Project Update: Using the New Cypher Rules in Your Game Right Now: Part 4
Hey there million-dollar backers!
We have an updated Cypher Character Rulebook file for you! The first seven chapters of the Cypher Character Rulebook have been laid out, a...
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Olivia Ryan
25 days ago
The First Megadungeon Built Entirely for Cypher is Here!
Hello, backers—
What an exciting time to be a Cypher fan!
Cypher has finished design, and is currently in editing and layout. Many of you have likely seen the early access...
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Kate Evans
about 2 months ago
Using the New Cypher Rules in Your Game Right Now: Part 3
Hey there million-dollar backers!
This is the third in a series of updates covering some of the changes to the Cypher rules and how you can start incorporating them into th...
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Kate Evans
2 months ago
Using the New Cypher Rules in Your Game Right Now Part 2
This is the second in a series of web articles about some of the changes to the Cypher rules and how you can start incorporating them into the Cypher System game you’re playi...
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Kate Evans
2 months ago
Using the New Cypher Rules in Your Game Right Now!
As the Cypher corebooks finish the final stages of development and move into the production phase, the design team wanted to share some insights into the new Cypher—and, as a...
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Kate Evans
3 months ago
Predation Playtest and Weekly Web Articles
Greetings, million-dollar backers!
We hope you’re enjoying the early access material for Cypher—we’ve had a lot of really positive comments about it! If you backed at the ...
Did you know that Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better! is MCG's 33rd crowdfunding campaign? We've been doing this for a long time, but the crowdfunding environment is always changing. And like a good GM, we know that we can always get even better at our craft. So help us understand how you interact with our campaigns through this poll.
Crowdfunding campaigns that really soar always do so because their backers enthusiastically spread the word. How often have you talked publicly about this Cypher campaign?
Feel free to elaborate, or talk about your favorite ways to reach new backers, in the comments on this poll!
Great news! You’ve unlocked The Strange, adding the first entirely new product to this campaign’s rewards. We’re so excited to be making this hefty hardcover campaign setting, which is now part of the rewards for all backers at the ALL-IN (print and PDF) pledge level (and in PDF for ALL-IN (PDF only) backers).
You can also get it as an add-on, but seriously: why add on a single book when you can upgrade your pledge and get so much more? The ALL-IN pledge levels were a great deal to start with, and are now even better—and the campaign is just getting started!
If you’re new to The Strange, this dimension-hopping, intrigue-filled campaign setting has been a fan-favorite for years, but the original has been long out of print. Learn more about it in our last update.
Your Bonus Reward
As if a whole new book isn’t enough, your rewards now include another sticker! Voting was very close this time, but we have a winner:
We add a vinyl sticker as a free bonus reward for all backers, every time we unlock a stretch goal. Vote for the next one below!
Shall We Expand the Cypher GM’s Guide?
One of your first stretch goals was an expansion to the Cypher Character Rulebook. The design team would love to similarly grow the GM’s book, particularly adding more equipment, cyphers, creatures, and artifacts to supplement the copious guidance and rules options for the many genres it covers. We anticipate this will add roughly 24 pages to the heft of the book, giving you that much more for your campaigns and adventures!
We’ll unlock this expansion when we reach 2600 backers.
And while we’re at it…
Let’s Choose Another Sticker
We’ve unlocked three stretch goals so far, and added three bonus vinyl stickers rewards on top of those goals. We’ll add a fourth if we unlock this expansion. Which design would you prefer?
Vote in the attached poll! The winning design will be our next bonus reward.
You Make It Happen
This campaign is going gangbusters, and we have so many more stretch goals we’d love to hit. The way to make that happen—the only way—is for backers like you to help spread the word. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to tell us about your character—it’s fun, you’ll help spread the word, and maybe you’ll win some cool, custom art for your character!
You made short work of that stretch goal! Thanks to all your great help spreading the word, the upgrade to the Cypher Character Rulebook, the Cypher GM’s Guide, and the matching version of the Cypher Bestiary has been unlocked, and they’re all getting foil-printed covers!
And as a bonus reward, every backer gets this vinyl sticker added to their rewards! That makes two you’ve unlocked so far. Here's the winner of today's poll, and the collection you've built so far.
Let Us Tell You about The Strange
Earth. The present day. The world as we know it.
Except: in the dimness of a chaotic extra-dimensional zone known by a few as “the Strange” lie thousands of Earth’s “recursions”—pocket dimensions that spawn from human myth, legend, and fiction. Rarely larger than a continent, and sometimes no bigger than a few city blocks, these aren’t full-fledged parallel universes. Rather, they’re reflections of human imagination—one might be the halls of Valhalla; another the sands of ancient Egypt; yet another the foggy East End of Jack the Ripper’s London or even the plains of Rohan. If a realm has been imagined on Earth, there is probably a recursion somewhere in our world’s shoals that represents it.
These mini-worlds have gone unnoticed for millennia, but in recent times, a rare few have discovered them—and how to reach them. Some do so for the sake of discovery. Some for plunder. A few for even more nefarious purposes. Regardless of these motives, the rare but increasing traffic between Earth and its recursions has inevitably allowed forces from these realms to discover ours.
For while most beings in these recursions are simply facets of the fiction that creates them, a rare few have “the spark.” Awareness. An ability to recognize that their own realm is limited—but that a broader, fuller world exists. Some of these beings cast ambitious eyes on our Earth. And some are very, very dangerous.
The Strange roleplaying game was originally published by MCG about a decade ago, and powered by the Cypher System. (In fact, its publication predates the original Cypher System Rulebook.) It’s been out of print for a while, but remains a fan favorite. Player characters work for The Estate, a secretive organization that seeks to protect Earth from the dangers increasingly leaking into our world. Adventures set on Earth have an X-Files sort of feel, as the PCs investigate odd happenings and combat other shadowy figures and organizations that exploit the Strange and its recursions. When adventures take them into these other realms, the PCs usual take on aspects of the recursion. They don’t just visit a space-opera realm. They translate to it, becoming, in part, the types of aliens and characters that inhabit that world.
It's a dimension-hopping game filled with intrigue, mystery, and planet-threatening danger. And we want to bring it back!
Stretch Goal: The Strange
We want to create a whole new edition of The Strange, powered by Cypher! It will be a setting book you use with your Cypher corebooks (it won’t contain its own game rules), and will be thoroughly revised and updated, with new content, adventures, and options.
And it will be a whole new book—a thick, hefty hardcover—added to the rewards of the ALL-IN (print and PDF) pledge level, as a PDF to the ALL-IN (PDF only) pledge levels, and available as an add-on for backers at other levels.
We will unlock The Strange when we reach 2200 backers.
Oh, and a Sticker!
Every time we unlock a stretch goal, we throw in a bonus reward—a free thank-you for every backer, no matter what pledge level. Help us choose the next vinyl sticker to add to the collection:
Vote for your choice, and it will be added to your rewards, for free, when we unlock The Strange!
It’s Up to YOU
We need your help to reach 2200 backers and unlock The Strange. If you haven’t already, you can take part in this contest to help spread the word—and maybe win some beautiful custom art for your Cypher character!
And here are some great graphics to share on social media, on reddit, or wherever you talk about games online—right-click to download them:
We have an updated Cypher Character Rulebook file for you! The first seven chapters of the Cypher Character Rulebook have been laid out, and we'd like to share it with you. This is still a work in progress—it isn't proofed, and some art is missing. This updated version will shortly be sent to the Early Access backers. The early access document are downloadable from the BackerKit survey page, rather than from the MCG shop account page. Please check your BackerKit account.
This is the third in a series of updates covering some of the changes to the Cypher rules and how you can start incorporating them into the Cypher System game you’re playing right now. To catch up on any you've missed, check out our other recent updates!
</alt>Spells and abilities fly in a pitched battle against a giant molten creature</alt>
Block and Dodge Instead of Speed Defense
It’s always been a little odd that the nimble unarmored PC and the slow heavily-armored PC use the same kind of defense against physical attacks (a Speed defense roll), meaning they’re both trying to dodge out of the way, when really the armored character should be trying to use the armor to absorb some or all of the attack. It also means that even the slower armored character probably puts points into their Speed Pool in case they need to use Effort on Speed defense rolls.
In the new Cypher, every character has two options for defense against physical attacks: dodge, which is a Speed roll, and block, which is a Might roll. If you successfully dodge, you take no damage. If you successfully block, you take less damage (but still some, because you did get hit).
Armor eases your block tasks (one step for light, two for medium, three for heavy), but hinders your dodge tasks by the same amount. If you’re not practiced in that armor, the dodge hindrance also applies to all your Speed tasks.
Some attacks (like a death ray that only needs to touch you) can still require you to dodge, even if you’d normally use block.
Why the Change?
Speedy characters have an incentive to not wear armor—armor makes it harder for them to dodge.
Might-based characters now can mostly rely on Might and don’t need Speed (one “tank” playtest character relied on heavy armor and blocking, and at tier 6 they had 30 Might and only 14 Speed).
Although it’s not the goal of the Cypher rules to make things “realistic” (the game is too abstract for that), we think it makes sense that a speedy unarmored character and a tough armored character rely on different defensive options.
Wait a second … we didn’t tell you how much to reduce the damage for a successful block defense! For now, reduce the damage by whatever Armor value the armor gives you. The full explanation is in the next article in this series, because damage itself is changing …
</alt>Laser fire cuts through zombies as armored soliders defend their technical expert examining a ruby in a plinth</alt>
Reach for Jewel in the Sky
Looking for adventures for Cypher? Jewel in the Sky is in its last week of crowdfunding and still reaching new stretch goals! Play this megadungeon with a difference, as either a sci-fi or fantasy party. Or why not run two groups and have both? Pledge now to secure your adventure!
