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Monte Cook’s Numenera Corebook
The Ninth World thrives on technomagic known as “numenera”, the remnants of the prior eras that is sufficiently advanced to act like both science and sorcery. Cook got creative and built something that plays vaguely like medieval high fantasy but allows for all the spec-fi hypertech and anachronisms you’d like. (Both the feel of the world and the “step” mechanic for the core system remind me of Earthdawn; though the setting is much more like a sane version of Gamma World.) The systems are designed to be narrative-focused, freeform and dramatic—very little attention is paid to actual distances, durations or details in favor of “Is it big enough to matter? Then it changes the difficulty by one step.”
You have three sets of health which double as your stats (Might, Speed and Intellect), which are both weakened by attacks / recovered by rest and can be spent to apply “effort” to your actions (which reduces the target number of the roll). There are three character classes, one to focus in each stat; each gets their own set of special abilities. Characters also get bonuses based on their descriptor (an adjective describing them) and focus (a verb that provides special powers). Advancement is pseudo-level-based, as you spend XP on skill/stat improvements but must buy one from each of four categories (which increases your “tier” and gives you access to more powers) before you can buy any of them again.
The book is fantastic about the cross-references / footnotes, particularly regarding buzzwords. I recently attended a gaming panel at Philcon where they discussed the difference between writing a manual for someone new to the game who was learning everything for the first time, and one for people who are familiar with the game and trying to reference certain rules. Credit to Cook’s experience at game design, I think he does that particularly well.
We recently completed a Mutants & Masterminds campaign (the first I’ve played), and while I think that system’s combat occasionally needs a bit of house-ruling (the game really needs a “mook” designation for large combats; and Puel’s houserule that each “bruised” condition applies -1 to all actions means that combats actually become worthwhile wars of attrition), I think the hero point system is fantastic and one of the few mechanisms I’ve ever seen that lets an rpg properly emulate a comic book.
Numenera’s XP system is very similar to those hero points: You receive them whenever the GM acts by fiat (“GM intrusion”) in a way that hurts or inconveniences your character; you can spend them to deny those intrusions or reroll dice in addition to buffing your character. (And that buff can be a half-price short-term benefit, the equivalent of spending hero points for a one-shot power variant.) Also, the players roll all dice, which means the GM’s ability to cheat (and to railroad, for good or for ill) is sharply limited.
A massive section of this book is dedicated to the geography and various nations of the known world, and various hooks for each location and organization. There’s also a monster manual, a gigantic list of magical items, a section of GMing tips, and four sample adventures. This 400+ page tome is a box set in one book.
Overall: This is a game in the finest White Wolf tradition, where the players’ willingness to “build a narrative” with the GM is supported by the fast-and-loose framework of rules and complications. (Gamists and simulationists, along with rule lawyers and certain types of powergamers, should beware.) I think the bigger issue here is this game would probably work best with three or four players, so that everyone has a chance to pursue their own motivations, get multiple character-specific GM Intrusions per session, and show off their clever tricks. My gaming group usually has six to nine players (and a hard two-hour limit per game session), which limits how much focus individual characters can get. I may still try this at some point, because flexible systems tend to be appreciated, but unless it’s a huge hit, I doubt we’d be making a mainstay out of it.
You have three sets of health which double as your stats (Might, Speed and Intellect), which are both weakened by attacks / recovered by rest and can be spent to apply “effort” to your actions (which reduces the target number of the roll). There are three character classes, one to focus in each stat; each gets their own set of special abilities. Characters also get bonuses based on their descriptor (an adjective describing them) and focus (a verb that provides special powers). Advancement is pseudo-level-based, as you spend XP on skill/stat improvements but must buy one from each of four categories (which increases your “tier” and gives you access to more powers) before you can buy any of them again.
The book is fantastic about the cross-references / footnotes, particularly regarding buzzwords. I recently attended a gaming panel at Philcon where they discussed the difference between writing a manual for someone new to the game who was learning everything for the first time, and one for people who are familiar with the game and trying to reference certain rules. Credit to Cook’s experience at game design, I think he does that particularly well.
We recently completed a Mutants & Masterminds campaign (the first I’ve played), and while I think that system’s combat occasionally needs a bit of house-ruling (the game really needs a “mook” designation for large combats; and Puel’s houserule that each “bruised” condition applies -1 to all actions means that combats actually become worthwhile wars of attrition), I think the hero point system is fantastic and one of the few mechanisms I’ve ever seen that lets an rpg properly emulate a comic book.
Numenera’s XP system is very similar to those hero points: You receive them whenever the GM acts by fiat (“GM intrusion”) in a way that hurts or inconveniences your character; you can spend them to deny those intrusions or reroll dice in addition to buffing your character. (And that buff can be a half-price short-term benefit, the equivalent of spending hero points for a one-shot power variant.) Also, the players roll all dice, which means the GM’s ability to cheat (and to railroad, for good or for ill) is sharply limited.
A massive section of this book is dedicated to the geography and various nations of the known world, and various hooks for each location and organization. There’s also a monster manual, a gigantic list of magical items, a section of GMing tips, and four sample adventures. This 400+ page tome is a box set in one book.
Overall: This is a game in the finest White Wolf tradition, where the players’ willingness to “build a narrative” with the GM is supported by the fast-and-loose framework of rules and complications. (Gamists and simulationists, along with rule lawyers and certain types of powergamers, should beware.) I think the bigger issue here is this game would probably work best with three or four players, so that everyone has a chance to pursue their own motivations, get multiple character-specific GM Intrusions per session, and show off their clever tricks. My gaming group usually has six to nine players (and a hard two-hour limit per game session), which limits how much focus individual characters can get. I may still try this at some point, because flexible systems tend to be appreciated, but unless it’s a huge hit, I doubt we’d be making a mainstay out of it.