On Last Night's Zounds Character Creation Session

Over oh his blog, +Mark Knights  offers an excellent mini-review of Zounds, the fantasy RPG by +Joshua Macy . I will be running the game Mark is involved with and would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the game a little bit as well.

As Mark mentioned, we did only do character creation last night. And, I’m okay with that. We were introducing new people to the game and familiarizing them with new concepts. Which reminds me, here’s a special call out to Mark and the rest of my players, +Keith Bailey, +Robert Hanz, +Lloyd Gyan, +Jennifer Corniuk, +Jonathan Henry, and potentially +peewee rota and others. If you’re looking back over your character, and you want to make a change, that is perfectly legit to do between game sessions. That isn’t just a house rule, but something right in the rules set. So, as Mark mention I gave him a little bit of grief over the generic, “back stab” power his character has, it’s perfectly fitting, but one of the other ideas he mentioned in his blog he might find more useful.

One thing that I really like about this game is the level of customization without having to spend hundreds or even thousands of points, doing math with some sort of archaic abacus to complete your character. It is also neat that you can make up a character in about five minutes or you can spend all week putting different tweaks and moving things around and the two characters may be very different, but still the same level. Thinking and putting more work into your character, if that’s what you like to do, allows you to draw some distinctions, but mechanically, they are no better off. And, that’s one thing that was cool to get my wife, Jennifer involved. She always comes up with these cool character concepts and ends up being disappointed. One of the following things inevitably happens in other systems:

• She’s told “you can’t do that.”
• “Yeah, we can do that we just need to figure it out” at which point she loses some amount of control and player agency in the character creation.
• She is told that she must make choices—opportunity cost based decisions, if you will—where you can do this or that, but not both. Or, if she can do both, she’s not going to be great at either.

Zounds, and the whole SFX line encourages her creativity. The cool thing is, it wasn’t a matter of “how could we do this,” but rather “which way do you think works best for YOUR character?” It was a lot of fun and it’s the first game in awhile she hasn’t come back to me later and said kind of rubbed her he long way or quickly lost her interest. And, that’s just based on character creation. That’s a winner for me and, if you sit back and hear Joshua’s tale some day of how the SFX system came into being, you’ll see why it handles something like that so well.

As a note, I will be running this Sunday game and a Monday game regularly—two very different settings, but both still fantasy. More players are welcome, especially as I do expect people to come and go with it being an online game. So, if you’d like to get in on one of those games, create a character before or next session, or just learn more about the game, feel free to hit me up on Google+.

Fate Core Venture City Stories Review

Venture City Stories is a supplement for the new Fate Core game by Evil Hat Productions. It is a 34 page book written by Brian Engard and edited by Joshua Yearsley. Tazio Bettin handled both the cover and interior artwork while art direction and layout was helmed by none other than Fred Hicks himself.

The book opens right up with describing Venture City, a Fate campaign setting designed mostly for street and city level heroes. Well, superheroes really, but not necessarily of the Justice League or Avengers caliber. The city itself is one of contradictions with vile villains and shining heroes. All of that amidst varying shades of grey.

I should point out that Venture City Stories calls itself an adventure toolkit rather than a campaign book. This is because it is filled with gaming goodness and ideas that you can pick and choose. Choose to play it wholecloth and you will find, once players have been introduced and decisions have been made, the world takes on a life of its own. And, that is part of the beauty of Fate.

Within the book, several example issues—otherwise, plot ideas or hooks are introduced. There are also a number of factions and descriptions of important places and people you’re likely to run into one way or the other in the fictional city. The issues are handled in Venture City Adventures just as they are within Fate Core, with the suggestion to select two immediate issues, two impending issues, or one of each. Some of the sample issues presented include: Not safe after dark, Are supers still human?, Gangland powderkeg, and Citywide blackout. There really isn’t any explanation for these issues and that’s okay. They are pretty self-explanatory and they are meant to get the creative juices flowing. So, if you’re looking for someone to plan out your entire adventure or even the beginnings of one for you, this isn’t where it is going to happen. There is one example where they take one impending issue and one immediate issue and show how the two work in conjunction to lay the groundwork for an interesting and exciting game.

Factions, places, and people are all part of the same section, although separated out. And, with so few pages, it makes sense. The Fate Fractal is toyed with here a little bit. Factions are defined not only by their descriptions, but by new aspects including the slogan and secret aspects. Factions also have up to six skills: Bureaucracy, Security, and Violence being three of them. Each of the Factions also include a location which includes a new issue. They also include people which could be villainous NPCs or supporting cast members. There isn’t a hard and fast rule on how the Factions should have their skills figured as far as how many points should be spent on them. That might have been nice to have, but figuring it is all relative, your group’s game might have various Factions with widely different skill spreads to show different levels of helpfulness or threat yet be completely different from someone else’s game’s Factions.

The book continues with the example setup used earlier to show how issues can be used, now adding in factions, places, and people. One thing I noticed is that Faction skills are represented numerically with +3, +6, etc. However, the people are rated by the adjective associated with their level of competency: Superb, Great, Good, Fair, and Average. I know this might look neat to a lot of people—something besides boring old numbers, but it is one thing I always disliked. Put the numbers in parentheses next to the adjectives if needs be, but give me the numbers to make it faster and easier, especially when I am someone who doesn’t play Fate all the time.

While the section on Factions, People, and Places is excellent background fodder, providing things to slide into your game and giving you some neat ideas, my main course is served up on page 23 of the PDF. Here, the team goes into talking about character creation and super powers. I don’t want to give away too much, but it is very well done. Powers are based on stunts from Fate Core, but they are also something much more. They go into detail on adding special effects, drawbacks, etc. This is topped up with yet more sample characters—all neat and original.

While this book is PWYW (Pay What You Want), I’d definitely say it’s worth more than the $0 many will surely put into the box. It is a great read and it is put together very well. It goes quickly, but I think, if you’re into this sort of thing or even just hacking Fate Core, you will find yourself turning back to this resource more than a few times in the future.

RPG Review Thoughts

sxc.hu

I was fortunate enough to read through a pre-production copy of an RPG this evening/morning. It looks like a fun game, but I realized a few truths about myself.

When I am reading something for a review, it's impossible to shut the editor off.

I really enjoy the art and like commenting on it (good, bad, or ugly) in my reviews. Taking that art away doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the product, though.

My mind works different than others. After going through several passes by several people, I was catching phrases that just caught me wrong. They read fine to all those other people. Yet still, I found issue with one here or there. And, even though it might be okay for the majority, not being okay for the few was bothersome to me. I want everyone to get the same thing from the book. I hate rules lawyers and I hate rules debates.

When I'm let in early on a project like this, I find myself considering myself part of the team in a strange way. I noticed my notes referred to "we" a lot, although I had nothing to do with the project. I sure hope that doesn't offend actual team members who poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the product.

I can never seem to find a happy medium for fluff in an RPG book. There's either not enough or too much. Yet, somehow, none seemed to work just fine for a fast and easy read.

This is my first time doing an independent review where I've agreed to so many stipulations including an pseudo-NDA and agreeing to allow the publisher to review the article before it's to be published. Many of the terms were similar to my "work for hire" contracts, but my only pay here was an advanced copy of the pre-production. I'm not complaining, but that I did that kind of surprised me.

I think this will be a decent product and I'll let you know more when I can. I am excited to see it published in its final form and I am going to have a go at running it as well.

RPG reviews are important. You'll find a lot of goofy ones out there where people don't seem to have read what they are reviewing. Or, there are some people who follow their mother's advice. You know, "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all." I know a lot of people get free copies here and there and I do sometimes. More often than not, I'm reviewing something I spent my money on. I can be harsh, but it's rarely for the sake of being harsh. I want people to strive to do better. And, sometimes, my matter of fact nature simply comes across as being harsh.

I haven't had any hate mail yet, so I guess I've done okay there. Or, you know, I just haven't publicized my blog enough.

What kind of review realizations have you come across? Any fun review stories? Not so much of the product, but of the review process itself. Share them here, I'd love to hear them.

Numenera Cypher & XP Decks: Thanks, But No Thanks

For anyone who has been following my blog over the past little while, my excitement and enthusiasm for the Numenera Role Playing Game by +Monte Cook will come as no surprise. I am still eagerly awaiting my books due to what has been reported as a miscommunication between Monte Cook Games and the fulfillment company. Shipping apparently started a week later than intended. However, people were able to pick up books that were ordered by FLGS or if they were lucky enough to get to go to GenCon this year. In fact, I believe there was other swag available at the convention. It almost looks like copies of the leather bound edition of Numenera was available based on this picture taken during GenCon set up—a book I was assured I couldn’t get if I didn’t pay more than I already was for the Kickstarter. That would be a real bummer for me. If anyone has the extra cash, is there, and trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas….

Meanwhile, between Thursday and Friday this week, Monte Cook Games released the Numenera Cypher Deck and Numenera XP deck PDF files to backers through DriveThruRPG. I was intrigued by these, and I was under the impression these were an item licensed to an outside company. However, when I received them, I was surprised to see they were published under the MCG name.

Admittedly, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew they were supposed to be cards to help enhance the game. The Cypher cards were supposed to make random cypher generation quick and easy while XP were—well, I dunno. I figured maybe they were little ways to add narrative detail and potentially bonus XP for players. Instead, the XP Deck ended up being markers for XP awarded to players. This is kind of neat. I mean, a lot of games recommend using tokens such as poker chips or beads, especially with an expendable resource that should flow rather freely around the table. It helps from not having to mark all over a paper. But, let’s look at it.

I am beating around the bush. The PDFs are a big disappointment.

First, they’re meant to be printed, but the order number and account number watermarked really detracts from presentation. So, the logical answer to that would be to buy a set of cards. Okay, I could see that. The XP run $2.99 for the PDf and $7.99 for printed card. Right now, you can get the PDF and the printed cards both for $7.99. There are 30 cards in the XP deck. The cypher deck is a bit bulkier at 120 cards and carries a steeper price tag of $7.99 for the PDF and $19.99 for the printed cards, or you can get both the printed and the PDF Cypher Deck for $19.99. I find it kind of odd that there isn’t a bundle available for the two decks.

These cards really seem to miss the boat. In both cases, you have a graphical backside. However, the prime real estate for branding on the back of the card was left bereft of  the Numenera logo. How do we miss an opportunity for branding a new product like this? If I am going to invest in some extra swag for a game, like I had fully intended to with these cards, I want that logo front and center. Just note, the logo for Numenera doesn’t show up on the front of the cards either. However, when you look at the promo image on DriveThruRPG, the logo is there. Is this another case, like with the core book that went out two weeks early to backers and pre-order customers, where the incorrect or incomplete PDF file was uploaded?

Looking at the front of the cards, the XP Deck is thirty Cards with the number 1 emblazoned on them in a blue, shaded circle. However, at the bottom, there is a line that shouldn’t be there. It’s as if someone move the circle, but another layer still showed part of ti. It’s glaringly obvious, even looking at it at only 100% magnification. In fact, it looked worse at 100% magnification than it did at 500%. So, $3 to kill my printer ink, waste paper, and get thirty colored pieces with the number 1 and XP on them? Thanks, but no thanks. And, if the PDF looks bad, why would I consider spending $8 for a printed copy?

Next, we have the Numenera Cypher Deck. Again, we’re not branding these things. Why not?!? Who made this executive decision? I’d love to know their reasoning. We get 20 image cards to give us an idea of what a Cypher might look like. We get 100 cards with text on them to give us cypher abilities and level. So, two decks we use in conjunction with one another? Mind you, these are cyphers—one use items that help our characters be awesome. One use and then throw away. At least one of the items looks like a pretty cool weapon of some sort that requires two hands to wield. Another is a drawing of a full suit of some sort of armor. Both seem pretty odd to lug around for just one use. Then, look at the art itself. There are crop marks all over it. The flaws in the art again get worse as we zoom out. The border has jagged lines instead of straight diagonal

There are no instructions on how to use the deck, so the assumption that you just shuffle randomly to use both decks a the same time is just that—an assumption.  The text cards include multiple possible cyphers per card. Each of them has an icon that is never explained, but it is possible to differentiate between aneotic and cocultic cyphers—those that are easy to use like a pill or a button versus those that are more complex and take some understanding. In that case, aneotic cyphers certainly seem to outweigh occultic in terms of sheer number. I have to look closer, but if there are 100 of these cards and multiple cyphers on each card, that certainly gives us at least twice the number of cyphers than are provided in the core book.

In short, the Numenera Cypher Deck and XP Deck were both clever ideas. They held a lot of potential. However, seeing their initial release via PDF leaves a lot to be desired. It was a good idea, but somebody failed the execution roll on these two, friends. Again, my hope is that this is all just another big misunderstanding and new files get uploaded, but it concerns me that this was ever released. I know Monte and his team have poured their blood, sweat, soul, and tears into Numenera. And, I still have very high hopes for it in the upcoming days, months, and years. As it stands, however, the cards are something I am going to have to pass on for now.

Numenera Character Creation Example

So, I finally made it through the Numenera RPG core book. I am really debating of what my post will be after having done that. I’m not quite at the point where I want to give a synopsis on the more detailed setting +Monte Cook  put together. There are sections after the chapter settings that detail running the game, GM tactics, and numenera including making your own numenera, but the basics of these items have been covered. Again, it becomes a question as to what is and is not oversharing.

So, what I have decided to do instead is walk through character creation. I may come back and cover these other topics later. I just have to find a way to do that I feel I am not lessening the worth of the actual product.

I have several ideas for characters and adventures in the Ninth World floating through my head. In fact, I mentioned one yesterday while reading through the setting material, about a shadowling jack who had their cover blown. So, I already have a little bit of a basic idea of where I am going. Let’s see what I can come up with going through the rules of the book.

The jack is described as being a hunter, treasure hunter, rogue, skald, con artists, scouts, and experts in a variety of fields. This seems to fit the basic character concept I have in mind quite well. After all, if this were D&D, this character would be a rogue. So, we’ll stick with the rogue character type. What does this mean for our newly crafted character?

I’m going to skip past the jack’s place in a group and in society, because I already have kind of an idea of who this character is and what they are like.

The jack’s pools for Might, Speed, and Intelligence are all set at 10. I get a total of 6 points to spread across these polls. I think I’m going to keep it simple here and put two points into each, so his new pools will be Might 12, Speed 12, and Intelligence 12.

For this character, I see him as a growing up in the poorer part of town. He didn’t have much. He had to figure it out himself. He was later brought into the shadowlings for his unique skill set. Combine his past with his training and he ends up being a shoe in as someone to infiltrate a criminal organization. As such, I choose the School of Hard Knocks for the character’s background.

I roll for the jack’s connection to the world. I get a two, which means my older sister is a skilled nano. The numenera is not my strong suit, but I am also not completely lost in that area. This certainly isn’t something I would have immediately chosen for this character, but it gives me an interesting detail to add into the character’s backstory that may become useful later, during play.

As a tier one jack, my character has an Effort of 1. I want this character to be an agile adventurer, a nimble fighter, and be able to get out of the way (or out of Dodge) when he needs to. Because of that, I decide to put his one Edge into Speed, since the Jack can choose which of their three stats to apply edge to. I make note that my Jack can carry as many as two cyphers at a time. The jack is also practiced with light and medium weapons.

Now, I have an important choice here. I can choose one skill to be trained in. I’m really thinking he should be stealthy, so I am going to pencil in the stealth skill for now, but that may change before we are done. The jack also gets to choose one skill to be trained in on a daily basis. Each day they can choose a new skill or each day it can be the same skill. This effect only lasts for the day.

The jack starts with clothing, two weapons, light armor, an explorer’s pack, a pack of light tools, and two cyphers. I will wait to detail and decide upon the specific items until later in character creation—namely after choosing a descriptor or focus.

For tricks of the trade, I do not see my character as a spellcaster of any sort, so I am immediately staying away from hedge magic. Instead, I take Thrust and Skilled in Defense. For the specific skill I choose sidestep, showing the jack’s ability to get out of the way of attacks.

For the jack’s descriptor, I had already mentioned how I thought of him as a stealthy character, so the Stealthy descriptor seems to be quite fitting. However, I notice this brings about an inability, causing all movement tasks to be one step higher in difficulty. So, I look instead at the Swift descriptor which gives the character a +4 Speed, training in initiative actions, trained in running actions (makes sense, because he is on the run), and an inability in balance tasks. I don’t really like that, but I could see it playing well—so fast he sometimes moves too fast for his own good.

For my connection to the starting adventure, one of the other player characters convinced my jack that it was in his best interest to join the group. He’s on the run from a powerful enemy, after all.

When I got to my jack character’s focus, I actually stalled for a moment. Works in Back Alleys seems like a perfect fit, but it makes him much more a thief than I really envisioned him. It might still work. Then, I thought of how I kind of envisioned him as a swashbuckling fighter, but I’m not quite sure it fits as well as I want it to. So, I went through the foci provided in the book one by one until I found one I was sure fit. I come across Explores Dark Places and it seems to fit quite well. I love over the tiers and it makes sense for this character. He was essentially a spy rather than a scavenger, but the skill set is the same, and it will lend itself well to crawling through the mysteries of past civilizations and the numenera. My character gets the bonus items to go with the explorer’s pack. I make note of this. He also becomes trained in climbing, jumping, balancing, searching, and listening. That boost to balancing acts will cover the inability the jack picked up from his descriptor, so that’s good. From this focus I also have a bond with another PC. We’ve worked together before and we do so well, gaining a +1 to any tasks where we work together.

For equipment, it is suggested that characters not start with anything denoted as special and that the price for the free equipment given by the character type should be limited to 5 shins per weapon and 15 shins for armor. I consider the armor and I simply do not see the jack being weighed down by it. I use the option to take the value in shins rather than the armor and add 3 shins to the character’s currency. For weapons, I’d really like him to have a buzzer, having essentially been a criminal and an undercover members of an elite secret police force, but that costs 25 shins. A GM might allow it, but I’ll try to keep within the game’s guidelines for now. As such, I’ll give him a forearm blade and a crossbow. I plan on the blade being retractable and the crossbow being collapsible. There doesn’t seem to be any specifications of this and it fits the character well. I’m going to stretch the rules a bit and give him one set of ammo to go with the crossbow as well. To kind of even it out, I’m going to make the crossbow a light weapon.

A jack automatically gets a bag of light tools. This includes Contains small tongs, pliers, screwdriver, small hammer, small pry bar, lockpicks, 10 feet (3 m) of string, 3 feet (.09 m) of wire, and miscellaneous screws and nails.

Rogue from the Pathfinder RPG, but pretty close to
what I see my Numenera RPG Jack looking Like

With my focus of Explorer’s Dark Places, my jack’s explorer’s pack contains 100 feet of rope, rations for five days, three spikes, hammer, warm clothes, sturdy boots, three torches, and four minor glowglobes.

I can’t really think of anything off the top of my head for the character to need equipment-wise, so I will leave it at that and know he now has 11 shins.

I still need to figure out the cyphers the jack starts play with. I’ve looked through other example characters, their starting cyphers, and the section on numenera. I think he’s going to end up having an injector that allows him to heal 1d6 might points instant. I also think he’s going to have a set of adhesive gloves that make climbing earier. Both are good for only one use, of course.

I’m going to flesh this character out a bit more, but that is it in essence.

For some simple rules, it really did take longer than I expected. I think that is because a number of options were close to, but not exactly what I was looking for. In the end, I end up with this:

Jazzon

A Swift Jack  who Explores Dark Places.

Might 12 / Edge 0

Speed 16 / Edge 1

Intelligence 12 / Edge 0

Effort 1

Trained in Climbing, Balancing, Initiative, Running, Jumping, Listening, and Searching

Inability Balance

+1 to tasks when working with [Character Name]

Review of the Paragon RPG Part 1

A few days back, +Robert C Kalajian Jr came and asked if I would consider doing a review of the Paragon RPG. Of course, I love RPGs. I love reading them and it always seems I’m looking for the next blog topic. So, while I decide what I want to do with the Numenera review and I take a brief pause from Pathfinder, let me have a look at Paragon.

I have heard of the game before, but I really have no clue what the game is about. This is the brief synopsis of the game from DriveThru RPG:

This update to the HDL Universal Tactical Role-Playing Game revises and expands upon the quick, realistic rules based on the Half Die Level system. The rules are still just as fast-paced, adaptable and deadly; class- and level-free, the possibilities for character evolution and adventures are unlimited. The new expanded rules improve overall customization with even more Backgrounds and Weaknesses, optional rules and clarifications.
 Paragon introduces the Active Delay combat system, which departs from the turn-based combat of many RPGs for a more fluid and engaging experience. Now, combat flows organically, with each action taken having its own delay in time rather than arbitrary turns.
 ESPers, Cyborgs, Sorcerers and Dragons

Brand new chapters include dozens of unique, mind-blowing psychic abilities, integrated and revised cybernetics rules, and an all-new magic system complete with more than 380 spells. The added bestiary is rife with real-world and fantastic creatures including dragons, vampires and werewolves, as well as detailed rules for creating new creatures.

First thing I notice is that the PDF page count is at 329 pages. That most likely means I won’t be making it through the whole book in one sitting. It’s a good sized table of contents, spread out over two pages. Right off the bat, I feel I am about to dive into a tome not too far different in nature from Palladium or a d20 styled game.

There is talk about this being a second edition of an HDL system. I haven’t run across HDL before, but I suppose it really isn’t too important here. The introduction talks about how the game is more than a mere revision, but has completely redesigned.

Also, from the introduction:

The Paragon system is intended to be a realistic, quick-paced role-playing system. The goal here is not hack-and-slash, drawn out combat or collecting endless treasure. There are no character classes, levels, or hit points. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive, adaptable, lifelike game aimed at role-playing opportunities, while not letting the system get bogged down in extensive rules.

Admittedly, I’m a bit skeptical of this statement. As I mentioned earlier, there are 329 pages in this PDF. It appears, based on the table of contents, that these are all rules, no setting. I’m not baring judgment, though, as I enjoy a width variety of role playing games. From Fate and Numenera to Palladium and Pathfinder. I just think the statement and the current evidence fail to support one another, but let’s have a look.

The game calls for one 4-sided die, one 6-sided die, two 8-sided dice, two 10-sided dice, and one 12 sided die. There is also Paragon cards that are apparently necessary for the game, although I am not sure how yet. The narrator needs a deck that can be shared amongst the play group.

Next, we dive right into character creation.

Then, there are 13 stats to represent the character numerically. This statement is immediately followed by a two column table that is confusing, because it is full of—as of yet—undefined abbreviations. Stats are rated from 1 to 10. No starting character can have any more than one stat at 1 and one stat at 10. The stats are Strength, Endurance, Constitution, Reflexes, Coordination, Manipulation, Looks, Reason, Knowledge, Resolve, Insight, Personality, and Luck. Then, there are a host of derived stats: Passive Dodge, Active Dodge, Perception, Initiative, Size and Defense Threat Rating, Health-Lethal, Lethal Wound Penalty Rate, GONE, Non-Lethal Health, Non-lethal Wound Penalty Rate, Delay Active, Delay Reactive, Speed, Fatigue Penalty Rate, and Energy. Whoa boy! That’s a lot of stats and calculations right up front.

However, like I said with Pathfinder, there can be a bunch of rules that are going to take practice in order to master. That can be part of the fun for people with the right mindset. With these stats and numbers alone, I am already seeing character creation is going to be an investment in time. A lot of players—players like me—enjoy that.

Next, characters get to choose Backgrounds. Backgrounds in Paragon are kind of like Merits from World of Darkness, Edges from Shadowrun, or a variety of other similar (bonus) mechanics for RPG characters. They also have weaknesses, which will grant extra background points, and are essentially the opposite of a Background—a negative option for characters. I count 73 of each.

Trying to get through the section on backgrounds, I almost skipped right past the next. A more distinctive header style would be helpful. Next, it talks about background cards, with the narrator will have. They’re to help give ideas for a backstory, but do not grant mechanical benefit.  Next, we consider age, lifespan, and blood type. There is an optional quirk system which, mind you, is right here in the character creation chapter rather than with an entire chapter dedicated to optional rules. These are just that, quirks. For example, sneezing 1d10 rounds after combat.

Next, skills are covered, which includes the basic purchase cost and rules for skills. The skills cost a number of points equal to the rank of the skill. Skills are rated from 0 to 10, although newly created characters should not have skills higher than 8. Characters start with 75 points to spend on skills. There are a wide variety of skills to be chosen. Here, again, it makes a statement about combat not being a primary focus, even though there are skills for it. However, I look back at the stats and wonder if the final product supports that goal. The rules provide for hobbies, skill families, and skill specialization, which are not too unfamiliar for people who play a variety of other RPGs. I count 230 skills—everything from handgun skill to skill in crafting blunt weapons and computer programming.

An optional rule for occupation is provided here, although it appears only to be a series of guidelines to suggest what rules would be useful for character who would be good at a certain line of work.

The next chapter covers the game mechanics, wherein the secret of the HDL abbreviation is also revealed.

Reading Over the Numenera RPG Core Book Part Seven

The Numenera RPG Core Book contains a lot of setting material. I’m on page 131 in the hyperlinked PDF where Chapter 10 begins. There was an introduction, some basic setting information, character creation, rules, and optional rules already covered. The PDF page count comes out 427 pages. That means about a fourth of the book is not dedicated solely to setting.

For me, this brings up an interesting question in terms of a blog reviewing the Numenera RPG by Monte Cook. Monet put the better part of a year getting this project to print. He put a lot of work into the book. When most of it is setting, it would be wrong for me to just give a summary of everything here. At least, I think it would. If, after all, you never need to pick up the book just because you’ve read what is here, then I’ve done the game a disservice. Instead, the hope is that more people will get just interested enough that they will want to pick it up. Hey, if nothing else, if you are looking for an inexpensive way to get a REAL feel for what the Ninth World is like, take $3 and head on over to DriveThruRPG and pick up Tales from the Ninth World. It’s got three great short stories in it that book—and, if you download the PDf version you get some preview material of what I have been talking to you about here.

Now, I’m not going to completely ignore setting during my brief review of the Numenera RPG core book. As I already pointed out, it is the majority of the book. Chapter 10 gives an overview of that setting, but more detailed than the basics discussed earlier.

The Ninth World is the setting for the Numenera RPG. It is essentially Earth about a billion years in the future. Eight great civilizations have come before and all that remains of them now is forgotten memories, results of their works, and the numenera. The world itself has a history now of about 900 years. It is about the equivalent to life around 1000 AD, however, there are many differences.

People are scattered. Some live in cities, some in fiefdoms, some in small enclaves and settlements. The largest city has half a million people living in it.

The perceptively hard part to work our heads around is the changes that have occurred. Somehow, humans are the dominant race on the planet, although it has been a billion years. Great cataclysms have come and gone. Other races have lived here and called this world home. Somehow, the life of the sun has been lengthened. The orbit of planets had been altered as has the orbit of our own moon. There is some sort of wireless network that continues to deliver messages throughout and around the world. We live in the remnants of a civilization long forgotten. The Aeon Priests study the numenera and venerate past civilizations to an almost holy level. But, how do we translate all these weird concepts into a world that is so vastly different from our own.

Of course, we are here living in the 21^st century. We are going to try our best to apply terms that we understand and recognize to the world. However, these words would have no basis a billion years in the future. Remember that line from Los Banditos by The Refreshments, “Yeah, your alias says you’re Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the United Federation of Planets ‘cause he won’t speak English anyway.” Think about it, so far into the future, so many great civilizations come and gone and doubtless countless smaller, less great societies rose up and tumbled during that time as well. Was the world we know now even one of those eight previous worlds? Think about it. 10,000 years is one-one hundredth of a percent of a billion years.

In the introduction, Monte mentions a dream he had with two cloaked figures walking through a landscape and, as the view changed and panned back, he saw the landscape they were traversing was a giant gear. That was a big part of what sparked the Numenera RPG and it is a great image for the Ninth World. I think back to that first game we played with the playtest materials and how my players were at a serious disadvantage for gaining the extra XP because they had no frame of reference—as players or characters—to define the shelter as some sort of dimensional pocket.

We are trying to define things far beyond our grasp with what we do know and understand. That creates a bit of an issue, but also makes for some great storytelling. It allows our freedom to run wild. We can make up concepts, words, and just about anything else on a whim. It’s all weird shit and fucking magic (WSFM), man.

The days are longer and the years are shorter. People do not know how it used to be, so they do not wonder why Mercury is no longer in the sky. The continents have once again been reformed into a super Pangaea. Whether this was due to some previous civilization’s terraforming or was a natural occurrence is unknown. However, the landscape is full of impossible features including fallen towers bigger than cities, mountains that float upside down, crystal flying islands, and much, much more.

The common language for the setting is called the Truth. This is mostly spoken in the Steadfast, the largest gathering of civilized peoples in the Ninth World. It is controlled mainly by the Aeon Priests, who have studied numenera and the pasts enough o grant them mighty and strange powers. Literacy is more rare and as many as 500 different language dot the world. It is common for enclosed villages to have a totally unique language making things difficult to communicate, but hence is the way of the unconquered and undiscovered world.

Most call themselves human, although the question of what it means to be human comes up. Is someone grown in a vat with artificial intelligence through biomechanical brain implants a human, because they look like one, they talk like one, they feel like one? Then, there are those decided not human. The abhumans are mutants, born that way or shifted due to the dangers of numenera. The visitants are alien races who now make the Ninth World their home.

The weather of the Ninth World is vastly different. The climate is mostly drier and the further south one goes, the colder it gets. However, the Numenera RPG delivers a frightening foe in the way of the Iron Wind. Iron Wind are essentially mad, uncontrolled nanite storms that cross the world, changing all matter as it goes. It warps things into impossible creations. It creates things seemingly from nothing. It is dangerous and deadly for sure.

Pathfinder Combat Part 2: What You Don’t Know Won’t Kill You

But, it can annoy others. I played my first round of the Pathfinder RPG last night. It was a lot of fun alongside +Jennifer Corniuk , +Jonathan Henry , and +Jeffrey Meyer  with +Mark Knights  at the helm. Mark was doing his best to get us through an adventure after finishing up character creation, which took a little longer than we expected. For example, I had apparently forgotten to save mine, so had to hurry up and make an Intelligence roll for memory and fill out a new sheet. But, he got us through some combat. There was one small piece in the beginning where my character, an honorable samurai, just cut through a peasant like a hot knife through butter for blocking his path, which didn’t really count. Mark had reminded me here, however, that I shouldn’t be adding my Strength for an offhand weapon.

Oh, whoops, sorry. I know that, why did I do that? It didn’t hit me until later that I was being stupid and did it a few times. One time, I know Mark was about to correct me, but just figured it better to move on. Why didn’t you correct me, Mark?!? Then, there were simple questions about movement. For some reason, I went with what I had learned through play and totally forgot that the book allowed for diagonal movement while prior GMs/DMs had taught me that was a big no-no. Old habits are hard to break, sheesh.

Still, we had fun, and I turned back to the book between last night and tonight.

So, I was around the part of movement and I’m here, looking at the diagonal movement rules. I have to remember to count the first diagonal square as one and the second as two, and then alternate back and forth like that. That’s going to be picked up through practice. I don’t think I’d ever remember something like that just from reading it. And, why can’t we use our allies as cover. In a bar fight, I’m just as likely to use my own friends as human shields—I can come back and avenge them later. Where’s that rule? Oh, it’s not thee, because it is tactical and not realistic combat. Gotchya.

You can’t move through a square occupied by an opponent, unless you use overrun or they are either three sizes larger or smaller. This is coming back to me now. Combat and 3E and now Pathfinder is a long list of rules with a longer list of exceptions.

I’m going to take a step back real quick.

I might sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. I may be poking a little bit of fun, but the Pathfinder RPG still seems like it’d be a really good game. However, it comes to me that part of the fun is in memorizing these rules and learning the different ways to use them to your advantage. It’s like how some people play MMORPGs and have a great time by working out new sequences of attack to achieve maximum effect. Now, that wasn’t me. When I played them I was more of a collector and banker, but we all had fun. Here, we have a lot of options and no one should learn them all right away unless they have some sort of eidetic memory, but they will over time. This is probably also colored somewhat by my reading a much thinner rules set right now as I go through the Numenera RPG core book. There, I my character can accomplish the same things as they could in Pathfinder without the math and the considerations. However, by figuring out how best to do it in Pathfinder, it isn’t just my character achieving something, it is me—the player—achieving something.

Moving right along, we come up to the discussions on cover and creature size and how it can affect combat. Then, combat modifiers including dazed, helpless, stunned, and many others are discussed. I will say that, in my experience with d20/OGL role playing games, dazed and prone have been two of the most common things I have run across. Flanking came up last night. Many of the GMs I played with considered flanking being on two sides, as long as the character’s we’re right next to one another—so, one directly to the left and one directly above or below could flank. Ha. That was way wrong and I remember having that discussion previously, but I was always overruled. So, last night, when I was reminded I had to be on a directly opposite side, it took me back for a second. It’s right, of course, but it makes me begin to wonder how long it’ll take to break all these bad habits I built up over the years.

This one, I had totally overlooked before, or maybe it didn’t even exist. Aiding another in combat is pretty cool and it makes perfect sense. I’m helping to distract or overpower the opponent, so my ally can get a bonus to attack or AC. I don’t know that I have ever seen it used. I see things like this as a bit of a drawback for new players. GMs and other players will help new players, but to go over every possible action and option with them would take too long. I mentioned cheat sheets before and I am beginning to realize how long those cheat sheets would need to be. Playing the game enough, you’ll pick up these tricks over time and kick yourself for not remembering the options sooner when it might have saved the death of an ally. And, I think you have to play it fairly regularly to begin picking these things up. I simply don’t think the system lends itself well to casual game play for that reason.

Last night was the first time I had heard about a combat maneuvers bonus and here I am reading about it today. This is basically the same as the total attack bonus from earlier versions. However, they have figured a new defensive mechanic, combat maneuvers defense, or CMD. For a game that is supposed to be streamlined, why are things being added? Then, beyond this, there are modifiers for certain maneuvers, indicating they are harder to pull off. The Disarm, for example, subtracts four from the CMB. I look over at overrun, which was an option I didn’t know I had last night when another player suggested a charge maneuver. It’s interesting, because I can make a combat maneuver roll or the opponent can avoid me. If they avoid me, no roll is needed and I pass through their square. Does that mean I don’t get to make the attack? It would seem so. But, if I do succeed, it only indicates I knocked them prone. Still no attack? And, if they avoid me, does that mean they still get an attack of opportunity? See, something that might seem simple to the veterans of the game has these sorts of questions. I personally think these sorts of things are exactly what we should ask ourselves and what the designers and writers should be sure to answer, especially in a game for rife with distinctions and exceptions.

I read over two weapon fight and realize I should’ve been taking some horrible consequences, even with my feat. No one pointed this out, though, even when I was still using the crappy Roll20 die roller (it hated me last night) and go over math with them. And, this brings up an interesting point. We may not have followed all the rules exactly as written, but we still had fun. This, sadly, leads down a whole new road of discussion of homebrew rules and how much you can change the system and if you don’t like the system because you’re using your own rules, why not play a different system, etc., etc.

Bottom line: I enjoyed my game. There are a lot of fiddly bits to the Pathfinder RPG—streamlined or not. There are a lot of things to remember and there are certainly things that will be forgotten. It almost seems designed for rules lawyers—a type of player I typically do not enjoy in my games. Still, if you can get the basics and have fun, who cares? Nobody has to be perfect. The whole point is to have fun with it and play YOUR game, not somebody elses.

Reading Over the Numenera RPG Core Book Part Six

I mentioned in Part Five of my Numenera RPG review that I had planned on skipping past Chapter 8, which contains the rules of the system. I didn’t hear any protests, so for now, at least, I am going to do just that and move on to Chapter 9. Chapter 9 is all about optional rules. I really did not expect to find this in the core rule book for Numenera.

The optional rules provide guidance on a variety of ways to customize your game play. They change the way some of the core rules work. I should not really be surprised, though. One of the things +Monte Cook is known for is taking apart different RPG systems and changing them. Why wouldn’t he do that even to his own? But, what kind of game changing rules suggestions does he provide, you ask?

There are a few and I will try and go over them one by one. Of course, I’ll only talk about them briefly, because that is what I do.

First, he talks about trading damage for effect. Normally, on an attack roll of 19 or 20, you get a minor or major effect. Here, he provides rules that allow you to trade some or all of the damage you inflict on a target without rolling a 19 or 20 in order to attain specific results. These results include things many of us might be familiar with such as knock back or stun, but also things such as just being able to move past the target of the attack.

There are also rules here to cause lasting and even permanent damage to a player character. Here, it’s set up so these things can be done on a GM intrusion. It is recommended that they be used only when appropriate such as after falling a long distance onto a hard surface or as a replacement for character death. Right off the bat, I’d say I have a problem in that this can only be caused to player characters on a GM intrusion. My issue is that, for story purposes (and random acts of coolness), I’d like to see character’s able to do this to NPCs that may end up escaping or otherwise surviving and be run into later on down the road. There doesn’t really seem to be a mechanic for that. I would probably have these options available for characters when they score a major effect.

Next, they provide rules for weakness and inability. Weakness is exactly the opposite of Edge, making it more expensive to apply effort. Inabilities can cause the character to be worse at certain tasks, make certain things be one step more difficult than they would normally be. This is recommend to present how dangerous the Ninth World can be in the event of disease or poison.

There are rules here that provide suggestions on how characters can spend more from their stat Pool in order to be able to push their special abilities to do more. There are also suggestions for making a special roll just to determine if what they are trying to do, by extend their powers further, is possible. There are also suggestions for rolling when no roll is needed to lower the cost of using an ability or achieving an above & beyond success.

Monte brought something in here for lovers of D&D and that is: the Attack of Opportunity as an optional rule. I might use it arbitrarily with my group, but only if it makes sense at the time. They are not going to get attacked, for example, if the enemy is otherwise engaged.

They have a rule that allows characters to roll an extra d6 if they roll a natural 20 instead of taking the major effect. This makes it possible to attain target numbers over 20, even if the difficulty couldn’t be lowered enough.

There is an option to attack beyond the set range for a weapon. There are also options for making a distinction between different types of weapons such as slashing, stabbing, and bludgeoning. I kind of like this rule and I think I will end up using it. A slashing weapon, for example would do an extra point of damage against an unarmored opponent while one less damage against an armored opponent.

There are rules for miniatures provided in the Numenera optional rules section. This might work well just to get an idea of where things are in relation to one another, but it is not set up to be a tactical battle mat style game. In fact, it would probably need done with a series of movable circles (the book recommends different lengths of string) denoting the difference between immediate, short, and long distances. I think of these distances almost like zones in Fate Core. If it makes sense, it makes sense. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. There are also considerations in regards to size of miniatures and terrain. These are followed by drawbacks, which I agree with and are probably one of the reasons I will not use them. If I need to give a basic idea of surrounding and placement, I will sketch something out on a notepad real quick or use Scoot & Doodle in G+ Hangouts.

The next set of rules talks about character customization. That is to say that they give us suggestions for how to modify the character type, descriptor, and foci. It does say that, other than the suggestions given here, the type, descriptor, and focus should not be changed. I am not sure why that is, exactly, but maybe it will make sense as I read through it.

For character type it mentions moving around stat points within the different Pools and placing the Edge where the character wants. They also recommend sacrificing a skill for additional cypher use or swapping out a single special ability at first tier with that of a special ability from another character type.

The character descriptors, according to the book, can be changed in a number of ways. They actually provide the basic formula used to create a descriptor as they are presented earlier in the book for some guidance. They do recommend that a new descriptor be created rather than modifying existing ones.

With character foci, the changes are limited to swapping out specific abilities and it gives three abilities to choose from per tier (except for 6^th tier where it only provides 2). I am sure there are more changes that could be made and I really wish they would have given us the basic formula for foci as they did for the descriptor.

Next, it talks about take drawbacks in order to gain further advantages without giving up what the character already has. Instead, they would be giving up something different. I am sure, with the wrong group of players, just like with point buy systems that use some sort of merit/flaw, edge/drawback, etc. system, this could be easily abused if not properly monitored.

There are new suggestions on how to award experience here. These include taking a vote on who had the best ideas, contributed most, etc. It also talks about using XP between sessions and GM intrusion XP for specific things only. There are a couple of neat ideas, but I think I would have to play the standard way for a little while and see how the group and I like the progression. There is also a suggestion here on getting XP in the beginning of the story based on a serious complication related to one of the characters or, more likely their past. I could see this working a few ways and it could actually be spread amongst players between different legs of a campaign.

Next up, it provides racial options. I am not going to go too deep into these, but I will say one thing. I wish they would have laid their cards on the table with this one as well. What is the formula? There are not many races, so it will be hard to extrapolate from existing data. They cover one alien race, the Varjellen as well as one race that is kind of the product of the weird Ninth World—a cross between a bigfoot and a mutant fungus called the Lattimor, and then mutants.

Oh boy, is the section on mutants fun. It involves a lot of rolling on percentile tables. It reminds me of the old Palladium game, Heroes Unlimited.

As an aside, I’d like to mention that this is probably the most fun I have ever had reading a role playing book. I have read many of them over the years and I have enjoyed those games. I have enjoyed some of the content. But, this is perhaps the first book that screams to me how I need and want to read every chapter. I consider this a great sign.

Next up is Numenera Setting. That could take awhile. Until then, check out another sneak peak.

Reading Over the Numenera RPG Core Book Part Five

Chapter Seven of the Numenera RPG Core Book covers equipment. That includes weapons, armor, currency. It does not, however, include the numenera. That is in a later chapter.

First up is currency. Do they even have currency a billion years in the future? Let’s find out. They do. The coins used by most cultures in the Ninth World use a generic coin. These coins are referred to as Shins. This was done to shorten the word shiny. However, I guess the team wanted its own word rather than shines. Of course, shins is a word too, so I don’t fully understand their choice here. Of course, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I do not have to understand everything. According to the canon, there are no precious metals, gems, etc. that are any more scarce than others. It doesn’t necessarily say they are plentiful. It does, however, say that diamonds, gems, gold are praised for their usefulness and beauty rather than their rarity.

The next section covers a variety of more or less common materials gear in the Ninth World can be made from. These include molded foam, shapestone, and others. There is also a description for each of these materials.

Encumbrance rules are more of a matter of opinion. The Game Master makes a determination as to whether characters are carrying too much. This could lead to an increased difficulty. The GM can also have the equipment cost the character Speed or Might.

The next part answers a question I could not quite be sure of with the initial drafts. My players all asked if it was more like a fantasy world or more like a sci-fi world. I was leaning toward more like a fantasy world with spots of technologically advanced societies. However, modern and futuristic conveniences such as rubber gloves and ink pens exist in all corners of the Ninth World.

Here, we find out that armor cost in terms of both Might and Speed. It does not yet tell us how armor works in terms of combat, but that’s okay. The book then breaks down the different between light, medium, and heavy weapons. This was also done in the first part of the book with the basic rules. Here, they give some example weapons including the razor ring, yulk, and buzzer. The additional equipment gives you a pretty good idea of just some of the cool stuff we can expect to run into adventuring in the Ninth World.

The next section is on rules. I pretty much already covered the base rules and I don’t want to give away too much of Monte’s work here, so I am considering skipping the chapter on Playing the Game, however, picking right back up with optional rules. Does anyone feel strongly about this one way or another?

A Read Through of the Numenera RPG Core Book: Part Four

In Chapter 4 of the Numenera RPG by +Monte Cook, we talk about the character types. You may recall I talked about three basic types of characters before, in my last post: Glaive, Jack, and Nano. If you remember the sentence from Numenera about characters in the previous post “I am an adjective noun who verbs.” Then, it becomes important to know that character types becomes the noun in that sentence. So, it will be “I am an adjective Glaive/Jack/Nano who verbs.”

The book breaks down character type descriptions in the following manner: a basic description, the character type in society as a whole, how the glaives might be perceived in a group, how glaives make use of numenera, background (which is kind of like a specialization), connections, and tiers. There is also a table for the character type’s stat Pools. That’s right. There is no random stat generation. It isn’t even point buy. If you are a glaive, jack, or nano, your stat pool is decided for you. So if your Edge. You do get six additional points to spend amongst the initial Pool starting stats, though, so don’t worry. Almost had you there, didn’t I?

The tiers section is neat, because it kind of gives you your skills and abilities—like the glaive being trained to wear all sorts of armor, for example. They aren’t necessarily titled skills and abilities, but they are what makes the character type kind of like a class from other games. This also gives you some special abilities you can choose from, like special attacks or similar to spells, depending on the character type you choose. The book covers the tiers one through six for each of the character types.

The backgrounds are new and I like them. They help us better define our characters. They really are not mechanical addition, but rather a narrative explanation of the character’s skill. Each type appears to have three backgrounds. The glaive, for example, has intensive training, inborn skills, or biomechanical modification.

The connection is just that—something that connects you to the rest of the world. It is a short, one line descriptor. This one liner gives you a item to help build your background and allow you to call upon during the game. For glaive, for example, you roll a d20 and get a 12, your connection is that “You served as a caravan guard. You know a smattering of people in many cities and towns.” It is a narrative detail that can end up proving quite useful in the course of the story.

The round out each character type description with an example character of that type. This is pretty cool, because they could be used as pregen characters, but they also help to give a better picture of strangeness of the Ninth World.

Some of the line art around the description of the Jack seems really out of place against the expectation set by the pretty paintings we see throughout the rest of the Numenera RPG. Otherwise, the mostly reused images from other parts of the book, zooming in on different character types. I don’t know if this great to give us a smaller image and then a blown up image or a tactic to fill with art without getting more art.

And, that’s pretty much what there is to the character types. Next, we’ll talk a bit about descriptiors and maybe the foci as well.

Pathfinder RPG Review: What’s a Good Dungeon Crawl Without Combat?

Okay, that may be on the verge of insulting to some people. The Pathfinder RPG is certainly much more than a hack and slash dungeon crawl. However, in reality, it evolved from that very thing. The Dungeons & Dragons rules have always kept their tactical combat rule set up front and center, which is fine. That’s the root of it in many cases. Even if you can get XP without going into combat, not having rules for that combat would almost be sacrilege. So, I begin my trek through the Combat chapter in the Pathfinder Core Book.

3x had a number of issues that slowed down combat. They brought in attacks of opportunity, five foot steps, grapple, etc. The addition of feats providing characters so many options, a round of combat could all but paralyze the gaming table as people sorted through their options and made decisions. I’ve been told more than once that Pathfinder cleaned up some of these rules and really streamlined combat. I am skeptical as to how much and there is no better way to tell than to dive right in.

Combat works in rounds where everyone rolls initiative and acts based on that initiative unless they are flat-footed or surprised. They may have to wait until the next round to act. Attack rolls and armor class are indistinguishable from Dungeons and Dragons 3x as far as I can tell. Damage is pretty much the same. I am still under the impression that earlier versions of the rule literally had us multiplying damage rather than rolling multiple times as I mentioned in a previous post. I really should go look that up. Meanwhile, I definitely prefer multiple rolls to a single roll multiplied.

I remember death being at -10 HP before. Now, I see it as a negative number equal to the character’s constitution score. I definitely prefer it this way, whoever came up with the idea first.

Aaaaand…next page takes us on to Attack of Opportunity. Okay, here’s the thing. They make sense in a realistic manner. Ruling them always gave me some issues, though. Who gets them how often and how often can someone be hit by one and etc. and so on? Argh. Let’s see if Pathfinder explains it in a bit more clear and concise manner.

So, let me get this right: moving out of a threatened square or taking actions that distract you from battle while in a threatened square are when someone can make an attack of opportunity against you. That’s a lot better than moving out of and into as I’ve heard it explained some times, makes it dangerous just to attack someone, more dangerous than it should be in an RPG anyhow. Okay so those two things open you up for an AoO. Got it. Typically, characters can make up to one attack of opportunity per a round, but they do not have to take this attack. The attack is at full attack bonus. They may take special abilities that give them more attacks of opportunity each round, meaning they can take them against multiple targets each round not that one attack of opportunity leads into three simultaneous attacks. These abilities would be Combat Reflexes, a feat, or something like it. Think I got it, but that does seem like a lot for my little brain to remember.

The picture on the next page…imported here for ease of reference….does help me understand it a bit better. Maybe it wasn’t entering the threatened square that I am remembering, but entering and then leaving the threatened square, or passing through it. That makes more sense.

I find it kind of interesting that they started talking about speed and move actions before breaking down the different types of actions. But, that’s okay. Seems about the same from what I can tell so far.

It comes right after this that we talk about the standard action, move action, full round action, swift action, immediate action, as well as the consideration of not an action and restricted activity. That seems like a lot. The book explains it as well as anyone can, I suppose:

“In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one swift action and one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.”

So, free actions can only be used in conjunction with a swift action? I think this list is a little bit over simplified even for all its complexity.

I like the charts that indicate what type of action it is and whether or not it would provoke and attack of opportunity. I suppose after you’ve played for awhile, these sorts of things start to sink in…like THAC0. I’m out of practice, though, so if I were to run a game, I would definitely need to start out with a cheat sheet.

After about five pages of further describing the different kinds of actions…wait a second. If they need that much explanation, isn’t it a little bit much. I’d like to believe some things should be self-explanatory, but what do I know?

Next up is injury and death. This and healing seem to be the same old rules I always played 3x with, so nothing new to familiarize myself with.

I never had a problem with movement and tactical speed. I know I have read this all before. I am trying to figure out why it takes us so much space to explain it. It is probably because we throw in more terrain rules along with rules for advantageous positions, flanking, squeezing, kneeling, etc. These are all things I know make since, but to get it right, I would need a cheat sheet for, at least for a little while.

When we start talking about size and how it matters in combat, I believe I have a flashback that reminds me why I like fighting and pitting my players against mostly humanoid threats. One, I know nothing more devious than a human. Two, oh my goodness, the extra numbers to consider.

I’m going to take a break and come back to Special Attacks, or what I consider combat maneuvers, a little later on.

Reading Over the Numenera RPG Core Book Part Three

So, after Chapter Two of the Numenera RPG Core Book ends a bit…ahem…abruptly…we move on to Part Two of the book, which makes Part Three of my series of posts. Part Two of the Numenera Core Book is about Character. Ah, that’s something my mother wishes I had. Moving right along.

The character part of the book is broken down into five chapters: character creation, character types, character descriptor, character focus, and character equipment. Oh, it’s a lot easier than creating a character for Rolemaster or Pathfinder, I’ll tell you that before I even get into it. In fact, it may even be easier than Fate Core or Apocalypse World. Let’s have a look.

So, characters have three base statistics: Might, Speed, and Intellect. Each of these has two ratings: Pool and Edge. The Pool is the basic rating we would normally expect. It gives us the basic “power level” of the stat. As your character takes damage, they do not lose hit points or anything like that. No, they lose ranking in their stat pool. You can also spend points from the stat pool, showing your character is expending effort. That is Effort. Effort sets a cost and a limit for the amount characters can expend from their pools. The amount you spend from a stat pool is reduced by the Edge for that Pool. So, your stats are much more than a measuring stick. They instead become an expendable and precious resource at the same time. There are some nuances I did not explain here, because you should buy the book or at least join in a game to understand the full set of mechanics.

A Numenera Glaive, Jack, & Nano. Beautiful art.

+Monte Cook  said this was one of his core design philosophies in approaching Numenera. He wanted to make the game so that, as characters went through more, tried harder, they would become exhausted. They would become easier to defeat. This is the way he did it and I think it’s beautiful. It might seem odd at first. It did at first to me. However, once you see it in practice, it is almost intuitive.

There is another great line here, where they talk about tiers. Tiers are essentially character levels in the Numenera RPG. Here, they are giving a brief overview on what it means to level, not necessarily how to level.

“…the Ninth World is about discovery of the past and what it means for the future.”

Next, we also get our first glimpse at the meat of character creation. Numenera is a game about telling awesome stories of awesome characters in an awesome world. I stole that from +Jonathan Henry , because he gets paid every time he uses the word awesome. So, maybe I’ll get paid for using the word awesome, too. That would be, well, awesome.

In Numenera, you do not choose a race and class like you might in Pathfinder or D&D. You do not tell stories of previous adventures as you would with Fate to come up with aspects. You do not pick a sheet from a play book and make some basic choices as you would in Apocalypse World. You also do not kind of wing it and create the character as you go along as would be the case in a game of Fiasco.

Instead, in Numenera, your character is the sum of a single sentence, really. Yes, there are stats, but everything is told and derived from this single sentence. Are you ready for this magic phrase? It isn’t super long.

“I am an adjective noun who verbs.”

It may sound weird. I know it did to me at first. I am telling you, though, it really is pretty neat (awesome). This sentence covers the character’s Descriptor, Type, and Focus. Types include the glaive (warrior), jack (as in ‘jack of all trades’), and the nano (wizard/sage/technophile). The main book has 12 character descriptors, so do not be surprised any minute if you see homebrew ones start to pop up online any minute now. Heck, some are probably already out there. Then, the focus gives your character that little something extra. It more clearly defines them.

The character types and foci may grant the characters special abilities, which is covered next. Many of those special abilities, like brain melting, might have a cost associated with them, which means you must spend points for the character’s stat pool in order to be able to use them.

Skills are pretty broad in Numenera. They can come from that sentence we talked about above. Or, you can choose a skill when first created or as characters increase in tiers. Here’s the thing, this is not Palladium. You will not have a list of 20 plus skills for your character…ever. In fact, the character sheets that were going around before to cover everything were about one-third a sheet of paper. You also do not get ranks in skills. You are either not trained in it, trained, or specialized in it. Not trained means you simply do not get a bonus. Trained means you get to lower the difficulty of related tasks by one. Specialized means you can reduce related task difficulties by two—never more than two.

That’s Chapter Three. I’ll go over the rest in a bit, but first I want to hear from you. Am I giving away too much? Or, am I toeing the line just enough?