Numenera?

[George Mayhew]

Right... so not even sure where to ask this, so I'll put it here.

I'm very intrigued by the Numenera setting from MCG. Enough so, that I'd like to pick up some sourcebooks and jump right into it. I've done a little Cypher with The Strange, and I like the system, so I'm not totally new to that. What I need insight on is MCGs offerings and what materials to prioritize. It seems the print material is in some transition, and there's significant overlap in materials, though I'm not sure how much. For example, the Discovery and Destiny slipcover set seems to also include the Player's Guide, though it's not called out specifically in the product description, and replaces the original core rulebook. But what other materials would be good to set up my own campaign? The Ninth World Guidebook, Character Options, Bestiaries? I want to avoid too much redundancy, and I tend to like print over PDF, so redundancy can get a bit expensive

Mods, if there's another thread discussing this, please link in, as I could not find it.

Thanks!

 

[Gradine]

Discovery & Destiny are kind of like... Numenera 1.5? Ish? Older material is compatible, but IIRC Discovery basically obsoletes the original book.

 

[George Mayhew]

Discovery & Destiny are kind of like... Numenera 1.5? Ish? Older material is compatible, but IIRC Discovery basically obsoletes the original book.

So, basically, start with Discovery/Destiny?

 

[Aldarc]

"Numenera 2" Materials

• Discovery: essentially the reworked Numenera 1 rulebook
• Destiny: the deutero-companion for Discovery, with the new Arkus, Delve, and Wright types and rules about communities, crafting, and salvaging
• Players' Guide: the materials from Discovery and Destiny that essentially cover character creation and Tier 1 of play. Players have to consult Discovery and Destiny for tiers 2-6.
• Priests of the Aeons
• Bestiary 3

Relevant Material from "Numenera 1"
Technically everything from the prior stuff is still compatible, though some some has been quietly dropped (see types in Character Options 2 supplement). I would hold off on buying any of the Character Options 1 and 2. I believe that some of those materials has been reprinted/updated in Discovery, Destiny, and Priests of the Aeons.

• Ninth World Guidebook
• Bestiaries 1-2
• Technology Compendium: Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera
• Jade Colossus
• Torment: Tides of Numenera: There may be some redundant material, but I would buy if you are interested in the region around the video game.
• Adventures: any and all adventures are still good and compatible (as far as I am aware)
• Into the X (Deep, Night, Outside): I am less sure about the redundancy with this series and Numenera 2 materials. But I also don't recall these books having much character options, if any, as I think that they were more focused on locations

 

[atanakar]

I really enjoyed the Ninth World Guidebook. Very useful to me when I ran a campaign in which characters moved around a lot.

 

[George Mayhew]

"Numenera 2" Materials

• Discovery: essentially the reworked Numenera 1 rulebook
• Destiny: the deutero-companion for Discovery, with the new Arkus, Delve, and Wright types and rules about communities, crafting, and salvaging
• Players' Guide: the materials from Discovery and Destiny that essentially cover character creation and Tier 1 of play. Players have to consult Discovery and Destiny for tiers 2-6.
• Priests of the Aeons
• Bestiary 3

Relevant Material from "Numenera 1"
Technically everything from the prior stuff is still compatible, though some some has been quietly dropped (see types in Character Options 2 supplement). I would hold off on buying any of the Character Options 1 and 2. I believe that some of those materials has been reprinted/updated in Discovery, Destiny, and Priests of the Aeons.

• Ninth World Guidebook
• Bestiaries 1-2
  [*]Technology Compendium: Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera
• Jade Colossus
• Torment: Tides of Numenera: There may be some redundant material, but I would buy if you are interested in the region around the video game.
• Adventures: any and all adventures are still good and compatible (as far as I am aware)
• Into the X (Deep, Night, Outside): I am less sure about the redundancy with this series and Numenera 2 materials. But I also don't recall these books having much character options, if any, as I think that they were more focused on

Precisely the info I was looking for. Thank you very much.

 

[George Mayhew]

Torment: Tides of Numenera: There may be some redundant material, but I would buy if you are interested in the region around the video game.

Video game? Aroo?? What rock have I been sleeping under? I just looked it up, and I love the old-style Baldur's Gate vRPGs. Moe munny.... more lost hours of my life.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Hey, George, Charles Ryan from MCG here.

You've basically gotten good advice from others in this thread. The Character Options books were almost entirely rolled into and made redundant by the new corebooks (Discovery and Destiny), so we've let them go out of print. The Player's Guide is basically a way to get a second (or third, or fifth) copy of the most important stuff onto your game table without buying entire new corebooks--it's not new content, so if you're happy with just the corebooks, that's fine.

Other than that, everything remains compatible and relevant. My personal recommendations for a Numenera GM would be Jade Colossus, any or all of the bestiaries, the Ninth World Guidebook, then maybe Sir Arthour's. And of course any of the adventure products. But it's all good.

(LOVE your avatar, by the way.)

 

[Aldarc]

I would second @CharlesRyan, Jade Colossus is a fantastic resource for a GM in Numenera.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

You can of course wait for Arcana of the Ancients and basically play "Numernara" using 5e rules. At least, that's why I backed it. Unless you like Cypher system (I'm also playing in a straight 1e Numenara game), then what Aldarc and Charlesryan said