Decyphering Disaster

The majority of the roleplaying that we do involves heroes in fantastic and fantasy situations. A mighty warrior holding off a horde of orcs. A powerful wizard opening a portal to another world. A skilled star pilot threading his way through an asteroid field in pursuit of pirates. A wily thief sneaking into the headquarters of a bank to break into the vault. A priest forcing back the undead through the power of faith alone. A superspy confronting a supervillain in his volcano secret base. A telepath with two heads exploring the ruins of the long past in a post-apocalyptic future. All of these situations are familiar from our roleplaying. What though if we could roleplay heroes in situations that are fantastic, but grounded in reality rather than fantasy? What if we could roleplay heroes who help others and come to the rescue of those caught in situations beyond their ability to cope with, let alone survive? Fight fires before they spread? Search mountainsides for climbers and skiers caught in avalanches? Dig into earthquake zones to find the trapped? Range across flood zones to get to those still caught? Research outbreaks of deadly diseases before they can infect more? As we have seen on the screen—big and small—all of these situations can form the basis for exciting and dramatic storytelling where the protagonists rush into danger to save others, but curiously, not in roleplay.

First Responders presents the means to roleplay exciting situations in the contemporary world where highly skilled men and women deal with emergencies and disasters—fires, floods, volcanos, earthquakes, pandemics, and even nuclear disasters. The only other roleplaying game to deal with this is Deep7’s Disaster! 1PG, but that put the Player Characters at the heart of the disaster and has them survive it rather than deal with its consequences. In First Responders, the Player Characters are ordinary men and women, but they are trained as firefighters, medics, search and rescue specialists, scientists, HAZMAT specialists, counsellors, Incident Commanders, and more. They are literally the first to respond, and in the default setting, do so as members of Sovereign Agency of Veteran Emergency Responders—or SAVER—on an international scale. The players will take on multiple characters, troupe style, drawing from a rooster of Player Characters, each with different skills, abilities, and areas of expertise, in order to ensure that the right personnel are assigned to deal a particular situation. Alternatively, First Responders can be played as a series of one-shots, with different teams still tackling different situations, but the roleplaying experience providing a genre cleanser, a change from the more fantastical fare that a roleplaying group might roleplay. First Responders is published by Monte Cook Games and is a genre supplement for the Cypher System.

As a supplement, First Responders fairly zips along, racing through its rules and advice in smart order before providing multiple scenarios that deal with a range of threats and disasters in a good third of the book. It begins though, by explaining what the Player Characters do as first responders and giving advice to the Game Master on how to run a First Responders game effectively. This means eschewing realism, or rather eschewing too much realism, whether particular techniques or terminology used by first responders, or even scientific detail—note, not science itself, but overly encumbering play with it. Everyone, players and Game Master, need to set the mood by accepting that disaster scenarios invariably mean they the first responders are against the clock and they need to act urgently, and the first responder Player Characters work together to co-ordinate a plan and then execute it. Also discussed are the types of actions that the first responders can take, and whilst they are often very physical in nature and not combat actions per se, they still involve the first responders battling against a danger, such as a fire or rising waters. That danger is actually defined in the same way as creatures and monsters are in the Cypher System, but instead of Health the danger has Threat. Thus, a first responder can ‘Suppress’ a fire or flood, to reduce its Threat; he can ‘Quell’ it to temporarily subdue or stop its progress; Vent’ a flood or fire or alter the flow of larva, to redirect the danger and effectively hinder it; and ‘Contain’ a danger to stop its spread. Other actions include the more obvious ‘Detect’, ‘Rescue’, and ‘Heal’. What have here though, is an adjustment in terminology for many of the actions that the first responders will be undertaking, from the more standard actions that Player Characters would undertake in a more fantastical Cypher System setting. There is advice here also, on consent, on the dangerous and often deadly nature of the First Responders setting, and the use or not of gallows humour. It is all good, solid advice.

In terms of what a player roleplays, First Responders explains how to use the “I am an adjective noun who verbs” phrase to create Player Characters, noting how the more fantastical language of the many options in terms of Descriptors and Foci can be applied to a real-world setting like that of First Responders. For example, “I am Brash Warrior who Stands Like a Bastion” can be a firefighter or a rescuer and “I am a Careful Explorer who Runs Away”, a volcanologist or a nuclear scientist. This does take some adjustment and some interpretation upon the part of player and Game Master, but the results are no less exciting or heroic. Useful skills are listed, as are numerous roles, whilst the Responder is a character Type—like Warrior or Adept from the Cypher System core rules—specific to First Responders. The new Foci, such as ‘Battles the Blaze’, ‘Controls the Scene’, and ‘Shuts Death’s Door’ are also specific to First Responders, but could find their way into settings. The focus of the equipment section is mostly on protective gear, much of which will actually be part of the first responders’ role, so there is very much not the need to go looking for bigger and better equipment as play. There are also few weapons in the traditional sense, just the knife and fireman’s axe, whilst the backpack pump, the charged fire hose, and so on, are treated as weapons because they are used to fight or battle the elements of the emergencies.

For the Game Master there is excellent advice on the nature of a First Responders campaign and how to run one. Most notably, the Game Master is expected to proactive in telling her players what their first responders know, since after all, they are trained in their respective fields. Introduced here is the ‘Challenge System’ as a means to present the emergencies and disasters as obstacles to be overcome in both dealing with them and the dangers that they place NPCs and the first responders in. This will often require the putting together of an Amalgamated Goal, representing a number of objectives that need to be overcome in order achieve it. Some of the dangers can be unexpected and these can be handled through Game Master Intrusions, the means of presenting greater challenges to the Player Characters in the Cypher System. Game Master Intrusions are also used to drive the escalating nature of the emergencies, known as ‘Disaster Mode’. In standard play of the Cypher System, and initially in First Responders, a mandatory Game Master Intrusion occurs when a player rolls a one on the die. In ‘Disaster Mode’, when this occurs, not only does the Game Master make an Intrusion, the range under which a mandatory Game Master Intrusion can occur also increases. Initially at one, the first time it occurs, it rises to two, the second time, it rises to three, and so on. A list of Game Master Intrusions is given here, but there are also plenty throughout the book in its sidebars. First Responders also encourages something that runs counter to the age-old advice of ‘Never split the party’, but here it is necessary. The first responders will be facing multiple, often separate difficulties, which need to be dealt with simultaneously rather than sequentially. Lastly, it suggests bringing them back together to deal with mundane issues, such cleaning equipment or aiding a friend or helping an organisation. In this, it neatly models the epilogue of an episode of a television series, where the characters have a chance to relax and recover from the dangers that they faced in the field. It also points to the one of the origins for the supplement.

In terms of disasters, First Responders explores and categorises six—fires, floods, earthquakes, nuclear disasters, pandemics, and volcanos. In each it explores the danger they represent and gives samples of each model different danger levels. Thus, for fire, there is a Small Fire, a Standard Fire, a Demanding Fire, a Difficult Fire, a Challenging Fire, and an Intimidating Fire. Each is treated like a monster with a Task Difficulty which the player must roll against to affect it when it is his first responder’s turn to act and again when trying to avoid its effects, whether that is actual damage from the fire or being engulfed by flood waters. As mentioned before, a disaster like this will have Threat which must be reduced rather than Health, though not always, as for example, flood dangers have no threat at all. First Responders does this for six of its disaster types. It provides enough detail for the Game Master to use SAVER as an organisation for her campaign, and then suggestions to use each of the six disaster types in other genres. These are thumbnail descriptions only, designed to give the Game Master ideas. As well as giving sample NPCs, First Responders suggests new Cyphers that can be used in the genre in addition to those found in the Cypher System core book. These are all subtle Cyphers, like ‘Big Breath’ or ‘Dumb Luck’, all entirely in keeping with the non-fantastical nature of the genre.

Penultimately, the Scenarios chapter provides situations which both SAVER and the first responders can come to the rescue. These all have a challenge rating of four and vary from a Collapsed Motel for earthquakes to a crashed transport truck for nuclear disasters. All are nicely detailed, with details of their Amalgamated Goals, encounters, challenges, and Game Master Intrusions, and more. Any one of them could provide a solid single session’s worth of play and if used as part of a SAVER campaign provide episodes for that. Lastly, First Responders does include a glossary of emergency responders’ terms and some sample first responders reader for play.

Physically, First Responders is very presented. Both artwork and cartography are excellent and the writing is engaging, helping to bring exciting if mundane action to life and present as something that is playable.

Even if its mechanics would not work in other roleplaying games, the advice and the situations described is so good that it actually makes First Responders the key sourcebook to opening up the no less heroic world of emergency response teams to roleplaying in general. It also works as a sourcebook for running a television style series-style campaign based around hospitals and firefighting teams, perhaps with a little bit of Soap Opera thrown in! In whatever way it is used, First Responders provides everything the Game Master needs to run an exciting and challengingly heroic campaign in the world that they already know and see in the daily news broadcasts. With First Responders, you can be heroes and it does not have to involve magic.

Between Light and Dark

The world of Fyera is divided. Once it spun upon its axis like any other, but that stopped centuries ago. Known as ‘The Ruination’ it divided the world into three. One side of the world would always face the sun, the ‘Lands of the Old Days’, their waters and rivers long gone, the red soil dried into endless swathes of sand and heat. The other will never know the sun, ‘The Darklands’, frozen and diseased withered, but within its permanent shadow lurk beasts and beings of the dark unknown before The Ruination. Between them is the band known as the ‘Penumbra’ which runs right around the world, where the survivors of The Ruination have learned to adapt to a world with no diurnal cycle, no night and day, at the mercy of attacks from deep within The Darklands. In response, the peoples of Fyera constructed the Cressets of Vigil, great towering portable beacons of light, and placed them further into The Darklands, bringing a light that reveals both the lands and their secrets lost to the dark and advanced warnings of attacks upon Penumbra. These attacks seem endless as if the very darkness would reach out and swallow the last of the light. The Ruination would also have an effect upon the survivors’ souls, for they would be granted ‘The Gifts of Fyera’, abilities that none of the peoples of Fyera had possessed before The Ruination. These gifts can help in holding back the darkness, but there is the ever-present danger of the valiant defenders of the Penumbra falling into the Darkness as a result of committing or witnessing sins done in the name of the Light, of their souls being scarred by both the Light and the Dark.

This is the setting for Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light, a dark fantasy setting compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. Published by Black Lantern following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is the first roleplaying game and setting to be published by a Greek publisher and reach the English-speaking market. It is designed primarily for the player, with details given on creating five new Races, eight new Classes, between three and five Sub-Class per Class, new Feats, spells, and magics, and more. The core rulebook for Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is not quite standalone, the Player’s Handbook needed for the full list of spells at the very least.

The Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light core book begins with an examination of the three subsystems that measure a Player Character’s relationship between the Light and the Dark. These are ‘Erebos’, ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’, and ‘The Scales of Nebula’. They derive from and feed into the ‘Soulmist’, the Nebula of Souls that surrounds the world of Fyera and reflects back onto it. The more that Dark souls pass into the Soulmist and the more the world is given over to cold, fear, and despair, whilst more Light souls increases the light, warmth, and innocence of the world. Erebos—‘darkness’ or ‘gloom’, named for the primordial Greek God of Darkness—is measured between zero and ten. At zero, a Player Character is a ‘Torchbearer’ who embodies the Light and has empathy for both the beings of the Light and those in the shadows; at three and four, he is ‘Wavering’, able to feel the touch of the dark, but all the better for seeing the Light; and at eight and nine, he is ‘Tarnished’, his sense of self lost even as he is concerned with self-preservation. At ten, he is an ‘Apostate’ of the dark and all but lost. When a Player Character is in a situation where an act—witnessed or his own—his player has to make an Erebos Roll. Depending upon the situation, the Player Character can lose or gain levels of Erebos, and this can lead him to acquiring a Soulscar. For example, at levels one to three, the Lesser effects of a Soulscar might be that the Player Character suffers from Separation anxiety, Panic attacks, Insomnia, and worse. At levels seven and eight, the Greater effects are either mania or illusions. In many cases, a Light Spark can be spent to negate these effects, at least temporarily. The only way to negate these effects in the long term is to work back down to being with the Light.

Through his connection with the Soulmist, a Player Character possesses a Light Spark. Once spent, it can be recovered with a Long Rest. What it is spent on varies from Sub-Class to Sub-Class. For example, the Pyromancer Sub-Class can spend a Light Spark to target a particular area to set alight with a bomb and at later Levels, empower his bomb with a Light Spark to infuse it with the essence of a Star-Dust Devil, a moving inferno with the form of an animal. The Oracle Sub-Class has the ‘Spin the Hourglass’ ability, which lets him take two turns, one after the other, but he chooses which one to use. With the expenditure of a Light Spark, he can empower ‘Spin the Hourglass’ to negate a single target’s action. All of the Sub-Classes have abilities which work with Light Sparks, although not at First Level. The Game Master uses Dark Sparks to power the abilities of the monsters and dark creatures under her control.

If the ‘Erebos’ mechanic tracks a Player Character’s internal struggle—not unlike, but more nuanced than the alignment system of Dungeons & Dragons—then ‘The Scales of Nebula’ externalises the struggle between the Light and the Dark within the Soulmist. It is specifically used in battles between the Light, that is, the Player Characters, and the monsters of the Dark. At the start of a battle, two pools of sparks are created, a pool of Light Sparks shared between the players and their characters, and a pool of Dark Sparks for the Game Master. These can be used over the course of the battle, but at the end, if there are more Light Sparks than Dark Sparks left over, there is a chance that the Player Characters’ Erebos level will fall, but a chance it will rise if there are more Dark Sparks left over. The tension here is whether or not the Player Characters use all of the power of the Light they can to defeat their foes, or retain some of it to maintain their hope.

Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light details five Player Character Races. These are Avernians, Lumens, Primus, and Draesyr, the latter split between the Eldrasyr and the Yildrasyr. Avernians are in touch with their animal spirits and can harmonise with them to transform into their animal forms, either partially or fully. Lumens can peer into the past or the future at the cost of their age. The Primus are vampires, highly militarised and embrace the intricacies of high society, and can be powered by their blood to inflict more damage, move faster, and resist physical and necrotic damage. The Draesyr embrace nature, the Eldrasyr more than the Yildrasyr, who partially embrace the Darkness in order to protect the Penumbra and are scorned for it. All of the Race are given details about their cultural background and ethics, places and cities, and so on, helping to develop the background further.

The eight Classes are Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Monk, Seeker, Scholar, Spiritualist, and Mistweaver. The Fighter, the Barbarian, the Monk, and the Rogue are standard as per Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, but the others are new. The Seeker is a hunter and tracker akin to the Ranger, always looking for something or exploring; the Scholar is an educated Class, whose knowledge can benefit others with a Cognition die for an ability check or saving throw or use it as a reaction to penalise another, and knowledge of Insider Trading gives a bonus on barter and bargain checks. The Scholar is intended to replace the Bard Class as an inspiring Class. The Spiritualist is the link between the material world and the Soulmist, able to perceive Light Sparks and Dark Sparks, and can actually channel the Soulmist to power spell effects. The Mistweaver is the equivalent of the Wizard. The core Classes are in places quite basic, but Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light adds flavour and detail with some twenty-eight Sub-Classes.

Thus, for the Fighter, there is the Warrior, the Dark Knight, the Blood Prince, the Templar, and the Pack Alpha; for the Rogue there is the Trickster, the Assassin, and the Pyromancer; the Diplomat, the Engineer, and the Herbalist for the Scholar; the Healer, the Necromancer, the Shaman, and the Witch Doctor for the Spiritualist; and the Elementalist, the Blood Mage, and Oracle for the Mistweaver. Many of these are specific to the particular Races, are essentially, Racial Archetypes. For example, the Blood Prince and the Blood Mage are for the Primus only, the Ashen Berserker and the Witch Doctor are for the Yildrasyr, and the Oracle and the Templar for the Lumens. These are interesting and add further flavour and detail to the base Classes. For example, the Ashen Barbarian manufactures and consumes toxins that grant him better natural armour, extra attacks, bone spikes that increase natural damage, and even poison fangs! Using them can leave him poisoned, but this lessens as he acquires higher Levels. Later on, he can craft toxins using materials from the Darklands. These Dark Toxins can cause Foul Bloody, which turns the Ashen Barbarian’s blood acidic, and Dragontongue, which gives him a venomous bite. Lastly, the Ashen Barbarian can be ‘Embraced by the Dark’, drawing Dark Sparks into his body, increasing his Erebos to maximum level, his skin cracked and grey, eyes black, and his body smokes… The Blood Mage can substitute Hit Points for spell components, spill his blood to add necromantic damage to a spell, take damage in order to cast a spell without expending a slot, maximise a spell’s damage, and cast a spell without the need for line of sight, have the target save against the spell at Disadvantage, change the damage to necrotic, and even if the spell requires a to hit roll, it automatically succeeds!

The roleplaying game also adds three types of feat—general, racial, and then Class, as well as Backgrounds, all suitable for the Soulmist setting. Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light discusses the nature of magic in the setting as well, noting that Spiritualists and Mistweavers are based on the Cleric and Wizard Classes, that Schools of Magic are replaced by spells tailored to the spellcasting archetypes, and adds Prohibited Magic too. This is practised by witches and sorcerers who delve into the darkest of secrets of the Darklands, drawing upon their own life force and those of others to cast spells such as Inner Offer, the consumption of a creature’s organs to gain benefits to saving throws or damage, and Black Mass to control all of the Dark Sparks in the vicinity, which gives the caster an advantage in situations where ‘The Scales of Nebula’ come into play. To properly study Prohibited Magic, a Spiritualist, Mistweaver, or Witch Doctor needs a Feat such as Dark Acolyte’s Indoctrination or Tarnished Petitioner’s Sacrilege, but both need knowledge of a Prohibited Spell. Knowledge of Prohibited Spells is not widely known, and they must be found or learned from a Dark Acolyte, an existing practitioner. However, when found, Prohibited Spells can be learned by non-spell casters. The use of Prohibited Magic will literally Taint the caster’s soul, force Erebos rolls, and drive up his Erebos level. Although the practice of Prohibited Magic is reviled, the Witch Doctor will sometimes do so in order to turn the power of the Dark back at his enemies.

Rounding out Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is a list of scenario hooks. There is a decent range here, organised by each of the five Races in the Soulmist setting. This is followed by some notes on how to use the content of SSoulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light in a standard Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition game. This requires some major decisions, including whether or not to include the use of the Erebos system and Light Sparks and Dark Sparks as the former replaces the Alignment system and the latter empowers numerous abilities.

Physically, Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is generally well presented and the artwork decent throughout. However, the map of the single area of Fyera given is bland. It does lie within the Penumbra, so falls in part under the shadow, but some variation and some colour, even if muted, would have made it stand out. The main issue is that the book does need further editing as spelling errors and missing text can be found here and there. The index, more a table of contents, is also difficult to use.

The core rulebook for Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light introduces an interesting setting, array of character archetypes with the new Races, Classes, and Sub-Classes, and a potentially engaging set of mechanics with the ‘Erebos’, ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’, and ‘The Scales of Nebula’ systems that help enforce the back and forth between Light and Dark. However, the setting itself is never really brought to life, its introduction all too brief before the book begins discussing its core new mechanics. There is setting and cultural background for each of the five Races, but this is placed after each of the mechanical details of the Races have been given, so not immediately accessible. Consequently, you get more of a broad overview of the setting rather than one that necessarily draws the reader in and intrigues him. Conversely, the combination of the mechanics—the ‘Erebos’, ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’, and ‘The Scales of Nebula’ systems—and the new Classes and Sub-Classes do draw the reader in as they present new and interesting options for play. Yet even the mechanics are problematic. The ‘Erebos’ system works fine, but the options for the ‘Sparks of Light and Darkness’ and ‘The Scales of Nebula’ systems are limited. A Player Character only gets two abilities that he can empower with a Spark of Light and only at Second or Third Level and then at Fourteenth Level. There are never going to be a large number of Light Sparks in play at any one time, but it definitely feels as there should be more options that a player can choose from in order to use them. This could be gaining or granting temporary Hit Points, a temporary bonus to hit or Armour Class, and so on. Part of the aim with the ‘The Scales of Nebula’ system is to give the players and their characters the choice to use them or not. Use too many and they risk increasing their Erebos level, use too few and they might not survive the encounter unscathed. With too few options, that intent is not as obviously present as it should be.

The other main issue with Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is what to do with it. There are scenario hooks at the back of the book, but with a limited sense of the world of Fyera and no discussion at all as to the nature of the forces of the Dark, the Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light is the equivalent of the Player’s Handbook. The Game Master will really need the Darklands supplement to provide that threat. Hopefully, a scenario will follow to showcase what Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light adventure looks like.

Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light introduces a game and setting that has a lot of potential. The conflict between light and dark feels both desperate and epic, and is supported by mechanics and an array of Player Character options to engage in that conflict. Yet the mechanics in particular feel underdeveloped in places and do not quite support the core conflict as well as they should. Despite this, there is a lot in Soulmist: A Journey from Darkness to Light that will intrigue and interest the Game Master who is looking for a different grim dark fantasy roleplaying game.

Fantasy Fixes

Godforsaken is one of several genre sourcebooks for the Cypher System published by Monte Cook Games. The others, such as The Stars Are Fire covers Science Fiction, Stay Alive! covers horror, and We Are All Mad Here covers fairy tales, but Godforsaken tackles that most ubiquitous of genres—at least when it comes to roleplaying—fantasy. In each case, these four genre supplements build on specific chapters in the Cypher System Rulebook providing a range of rules and rules tweaks, character ideas, options and modules, monsters and more, including settings and scenarios, that together help the Game Master and her players explore the genre and its many facets and aspects, create characters, and adventure in worlds inspired by a wide range of sources, including books, films, and even other roleplaying games. As a supplement, Godforsaken has to cover a wide array of subgenres, from high and low fantasy to dark fantasy and fairy tales, from the future of a dying Earth and historical fantasy to contemporary fantasy and paranormal romance, from whimsical fantasy and wuxia to Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy.

Godforsaken is really a collection of questions and answers. Asking how one aspect or another of the genre can be done and then explaining or showing how. This is not just for the Cypher System, although that of course, is its focus, but with the genre in general. It starts with two options. The first is inspirations, touching upon classics such as Arthurian legend or the tales of Sinbad, but surprisingly suggesting a range of fantasy roleplaying games which could also serve as the basis for a Cypher System fantasy game. This complemented later in the book with more specific discussions and lists of possible inspirational works, covering fiction, film, and television, even fantasy artists, essentially a bibliography with suggestions. It feels odd having it placed further into the book when it could easily have followed the opening chapters. The other is creating a new setting and is more expansive, looking initially at the role of magic—knowledge, power levels, availability, history, and its interplay with technology and actual history—in broad strokes. It is a subject that the supplement will return to for obvious reasons. It also asks whether death will be permanent in the Game Master’s setting (similarly, this is expanded upon later in the book) and suggests ways to create maps and advise the players about the nature of the world that the Game Master has created. It is all fairly broad, as is the discussion and samples of fantasy.

The specifics really begin with character options which suggest ways in which various character types can be done using the Cypher System “I am an adjective noun who verbs.” format. For example, a Druidic character could be created in numerous ways depending upon what he does. For a druid with an animal companion, the Focus might be ‘Controls Beasts’ or ‘Masters the Swarm’ or who transforms, it might be ‘Takes Animal Shape’ or ‘Walks the Wild Woods’. Numerous options are suggested for the traditional fantasy roles like barbarian, the bard, priest, fighter, holy knight, warlock, and wizard, as well as for less traditional ones such as gunslinger and inquisitor. Several of the Foci are new, including ‘Takes Animal Shape’ and ‘Wields an Enchanted Weapon’, but in the main draws from the hundred or so given in the Cypher System Rulebook. However, not all of those are suitable for the fantasy genre and there is advice too on adjusting them to fit. For example, ‘Grows to Towering height’ could mean the character has giantish blood or be descended from a titan, ‘Licensed to Carry’ gives the character an unusual or magical weapon and applies the Focus’ bonuses to it, and ‘Talks to Machines’ could mean that the character instead communicates with golems or even the undead.

Equipment is handled in two ways in Godforsaken. First it gives descriptions and prices of a wide range of weapons, armour, tools, and adventuring gear. It will look familiar to anyone who has played a fantasy roleplaying game, but unlike in the Cypher System Rulebook, it gives prices in gold pieces rather than broad price categories. Second, it suggests ways in which Cyphers—the means by which the Cypher System awards Player Character one-time bonuses, whether potions or scrolls, software, luck, divine favour, or influence—can be brought into the fantasy genre. In the fantasy genre, these can obviously be potions, scrolls, talismans, and the like, which are relatively easy to make. Godforsaken gives complete rules for their creation as a series of step-by-step challenges, with higher level Cyphers requiring more time and more expensive ingredients. These are easy to use and nicely complement the main rules for crafting to be found in the Cypher System Rulebook. Crafting artefacts is also covered. Also discussed is why the Player Characters might craft Cyphers rather than expect to have them rewarded through play as is the norm, which might be preparation to overcome a foe or challenge, because the Player Character is a crafter, or it is thematically appropriate.

The rules for crafting Cyphers are one of several modules, divided between magical and fantasy rules, which Godforsaken provides and discusses that the Game Master can plug into her setting. The other modules for magical rules include antimagic, death and resurrection, ritual magic, magical technology, mind control, mystical martial arts, the power of names, and secrets. The modules for ritual magic and magic and technology include numerous examples too. There is specific advice about how to handle mind control in play, since not every player likes his character to be taken out of his control necessarily, suggesting that its parameters be set prior to play and reward a Player Character extra Experience Points when it does come into play, perhaps as a ‘GM Intrusion’. The module about using antimagic is more advice than mechanics, since the Cypher System does not actually define whether a Player Character’s abilities, Cyphers, and artefacts are magical or non-magical. If the former, antimagic effects remove them from play and that can be a problem from situation to situation, because they are integral to the Player Character. Ultimately the advice is to use antimagic in play sparingly. The fantasy rules modules cover the rewarding of treasure, including Cyphers and artefacts, and then the exploration of the dungeon environment. Walls, doors, traps—both as challenges and ‘GM Intrusions’, with numerous examples, are described here.

For running the Cypher System in a manner similar to Dungeons & Dragons, the chapter on fantasy species details several classic examples—Catfolk, Dragonfolk, Gnomes, Halflings, and Lizardfolk—in addition to those found in the Cypher System Rulebook. There is the suggestion too that they can be used as a Descriptor during Player Character creation, not once, but twice, so that Player Character could be an Inquisitive Halfling Explorer who Works the Back Alleys. Similarly, there are also suggestions on how to get near the Vancian style—that is, memorise, cast, and forget—which is challenging given that the Cypher System defaults a spontaneous style of casting. Godforsaken includes a trio of Cypher Shorts that can be used as single encounters or short scenarios, all of them classic fantasy situations. This is followed by a bestiary of forty or so monsters and NPCs to complement those in the Cypher System Rulebook and a selection of Cyphers and artefacts to add to a campaign.

Godforsaken is also the eponymous name of the setting described in the book. Comprising the second part of the supplement, it describes the ‘Godforsaken Setting’ and supports it with a pair of adventures. The ‘Godforsaken Setting’ is split into two realms. ‘Bontherre: The Blessed Lands’ are a green and pleasant land where nobody goes for want of anything, a pantheon of five revered gods known as the ‘Sacrante’, walk the lands and are worshipped by all, and for some, is a dull place to life. Beyond these lands of milk and honey lie the ‘Godforsaken Lands’ where the influence and power of the ‘Sacrante’ cannot reach and the sun and sky are different. As brave explorers, the Player Characters step through from ‘Bontherre: The Blessed Lands’ into the ‘Godforsaken Lands’ where they must survive radically dangerous environments, such as viciously biting weapons and acid rain, in search of resources valued by crafters. For example, Flevame, lies across the River of Souls and is easily accessible, and has a smaller sun and no moon, is colder, visitors from Bontherre suffer from a ‘weakening’, and visiting adventurers are often hunted by the forces of a necromancer called Crumellia Encomium. As well as being able to explore a new world, adventurers search for spirit threads which can be used to enhance artefacts. The other two lands detailed in the ‘Godforsaken Lands’ are different and there is scope too for the Game Master to add more. The setting is supported by two scenarios which introduce the ‘Godforsaken Setting’ and notes for the types of characters that the players can create and roleplay.

Physically, Godforsaken is very well presented, but that is what you would expect for a book from Monte Cook Games. It is well written, and both the artwork and the cartography are also good. Sidebars are used extensively throughout the book, adding detail, advice, stats, and references to the Cypher System Rulebook, and in the process, being very handy.

Godforsaken has two big hurdles that it has to overcome. One is that it has to encompass a wide swathe of subgenres and the second is Dungeons & Dragons. Although Godforsaken discusses numerous subgenres, it does not actually explore them in any great depth, its focus being broader and more generic. Further, it does not so much attempt to escape the influence of Dungeons & Dragons as in parts embrace it and show how a fantasy game in its style can be run using the Cypher System. By no means is this a bad thing, but rather it does leave less room for more detailed treatments of the other subgenres, which perhaps a supplement of their own.

Godforsaken presents a solid set of tools and advice for running the fantasy genre under the Cypher System, which altogether ask the Game Master numerous questions which will help her create and run her own fantasy setting. Ultimately though, Godforsaken cannot encompass everything in the fantasy genre and leaves a lot of subgenres waiting to be explored in greater depth for the Cypher System.

Decyphering the Cypher System

First seen in Numenera, a Science-Fantasy RPG set a billion years into the future published a decade ago and then in the multi-realm hopping The Strange, the mechanics of what would become the Cypher System have since been seen in multiple settings and genres and roleplaying games and gained a generic rulebook of their own so that the Game Master can use them to create and run settings of her with dynamic Player Characters. They are designed to be flexible and adaptable and enable players to create characters that do things. The rules enable the use of various powers and abilities by focusing on their effects and how they are perceived in a setting or genre. For example, a fire bolt in a fantasy campaign could only be cast by a wizard, but in Science Fiction setting, it can only be pyrokinesis! Published by Monte Cook Games, The Cypher System Rulebook includes not just a full explanation of the rules and the means to create a wide range of characters and archetypes, plus a bestiary and extensive equipment lists—including the all-important near magical cyphers and artefacts, but also an overview of nine different genres and advice on how to do them using the Cypher System.

The Cypher System Rulebook begins with a quick explanation of the system’s mechanics before focusing upon the Player Character. A Player Character in the Cypher System has three stats or Pools. These are Might, Speed, and Intellect, and represent a combination of effort and health for a character. Typically, they range between eight and twenty in value. Might covers physical activity, strength, and melee combat; Speed, any activity involving agility, movement, stealth, or ranged combat; and Intellect, intelligence, charisma, and magical capacity. In game, points from these pools will be spent to lower the difficulty of a task, but they can also be lost through damage, whether physical or mental. A Player Character has an Edge score, tied to one of the three pools. This reduces the cost of points spent from the associated pool to lower the difficulty of a task, possibly even to zero depending upon the Edge rating. A Player Character will also have a Type, which can either be an Adept, which uses powers akin to magic or psionics or superpowers—depending on the genre; Warrior, a soldier or a police officer or warrior; Speaker, conman, diplomat, or gambler; or an Explorer, an archaeologist, investigative journalist, or treasure hunter. Essentially, these are archetypes which a player can modify as a game progresses over the course of several sessions.

However, what defines a Player Character is a simple statement—“I am an adjective noun who verbs.” The noun is the Player Character’s Type, whereas the adjective is a Descriptor which describes the character and verb is the Focus, or what the character does. For example, “I am a Cruel Adept who Was Foretold”, “I am Brash Warrior who Brandishes an Exotic Shield”, “I am a Charming Speaker who Entertains”, and “I am a Rugged Explorer who Explores Dark Spaces”. This encapsulates the Player Character in the case of the Descriptor, Type, and Focus, provides points to assign to his three Pools, special abilities, skills, and a point in an Edge. To this is added a connection to world and through this to the other Player Characters, plus a Character Arc, which provides a story that the character and player can invest themselves in as well as providing a means of earning Experience Points. Although there are only four character Types, there are some fifty Descriptors and over ninety Foci for a player to choose from, providing for a wide range of Player Characters in a simple, familiar format. To create a character, a player selects a Descriptor, Type, and Focus ,and chooses from the options given under each.

The two sample Player Characters include a standard scholar type character who has seen military service and who would rather spend time with his books and a darker character more suitable for an arcane style of game. Not only does the Cypher System Rulebook include a wide array of options in terms of its characters, it includes guidelines to help the Game Master create further Descriptors and Foci for her own setting, plus adding ‘Flavour’ to colour a character that a player wants.

Henry Brinded
“I am an Intelligent Explorer who Would Rather Be Reading.”
Tier 1 Explorer
Might 10 [Edge 1] Speed 11 Intellect 15
Effort 1
Abilities: Light and medium weapons, Danger Sense, Decipher, Knowledge Skills, Practiced with all weapons, Knowledge is Power
Skills: Archaeology, History, Occult, Memorisation, Persuasion, Sailing
Arc: Enterprise

Kossos
“I am a Cruel Adept who Was Foretold.”
Tier 1 Adept
Might 7 Speed 12 Intellect 17 [Edge 1]
Effort 1
Abilities: Expert Cypher Use, Light Weapons, Far Step, Magic Training, Scan, Ward, Cruel attacks
Skills: Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion (All related to pain), See through deception, public speaking
Inability: Hindered with motives or emotions
Arc: Mysterious Background

Mechanically, the Cypher System is player facing—and arguably was one of the first systems to be player facing. Thus, in combat, a player not only rolls for his character to make an attack, but also rolls to avoid any attacks made against his character. Essentially this shifts the game’s mechanical elements from the Game Master to the player, leaving the Game Master to focus on the story, on roleplaying NPCs, and so on. When it comes to tasks, the character is attempting to overcome a Task Difficulty, ranging from one and Simple to ten and Impossible. The target number is actually three times the Task Difficulty. So, a Task Difficulty of four or Difficult, means that the target number is twelve, whilst a Task Difficulty of seven or Formidable, means that the target number is twenty-one. The aim of the player is lower this Task Difficulty. This can be done in a number of ways.

Modifiers, whether from favourable circumstances, skills, or good equipment, can decrease the Difficulty, whilst skills give bonuses to the roll. Trained skills—skills can either be Practised or Trained—can reduce the Difficulty, but the primary method is for a player to spend points from his relevant Stat pools. This is called applying Effort. Applying the first level of Effort, which will reduce the target number by one, is three points from the relevant Stat pool. Additional applications of Effort beyond this cost two points. The cost of spending points from a Stat pool is reduced by its associated Edge, which if the Edge is high enough, can reduce the Effort to zero, which means that the Player Character gets to do the action for free—or effortlessly!

Rolls of one enable a free GM Intrusion—essentially a complication to the current situation that does reward the Player Character with any Experience Points, whereas rolls of seventeen and eighteen in combat grant damage bonuses. Rolls of nineteen and twenty in combat can also grant damage bonuses, but alternatively, can grant minor and major effects. For example, distracting an opponent or striking a specific body part. Rolls of nineteen and twenty in non-combat situations grant minor and major effects, which the player and Game Master can decide on in play. In combat, light weapons always inflict two points of damage, medium weapons four points, and heavy weapons six points, and damage is reduced by armour. NPCs simply possess a Level, which like the Task Difficulty ranges between one and ten and is multiplied by three to get a target number to successfully attack them.

Experience Points under the Cypher System are earned in several ways, primarily through achieving objectives, making interesting discoveries, and so on. However, they are not awarded for simply killing monsters or finding treasure. There are two significant means of a Player Character gaining Experience Points. The first is ‘GM Intrusion’. These are designed to make a situation and the Player Character’s life more interesting or more complicated. For example, the Player Character might automatically set off a trap or an NPC important to the Player Character is imperilled. Suggested Intrusions are given for the four character Types and also for all of the ninety or more Foci. When this occurs, the Game Master makes an Intrusion and offers the player and his character two Experience Points. The player does not have to accept this ‘GM Intrusion’, but this costs an Experience Point. If he does accept the Intrusion, the player receives the two Experience Points, keeps one and then gives the other to another player, explaining why he and his character deserves the other Experience Point. The ‘GM Intrusion’ mechanic encourages a player to accept story and situational complications and place their character in danger, making the story much more exciting.

There is the reverse of the ‘GM Intrusion’, which is ‘Player Intrusion’. With this, a player spends an Experience Point to present a solution to a problem or complication. These make relatively small, quite immediate changes to a situation. For example, a Cypher or Artifact is expended, but it might be that the situation really demands the device’s use again, so the player decides to make a ‘Player Intrusion’ and at the cost of single Experience Point, give it one more use of charge.

The other means of gaining Experience Points—a new addition to the Cypher System since Numenera—is the Character Arc. A Player Character begins play with one Character Arc for free, but extra can be purchased at the cost of Experience Points to reflect a Player Character’s dedication to the arc’s aim. Each Character Arc consists of several steps—Opening, two or three development steps, followed by a Climax and a Resolution. Suggested Character Arcs include Avenge, Birth, Develop a Bond, Mysterious Background, and more. For example, Kossos has the Character Arc of ‘Mysterious Background’. This begins with an Opening in which Kossos starts her search, the next steps being Research and Investigation, the first step looking into her family background, the second asking people who might know more, followed by the Climax in which Kossos will make a discovery. In the Resolution, Kossos will reflect upon what she has discovered and how it changes her. The selection of the Character Arc during character creation signals to the Game Master what sort of story a player wants to explore with his character.

Although the rules and the various elements—Descriptor, Type, and Foci—which go to make up a Player Character take up over half of Cypher System Rulebook, a lengthy section is dedicated to discussing the various genres which the Cypher System can encompass and handle. Nine genres are discussed—Fantasy, Modern, Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, Superheroes, Post-Apocalyptic, Fairy Tale, and Historical. Many of these have their sourcebooks and settings for the Cypher System. For example, Godforsaken for the Fantasy genre or Stay Alive! for the Horror genre. In each case, the Cypher System Rulebook provides an overview of the genre, advice on how to create and play a game in the genre, along with suggested roles and associated Types, Foci, creatures and NPCs, equipment, and more. For example, for the Fantasy genre, it suggests how to create a Wizard using the Adept Type, a Druid using the Explorer with a magic flavour, a Thief using the Explorer with a stealth flavour, and so on. There are options for Species—Dwarf, Elf, and so on—as a Descriptor, and for spellcasting. In many cases, it also suggests subgenres, such as childhood adventures for the Modern genre or hard Science Fiction for that genre, and also discusses the mixing of genres, such as Superheroes and Science Fiction and time travel and Historical. Where necessary, extra rules are added, for example, adding shock and madness for the Horror genre. In each case, these chapters are primers for the nine genres, some longer than others—for example, the Romance genre chapter is just three pages long, but the Post-Apocalyptic genre chapter is seven pages long.

In addition to the discussion of the various genres, the Game Master is given solid advice on running the Cypher System, which pays particular attention to handling ‘GM Intrusions’, judging difficulty, encouraging player creativity, handling NPCs, and perhaps notably, teaching the Cypher System. Despite the simplicity of the Cypher System, there being a slight disconnect between the Task Difficulty and the Target Number and how a player is aiming to reduce the Target Number before rolling against it rather than the Task Difficulty. The advice is really to take a step-by-step approach and ease the players into the rules and mechanics. It is thoroughly good advice and a great inclusion in the book. As well, as the advice, the Game Master is also supported with a lengthy bestiary of creatures and monsters and NPCs from a range of genres, which of course, support the various discussions dedicated to those genres earlier in the book.

Of course, the Cypher System Rulebook examines its namesake—Cyphers. Again, first seen in Numenera, Cyphers are typically one-use things which help a Player Character. A Cypher might heal a Player Character, inflict damage on an opponent or hinder him, aid an attack, turn him invisible or reveal something that is invisible, increase or decrease gravity, and so on. They can be physical or Manifest, so could be a potion, a spray, a piece of software, a scroll, amongst other items, or they can be intangible or Subtle, which could be good fortune, inspiration, an alien concept, a blessing, an ear worm, or the like. In a fantastical game, Cyphers are likely to be Manifest, whereas in a modern setting they are likely to be Subtle and so do not break the feel of the setting and its genre by having lots of outré objects lying around which nobody has ever heard of before. Cyphers are, for the most part, genre neutral in terms of their mechanics. Their form though, is not, so a Cypher can be the same mechanically in two different genres, but their appearance and how they are seen to work differs between the two genres. For example, a Disguise Kit in the Historical genre would consist of a wig and make-up and perhaps a pair of spectacles and clothing, but in the Science Fiction genre, it could be a holo-projector which works only on the user. Obviously, Manifest Cyphers are easier to use because they have an obvious physicality both as objects and their effects, whereas Subtle Cyphers require more careful handling in order to remain faithful to a setting and its genre.

Physically, the Cypher System Rulebook is very well presented and everything is clearly explained. In addition, the sidebars are used to add extensive commentary and advice throughout the book and everything is individually page referenced to make the book itself easy to use. There are plenty of examples as well, including sample Player Characters for each of the four Types in the roleplaying game. The artwork is also decent. One oddity is that the example of play is presented at the end of the book, but it is a good example of play.

The introduction of the Cypher System with Numenera and The Strange was ground-breaking with its inclusion of player-facing mechanics, the ‘GM Intrusion’ rule, and a setting where the Player Characters had ready access to amazing abilities and amazing devices, or Cyphers. The Cypher System Rulebook brings those mechanics together in very well designed, accessible rulebook and shows the players how they can make interesting, pro-active characters and the Game Master how she can take the rules to not just run a game, but run a game in numerous different genres. The Cypher System Rulebook presents an excellent, flexible set of rules and advice for the Game Master who wants a game where her players and their characters shine and exciting, dynamic stories are told.