Review: Worlds Numberless and Strange

What will you find as you venture into Earth’s shoals?

Witch covens battle in the mammoth city of Halloween. Nazis struggle to master mythological relics in the Eleventh Reich. T. rexes hunt hominids on the tropical island of Mesozoica, while skyships fend off pirates and predators in the tempestuous cloud seas of Seishin Shore.

In The Strange, recursions—limited pocket dimensions with their own laws of reality—are seeded from human fiction and mythology. A recursor might discover Atlantis, Oz, the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes, or places even more bizarre and perilous. Worlds Numberless and Strange takes you to dozens of new recursions, where supervillains, dinosaurs, space troopers, killer robots, gods, and other dangers guard wonders and treasures few people on Earth have ever seen!

This week has been an awesome time to be a fan of MCG. The PDF of for the Cypher System was sent out to those who pre-ordered, the Numenera Reliquary boxes are being shipped out, and Worlds Numberless and Strange was released. WNS is a supplement for The Strange, a game that we love quite a bit here at TRF. The Strange imagines an Earth with an unimaginable number of recursions that the adventurers can travel to, including the fantasy world Ardeyn, the sci-fi world Ruk, and more including 221B Baker Street, Innsmouth, and Crow Hollow. There are recursions for almost any imagined fictional world, and all you have to do is imagine it.

Worlds Numberless and Strange provides 70 new recursions to add to your game. Seventeen of these are very well fleshed out with detailed information, history, cthulhuindividuals you might encounter, and artifacts that are present within that recursion. The others are just seeds that the GM can use as a starting point for their own ideas. I really love the table at the beginning of the chapter that the GM can roll on to determine which recursion they might accidentally translate into. I think the recursion seed Aser and I were both the most excited for was R’lyeh, which you can get shot by your superiors for visiting. If you survive that is. No one wants Cthulhu gain the spark and become able to translate.

The new recursion I was most excited about is Microcosmica, which I microdescribed as those episodes of Magic School Bus where they go inside various students to learn the inner workings of the human body. Aser likened it to Fantastic Voyage, and since they used a quote from the movie at the beginning of the listing, that might be the more accurate representation. But if you think there won’t be a yellow school bus zooming around if I have players show up in Microcosmica you are sorely mistaken. Plus there’s the new descriptor “Becomes Bacterial” which I want with every bit of my biochemist’s heart.

Aser really enjoyed the Rebel Galaxy recursion, inspired by all of your favorite space operas. Since we just encountered Darth Vader in our Strange game, and have recently decided we need a Star Wars game in the Cypher System this recursion is full of some pretty helpful ideas in setting that up. One of the most valuable set of rules provided was those for ship to ship combat, which included ways to take out the enemies ship without necessarily shooting them down.

rebelOther recursions include an alternate reality where the Nazis won, a steampunk Camelot, Atlantis, Zombies, Superheroes, and Dinosaurs. There are plenty more, but I don’t want to give away all of the awesomeness included. Besides this, there’s more information about regions and organizations within Ardeyn and Ruk, as well as new artifacts for those worlds. There are a handful of new descriptors that are tied to the new recursions, including Becomes Bacterial, and some new creatures.

If you’re looking for some new places to take your group, or just some inspiration for your game you should pick up Worlds Numberless and Strange. It’s a beautiful, informative book with lots of plot hooks, individuals to encounter, and worlds to explore. I can’t wait to head to some of those recursions in our own game. It is available from DriveThruRPG and the MCG Store. The PDF is $16.99 and the book is $44.99.

Mysteries of the Ninth World 9: They Forgot the 10-ft Pole

the pit

As the adventurers head into the Mechanized Tomb, they work hard to set off every trap possible.
Featuring Aser, Ash, Landan, Megan, and Shaunna.
Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions”
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Review: CypherCaster Issue #1

The Cypher System now has a FanZine called the CypherCaster, produced by David Wilson Brown. The CypherCaster promises to be a great resource for any fan of the Cypher System. The first issue includes information on upcoming releases, an article on incorporating Space in your Cypher game, a short story set in Numenera, a Numenera adventure for tiers 1-3, a series of reports from The Estate reporting on a new recursion, and a new gothic recursion to use in your campaign.

I keep up on news from MCG and their new releases, but CypherCaster has everything gathered in one place, including information on the No Thank You, Evil! Kickstarter campaign (you can read about that here in my interview with Shanna Germain). One piece of this that was especially interesting to me was an interview (by Andrew Cady) with the creators of Shotgun and Sorcery, a new third party game utilizing the Cypher System by Outland Entertainment that was kickstarted earlier this year.

Exploring Cypher Space by James Walls delved into one GM’s experience in adapting the Cypher System into his own unique scenario and campaign. I think in general this is going to be easier when the Cypher System book comes out, but the author has a lot of great advice, and some plot ideas that are tempting to introduce into my own campaign.

Shapes in the Sand by Jim Ryan is a wonderful short story that really seems to capture the weirdness of living in the Ninth World and what you can encounter. I kept waiting for Ryan to state flat out the character types for the protagonists, and it was great just to sort of figure it out yourself.

Hunting for Krofwarton by Chris Fitzgerald is a short adventure that is well-written, and I really loved the portraits that were drawn for all of the NPCs. I wish the maps had been a little better drawn, but they clearly show what’s intended. In this adventure, the PCs are approached to help a con-man recover some stolen goods. Fitzgerald intends for it to play out like a Guy Ritchie film, with several groups of bad guys all trying to get the same thing.

The Norse Recursion Cluster field report by Marc Ploude is a great way to give some details of the story without giving us everything. I think this has a great potential for getting your own ideas from the recursion that is introduced in pieces. I especially love that some of the reports are redacted. The report is intended to give the GM seeds for using the recursion in their own campaign, with some details of the people and creatures found there.

I love Holstenwall, a gothic horror recursion by Scott Robinson. It’s nice and spooky and introduces points of interest within the recursion. I wish they had included some foci that were made just for this recursion, but all the information they do include is great. I also appreciated the list of resources they provided to get your own ideas of what to have present in this recursion.

The Fanzine concludes with MCG news and events for MCG fans.

I definitely think that this zine is a great investment for Cypher fans. It’s full of great information and ideas, and is only $4 on DriveThruRPG. The next issue will be out in July, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it as well!

Mysteries of the Ninth World 8: That’s Where it’s Better, Down Where it’s Wetter

moyag

The party dives deep to find gharrolan, and are side-tracked by something else brewing on the ocean floor.

Featuring Aser, Ash, Landan, Megan, and Shaunna

Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions”

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Mysteries of the Ninth World 7: Captain Morgan and the Pomegranate Beasts

blood barm
Our heroes head downriver to Harmuth in search of a substance needed to remove the parasites.
Music by Kevin MacLeod, “Decisions”

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Unraveling of the Ninth World Episode 2: Hell is Other People

Upon learning about the menu at No Hope, our three “heroes” resolve to find a way out of Hell as soon as possible. Visit @1TweetNumenera on Twitter.

Shoggoth

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Mysteries of the Ninth World Episode 6: Return to Uxphan

Terror Bird

“Mourning” the loss of a friend, the party in the company of a new ally attempt to retrace their steps and discover the location of the Impossible Blade. Along the way, Titania and Ilvaria invest in potential pets/breakfast.

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Not So Strange Episode 2: The Subtle Approach

Using information obtained from the bank fiasco, the group sets out to find who is behind the destruction of the Quiet Cabal headquarters on Earth. They find more then they bargained for.

Some sound effects used with permission from Ambient Environments .
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Unraveling the Ninth World Episode 1: Go directly to Hell; do not pass Go

Three criminals are thrown into Hell as a punishment for their crimes. Will they be able to push past their selfish desires to work together and escape this prison? Or will they be stuck in Hell forever?

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Mysteries of the Ninth World 5: Climb to Ignominy

Warrior Host
Warrior Host from The Devil’s Spine

The party says some goodbyes as they make their way to top of the tower to destroy the Insidious Choir.

This campaign and the images are from The Devil’s Spine, written by Monte Cook. We use the Numenera campaign book and expansions, all available at http://www.montecookgames.com/shop/

NUMENERA and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC. Printed in Canada.

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