Any experiences or comments to share? How its play? And have you run into issues?

Quote from: Nexus;839808Any experiences or comments to share? How its play? And have you run into issues?

I've run it, but more as a stopgap system until the Cypher System Rulebook is released. The trickiest part for me is remembering to do GM intrusions, and deciding what is really a GMI and what is part of the adventure I planned. As I run on the fly (and Cypher is exceptionally good for that) I rarely have notes enough to justify that something is what I intended rather than "gimme an XP or it didn't happen". That hasn't really happened, but I wouldn't really fault a player for calling me on it if it seemed far-fetched.

It's a game that I hope to try out one day, but it'll only happen if I have a different group. The issue that comes up with my group is that the Cypher system uses only a single d20 for everything. I have at least one player who likes rolling multiple dice and prefers using different types of dice. Using a single d20 is a no-go for her. I had to shelve my Mutants & Masterminds campaign idea for the same reason.

That's the only major issue I saw on my read-through, but that's more of a player preference thing than an actual fault of the game itself.

Quote from: Brand55;839932It's a game that I hope to try out one day, but it'll only happen if I have a different group. The issue that comes up with my group is that the Cypher system uses only a single d20 for everything. I have at least one player who likes rolling multiple dice and prefers using different types of dice. Using a single d20 is a no-go for her. I had to shelve my Mutants & Masterminds campaign idea for the same reason.

Is her objection due to lack of bell curve, or just from not having multiple dice to roll? If it's the latter, you could hand her percentile dice and multiply difficulty by 15% to find target, roll over target. I had that problem with a True20 player years ago.

Quote from: Paraguybrarian;839959Is her objection due to lack of bell curve, or just from not having multiple dice to roll? If it's the latter, you could hand her percentile dice and multiply difficulty by 15% to find target, roll over target. I had that problem with a True20 player years ago.

She just thinks rolling a single die every time is boring. I'm probably the only person in the group who worries overly much about probabilities and game balance. Everyone else just wants to goof off for a few hours a few Saturday nights a month.

15%? Do you mean just 15? If I'm remembering the system correctly, using percentile dice would mean you'd need a scale of target numbers from 15-150 in multiples of 15, roll target number or higher to succeed. I'm also not sure how that would interact with the rest of the system, as I haven't read the book in awhile, but you're right. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to adjust some other numbers and run The Strange or any other Cypher game as a d100 game rather than a d20 one.

Quote from: Brand55;839972She just thinks rolling a single die every time is boring. I'm probably the only person in the group who worries overly much about probabilities and game balance. Everyone else just wants to goof off for a few hours a few Saturday nights a month.

15%? Do you mean just 15? If I'm remembering the system correctly, using percentile dice would mean you'd need a scale of target numbers from 15-150 in multiples of 15, roll target number or higher to succeed. I'm also not sure how that would interact with the rest of the system, as I haven't read the book in awhile, but you're right. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to adjust some other numbers and run The Strange or any other Cypher game as a d100 game rather than a d20 one.

Yeah, multiply by 15 (not percent, thoughtless typo). You only need to account for rolls of 1 (1-5), 17 (81-85), 18 (86-90), 19 (91-95) and 20 (96-00) to handle intrusions and special results. But really simple, if you're just accounting for a player quirk.

Haven't played or read it.

Read the books and like the system - but the world didn't do it for me. The premise is cool but recursions etc. just don't trigger my imagination - feels too synthetic to me. I made some recursions and so on but the inspiration failed me in the end. Plus my player and soon players are more "old school" so we went with BRP and L5R instead - system they already know and like. Someday maybe I might get something going but for now I am sticking to systems that everyone likes and want to play.

Nitril, while I like the setting well enough (I also liked Torg quite a bit, and their are some similarities) I use it for the engine. The nearly-released Cypher System Rulebook might do the trick better, being generic. It also has the advantage (to me) of having a large number of foci and descriptors under one roof. Going generic the way I did required a lot of flipping between four books when players were making characters. Even in PDF on a tablet, I found that to be a pain in the ass. Almost no referencing happens during gameplay, fortunately.

I have been looking at the generic cypher book but haven't made up my mind yet. Money will be tighter going forward for me so I need to focus on what I will actually use rather than want.

Yes I think the system is great (and easy enough to adapt to any setting). I also used to be a huge Torg fan back in the day and agree the games have some similarities (and one reason I bought it).

Way too many better RPGs to play.

Dumb question: PCs change to adjust to the context of a new Recursion. Are these changes chosen by the character consciously (in game) or the player in meta game decision?

Quote from: Nexus;856758Dumb question: PCs change to adjust to the context of a new Recursion. Are these changes chosen by the character consciously (in game) or the player in meta game decision?

They're chosen by the player when he or she selects a new focus (assuming that a new focus is chosen at all), though you could think of it as the characters imagining their new bodies as they translate. Either way, the players get to choose their new forms and abilities.

Quote from: Brand55;856765They're chosen by the player when he or she selects a new focus (assuming that a new focus is chosen at all), though you could think of it as the characters imagining their new bodies as they translate. Either way, the players get to choose their new forms and abilities.

I figured the Player gets to chose but I was wondering if the character did the choosing or could they be surprised by their new bodies (which seems more fun at least until they get the hang of traveling between Recursions). All this PCs in this game are totally new to The Strange and Recursions, btw

Quote from: Nexus;856766I figured the Player gets to chose but I was wondering if the character did the choosing or could they be surprised by their new bodies (which seems more fun at least until they get the hang of traveling between Recursions). All this PCs in this game are totally new to The Strange and Recursions, btw

I don't recall that specifically being addressed. Since there are two general ways of translating (a group-initiated translation involving meditation or a translation involving a gate) you could actually use both. If the group travels through a gate, the characters won't know what to expect on the other side. But if they translate under the more controlled conditions of a group-initiated translation, they'll arrive in their chosen forms.