it wouldn't be completely overshadowed by Effort (and Assets).
I did not prepare lists of skills beforehand; the players had fun inventing the stuff they wanted to be good at and it worked out fine.
Then I had to adjust difficulties up by a level or so to make up for the extra level they got "for free" when creating characters.
The skill system in Cypher sucks balls. Really. It's terrible. And it's trivialised by Effort and Assets anyway; past tier 1 your skills won't matter because the players will just be using whoever has points left in the Pool in question.
In my campaign, I houseruled it into something slightly more manageable: first, I made it so that "Trained" is always in what's called in the rulebook a "broad skill" -- something like Social Interaction for example. And "Specialised" is always in a "narrow skill" that's a subset of the "broad skill." And finally, I doubled the bonuses you get from it, so it wouldn't be completely overshadowed by Effort (and Assets).
I did not prepare lists of skills beforehand; the players had fun inventing the stuff they wanted to be good at and it worked out fine.
Then I had to adjust difficulties up by a level or so to make up for the extra level they got "for free" when creating characters.
Well I'm going to be running Gods of the Fall, anyway, and the players get Divine Shifts, which are practically identical to the Optional Rule regarding Superheroes, Power Shifts, in the Cypher Core Rulebook. What it does is lower the difficulty of tasks relating to a given thing, before you even apply Skills, Assets, or Efforts - and the players get 3 Divine Shifts starting on Tier 2, already, so there's no way all of this is going to overshadow their skills anyway. Someone at Tier 2 that's Trained in Smashing and and Trained in strength-related tasks (and thus essentially Specialized on in Smashing), with 3 Divine Shifts in Strength and with two Assets (from wherever), putting in two degrees of EFfort, would conceivably lower the difficulty of breaking down a wall by 3 (Shifts) + 2 (Skills) + 2 (Assets) + 2 (Effort) = 9.
Yeah, El-Nachos, Nascent God of Strength, Patron Saint of Luchadors, would conceivably treat a Difficulty 9 Task, categorized as "Immortal" and "A task worthy of legends that lasts a lifetime" as a "Routine" Difficulty 0 task, at Tier 2. Even if we ignore the two assets (because I honestly have no fucking clue what would be a viable Asset at that point, I'm not going to allow a fucking Crowbar to contribute) that's still Difficulty 7, which is Formidable, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
"Broad Skills" only really seem to come from Descriptors and Foci, though, but the fact that shit can't stack properly is annyoing. After all, what's the point of getting Persuade, Intimidate and/or Deceive from multiple sources? For example, the "Speaks with a Silver Tongue" Focus gives you the broad skill of being "trained in all social interactions, including persuasion, deception, and intimidation" at Tier 1, and then makes you specialized at Tier 6. In the event that someone has the Descriptor of Manipulative (which is honestly a pronounced possibility if someone takes Speaks with a Silver Tongue as their focus), they're already trained in Intimidation, Persuasion and Deception, making them Specialized at Tier 1. So what do they get when they get to Tier 6 and get their capstone special ability? Pretty much jack shit, that's what. Even without that specific Descriptor, you'd basically have to hold off Specializing in the thing that defines your character, as to not "waste" your 6th Tier.
Now, this is easily avoidable in the system, just make a new ability for the character's Tier 6 and call on Rule 0, but in terms of an "as is" ruleset, it's absolute shit that that would even be necessary.
I'm thinking about simply putting the Skill Bonus Cap at 3 instead of 2, but keep the maximum ranks (so you can only have 2 points in a skill, or 2 points in a broad skill) to alleviate this somewhat; at least then you'll be unlikely to cap out on character creation, at least, and it's quite uncommon that someone gets two broad skills (unless you specifically allow it, in which case the GM is to blame anyway). Or, maybe better, allow 1 "overflow" Skill Bonus to count as an Asset, meaning that if you're Specialized in a broad skill and trained in a skill, both of which contribute to a test, you'd be considered as having 2 Skill and 1 Asset (of which you can still only have 2).
