Cypher System Does Superheroes

Monte Cook Games' latest Kickstarter is for their Cypher System (the system which powers Numenera, amongst other things) and delves into the world of superheroes!

This Kickstarter contains not one, but TWO heroic sourcebooks. Claim the Sky (224 pages) is all about superpowered heroes in a world called Boundless, while the shorter First Responders (128 pages) deals with human heroes in a dangerous world of natural disasters and war zones.

When disaster strikes or menace looms, the best among us don’t run from danger—they run toward it! Heroic books for the Cypher System.

Heroes of the Cypher System

When disaster strikes or menace looms, the best among us don’t run from danger—they run toward it! Heroic books for the Cypher System.

www.kickstarter.com

And if you don't have the core Cypher System rules, that's OK -- because they bundling in the Cypher System core rulebook in PDF format for free. In fact you can even download the free Cypher System rules primer now.

The Cypher System is a rule-light RPG designed for flexibility and speed. It contains a mechanic that I've always loved in any iteration I've seen it (indeed I've done it in my own games!) -- characters built off real sentences. In Cypher System it's a 3-part sentence. They gives examples like Rugged Warrior who Stands Like a Bastion and a Guarded Adept who Keeps a Magic Ally. Each part of that sentence is a building block of your character.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The superheroes genre is a great potential gold-mine or cash-cow in the TTRPG industry, but potential players without previous experience don't like complex rules too much, and the challenge for the game designers is the right power balance. Some players want to be a street vigilante and others the cosmic champion who destroys alien ships with his own fists.

I wonder about Marvel, DC and other comic publishers creating alternate timelines with different power scales, (lots of characters to be very nerfed, nothing of throwing cars as basket balls) to allow an easier adaptation not only into TTRPG but mainly videogames. Fandom has got too many ideas about their own variants of superheroes franchises.

I have said someone of the future WotC's projects will be a d20 superheroes, but this being totally compatible with D&D without a break of power balance is very hard. I guess they will try a Gamma World with mutants (DNA altered by the new vaccines against the last epidemic outbreak), high-tech and superpowers (these not only an updated list of psionic powers).

Is it not cypher system the used for the coming soon Master of the Universe RPG?

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Is it not cypher system the used for the coming soon Master of the Universe RPG?

That is Cortex I believe.

 

[Jeff Carpenter]

The only supers RPG game I want to play is "The Boys"

 

[WisdomOfWombats]

The only supers RPG game I want to play is "The Boys"

I guess using the Cypher System you could easily run "The Boys".

 

[Aldarc]

It's increasingly difficult to feel enthused about MCG Kickstarters when so many have seemingly felt like selling re-used and re-packaged content (e.g., descriptors, foci, type abilities, etc.).

 

[Jeff Carpenter]

I guess using the Cypher System you could easily run "The Boys".

Yeah the lower powered first responders looks like it might work. I probably wont back the kickstarter, but will keep an eye on it.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

That is Cortex I believe.

Correct. Legends of Grayskull is Cortex.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Those are not sentences, just subjects and subordinate clauses.

 

[imagineGod]

I am always impressed how Monte Cook Games just repackages older Monte Cook Kickstarters, not that old even, and yet the faithful fans of Monte Cook keep returning in droves throwing upwards of half a million Dollars.

This was the older super hero book for Cypher titled "Unmasked" that did not sell so well outside the Kickstarter, could not find it in any FLGS unlike Numenera, obviously.

Worlds of the Cypher System

Explore all new worlds and play in any genre with the award-winning roleplaying game system behind Numenera and The Strange.

www.kickstarter.com