Quote from: Benoist;745724Numenera is great for what it is: an unapologetically narrative role playing game that assumes its identity minus the Forge bagage and manages to be truly original in places. I can see how it can rock the world of gamers who like these things.

The setting for me, personally, is the real value here. The system is not my cup of tea. I could imagine playing it and having tons of fun, but that is not my GMing style at all. The GM intrusions for the sake of the fiction, the players roll all the dice design of the game, these just rub me the wrong way as a GM.

It's certainly worth a look in any case.

I agree, the system it's not for everyone, although it's more traditional than the average story-game out there. I find it to be the middle ground between a traditional game and a story-game. You could probably run a game with people who like traditional games and people who like indie games, and they could have a good time together playing Numenera.

I like both traditional games and story-games, so I guess Numenera has the best of both worlds to me.

As for the system, yeah, it's awesome and quite unique (at least I don't know other games with a similar setting). The book has enought details to give you a solid ground to start your games and build characters, while at the same time it has near infinity room for you to add whatever you want (there is even a Lovecraftian supplement to turn Numenera into a cosmic horror game, and I wouldn't be surprised to see similar supplements in the future for other genres or playstyles). Even if people don't like the system the game is worth checking out just for the setting.

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;745767Glimmers and Cyphers. I hear these words and I must read to discover their meaning, because at this point (not knowing the system) they are very opaque.

A good or bad thing system-design-wise?

The word Glimmer can mean two things based on context. In-game, glimmers are visions some people randomly receive from the Datasphere (it's kinda like a wireless global super evolved internet). Product-wise, Glimmers is the name used by Monte for the short PDF supplements (5-10 pages on average) he releases every month for the game. I find it cool, since you always have a something new each month for a low price. I wouldn't be surprised if once he has enough Glimmers he compiles them into a single physical book.

As for Cyphers, that's the name for one of the four times of Numenera you may find, and by far the most common. They are single-use devices with all sort of cool effects. For example, a player may find gloves that allow him to climb walls for 15 minutes or an anti-gravity belt that hovers him above the ground for 1 hour. Afterwards the cyphers stop working.

Also, since there is a maximum on the number of cyphers a single player may have (2 or 3 for starting characters), and you find cyphers all the time, the game encourages you to use them rather than hoard them. If you exceed your cypher limit, each morning you have to roll on a table to see how your cyphers react to each other (this may be things like an unusual odor or noise, one or more cyphers destroyed or even weird things like all your cyphers joining to create a sentient being or even that a singularity opens for a second and your character forever vanishes). More cyphers you hoard above your allowed limit, more likely you'll get a worse result.

My players have become quite fond of cyphers, since it's a way to temporary expand their capabilities. It's also cool for a GM, since you can create cyphers without having to worry much about balance or abuse (they are only going to use it once anyway, so you can let your imagination run free).

I was part of the kickstarter. I ran a few games of it. I like the world and like the character generation (to a point;  I prefer well defined skill systems),  but remain unimpressed by the system. Other games in my rotation such as Fate, Gumshoe, Ubiquity and d20 variants have been working better for me.

On paper this game should be right up my alley, but it just doesn't quite do it for me.  Most Dying Earth settings/stories are very baroque, which I don't get from Numenera.  Numenera gives you weird, which isn't exactly the same thing.

Along those same lines, I also roll my eyes a bit at the history of the world.  Monte's stuff is so over-the-top.  A previous civilization that could harness the energy of the galaxy? No, let's make 9 previous ones!  Set the game 100,000 years in the future?  No, let's make it millions!  There isn't anything particularly wrong with that, but it just feels a little too "Michael Bay" for me.

I think I'm being overly picky though.

Got it in PDF a couple of weeks back. Still reading through it.

Quote from: Benoist;745724Numenera is great for what it is: an unapologetically narrative role playing game that assumes its identity minus the Forge bagage and manages to be truly original in places. I can see how it can rock the world of gamers who like these things.

Really looking forward to giving the system a try. All I can say so far is that character creation rocks. Learned Nano who Talks To Machines! Clever Jack who Controls Gravity! Rugged Glaive who Howls At The Moon! I can do this all day.

Quote from: Benoist;745724The setting for me, personally, is the real value here. The system is not my cup of tea. I could imagine playing it and having tons of fun, but that is not my GMing style at all. The GM intrusions for the sake of the fiction, the players roll all the dice design of the game, these just rub me the wrong way as a GM.

The setting is really cool; I love the Book of the New Sun vibe at work here. That's what I've always wanted to capture in such a game, and it's got a consistency to it that makes a great counterpoint from the gonzo and silly approaches that have been so popular lately.

But to be honest it's the setting for The Strange that I'm really looking forward to know more about. As a long-time Rifts fan, I find cross-genre transdimensional settings pretty awesome.

Quote from: Dr. Benton Quest;745835On paper this game should be right up my alley, but it just doesn't quite do it for me.  Most Dying Earth settings/stories are very baroque, which I don't get from Numenera.  Numenera gives you weird, which isn't exactly the same thing.

May I be so bold as to nudge you towards Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? It's definitely more of a Clark Ashton Smith dying earth, to Numenera's Gene Wolfe.

Quote from: Dr. Benton Quest;745835Along those same lines, I also roll my eyes a bit at the history of the world.  Monte's stuff is so over-the-top.  A previous civilization that could harness the energy of the galaxy? No, let's make 9 previous ones!  Set the game 100,000 years in the future?  No, let's make it millions!  There isn't anything particularly wrong with that, but it just feels a little too "Michael Bay" for me.

I think I'm being overly picky though.

Fantasy nerds, be they writers or gamers, have no sense of scale. But at this point it's really become a trope on its own for games to emulate.

I don't know how much it helps, but Monte actually wrote an explanation as to why he chose a billion years.

Quote from: The Butcher;745860May I be so bold as to nudge you towards Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? It's definitely more of a Clark Ashton Smith dying earth, to Numenera's Gene Wolfe.

I just got that a couple weeks ago actually.  Haven't had a chance to play it yet, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Current Bundle of Holding is this, in case someone is interested but hasn't yet pulled the trigger. (This thread put me off it, TBH.)

I've got a buddy who is a fan, so the worst case is that I get an interesting science-fantasy RPG for my money.

Apparently there is a new batch of books about the Datasphere coming out, have they arrived yet?

Persoanlly i like Numenera but am not a fan, its too vanilla for me(yep, too vanilla for its genre). What i would like is a Dancers at the End of Time rpg. Now that i would buy in a heartbeat. I think its simply a better setting.

There is an rpg called THE CHRONICLES OF FUTURE EARTH but it uses Fate Core. I find it more appealing than Numenera but its not out yet. Similarly, i just enjoy the Dying Earth genre.

My World of the Last Sun DCC campaign is set something like 10 trillion years into the future.

Quote from: Warder;1130618Apparently there is a new batch of books about the Datasphere coming out, have they arrived yet?

Persoanlly i like Numenera but am not a fan, its too vanilla for me(yep, too vanilla for its genre). What i would like is a Dancers at the End of Time rpg. Now that i would buy in a heartbeat. I think its simply a better setting.

There is an rpg called THE CHRONICLES OF FUTURE EARTH but it uses Fate Core. I find it more appealing than Numenera but its not out yet. Similarly, i just enjoy the Dying Earth genre.

E-mails went out on the 22nd to claim the pdf and physical for KS backers.  I've got the pdf but haven't had a chance to look at it yet.  Anything specific you want to know?  I could "flip" though and see what's there.

Warder,
I'm very curious what aspects of the settings you mentioned appeal to you?

(Dancers at the End of Time, Chronicles of Future Earth and Dying Earth.)

Ben