Welcome to the Cypher System Creator Roundup! Unlocked during Monte Cook Games’ Worlds of the Cypher System Kickstarter campaign, the Cypher System Creator program is an option to distribute and/or sell official Cypher System crowd-sourced content. Setup within DriveThruRPG and RPGNow, the model is similar to the Storyteller’s Vault (World of Darkness), and the Explorer’s Society (7th Sea) in that individual creators can share their Cypher System content as long as it conforms to the content guidelines for the program, which can be found here.
Let’s decypher Peter Klevvall’s Post-Apocalyptic Genre, a 32-page subgenre setting for the Cypher System. The book considers the commonalities of the post-apocalyptic genre so the GM can reskin the core idea – civilization after death – to suit a zombie apocalypse or a world after a nuclear war or any other catastrophic scenario. It considers everything from the setting to mutants to zombies to weapons and technology to survival to the weather. There’s a broad spectrum of options to make your Cypher System campaign work in the twilight of civilization.
The post-apocalyptic genre is large, encompassing a varied collections of catalysts that spark the world that follows. How the world ended decides so much about the next phase and this book works to insure that the GM has the tools to address every possibility. Add to that, the world that existed before the calamity has to be considered as the light mirror to the dark mirror of the post-world, and this book is open enough to accept any pre-apocalypse world. Where Post-Apocalytic Genre excels is its ability to only touch the details that it can assist with without limiting the GM’s ability to adapt those rules to their story.
The product gives thoughts on the most common tropes of the post-apocalyse genre including:
Mix and match for what works for your campaign. Peter Klevvall’s work does an excellent job of being plug and play ready, offering just enough of each trope to be useful for rulings but not so much to override the fallout from the end of the world. His discussion about weather is a prime example, he offers a list of types of weather, some with focused descriptions that can inspire a campaign dealing with the players surviving the elements instead of a barrage of monsters.
There is a wealth of epiphanies in this book, but that does not mean the product is without some minor challenges. For 3PP RPGs that work within a tight budget, I am aware of the difficulties of achieving a fully polished, professional product and accept that when reading these products and using them. If the rules work, everything else is secondary and, in the case of Post-Apocalyptic Genre, the rules work and they negate any production quibbles I might note. Despite that allowance, the lack of art stood out as a missed opportunity. Monte Cook Games provides a variety of amazing, free art for the Cypher System Creator program. While these images are cycled through many Cypher System Creator program products, they help to delineate the visual process of reading by offering pauses in the instruction. A few choice images would give this product a more finished feel. That said, that in no way impacts the usefulness of this product. Post-Apocalyptic Genre is a useful product to jumpstart your Cypher System post-apocalypse adventure or campaign and worth adding to your table.
contributed by Egg Embry
Let’s decypher Peter Klevvall’s Post-Apocalyptic Genre, a 32-page subgenre setting for the Cypher System. The book considers the commonalities of the post-apocalyptic genre so the GM can reskin the core idea – civilization after death – to suit a zombie apocalypse or a world after a nuclear war or any other catastrophic scenario. It considers everything from the setting to mutants to zombies to weapons and technology to survival to the weather. There’s a broad spectrum of options to make your Cypher System campaign work in the twilight of civilization.
The post-apocalyptic genre is large, encompassing a varied collections of catalysts that spark the world that follows. How the world ended decides so much about the next phase and this book works to insure that the GM has the tools to address every possibility. Add to that, the world that existed before the calamity has to be considered as the light mirror to the dark mirror of the post-world, and this book is open enough to accept any pre-apocalypse world. Where Post-Apocalytic Genre excels is its ability to only touch the details that it can assist with without limiting the GM’s ability to adapt those rules to their story.
The product gives thoughts on the most common tropes of the post-apocalyse genre including:
- The effects of radiation or disease
- Mutants and mutations for characters
- Newly created creatures
- Jobs after the end
- Technology levels
- Survival
- Weather
- Zombies
Mix and match for what works for your campaign. Peter Klevvall’s work does an excellent job of being plug and play ready, offering just enough of each trope to be useful for rulings but not so much to override the fallout from the end of the world. His discussion about weather is a prime example, he offers a list of types of weather, some with focused descriptions that can inspire a campaign dealing with the players surviving the elements instead of a barrage of monsters.
There is a wealth of epiphanies in this book, but that does not mean the product is without some minor challenges. For 3PP RPGs that work within a tight budget, I am aware of the difficulties of achieving a fully polished, professional product and accept that when reading these products and using them. If the rules work, everything else is secondary and, in the case of Post-Apocalyptic Genre, the rules work and they negate any production quibbles I might note. Despite that allowance, the lack of art stood out as a missed opportunity. Monte Cook Games provides a variety of amazing, free art for the Cypher System Creator program. While these images are cycled through many Cypher System Creator program products, they help to delineate the visual process of reading by offering pauses in the instruction. A few choice images would give this product a more finished feel. That said, that in no way impacts the usefulness of this product. Post-Apocalyptic Genre is a useful product to jumpstart your Cypher System post-apocalypse adventure or campaign and worth adding to your table.
contributed by Egg Embry
