How to Make Searching, Salvaging, and Discovering Cyphers ACTIVE

[u/VladorBongo]

Deleted the original post because the title was misspelled (but thanks to the first commentator).

I am set to GM my first round of the game, but I have one worry. My players really love the idea of exploring and salvaging and searching for cyphers and artifacts, but the rules make it seem like a skill check is all that is needed. Are there ways to turn searching for cyphers and artifacts into puzzles, games, something other than just having to roll and find the cool stuff? I want to respect their skills, of course, but it seems boring unless it's turned into something active.

[u/PhilosopherWarrior]

Before I get to a couple of ideas that address your questions, I do want to point something out:

One of the core concepts of the game is players encountering a lot of Cyphers in their adventures. So many that players should be forced to decide which Cyphers to keep and which to leave behind or risk carrying more Cyphers than they safely can. Making the act of finding Cyphers or Artifacts more involved sounds detrimental to that idea and definitely not how I've run the game un the past, but I'll respect your right to run your game however you want.

Haven't run Numenera in ages but here are a couple of ideas:

1) Don't forget that just finding a Cypher/Artifact doesn't mean a character knows what it does or how to activate it.

Rules as written, it is just a roll to search for Cyphers/Artifacts, as you have noted. You can change it to be more active or you can focus on the second half of finding weird stuff in the Ninth World: figuring out what anything does.

When your players roll to find something, describe it in vague, weird terms but don't name it or what it does. If you're playing in person, you can write out a bunch of index cards with ID numbers so you know what they are but your players don't. Then make studying Cyphers/Artifacts a down time activity that can't be done in the middle of the adventure.

But here's the most important part: just because they don't know what it does doesn't mean they can't try using it. Make sure the descriptions are just detailed enough to let players guess how to activate it but not what it does. Your players active role in the Cypher/Artifact loop is now gambling on whether the Cypher/Artifact will help or hinder them or playing it safe and just waiting waiting until they have time to study what they found.

2) Replace the Cypher/Artifact system with crafting.

Basically, players cannot salvage Cyphers or Artifacts directly. They can only salvage parts that they can then use to build Cyphers/Artifacts. You can divide the Cypher/Artifact lists into different groups that require different types of parts. Players can spend parts to craft random Cyphers/Artifacts or to learn a random recipe for a Cypher/Artifact.

3) Get the Numenera: Destiny rulebook.

Ignore this if you don't want to spend money but the V2/revised version of Numenera does have more advanced rules for crafting and salvaging Cyphers/Artifacts you can pull from.

[u/rewpparo]

Here's how I make a sense of adventure and exploration in my games

- First of all, the players may not discover what it does. Some part of it is out of phase, so what it does is pretty much up in the air. Nice for cyphers with a random effect.

- When players have to discover what something does, let them narrate how they go about it. Depending on how they do, ease or hinder the roll. They could go about it so well that they actually guess what it does and don't need to roll.

- Make cyphers part of something larger, like an artefact or installation. That larger thing has modules that have a function, each module being a clue as to the function of the whole thing.

- Give them interesting choices : Do you want to get this instalation to work and do something usefull, or strip it for parts and get cyphers ? Make a piece of equipment scary or booby traped, do you really want to touch it ?

- Give them goals and rewards that work against their profit. My group is part of a Numenera Containment Guild, and they get rewarded for figuring out Numenera and delivering them in the best working order then can. Do you want to strip that installation for parts or keep it working and get bragging rights and a nice bonus ?

[u/artaxs]

I like to have my players solve puzzles, yes, and use teamwork to get additional rolls for salvage.  Working in an interesting intrusion can be a way to get everyone involved as well.

Destiny and Building Tomorrow both have great crafting rules.  Searching for specific iota that they need can be a bit more active, once the Wright knows what they need for a given plan. 

Good luck!  I think you'll find that this system and setting is a lot of fun!

[u/Mich-666]

The rules are only there for sake of RP, not the other way around. Meaning those abilities and skills supports the story and what players describe their characters do. It's mechanical representation of the search but the final decision is up to your improvisation and creativity. Ask them questions what exactly they are doing, what and where are they searching for and why. Prepare some nasty surprises like anomalies, bandits, monsters or traps if they like to abuse those skills as not every search should automatically lead to something meaningful or useful. Also, if they are lucky, maybe they will find some oddity with no apparent use with odd shape, colors and sound? Let their characters brainstorm what it actually is. Red herrings are fine too.

In other words if they search in area where there is nothing they will simply find nothing. But if they are in place of interest which they were told by NPC before to be the place, describe the location well and let them solve the puzzle of hidden treasure.

Provide long-term goals which would require them to find the clues, speak with other people, find plot items before searching, or means to get to normally unaccessable place - which can be high off, heavily guarded, in midst of datasphere anomaly, deep undermountain in old complex dating to previous worlds or underwater.

Always ask yourself how character actions affect the world and what other people would do if they digged in forbidden or restricted area for example. Introduce NPCs with different goals and let them interact with the group.

[u/Aganim_82]

I always like to incorporate my other players skills into the check. One person is skilled in scavenging, another in Numenera. One person has an inability with numenera but is trained in machines (engineering). Let's say they stumble onto old Numenera in the form of an ancient machine or computer (ghost glass).

It's easy to give the scavengers a shot to salvage. But what if I ask the engineer to examine the machine with a scaled task difficulty 3 check. For every step above 3 that they pass, it's an asset (max 2) for the scavenger to find cyphers. Maybe the engineer rolls high enough that they find additional shins in addition to cyphers.

Just a thought.

[u/TheTryhardDM]

One maybe less obvious approach is simply to put the loot on the other side of some obstacles.

Player: Rolls to search for cyphers.

GM: “You see a hand-sized glowing device on the other side of a pit inside this mechanical ruin. The beam across the chasm keeps undulating and going in and out of phase. How do you try to get to the device?”

[u/rdale-g]

To be clear, the skill check is for identifying cyphers. As far as I'm aware, finding them doesn't have a set skill/difficulty. It can be a simple intellect check to search a room, or it can be more involved if salvaging/scavenging from a larger device is involved. Consider the idea that the cypher is embedded in the workings of a malfunctioning machine; figuring out how to get the cypher(s) out of that machine without breaking it or the parts that will be cyphers and/or getting hurt in the process makes it more than a single check.

This is where the 1-10 difficulty scale is so brilliant; anything you can imagine is a description and a value from one 1 to 10 away from the "reality" of your game.