Numenera (and the Cypher System) is my favorite RPG to run. It’s so easy to prep, and the rules are super simple to grok. Character creation is so intuitive and is quite fast, and my particular group loves the narrative and mechanical freedom that constantly earning/spending XP provides. I have a player who’s character is an Arkus-a Type from the Destiny corebook focused on social interaction and community-building. The character can’t usually use anything but light weapons, but in the course of play, she acquired her family’s heirloom longsword-a medium artifact weapon. The player came up with the idea that her character, as part of her noble upbringing and education, was trained in basic self-defense with this very family heirloom. That sounded perfectly reasonable to me, and it added an awesome wrinkle to her character story. She spent the required XP, and boom, the character can wield that specific longsword without issue-she recalls the weight and heft of it, how it handles, and can bring to bear the basic martial training her noble station required of her in youth. Obviously, this kind of thing can be modeled in just about any RPG. But it’s baked right in to Numenera-you’re not going outside the rules to make it happen, it’s exactly how it’s intended to work.

I’ve heard Cypher described as “a D&D designer’s idea of a storygame”, which I think is actually really fitting. Numenera was specifically designed to appeal to D&D players, down to why a d20 is used instead of something more fitting like a d10, and the setting itself is really just that of D&D, replacing “magic” with “unexplainably advanced technology”. So I think it’s a really great transitional game for D&D players, as it will still *feel* like D&D, but with a narrative first focus.

To be fair, most games rules are combat focused because that is where you likely want crunch. Anything more directly Role Play oriented likely doesn't need much more than the players/gm working together to make a story and a few roles made up on the spot.

Love Numenera. My group is doing our first campaign of it as we speak! Great video as always

Thanks for this video, my favorite RPG reviewed by my favorite RPG reviewer. Keep up the good work and good luck with the Ennies. Love from Colombia!

I just wish MCG didn't hate/fear the idea of official VTT support. They dipped their toes into a horrible R20 implementation. But a foundry or FG option would be lovely.

I have not played many Numenera games, but have been a fan of it since Day 1. It was my first KS'd RPG. It certainly does look combat oriented on paper, but I think that is because out of the basic modes of play at a basic RPG level (combat, environment, downtime sort of lens to quote PF2e) combat needs the most description for the players. I found GM intrusions to be far more impactful when used in exploration or when NPCs do something in a political or social move (using nanite pheromones to sway a crowd in a bazaar to become obsessed with a PC so the NPC can get the upper hand for example). I recommend checking out Destiny, it certainly is the less combat of the two and seems to be the new direction MCG wanted to focus on. But I have no table experience with it... yet. Thanks for the video!

I have to comment and let you know that I greatly appreciate your clear narration and especially the images that you include to explain the system. This is infinitely easier to understand than watching someone talk to the camera with no visual reference. Great video!

Excellent review! All your reviews are great! The combat-non-combat issue is a good point, but the setting is key here as well as how XP is gained. I've only played this on and off, but it's always a blast because combat is more often a last solution and something the players will only enter if forced. Also, almost every kind of action is "combat", i.e., the resolution of social checks and everything else is akin to "combat". This simplification strengthens the notion of only rolling if necessary, and can incentivise or provoke a lot of creative playing to avoid having to roll dice. XP as a meta-currency works extremely well with the solution that the GM never rolls the dice. It's a very nice structuring of playing and coming up with stories on the fly. But as you say, it needs buy-in from players. This is why it's a great game for new players with little or no expectations and preconceptions about how a RPG is "supposed" to be played. When I picked this game up 8 or so years ago I felt a feeling akin to when I opened the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Encyclopedia for the 0th edition to expand on the red and blue box. It provoked a feeling of the fantastical. I used it to introduced the hobby to my partner and a bunch of non-RPGer friends, and it worked like magi...manipulated nanites... I would love to hear your thoughts on the Numenera: Destiny book.

I love Numenera. It's definitely not perfect, objective it's probably far from it, but it will always have a place in my heart

Awesome video! It's great to see Numenera getting love.

Just FYI, the first edition of Cypher System, as a setting neutral game came out in 2015 I think with a revised edition sometime around 2019. The Strange, which was my first exposure to the system, was released in 2014. The system is great and for those that want an alternative to D&D it is an easy transition. I do have to say, it does have combat rules, but those same rules are used for all resolutions. A hacking roll is no different than attacking with a sword or convincing a guard to do x,y,z. So I see how looking at it from the outside it looks like combat is heavy in the game, but that will be very dependent on your GM. I cannot express the great ideas whos seeds came from The Strange, Stay Alive!, and We Are All Mad Here (I am still working on reading some other source books). I just am not a huge fan of the Numenera setting. The games that spawned from Cypher System and that setting are wonderful.

Great review! Would love to see a review of Invisible Sun, an other game from MCG.

I really do enjoy running Numenera but have had a player or two bounce off the system. Still, the group I do play with enjoy it quite a lot, and the setting is very good. To note Monte Cook Games are still releasing Numenera content, and I'm about to start a new campaign using the Glimmering Valley book, which sells itself as an ideal way to introduce new players to the game and setting. In general releases have slowed down since they are supporting several other games, but new books specific to Numenera and its setting still get released regularly.

Cypher is awesome. It's my favorite system to GM. Easy simple rules. the books are THICK for all the player-end options... the basic rules are only a handful of pages, and could easily be condensed into one page. Probably the easiest prep (like original Space 1889 has easy prep as well). Explaining the rules is the weird part, mainly because the character creation has to be explained at the same time to make sense. I found it easier to explain using a ready-made character as an example in a combat or puzzle situation... and then get into the character creation.

I checked your channel before for Delta Green, but just recently got interested in Numenera and than I see u did this recently, what a coincidence

Loved the video. You’ve done an excellent job explaining the setting and mechanics in an easily accessible manner.

I love the setting of Numenera, it's a beautifully weird mash of hyper-tech, fantasy, and ruin delving, but I just bounce off the system every time I go near it. Maybe I'll hack it into a different system someday.

I love your videos! Numenera holds a special place in my heart.

I remember plying a jack in a game long time ago. He started as a confused cyborg with amnesia and ended pretty much like a re-vengeance Raiden. It was a pretty fun edgy character. The gm never ended the campaign properly, though.

Great review as usual. I'd love you to review Numenera Destiny too.

Amazing overview, thank you

This is one of the greatest RPGs and settings ever. I have been waiting for you to review this game for a long time.

Support the channel by joining my Patreon! www.patreon.com/thaumavore Sign up for my newsletter! bit.ly/ThaumavoreNewsletter

Really good video and overview. I think you covered the points of why Numenera is so good. I really like Numenera and the Cypher system. I don’t get to play it enough. However, on your point that it’s still combat centric really depends upon the GM. I was recently at Gamehole Con and played in quite a few Numenera games. Most were very story driven. In fact, in one, We only had one brief combat in the entire four hour session. The skills and cyphers we carried were perfectly crafted to mesh with the scenario.

Awesome review

Any chance we get a video about Numenera Destiny next?

i loved playing torment; tides of numenera. i didnt know there was more to numenera

For some reason, KZfaq keeps sending me back to this video. I've seen it, KZfaq, watched it and commented. 😄 I will take this third opportunity to offer a counterpoint to one opinion in the video. I disagree that Numenera has reached a long-in-the-tooth, best-days-behind-it stage. Numenera receives constant support via extremely imaginative, high quality supplements. The "Numenera 2" refresh that produced the Destiny & Discovery core pair wasn't the end of it. Since the new core pair released, we've received many amazing supplements, full length adventures, even a sweeping campaign book. There's a ton of depth to the material, now, that wasn't provided by the original book alone. This steady flow of content better shows what a Numenera campaign is for those who find it a bit esoteric. The supplements are also just wildly creative. The creativity and execution of a book like "Voices of the Datasphere" is too much to address in one comment. It's very impressive, and that's just one book. If they stopped now, I'd have enough great material to run Numenera for a lifetime. Yet, I have no doubt that more great ideas will inspire more great books to add to my shelf. (I'm very space conscious. Numenera is one of the only collections I have in hardcover these days. They're too nice to ignore.)

Awesome!

Numenera is awesome! Thanks for this video. What is, in your view the best virtual table-top platform for this game?

you did a great job explaining this very strange game

Sup Dave. Do you have any plans to review Exalted 3e? I'm really curious to hear your take on it

It's a cool setting, but I've found that the very system for rolling slows down gameplay significantly, because you have to tell the GM every single time how many steps you reduce the check by, why, and what bonuses you get etc because there are also abilities that give numerical bonuses.

Have you had the chance to look at Freelancer: Skies over Tolindia? I absolutely love it to death but it seems to be kinda obscure and underrated. My favorite part of it is the ability system that reminds me a lot of perks in fallout

I've only read the first edition, so this might not be entirely accurate anymore. But what I found far more jarring than the combat focus of some of the character options was the balance disparity between some of the options. On the higher tiers the nano gets stuff like teleportation or mind control, all while the glaive gets stuff like 'make several attacks' or 'deal a bit more damage and knock someone prone'. It's quadratic wizards/linear warriors all over again, and that's kinda weird in a setting where everyone is infused with nanobots and possibly cyber/psionic/mutant/something else. I would have expected more abilities like 'you turn into a nine foot monster' or 'supercharge one of your artifact weapons once a day because you instinctively get weapons' or something like that. Same for the Focus: having stuff like 'is a thief' or 'has a bow' on the same level as 'is Professor X' or 'is Magneto' feels like weird balancing.

I've run it a couple of times, and for me a couple things stand out: Primarily, I agree with the contrast between how it communicates itself as a combat-lite system, but it clearly seems like fighting is still the main bag here. That said, I really enjoy the give and take of leveraging your own skill pools to reduce DCs, but other than that it the cypher system doesn't really belong in the d20 combat realm. If 5e is your only touch point for trpg's, it is a huge adjustment getting into this headspace (for players and GMs: try to make an adventure where you don't have to fight anything and you'll see what I mean). The second thing is this: the organization of the books is a mess. Making a character takes forever because its laid out pretty poorly imo, and it doesn't help that you need to look through 3 books (the player's guide rewrites the character creation process so it's easier) in multiple sections all over the place to make one, given that these character sheets aren't supposed to be complex. The system is actually pretty elegant, but I agree that it suffers from trying to play 5e in it, and therefore takes more work on the front end to build objectives and challenges that suit the system.

8:00 I can understand where you're coming from, using a computer to build your character but I don't know if I'd really recommend that. I think you might be better off with a true session zero where the players really take the time to create their characters, and write down a separate piece of paper anything they might need to remember, it'll give them a better feel for their character and it's workings even if it takes time and feels a fair bit more clunky to begin with.

I love this game.

Numenera is a good game that seems like it was designed exactly for me I've never really gotten into it as much as I'd like. The systems good and by all accounts I SHOULD love the setting, it's inspired by all my favorite books, my favorite artists and movies and everything, Moebius & Miyazaki and Mézières & Moorcock. But in practice reading the books just makes me bored, the setting and art feels like diet Moebius, all the strangeness and weirdness boiled down into a sorta generic sci-fi thing more reminiscent of a retextured D&D Sword Coast than Edena or Sable. I get that the settings already hard to communicate but I want it to be even *weirder*, even more colourful.

I really want to like Numenera, I think the concept of it is so cool, but for some reason when I actually sit down to read the book I just can't get into the setting at all, even though on paper it sounds awesome

I have the 1st addition of the game. Is it still the same system or are there any major changes to the rules?

Seems like a setting perhaps better fitted to a video game or TV series. With the XP serving as a metacurrency, along with stat pools, I feel like a lot of little beads would just be traded back and forth; seems like a few too many pools to track for my tastes.

Dave, does it include information for creating your own monsters and weird NPCs?

This Rpg Stories VTT that is sponsoring..did you actually try it? It sounds nice and looks even better

In some ways, the base came reminds me more of Dungeon World than DnD

Fantastic setting but I'm not a fan of the game system itself. I use Into the Odd with it and it works great.

I'm gonna tell you one of my cringiest moments as a GM: Numenera was my first TTRPG and I LOVED the idea! So many possibilities. Unfortunately, my first time GMing, I totally tried to bring Fallout into the setting and it understandably was received poorly. I wake up in cringing cold sweats when I remember that. I've learned since then! I love the setting and I can appreciate MCG's thought processes if some of it did have some missteps or oddities. Thanks for reviewing it, I look forward to seeing if/when you do the Destiny book! Also, congrats on the Ennies nomination! I made sure to vote for you, you're doing something unique, fun, and helpful. Thank you!

One of the few issues I have with the setting is that, there isn't much difference between it being Earth, a billion years into the future, with nothing recognisable of the Earth familiar to us, and having it set in an entirely different world. In other words, I find saying this setting is Earth is narratively useless.

So, no dog stats?

I have mixed feelings when it comes to Numenera. The best thing about it is the freedom you gain through the rules lite system and the plethora of abilities and Numenera you can use. Character creation is simple but fun and leveling up feels powerful. But the cipher system is not well designed. My biggest gripe is that this combat heavy system forces you to cast everything from your lifepoints. Especially defense is a big problem. Example: Having to dodge an attack gives you 4 outcomes. Meet the die roll, miss the die roll, spend effort to decrease difficulty and succeed the roll, spend effort to decrease the roll and fail. 3 out of these 4 outcomes result in you losing points in a pool. And the worst outcome is the effort+fail one, which can easily empty one of your pools and make you so much worse at everything. I am a player who is unlucky when it comes to rolling dice. Statistically, I roll 3 times the amount of nat1's then the average player. So having a system that punishes you severly for rolling bad is my bane. I died several times during our games. So as much as I love the storytelling in the setting and the ease at which you can start to play, I do dislike combat. Numenera is a lot better as a thriller, a exploration based game or a pure social game then a combat focused one.

*WARNING: WALL OF TEXT!* ...sorry. ...I just like getting to talk about my favourite RPG and its system! As a GM for Numenera 2 Discovery/Destiny, allow me to illuminate some things... Discovery is basically a reprint of the original core rulebook, so alot of the wording and such still reflects the original intent of what they wanted Numenera to be...but with some slight updates and balances into certain parts of the book for QOL improvements for gameplay and players. Destiny is the real improvement here... Destiny introduces 3 new Types/Classes, as well as some "optional changes" to the base classes to bring them into compatibility with Destiny's focus on Narrative. This is a HUGE deal, because it allows the Glaive to not just be "the fighty-warrior", but now a tactician... a weapons master... a trainer... and a recruiter! While all 6 types get access to "followers", the Glaive gets the second best advantage here, because they can get more then one, and can also "recruit" (the best is the Arkay, who is a "Leader"-type, and who can get 3 followers, and can raise them upto level 4, i think it is; usually the cap is level 3.). Another aspect for Destiny is that it provides you with extensive rules for creating your own Settlement, how you might come across that, and what it would entale to keep it functioning and safe. A big aspect in this is one of the OTHER new Types, the Wright; whose basically Bob the Builder...or a Fallout 4 Settlement Workshop. They need to know the plan, or create one, and they need the resources to make/build it... but once those requirements are met, they get to making and building stuff! They can even re-energise spent Numenera, or make their own NEW Numenera. This gameplay style is supported by the third new Type, the Delve; whose a splunking, scavanging, barely distinct from a Magpie cleptomaniac...(or so my players have always played them as)...but if you need Idiums and resources, they are PERFECT for the job. Destiny changes up the Core Types to provide them with similar settlement interactivity... as said, the Glaive basically becomes the "Town Sheriff", and can train and recruit "deputies" to provide protect and law enforcement in the settlement (they also add/reduce the severity of Ab-Human or Raider attacks on the settlement, as do Walls or defensive emplacements). The Nano becomes a centre of focus for the Town as an "all-encompassing Wise-Person", and depending on their ability to connect with the Datasphere, may be able to provide services such as "forecasting the weather for crops", "scanning the town for infiltrators", "scanning the area beyond the wall for dangers", "medicine person", and general teacher...they can also take on a Follower who can remain in your Settlement to keep up these services, acting as a Scribe to your Magician, so-to-speak. The Jack actually gets the most handy use here...as a Jack-of-all-Trades, they can basically provide assistance with any task when they are free... and depending on their skills, or gained skills, Jacks can teach people how to be farmers, how to cook certain foods, how to track creatures, how to parkour, how to fight hand-to-hand, etc... ...I dread the day someone thinks of the idea of a Mystic Wright who Dances with Dark Matter...because they're gonna (at level 6) make "Dark Matter Mecha-Godzilla"...OFCOURSE they are... If they go adventuring in the Wastes Beyond the Beyond and encounter Destroyers and Titanosaurs... you bet your SHIN they'll begin working on an Idium to combine with their Dark Matter powers, to...at a moments notice...summon a Dark Matter Mecha-Godzilla. ...Have you MET players?! As soon as they realise thats possible...it'll happen. ...Another Destiny point... Discoveries! Not to be confused with Discovery... Discoveries is a new unique tier to the "items" list... So, you have your general items... then you have your Cyphers, generally 1-off use things... then you have your Artefacts, generally incredible things that have a roll-to-use-or-lose number of uses... and then theres Discoveries; these are things that cant be moved or whatever, and are generally provided as an "End of Adventure" reward... To use some examples from Scifi and Fantasy... a Stargate from Stargate would be a Discovery... a Giant God Warrior from Nausicaa would be a Discovery (though a very BAD one)... a Locator Beacon that Teleports you to an Automated Hospital Satellite would be a Discovery (Fallout New Vegas: Old World Blues sorta thing)... In general, a "Discovery" is something the players "cant take with them"; either its too big, too heavy, or too far away. Another aspect I wanted to touch on is that the Major and Minor Effects from a 19 or 20 are related to your Focus... You describe an example of your Focus manifesting in a Minor or Major effect, and that in turn, guides the way you manifest that effect when you roll well... For Example... a "Dances with Dark Matter" Glaive may create a "Dark Matter Shadow" decoy as a minor effect, and may gain a floating "Dark Matter Shield" that'll block damage for the next 1-2 attacks. But...this is entirely designed to be how the PLAYER describes it for their effect...in this case, it may have been described "Dark Matter Protects Me", thus creating a shadow decoy and a shield. Another thing that Numenera 2 has allowed, is that iv basically established my own world setting and prior worlds outlining... which was basically just the excuse for me to grab a BUNCH of stuff from my interests to plop in as Items, Cyphers, Artefacts, and Discoveries... such as the Green Dragon Dagger from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers...and yes, if they can figure it out, it WILL summon the Green Dragon Zord! "Give me a Numenera Skill Check" "eeeee...whats the Check?" "20" "What about reduct..." "...that IS with reductions" "12" "The Massive Mechanical Beast that you just summoned begins to rampage" "...aaarrrgh...shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite" Nano Player "Well, Im not getting blown up or stepped on...im out!" *teleports away* Wright who Bares a Halo of Fire "Wait, I think I can conjure a Phoenix-like Titanosaur to distract it so we can get away, Jack" Stupid Jack who got what was coming to them "DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!" ...you, ummm...you dont wanna know the rest. Now, I admit I do some homebrew/fudging sometimes to keep a game going, rather then stopping to check rules during. But, if I get anything wrong, I also make sure I give 1-2 XP to my players at the beginning of the next session. A fair compensation that my players have enjoyed; then again, my deal with them was "Dont be murder hobos, and if I get sh*t wrong, I'll give you XP for my F-ups"...surprisingly good tactic.

Dave, could you please cove Kult: Divinity Lost? It's really a deserving game. A very grim and dark City of Mist.

I opened this video to see what yall had to say about this system I had vague feelings of distaste about but was almost immediately reminded why I hate it. The player's HP being tied into your ability to roll well is so ass backwards I'm actually kind of surprised Monte Cook came up with it. It leads to your players being hyper conservative, avoiding basically *any* situation that could lead to them taking damage of any kind. After all, that's power they lost against their will. They might have needed those 2 points to succeed down the line.

wwe started playing Numenera, but i have a few issues with it, first the german versíon is written really complicated, i dont know if its the translation or the original text. Second its more combat than wanted, i wanted an explorative game, that makes me wonder whats around the next corner and whats out there. then we altered the recovery system: thruoght the day you have all 4 options, but you can choose wich you do, if you have an hour midday because you take a break from wandering around, you can do that even when you havnt done the 1 min. or 10min. break, wich made us use the points more, and take all the breaks during the day. Third or so, how the adventures are written, nothing is really well explained, for example i am a Nano and have the skill scan wich gives me more or less all the info about something i scan. than the adventure mentins a wired orange goo commimg out of the earth, of course i will scan it. are there informations about its toxisity, or the form, what it is, is it actually liquid?? No, my Dm had to think about that alone, or read it somewhre far later in the book, because why would someone get curios when its mentioned???? like just explai it when you mentin it. its an interesting world, but not really good if you are the DM and dont have alot of time to basically write half of the story. especially if its a story in the rulebook, it should be well written and not like a half decent homebrew campain what i like about it, you can be completly bonkers and free if you have a crazy idea for a homebrew campain and it dosnt really fit into a normal setting, DnD or DSA, or Splittermond, wich are all "normal" mideval fantasy inspired, so i will definetly try and make my campain based onn a waether dice and an underground civilization that whent extinkt. but im new to writing my on stuff, wich sucks. but jeah it dose have its downsides.

The Numa Numa verse.

I really love the setting, as it is a unique take on science fiction, that appeals to fans of classic fantasy nonetheless. The idea, that technology can seem like magic is not new in itself, but it wasn't ever realized that good. Numenera ventures further into the future than other settings, thus making the world more mysterious and the discovery of new advanced technologies more exciting. As far as the rules go though, I'm far less excited. For me as a DM being more used to easy to learn systems like D&D 3.x/Pathfinder and 5e, the game seems rather difficult to learn and rules heavy. The concept of all rolls being done by players makes player character death infinitely more likely than in other systems and constantly changing cyphers make it harder for a character to specialize, as "abilities" switch from session to session.

Numbers is an art book in search of a game

Numenera discovery: to descover.. the start of the riddle. numenera destiny: your end goal.. the conculsion of the riddle. never found it hard

Hearing it pronounced "fo-sai" hurt my brain. Lol. It should be pronounced "fo-kai". Like a derivative of the word focus.

please please provide subtitles for your Deaf and Hard of Hearing viewers! Especially especially when you've got distorted voice because the autosub is especially useless then

The setting is to incoherent, as for me. Too unstable, not enough rules

Setting seems aweful. The system seems mildly interesting. Pass

😂 ░p░r░o░m░o░s░m░