UNMASKED: A REVIEW OF THE NEW CYPHER SYSTEM SUPERHERO SETTING

Some are satin, some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on...

-Billy Joel, "The Stranger"

1986...

It's the year the Challenger exploded, the year Chernobyl blew.  It's the year Halley's Comet revisited us, and the first PC virus, Brain, made its debut. Thatcher is in London.  Reagan's in Washington.  Gorbachev is in Moscow. "Money for Nothing" and "Addicted to Love" are the two hottest things on MTV.  And your life, the life that you have been living, is about to change.

Just a few weeks before your first day of high school, you wake up different. You somehow are able to see. All around you, all around town, random little objects now pulse, shimmer, with power. A soupspoon. A broken shard of glass. A bird feather. The hands of a clock. Somehow you can see which objects have been imbued and which haven't...and if you touch these objects, you somehow know what they can do. Each one of them has a trick, a spell, a power. Use the power once and its gone.

But wait...

...some of these random little things call out to you, whisper in your brain. Not many; just a select few. Somehow you just know which ones you need to collect. Somehow you just know what they want you to do. You collect these charms and they teach you, they show you how to make it.

Your Mask.

When you put that Mask on you are not you anymore. You are something more powerful. Something greater. Something more than human...something superhuman.

And this is how it all begins...

Origin Stories

Unmasked (192 pages, $44.99 hardcover, $17.99 pdf) is the latest offering from Monte Cook Games.  Unlike Ravendesk's Vurt, this is not a stand-alone game powered by the Cypher System, but a setting and sourcebook for the Cypher System Rulebook itself.  You'll need that book to use it.

Unmasked is the welcome return of veteran game designer Dennis Detwiller to the superhero genre. Part of the team that brought the world "Cthulhu meets X-Files" classic Delta Green, Detwiller was later the driving force behind Godlike, a 2001 RPG that married superheroes to the gritty, "war is hell" setting of WWII.  Godlike was very well received as a fresh take on what was already a bit of a warn-out RPG genre.  It's protagonists, called "Talents," eschewed the costumes and the masks for a much more grounded, realistic take than we had seen before.  This is a bit ironic, because Unmasked is literally all about the masks.

Funny things, masks.  They seem to embody the very concepts of transformation and mystery.  Their earliest uses in the murky origins of human society seem to be shamanic; in putting on the mask, the wearer channels or even becomes a god or spirit.  Even the word itself, "mask," is problematic.  We have no clear idea where it comes from or what it really means.  It might derive from a proto Indo-European word meaning "black, obscure," the Spanish más que la cara ("more than the face"), or even the Arabic masakha, meaning "transformed."  All of this feeds quite nicely into the mythology Detwiller is creating here, marrying the mythic, almost religious mask traditions with the concept of the "masked man" or masked hero.  The result is a game about perfectly normally teenagers compelled to create and wear Masks that transform then, body, mind, and perhaps even soul.

That is something critical to understand here.  This is not a game about super beings who put on a mask (or pair of glasses) to conceal their identities.  The Teen and the Mask are two different entities.  A Mask might be a different race, a different gender, a different species from the Teen that crafted it.  It might have very different drives and agendas.  The protagonists in this game are more like Billy Batson than Peter Parker.  This is where the game's much promoted "horror" elements come in.  The Mask isn't you...or is it?

We Could Be Heroes

Because this is a Cypher System Rulebook supplement, from here on it we will assume you know that game.  If not, following the link above for any of what follows to make sense to you.

Mechanically, Unmasked builds on the rules Monte Cook gave us in the core game.  Characters are once again defined by being "An (Adjective) (Noun) that (Verbs)."  This time, however, there is a twist.  The character sheet is split into the Teen and the Mask.  The Teen is defined only by a Descriptor and some appropriate skills.  He or she might be a "Tough Teen," or a "Naive Teen," a "Driven Teen" or a "Weird Teen." The Teen then gets his or her own Stat Pools (each starts at 6, with two additional points to assign).  This is the unmasked character.

The game calls its protagonists "Prodigies," and as hinted at above, they are normal young men and women who wake up in a world that has suddenly changed, but only they can see it.  Some event--and the nature of that event is very much up the the GM--has littered the world with cyphers (in this setting, called "Mementos").  As in other Cypher games, these are one use objects each containing a single special power.  Prodigies are the only people who know a Memento when they see it, and when they touch it they know what it can do.  Likewise, they are also able to identify each other.  What transformed these teens and these objects?  That is part of the story, and Detwiller gives the GM specific rules to decide the nature of the changes (Psychic? Mutation?  Mystical?) and guidelines on how to reveal the answers over the ongoing campaign.  However, the Prodigies are haunted by dreams of a nightmarish figure, the monstrous Prester John, who seems to be hunting Prodigies the way the First was hunting potential Slayers in the final season of Buffy.

Some Mementos call to Prodigies more powerfully than others, compelling the Teen to assemble them and use them to create a Mask.  Each Mask is unique.  When the Teen puts the Mask on, he or she becomes a completely new character, this time with its own Descriptor, Type, and Focus.  These Masks also have their own Stat pools and skills.  Most importantly, perhaps, they have "Power Shifts" (Cypher System, p. 270).  These shifts automatically lower difficulty levels by one step each.  So a Mask with 4 shifts in "Feats of Strength" would automatically lower any difficulty of that type by four, even before effort or other assets are applied.  This is part of what makes them truly superhuman.

Descriptors:  Given the nature of the game and the genre, any Descriptor from the Cypher System Rulebook or even Numenera or The Strange might be acceptable with GM approval.  While the game introduces new Teen Descriptors (Metal Head, New Wave, Punk, and Show-off) there are none that are Mask specific.

Types: The four standard Types have been reworked a bit here into the Smasher (Warrior), Thinker (Adept), Mover (Explorer) and Changer (Speaker).  They Type determines your initial stat pools (still a total of 34 points, but with the base values altered a bit), suggests where you put your Power Shifts and what Focus you chose, and gives you additional Power Shifts and abilities as you rise through the tiers.  

Foci:  Surprisingly, Unmasked introduces relatively few new Foci; Flies by Night, Lives on the Dark Side, Travels back from the Future, and Wants to be Adored are the only new entries.  Groups will need to really on the core rulebook (and possibly Expanded Worlds) for these power suites, and given the nature of the genre, any applicable Foci from Numenera or The Strange as well.

What emerges is a superhero form that is an entirely different entity from the Teen character.  This recalls heroes like Shazam, Thor (in the old days), and the Hulk, and introduces all sorts of role-play contradictions.  The Teen and the Mask share memories, but do they share goals?  Values?  Agendas? Are they operating in concert or at odds?  These are character design questions each player will need to consider as they craft their Masks.

Once a Mask is made it forms an almost supernatural bond with its Teen.  It cannot be "lost," and will always somehow return to the Teen who made it.  It cannot be destroyed by anything other than another Mask.  If a normal human tries to destroy it, the Mask will miraculously survive.  Even for other Masks, it is a level 15 difficulty challenge to destroy a Mask; doing so unleashes an "explosion" of power only other Masks can sense, and creates a half dozen or so new Mementos (cyphers) in the area.  Removing a Mask from another Mask is also an epic task, with a difficulty of 10.  Note this means Unmasked follows the Superhero genre conventions in Cypher by expanding difficulties from 1 to 10 to 1 to 15.  Since normal humans lack Power Shifts, tasks beyond 7 remain nearly impossible.

Two other points need to be made about Masks.

First, a Mask cannot be killed.  It has a separate damage track from the Teen wearing it, and when its Pools are depleted, the Mask simply falls off.  It cannot be worn again until a recovery role is made, and though the Mask and the Teen have discrete damage tracks, they share their recovery rolls.  This could easily result in an exhausted and beaten Mask falling off of a Teen and leaving them vulnerable in the midst of battle.  Teens can be killed.

Second, the Mask advances using XP, not the Teen.  Despite this, the Teen can gain XP for the Mask by (for example) doing their homework and fitting in at school, keeping their connection to the Mask a secret, and keeping the whole Mask phenomenon under wraps.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Unmasked is very concerned with its setting, with the world the Masks inhabit and bringing it to life. More than half the book is devoted to this.

In broad strokes, this is a world in which Teens have gained impossible powers and are drawn into a secret war.  The game focuses on the 1980s as the backdrop, but other eras, such as the Roaring 20s, the 1960s, or even our own could be selected instead.  A modern campaign probably provides the biggest thematic challenges; how can we believe in a secret war in an age when everyone has cameras and the Internet?

Detailed rules are given to walk GMs through creating the town the Teens inhabit and the high schools they attend; rural like Smallville?  Suburban like Buffy?  Urban like Spider-man Homecoming?  Something else?  There is ample support in the book to craft these key elements of the setting however you like.  

Also to be considered is the nature of what is going on.  Where do these Masks come from?  Who is the villainous Prester John?  Are their evil Masks to fight?  What do the police know?  What does the government know?  Unmasked walks you through all of this, and your choices will make each campaign unique.  Your game could be a supernatural one like Buffy, connected to alien technology like Smallville, extra-dimensional like Stranger Things, or a half dozen other options.  

Unmasked offers guidelines for making these choices and then structuring the campaign around them, Tier by Tier, to build a satisfying arc.  To my mind, this is where Unmasked shines the brightest.  It painstakingly details how to guide the players through becoming Masks, mastering their powers, encountering their first threats, dealing with the Big Picture, and confronting the final foe.  Several model campaign arcs are outlined, as well as a complete example campaign setting.  Since the rules are already covered in the core rulebook, Unmasked devotes its bulk to actually using those rules to create a vibrant campaign.  It is a page count well-spent.

If you have been itching to play superheroes in Cypher, this is the perfect opportunity to do it.  Dennis Detwiller has proved the old adage wrong by making lighting strike twice.  While Godlike and Unmasked are light years apart in many ways, both are stories of ordinary young people dragged into massive and monstrous conflicts by powers they struggle to understand and control.  They are both extraordinary tales of superhumans (and come to think of it, Unmasked would work very well in Godlike's WWII setting as well).  I highly recommend Unmasked to lovers of the Cypher system and lovers of the supers genre.  It doesn't disappoint.

CYPHER SYSTEM SUPERHEROES: KRYPTONIANS

SUPERHEROES, and especially a character on the level of Superman, are a tall order for any system to replicate.  The following was a bit of test run, seeing how well the Cypher System could handle the Man of Steel.  This version is a bit closer to the New 52 Superman, especially in earlier issues, where he can still be injured and is often battered and bruised.  It also tips its hat to Clark from Smallville.  

Obviously, the Superman we all know would be a Sixth Tier character, with access to all the following powers.  He would have concentrated on Might and Speed, building large pools and three or four points of Edge in each.  I also assumed he bought additional Power Shifts, giving him 5 in Strength and Resilience each (see below).  Rather than present his full stats (I saw him as a Tier 6 Mild-Mannered Reporter Who Hails From Krypton) I have decided to post just his Focus.  It might be useful for players who want a young Kryptonian slowly growing into his powers.

The Tier abilities are drawn from various other Foci around the core rulebook (X-Ray vision from Sees Beyond, Heat vision from Blazes With Radiance, and even Teleportation from the Magic Flavor tweaked into Supersonic flight.  

HAILS FROM KRYPTON

While race is usually best handled as a Descriptor, as the source of all of their powers and what makes them unique, Kryptonians take their race as a Focus. Survivors of the doomed world of Krypton, Kryptonians outwardly appear to be human but are immensely more powerful. Their cells absorb and metabolize solar energy from yellow stars like Earth's sun, giving them powers they wouldn't possess under Krypton's red supergiant, Rao. This, combined with their incredible molecular density, is the source of their abilities on Earth.

Kryptonians apply their 5 Power Shifts (p. 270) to Might-based Strength (3 Shifts) and Resilience (2 Shifts) rolls, giving them base attack damage of 9 and 2 points of natural armor. Additional Shifts can be purchased for either category at a cost of 10 XP each, adding +3 damage or +1 Armor. The presence of the radioactive mineral Kryptonite cancels out these Power Shifts so long as the Kryptonian remains in short distance of it. In addition, being in immediate distance to Kryptonite causes the character to take 5 points of damage per round, first from Might, then from Speed and Intellect.

CONNECTION

1. Pick one PC who knows your secret and believes that you have been sent to the Earth with a great purpose, such as providing an example to the rest of humanity with your actions and deeds. Not living up to these expectations can be greatly disappointing to that character.

2. Pick one PC who suspects your alien origin and is suspicious of you, seeing you as a possible threat to humanity or the scout of an invasion force.

3. Pick one PC that you would do anything to protect, and who you will race to the side of whenever they are in danger or need.

Minor Effect Suggestion: Your amazing actions inspire your allies around you, giving them all a +2 to die rolls the next round.

Major Effect Suggestion: You do something so amazing that bystanders and your opponents are stunned, doing nothing but gaping in awe. If you don't already have it, this gives you and your allies the initiative the next round.

TIER ONE

Man of Steel: In addition to making Might Defense rolls against toxins, diseases, and environmental damage, the Kryptonian can also use his Might in place of a Speed Defense against physical attacks. In effect, instead of dodging an attack, the Kryptonian lets it hit and just shrugs it off. Note that his or her Power Shifts affect the roll. Enabler.

   Rapid Recovery: Your ten-minute recovery roll takes one action instead, so that your first two recovery rolls take one action, the third takes one hour, and the fourth takes ten hours. Enabler.

TIER TWO

X-Ray Vision (3 Intellect Points): The Kryptonian can see through matter as if it were transparent. You can see through up to 6 inches (15 cm) of material for one round, although some materials might be harder to see through than others, and lead blocks this power completely. Action.

TIER THREE

Heat Vision (3 Intellect Points): As an Intellect action, the Kryptonian shoots beam of fiery red light from his eyes at a target within long range. This heat melts and burns, dealing 5 points of damage. Action.

TIER FOUR

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (4 Speed Points) The Kryptonian moves with blinding speed up to 1,000 feet (305 m) in one round. Action.

   Up to Speed. If you do nothing but move for three actions in a row, the Kryptonian accelerates greatly and can move up to 200 mph (about 2,000 feet each round) for up to ten minutes (about 35 miles), after which he or she must stop and make a recovery roll. (Move up to 322 kph [about 610 m each round] for up to ten minutes [about 56 km].) Enabler.

TIER FIVE

Super-breath (+5 Might Points): The Kryptonian emits a blast of cold from his or her lungs in a wide cone in front of him or her up to short range. This blast instantly freezes water and extinguishes flames. All within the burst take 5 points of damage. If Effort is applied to increase the damage rather than to decrease the difficulty, 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort are dealt (instead of 3 points), and targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if the Kryptonian fails the attack roll. Action.

TIER SIX

Look! Up in the Sky! (4 Speed Points): The Kryptonian can float and fly through the air for one hour. The power is an expansion of Tier Four "Up to Speed." By doing nothing more than move for three rounds, the Kryptonian accelerates to 200 mph (322 kph). Anything he or she can normally carry can be carried while flying.

   Supersonic (6 Speed Points): The Kryptonian launches himself or herself at unearthly speeds, traveling almost instantaneously (mere minutes) to any location that he or she has seen or been to, no matter the distance, as long as it is on the same world

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MONTE COOK'S CYPHER SYSTEM: A REVIEW

WHEN YOU GET RIGHT DOWN TO IT, art is a delivery system for narrative.  Art allows you to take the images and feelings in your head and share them with people around you, turning idea into substance.  The choice of medium is always a crucial one, because it inevitably shapes the narrative and affects how others experience it.  The same story can be told in music, painting, poetry, prose, or song (something like Percival's quest for the Holy Grail has been told and retold in all of the above) and come out differently each time, altered by the idiosyncrasies and character of the individual delivery system.

"Universal" or "generic" role-playing game systems are perfect examples of this.  Telling the same comic book super hero tale in GURPS, Basic Roleplaying, or Savage Worlds will result in three very different sagas. While we tend to chose "standard" RPGs by their genre and setting as much as mechanics, the choice of a generic rules set is always based on one question; how does the system itself shape the story we want to tell?

Click me to enlarge

Monte Cook's Cypher System came into existence as the engine driving Numenera, and in the beginning of that book Cook was very clear on his vision of the system;

(I wanted)...a roleplaying game system where players got to decide how much effort they wanted to put into any given action, and that decision would help determine whether their action would succeed or fail. This would be a simple but elegant system where sustained damage and physical exertion drew from the same resource (so as you became wounded, you could do less, and as you became exhausted, you were easier to take down). Where your willpower and your mental “power points” were the same thing, and as you drew on your mental resources, your ability to stave off mental attacks waned. And where it was all so integrated into the character that it was easy to process and keep track of. But most of all, I dreamed of a game system that was designed from the ground up to be played the way people actually played games, and to be run the way that game masters really ran them...

Numenera, p. 4

Now, all of this--and in particular the last few lines--might come off a bit grandiose, but when dealing with a game designer as accomplished as Cook it's never a bad idea to cut him a little slack.  Rather than cover his resume again, I direct the gentle reader to my Numenera review.  Suffice it to say, whether or not you end up agreeing the Cypher System captures the way people "actually play games" and game masters "run them," Cook is as qualified as any to try and design a system that fulfils that criteria.  For my part, I think he succeeded.

So let's get down to the crucial question.  How exactly does the Cypher System serve the stories you might want to tell?

Creating an Experience

Cook has something interesting to say very early on in the Cypher System Rulebook.  He is addressing, specifically, recreating the feel of "genres" when he states the following;

...I say “experience” because in many ways, that’s what a genre is. If you want to capture the experience of being terrified by zombies swarming around a character’s home, you want horror. If you want to convey the experience of being extremely powerful and using those powers to protect the world from aliens, you want superheroes (maybe with a dash of science fiction). So really, what you’re choosing here is the experience you want to have—and that you want the players to have. This is such a fundamental decision that perhaps the whole group should be in on it. Ask the other players what genre they like and what kinds of experiences they want to have...

This is a fair description of the Cypher System itself.  While Cypher, like any RPG, mixes all three elements of the "Gamist-Narrativist-Simulationist" theory, it leans a bit harder towards the N-S side of the equation.  If you are looking for a mathematical model of real-world physics, or a game who's goal is to maximise "winning" traits and minimise extraneous ones, this may not be for you.  If you want to capture the "feel" of being a superhero, a fantasy warrior, or a 31st century android, it might be what you are looking for.  "In the Cypher System," Cook writes, "the story is king, and thus you can’t really get the rules wrong. If it works for your game, then it works."

Having said this, the game is called the "cypher" system for reasons that will colour your play experience with it.  Chapter One kicks off by telling us "...A cypher is a secret.  It's something that not everyone understands.  It holds potential.  Promise."  This is a system that leans towards discovery rather than combat.  It is a game more about getting to the bottom of the mystery, unravelling the evil mastermind's plan, or rediscovery relics of a lost and wondrous age than pitting your strength against adversaries.  Nowhere is this made more clear in the experience system, where you are rewarded for discoveries instead of collecting XP over the bodies of fallen foes.  This doesn't mean you can't run Howard's Hyborian World with it...it just means doing so might shift the focus from slaying hordes of Picts to finding out what the Pictish shaman lord's scheme is.

Two things to take away from this then; Cypher is about discovery and creating a collaborative experience.

The Core Mechanic

The core mechanic is a simple one.  All situations that challenge a player character or test his or her abilities are rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being simple and 10 impossible.  This difficulty, multiplied by 3, yields the number the player must roll equal to or higher on a d20.  So, if you need to pick a difficulty 4 lock, you need to roll 12 or higher. 

Unlike the previous d20 system Cook helped design, character skills and attributes do NOT add to the die roll.  Instead, characters will use their assets to lower the initial difficulty, making it easier to beat.  For example, skills come in two levels, "Trained" and Specialised."  If you are Trained in a skill, it lowers difficulties one step.  If you are Specialised, it lowers them by two.  Getting back to our lock, if Player A was Trained in Lockpicking he would need to roll a 9 or higher (difficulty 4 stepped down by 1), while Player B who Specialised in Lockpicking would need only a 6 or better.

Skills are not the only assets that lower difficulties.  Equipment, environmental factors, character abilities, and--as Cook made clear in the paragraph above--effort all conspire to lower difficulties as well.  More on this shortly.

Before we move on, a roll of 19 on the die triggers a "minor effect."  While this has concrete mechanics in combat or in the use of special powers, in general a minor effect means you pulled off the task with panache, grace, and style.  A roll of 20 triggers a "major effect," a remarkable performance that yields far better than expected results.  

A roll of 1 however allows the game master to introduce a free intrusion (more on this below), a complication or twist that makes the player character's life more "interesting."

On the Character Side of Things

At their heart, player characters are defined by three stats; Might, Speed, and Intellect.  Each of these comes with a Pool and an Edge.  Might is the measure of physical strength and endurance, Speed measures reaction time and agility, and Intellect measures intelligence, charisma, and willpower.  The Pool rating is a general measure of potential in that area.  Edge measures refinement of that potential.    

A starting fantasy warrior, for example, could have a Might  Pool of 14, a Speed of 12, and an Intellect of 8, with a Might Edge of 1 and 0 in the other two.

All of this relates to Effort.  Remember that Cook wanted effort to be a key factor in success.  Each level of Effort a character "spends" lowers a difficulty by one step.  It costs 3 points for the first level, and 2 additional points each level after that.

Example: Our fantasy warrior from above is fighting an ogre.  He needs to roll a 9 (difficulty 3) or better to hit.  Using his battle axe is a Might task, so he could spend Effort from his Might Pool to lower the difficulty.  Spending three points would step it down to a difficulty 2 (a roll of 6 or better).

But wait; Edge reduces the cost of all Effort expenditures.  This means that our warrior, with a Might Edge of 1, would pay only 2 points from his Pool rather than 3.  If he had an Edge of 3 in Might, all Might challenges would automatically step down one level for him, as in effect he is getting a free level of Effort all the time.  

Example 2: A more powerful and experienced fantasy warrior with a Might Pool of 20 and a Might Edge of 4 is fighting the same ogre.  Without spending any points, hitting the ogre steps down from difficulty 3 to difficulty 2, and by spending just one point it would step down to difficulty 1 (3+2 Might points for two levels of Effort, minus 4 for the Edge).

One way to visualise this is that a character with, for example, a Might Pool of 20 and a Might Edge of 0 would have greater mass and potential strength, but a wiry martial artist with a Might Pool of 12 and an Edge of 3 would probably get the better of him because the martial artist has honed his strength and uses it better.

Pools are not only for Effort...they are also your "hit points."  In general, you take damage to you Might Pool first, followed by Speed and Intellect.  Hitting zero in a Pool signifies significant injury and comes with consequential impairment. Some attacks, like magic or poisons, can attack the Speed and Intellect Pools directly.

And yes, Pools recharge.  Each "recharge" takes a certain amount of rest and restores 1d6 + your Tier (think "level") points.  The first recharge just takes a single action to get some of your wind back.  The second takes 10 minutes, the third takes an hour, and the fourth requires 10 hours of rest.  There are optional rules for more lasting states of damage.

I am an (Adjective) (Noun) that (Verbs)

Creating a character in Cypher involves the selection of three core elements; your Descriptor, your Type, and your Focus.  These are essentially packaged adjectives, nouns, and verbs that provide abilities and weaknesses to help you build your character.

The core choice is your Type, which is the closest thing Cypher offers to a character class.  Both Numenera and The Strange offered three character types, a fighter, a magician, and a rogue.  Cypher adds a fourth type and names the Types Warrior, Adept, Explorer, and Speaker.  

Broadly speaking, the Warrior excels at combat, the Adept at knowledge, and the Speaker at interacting with people.  The Explorer is a Jack-of-all-Trades with a bit of all the above.  These are broad categories and it is fully expected the game master will rename and tinker with them for his or her setting.  In a fantasy setting a Warrior might be a Barbarian, Paladin, or Gladiator.  In a Modern or Horror setting he might be a Police Officer or Soldier.  

Each Type is rated in six Tiers, the equivalent of levels.  Cypher differs from many class and level games in that you do not build up experience points to reach a level and then access its abilities; instead, you purchase a number of advancements as you go and when you have acquired them all you enter that Tier.  This then unlocks special abilities associated with that Tier.

Each Type has certain powers associated with it, which become accessible as you go up the Tiers.  These look quite a bit like "feats" in the d20 System.  Warrior abilities look like combat manoeuvres, while Adept abilities look like arcane powers (magical, psionic, technical etc depending on the setting).  Explorer abilities focus largely on survival, discovery, and travel, with a dash of abilities borrowed from other Types.  Speaker abilities deal with persuading and manipulating people.  Usually, these require the expenditure of a Might, Speed, or Intellect point to activate.  Once again, though, Edge reduces the cost of these.  So if you have an Edge of 1 in Speed, any Speed ability that costs 1 point to activate is usable for free.  

It should also be mentioned that first Tier characters are limited in how much Edge and Effort they have (1 and 1 each).  As you increase Tiers, you can spend more levels of Effort on a task, and have greater and greater Edge scores to reduce the costs.

In addition to these Types, Cypher adds a new wrinkle not previously seen in Numenera or The Strange.  These are the Flavors.  Flavors are basically "semi-Types," or packages of abilities meant to be combined with one of the core four Types.  The Flavors are Stealth, Technology, Magic, and Combat.  What a Flavor does is allow you to colour a Type, customising it to a degree for your setting.

Consider the traditional fantasy game Cleric and Druid.  In Cypher, the first might be a Speaker Type Flavored with Magic.  The second would be an Explorer Flavored with Magic.  Something like a Thief might be an Explorer Flavored with Stealth.  This is a great addition to the system, that helps GMs and players sculpt the Types more into what they want.

Descriptors, the "adjectives," are words like "Wealthy," "Tough," or "Skeptical," and provide skills, abilities, and story-links.  The final component, the Focus or "Verb," is what makes the character special.  While a group can have multiple members of the same Type, and characters may share the same Descriptor, only one player character in the group can have any given Focus.  They shape what your character does, what drives him, and grant him special abilities.

Foci like Howls at the Moon or Bears a Halo of Fire provide a suite of supernatural powers.  Others like Defends the Weak or Calculates the Incalculable provide more subtle--though no less useful, abilities.  Each provides a talent that unlocks every new Tier.  Commands Mental Powers, for example, provides "Telepathic" at the first Tier, "Mind Reading" at the second, "Psychic Burst" at the third, "Uses Senses of Others" at fourth, "Mind Control" at Fifth, and "Telepathic Network" at sixth.  Most of these abilities cost an increasing number of pool points to activate.

For the GM

While Cypher treats player characters as their three core Stats, augmented by a suite of skills, abilities, and characteristics provided by Descriptor, Type, and Focus, things are considerably simpler on the GM's side of the screen.  Cook understands that players like "bits;" they want lists of things they can acquire for their characters.  This, after all, is their role in the game...to lavish attention on their single character.  When you are in the position of having to run everyone else in the world, you need a more zen tool kit.

The first thing to mention is that the GM never rolls a die (well, almost never).  The entire Cypher System is player facing...they make the rolls to attack and dodge, to persuade or resist persuasion, etc.

The second thing is that creatures and NPCs in Cypher are handled in the exact same way as all challenges.  The GM assigns them a level between 1 and 10.  In some cases, that is all that they need.  As a sort of combat shorthand, the level x 3 tells us how hard they are to hit and what the player needs to roll to avoid getting hit by them, how many hit points they have, and (level x 1) how much damage they do.  The level can also be used to tell us how "skilled" they are.  

If extra detail or realism is required, the GM can add it.  Say an NPC is a brilliant nuclear physicist but also an ailing old man.  The character can then be represented as Dr. Robert Weiss (Level 1, Nuclear Physics 8).  His level is used for most things, but his Nuclear Physics value is used when trying to unravel the biology of that radiation-fueled kaiju.  The GM determines how much detail the NPC needs to have.

Intrusions

"Intrusions" and "Cyphers" (see below) are to my mind the two stand-out characteristics of the game system.  Intrusions allow the GM to add elements to the game that complicate, hinder, or further challenge players.  They replace the need for dice rolling and give the GM more control over the story.  

They work like this; when the GM wants to intrude, he informs the targeted player.  The player may then accept the Intrusion, and be rewarded with 2 experience points, or refuse the Intrusion and pay an experience point back to the GM.  Interestingly, the player keeps only one of the experience points he is rewarded with, immediately handing the second point to one of the other players in the party as a reward for good play, clever ideas, witty banter, etc.  Since Intrusions are a major source of experience, this has the effect of letting the group reward its own members with experience rather than GM fiat alone.

Example: Fighting a zombie horde with an Uzi, the GM suddenly informs his player that the submachine gun jams.  The player can accept this, and 2 XP, or refuse and pay 1 XP to the GM.

As mentioned above, a roll of 1 on the die allows the GM to intrude on players without paying experience.

Running Numenera, I have used Intrusions for all sorts of things, such as adding bits of backstory to character history, having NPCs take an instant dislike to a character, the sudden appearance of "wandering monsters," etc.  This mechanic, along with the ease of crafting NPCs and challenges, and the fact the GM doesn't need to roll dice, has made it a lot easier to concentrate on keeping the game interesting.  But these are things more "gamist" players may bristle at.

A Word on Combat

Combat works like anything else in the Cypher System.  Players will make the appropriate Might, Speed, or Intellect roll depending on the nature of their weapons (strength-based, agility-based, or magical, psionic, etc).  The target number to hit is (generally) the NPC's level x 3.  This is also the target number to avoid getting hit by an NPC.

Weapons are rated as Light, Medium, and Heavy.  Light weapons do a base of two points of damage, but using them "steps down" the difficulty because they are light and easy to use.  Medium weapons do a base of 4 points of damage, and Heavy weapons do a base of 6 points (they have the disadvantage of requiring both hands to use).  These rules are universal for ranged and melee weapons alike.

I said "base damage."  Rolling a 17, 18, 19, or 20 on a successful attack adds +1, +2, +3, or +4 to the damage roll (19 and 20 can unlock additional bonuses as well).  Effort can also be spent to increase the damage done.

Armor comes in the three same categories and absorbs a like amount of damage (1, 2, and 3).  But heavier armour comes with Might Pool costs per hour and Speed reductions.  Some characters will have access to talents and abilities that alleviate or reduce these costs.    

Cyphers in the Cypher System

Numenera established three types of "treasure" that Cypher has inherited.  There are the Artefacts, powerful devices or tools that are useful and reusable (a magic sword in a fantasy RPG).  There are Oddities, reusable devices that aren't really terribly useful (a holocrystal in a space opera game that shows the image of a long-dead, beautiful woman), and Cyphers, one-use items that are useful (old school D&D potions and scrolls spring to mind).  Cyphers are at the heart of the game; players can carry a limited number of them, and are expected to constantly come across more of them in play.  This creates a steady and ever-changing stream of cool things players can do in a game in addition to their own innate powers and abilities.  

But in the Ninth World setting of Numenera, Cyphers make sense.  This is a billion-year-old world littered with the detritus on long-dead, ridiculously advanced civilisations.  Potent little gadgets can be found everywhere.  Likewise, in a fantasy RPG, Cypher-like items are a long-standing tradition, easy to work into a magic-rich world.  But what about games that are not heavy on science fiction wonders or ancient magics?

Cypher introduces two categories of Cyphers...those that are Manifest and those that are Subtle.  A Manifest Cypher could be a potion, a rune, a drug, or some gadget.  A Subtle Cypher works a bit like the old drama deck in TORG or its Savage Worlds "Adventure Deck" descendent.  It's a lucky break, a plot twist, a handy bit of karma or deus ex machina that PCs earn and can use or discard in favour of another.  A Subtle Cypher might turn an NPC into a romantic interest, act as an Asset for a daring escape, give a bonus to damage, etc.  It allows the Cypher mechanic to be ported easily into virtually any game, regardless of genre.

And Speaking of Genres...

The Cypher System breaks things down into five broad genres; Fantasy, Science Fiction, Modern, Horror, and Superheroes.  It dedicates a chapter to each of these, giving guidelines on modifying character Types to fit the setting, listing Foci that are appropriate to the genre, adding additional optional rules, customising equipment, etc.  

Fantasy Game Type Suggestions

Foci for a Modern Game

For example, an optional mechanic for the Superhero genre allows players to designate "power shifts" to certain abilities.  A super-humanly strong character might assign 5 of these to all his Might-based lifting, throwing, and smashing rolls.  A singularly gifted detective might add 3 to his deduction-based activities.  What this does is immediately step down all difficulties in that area for the character.  An object that is a Difficulty 7 challenge to lift for other characters becomes Difficultly 2 for our strongman.  Likewise, the book advocates scaling Superhero games on a scale of 1 to 15 rather than 1 to 10, as the genre frequently has characters do things "beyond the impossible."

Another example is in Horror.  While rules mimicking Call of Cthulhu's "Sanity" are introduced, another scary mechanic is "Horror Mode."  When this is activated (the PCs enter the haunted house, are lost in the black bayou, etc), the GM's ability to inflict experience point free Intrusions on a roll of 1 jumps up to a roll of 1 or 2.  As the tension and horror increases, it continues to step up, increasing the chances of the GM inflicting dreadful woe on characters.  

There are tons of other options as well.  Starship combat rules, creating aliens and fantasy races, and anything else you might imagine for a multi-genre game.  Weighing in at 418 pages, the Cypher System is a rules-light game at its core packed with options to suit various tastes.

Conclusions

So does the Cypher System actually reflect how players "really play" games and game masters "really run" them?  Yes and no.  Obviously, no game system can satisfy the needs of every group.  Were that the case, we would likely still all be playing old school D&D.  It does reflect how I have tended to run games the last thirty-odd years; as a constant GM I have always tried to take short cuts to minimise my book-keeping, while keeping loads of options on the table for players.  I strongly suspect many if not most GMs do the same.  The levels of detail a player wants to bring his character to life are not equally suitable to NPC stat blocks, and Cypher embraces this concept and executes it brilliantly.

Cook makes it clear that the story comes first in Cypher, and if you are the type of player who feels that way, you will like the system.  While there are enough options in the game to make it more tactical and gamist, it is unlikely someone looking for those things would make a game like this their first choice.  The system is, after all, about creating an experience, not necessarily about strategy, gaming the rules, and playing to win.  

While it shows Cook's long association with Dungeons & Dragons in the use of a d20, the classes, and the levels, the truth is that the designer has managed to make each of those elements distinct from their inspiration.  Types and Tiers feel almost invisible in the game, more a general guide than actual mechanics, and it in no way breaks the rules to modify, remove, or tinker with any of them.  Cypher is constantly and consistently reminded you to do just that if it suits the game you want to run.

While multi-genre, Cypher sits alongside games like TORG, MasterBook, Savage Worlds, or Feng Shui in feeling far more cinematic than simulationist or literary.  Indeed, it has a great deal in common with Savage Worlds, but its mechanics are far less visible in play.  Don't get me wrong, I love Savage Worlds, but with all its various bells and whistles while playing it you are always reminded you are playing Savage Worlds.  Cook's system fades far more readily into the background.  Something to keep in mind if you are looking for that sort of thing.

Play Cypher System if you are a game master looking to run compelling sessions without a great deal of prep.  Play if you are a player who likes general archetypes to help you build a character, but wants a wide range of options so that you aren't straight-jacketed into them.  Play if you value discovery over combat.  Play if you are looking for a cinematic experience.  Play if you like the idea of resource management over die rolls.  These things are not how every group plays, but if they are how yours does, get this game.

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REVISITING THE X-MEN

It's easy to dismiss comic books. Certainly as I was growing up, they were seen as a childish form of entertainment best grown out of quickly. If you were ten and reading comics, nothing was amiss. If you were twenty and still reading them, you could expect some eye-rolling at your expense. And this attitude was reflected in how other forms of media treated comic books. Saturday morning cartoon versions took comic book stories and characters and wrote them "down" for an even younger audience, and the few stabs made at them in cinema and television were "camped up" to make them palatable for adults, as if the material was too light weight to be treated seriously. But all of this began to change, and change in a big way, at the turn of the 20th century, largely thanks to the cinema adaptation of one of the best-selling comics in American history; Marvel Comics' X-Men. The success of the first X-Men film in 2000 was instrumental in Hollywood's modern love affair with the comic book, showing that if the material was treated with respect, and presented by top-notch writers, directors, and actors, then comic book adaptations had powerful stories to tell. Stories even adults could appreciate.

The X-Men were a perfect place for Hollywood to start. For those who aren't familiar with the series, the X-Men comic appeared in 1963 and has been running, continually, for nearly fifty years. It centers around the idea of "mutants," human beings who carry a gene which produces some sort of mutation that usually erupts and expresses itself during adolescence. These mutations grant some sort of super-power--the ability to read minds, walk through walls, or fly--but are often uncontrollable, come with a side-effect, or cause a disfiguring transformation in the individual's appearance. Mutants are a very small percentage of the population, but are widely hated and feared for a variety of reasons. They might look freakish, be a danger to themselves and others, or just be so "different" as to make others uncomfortable. There are also uncomfortable implications surrounding them...as homo sapiens came along and replaced Neanderthal man, many believe that the mutants (or "homo superior") are here to replace man.

From the very start, the X-Men saga blended comic book action with very real social issues. Appearing in the civil rights era, over the decades the mutants would be used to explore racism, the treatment of minorities in society, and even gay and lesbian issues. Mutants were the subject of military experiments, used as slave labor in foreign countries, and even targeted to be rounded up, labeled, and detained by conservative politicians in the United States. Most were forced into hiding, with mutant adolescents running away from home or hiding in "the closet."

In response, two opposing poles or forces arose. One was Professor Charles Xavier, a mutant who believed humans and mutant kind could peacefully co-exist. His opponent (and old friend) was Eric Lensherr, better known by his name Magneto. A Jew who had watched his family die in Nazi concentration camps, Eric had seen first hand how humanity treats minorities, and believed that co-existence would never be possible. Magneto formed a team of mutant terrorists to apply force to human society and push for mutant rights. Appalled by his violent methods, Xavier formed his own team, the X-Men, to oppose them.

In those early years, Xavier and Magneto reflected the approaches to African American civil rights as championed by Dr. King and Malcolm X, but as the decades passed the X-Men continually introduced new story lines to comment on current affairs. While the world watched South Africa struggle with Apartheid, the comic created the South African nation of Genosha, which became a global power built on a mutant slave class. When AIDS first appeared and fire-breathing pastors called it a "gay plague," the comic introduced the Legacy virus, a disease that killed mutants. In 1982 they made waves with "God Loves, Man Kills," a story about a minister preaching against mutants and a commentary on growing religious intolerance. Even the movies continued this theme. In the midst of the American debates on homosexuality and whether or not it could be cured, the third film created a plot of the government devising a cure for mutation. As a gay man, when a young mutant character asks "Is it true, they can cure us now?", and older mutant leader Storm replies "No they can't cure you because there is nothing wrong with you," I nearly stood up and cheered.

The X-Men are on my mind again because I recently started reading Ultimate X-Men, a series that ran from 2001 to 2009 and is conveniently available in 20 trade paperback editions (check out the first volume here). Catching up with fifty years of storylines and characters is daunting for newcomers, so Ultimate X-Men was a "reboot" of the story, modernizing and condensing what had gone before. It is a different take on the characters, and there are enough twists that a long-time fan will find new surprises, but it is ideal for new readers to enjoy the X-Men and get a taste of what the comic is all about.

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