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Numenera
Numenera Corebook
There have been eight previous worlds.
Each world stretched across vast millennia of time. Each played host to a race whose civilizations rose to supremacy but eventually died or scattered, disappeared or transcended. During the time that each world flourished, those that ruled it spoke to the stars, reengineered their physical bodies, and mastered form and essence, all in their own unique ways.
Each left behind remnants.
People of the new world - the Ninth World - sometimes call these remnants magic, and who are we to say they're wrong? But most give a unique name to the legacies of the nigh-unimaginable past. The call them...
Numenera
The Ninth World is built on the bones of the previous eight. The game of Numenera is about discovering the wonders of the world that came before, not for their own sake, but as the means to improve the present and build a future.
Set in a far, far distant future, Numenera puts a new spin on traditional fantasy, creating something unique to reinvigorate the imagination of gamers everywhere. Player characters explore a world of mystery and danger to find leftover artifacts of the past: bits of nanotechnology, the datasphere threaded among still-orbiting satellites, bio-engineered creatures, and myriad strange and wondrous devices that defy understanding.
With streamlined, intuitive rules, Numenera allows players to create characters in minutes and puts the emphasis back on story rather than laborious mechanics. Numenera is the latest creation of one of the biggest names in roleplaying games, award-winning designer and fan-favorite Monte Cook.
Numenera Offers:
Streamlined story-based mechanics
The means for players to create the character they truly want to play
Open-ended gameplay with a strong narrative
A focus on mystery and the unknown, filling players with a sense of wonder
A complete overview of the Ninth World setting, filled with imaginative ideas, useful hooks, interesting characters, and wild locales
A bestiary of more than fifty creatures and characters
Descriptions of hundreds of technological items
Three chapters of game mastering advice written by one of the foremost experts on the topic
Four adventures to kickstart any campaign
Each world stretched across vast millennia of time. Each played host to a race whose civilizations rose to supremacy but eventually died or scattered, disappeared or transcended. During the time that each world flourished, those that ruled it spoke to the stars, reengineered their physical bodies, and mastered form and essence, all in their own unique ways.
Each left behind remnants.
People of the new world - the Ninth World - sometimes call these remnants magic, and who are we to say they're wrong? But most give a unique name to the legacies of the nigh-unimaginable past. The call them...
Numenera
The Ninth World is built on the bones of the previous eight. The game of Numenera is about discovering the wonders of the world that came before, not for their own sake, but as the means to improve the present and build a future.
Set in a far, far distant future, Numenera puts a new spin on traditional fantasy, creating something unique to reinvigorate the imagination of gamers everywhere. Player characters explore a world of mystery and danger to find leftover artifacts of the past: bits of nanotechnology, the datasphere threaded among still-orbiting satellites, bio-engineered creatures, and myriad strange and wondrous devices that defy understanding.
With streamlined, intuitive rules, Numenera allows players to create characters in minutes and puts the emphasis back on story rather than laborious mechanics. Numenera is the latest creation of one of the biggest names in roleplaying games, award-winning designer and fan-favorite Monte Cook.
Numenera Offers:
Streamlined story-based mechanics
The means for players to create the character they truly want to play
Open-ended gameplay with a strong narrative
A focus on mystery and the unknown, filling players with a sense of wonder
A complete overview of the Ninth World setting, filled with imaginative ideas, useful hooks, interesting characters, and wild locales
A bestiary of more than fifty creatures and characters
Descriptions of hundreds of technological items
Three chapters of game mastering advice written by one of the foremost experts on the topic
Four adventures to kickstart any campaign
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
32 people are currently reading
376 people want to read
About the author
Monte Cook
211 books125 followers
The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
January 6, 2016
I got this a while ago because I like Monte Cook's work and this looked interesting. It's actually a Rule & Setting book for a roleplaying game, and my older two kids have read it and been begging me to play it with them so I've finally read it and started. They are loving it even though I am definitely not any more than mediocre at best. They don't say much about how well they like it while we play, but every time we've stopped to pick up again later they say, "Wow, that was great." I suspect their imaginations are filling in a lot of the gaps. I also suspect that's the nature of roleplaying games if you like them -- there's so much potential that even an okay game can be a lot of fun.
As for the book, it's quite good. Cook has a definite setting in mind and sticks to it: the Earth a billion years in the future, when multiple human & alien civilizations have risen to astonishing technological heights and fallen, leading to a world where humans dominate once again but in a very crude way focused mostly on survival. They literally live on top of bits of technology from the past that are weird, super-advanced, and often only working temporarily, and the game is focused on discovery, exploration, and wonder. The rules of the game are fairly simple, although not as simple as Cook has been claiming. The rule section is pretty accessible and easy to learn, but takes a little practice to get the hang of, which I suspect is the case for most games. The setting is pretty neat and certainly an interesting read.
The one significant failure in the game is a weakness common to all science fiction about the far future: it's about something that is far beyond our culture and civilization, but we can't imagine enough to fill in the gaps and the result ends up being a lot more based on our current culture and technological understanding than it should. It's a problem endemic to any far-future science fiction, so I wouldn't mention it here, except that Cook explicitly states that anyone running the game shouldn't fall victim to it and describe things in terms of current culture & technology. And yet he does that himself, even if it's one level removed from direct references. I'm not sure who could avoid it, given how much humans understand things based on metaphor (comparisons to what we already know).
As for the book, it's quite good. Cook has a definite setting in mind and sticks to it: the Earth a billion years in the future, when multiple human & alien civilizations have risen to astonishing technological heights and fallen, leading to a world where humans dominate once again but in a very crude way focused mostly on survival. They literally live on top of bits of technology from the past that are weird, super-advanced, and often only working temporarily, and the game is focused on discovery, exploration, and wonder. The rules of the game are fairly simple, although not as simple as Cook has been claiming. The rule section is pretty accessible and easy to learn, but takes a little practice to get the hang of, which I suspect is the case for most games. The setting is pretty neat and certainly an interesting read.
The one significant failure in the game is a weakness common to all science fiction about the far future: it's about something that is far beyond our culture and civilization, but we can't imagine enough to fill in the gaps and the result ends up being a lot more based on our current culture and technological understanding than it should. It's a problem endemic to any far-future science fiction, so I wouldn't mention it here, except that Cook explicitly states that anyone running the game shouldn't fall victim to it and describe things in terms of current culture & technology. And yet he does that himself, even if it's one level removed from direct references. I'm not sure who could avoid it, given how much humans understand things based on metaphor (comparisons to what we already know).
April 16, 2018
An excellent rule-book that does a great job of explaining the system while drawing you into the setting. For me, Numenera is the ultimate setting for a gaming group that likes a bit of everything. Earth a billion years in the future has seen countless civilisations rise and fall, and the technology that they each utilised may still exist, buried deep and waiting to be found by bold adventurers.
Want traditional medieval fantasy? No problem, explore one of the quiet countries where tech is extremely rare and fiefdom-politics is the focus.
Fancy hard sci-fi? Up the tech level, have the party discover some space-flight capable ships and oh-oh, there's an alien race out for blood who've just appeared in the system.
How about some inter-dimensional Lovecraftian horror? Got you covered for that - one of the numerous precursor races tapped into some alien power to advance their own civilisation, and oh shit, big bad Yog-Sothoth is currently ripping through the dimensional fabric of the Ninth World to collect his price.
Numenera's setting allows for basically any theme to appear in your game, and for them all to exist in tandem with each other. The Ninth World allows for basically any fantastical or science-fictional plot device to be included and explained as 'long-lost tech.' The system itself is one of the most streamlined and enjoyable I've played, and it allows the GM to focus on the story instead of worrying about drawing up stats for each individual encounter. Even if gaming isn't your thing, I would still recommend checking out the setting for some enjoyable world-building and SFF ideas that trump the majority of published fiction out there.
Want traditional medieval fantasy? No problem, explore one of the quiet countries where tech is extremely rare and fiefdom-politics is the focus.
Fancy hard sci-fi? Up the tech level, have the party discover some space-flight capable ships and oh-oh, there's an alien race out for blood who've just appeared in the system.
How about some inter-dimensional Lovecraftian horror? Got you covered for that - one of the numerous precursor races tapped into some alien power to advance their own civilisation, and oh shit, big bad Yog-Sothoth is currently ripping through the dimensional fabric of the Ninth World to collect his price.
Numenera's setting allows for basically any theme to appear in your game, and for them all to exist in tandem with each other. The Ninth World allows for basically any fantastical or science-fictional plot device to be included and explained as 'long-lost tech.' The system itself is one of the most streamlined and enjoyable I've played, and it allows the GM to focus on the story instead of worrying about drawing up stats for each individual encounter. Even if gaming isn't your thing, I would still recommend checking out the setting for some enjoyable world-building and SFF ideas that trump the majority of published fiction out there.
January 20, 2019
Regardless of how you feel about the system, this book should be a case study in making RPG core rulebooks. It's got information about the world, character creation, a whole chapter devoted to GM tips, multiple pre-made adventures, hundreds of cross references and footnotes, a large index, pages full of monsters, tips on making your own adventures, AND it's laid out in an intuitive and easy-to use fashion. For that alone, this book gets 5 stars.
The system itself is a little harder to rate. If you're looking for a binary "Is this a good game?" The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it depends on what you're looking for. Numenera is very flexible, and elegant in its simplicity. Many of the mechanics are slap-your-forehead-for-not-thinking-of-it-yourself obvious, and it would be easy for Cook and co. to have left them there. But they didn't. They went above and beyond, tying those mechanics to bigger, broader strokes.
The setting is weird, and if anything, the weakest part of Numenera is that it compromises on that setting, drawing comparisons to modern day and especially to traditional sword-and-sorcery fantasy in a way that de-emphasizes how wonderfully refreshing Numenera is. I'd have liked to see an unrestrained dive into that weird without being held back by what's come before. There's a couple paragraphs dedicated to changing terminology, using world instead of plane, avoiding terms like 'robot' and 'radar', but they feel like lip service, as the rest of the book mixes weird plant-serpent-nano beasts with boring old bandit raids.
Running Numenera is difficult. Or rather, it's very easy, and very different than most systems I've ever played with. The focus is on the narrative, so there's no concept of power creep. Giving your PCs a hugely overpowered one-use item is just fine because it's one use. This is, I think, the shining takeaway from Numenera-- do this in all your games. To paraphrase my favorite part of the book, Who cares if players can destroy one city or easily solve one mystery? They can only do it once. Once is memorable. It's when that becomes the mundane when it stops being fun.
If you're reading this book looking for things to apply to other games, that's it, there's your big takeaway: awesome power in small doses. If you're looking to run this game by itself, you'll want to read through the book, especially the last couple chapters that show what it feels like to play. Simplicity is king, and oftentimes rolls don't need to be made. In fact, instead of rolling, creative use of GM Intrusions (a wonderful mechanic where the GM offers XP in exchange for small cruelties) is really the modus operandi of Numenera.
I don't love running Numenera, but in truth that's largely because I'm not great at it yet. It takes a bit of a mind shift. It's easy to look at Numenera and believe that the GM has a smaller part than in some other games. That's only true to a certain extent. The truth is that the GM's role is different, and more reactionary than other systems. This means relying on less prepwork and more improv, being ready with GM intrusions and big weird things. It's a different approach, but it's not bad. If I have any faults with the system, it's because it's shaped in a new way, as if made for a creature with a different number of fingers than me. It hums oddly at my touch, and I'm still figuring out how to wield it right. And that is the most Numenera thing of all.
The system itself is a little harder to rate. If you're looking for a binary "Is this a good game?" The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it depends on what you're looking for. Numenera is very flexible, and elegant in its simplicity. Many of the mechanics are slap-your-forehead-for-not-thinking-of-it-yourself obvious, and it would be easy for Cook and co. to have left them there. But they didn't. They went above and beyond, tying those mechanics to bigger, broader strokes.
The setting is weird, and if anything, the weakest part of Numenera is that it compromises on that setting, drawing comparisons to modern day and especially to traditional sword-and-sorcery fantasy in a way that de-emphasizes how wonderfully refreshing Numenera is. I'd have liked to see an unrestrained dive into that weird without being held back by what's come before. There's a couple paragraphs dedicated to changing terminology, using world instead of plane, avoiding terms like 'robot' and 'radar', but they feel like lip service, as the rest of the book mixes weird plant-serpent-nano beasts with boring old bandit raids.
Running Numenera is difficult. Or rather, it's very easy, and very different than most systems I've ever played with. The focus is on the narrative, so there's no concept of power creep. Giving your PCs a hugely overpowered one-use item is just fine because it's one use. This is, I think, the shining takeaway from Numenera-- do this in all your games. To paraphrase my favorite part of the book, Who cares if players can destroy one city or easily solve one mystery? They can only do it once. Once is memorable. It's when that becomes the mundane when it stops being fun.
If you're reading this book looking for things to apply to other games, that's it, there's your big takeaway: awesome power in small doses. If you're looking to run this game by itself, you'll want to read through the book, especially the last couple chapters that show what it feels like to play. Simplicity is king, and oftentimes rolls don't need to be made. In fact, instead of rolling, creative use of GM Intrusions (a wonderful mechanic where the GM offers XP in exchange for small cruelties) is really the modus operandi of Numenera.
I don't love running Numenera, but in truth that's largely because I'm not great at it yet. It takes a bit of a mind shift. It's easy to look at Numenera and believe that the GM has a smaller part than in some other games. That's only true to a certain extent. The truth is that the GM's role is different, and more reactionary than other systems. This means relying on less prepwork and more improv, being ready with GM intrusions and big weird things. It's a different approach, but it's not bad. If I have any faults with the system, it's because it's shaped in a new way, as if made for a creature with a different number of fingers than me. It hums oddly at my touch, and I'm still figuring out how to wield it right. And that is the most Numenera thing of all.
February 10, 2017
The rare RPG book that I read from cover to cover. Although the pdf isn't cheap, I'll have to get the physical book too. Even though I'll likely never play it. That's how many great ideas are in here.
January 16, 2024
Cool rules, Effort system is nice in that it lets players shoot their best shots at the rolls they really care about. The big shame here is that despite the well-supported Dying Earth genre trappings and the killer monster manual, the boxed setting is kind of bland.
I always ran it with custom scenarios, though I hear some of the supplements are quite good.
I always ran it with custom scenarios, though I hear some of the supplements are quite good.
May 19, 2020
One of my favourite RPG systems of all time. Discovery is the new edition and adds a bit more content and some slight revision, but this is still fantastic, even as a non-fiction setting piece.
January 14, 2014
Disclaimer: These are my opinions after just having read the sourcebook, without actually having GMd or played the game ever at all.
I got this after helping kickstart Torment: Tides of Numenara which I was interested in because I liked Planescape: Torment. I was only peripherally interested in the setting, but the ToN people kept going on about how Numenara is a groundbreaking new pen and paper role playing setting set a billion years in the future with a non-traditional, simplified ruleset that de-emphasizes combat and focuses gameplay more on exploration and adventure.
If it hadn't been for that hype, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more as just a regular run of the mill RPG campaign sourcebook. I liked reading about the different kingdoms and the monster designs were cool and everything.
But I don't think it innovates much on either the setting or gameplay fronts. It doesn't have the foreignness that a distant future, ultra high tech setting should have -- all the human societies seem lifted straight out of feudal Europe. Why are there humans a billion years in the future? That's only addressed, or rather, dismissed, as being one of the many mysteries of the Ninth World that no one knows the answer to. And it doesn't make sense how despite the godtech of the eight previous worlds still being accessible, no one has actually started to learn the science of it or used it to move society out of the dark ages. If godtech exists in a world, it shouldn't just be trinkets adventurers can use to get temporary combat bonus points, it should change the core nature of civilization. Just think about some sub-godtech: cars, telephones, internet. A setting like this could be an opportunity to imagine how civilization would develop differently if people developed science and technology in a totally different order than our historical order (what if we had an internet before boats, for example). And how do the power politics play out when some people who just learned from a monolith how to manipulate black holes or whatever are living next to a bunch of stone age mammoth hunters? But Cook seems to want to avoid all that and let technologies be just these unknowable, local, transient things.
And despite the lip service to a focus on exploration, the rule system and gameplay really does still seem to revolve 99% around combat. It's a D&D style traditional hack and slash game. I was hoping for some gameplay frameworks around interpersonal relationship dynamics, for example, or diplomatic/political strategies, or travel, or leading groups or founding cities, or conducting far future science and engineering. But no, the rules are all about modifying attack rolls and damage tracks and things like that.
Still, I'm sure it's enough of a base to stand on for the ToN writers and artists that the computer game will be able to fulfill at least some of the promise of its Torment heritage.
I liked the section for gamemasters about keeping the weirdness of the setting and I'll probably use that as inspiration when I'm adding details to my own far future game setting.
I got this after helping kickstart Torment: Tides of Numenara which I was interested in because I liked Planescape: Torment. I was only peripherally interested in the setting, but the ToN people kept going on about how Numenara is a groundbreaking new pen and paper role playing setting set a billion years in the future with a non-traditional, simplified ruleset that de-emphasizes combat and focuses gameplay more on exploration and adventure.
If it hadn't been for that hype, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more as just a regular run of the mill RPG campaign sourcebook. I liked reading about the different kingdoms and the monster designs were cool and everything.
But I don't think it innovates much on either the setting or gameplay fronts. It doesn't have the foreignness that a distant future, ultra high tech setting should have -- all the human societies seem lifted straight out of feudal Europe. Why are there humans a billion years in the future? That's only addressed, or rather, dismissed, as being one of the many mysteries of the Ninth World that no one knows the answer to. And it doesn't make sense how despite the godtech of the eight previous worlds still being accessible, no one has actually started to learn the science of it or used it to move society out of the dark ages. If godtech exists in a world, it shouldn't just be trinkets adventurers can use to get temporary combat bonus points, it should change the core nature of civilization. Just think about some sub-godtech: cars, telephones, internet. A setting like this could be an opportunity to imagine how civilization would develop differently if people developed science and technology in a totally different order than our historical order (what if we had an internet before boats, for example). And how do the power politics play out when some people who just learned from a monolith how to manipulate black holes or whatever are living next to a bunch of stone age mammoth hunters? But Cook seems to want to avoid all that and let technologies be just these unknowable, local, transient things.
And despite the lip service to a focus on exploration, the rule system and gameplay really does still seem to revolve 99% around combat. It's a D&D style traditional hack and slash game. I was hoping for some gameplay frameworks around interpersonal relationship dynamics, for example, or diplomatic/political strategies, or travel, or leading groups or founding cities, or conducting far future science and engineering. But no, the rules are all about modifying attack rolls and damage tracks and things like that.
Still, I'm sure it's enough of a base to stand on for the ToN writers and artists that the computer game will be able to fulfill at least some of the promise of its Torment heritage.
I liked the section for gamemasters about keeping the weirdness of the setting and I'll probably use that as inspiration when I'm adding details to my own far future game setting.
March 11, 2016
This is easily one of the best core rulebooks for an RPG I have ever read. The quality of paper stock, the artwork, and the organization of content is perfect. There is even a wonderfully large fold out map of the Ninth world included.
Numenera is a new RPG tabletop system from Monte Cook games. It uses the new Cypher system which is extremely easy to use. It takes all the pressure off the GM and allows the players to make all the rolls in the game. The GM literally does not roll the dice, which frees them up to focus on what really matters...the story.
It's surprisingly easy to master the Cypher System. It structures itself around a table of tasks ranked from 1-10. 1 Being easy and 10 being superhuman. That's all you really need to know. Honest. If you are looking for a new RPG system to get into that is heavy on roleplaying and light on dice mods and rules - this is the game for you.
Numenera (or the Ninth World) is a pretty fucked up world. It's a fantastic blend of sci-fi and fantasy with a heavy dose of Lovecraftian horror. I am having a blast with my gaming group playing this. This core book gives you ample locations and artwork to use in your game but leaves plenty of space to make up your own stuff as well.
I really can't recommend it enough! It's fantastic! Go get some friends and go on an adventure or two! I guarantee you will be hooked!
Numenera is a new RPG tabletop system from Monte Cook games. It uses the new Cypher system which is extremely easy to use. It takes all the pressure off the GM and allows the players to make all the rolls in the game. The GM literally does not roll the dice, which frees them up to focus on what really matters...the story.
It's surprisingly easy to master the Cypher System. It structures itself around a table of tasks ranked from 1-10. 1 Being easy and 10 being superhuman. That's all you really need to know. Honest. If you are looking for a new RPG system to get into that is heavy on roleplaying and light on dice mods and rules - this is the game for you.
Numenera (or the Ninth World) is a pretty fucked up world. It's a fantastic blend of sci-fi and fantasy with a heavy dose of Lovecraftian horror. I am having a blast with my gaming group playing this. This core book gives you ample locations and artwork to use in your game but leaves plenty of space to make up your own stuff as well.
I really can't recommend it enough! It's fantastic! Go get some friends and go on an adventure or two! I guarantee you will be hooked!
Read
November 23, 2019About to run my first campaign. I know this isn’t technically a ‘book’, but it deserves to be considered no less seriously. The sheer amount of effort that went into the world, the mechanics, the ideas, the inspiration behind it - and all from one chap and his mates (originally) who just wanted to tell awesome stories ... I think that deserves a special kind of respect.
Not to mention, the art in this book is absolutely gorgeous. Every single piece is drool-worthy.
Not to mention, the art in this book is absolutely gorgeous. Every single piece is drool-worthy.
August 22, 2013
Ok game idea, unusual game mechanics but struggling to see what the hype's about.
Read
February 1, 2016One of my favorite RPG systems to date. Worth its price and applicable to other RPG systems as well.
July 16, 2014
Love the way this system supports the GM. And the world is full of possibilities.
March 14, 2017
I wanted to like this, I really did. After all, the concept of the game is pretty cool. The setting, the Ninth World, is a billion years in the future after eight previous civilizations have risen and fallen, leaving all sorts of magic-like hypertech lying around on Earth. And the system promises to be rules light with a cool character creation mechanic. However, Numenera fails to live up to its promises. Despite Monte Cook's insistence that the Steadfast is a setting full of weird stuff, it's largely just a typical fantasy setting with a bunch of science fantasy explanations for things. There are a few fun quirks, like a queen who lives her entire life in a clean room to prolong her reign, but mostly there's just the same sort of stuff you'd expect from a generic fantasy campaign. I find Cook's assertion that the setting provides an excuse to have all sorts of anachronistic thoughts and ideas amongst the characters ridiculous because it's not like D&D or other fantasy staples have ever claimed to be truly accurate to the real life Middle Ages. Plus, unlike some game worlds, the Ninth World doesn't actually feel like it has a true sense of history to it. There's very little detail on the previous worlds, and the GM is even encouraged to keep changing things, allegedly to provide a sense of mystery. Mystery, however, doesn't work if it can't be solved, and to me if there's no real sense of the heights and depths of previous civilizations, there's no way to compare the present of the setting and see how it measures up. There's no real feeling of striving to recapture a golden age or make up for the sins of the past. There is an adventure that includes what's likely a Dyson Sphere, which made me realize that that would be a much better setting for what Cook is trying to do than Earth a billion years from now.
The mechanics are equally disappointing. I do like the idea of the "I'm an Adjective Noun that Verbs" character creation, but there's still a fair bit of mechanics tied in to those three things. Rather than being quick and easy like Fate Aspects, instead it's a lot like choosing classes and skills in D&D. Also like D&D, spellcasters (here called nanos) are clearly the way to go. While fighters and mages are roughly equal at the start, the best martial abilities are stuff like hitting five dudes at once whereas wizards can move literal tons of material or travel the multiverse at will. Plus, all abilities are effectively cast from hit points, but the mental HP that nanos draw on is far less likely to be hit than the physical health that fighters use, so that's yet another thing that sucks. Instead of magic items, characters can acquire cyphers and artifacts. Cyphers are single use items, including things like potions, explosives, short term invisibility and flight and the like. They're meant to be used often rather than being hoarded, but I'm not sure the mechanics are set up in a way that truly discourages typical player behavior. Artifacts are longer-term items, though generally most are neat but not that weird, and a single use explosive arrow is an artifact rather than a cypher which is just goofy. The actual resolution mechanic involves expending various character resources to adjust a difficulty number before rolling a D20 (generally with no modifiers) against the difficulty. Aside from the fact that you rate things from 1 to 10, adjust them, and then multiply by three to get the actual number to roll against, it's not a bad system as long as you ignore Cook's advice and tell players exactly what the difficulty number is so they know how to use their points and such. I like the idea of all obstacles and enemies being expressed with pretty simple stats - often just a single number with a few situational adjustments - but given how the player side of things work, Numenera doesn't seem as easy to use as it claims to be.
Overall, there are some neat ideas here, and if there's ever a second edition that fixes the mechanical bugs I'd have more interest. After all, there are a bunch of supplements that expand the setting and may potentially make it more interesting. However, I don't really feel like investing time and money into this system when there are other games that are more inspiring, run better, or both.
The mechanics are equally disappointing. I do like the idea of the "I'm an Adjective Noun that Verbs" character creation, but there's still a fair bit of mechanics tied in to those three things. Rather than being quick and easy like Fate Aspects, instead it's a lot like choosing classes and skills in D&D. Also like D&D, spellcasters (here called nanos) are clearly the way to go. While fighters and mages are roughly equal at the start, the best martial abilities are stuff like hitting five dudes at once whereas wizards can move literal tons of material or travel the multiverse at will. Plus, all abilities are effectively cast from hit points, but the mental HP that nanos draw on is far less likely to be hit than the physical health that fighters use, so that's yet another thing that sucks. Instead of magic items, characters can acquire cyphers and artifacts. Cyphers are single use items, including things like potions, explosives, short term invisibility and flight and the like. They're meant to be used often rather than being hoarded, but I'm not sure the mechanics are set up in a way that truly discourages typical player behavior. Artifacts are longer-term items, though generally most are neat but not that weird, and a single use explosive arrow is an artifact rather than a cypher which is just goofy. The actual resolution mechanic involves expending various character resources to adjust a difficulty number before rolling a D20 (generally with no modifiers) against the difficulty. Aside from the fact that you rate things from 1 to 10, adjust them, and then multiply by three to get the actual number to roll against, it's not a bad system as long as you ignore Cook's advice and tell players exactly what the difficulty number is so they know how to use their points and such. I like the idea of all obstacles and enemies being expressed with pretty simple stats - often just a single number with a few situational adjustments - but given how the player side of things work, Numenera doesn't seem as easy to use as it claims to be.
Overall, there are some neat ideas here, and if there's ever a second edition that fixes the mechanical bugs I'd have more interest. After all, there are a bunch of supplements that expand the setting and may potentially make it more interesting. However, I don't really feel like investing time and money into this system when there are other games that are more inspiring, run better, or both.
February 20, 2025
Coming close to perfection when it comes to what content to put in a 400 page rpg book, Numenera Core has the rules, character stuff, setting info, monsters, gm tips and intro adventures. Struggling to remember any other corebook I've read that actually had all that, so already good points in my book.
The best bits is the monster section and the GM section. The monsters has all the info in a small section without having to look up stuff. The GM section deals with using the rules and the setting in a way to realize it, which is sorely needed for a weird setting like the Numenera world is.
The rules and setting parts is a mixed bag. The rules are very simple, but is then bloated out a bit with rules for this and that using a lot of words that feels unwarranted. The setting has some big highlights, but also a large segment of it can be called adjective soup or small post it notes with ideas. The village, city and university bits I liked a lot, same with the small fiction bits (don't eat the fruit!) and some of the region descriptions, but some of the others was just horrible to read.
Overall I found the book to be in parts inspiring, in parts good rules and one of the best choices of what to fill the book with. But it was also a big chore to read through in parts.
The problem is that as a game, it's hard to make stick.
I think it works really well for the GM when it comes to rules. But dealing with the weird in a good manner is fairly hard; there is a very thin line of ending up with adjective soup or explain something the players dont grok. Year 1000 technology and people can be understood, but if you paint it with places that you would need a proper painting off and even then not understandable makes for a very chaotic base to build anything on.
Besides the setting stuff often being too weird for players, I have experienced a lot of "not feeling it" with the pool system. Having health and what lets you do something well come from the same place seems to hit a nerve with a bunch of players? I think it works well, but most of whom I play with nope out of it.
So in the end, my experience with playing the game, and spending 7,5 years or so to read the book cover to cover, is that it's a good idea but hard to realize when actually playing.
The best bits is the monster section and the GM section. The monsters has all the info in a small section without having to look up stuff. The GM section deals with using the rules and the setting in a way to realize it, which is sorely needed for a weird setting like the Numenera world is.
The rules and setting parts is a mixed bag. The rules are very simple, but is then bloated out a bit with rules for this and that using a lot of words that feels unwarranted. The setting has some big highlights, but also a large segment of it can be called adjective soup or small post it notes with ideas. The village, city and university bits I liked a lot, same with the small fiction bits (don't eat the fruit!) and some of the region descriptions, but some of the others was just horrible to read.
Overall I found the book to be in parts inspiring, in parts good rules and one of the best choices of what to fill the book with. But it was also a big chore to read through in parts.
The problem is that as a game, it's hard to make stick.
I think it works really well for the GM when it comes to rules. But dealing with the weird in a good manner is fairly hard; there is a very thin line of ending up with adjective soup or explain something the players dont grok. Year 1000 technology and people can be understood, but if you paint it with places that you would need a proper painting off and even then not understandable makes for a very chaotic base to build anything on.
Besides the setting stuff often being too weird for players, I have experienced a lot of "not feeling it" with the pool system. Having health and what lets you do something well come from the same place seems to hit a nerve with a bunch of players? I think it works well, but most of whom I play with nope out of it.
So in the end, my experience with playing the game, and spending 7,5 years or so to read the book cover to cover, is that it's a good idea but hard to realize when actually playing.
September 26, 2017
Desde que lei los libros de Planescape hace unos cuantos años, Monte Cook me ha parecido uno de los diseñadores de juegos más originales. El concepto detrás de Numenera y el sistema de juego Cypher son dos cosas sencillas y a la vez muy flexibles. La premisa de este juego es que después de posiblemente billones de años en el futuro, han surgido y se han extinto al menos ochos "mundos". La humanidad (evolucionada, mutada, cambiada) ha resurgido una novena vez sobre los restos y vestigios de las anteriores ocho, con millones de años de por medio. Es un juego de rol en donde se hace más énfasis en la exploración y el descubrimiento de ruinas, artefactos y tecnologías de mundos pasados que en el combate. El mundo es extraño y las posibilidades para esa extrañeza son infinitas.
Solo dos cosas encontré difíciles de digerir en este libro de reglas:
1) el sistema de creación de personajes que me pareció un poco abstracto. Entiendo que la idea detrás de esto es que sea lo suficientemente abierto como para que los jugadores puedan ser literalmente cualquier cosa que se les ocurra. Sin embargo, alguien poco familiarizado con el sistema y más acostumbrados a las categorías tradicionales de los RPG, podría tener dificultades para realmente aprovechar esas posibilidades abiertas.
2) las aventuras introductorias incluídas en el libro, también deajn mucho al GM. Teniendo en cuenta el nivel de abstracción que hay que tener para imaginar una sociedad a lo Conan un billón de años en el futuro en donde se mezcla superstición, fantasía y ciencia ficción; creo que hace falta que las aventuras tengan más estructura, detalles y ayudas visuales.
En todo caso, el sistema y el setting me encantan y esos detalles que menciono, son abordados por muchos otros libros de Numenera, y seguramente en los dos nuevos libros por venir el año que viene: Numenera Destiny y Numenera Discovery, en donde se van a añadir elementos y algunos cambios, pero totalmente compatibles con todos libros del sistema que ya han publicado.
100% recomendado, y me encantaría empezar a jugar (o correr) una campaña en ese "Noveno Mundo".
Solo dos cosas encontré difíciles de digerir en este libro de reglas:
1) el sistema de creación de personajes que me pareció un poco abstracto. Entiendo que la idea detrás de esto es que sea lo suficientemente abierto como para que los jugadores puedan ser literalmente cualquier cosa que se les ocurra. Sin embargo, alguien poco familiarizado con el sistema y más acostumbrados a las categorías tradicionales de los RPG, podría tener dificultades para realmente aprovechar esas posibilidades abiertas.
2) las aventuras introductorias incluídas en el libro, también deajn mucho al GM. Teniendo en cuenta el nivel de abstracción que hay que tener para imaginar una sociedad a lo Conan un billón de años en el futuro en donde se mezcla superstición, fantasía y ciencia ficción; creo que hace falta que las aventuras tengan más estructura, detalles y ayudas visuales.
En todo caso, el sistema y el setting me encantan y esos detalles que menciono, son abordados por muchos otros libros de Numenera, y seguramente en los dos nuevos libros por venir el año que viene: Numenera Destiny y Numenera Discovery, en donde se van a añadir elementos y algunos cambios, pero totalmente compatibles con todos libros del sistema que ya han publicado.
100% recomendado, y me encantaría empezar a jugar (o correr) una campaña en ese "Noveno Mundo".
February 10, 2019
I found Numenera wanting. The setting is, for the most part, more standard-fantasy-fair than I expected, with kingdoms, empires, knights and whatnot. For a world so infused with the weird, you'd think the societies living in it would also be alien, but apparently not. People still have surnames. People still marry. People still run inns and gangs lead by crime lords still walk the streets... and every now and again there's something really interesting going on with one of these things, but mostly not.
At the same time, the sheer amount of weird - and random - things that inhabit the world make it feel very incoherent. If anything, I'd prefer it to attempt a coherence by building itself around the technology, but while Numenera does seem to want to do that, I don't feel like it succeeds on the surface. Played as written (based on the lore, descriptions and adventures in this corebook) it's a SF-infused superhero fantasy game, and that's ok I guess, but I made the mistake of thinking of it as a modern Planescape. There are some Planescapey vibes to it, but it's not that, nor does it feel like it aims to be that.
And then there's the mechanic, which is another mixed bag for me - straddling the lines between promising and confusing, empowering and unintuitive, free-form and rigid. I've yet to try it out and I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt, but for such a simple, narrative-driven basic ruleset there's a bunch of stuff that's oddly specific and gamey: including Armor costs in stat pools and weapon proficiencies, special abilities running the gamut of "very broad" to "does this one thing and one thing only", Cyphers having levels which mostly doesn't matter (unless it does) etc.
So why 4 stars? Because despite all that, Numenera brims with promise, and I really need to play it before passing final judgement. I'm set to play at least a few sessions in the near future, and I'm hoping it'll deliver on its potential - and if it doesn't then thankfully the system and world are both malleable enough that I will make it do what I want. So there.
At the same time, the sheer amount of weird - and random - things that inhabit the world make it feel very incoherent. If anything, I'd prefer it to attempt a coherence by building itself around the technology, but while Numenera does seem to want to do that, I don't feel like it succeeds on the surface. Played as written (based on the lore, descriptions and adventures in this corebook) it's a SF-infused superhero fantasy game, and that's ok I guess, but I made the mistake of thinking of it as a modern Planescape. There are some Planescapey vibes to it, but it's not that, nor does it feel like it aims to be that.
And then there's the mechanic, which is another mixed bag for me - straddling the lines between promising and confusing, empowering and unintuitive, free-form and rigid. I've yet to try it out and I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt, but for such a simple, narrative-driven basic ruleset there's a bunch of stuff that's oddly specific and gamey: including Armor costs in stat pools and weapon proficiencies, special abilities running the gamut of "very broad" to "does this one thing and one thing only", Cyphers having levels which mostly doesn't matter (unless it does) etc.
So why 4 stars? Because despite all that, Numenera brims with promise, and I really need to play it before passing final judgement. I'm set to play at least a few sessions in the near future, and I'm hoping it'll deliver on its potential - and if it doesn't then thankfully the system and world are both malleable enough that I will make it do what I want. So there.
June 8, 2019
Perhaps Cook cheated by coming up with a setting with effectively limitless potential (that seems to be beyond his skill to pin down or even at times describe), but even with this book's shortcomings I couldn't help but see the possibilities in what he was going for. The rules themselves are convoluted and at times vague, and despite the book's assertions that the setting is more about exploration than combat, the rules guide players towards the latter simply by virtue of being more thoroughly explained.
The social groups were also disappointing, and I sympathize with complaints that this is basically just Medieval Europe set an arbitrarily large amount of years in the future. The selling point in this book really is a setting-distinct from human civilization-so vast and deep that exploring all of it is as impossible for a player group as it is for people actually living in it. There's something existential about a world so vast and ancient your players will never be able to conquer it.
Not that it won't stop them from trying.
The social groups were also disappointing, and I sympathize with complaints that this is basically just Medieval Europe set an arbitrarily large amount of years in the future. The selling point in this book really is a setting-distinct from human civilization-so vast and deep that exploring all of it is as impossible for a player group as it is for people actually living in it. There's something existential about a world so vast and ancient your players will never be able to conquer it.
Not that it won't stop them from trying.
December 18, 2017
Great writing, excellent creative setting, my favorite RPG system for story focus with a great balance of fluff/crunch. Just jumped into the Kickstarter for Numenera 2 a fully retro compatible improvement.
November 3, 2022
Mediocre implementation of the whole "Dying Earth" concept but lacking a lot of the flavour, and with a system that is functional but uninspiring, and at points grates. Full review here: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
June 19, 2025
Estoy enamorado... y puede que por eso no sea objetivo. Pero Numenera es lo más estimulante que he leído en rol en mucho, mucho tiempo. Todavía tengo que llevar el sistema a mesa y ver cómo funcionan algunas de la reglas locas que propone Monte Cook. Pero lo haré muy pronto.
September 8, 2025
Looks nice, interesting idea, terrible execution.
The system works against itself and the mechanics don't really serve well to explore the absurdity of this time. And the underlying system is, if decoupled from its special words, just DnD 3 again, compressed.
The system works against itself and the mechanics don't really serve well to explore the absurdity of this time. And the underlying system is, if decoupled from its special words, just DnD 3 again, compressed.
November 8, 2018
Le livre de base d'un jeu de rôles original, dans un univers de science-fantasy qui m'a beaucoup plu.
April 28, 2021
I read the Kickstarter version, and although it had a visually splendid layout, the world couldn't stir me to take it up, and start playing in it. Just not my cup of tea.
February 22, 2023
Excellent RPG system
September 2, 2015
Numenera is a game about Earth in about a billion years in the future. The player characters explore the world and many wondrous artifacts left by previous dead civilizations, of which there were eight. Not that different from a fantasy game, you say? And you would be right. However, everything the characters encounter is technology so advanced that is mistaken by magic. The game's premise is Arthur C. Clarke's third law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In other words, a setting with medieval-like technology where magic is really unimaginably advanced pieces of technology. And this is what gives the game its unique flavor.
I'm a big fan of mixing fantasy with sci-fi. Shadow World (for Rolemaster) did that and some of Heroes of Might and Magic (the PC game) also did that. Numenera takes this one step further. While those games were predominantly fantasy with elements of sci-fi thrown in, in Numenera every magic-like effect is sci-fi. Someone using telekinesis may have had his brain mutated by an odd machine or he may just be using a metal orb in his hand that makes things fly. A creature found in the wilderness is just the result of genetic bio-engineering. Even the world shows signs of having been tampered with by very advanced civilizations like mountains upside down or areas where time is slower or a fortress that is just the upper part of a very ancient space vessel now buried underground.
The system is very easy to grasp and simple with one caveat: the GM never, EVER, rolls a dice. Everything is done on the players' side. If they attack, they roll. If they are attacked, they roll defense. If they want to notice someone approaching stealthily, they roll to see them. If they want to move stealthily, they roll to sneak. Character creation is easy and yet there are so many combinations that no two groups will be the same even if they all choose the same type of character.
The setting is the real standout, in my opinion. It's quite good. You won't find any elves, dwarves or orcs here. None of the usual fantasy tropes are present. The current technology is somewhat reminiscent of 1000AD, mixed with all sorts of strange stuff. You may find a city that looks like a medieval city but every building is manufactured with strange metals and the walls, instead of doors, open to let you pass, or there could be a city in the clouds propelled by giant reactors and people don't know how they work but they lie there nonetheless. In fact, there's a city that reminds me of the moving city in the John Carter movie.
The rules for creating numenera (the odd bits of technology) are quite good. The book includes ready to use lists of numenera, too. It also includes a small bestiary which is fun to read and shows how much inventive a GM can be.
The only section of the book that is slightly sub-par is the scenario section, of which there are 4. Let me stress beforehand that the adventures are quite short, so part of the problem may have been lack of space to develop deeper adventures. Even so, their quality is uneven. Perhaps I was so spoiled by the setting in that it created certain expectations the scenarios could never fulfil. The first adventure is a fairly nice introductory adventure. It's non-linear, but it pushes combat one too many times. The second adventure amounts to little more than a dungeon crawl, but inside a space ship instead of a... well, dungeon. The third one is very good, with plenty of room for intrigue. The characters must face several opposing factions, choose one side or none at all. Too bad it's too short. And the fourth presents what could possibly be an epic plot, although it's also too short and ends fairly quick.
It's not that the adventures are bad, but they are not up to the promise made be the earlier parts of the book. An experienced GM who can expand any of them into really great scenarios and perhaps that's the intention. I know I will shape them and bend them to make adapt them to my group. They contain great seeds and excellent idea seeds.
All in all, it's a very good book with a brilliant setting, a very nice set of rules and some fairly average adventures.
I'm a big fan of mixing fantasy with sci-fi. Shadow World (for Rolemaster) did that and some of Heroes of Might and Magic (the PC game) also did that. Numenera takes this one step further. While those games were predominantly fantasy with elements of sci-fi thrown in, in Numenera every magic-like effect is sci-fi. Someone using telekinesis may have had his brain mutated by an odd machine or he may just be using a metal orb in his hand that makes things fly. A creature found in the wilderness is just the result of genetic bio-engineering. Even the world shows signs of having been tampered with by very advanced civilizations like mountains upside down or areas where time is slower or a fortress that is just the upper part of a very ancient space vessel now buried underground.
The system is very easy to grasp and simple with one caveat: the GM never, EVER, rolls a dice. Everything is done on the players' side. If they attack, they roll. If they are attacked, they roll defense. If they want to notice someone approaching stealthily, they roll to see them. If they want to move stealthily, they roll to sneak. Character creation is easy and yet there are so many combinations that no two groups will be the same even if they all choose the same type of character.
The setting is the real standout, in my opinion. It's quite good. You won't find any elves, dwarves or orcs here. None of the usual fantasy tropes are present. The current technology is somewhat reminiscent of 1000AD, mixed with all sorts of strange stuff. You may find a city that looks like a medieval city but every building is manufactured with strange metals and the walls, instead of doors, open to let you pass, or there could be a city in the clouds propelled by giant reactors and people don't know how they work but they lie there nonetheless. In fact, there's a city that reminds me of the moving city in the John Carter movie.
The rules for creating numenera (the odd bits of technology) are quite good. The book includes ready to use lists of numenera, too. It also includes a small bestiary which is fun to read and shows how much inventive a GM can be.
The only section of the book that is slightly sub-par is the scenario section, of which there are 4. Let me stress beforehand that the adventures are quite short, so part of the problem may have been lack of space to develop deeper adventures. Even so, their quality is uneven. Perhaps I was so spoiled by the setting in that it created certain expectations the scenarios could never fulfil. The first adventure is a fairly nice introductory adventure. It's non-linear, but it pushes combat one too many times. The second adventure amounts to little more than a dungeon crawl, but inside a space ship instead of a... well, dungeon. The third one is very good, with plenty of room for intrigue. The characters must face several opposing factions, choose one side or none at all. Too bad it's too short. And the fourth presents what could possibly be an epic plot, although it's also too short and ends fairly quick.
It's not that the adventures are bad, but they are not up to the promise made be the earlier parts of the book. An experienced GM who can expand any of them into really great scenarios and perhaps that's the intention. I know I will shape them and bend them to make adapt them to my group. They contain great seeds and excellent idea seeds.
All in all, it's a very good book with a brilliant setting, a very nice set of rules and some fairly average adventures.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2014
The Good
The book is beautiful, the illustrations are literally awesome. The game is substantially simpler than previous games Monte Cook has written for. There are great design ideas within Numenera. Building blocks of the roleplaying experience, such as connections between characters and character hooks into the campaign are worked into character creation, giving the GM a break from having to figure all that stuff up himself. The rules cover a wide range of situations. The setting is pretty cool and original. I really like how the core book really contains everything you need to play. There are also great tips on running a roleplaying game and game design that are very useful and incredibly insightful regardless of game system.
The Bad
Even if simpler than other systems, some subsystems of the game are still too complex for my taste. Still too much emphasis and work is given to the GM in my opinion. Seems to me that Numenera could have been an easier game to GM. Of course, in the end that will depend on the GM himself but that is the general feel I get from reading the book and the suggested style of play. Ironically, Monte says this is not what he means to do with the game—and he succeeds in many places—but the rules say otherwise in others. The game succeeds in telling you how you should play Numenera (or any good roleplaying game for that matter) but the rules don’t make this style of play all that obvious most of the time and the onus of “encouraging” this style on all players falls on the GM.
The Fuzzy
I can’t decide whether players making all the rolls is a good or a bad thing, since it does make it an easier job for the GM but it also takes all the dice-rolling fun with it. GMs are players too and they should be entitled to rolling dice simply because it’s part of the game and it’s fun. I’m afraid it may make GMing seem more of a chore and the GM more liable for his “intrusions” than fate itself when dice are rolled instead. I get why “intrusions” are important and I think they’re brilliant in concept, it’s their implementation I’m not entirely sure of. The game’s open-endedness is also a fuzzy area for me, it’s good because it promotes creativity but at the same time creates more work for the GM in the game-balance department.
The Ugly
The book could be better edited, the same explanation is repeated in many places, sometimes in the very next paragraph. The text feels likes a rough draft sometimes, lacks cohesion, with design notes seeming to leak into the final product. Some descriptions are clearly written with a D&D player in mind, telling the reader what Numenera is not when compared to “other games”, and how rules in this game differ from rules in “other games”, often ending up in Monte-rants (which I agree with by the way, I just think they belong elsewhere, not in a game’s core book). Some descriptions should not even be there at all (such as explaining what a deaf or blind character is). It could have been a much shorter product if it were better edited. Less is more.
Conclusion
I think conceptually the game is in a really good place, some of Monte’s ideas I feel though, don’t quite translate as well to the game. Sometimes Monte himself tells us what his game concept is in a side note for a particular rule or “the advantages of the system” (which begs the question: the advantage as opposed to what? the answer probably being the regular d20 system). But the game should show, not tell. Regardless, the setting is really something and Numenera is definitely a step forward in roleplaying games and useful for roleplayers in general, whether you’re playing Numenera or something else entirely.
The book is beautiful, the illustrations are literally awesome. The game is substantially simpler than previous games Monte Cook has written for. There are great design ideas within Numenera. Building blocks of the roleplaying experience, such as connections between characters and character hooks into the campaign are worked into character creation, giving the GM a break from having to figure all that stuff up himself. The rules cover a wide range of situations. The setting is pretty cool and original. I really like how the core book really contains everything you need to play. There are also great tips on running a roleplaying game and game design that are very useful and incredibly insightful regardless of game system.
The Bad
Even if simpler than other systems, some subsystems of the game are still too complex for my taste. Still too much emphasis and work is given to the GM in my opinion. Seems to me that Numenera could have been an easier game to GM. Of course, in the end that will depend on the GM himself but that is the general feel I get from reading the book and the suggested style of play. Ironically, Monte says this is not what he means to do with the game—and he succeeds in many places—but the rules say otherwise in others. The game succeeds in telling you how you should play Numenera (or any good roleplaying game for that matter) but the rules don’t make this style of play all that obvious most of the time and the onus of “encouraging” this style on all players falls on the GM.
The Fuzzy
I can’t decide whether players making all the rolls is a good or a bad thing, since it does make it an easier job for the GM but it also takes all the dice-rolling fun with it. GMs are players too and they should be entitled to rolling dice simply because it’s part of the game and it’s fun. I’m afraid it may make GMing seem more of a chore and the GM more liable for his “intrusions” than fate itself when dice are rolled instead. I get why “intrusions” are important and I think they’re brilliant in concept, it’s their implementation I’m not entirely sure of. The game’s open-endedness is also a fuzzy area for me, it’s good because it promotes creativity but at the same time creates more work for the GM in the game-balance department.
The Ugly
The book could be better edited, the same explanation is repeated in many places, sometimes in the very next paragraph. The text feels likes a rough draft sometimes, lacks cohesion, with design notes seeming to leak into the final product. Some descriptions are clearly written with a D&D player in mind, telling the reader what Numenera is not when compared to “other games”, and how rules in this game differ from rules in “other games”, often ending up in Monte-rants (which I agree with by the way, I just think they belong elsewhere, not in a game’s core book). Some descriptions should not even be there at all (such as explaining what a deaf or blind character is). It could have been a much shorter product if it were better edited. Less is more.
Conclusion
I think conceptually the game is in a really good place, some of Monte’s ideas I feel though, don’t quite translate as well to the game. Sometimes Monte himself tells us what his game concept is in a side note for a particular rule or “the advantages of the system” (which begs the question: the advantage as opposed to what? the answer probably being the regular d20 system). But the game should show, not tell. Regardless, the setting is really something and Numenera is definitely a step forward in roleplaying games and useful for roleplayers in general, whether you’re playing Numenera or something else entirely.
June 22, 2016
Probably the best RPG Corebook I have ever held in my hands, with very high production values. Outstanding art, interesting use of the sidebars, it offers everything a player and GM needs to run games set in the Ninth World: player's guide, campaign setting, bestiary and GM guide rolled into one.
It starts out with a short fiction set in the Ninth World to set the tone, and then provides the rules background that you need to create a character. The different types, descriptors and foci, equipment, and in the back of the book a great walkthrough guide to character creation that I found very helpful. The vast central section of the book is the campaign setting detailing the nine countries of the Steadfast, and the most interesting sections of The Beyond. The campaign setting is full of really cool adventure hooks. I suck at coming up with my own adventures, but felt bursting with creativity reading this bit. The setting is followed with a bestiary providing you a wide range of low-level to high-level creatures or villains to fill your campaigns with. Again, every creature received a hook how you can integrate them into your game, which I thought was outstanding.
The weakest part for me was probably the GM Guide. I would have preferred a similar approach to the DnD 5E DMG with lots of tables and story hooks to fill the Ninth World with even more life, but here received more theoretical knowledge how to apply the rules and use GM intrusions. I would have preferred more intrusion examples, but I guess that's what the GM intrusion deck is for.
The final section of the book offers four different adventures, and I thought all of them were very interesting and cool. I probably wouldn't run The Three Sanctums, I think it requires much experience with the system, but the other adventures all seem great and I am going to use them all.
It starts out with a short fiction set in the Ninth World to set the tone, and then provides the rules background that you need to create a character. The different types, descriptors and foci, equipment, and in the back of the book a great walkthrough guide to character creation that I found very helpful. The vast central section of the book is the campaign setting detailing the nine countries of the Steadfast, and the most interesting sections of The Beyond. The campaign setting is full of really cool adventure hooks. I suck at coming up with my own adventures, but felt bursting with creativity reading this bit. The setting is followed with a bestiary providing you a wide range of low-level to high-level creatures or villains to fill your campaigns with. Again, every creature received a hook how you can integrate them into your game, which I thought was outstanding.
The weakest part for me was probably the GM Guide. I would have preferred a similar approach to the DnD 5E DMG with lots of tables and story hooks to fill the Ninth World with even more life, but here received more theoretical knowledge how to apply the rules and use GM intrusions. I would have preferred more intrusion examples, but I guess that's what the GM intrusion deck is for.
The final section of the book offers four different adventures, and I thought all of them were very interesting and cool. I probably wouldn't run The Three Sanctums, I think it requires much experience with the system, but the other adventures all seem great and I am going to use them all.
April 20, 2021
The much anticipated latest RPG from Monte Cook. Numenera is a science-fantasy set billions of years in the future inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote about sufficiently advanced science being indistinguishable from magic.
The rulebook is a beautiful 400+ full color tome using the textbook style layout that Monte previously used in Ptolus. I think it works really well, and am somewhat surprised that no one else has emulated it. Only somewhat, because I imagine it's a somewhat time consuming format to produce.
Despite the page count, it's a relatively rules-light system. The core rules take up less than 30 pages of the book. Mechanically it’s still a fairly traditional RPG. There are some interesting bits borrowed from less traditional games. For example, it uses a player facing dice system: the GM never rolls dice. Also, with the GM Intervention rule the GM can offer a player XP to declare that something bad happens to that player. Intervening in the story is something that GMs do all the time, but Numenera provides a game mechanic to back it up.
It differs from less traditional games in that the player still has no narrative control over anything in the world other than their character. The only real exception being the option to spend an XP to avoid the GM Intervention mentioned above.
Overall, this is an interesting game and I plan on running at least a session or two of it.
Update: I have since run a one-shot game of this for six players at our local game-day/minicon and it seemed to go over well. The mechanics appeared to be easily grasped by everyone there despite only one having looked at the rules prior to play. While this isn't a game I'm likely to run or play in much myself, it does seem to be a solid game.
The rulebook is a beautiful 400+ full color tome using the textbook style layout that Monte previously used in Ptolus. I think it works really well, and am somewhat surprised that no one else has emulated it. Only somewhat, because I imagine it's a somewhat time consuming format to produce.
Despite the page count, it's a relatively rules-light system. The core rules take up less than 30 pages of the book. Mechanically it’s still a fairly traditional RPG. There are some interesting bits borrowed from less traditional games. For example, it uses a player facing dice system: the GM never rolls dice. Also, with the GM Intervention rule the GM can offer a player XP to declare that something bad happens to that player. Intervening in the story is something that GMs do all the time, but Numenera provides a game mechanic to back it up.
It differs from less traditional games in that the player still has no narrative control over anything in the world other than their character. The only real exception being the option to spend an XP to avoid the GM Intervention mentioned above.
Overall, this is an interesting game and I plan on running at least a session or two of it.
Update: I have since run a one-shot game of this for six players at our local game-day/minicon and it seemed to go over well. The mechanics appeared to be easily grasped by everyone there despite only one having looked at the rules prior to play. While this isn't a game I'm likely to run or play in much myself, it does seem to be a solid game.
February 28, 2016
Monte Cook did a monumental job to deliver this setting and game system. But does it deliver? Partly. Rules for the game are brilliant. Stat Pool, Edge and Focus are simply great mechanics. They are easy to learn, yet fun to execute. Story based character generation and progression is also fantastic.
As to Numenera setting itself, I was disappointed. Perhaps the task was too great for a single writer? The world is scintillating, but when you try to go deep, there is no base. I think, that Monte Cook fell in a trap he constructed himself. He tried to make an alien-yet-familiar world, but ended with a long list of weird places, which have little in common. Compare this to Ravenloft, when you have a diverse cast of weird domains, all of which nevertheless have something in common - dark lords, borders, mist. In Numenera the world falls apart. Maybe this is intentional - after all it gives the master more freedom. But this also increases homework load, which is never small. This makes Numenera a setting either for a secluded-area games, or for a veteran GM, probably with kids already in college.
So, grab the rules, they are nova hot. But be careful with the setting.
As to Numenera setting itself, I was disappointed. Perhaps the task was too great for a single writer? The world is scintillating, but when you try to go deep, there is no base. I think, that Monte Cook fell in a trap he constructed himself. He tried to make an alien-yet-familiar world, but ended with a long list of weird places, which have little in common. Compare this to Ravenloft, when you have a diverse cast of weird domains, all of which nevertheless have something in common - dark lords, borders, mist. In Numenera the world falls apart. Maybe this is intentional - after all it gives the master more freedom. But this also increases homework load, which is never small. This makes Numenera a setting either for a secluded-area games, or for a veteran GM, probably with kids already in college.
So, grab the rules, they are nova hot. But be careful with the setting.
December 25, 2013
Numenera is a sci-fi/fantasy rolplaying game based on exploration and discovery. It takes place on earth a billion years in the future, after atleast nine huge civilisations have emerged, grown strong and powerful, and been forgotten. This is a world of mysterious ruins, enigmatic devices from bygone eras, and mechanical horrors that stalk plastic tombs filled with digital enigmas.
This is a great book. It is gorgeous, filled with beautiful illustrations and well dsigned and edited.
The system is simple enough to be easy to learn and master, yet complex enough to be engaging and entertaining. Interestingly, the Game Master never rolls, a decition which I think is both bold and entirely appropriate.
Monte Cook has weaved an excellent world, and pinned it down with a very unique and powerful system. Moving the focus away from combat and towards exploration and discovery is an inspird move, and the game is rich and engaging as a result.
Numenera suits both beginners and seasoned veterans, and I cannot recommend this book enough.
This is a great book. It is gorgeous, filled with beautiful illustrations and well dsigned and edited.
The system is simple enough to be easy to learn and master, yet complex enough to be engaging and entertaining. Interestingly, the Game Master never rolls, a decition which I think is both bold and entirely appropriate.
Monte Cook has weaved an excellent world, and pinned it down with a very unique and powerful system. Moving the focus away from combat and towards exploration and discovery is an inspird move, and the game is rich and engaging as a result.
Numenera suits both beginners and seasoned veterans, and I cannot recommend this book enough.
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