Monday, February 29, 2016

Gods Of The Fall. Unmasked. Predation.

Awaken your divine spark, claim a dominion, and become a god in a fantasy world in which the heavens smashed upon the Earth like a vengeful star.

Or find yourself trapped in the dark and dangerous world of the Cretaceous Period. First you'll have to figure out how to survive using the tech you brought from the future—modern weapons, advanced science, and bioengineered dinosaurs. Then you can worry about the asteroid that history says wipes out most life on earth.

Or drift to the edge of insanity. They'll say you're dangerous. Insane. That you suffer from Dissociative Mask Disorder. Your parents and the doctors and the press and the military—they can’t believe what’s happening. They can’t believe what you can do. And they wouldn't believe the price you pay.


What does it all mean? On this improbable day (at least, improbably 3 out of every 4 years), we launched a freaking crowdfunding campaign. Check it out! 

Worlds of the Cypher System Kickstarter: Explore all new worlds and play in any genre with the award-winning roleplaying game system behind Numenera and The Strange.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Breathing Life Into Your RPG Encounter

The job every GM faces is to immerse the players in the make-believe world of your setting. You can do that in lots of different ways, but in an article I posted at MCG titled Breathing Life Into Your Encounter, I focus on a few strategies for bringing a specific scene to life for your players.

For example, I stress how when your player characters enter an encounter, don’t hide what’s important about the encounter behind less-important minutia. For example, if PCs exploring a ruined cathedral enter a chamber containing a two-headed wolf sleeping in the nave, lead with the wolf. Don’t start out describing the room’s dimensions and the number of windows. Those details can come afterward.

More? Check it out the entire article here, which lays it out in "5 Easy Steps" :).


Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Time Loops or Evolution Over Time in Recursions

Figuring out if time flows--or loops--in Strange worlds seeded by fiction can be tricky.

How does time flow in recursions seeded by specific fictions—does a recursion evolve and generate history, like on Earth, or does it remain static, like a novel on a shelf?

The answer is both. Some recursions remain static—true to the narrative that seeded them into the Strange. No matter how often a recursor visits, they never seem to change or vary from the fiction they’re based on.

Others evolve, deviate from their original fictional basis, and generate history of their own.

Want some examples? Check out the full blog entry here: Beyond the Book: Recursions—Static or Evolving?