It's time to redeem existing rewards and since all backers get the Cypher System Rulebook in PDF, this message is for you! Plus, if you backed at a level that includes other existing Cypher System titles—the five genre books; the Ptolus bundle; or the Worlds of the Cypher System titles, for example—great news: It's time to redeem those rewards, too—huzzah!
Click here to log in to the MCG Shop. After you log in, you'll be taken to your cart and you'll see all of your rewards that are ready for redemption. All that is left is to pay shipping (if you have any physical rewards) and check out.
For an in-depth explanation of redeeming rewards, check out this article, complete with screenshots. If you have any difficulty with redemption, please contact us and we'll sort it out for you.
Progress Report—and Come Play Rust and Redemption at Gen Con!
22
0
11
14 days ago
by Monte Cook Games
Hello, backers—
It’s been a few months since we last reached out to you—and during that time we’ve been hard at work. Rust and Redemption is through the bulk of the design phase; the team has been playtesting and having a lot of fun with it. The Cypher System Starter Set and Cypher System Bestiary are both also in design. And the Deluxe Edition of the Cypher System Rulebook is on press now. That means we're looking forward to fulfilling it next month!
Existing Titles Are about to Fulfill
If you backed at a level that includes existing Cypher System titles—the five genre books; the Ptolus bundle; or the Worlds of the Cypher System titles, for example—or if you are getting these bundles as add-ons, good news: We’re fulfilling all of these existing books starting next week—huzzah!
Look for your redemption email soon. If this is your first time redeeming rewards from one of our campaigns, be sure to read the instructions in your email. We do things a little differently, due to the scale of our campaigns and the fact that rewards are often delivered over the course of several months. It’s a smooth and easy process that eliminates pitfalls and gives you a lot of control, but if it’s your first time you’ll want to make sure you understand the steps.
The Deluxe CSR Is Off to Press
We have sent the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook off to press. This is going to be a beautiful book. There are a lot of extra steps involved in creating a deluxe edition like this, with page gilding, debossing, and other elements all adding to the process. Nonetheless, we expect to have it back from the printer in late June. If it's among your rewards, look for news about fulfillment in a month or so!
Step into Rust and Redemption at Gen Con!
Raiders, radiation, and other threats of the post-apocalyptic wasteland—including a mysterious warlord with no face—stand between you and a before-times seed bank with life-saving grain.
That’s the description of Bitter Seeds, our official Cypher System event at Gen Con—inspired by our work on Rust and Redemption! Gen Con event registration opens on May 21st. There will be roughly three dozen sessions, so it shouldn’t be too tough to grab a seat at the table—if you hurry. Our events usually sell out, so act quickly when event registration opens.
If you’re going to Gen Con but don’t manage to grab an event ticket, drop by anyway—our games start every two hours, and there are often no-shows, so seats might be available. All of our events—in fact, the entire MCG presence—will be in a large gaming room on the Hoosier Concourse (across from the Exhibit Hall). You won’t be able to miss it.
We’re looking forward to the best four days in gaming, and hope to see you there!
This is a very specific mini-update for backers who pledged additional funds for an add-on during the campaign, but that add-on isn't in your cart, nor is it listed as an add-on that you can select. If this is you, please get in touch with BackerKit Support (<<use that link) and they will help you.
We promise we will work with the wonderful folks at BackerKit to get this fixed for you as quickly as possible.
This is a mini-update to let you know that we've started opening BackerKit Pledge Manager for Adventures in the Cypher System—huzzah!
The first step in opening BackerKit Pledge Manager is to send surveys to 5% of backers from each pledge level (the 5% of backers to receive surveys is selected at random). BackerKit calls this step the Smoke Test. Once the surveys are sent, BackerKit collates data on the response rate, the proportion of support inquiries received, and the add-on purchase rate to let us know if the survey and pledge questions are working appropriately.
Once we’re sure all is well, surveys will be sent to all remaining backers. This process—from Smoke Test to sending surveys to all backers—will take a few days to complete, so please be patient. By the end of the day on Friday, all backers should have been invited to BackerKit Pledge Manager for Adventures in the Cypher System.
For your friends who missed the campaign, it isn't too late! They can join in via a pre-order. Just link them to the main landing page for this campaign and have them click on the MAKE A LATE PLEDGE NOW button.
Because of your support, along with that of well over 4500 other backers, this campaign has soared to an amazing result. We’ve been doing this for a long time (this is our 24th crowdfunding campaign!), and this has been one of the most thrilling campaigns we’ve been a part of. It’s not just that we’re going to make all this beautiful new stuff—it’s that we (well, you, actually) have introduced thousands of gamers to their new favorite TTRPG.
We have some cool news to share about our next campaign! And we want to give you a heads-up on the next steps. But first, a few words of thanks:
While this campaign rolled along, the design team (Monte, Sean, Bruce, Shanna, and Dominique) dove into Rust and Redemption, and began work on It’s Only Magic and the Cypher System Starter Set. Bear, supported by Javier (and the many great illustrators they work with), coordinated the artwork and handled the graphic design of this campaign; Teri and Tammie wrangled words and logistics; and Jen (with some help from Olivia and Kate) provided answers and support to you, our wonderful community, here and everywhere gamers congregate online. The man behind the curtain of this campaign is Charles, who planned and has run this campaign.
All of us at MCG want to thank all of you who made this an incredibly successful—and fun—campaign. Your support brings our imagination to life and to thousands of game tables.
OK, here’s what to expect as we move forward from here—and a peek at what’s next!
This Evening and the Next Few Days
Running this campaign has been rewarding, but crowdfunding campaigns can also be brutally demanding. And most of the MCG staff has been keeping up with our regular duties throughout—shipping your orders, releasing new titles like Path of the Planebreaker, and moving existing projects like the Old Gods of Appalachia RPG toward completion, as well as working on Rust and Redemption and the Cypher System Starter Set.
We're already in the early stages of design for these and the other titles you've made possible. We'll be quiet as we spool up, but you can expect regular updates as we make progress on design and production (and of course, when we begin fulfillment). If you have questions, feel free to send us a message, but don't be concerned if you don't get a response until after we take a short break.
The Next Few Weeks
BackerKit began collecting pledges the moment the campaign closed. But it takes them a full two weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.
In the meantime, we will get the pledge manager fully set up. The pledge manager lets you confirm all the information we need to fulfill your pledge, manage your add-ons, and even (if you like) upgrade your pledge level. We’ll notify you when we open the pledge manager, which should be in two or three weeks.
NOTE: The pledge manager is vital to getting your rewards. We CANNOT FULFILL your rewards if you don’t respond to the pledge manager!
The Next Few Months
Once you’ve completed the pledge manager survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. We’ll be busy crafting your products and rewards in the months to come.
At times during this period, you won't hear from us, maybe for a couple of months. Don’t worry if that happens—over the years we've delivered millions of rewards to tens of thousands of backers on time, and we'll be working diligently on yours.
But at the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and updates include critical information about your rewards.
When Your Rewards Ship
Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free, because you’ve already paid for it through this campaign), and check out.
This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time.
Make sure to pay attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.
This was a wonderful campaign, and we are very happy you chose to be a part of it. Thank you all for your support, and for setting out with us on this weird journey into inspired gaming!
Bestiary Upgraded—Let’s Celebrate and Make One More Fun Thing!
28
0
79
3 months ago
by Monte Cook Games
Thank you again, backers!
As is usually the case, the final days of a campaign are turning out to be pretty fast-moving. You’ve unlocked the upgrade to the Cypher System Bestiary, which is expanding to a very hefty 192 pages!
This brings us to an interesting crossroads.
Overnight, this campaign surpassed Invisible Sun to become our third biggest crowdfunding campaign to date (not including Old Gods of Appalachia, which is in a class all its own). Our other top campaigns each revolved around a major product—new corebooks for Numenera, the historically massive (and historically awesome) Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire, or the ground-breaking Invisible Sun Black Cube. In contrast, this campaign is focused on expanding and growing an existing line without a "tentpole" item. No campaign of this nature—by MCG or, to our knowledge, any other publisher—has soared to such heights. Thank you so much for making it happen!
In exceeding our expectations, you’ve also taken us through all our envisioned stretch goals for the products we’ve lined up for this campaign. To celebrate this remarkable success, we want to cap it with a fun, cool new product—an exclusive new title just for you, the backers who brought us to this point.
A Fun New Product
We want to make something a little different—and a lot of fun. A special mini-bestiary with full Cypher System stats and write-ups for NPCs like a finicky housecat, retail clerk, YouTuber, dopey dog, middle manager, rules lawyer, perpetual grad student, IT professional, AI chatbot, artist, game designer, influencer, game store owner, powergamer, anime fan, and so on. Who knows—maybe you’ll even see a character from inside MCG!
This will be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but given that Rust and Redemption and It’s Only Magic both have modern characters at their roots, these NPCs will be more than a fun read—they’ll bring color and perhaps a bit of levity into your adventures and campaigns.
This is a “mini-bestiary,” not a major product. However, we’ll make it in print and PDF, and the print version will be made especially for you, the backers of this campaign. It will not be widely available in print through any other source.
Like all of the new items we’ve unlocked through this campaign, it will be added automagically to the rewards at the Cypher Hero, Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (in print and PDF), and the Digital Cypher Expert level (PDF only). If you aren’t backing at one of those levels, you really should consider an upgrade—just look at all the stuff these levels get!
Now, What Should We Call It?
To add to the festive nature of this stretch goal, we invite you to help us come up with a title for this product!
If you have an idea, post it in the comments to this update. Check in on the comments throughout the day, and give a thumbs-up to ideas you like. At the end of the day, we’ll review your ideas and pick one from among the most popular choices.
Help Us Unlock This!
We’ll unlock this fun stretch goal at $750,000. To reach that, we’ll have to hit $85,000 over the course of the day (we're already well on the way). Doable? Invisible Sun hit $85,000 in its final day. Ptolus did more than $115,000. Numenera 2: Discovery and Destiny? $140,000.
Those campaigns all had one thing in common: Their supporters helped to spread the word. If you can give this campaign just a little boost today, we should be able to reach this goal before the campaign closes this evening.
You’ve unlocked another stretch goal: we’re going to make Adventures in the Cypher System bigger, with even more adventures between its covers. And speaking of covers, we’re upgrading the book from softcover to hardcover. Thank you for making this a reality!
What will you encounter in these adventures? Could be anything! One thing’s for sure, though: more creatures and NPCs. So for our next goal, let’s expand the Cypher System Bestiary.
We unlocked this title quite a while back (on the first day of this campaign!), so for those who have joined us since: this book will introduce a whole new presentation style for Cypher System creatures. It will showcase not just each creature's basics, but everything you really need to make the most of it—maps of lairs, sample organizations, adventure frameworks, goals and schemes, names for individuals, equipment loadouts, pets, and more. So when we talk about adding more creatures, we aren’t talking just stat blocks. We’re looking to give you creatures that can really strengthen your adventures and campaigns, and make the GM’s job even easier!
At $675,000, we’ll add 32 pages of new creatures to the Cypher System Bestiary, making this book a truly hefty 192-page hardcover.
There Are Just a Couple of Days Left!
The closing days of a campaign are often pretty exciting. We can unlock this stretch goal, and possibly more—but only if new gamers keep discovering this campaign. That comes down to you!
Please keep spreading the word. Tweet, post, and share! An easy way to help others discover this campaign (and maybe win a prize along the way!) is to enter our Gleam raffle. It gives you several options, each of which helps spread the word and enters you into the drawing. It takes only a minute, and it really helps the campaign!
A week ago we unveiled some exciting news about Cypher System support on Roll20—and ultimately other VTT (virtual tabletop) platforms—with the release of the science-fiction adventure Castaway on Roll20. That news, we said, was just the tip of the iceberg; we mentioned that you’d hear about additional content moving natively to Roll20 in the future.
Well, that future is already underway! Today Roll20 took the wraps off the Cypher System Compendium. This puts the Cypher System Rules Primer on Roll20 in the platform’s native format for everyone to use—free!
And since we recently upgunned the Cypher System Rules Primer with a new adventure—A Disturbance at Bridge House—this gives you another Cypher System adventure fully ready for use on Roll20. (Did we mention it’s free?)
This is just the start. Over the months to come we expect to see a lot of Cypher System content moving onto Roll20. It’s a great time to be a Cypher System fan!
Now, let's look at some cool art—but first:
It’s the Final Week!
We’re in the last few days of this campaign—but the final week is often pretty exciting! We can keep unlocking stretch goals, but only if new gamers discover this campaign. YOU CAN MAKE THAT HAPPEN!
Here's how: Just click through to our Gleam raffle. Do any or all of the entry tasks. Each one only takes a few seconds, helps spread the word about this campaign, and enters you into a chance to win cool prizes.
Let’s Look at Some Art!
While we have you, let’s show off some new art for Rust and Redemption, Adventures in the Cypher System, and It’s Only Magic. Most of these pieces have not been shared anywhere until today!
You’ve taken us over yet another stretch goal, and we have now unlocked the new Cypher System XP Deck. This beautiful deck will give you a set of tokens to track experience points, useful at the table as players gain, exchange, and use XP during play. And you can just tuck them into your Cypher System Rulebook or character portfolio between sessions! Each card will feature unique Cypher System art, showcasing the breadth and beauty of the game.
The Cypher System XP Deck is now part of the rewards at the Cypher Hero, Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (in print and PDF), and the Digital Cypher Expert level (PDF only). If you aren’t backing at one of those levels, you really should consider an upgrade—just look at all the stuff these levels get!
Next up: More adventure!
We’re excited about the adventures in Adventures in the Cypher System, and we want more! We’d like to expand and upgrade the book, with additional content and another sizable jump in page count. And we’d like to make it a hardcover!
At $625,000, we’ll add more adventures taking the book roughly half-again as big as when we originally rolled it out. And it’ll be a hardcover to boot!
We have just over a week left in this campaign. We can make this happen—and unlock even more stretch goals!—if we…
Think of All the Lost Gamers!
In the wake of the OGL kerfuffle back in January, an historic wave of gamers have been looking to try something new. This has been great for the Cypher System, with thousands of these gamers discovering their new favorite RPG.
But many thousands are still out there, wandering the internet or the aisles of their FLGS in a daze. THEY NEED YOUR HELP!
Check out this raffle. It has a bunch of ways you can help spread the word, and for each one you get a shot at some great prizes. Spread the word, hit more stretch goals, and win cool stuff? It's chock full of win!
With the new Cypher System Starter Set, and a free copy of the Cypher System Rulebook in PDF as part of every pledge level, this is an incredible time for an ex-5E player to discover the Cypher System. Help them find it. It just takes a minute: spread the word about this campaign!
Thanks again for your support! —Team MCG
While we have you…
MCG's Art Director Bear Weiter (who makes our products—and this campaign—look so beautiful) launched a science fiction audio drama with a couple of friends last December called Station 151. The podcast has been climbing the charts, hitting #3 in science fiction and #12 in overall fiction here in the US, plus #1 in Science Fiction in the UK, Canada, Ireland, and more. We think you might enjoy it as well!
Station 151 follows the story of Wayne Robertson, an astrophysicist taking on a solo stint at a remote satellite array in Antarctica. As soon as he arrives, he realizes things are not what he expected. Accompanied by a demanding artificial consciousness and a loyal husky, Wayne’s stay at the station begins to unravel, spiraling wildly in weirder and darker ways.
The season 1 finale of Station 151 just dropped, and all episodes are now available and ready for binging. You can find Station 151 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast apps. For more information you can check out their website at station151.com. We here at MCG have really been digging Station 151—and we think you will too!
We have some exciting news to share today. We’ve been working closely with Roll20 in recent months to dramatically upgrade our VTT footprint. The ultimate goal is to offer most or all Cypher System adventures and other key content natively on Roll20 and, eventually, other VTTs. That goal includes all of the adventures in Rust and Redemption, It’s Only Magic, and Adventures in the Cypher System—plus dozens of existing adventures in titles like Claim the Sky, Godforsaken, and Predation.
Today Roll20 posted the full native conversion of Castaway, a popular science-fiction adventure for the Cypher System. This is one small title, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. We have numerous other adventures in the pipeline already and additional releases in the weeks to come! Check out Roll20’s announcement here.
You’ve upgraded Adventures in the Cypher System. We’re now expanding this adventure book with two additional new adventures. That’s roughly a 33% increase in the book’s size and content!
As a reminder, Adventures in the Cypher System, along with the Cypher System Bestiary and Cypher System Creature Deck 2, is included among the rewards for everyone backing at the Cypher Hero, Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (in print and PDF) and Digital Cypher Expert (PDF only). These levels are the real bargains in this campaign!
Speaking of new rewards for those levels, we have another thing we’d like to make. This one is a bit more modest, but it’s nevertheless a cool and very useful tool at any Cypher System gaming table: A new XP Deck.
Inthe Cypher System, players earn experience points for making discoveries, facing unexpected challenges—and most colorfully, as a result of GM intrusions. And they spend XP not just to advance their characters, but to reroll dice, enact player intrusions, and other at-the-table activities. In other words, XP trade hands fairly often during play. (They’re also measured in ones, not hundreds.)
Having tokens to represent XP is super convenient. Almost any small item can do the trick: gaming groups have used beads, coins, even M&Ms (just don’t eat your rewards!). But cards are the handiest—they’re portable, resistant to the attention of cats, and easily tucked into your character portfolio between sessions. (And there’s nothing like the drama of the GM silently drawing two XP cards, while the players lean forward, wondering what GM intrusion this portends…)
There’s already a Cypher System XP Deck, but we think it could be even nicer. This new 30-card deck will feature unique art on every card, showcasing the breadth and beauty of the Cypher System line. We’ll unlock it at $575,000, and it will be added to the rewards of every backer at the Cypher Hero, Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager pledge levels (in print and PDF) and Digital Cypher Expert level (PDF only).
(If you signed up to be notified, or pledged within the first 48 hours, your special XP deck will be completely compatible with this one. The cards will go together great, and the unique art in each deck won’t be duplicated.)
This campaign launched at an amazing pace. It’s now in a (completely normal) slower phase. If you continue to help spread the word, you’ll help new gamers discover the Cypher System and move us toward this and future stretch goals!
CS Open License News—Plus Some Valentine’s Day Fun!
17
0
1
4 months ago
by Monte Cook Games
We have a couple of exciting bits of Cypher System news to share today—one on the lighthearted side, and the other a more consequential benefit to the community. Let’s talk about that one first!
New CSRD Content
Back in January, before this campaign launched, we announced plans to expand the content of the Cypher System Reference Document, or CSRD. That’s the set of Cypher System rules that gamers and publishers can directly lift (or modify) for use in their products published under the Cypher System Open License (CSOL).
Today we rolled out the first chunk of that new content. We’ve updated the CSRD to include expanded fantasy rules, creatures, character options, and so on from Godforsaken. And done the same for science fiction with content from The Stars Are Fire. We’ve also added content from Cypher Shorts, putting rules for this low-prep, quick-play variant of the Cypher System into the CSOL environment.
We continue to plow forward on content from our other genre books. Look for rules from We Are All Mad Here, Stay Alive!, and Claim the Sky in the weeks to come. And it’s our intention to ultimately include content from Rust and Redemption and It’s Only Magic, too—but that’s somewhat further down the road, of course.
If you have an interest in publishing game content, the Cypher System Open License just got even better! And for Cypher System gamers everywhere, the scope of future third-party products just broadened. It’s a great time to be into the Cypher System!
And now (to quote Monty Python) for something completely different…
Who Will Be the Cypher System Valentine’s Sweethearts?
It’s the holiday of love, and one of the many reasons we love the Cypher System is that everything’s compatible. But that doesn’t mean everyone is compatible! Help us select our ultimate Valentine’s Day sweethearts—your votes will determine who ships with whom! But don’t worry—regardless of whether they get along or not, they’re all compatible. Because no matter what campaign you’re playing, everything in the Cypher System works together!
Will they click? You tell us!
We'll post new pairings every day now through Valentine's Day. The pairing with the most "ship" votes will be crowned Cypher System Valentine's Sweethearts! Vote now!
Help New Gamers Discover the Cypher System
We continue to see amazing new interest in the Cypher System—but there are still thousands and thousands of gamers who are looking for something new, but haven’t discovered it yet. Here are a couple of easy ways to help them!
A New Cypher System Book Sends You Out into the Planes
13
0
2
4 months ago
by Monte Cook Games
Though it’s only indirectly connected to this campaign, we wanted to share some cool Cypher System news with you today. Path of the Planebreaker for Cypher System was released yesterday at the MCG Shop, DriveThruRPG, and finer game stores everywhere.
A cursed moon hurtles through the multiverse, crashing from one plane to the next, never at rest, forever fleeing a catastrophe that predates existence itself. Behold the Planebreaker!
The Planebreaker visits all planes, all demiworlds, and all dimensions. Some are known to sages and planar travelers. But in a multiverse stretching across epochs, the number of previously uncatalogued planes is vast. The Planebreaker races through all of them, in time, and the Path that trails behind it creates a route that links them all.
Path of the Planebreaker explores this enigmatic object and its fascinating city of Timeborne—home to refugees, planar travelers, and residents from across the planes. And it details dozens of exotic planes, all connected by the Path, a sort of interplanar road that trails behind the Planebreaker.
You can set an entire campaign in Timeborne, or introduce interplanar travel to your existing campaign when the Planebreaker makes an appearance your reality.
And here’s the best part: All Cypher System content is fully compatible, so you can mix and match. Path of the Planebreaker has a fantasy vibe—but what if you’re running a modern horror campaign? A hellish portal might lead to the Citadel of the Fate Eater. Ramiah, the Star Blade (both a mythical object and an extradimensional space) might appear in the hands of a megavillain in a superheroes campaign. The Wreck of the Unimaginable would be a cool site for many science-fiction games.
It's the Cypher System. It all works together!
You can get Path of the Planebreaker right now on the MCG Shop and DriveThruRPG. It’s also included in the Venture into the Planes bundle—and add-on for this campaign. (The other books in the bundle haven’t been released yet, but they will all be available by the time we fulfill early rewards.)
There are a lot of great game products available to support your Cypher System game. Which one(s) do you need?
The short answer is: None. The Cypher System Rulebook has everything you need to run virtually any game you like, including specific sections (with advice, insights, cyphers, gear, and optional rules) for nine different genres. If you were stuck on a desert island, you could play a lifetime’s worth of great RPG campaigns with just the Cypher System Rulebook.
But sometimes it’s nice to dig deep—that’s why we’re funding Rust and Redemption and It’s Only Magic, to join our existing genre books like Claim the Sky and Godforsaken.
And sometimes it’s cool to explore an existing campaign setting, full of interesting and compelling places, situations, characters, and storylines. Hence we have Cypher System products such as Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire, The Strange, Path of the Planebreaker, and The Origin, to name just a few.
So which one is right for you?
Today we’re unveiling a fun tool to explore the many options available. You can find it here. Just click through the choices—it’s like a “choose your own adventure” book—and it’ll recommend a Cypher System title that’s right for your game.
(If it’s something you like, most of the titles are available now at the MCG Shop. But many are also offered as add-ons for this campaign, in bundles that make for a great deal.)
Check it out—we hope you think it’s fun! And in the meantime, thank you so much for taking us over the amazing $500K mark. Please keep spreading the word—sharing this chooser is one great way to do it!
You’ve added an entire additional book to the lineup for this campaign. Adventures in the Cypher System has been unlocked!
Showcasing the Cypher System’s elegant handling of different genres and different types of adventures, this anthology includes a variety of adventures ready to use as one-shots or as a part of a campaign. Science fiction, fantasy, horror... it’s all covered here, including adventures that revisit fan-favorite settings of the past like The Strange and Predation.
Adventures in the Cypher System is now added to the rewards of everyone backing at the Cypher Hero, Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (in print and PDF) and Digital Cypher Expert (PDF only). If you aren’t backing at one of those levels, maybe it’s time to upgrade!
Since that stretch goal was so popular—let’s upgrade it!
Let’s add two more adventures to this book. That will expand it substantially—by roughly one third. We’ll unlock this expansion at $525,000.
In the meantime, be sure to join the MCG Design Team for an AMA on the Cypher Unlimited discord this afternoon. Ask your questions about the Cypher System, the cool products we're making for this campaign, or, well, anything! (But note: these are the fine folk who design the games you love. They don't ship them to you or run this campaign. Questions about fulfillment and the campaign are best handled here, or through our Contact Us page—the designers probably can't answer them.)
Here's the schedule:
4–5 EST (1–2 PST) Dominique & Sean 5–6 EST (2–3 PST) Shanna & Sean 6–7 EST (3–4 PST) Bruce & Shanna 7–8 EST (4–5 PST) Monte & Bruce
This campaign has really been on fire. We’re so grateful to the many longtime Cypher System players who have supported it—and so gratified to see so many new Cypher System players joining us for the first time. Please continue to help spread the word!
Once again you’ve taken us through a stretch goal in astonishing time! We are now going to upgrade It’s Only Magic with a large poster map, just as we did yesterday with Rust and Redemption.
How about we make the next one a biggie?
Showcasing the game's ability to handle different genres and different types of adventures, this anthology will include a range of adventures ready to use as one-shots or for use in your campaign. Science fiction, fantasy, horror . . . we’ll hit a range of beats, but all of the adventures will be designed with flexibility in mind, so they’re easy to adapt into the setting you’re running.
And that’s not all. Long-time fans of the Cypher System might be excited to see this new art from the book:
We’re going to revisit some fan-favorite settings with these adventures. You’re looking at art in the style of The Strange and Predation—two of our settings that get constant requests for new content! You won’t need those games to enjoy this content, but if you’re a fan of those worlds, this book will be a must-have!
We’re calling this title Adventures in the Cypher System. (It’s no accident that this campaign shares the same name!)
We’ll unlock Adventures in the Cypher System at $450,000. As with our previous stretch-goal titles, this will be added to the rewards of everyone backing at the Cypher Hero, Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (in print and PDF) and Digital Cypher Expert (PDF only). If you aren’t backing at one of those levels, you’re missing out on what’s becoming a really hot deal! Time to upgrade?
Roughly 2000 of you have supported this campaign so far—in its first 24 hours alone! It’s impossible to know for sure, but looking at the distribution of the pledge levels it seems like a big chunk of our backers are new to the Cypher System. If that’s you, thanks for your support—and welcome to a great community, and what we hope and believe will soon be your favorite tabletop RPG!
If you haven’t already, check out the Cypher Unlimited discord. While not an official MCG site, this community is really welcoming, supportive, and full of great ideas, inspiration, and fun people.
We’ve crossed the threshold on our latest stretch goal, and unlocked the Cypher System Creature Deck 2. This 100-card deck, a handy creature reference, will now be added to your rewards in print and PDF if you’re backing at the Cypher Expert, Cypher Hero, or All In: Cypher Voyager pledge levels (and in PDF only at the Digital Cypher Expert level).
Next up: let’s upgrade It’s Only Magic. We’d like to give it a large poster map (similar to the one we already funded for Rust and Redemption). We’ll unlock this upgrade at $350,000.
Thousands of Gamers NEED YOUR HELP!
There was a lot of upheaval in the TTRPG world this month (as you may have heard), which has resulted in a huge wave of interest in the Cypher System recently. Thousands of new gamers have joined our community and started playing Cypher System.
We’re thrilled to welcome them, but many thousands are still out there, wandering the internet or the aisles of their local game stores looking for something new. THEY NEED YOUR HELP!
With the new Cypher System Starter Set, and a free copy of the Cypher System Rulebook in PDF as part of every pledge level, this is an incredible time for an ex-5E player to discover the Cypher System. Help them find it. Spread the word about this campaign!
What an amazing launch day we’re having! You’ve unlocked another stretch goal, making the Cypher System Bestiary bigger and better, with a full 160 pages of creaturey goodness.
On the subject of creatures, let’s make a new product!
Our creature decks (we’ve made several of them over the years, for Cypher System, Numenera, and The Strange) are super handy. On one side of each card you are the creature’s stats for the GM; on the other is an image for the players. You can tuck a complete encounter—heck, ten complete encounters—into your shirt pocket. They’re portable, great for inspiration, and fantastic for generating encounters on the fly!
We’d like to make a 100-card Cypher System Creature Deck 2, with creatures from the new Cypher System Bestiary. (Why is it deck 2? Because there’s already a Cypher System Creature Deck, based on creatures from the Cypher System Rulebook. You can get it as an add-on to your pledge!)
We’ll unlock this deck at $300,000—at which point it will be automagically added to every level that includes all the stretch goals. That’s Digital Cypher Expert (PDF only), and Cypher Expert and All In: Cypher Voyager! (print and PDF). And also to…
A New Pledge Level: Cypher Hero
Some of our lifelong Cypher System fans have pointed out that there’s no pledge level that gets them the stretch goals without also including the core rules they already have. Our bad! In our excitement over the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook, we overlooked the fact that some fans might not want a duplicate rulebook. So we’re fixing that!
The new Cypher Hero pledge level includes Rust and Redemption, It’s Only Magic, and all the stretch goals such as the Cypher System Bestiary and (when we unlock it) the Cypher System Creature Deck 2—plus all those to come!
We are marching through stretch goals at an astonishing pace. You’ve just unlocked the upgrade to Rust and Redemption—that title now gets a large poster map, added to both the print and PDF version of the book.
Up next: Another upgrade, this time to the Cypher System Bestiary. At $225,000 we’ll expand this title, taking it all the way to 160 pages full of amazing and wondrous creatures for your campaigns. True to the breadth of the Cypher System, the creatures in this book will fit many different genres. And this book will introduce a brand new presentation style for Cypher System creatures, showcasing not just the basics, but everything you really need to use them—maps of lairs, sample organizations, adventure frameworks, goals and schemes, names for individuals, equipment loadouts, pets, and more.
We’re really excited about making the Cypher System Bestiary more than just another monster book!
Please keep spreading the word about this campaign. We have many more stretch goals we’d like to hit, to keep adding titles to your rewards, and continue making those rewards even better!
Thank you again, backers. Whether you’re new to the Cypher System, or an old fan, you’ve really helped this campaign get off to an explosive start!
We’re less than two hours into this campaign, and you’ve already unlocked the Cypher System Bestiary! Backers at the Digital Cypher Expert ( PDF), Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (print and PDF) are now getting this entire new book added to their rewards automagically.
(Not backing at one of those levels? Consider upgrading to get this and all stretch goals we unlock throughout this campaign!)
Next up: Let’s start beefing up these books! For our next stretch goal, we’d like to add a large poster map to Rust and Redemption. This will be included in the print and PDF version of this post-apocalyptic genre book. We’ll unlock this goal at $175,000.
Think of All the Lost Gamers!
As you may be aware, there was something of a kerfuffle in the TTRPG world this month, and as a result, an historic wave of gamers are thinking about trying something new. This has been a wonderful month for the Cypher System, with thousands of these gamers discovering their new favorite RPG.
But many thousands are still out there, wandering their game stores and the internet in a daze. THEY NEED YOUR HELP!
Tell them about this campaign. With the new Cypher System Starter Set, and a free copy of the Cypher System Rulebook in PDF as part of every pledge level, this is an incredible time for an ex-5E player to discover the Cypher System. Help them find it. Spread the word about this campaign!
Thank you, Cypher System fans and those new to the game!
Your amazing support today has funded this campaign in what seems like record time! We are so excited to be bringing Rust and Redemption, It’s Only Magic, the Cypher System Starter Set, and the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook into being—and we couldn’t be more gratified with the speed at which you made it happen.
That gives us virtually the entire campaign to unlock stretch goals. And why not come out of the gate strong, with an entire new book? That’s right: We’d like to make the Cypher System Bestiary! This hardcover tome will detail scores of creatures for your Cypher System campaign, giving you oodles of options for games in any genre.
This book will be added to the Digital Cypher Expert pledge level (in PDF), and to the Cypher Expert and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (in print and PDF). If you aren’t backing at one of those levels, consider upgrading to get this title and other stretch goals we unlock along the way added to your rewards!
This campaign is running hot and today has already been very exciting—and the action is sure to continue as the day progresses! We’ll unlock this stretch goal at $125,000.
Be sure to help spread the word—the more people who discover this campaign, the faster we’ll be able to unlock this and other stretch goals!
