Cypher System Rulebook Review

 

Cypher System Rulebook cover by Monte Cook Games

Now for something a little different.

In my examinations of other RPG systems, I've heard about the Cypher system for a long time, but hadn't dug into it until I managed to carve out time on a plane flight. My main takeaways are that the Cypher system offers:

• A setting and genre agnostic RPG framework
• A narrative and character-focused game
• A simple core resolution system
• A focus on empowering GMs to build their own material for characters and stories

Cypher does not have as structured advancement as 5e systems, and places emphasis on the ability to reskin abilities, powers, and weapons, as they are generally more simplified and unified across the board than the specific feats of other systems. This creates less of an emphasis on both system mastery and character optimization through taking specific features through a class system. 

This flexibility means too that many different genres can be modeled through the cypher system mechanics, from classic fantasy settings (without the setting defining ideas imposed by other systems, like Vancian magic), to post-apocalyptic, to superhero and comic book-style, and even historical and modern settings. The system's product lines reflect this, applying the system to the original Numenera (a medieval fantasy, setting in a fallen far-future setting), along with supplemts on how to adapt the system to the aforementioned genres. The system has even been applied to the folk horror genre in the Old Gods of Appalachia RPG, a game based on the popularpodcast of the same name.

Much of the narrative flexibility comes from the manner of constructing characters, and the nature of the skill system. That is that a character is created by picking from a number of characteristics describing who the character is, and what they are good at. The skill system, instead of providing a unique list of skills, instead provides some examples, but encourages a player to come up with their own skills, much as how one would describe themselves in real life. This enables both characters that are specialists, and ways to make characters generally useful. It also expands the ways in which various archtypes can be captured, contributing to the narrative flexibility of the system.

The various "types" of characters act similarly to classes, bounding the broad types of characters available in four large flavors: warriors, adepts (can be flavored as supernatural, magical, psychic, or other types of mystical abilities), explorers, and speakers (charismatic, probably bard like characters). However, because these don't represent all archetypes, there is an additional section of "flavor" providing lists of abilities that can be swapped in for those provided by the main types. These allow you to create rogue-like characters, or others with some unique skills. For instance, as I read the types section I found myself thinking of popular characters like Tony Stark (Ironman), and considering how I could build a particular character in multiple ways. The art is helpful on this count too, illustrating the myriad settings and genres the system can support. Descriptors and foci (or a character focus) add to the suctomization, but maintain the focus on describing a particular character fantasy.

Cypher is also unique in a focus on using flavor rather than mechanics to enable cinematic storytelling. I can certainly see how a lack of differentiation in damage and the simple mechanics might bore some players looking for a tactical and mechanically crunchy game. However, i think that certainly the Cypher framework is valuable like other universal systems for enabling narratives in settings that lack bespoke systems. I think it could even be useful in settings for other systems—for instance, in Eberron at times I feel that the D&D system mechanics get in the way of the swashbuckling and cinematic action that pervades the setting. Multiple times as I read through the Cypher system, I found myself thinking about how easily it could be ported to the Eberron setting without much fuss at all.

Now, I will note that I do think you lose something of specificity and mechanical rigor when building a game that can be applied across genres, and I'll have to see how I like not getting to roll any dice as the GM. Perhaps it will be as liberating as reported, allowing me to focus on all the improvisation that I'll have to be doing to offer meaningful GM intrusions to provide drama (and more importantly XP) for my players.

For that reason, I’m looking forward to trying it out. I want to also shout out the amazing tool suite that Monte Cook Games provides to facilitate character creation on its website. It's a great way to encourage play across a variety of platforms, and in particular I like the ability to export as both a pdf or a json file for use with Foundry VTT. Using this tool I've built out the characters from the long running tv series Supernatural, and also plan to build out the Guardians of the Galaxy to use in separate one-shots. I'll post more about my experiences when I have the opportunity to run them.