Product– Cypher Preview FREE!

System- Cypher System

Producer– Monte Cook Games

Price– FREE here  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/534071/cypher-preview-free?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR-A solid product introduction.  100%

Basics– Don’t call it a comeback!  The Cypher System is getting a kind of second edition!  Not really, but kind of!  Monte Cook games has released a preview of their second edition of the game, so let’s dive into the preview of what’s the same and what’s changing.

Base mechanics– This isn’t changing.  Your Game master says a thing is level x.  You multiply that x by 3 and need to roll over that on a d20.  You have abilities that knock down that level by an amount and you still attempt to roll over that on a d20.  Still slick and easy to learn.

Effort –  This isn’t changing.  You have three pools to draw resources from.  You have Effort that reduces the amount you need to spend on a power.  You can spend from your pool to use a power or to reduce the difficulty level of a skill challenge.  You spend 3 points for the first level, reduced by effort, and 2 points per level after that.  Still slick as always.

Damage and armor– Here’s comes the big changes.  Armor now acts like an ability, reducing the level you need to go against when you dodge or block.  Also, damage now comes in three flavors as you have minor, moderate, and major.  You have three minor to a moderate, and three moderate to a major.  Once you have three major, you are knocked out.  Previously, damage went against your pools.

Cyphers- Cyphers are another big change.  Cyphers used to be more object based.  Now they are more like spells you can use each day.  Furthermore, they will also will focus on more subtle cyphers that are constant powers that provide a change to your character.

And that’s it.    

Mechanics or Crunch– I honestly welcome these changes.  The cypher system was fun before, but I felt the loss of points from my pools really hampered my character.  By changing the damage to go against something else, hit points if you will, it lets those points be used for waht they were meant for.  Also, armor reducing the level feels a bit more cypher system than it reducing damage.  This also lets heavy armored foes be possibly damaged by lighter weapons as previously heavy armor meant light weapons were useless. I look forward to its full implementation.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– So, you can’t really judge this product based on its theme because it really doesn’t have any.  You can’t judge it on a document updating the math of the world.  -/5

Execution– This document is pretty slick.  I feel like I could honestly start using this stuff in my current cypher games just based on this.  It’s easy to read and understand.  It’s also pretty, using art from across all the different properties that Monte Cook Games makes.  5/5

Summary– Monte Cook always gets about 100 bucks from me every year.  They put out a kickstarter for something, I throw money, and then stuff shows up later.  This year will be no exception.  I like the update to the system and it shows growth of his original idea in positive ways.  This is something you need to check out.  It’s free, so why not!  100%