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?