Thoughts on Numenera? I just bought the vidya adaptation and I'm finding the setting to be really interesting...

Thoughts on Numenera? I just bought the vidya adaptation and I'm finding the setting to be really interesting. Starter set or core book?

I seem to recall that whenever this thread comes up the usual verdict is that it has a reasonably interesting setting, but doesn't make enough of it, and the mechanics are desperately average at best.

TL; DR - 'Nice setting, shame about the game'.

The current opinion is that it's an interesting premise that squanders it. The Cypher System is fairly interesting mechanically.

nu-men era is just another step in the constant decline of rpg's since the poison of the SJWs crept in

Neat but wasted concept with a subpar system

As a gay man, I really despise how much people trivialize this like this for the purpose of flavor.

Nice art, interesting if flawed setting, shitty, shitty system. I don't regret buying the corebook or a bunch of PDFs but the chance I'll ever actually run or play a game of this is incredibly slim. Or that I'll spend more money on anything Cypher related.

I'd do terrible things for a Book of the New Sun game though.

As an honest to god faggot, this makes me cringe.

faggot

ok

I really like it. It's a fun, simple game and the Cypher system creates a lot of really interesting situations.

Ah yes, that supplement was a little strange...

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Good if you are a numale cuck. Bad of you are a sane human being. It is literally Anthony Burch's favorite tabletop game and that should be all you need to know.

I'm currently running a Numenera Campaign with some friends and I have to agree with Veeky Forums on this one.
The setting is pretty nice but mechanically is pretty bad. It's a good system if your group or DM is new though.

What about the system makes it so shit?

I'm really disappointed at how little Numenra actually uses its main premise. Earth a billion years hence and litter with the remains and descendants of countless posthuman empires and treating poorly understood relics as magic sounds pretty rad, but it basically just winds up being yet another rpg tainted by Monte Cook and 3.PF. Pretty much everything is just reskined D&D style fantasy with the occasional exception shoved in your face to say "no guys look it's sci fi". It feels like someone's shitty homebrew d20 campaign, because it basically is. Same thing goes for the Strange. Neat idea wasted on a shit game

Its made by somebody who is only really familiar with d20 but has heard about this new-fangled "Fate" thing and wants to give it a try.

There's some potentially good ideas in there: I like the XP distribution in GM intrusions and the Descriptor-Class-Who Does Thing chargen. But its overshadowed by things like your attribute pool being both your HP and the points you spend to do better on rolls. Or XP being both used for character advancement or Fate Point-type "adding things to the setting" spending.

There's more but I can't remember right now.

Overly simple where it needs crunch and overly complex where it should be streamlined, and mechanics that basically double down on caster supremacy. Combat doesn't give XP by raw, exploration and discovery do. The class with by far the most ability to fulfil those criteria is the not-wizard, who also quickly gets better than the not-fighter at combat, too.

Personally, i'm a big fan of the game, system and mechanics. Often hated by people still wedded to D&D/PF but as a GM I find it an amazing system to run.

Get the core book, don't waste time to the starter set. The box set feels more like a sampler than a fleshed-out product IMO

I think one of the main failings of the setting is that it tried to do too much with the concept and crammed a bunch of shit into a leaking kitchen sink.

Anything that makes autists on Veeky Forums upset is good by my book

I like that it upsets retards.

Everything about Numenera is "almost good" in my opinion. Both the setting and the system are kind of just lacking a bit to pull them together, but the ideas behind them are great and I'd love to see a more polished take on the fluctuating competence of characters in particular.

>Overly simple where it needs crunch and overly complex where it should be streamlined, and mechanics that basically double down on caster supremacy.

This so much. This "streamlined" system has more feats and trap options (with all the supplements) than all of D&D 3E, for fuck's sake. It's like Monte learned nothing since 1999.

Setting is meh too. I enjoyed the cipher and numenera lists and some of the setting details, but too much of it is "fantasy setting with superpower guy totally science fantasy".

It has very little of the setting flavour from something like New Sun or Viriconium or The Dying Earth.

I would have loved it if it had gone into truly strange Moebius psychedelic Voyage to Arcturus territory, both in setting and mechanics, but it decided to be bland instead.

We need a Moebius RPG.

There's something deeply disgusting with how they say their world is hyper-diverse because it's as big as ours but, "because there isn't Mass Media, it's not one big block of one option." It screams to me of a child born and coddled by Globalism, who detested History class and fails to realize that culture, while diverse, isn't quite as diverse as they might think it is.

How would you even represent that mechanically?

Anyone got some high-tech fantasy art/high fantasy sci-fi art? Since it's something numenera's got a lot of, and I've already stripped the Endless Legend General's selection clean, I figure I should ask here

That's a typical problem with these types of games; they're fueled by inexperienced pseudo-intellectuals budding with pretension.

Like this?

I guess that works yeah. I suppose I should post more myself.

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I guess stuff like this is what I mean

Running a Nums game as a GM with a group at the moment.
Its a good system if your group isn't "FIGHT EVERYTHING" as the combat system is weak.


Apart from that, like anything, it is what you make it.

All breddy good, here's some less valiant stuff

>

I have somewhat less valiant stuff myself, but I figure it would have been harder to convey the blend I was going for without it. I've been hoarding a lot of Numenera, Endless Legend/Space, and Destiny art in my searches, since they seem to get what I'm going for aesthetically.

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Even worse, most stuff on the setting is horribly bland.

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What are some of those feats and trap options?

why are so many of the social justice crowd trying to get into writing for games and tabletop nowadays?

none of them gave a shit 5 years ago

>Niche hobby experiences massive growth in fanbase in last five years
>"Why is [new demographic not traditionally associated with hobby] now a part of the hobby?"

Think before you post.

>stalker 2

I'm still upset

Now I'm wondering how well stalker could run in numenera...

The game does Numenera much, much better than Monte Cook ever did.

I fucking loved the game, ending seemed kinda rushed though

Nice system, nice setting, nice book layout.

Gets shitted by people who hate its creator and people who don't understand that the setting is just a framework( and some examples) and that the GM is required to build his own version on top of it.

It's not perfect but most of its detractors hate it for reasons external to the game or because they don't understand it and take their own assumptions as part of the game.

BUT HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO ENJOY IT IF OTHER PEOPLE ENJOY IT REEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>why?
>because we must virtue signal as hard as possible while reducing the very real difficulties faced by actual homosexuals and transsexuals to a goofy quirk of a role playing game.

SJW narratives have come full circle to being offensive to actual members of the groups they love to shoehorn into everything.

Setting is solid 7/10. A lot of neat concepts put into it. And while it feels underdeveloped, it also leaves a lot of free space to use it by GM.
Crunch is literally perfect 5/10, being average of average. It's not bad, it's not good, it works, but without any fanfare, but also no scrunching noises.

Just hope to sweet Jesus you get a good dm that knows how to write a story and read descriptions

This

All niche hobbies primarily enjoyed by whites are being commie-fied

Waaaaah games are trying to relate to people other than meee

Games are miiiine waaaaaah

Why do you ghazi cucks even come here

That's not "relatable" it's fawning, creepy and more than a little insulting.

Kotaku pls go

>nu-male buzzword faggot detected

Isn't kotaku nothing but ads and autistic articles about nintendo games at this point?

Probably. I don't know, I don't go there any more.

Its not relatable to you... is it that hard to understand? You don't relate to it. Yeah, thats why its there. If games never changed with the times we would all be sitting around playing gin rummy you dolt

> You don't relate to it. Yeah, thats why its there.
> it is included because you, personally, do not relate to it
May want to work on that english-comp mate.

More importantly,

When LGBT themes are used as a fashionable window dressing for a product and slathered with a fawning, patronising tone that does not make it "relatable" to fucking anyone.

I find it intensely and personally offensive as a LGBT person.

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>Just hope to sweet Jesus you get a good dm that knows how to write a story and read descriptions
So you mean any half-decent GM?
You must apparently come from some dark place where semi-competence passes as being a genius.

I'm black and I understand where that post is coming from.
You /pol/ folk don't get it and lash out because you don't understand and assume it's an attack on white people.
Black Americans don't have a place in the fantasy/nerd culture that is popular in America so it's offputting to us.
Imagine a fantasy setting with no white people. Imagine if the most popular fantasy settings had zero white people. Sounds insane right? For us it's reality. And if you had the slightest bit of empathy you know that doesn't feel good. You /pol/ kids won't admit it, but it's obviously how you would feel about that hypothetical from every instance you guys overreact whenever minorities are put in media.
It's like we don't exist and the thought of our existence is a plague. You know how you self insert into a story? Whoops there's no niggers in that setting, it would be too weird. So we either have to double down on the focus on race ( haha I am the only black person in this setting and since I'm already self inserting I'm even more of a special snowflake ) and then have to further lie and pretend everything in that setting likes the blackness even though everything in reality says that's impossible or ignore race entirely. This is a dilemma normal nerds don't have to even think about.
Do you know how it feels like knowing that even if anime was real your waifu would think you were disgusting on a level even more than the normal neckbeard otaku? I am insane but my point is that race is important in fantasy and white guys take it for granted that they can feasibly exist in most settings even asian ones.

White women are a bit more aware of this cognitive dissonance problem which is why they are more prone to the sjw "insert minorities everywhere" mindset.

>standard fantasy shit but with a technology flavor
wow, what a great setting

con't
>Well why don't blacks make their own settings if they feel so bad about this?
The same reason 99.99% of white people don't: their ideas are shit and lack the discipline and talent to create a world other people will care about that's worth fantasizing about
Add on to the "we wuz" memes ( thanks, /pol/ for making it worse ) that means even if someone DOES manage to do so, now the target audience ( and don't pretend there isn't a massive overlap between /pol/ memesters and nerds ) can't take it seriously because memes. It would be like if Sega tried to make a serious Sonic game. No matter how good it is, it's only going to get "pssh, nothin personnel" in response.
And even if this miracle of creativity got past that, you would still have the issue of most nerds plain aren't interested in a fantasy setting with a black focus. Black Americans have fuck all to do with Africa (barring Egypt because it's mythology is legitimately cool. But egypt isn't actually Black) at this point, so screw fantasy derived from African folklore not even blacks are interested in that.
So that leaves...American folklore? Well, that's not really 'ours' either so we have to share. That would be fine, but modern American folklore is mostly just a rip off of Native American folklore. I wouldn't want to do that to them for my own sake.
An alternative is Modern Fantasy, but fuck that.
Wild West? I've considered it, but it's plain not popular enough.
That basically leaves futuristic settings, but at that point race is a non-factor. Sure you can self insert, but it's not "sword and board" fantasy anymore. Also good luck competing with Star Wars.

I've just needed to rant about that for a while now feels good to get that off my chest.
tl;dr Blacks have no fantasy creative endeavor canon to call their own, feels creatively empty man.

>You know how you self insert into a story?
No, actually. I hate myself and go out of my way to have my characters be someone different from myself, although with enough similar (mental) characteristics that I can roleplay them decently. Even the qualifier isn't necessarily true, since I've had a lot of fun with characters who I'd deeply disagree with on pretty much everything.

Check out Imaro. I didn't read it but I heard good things about it. And even if it isn't as good as I have been tol, it's a start.

>Blacks have no fantasy creative endeavor canon to call their own, feels creatively empty man

CREATE ONE THEN FFS

>I hate myself and go out of my way to have my characters be someone different from myself,
It's not the same man.
When you create [generic human fighter], what is your mental image? Probably some muscular armored white guy, right? Me too. That's entirely the problem. There is the cognitive dissonance of my "generic person" mental imagine being a white guy when I am in fact black.
So while you deliberate choose to roleplay something different than yourself, that is my default state. I have to actively think about it to say "Oh wait this character I'm playing is black".
I don't expect you understand I can only give examples that might help you empathize with the discomfort I'm feeling on a spiritual level.
It's kind of like every time you thought "generic human person" you got a mental image of "pointy ear elf". It's totally fine until you actually start think about why this is.

The synopsis sounds interesting, thanks.

Literally the first couple of lines
>The same reason 99.99% of white people don't: their ideas are shit and lack the discipline and talent to create a world other people will care about that's worth fantasizing about
Even if I tried it would be shit and I'd rather be reading the Silmarillion instead.

Would you go to /wbg/ and read about some autists setting? Neither would I. And because we both are aware of this fact, you know why I'm not even going to bother trying even if I do have some ideas myself. They can stay in my head where they won't bother anyone else.

I dunno man, if it's done right it can be pretty cool, it just needs to feel cohesive rather than one tacked onto the other. Like, I unno, Spelljammer, or Eberron, fantasy with higher tech can be fun to play with.

reasonable/10

I wouldn't call it massive. Tabletop rpgs are still pretty niche, if you're not thinking of very popular stuff like DnD or WoD you'd be hard pressed to find a group

Ye

I'm a /pol/ you stupid nigger. I'm a gay black dude who doesn't live in a fantasy world where American culture hates minorities (It fucking doesn't and American people don't hate minorities either).

fucking kill yourself

>I can't empathize with people who aren't black: the post

> I'm a gay black dude
Yeah I totally believe you
>American people don't hate minorities either
Which is why the cultural backlash from rural white America was so strong after Obama Trump was elected president, right?
If you read my other post you would realize my issue is that I empathize with whites more readily than I empathize with black characters despite being black. Even /pol/tards know something is wrong when you empathize with another race sooner than you do your own.

>You don't agree with me, therefore you don't exist!
For real, kill yourself.

>Even if I tried it would be shit and I'd rather be reading the Silmarillion instead.

The thing is very few people can just make a thing and have it be perfect on their first try. You have to practice man. Make a thing, then step back and realize why it's shitty. Then make another thing.

I think you're just psyching yourself out and getting caught up trying to have a clear genre template on top of making something that is appealing to an audience. You don't really need to wholesale jack a genre like western or swords and sorcery so much as jack ideas you like from it. "White people fantasy" is only based off of Europe in that a couple of iconic elements are taken from them and then warped and distorted in an overly long game of telephone. Fuck, D&D is a clusterfuck of stolen ideas that have settled into a cohesive whole over 40+ years.

I know this thread has veered off somewhat into bait territory, but I feel like you might have dug yourself into a slump. It's clear you've put some thinking into this, so I'd hate to see that reach a dead end.

Only some roleplaying /pol/tard is insecure enough to lash out with that level of vitriol.
I posted something pretty benign, not even approaching the level of "American culture hates minorities" but in typical /pol/tard fashion you got offending over nothing and got incredibly asshurt and triggered.
Yeah, I don't believe you're just a gay black dude who has nothing to do with /pol/.
You got caught.

You don't understand why saying "You're just from /pol/" as a means to dismiss what people are saying because they disagree with you. Then saying "Oh well you can't possibly be gay or black, because you disagree with me" would make someone angry?

You have no concept of empathy, at all and I cannot comprehend what goes through your head when you say shit like that.

>You have to practice man. Make a thing, then step back and realize why it's shitty. Then make another thing.
Just taking the first step is incredibly hard. I've tried to start writing and I get less than 2000 words before I think it's awful beyond redemption and give up.
>"White people fantasy" is only based off of Europe in that a couple of iconic elements are taken from them and then warped and distorted in an overly long game of telephone.
But the fun is you can still see the source inspirations, and those sources can still give inspirations for new spins and takes on the cliche. It also makes it way easier for a prospective writer? Don't like cliche elves but still want elves? Just read up on some european folklore and what you don't have the dedication to research too deeply your sheer cultural osmosis can make up the gap. This is the reason why I think Japan does western fantasy so well while the west is so awful at eastern fantasy ( for now, once the westerners feels more comfortable embracing the anime they consumed they will be way better at this ). Japanese basically had western culture forced on them, so they are familiar enough with the folklore enough to be able to research more if they want to. Westerners don't really know much about asian culture or care so when we do it, it's highly researched that doesn't feel natural at all or shallow stereotypes
Likewise, "Black fantasy" is way more difficult because there's not much culture osmosis involved to even know where to begin. "African folklore"? Literally have to hit up wikipedia to even know what their 'iconic' monsters are
>Then saying "Oh well you can't possibly be gay or black, because you disagree with me" would make someone angry?
No, I said "you can't possibly be gay or black not because you disagree with me but because your post has an inappropriate level of hostility and insecurity usually only seen by /pol/tards who think someone said something bad about white people"

I'm a full-on pollack and I disagree with some of your assessments, but I appreciate the thoughtful posts you wrote. It's pretty rare for a black to write something that isn't Angry Leftist Non-White Dissing Whites for Being White, and I genuinely feel for your position, mang.

Don't have time to write a long post, but don't you think actors like Will Smith have made black lead scifi pretty commonplace, popular and accessible to whites and blacks both? Fantasy doesn't have a Will, but then fantasy as a tv or movie medium wasn't really popular with whites either until very, very recently, so we had no role models either.

Suppose for a second that I am telling the truth and what you just did was:

1) accuse me of being a racist from /pol/
2) claim that you don't believe that a number of things about me that have obvious had a huge impact on my life aren't real
3) obtusely pretend that you don't understand why this would make someone angry

I think my level of hostility is entirely appropriate.

Another for the chorus of "cool concept, questionable execution". I think they hewed too close to the D&D mold and should have gone a little bolder. I'm in the early stages of running a game now and the jury's out for me in terms of the mechanics.

That said, if you really put your own stamp on it I think it can go places. I'm basically running it as a more culturally animist Phantasy Star right now and two sessions in I think the players are starting to get the vibe.

What's the latest on Jade Colossus? Legit excited for that splat.

>but don't you think actors like Will Smith have made black lead scifi pretty commonplace, popular and accessible to whites and blacks both?
Yeah and that's probably one of the reasons why immersion isn't devastated when there are black people in science fiction. But when it comes to fantasy, blacks existing is more immersion shattering than magic and dragons, as evidenced by Veeky Forums when this topic comes up.
>I think my level of hostility is entirely appropriate.
You were posting /pol/-tier vitriol at the same time you claimed to be black and gay.
Especially
>"a fantasy world where American culture hates minorities",
Really dude? How did you get that from my post? It makes you sound like another insecure /pol/ poster eager to snap at the sjw boogeyman.
So yeah I'm going to be dismissive.

>How would you even represent that mechanically?
Combat is minimalist and deadly; players can influence other PCs with social skills. Sex refreshes your HP pool.

Basically I read the first two lines of your post and lost my shit.

Still releasing in august :(

Wasn't the main dude in Earthsea a black dude? That could be a jumping off point

>Basically I read the first two lines of your post and lost my shit.

>You /pol/ folk don't get it and lash out because you don't understand and assume it's an attack on white people.
>Black Americans don't have a place in the fantasy/nerd culture that is popular in America so it's offputting to us.
You mean these two first two lines, emphasis on the former? Which you then in seems like you understood the line explicitly stating that you are mistaking things you don't understand as an attack on white people, as an attack on Americans ( basically white people )