Cypher System by Monte Cook Games: what do you think about it?

[teitan]

RIFTS meets D&D, or perhaps another iteration of the M:tG multiverse, basically. So, yeah, maybe a D&D-like will work, though it sounds like there's always the assumption that if you mess with things a bit too much, you can run into 'Yog-Sothoth' and then you're hosed, no matter what. lol.

My reading of the Strange is that you've essentially just done a Reductio ad Absurdam, I mean sure, let's go with that but it's more like Grant Morrison than Siembieda's gonzo houseruled D&D system/mega-setting. Reading MCG product I get the feeling they read a lot of the same source materials that I would read, or Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman would read. Qabalah, Kenneth Grant, Theosophical texts, weird theoretical physics and some of the more absurd new age material like David Icke (he's new age, not conspiracy, they're married now) and David Wilcock. Especially for The Strange and Invisible Sun.

 

[Aldarc]

RIFTS meets D&D, or perhaps another iteration of the M:tG multiverse, basically. So, yeah, maybe a D&D-like will work, though it sounds like there's always the assumption that if you mess with things a bit too much, you can run into 'Yog-Sothoth' and then you're hosed, no matter what. lol.

The conceit of the setting is basically that your characters can go from the "real world" to various alternate dimensions, which range from fantasy, futurism, cyberpunk, or even fiction (e.g., Wonderland, King Arthur, Atlantis, Hawaii Five-O, etc.). But your character also "translates" to more dimension-appropriate form and abilities. Translation is somewhat similar to "reboot" in the '90s animated show Reboot. It's essentially a setting about meta-settings and promoting a "you can play anything in this one game" sort of attitude. It's a pretty neat idea, though I don't think that it's really one for me, but it's also not the only game out there with similar ideas: e.g., Threefold for Green Ronin's Modern AGE.

That said, direct support for this game has basically dropped off the planet. It did pave the way for the generic Cypher System Rulebook, and one could pull from these books to support the Strange, but the last The Strange product was in 2015.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The conceit of the setting is basically that your characters can go from the "real world" to various alternate dimensions, which range from fantasy, futurism, cyberpunk, or even fiction (e.g., Wonderland, King Arthur, Atlantis, Hawaii Five-O, etc.). But your character also "translates" to more dimension-appropriate form and abilities. Translation is somewhat similar to "reboot" in the '90s animated show Reboot. It's essentially a setting about meta-settings and promoting a "you can play anything in this one game" sort of attitude. It's a pretty neat idea, though I don't think that it's really one for me, but it's also not the only game out there with similar ideas: e.g., Threefold for Green Ronin's Modern AGE.

I really like the setting idea, but really don't like the system its in, and have not found another choice that would handle it in a way that's not a chore.

As far as support dropping off the edge--well, you can argue it had largely reached its needed support level, and may not have had enough of a market to start chasing diminishing returns.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

My reading of the Strange is that you've essentially just done a Reductio ad Absurdam, I mean sure, let's go with that but it's more like Grant Morrison than Siembieda's gonzo houseruled D&D system/mega-setting. Reading MCG product I get the feeling they read a lot of the same source materials that I would read, or Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman would read. Qabalah, Kenneth Grant, Theosophical texts, weird theoretical physics and some of the more absurd new age material like David Icke (he's new age, not conspiracy, they're married now) and David Wilcock. Especially for The Strange and Invisible Sun.

Not sure where you get 'reductio' out of anything I said, we might not mean the same thing by that phrase I'm guessing... Anyway, yes Siembieda's material is very 'gonzo', it just happens to embody the central concept of multiple realities based on fiction. Actually that concept is a lot older, but I'm having trouble coming up with the canonical example, though I'm pretty sure it has lurked in western literature for centuries. Anyway, there are lots of classic examples, Moorcock, Zelazny, some other more modern fantasy authors have put more of the 'conspiracy twist' on it, etc. It has roots in many places. I mean, in essence the GW of D&D is largely another imaging of basically the same idea, certainly the 'alternate primes' fall into that category, though the rest is a bit more religious in its ultimate derivation (which does get you to the Qabalah as well eventually). Its like that old show 'Connections' where the presenter describes how everything in science links to everything else in some roundabout way. Anyway, tone-wise it sounds more conspiracy-like, which does get us back towards 'Mythos Adjacent' since "stuff most people don't know" is pretty much stock-in-trade there, and I would say that Conspiracy Stuff has pretty much eaten the Mythos too... sigh.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

As far as support dropping off the edge--well, you can argue it had largely reached its needed support level, and may not have had enough of a market to start chasing diminishing returns.

Yeah, reality is that game developers need markets, so most products reach a level of completeness where the core fans are not happy, but the rest of the world hasn't enough interest to support more supplements. I mean, that's the core dynamic even for D&D basically! 'Lofting' the core system into a generic is one of the various ways a game designer can go in terms of pushing a project on beyond that point, another being endless version rolls; and there may be other ways, though less trodden (converting to a new system is one). Most games simply get abandoned and perhaps after a decade or three of being fallow get a rewrite if they were interesting enough. I mean, look at Everway, I think it has a somewhat similar tone and premise to The Strange. It managed to get a reboot not too long ago, but my guess is it will now slip back into obscurity.

 

[Aldarc]

I really like the setting idea, but really don't like the system its in, and have not found another choice that would handle it in a way that's not a chore.

As far as support dropping off the edge--well, you can argue it had largely reached its needed support level, and may not have had enough of a market to start chasing diminishing returns.

That latter bit does feel like the Cypher System in a nut shell. MCG produced a lot of quality content for it, but nothing as of late has really been about pushing the boundaries of the system or addressing some of the commonly cited/known faults of the system. So a lot of the products from MCG haven't really impressed me as of the past few years outside of retreading old hits for 5e (e.g., Ptolus, planes, outsourcing Arcana Evolved, etc.).

 

[Thomas Shey]

That latter bit does feel like the Cypher System in a nut shell. MCG produced a lot of quality content for it, but nothing as of late has really been about pushing the boundaries of the system or addressing some of the commonly cited/known faults of the system. So a lot of the products from MCG haven't really impressed me as of the past few years outside of retreading old hits for 5e (e.g., Ptolus, planes, outsourcing Arcana Evolved, etc.).

Its one of those things I have to try and explain to a lot of people who mourn the fact their favorite system isn't getting more support; every game has a natural support threshold beyond which producing more products for it makes less and less money. That's one reason why game systems don't just support the same edition forever; doing a new edition requires work, but it also almost always gains more money than producing Yet Another Add On for the prior edition at some point.

 

[Mark Craddock]

I love this system. Everything about it. We made it more crunchy though for combat. I converted all the 5E spells and most 5E magical items, standardized skills, added some PF/3.5 AoO and movement, made some custom classes with some old 3.5 and 5E abilities, and man it BLOWS 5E away for my group and I. More narrative but plenty of stuff for combat. And wooooow does having players do all the rolls free up time for thinking and DMing!

Sorry to raise this thread, but I saw that you had Private Message your notes to a few people and I was hoping you'd willing to do that for me. Thanks!

 

[Buzzqw]

Sorry to raise this thread, but I saw that you had Private Message your notes to a few people and I was hoping you'd willing to do that for me. Thanks!

totally agree.. could you send me the pm?
thanks

BHH

 

[Ghost2020]

I'd like to jump in on this too!