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.

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[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

The genre books are genuinely good resources even if you never run a Cypher system game specifically.

 

[Emerikol]

The genre books are genuinely good resources even if you never run a Cypher system game specifically.

This is how I feel about the GURPS system. Many of their supplements are just plain good information in general and worth it even if you never played GURPS. Sounds like the same might be true of the Cypher stuff.

 

[chuckdee]

This is how I feel about the GURPS system. Many of their supplements are just plain good information in general and worth it even if you never played GURPS. Sounds like the same might be true of the Cypher stuff.

Yeah, I played GURPS (hurts me to put the -ed, but I haven't played in over a decade), but I still buy it because its well researched and great for use elsewhere. One book I recommend to anyone who runs horror/suspense (and not just because I was one of the advance readers and know the author) is Beyond Darkness and Madness for Kult. It's just so good, no matter what system you use!