Hello, backers— 

What an insane few weeks we’ve had! There have been so many exciting things for Cypher fans to sink their teeth into recently. We literally can’t wait to share a look at the Cypher Slipcase with you, but don’t ogle at it for too long! Read on to hear a recap of everything that’s been announced for Cypher in the last three weeks—and what’s coming next. 

MCG’s Art Director, Bear, just received this first-off copy of the new Cypher Slipcase from our production facility! Look at how gorgeous the iridescent paper is. 

We can’t wait to get this slipcase into your hands! Make sure you have crowdfunding campaign update notifications turned on for this campaign so you don’t miss anything. 

Cypher—Advanced!, a special pop-up campaign for Cypher, is ending in just a few days! Here’s why you, a Cypher backer, should really check it out: 

As Monte and the team designed the new edition of Cypher, they had loads of great ideas that could really make your game shine—but weren't quite right for every game, and certainly couldn’t all be squeezed into the new corebooks. But we didn't want them to languish, either. 

With more in-depth ways of looking at descriptors and species, additional detailed foci, a greater focus on equipment or weapons, the added color from longer character sentences, and dozens of other fun customizations, your Cypher campaign can really soar with Cypher Decoded. You won’t use everything in this book in every Cypher game—but you'll find ideas or choices that might be the perfect fit to take a given game to the next level. If you like to tinker with rules, explore options, and just be inspired to create your own material, Cypher Decoded is for you! 

And while we're at it: how about more creatures? The forthcoming Cypher GM's Guide and Cypher Bestiary will give you scores of exciting, memorable encounters—but who couldn't use more? We're bringing 100 or so more creatures—some fan-favorites, some brand-new—to your campaign, complete with the same highly detailed, lore-heavy treatment of the forthcoming first Cypher Bestiary! 

This surprise crowdfunding campaign has been nothing short of electric! We’ve already quadrupled our funding goal—and who knows what new heights we can reach in these last 48 hours! If you haven’t already, check it out now!

🎲 Cypher launched to the public two weeks ago today! 

📖 The Cypher GM’s Guide AND Cypher Bestiary have been fulfilled in PDF! Find them in your MCG Shop Account. Need a refresher on how to redeem crowdfunding campaign rewards? You can always check out this handy guide.

📺 Cypher Con was a blast—if you missed the live AMA with Monte, Sean, & Bruce you can catch it on YouTube.

🚀 StartPlaying Games launched a huge Cypher event yesterday! It runs for the next two weeks. Sign up for a game today and get $10 off with code SPC26. Whether you're new to Cypher (or to RPGs as a whole), or a longtime Numenera, The Strange, or Predation fan, there's a game for you! 

🧝‍♀️ The public beta of the Cypher Tools Character Builder is live! With literally thousands of Type, Descriptor, Species, and Foci combinations possible, your character will come to life! One cool feature of this new online tool is that it can easily export your character right onto… 

🗡️ The new Cypher Character sheet is coming to Roll20! Play entirely online? Prefer to access the game and its rules through your favorite VTT? We've completed work on a fully functional Cypher character sheet for Roll20. It's in Roll20s hands now, and we're looking forward to them taking it live in the days to come!

📚 We’ve just shared The Joy of RPGs, a video about RPGs and MCG that derived from the filming of the short-form documentary series All Access with Andy Garcia, which airs on PBS stations across the US. We think it’s a really cool video that highlights what makes TTRPG gaming so special and fun, and hope you enjoy it.

🖊️ The Cypher Open License is waiting for you! The Cypher Open License allows publishers, gamers, and members of the public to freely create and market tabletop roleplaying games compatible with, and using the rules from, the Cypher tabletop roleplaying game system. Publish your adventures, settings, and even complete new games—powered by Cypher. 

—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

We’re on the verge of a huge week for Cypher—a week full of cool stuff that you, by backing this campaign, made happen. We have a ton of news to share, and maybe a surprise or two. In fact, it’s so much news, here’s a quick summation:

And now here are the details—it’s a lot, but we’ll keep it as brief as we can!

If these titles are among your rewards, keep an eye on your email today. We're currently in the process of fulfilling your PDFs!

Both of these books are now on press, so the physical books are just a couple of weeks from hitting our warehouse—so look forward to the print versions fulfilling soon. The slipcase will follow not too far down the road.

We’re really proud of both of these titles, and you’re going to love them.

Backers have had the Cypher Character Rulebook for weeks (and early-access backers have had prerelease versions for much longer), so it can be easy to forget that Cypher isn’t out to the public yet. That’s about to change!

The Cypher Character Rulebook’s street date is this coming Wednesday (August 19th). It will be available to the public from the MCG Shop, your FLGS, online retailers like Amazon, and so forth next week!

Cypher Con is an annual online game convention exclusively for Cypher and MCG’s other games. It’s hosted and run by the fine folk at the Cypher Unlimited Discord. This year, Cypher Con kicks off the evening of Thursday, August 20th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd. There are still open seats for several games, so it’s not too late to sign up!

In addition to games, special events will include an AMA with Monte and the design team, and a special watch party for a new MCG video hosted by Charles and Shanna.

You can join the Cypher Unlimited Discord here! And don't forget to sign up to play games at Cypher Con. Games will run from 12pm EDT on Friday, September 19th, to 11:30pm EDT on Sunday, September 21st. 

The official Cypher launch event is on Saturday, August 22nd at Cardboard Corner Café in Overland Park, Kansas. We’ll be playing games and enjoying a special menu that includes several custom Cypher-themed beverages. If you’re in the Kansas City area next weekend, we’d love to see you! You can sign up for games here. 

Ever wanted to publish your own adventures, supplements, settings, or even complete games? Love Cypher and want to tinker with the rules in a published product? Or maybe you just look forward to loads of additional support for your Cypher adventures?

The Cypher Open License makes all of that possible! Publishers can produce games and supplements using the Cypher rules and market them as compatible with Cypher. You can use as much or as little of the rules as you like, tinker with them as you see fit, and publish products as small as a PDF with a couple of creatures or character options, up to full-fledged complete RPGs—or beyond!

We launched the Cypher Open License a couple of weeks ago. Check it out!

There’s so much more. Next week, and in the weeks to come, we’ll have big announcements—get ready to build Cypher characters in minutes with a cool free online tool, and to take Cypher on its first steps into the VTT world.

Plus we have one or two (or more!) other surprises to roll out next week. It’s going to be a BIG week for Cypher—stay tuned!

This is a really exciting time for all of us here at MCG, and for Cypher fans everywhere. Thank you for your support and backing, which helped make all of this possible!

—Team MCG

P.S. Want to keep up on Cypher and MCG news? Follow us on Bluesky and Facebook, where we share breaking news, cool stories, and other awesome Cypher and MCG updates!

Hello wonderful backers,

We are fulfilling the print edition of the Cypher Character Rulebook—huzzah! Head on over to the MCG Shop to redeem your copy now.*

*Or perhaps don't, if you are waiting to combine reward redemptions to save on shipping costs. The Cypher Character Rulebook is part of the slipcase set and it is the only item from the set that is available at this time to fulfill. The Cypher GM Guide has not yet been printed, nor has the slipcase been produced, so neither of them can be fulfilled at this time. If you want to save on shipping, you can wait until later this year to redeem the Cypher Character Rulebook, Cypher GM Guide, and slipcase together. But if you are excited about Cypher like we are, you'll be keen to get your print copy of the Cypher Character Rulebook now!

For those of you who get Early Access to rewards, we have TWO rewards for you! The first is early access to the Cypher GM Guide in PDF. The second reward is early access to the online Cypher Character Creator. Check your email for a message from BackerKit to download your PDF and to get the secret link for the Cypher Character Creator.

Oh, and have you heard about this?

Hello, million-dollar backers!

We’ve got another great essay, part five of Sean’s series on using the new Cypher rules in your game right now, but first we wanted to explain how your Cypher crowdfunding rewards will be fulfilled. This is soopa important, so please have a read through and let us know if you have any questions.

The Cypher Character Rulebook has been at the printer for several weeks now, and we expect it to hit our warehouses in the middle of July. We are, of course, preparing now so that we can begin fulfillment as soon as it reaches our doorsteps (docksteps?).

Here’s a look at the overall plan:

· We’ll fulfill the Cypher Character Rulebook this month.

· The Cypher GM Guide goes to press soon. We expect to fulfill it in early September.

· The slipcase and Cypher Bestiary will be done in October, and we’ll fulfill them then.

As always, you’re in control of when you receive your crowdfunding rewards. If you’re ready to get your campaign rolling right away, claim your books as soon as they become available. If you’d rather save a few bucks on shipping, it’s fine to wait until October to claim all these rewards at the same time.

Either way, all of the components will be available for you by October—but we didn’t want to make you wait that long if you'd like to have your Cypher Character Rulebook now.

 

When crowdfunding rewards are ready, you'll receive an email via BackerKit letting you know. We'll also be keeping you up-to-date with updates.

You'll be able to redeem your digital (PDF) crowdfunding rewards on any of these platforms: BackerKit Pledge Manager Digital Rewards, DriveThruRPG, and/or the MCG Shop. The file will be the exact same on all three platforms, and you may download it from one platform, two platforms, or all three platforms should you desire.

Unlike digital crowdfunding rewards, there is ONLY ONE WAY to redeem your physical crowdfunding rewards, and that is on the MCG Shop. You'll log in to your Monte Cook Games store account and use a special process to redeem your rewards for free(just pay shipping).

If you don’t have an account on the MCG Shop yet, simply create one by completing the registration process on the log-in page—just be sure to use the email address you gave us on the survey in BackerKit.

 This is how to do it. Seriously, check out that article and bookmark it. It has screenshots and everything.

 

As always, if you have any questions, please let us know.

Right, now onto the playing of games!
 

We’re up to the fifth update in our series about 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. This one is probably the biggest change to the game.

In the new Cypher, most attacks against PCs no longer deal Pool damage. Instead, attacks against PCs inflict a minor wound, moderate wound, or a major wound, depending on how powerful the attack is. (These three types of wounds are called severities.)

Most characters can take five minor wounds, four moderate wounds, and three major wounds. Especially tough characters—like raging barbarians, defensive warriors, and battle priests—might start with an extra minor wound.

(A successful block roll reduces an attack’s damage by one severity, such as turning a major wound into a moderate wound, or a minor wound into nothing).

If you take your last minor wound, all subsequent minor wounds become moderate wounds. If you take your last moderate wound, all your tasks are hindered by one step, and all subsequent moderate wounds become major wounds. Each major wound you take hinders you by one step, and if you take your last major wound, you die.

Something that deals 1 to 3 damage is a minor wound. Something that deals 4 to 7 damage is a moderate wound. Something that deals 8 or more damage is a major wound.

Some attacks and effects still do Pool damage, like a poison that inflicts Speed damage or a psychic attack that inflicts Intellect damage, but they’re much rarer than they used to be.

Oh, and the damage track? It’s gone, it’s no longer a thing. So a creature or effect that moves you a step down the damage track in Cypher System, probably inflicts a major wound in the new Cypher. (It’s an intentional parallel between how moving three steps down the damage track will kill you, and taking three major wounds will kill you.)

The three common ways to remove a wound are rallying (fast), treatment (medium), and resting (slow).

Rallying is “walking it off.” You spend an action and some Might (2 for a minor wound, 5 for a moderate wound) and remove the wound because it wasn’t as bad as it looked. You can’t rally a major wound.

Treatment is applying a bandage, using first aid, or even undergoing surgery. Removing a minor wound (difficulty 0) takes one minute. Removing a moderate wound (difficulty 3) takes ten minutes. Removing a major wound (difficulty 6) takes an hour. (The GM might alter the treatment times for some genres, like superheroes bouncing back more quickly.)

Resting removes wounds as part of a recovery (in addition to getting Pool points back like you normally would). A ten-minute recovery removes all minor wounds, a one-hour recovery removes one moderate wound, and a ten-hour recovery removes all moderate wounds and (on a difficulty 6 treatment task) one major wound.

(PCs still inflict damage instead of wounds, and NPCs and creatures still use health instead of wounds.)

This way, the resources you use for your abilities (and to keep yourself alive when attacked, like applying Effort to a defense roll) are separate from your character’s health. Now that there’s no penalty for having 0 points in a Pool, you can feel free to spend your entire Pool however you wish. And using Effort on a defense roll won’t cost you as much or more than the damage from the attack. And there’s no risk that having 0 Might or 0 Speed means you’re suddenly vulnerable if you’re hit.

                                                                                                       – Sean K Reynolds, July 2026

 

Next time is our last article in this series, and it’ll show you a fun way that we’ve made it harder for you to fail a task that you’re skilled at…

We’ll be at Gen Con in Indy at the end of July, so come by the booth for a demo—or, better yet, sign up to play Cypher now!
 
 Thanks again for your support. 

– Team MCG

Hello, million-dollar backers!

We have a double bill of info this time, with updates from both Bruce and Shanna, so grab a drink and read on. 

Full time design for The Strange “2.0” is in full swing. That means new iterations of the mechanics for types, foci, and descriptors are in progress, as are some minor conceptual tweaks to the rules of translation. Translation is the process through which your character moves into new limited realities and takes on the context of a limited dimension seeded by Arthurian myth, a popular video game, or a series of novels about a murderous android. Making the process easier to understand and use at the table is one of my goals for this effort.

 

Many other updates are planned, including new adventures, organizations, and the evolution of campaign-spanning threats…

 

However, for this design insight peek, let’s return to the basic types. The Strange was originally published with three types—the Paradox, the Spinner, and the Vector.

 

The new Strange is probably going to have about seven. Working names are:

 

Vector 

 

Take a gander at the draft text introducing the first of these—the Librarian. 

 

Your love of reading sustains and nourishes you. Books number among your oldest friends. They’ve always been your most profound refuge. The more you read, the more you feel like you know the characters as well as or better than your actual friends. That eventually proved literally true—somehow, you’ve learned to pull animals, objects, and even individuals from fiction and directly into the real world.

 

Plus the draft names of the Librarian’s tier 1 special abilities:

 

Sound like fun? Yeah, I can’t wait! 

                                                                                                    – Bruce Cordell, June 2026
 

Predation is nearly complete, and it’s full of all kinds of new character options, abilities, cyphers, dinosaurs, and adventures! Here’s a sneak peek at the types that you’ll be able to choose from for your characters:
 
Baronyx. Much like an ambush predator, you’re a sneaky, rogue-y type who leans toward light armor and light melee weapons.
 
Dino Whisperer. You have an uncanny ability to interact with the creatures around you and you work best in collaboration with them.
 
Dinophile. A walking encyclopedia, you’re full of useful (and perhaps some less-than-useful) knowledge that just might save the day and solve the mystery.
 
Karn. A strong, fighter type, you like heavy weapons and getting right in the middle of the fray.
 
Mimic. Your style is ever-changing, as you pull tricks and techniques from those around you and put them to good use.
 
Osteon. Storytellers and soothsayers, you’re able to connect to the future and the past through your tales of wonder and woe.

Pteryx. Explorer, wanderer, wonderer—you love to move through the world, discovering it (and yourself) as you go.
 
Sawbones. You’re a caretaker who patches up your team and can turn your healing skills into hurting skills when necessary.
 
Scav. The world gives you what you need if you know how to find it—you scavenge and combine whatever’s around so that you can survive and even thrive.
 
Tachyon. Wielding dual weapons and moving at the speed of light, you harness the power of time in every action you take.

Tec. A geek through and through, you use science and technology to solve problems, defend your allies, and save (or possibly) break the world.

                                                                                                       – Shanna Germain, June 2026

Next time we'll have more how to use Cypher in your game right now. Thanks again for your support. 

– Team MCG