There's A New Edition Of The Cypher System Coming

Next year, 2026, Monte Cook Games will be releasing a new edition of its in-house Cypher System rules system.

Originally launched over a decade ago, the Cypher System powers games like Numenera, The Strange, and The Magnus Archives. It's a d20-based multi-genre game system known for its character generation method which has the player filling out the sentence "I am a [adjective] [noun] who [verb]" -- such as "I am a jovial Explorer who howls at the moon". The titular cyphers are one-time use abilities or items. Task resolution involves rolling a d20 against a 1-10 difficulty scale.

This new edition includes a bunch of changes, including genre-specific character creation, character damage and armour, and a greater emphasis on subtle cyphers.

Two new core rulebooks will be published. The Cypher Character Rulebook will delve into creating characters for a variety of different genres, while the Cypher GM's Guide will contain rules, GM advice and resources for creating and running games.

They'll be hitting a crowdfunding platform near you very soon, in late summer, with the books coming out mid-2026.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I’m looking forward to this!

Thaumaturge.

 

[Aldarc]

I'm curious to see where MCG takes the new edition. I've been waiting for the next iteration of the Cypher System for over half a decade.

There are have been a fair share of common complaints about the Cypher System, so I will be interested in whether these changes address some of those issues.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I'm curious to see where MCG takes the new edition. I've been waiting for the next iteration of the Cypher System for over half a decade.

There are have been a fair share of common complaints about the Cypher System, so I will be interested in whether these changes address some of those issues.

Have you read any of the design emails? They have some good indications of the coming changes.

For those who haven’t, one of the big changes will be a wound system instead of damage coming from ability pools. That ought to address one of the most common issues I see people talk about with the system.

The character creation streamlining looks to take care of one of my big issues. By having character archetypes split up by genre, one won’t have to rebuild a fighter each time by hand depending on if one is a fantasy-themed fighter or a sci-fi-themed fighter.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Emerikol]

I love Monte Cook and most of his older work but I never could get into the cypher system. I wish he produced stuff for D&D instead but I'm still glad he seems to be doing well. I wish him well.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

I love Monte Cook and most of his older work but I never could get into the cypher system. I wish he produced stuff for D&D instead but I'm still glad he seems to be doing well. I wish him well.

MCG has made a bunch of books for 5e d&d.

 

[Sketchpad]

In the 12 years since Numenera was released, we've gotten two editions of Numenera and the core rulebook. It seems a bit hasty to release a 3rd edition already IMHO. I dig the game and all, but does it really need that much tweaking? I'd rather see more content come out for the system.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

I'd rather see more content come out for the system.

Numenera has had 38 supplements and 20 adventure products, including two full adventure paths

Cypher has had 46 supplements and 21 adventure products, not counting Old Gods, Magnus Archives, or Tidal blades corebooks, or anything by a 3pp.

That's a lot of content! What other products do you think they should be exploring that they haven't?

 

[GMMichael]

I love Monte Cook and most of his older work but I never could get into the cypher system. I wish he produced stuff for D&D instead but I'm still glad he seems to be doing well. I wish him well.

I passed over the "D&D at Gen Con" thread to get here. This "wounds" news is interesting, because I thought the ability damage feature was cool and unique.

 

[stormwriter]

Some of the changes include:

• (...)
• Player character damage, freeing up pools to support greater use of character abilities.
• Player character armor, making defensive actions more interesting.

Curious to see what those two changes will be, since they are often things some people have issues with.