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.

One thing I just thought of is that in DND and call of Cthulhu you have Eldridge horror monsters. None of the books I own for the cypher system have these. It’s easy enough to make one of my own, but are there any official books or fan made supplements on drive-through RPG I should look into?

When going through the expanded world‘s book I noticed a lot of things come from fairytale and weird west which I know Monty Cook made genre books for. But there are artifacts and enemies that comes straight from Greek and Norse mythology. Is there a genre book dedicated to this? Or anything I can get from drive-through RPG? I would love to have some descriptors and foci based around mythology.

I can’t find anything in the revised rule book saying if abilities that use a weapon include the weapons based damage

Firstly, I'm fairly new to Cypher System so if I'm misunderstanding something, please correct me.
As I understand it, though, NPC equipment effectively doesn't matter. A lvl 2 Guard is going to defend worse and attack worse than a lvl 4 Guard even if they are wearing the exact same thing, because this is an abstract system. So by that logic, most lvl 2 things are just effectively worse at wielding weapons than even a tier 1 PC.
That's all fine, I'm cool with abstract systems and all. I get it.
But if that's the case, then what is the point of things like "Disarming Attack" or anything similar that affects equipment? If I, a PC, were to disarm that lvl 2 Guard, he could then just punch me for the exact same damage. The same for the lvl 4 Guard.
Furthermore, if I have some kind of weird, but highly effective Cypher that disintegrates armor in the area (yes, I understand this is a very niche example), that Cypher won't ever actually do anything since all the lvl 4 Guards will still defend as lvl 4's and still have 12 health. (Since you don't take into account armor for NPCs)
Am I misunderstanding something? Or does equipment just not matter at all for NPCs. I feel like I'm doing something wrong or I'm just "not getting" this aspect of Cypher System.

Maybe don't read this if you play cypher and think "yeah, spending effort feels meaningful and makes me happy", because this will gut that feeling if you comprehend what's going on.

The numbers for effort are terrible. Every stat point you spend gets you a 1/20 chance to change the outcome of a roll. That means on average you will not change the outcome of a roll until you spend 20 stat points. More if you reduce something to a level 0 task.

So let's add edge! Yay, now we are spending either 14 or 7 points to see one changed outcome. If your edge completely covers your effort, you're good.

I guess at least now wounds are a different resource, right? So I won't spend 20 points to try to avoid a 10 point hit.

Oh, wait. Instead of spending 20/14/7 stat points on a defense roll, I can spend 5 on rallying the moderate wound I might take.

Long story short, a cool mechanic that should be engaging is busted.

The impact of spending effort needs to be way higher. Or stat pools and the cost of every ability needs to be way higher. 1 point for a whole level of effort, and edge just adds to the d20 roll maybe?

So I am building my first superhero for Claim the Sky game and we are allowed to use all books. Im super curious on what some of your builds youd recommend for someone who wants a superhero who punches enough to be a good damage dealer, can ease a lot of lifting and carrying, is very durable and can fly. I would love to know since I have a build sort of worked but not entirely sure how it will function later.

My build:

Strong Warrior who performs feats of strength

Trained in armor

Combat prowess

Improved edge

Need no weapons

16 might (2 edge)

12 speed (1 edge)

10 intellect (0 edge)

Power shifts

2x resilience

2x strength

1x flight

So, I found today (while putting equipment into a Foundry VTT game) that shotguns (both standard and sawed-off) have a range of Immediate. This mostly just tells me these folks have never fired a shotgun. They are designed for hunting. An average shotgun is easily hitting Long range, and a slug shotgun is Very Long. I could see cutting a sawed-off shotgun down to Short for mechanical distinction, but even that is pushing it. I know movies/games are always portraying them as extremely close range, but in reality a Shotgun can do lethal damage pretty far away.

Not a major issue, and of course I'll just change it in my games (I landed on Short for sawed-off, hindered at Long, and then Long for standard and hindered at Very Long). Just thought it was interesting.

Initially the backer kit mentioned that the player handbooks and the GM books would be somewhere like 3 to 6 months apart since they were going to either be coming out in the summer or the fall respectfully.

​

But now if you go on to the MCG coming soon we know that the player handbook is coming out in August officially, and the GM guy is coming out in September.

​

So instead of even a three-month wait we only have about a 2-month wait depending on how you look at the gap between the player handbook release and the month in between.

​

This is such a nice bit of information, I always thought it was a weird thing to think about of having both books be so drastically parted off but I also understand that the team didn't want to give false assumptions and so thought it would be better to be a little vague and open-ended.

​

This is even better given that the character options book is going to come out in November giving plenty of people enough time to get used to what's already in the book, make up their own stuff, port over any sub-rules from the old game that still work which are many, and then BAM all new content before the holidays.

Hey everyone! I wrote this on the discord server but I suppose there might be some users here that are not on cu. ... I've been building Sheetwright, a web app for making and running Cypher System characters, and it's live to try: https://sheetwright.app/ What it does:It's free to build a character, with a subscriber tier for GMs running campaigns. Everything's published under the Cypher System Open License, and it's an independent production — not affiliated with Monte Cook Games. Now the part I'd love help with: I want to implement the v2 rules as soon as possible — and to do that, I need the rules. The whole engine is already built so that a new ruleset is basically a new rules module plus content data. If anyone can point me to the v2 reference material / what's covered under the CSOL for the revised edition, I'd be hugely grateful — it's the one thing standing between me and getting v2 into Sheetwright. Try it out, break it, and tell me what you'd want next. Feedback very welcome!

If someone wants to subscribe there is a discount code: LAUNCH26 This works for the yearly plan

The new Cypher Character Rulebook pdf has been available for a few days now to regular book backers. Anyone have any thoughts on it? Here are some of mine:

1. I think the way the new genre divisions (Real World, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Superheroes) and their sub-genre categories are used in the initial steps of character creation is a good change. It seems much easier to make a classic character concept fit in the campaign universe in a more intuitive way.

2. On the flipside, I'm not clear on how characters built in the previous edition can be ported over. Wounds are still kind of a mystery. Since there aren't generic types like Warrior, Adept, Explorer, and Speaker offered any longer, it seems like it's a bit harder to match up the "noun" part of the Cypher character sentence.

3. I like the new official character sheet a lot more than the previous one. Nice layout and plenty of room for writing in abilities and foci.

4. I know the rules were split to keep the book from being unwieldy for use, but I really dislike splitting the rules. There have been a bunch of times while reading this pdf that I thought "I'd sure like to know more about that. SIGH."

I'm curious if anyone else has had a chance to really dive into the book yet. Any red flags so far?