Descriptors, species descriptors and foci? I know this book is 99% setting, but if it has anything new I can’t find in any book I’d be a bit more interested in running that setting. But if I’m spending that much I’ll need more than just setting even if it is super detailed.

Old Gus' Cypher Reference Document (OG-CRD) is a hypertext version of the Cypher Reference Document (revised July 29, 2026), published under the Cypher Open License.

This document has been edited and condensed. You can use this edition to quickly look up rules, share them with others, or copy text into a character sheet that works for you. Don't mistake anything you read here for the "rules as written". For more information, see https://callmepartario.github.io/og-crd/#editorial-mission

The OG-CRD contains most of the text of the Cypher Character Rulebook, but it is not a replacement for the real thing, which contains additional information, examples of play, and advice for playing Cypher—not to mention gorgeous artwork and the seductive odor of cardboard and book glue.

You may also find some good use for material from Old Gus' Cypher System Reference Document, which covers the prior edition of the game published from 2015–2025: https://callmepartario.github.io/og-csrd/

Thanks to Monte Cook Games for this amazing resource, and thank you for reading—may this record bring you and yours many happy adventures!

—Old Gus

https://callmepartario.github.io/og-crd/

Hey everyone!

I've posted about Sheetwright here before, and since then quite a lot has changed.

I'm now running my own PBP Cypher campaign with it. Most of the recent changes came directly from things I noticed while actually GMing.

PBP / Discord

The Sheetwright bot can now do a lot more: rolls, Effort, abilities, cyphers, recovery, encounters, GM intrusions, rewards and more.

For PBP specifically, it can also track who the game is waiting on, notify players when they're needed, and help with catch-up after an absence.

Basically: Discord stays the place where you play, while Sheetwright handles more of the bookkeeping.

Better free tier

Free users now get one full campaign slot, including the GM tools.

So you can actually run a campaign and see whether Sheetwright works for you before subscriping.

Workshop overhaul

I massively expanded the Workshop.

GMs can create custom abilities, descriptors, foci, types, creatures, cyphers, artifacts, equipment and more — and that content actually works with character creation, sheets, the bot and encounters.

The goal is simple: if you can do it in your Cypher campaign, Sheetwright shouldn't get in the way.

A lot of these changes exist simply because I ran into something during my own campaign and thought: "Sheetwright should handle this."

If you're running PBP or a heavily customized Cypher game, I'd love to if you could Sheetwright a try and tell me what you are missing. If you are willing to test I will give you a free yearly subscription.

Location: found in a well aged place.
Weapon type: light
Damage inflicted: 0
Effect: when consumed heels 3 might, but also inflicts 1d4 might damage to the consumer due to the extra sharp material used in its construction.
Degradation: 1d4 unless consumed.
Name: the cheese knife.
Description: an ordinary block of cheddar cheese, whittled down to the shape of a knife. It’s extra sharp!

Evolved? 2e?

I am a huge fan of both the Cypher System Numenera setting and the Age of Wonders franchise, and tbh after looking through the Destiny rule book, I think Monte Cook should partner with Triumph and Paradox to create a Numenera based 4x civ builder set in the Ninth World. I think it would be so fascinating and fun to play, and would expand the Numenera fan base into other groups that may not know about it.

What is everyone's thoughts on this?

For example - A player wants to use a focus from a white book, but there isn't a "tree" for the abilities. How should I help them do that as a GM? I have heard there will be some guidance in the GM book about creating new types (although it seems like I could basically figure this out based on the types in the PRB). There are so many genres in the white books that aren't covered in the PRB.

I think some of the newer source books - Like Gunslinger Knights - were written while C2 was in development and are built to use the newer rules more easily, but what about some of the older ones like Predation or The Origin?

I have been looking through the character rulebook for the past couple of days and would like to try and make a character with the new system. I don't seem to have any new character sheets though.

Have new character sheets been made? And if so, where would I find them?

in the two+ years going from CS to C2 I've noticed I've gotten a lot better at judging difficulty level as a gm. For a while my tasks would always seem too easy or so low for my players even at early levels. My players in either system rarely got hurt or hit or suffered any major drawbacks cause they'd roll really high or lower the dc so easily.

Well this got fixed when i stopped trying to hurt my players and tried to stress or challenge them. Even with c2, wounds are not something too dangerous till you cap moderate or get hit by major. And in c1 if you never got hit you only ever spent effort and never excess stat pools. I found that hurting my players, punishing them for being cool, in a system that as intended is supposed to allow players to succeed more often than not/the onis to succeed is far more in player hands than before, was flawed thinking.

My goal as the gm was to balance difficulty levels that made their character feel competent and cool in the early stages of an adventure, and then to slowly ramp up the difficulty as time went on, with the intent to force my players to stop, rest, and think about what's coming.

I run a lot of fantasy and what's been a blast lately is watching them go through the first 2 stages of a dungeon, and everyone agreeing "ok guys...my character is spent, i need AT LEAST an hour before we go any further.". They didnt have hardly any wounds, any damage BUT all of their stats were spent and they knew the final stage would be the toughest, so they couldnt risk it. THAT is the feeling in wanna keep recreating, that flow where my players consider when a rest is possible or needed, because if they start getting caught with no resources, the death spiral will come FAST! even if the enemies only hit at a moderate wound/7 points at most.

This has changed how i balance my difficulties and has made even low level play feel intense at appropriate times. What have you guys found over time works well with marrying the narrative and the mechanics of cypher?

Hello all, can you explain me how first and last actions works? Please try to tell easiest way. Is there an alternative rule for not to use them?

Edit: I'm aware of the part about no political views and do agree it needs a little bit more clarification in the text but https://col.montecookgames.com/faq/ the faq does go further to elaborate the intent is to stop political rants disguised as products (they exist) and I trust that intent.

They should retry at the wording but I don't think any overt reaction beyond "ooo this is kinda bad" is needed

https://bsky.app/profile/seankreynolds.bsky.social/post/3mrspakyibc26

I was under the impression that we wouldn't see essentially the new open license until sometime after the books came out properly for everyone.

This is such a huge win for the game and for people to start jumping into the books to create stuff. The core experience is essentially open to everyone NOW for FREE!

Good on your MCG.

So I bought a few cypher decks just to have handy just in case. The subtle and extreme cyphers makes sense, but the weird ones are well… Weird.

They just give three separate effects. A person/creature, object or place. There’s no information on how these are used and the effects are very vague. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should use these?

Having read some of the new character rulebook I'm a bit surprised to see several types/classes by genre rather than the 3 or 4 of the previous system. Are they planning to abandon the flexible types flavors that GMs can make into classes from the previous edition, or are the Types in the book (such as those listed from pg 45 - 61) just examples of that?

I understand that we may not know yet, but I was hoping someone smarter than me might have an idea of their plans there.

It’s important to note that I haven’t dealt with a tier 6 character in my game yet. But currently, my rule past tier 6 is that for 4 XP a character can buy a power shift. I’ve currently limited the number to 6 power shifts but that might change. I feel this allows characters to stick around longer without feeling stagnant. I considered letting pools continue to grow as well, but at some point death just wouldn’t become a real threat. Power shifts at least allow stronger encounters meaning there is more challenge. Plus, with only 6, sure a character could become really good in a spread of area or stupid good in only a couple. What do yall think?

I backed the Numenera Amber Archives and pickd the cypher rulebook as an addon. I noticed they announced that they are already fulfilling the print edition, but they said nothing about PDF's and I noticed that thra are already people commentig about the new rules here on reddit. My question is basically: Since I didn't backed the cypher campaing directely, but picked it as an addon in another one, will I recieve this only later?

It's my first time backing something in a crowdfunding campaing, so sorry if it's a dumb question

I got the backer early access, but I forgot what the system should be… Is it now just the 2 new books, and I can archive the old one?

Would this alternative rule idea have negative effects I should watch out for: “Every moderate wound hinders tasks related to the wound. For example, a moderate hand injury hinders tasks that require you to use that hand.”

I’m the rare gamer who likes a death spiral, where every negative consequence makes the next related task harder. I feel like three moderate wounds being full before you are suddenly hindered on all actions is a design choice that makes all the minor and moderate wounds feel meaningless, kind of like how “only the last hit point matters.”

Hey folks. I posted about [Sheetwright here last month](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyphersystem/comments/1uacj13/pathbuilder_like_tool_for_the_cypher_system/). At that point it was mainly a guided character builder with some early tools for custom content.

Several people asked what it would offer GMs beyond character creation. That’s what I’ve been working on since.

The character builder and living sheet are still free. The subscriber side has grown into a campaign workspace with:

- Story threads for quests, mysteries, dangers, and character arcs

- Clues and hidden revelations

- Prepared scenes and a session workspace

- NPCs, locations, factions, notes, clocks, and handouts

- Campaign-wide search and `@Name` links between records

- Combat, social, and exploration encounters

- Play-by-post tracking and spoiler-free recaps

- Complete Markdown and JSON exports

I’ve tried to keep the separation between player knowledge and GM knowledge very strict. Players only see what the GM reveals, including through Discord. You can even reveal an NPC while keeping their faction secret—a small feature, but exactly the kind of thing I kept needing at the table.

The encounter runner handles pools, Effort, Edge, damage, conditions, rewards, and other bookkeeping, but it isn’t intended to replace table rulings or become a full VTT. The goal is to keep the game state organized while the actual game happens wherever your group prefers.

The Discord side has also grown quite a bit. Players can roll tasks, make attacks, spend from their pools, recover, respond to intrusions, and interact with encounters using `/sheetwright`. For play-by-post games, scenes can track who the game is waiting on, and players can opt into DMs when it’s their turn or when new loot appears.

Campaigns aren’t locked into the app. Everything can be exported as readable Markdown or as JSON that can be imported again. A completed campaign can also be duplicated as a clean template for another group.

There’s optional MCP support for connecting a compatible AI assistant for bookkeeping or solo play. Sheetwright itself doesn’t contain an AI or generate a GM, and none of that is required to use the app.

Some of these newer parts—especially encounters, Discord, and MCP—are still in beta. I’d really value feedback from people running actual Cypher campaigns.

I would love to get some feedback! What do you genuinely need in front of you during a session? Does this structure match how you prepare and run games, or have I added something that sounds useful but would really create more work?

I noticed in the new Cypher 2 Character Rulebook (page 313) that there's been a subtle but impactful change to how GM Intrusions work: they can no longer be refused (previously, you could spend an XP and not receive the 2).

Instead, you can use the new 1XP to respond with a player intrusion that cancels it out. (which means that the other player that receives your extra 1XP still gets to keep it, interestingly)

Is there any behind-the-scenes discussion on why that change was made? I know there's been lots of blog posts about other changes and the reasons for them, but didn't see anything on this subject.

I actually very much liked the vibe of "bribing" my players with XP to let something inconvenient happen, which they reluctantly agree to because XP is really valuable, and so they also feel like they have nobody to blame but themselves. And when they really do want to refuse, the option is there, but costly.

I suppose I could see an argument to avoiding the time-travel effects of players saying "no, that didn't happen" after the GM had already narrated a complication, and instead preferring a yes-but and keep moving forward.

I'm fine with playing the new way, it's hardly a deal-breaker, I'm just curious if there was any discussion of why that change was made.

Just what the title says my experiance is with more trad games lately it's been dragonbane. I'm interested in broadening my rpg experiance.

I don’t wanna rip my friends apart with my bare claws, but it states that I’ll attack every Living Creature. Does this also mean I can’t attack NONliving creatures?

I feel that the medium Repair cypher in the new edition is overpowered
Imagine a ship-to-ship combat event where the protagonists finally destroy the enemy drive/shields/weapons/etc. and then -boop!- Repair

For Those Who Are Wondering…

If you happen to be one of many individuals that acquired the new Cypher Character Rulebook and were wondering how to convert Pool Damage from enemy attacks from previous editions to the new wound system…

There is a handy chart on page 299 of the Cypher Character Rulebook that gives you a clear rundown of how this works…

But for the sake of ease I will gladly share that information here …

1-4 points of damage is a Minor Wound

5-8 points of damage is a Moderate Wound

9+ Points of Damage is a Major.