I didn't back it, because Monte Cook is not on my list of favorite designers, but apparently when he is given free reign to do whatever he wants... he makes something really cool.

Things I like about Numenera and why I think people should love it:

1. Character Generation is flavorful and simple.

I am a [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]

95% of your character creation options are just filling out three things:
Descriptor (Adjective)
Type (Noun)
Focus (Verb)

You pick each from a list and they are templates that all stack to create your character. After that you distribute 6 free points for stats and pick like 2 special abilities based on your Type and you are done!

2. The game is super easy to wing.

Tim Lorthain; Level 3

Seriously the above is a valid statline. True a lot of them are longer, but the above works 100% in a game. Let's say we want Tim to be good at lying. We can change his statline to

Tim Lorthain; Level 3; Lies as Level 4

3. The GM never has to pick up a die.

This one might be a positive or negative depending on the person, but I really like the idea of not having to ever roll anything when running the game. It lets me go with just adventure notes in front of me.

4. The setting is cool and has a neat flavor all its own, that doesn't try to fill in everything.

I love the setting, the whole concept of superscience that people don't understand being "magic" is really cool. And I love that he filled out a lot of neat things, while leaving the majority of things very OPEN for the GM to make it their own.

Anyone else hyped about Numenera?

I don't like the game system. Way too forgey for me, with the narrative logic sustaining the game, the GM Intervention thing, the GM not rolling dice, etc etc. There are some cool bits, like the adjective-noun-verb thing, and the basic way rolls work, which I think are worth checking out for inspiration, but the bottom line for me is that I wouldn't run Numenera with its game system whole sale.

The setting is really what makes it worth checking out, for me. I can totally see a connection between Numenera and the dungeon existing in my D&D game, and some characters getting potentially transported there to live some adventures and maybe come back, or not, Barsoom style. That'd be cool.

Got it two weeks ago and am still reading it. So far I have to say I like it especially the setting. The system in my mind is ok - looks easy enough but I am not very keen on the GM not rolling any dice (I prefer the GM doing almost all the dice rolling) but I do like the sinple NPC creation rules. Overall I'm impressed! I could definitively see myself running it in the future.

I like the simplicity of the character generation system but I am unsure of the mechanics.  I suspect that I might need to try the system out to really grok it.

I've read all the rules and most if the world stuff, and ran 'the Vortex' for a group of 3PCs last weekend.

We made characters rather than using the pre-gens supplied and it was both easy and evocative. We ended up with:

• A strong Glaive who explores dark places
• A graceful Jack who murders, and
• A charming Nano who wields power with precision.

The adventure was fun, with a good mix of role-play, exploration and some combat. The game we had been most recently been playing (Warhammer 3e) really punishes combat so my players were still feeling naturally cautious and so not picking unnecessary fights.

The system really sings from the GM perspective. It's very easy to set difficulty ratings and then computer from there. It's extremely easy to adjudicate creative stuff the players try. They were hunting down a giant, psychic crab monster in a lake, and through concerted effort managed to ram it with their boat. Normally, the creature was level 5; I decided their ramming attack severely injured it, and dropped it to a level 3 creature as a result. The small number of mechanics which are needed for monsters all start off derived from the level, so it was literally the work of seconds to re-jig it's stats.

The players had lots of fun, and really got into the game world and the premise, which the adventure delivered on with weird happening and strange installations. One PC was zapped by a strange device which left him able to speak a dead language. Another time, they suffered weird hallucinations.

The game encourages creative solutions, and the Cyphers (one-shot devices) really help on this. And since the players don't generate XP from overcoming specific encounters or fights the GM doesn't feel concerned that the players are getting things 'too easy'.

Cyphers are easy to create as well, with generally only one or two numbers needed along with a description of their effect. I wrote down the name of one of the cyphers in the book wrong; I made an 'offensive teleporter' by mistake. But once I spotted that it didn't exist it took my about 10 seconds to decide how it worked and what mechanics it had. And the PCs went on to use it to overcome a dangerous opponent in a creative fashion by teleporting an automaton into a tube of gaseous energy, frying and immobilising it. It was a cool moment as the monster had started beating down on them.

Combat is fluid, and runs quick but is still satisfying. Having the players do the rolling helps keep them all focussed better than I have seen in other, recent games. Since you can basically only do a single action each round, and since there is no grid or mat by default, each player's action was quickly resolved and so the action kept moving rather than bogging down. The NPCs are very light on mechanics, but have enough crunch so that they can do their job.

The biggest fight we had was three PCs on one side and four NPCs on the other (levels 4, 3 and two 2s). It was tricky, but the Glaive was very effective in this encounter. Again, since XP is not earned by combat you don't have to worry as the GM if a single encounter is overcome easier than anticipated. Some of the solo opponents around level 5 were much more challenging, though that was more due to their defences (armour and shields, depending on the creature). Another had the ability to attack the entire party each round, but they quickly overcome it with creative use of cyphers and skills.

The GM Intrusion mechanic worked well in play, being used to add some twists to otherwise straightforward scenes (I often used them outside of combat to mix things up with NPCs). The players went with it as we have an understanding that the GM won't use mechanics like this to stomp on the PCs.

Overall, the players really enjoyed it and enjoyed GMing more than I have for years.

Backed, read, liked, not yet played.
There's a couple of things I do not like (character generation is not that much newbie friendly IMHO), but I'd like to try it out to make up my mind.

I think its mix and match of OSR-like sensibilities, char-op and storygaming is going to prove wildly successful.

I like it lots.

Even besides that glorious setting, its rules Are pretty good too, especially character creation.

Quote from: Emperor Norton;696884I am a [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]

Characters seems too "Married With Children", "Family Guy", or "The Simpsons" to me.  It's the same situation role-play every game session.  Replace verbs with perks, because that's what characters will be using all the time.

Quote from: dbm;697010The small number of mechanics which are needed for monsters all start off derived from the level, so it was literally the work of seconds to re-jig it's stats.

Hmm, this is a big red flag for me. Needing to derive any stats mid combat is problematic. I'd imagine running a combat with twenty different creatures fighting the PCs would start to drag pretty quickly.

Quote from: dbm;697010Having the players do the rolling helps keep them all focussed better than I have seen in other, recent games.

I'm not sure why this would be seen as an advantage, opposed rolls feel to me at least much more like combat. The game seems to have removed complexity where it was good and added it where it wasn't.

I haven't read or played the game, just going by comments on the interwebs.

For the most part, I like the concepts in Numenera. I'm not sure it needed a huge world book aspect but it does make for a nice weighty tome.

A problem however I have is that resources (stats) that are spent for both success, and lost for damage is a problem I've had in playtests of one of my games. Notably, because  players don't like spending resources that directly impact their "Health" for other things. Making them stingy with those abilities or effects, and that seems detrimental to the purpose of those resources.

Quote from: The Traveller;697034Hmm, this is a big red flag for me. Needing to derive any stats mid combat is problematic. I'd imagine running a combat with twenty different creatures fighting the PCs would start to drag pretty quickly.

Its not as bad as it sounds. Take a level 4 enemy. It does 4 damage. Multiply the level by 3 to get 12. 12 is its health, and the difficulty of any check made against them.

Some enemies have some other adjustments, like say "attacks at level 5" which just means that you make defense rolls against a difficulty number of 15 instead of 12.

It literally takes seconds.

QuoteI'm not sure why this would be seen as an advantage, opposed rolls feel to me at least much more like combat. The game seems to have removed complexity where it was good and added it where it wasn't.

I haven't read or played the game, just going by comments on the interwebs.

The dice rolling thing is pretty subjective. I personally like it because when I run 10 enemies, I'm not doing 2-3 times more rolls than the players are combined.

Quote from: The Traveller;697034Hmm, this is a big red flag for me. Needing to derive any stats mid combat is problematic. I'd imagine running a combat with twenty different creatures fighting the PCs would start to drag pretty quickly.

I didn't have to do this; I chose to do it as it was an easy way to represent the creature taking a significant wound from being rammed with a ship. In another system, such as DnD 3.x I would never have attempted such a thing.

Quote from: Emperor Norton;696884Anyone else hyped about Numenera?

Yup. I've got two major campaigns I'm supposed to be working on at the moment, but Numenera keeps stealing my attention (and my money).

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;697030Characters seems too "Married With Children", "Family Guy", or "The Simpsons" to me.  It's the same situation role-play every game session.  Replace verbs with perks, because that's what characters will be using all the time.

I'm assuming you haven't even glanced at the rulebook? Each of those three options have multiple flavors and the abilities they possess are broad and flexible.

You're basically writing off D&D because the guy who's playing an elf is going to be an elf all the time.

Quote from: The Traveller;697034Hmm, this is a big red flag for me. Needing to derive any stats mid combat is problematic.

There's no need to derive stats mid-combat, but if you decide that you want to it's pretty simple. (What dbm was describing was a house ruling and really just came down to "apply a -2 penalty".)

QuoteI'd imagine running a combat with twenty different creatures fighting the PCs would start to drag pretty quickly.

Most creatures have literally two stats: Level and health points. If combat starts dragging in Numenera because you can't handle the bookkeeping, there isn't an RPG on the face of the planet that isn't going to drag for you.

But if it does start dragging, Numenera includes easy-to-use rules for monster mobs that will simplify the bookkeeping even more for you.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;697186There's no need to derive stats mid-combat, but if you decide that you want to it's pretty simple. (What dbm was describing was a house ruling and really just came down to "apply a -2 penalty".)

You are (understandably) underplaying this mechanic. It is extremely easy to handle, as you say, and it governs all the primary combat stats of the monster:

• How easily it hits the PCs
• How easily the PCs hit it
• How many hit points it has
• How much damage it does with a hit.

One of the key strengths of the Numenera system is that all these numbers can be derived in seconds from the NPC level.

Imagine trying to re-jig AC, To Hit bonus, HP and damage in DnD 3.x mid-fight; it would never happen.

Wow. Cook is business-savvy:
http://www.alderac.com/thunderstone/numenera/