Happy spooky season, Cypher backers! In honor of the season, let’s look at some of the adventures for The Strange, detailing unusual objects and “anti-Earth activists.”
Bruce R. Cordell talks The Strange
Content-wise, let's talk adventures.
Two brand-new adventures are slated to appear in The Strange. I suppose I shouldn't give too much away, since we probably have some players, in addition to GMs, reading these updates. Let's try for a happy medium.
What Big Teeth: Though a GM can always choose to set a real-world adventure somewhere they're more familiar with, this starting-tier adventure begins in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in honor of me having just moved here.
The PCs are checking on reports of unusual objects in the area that have drawn Estate interest. Maybe it’s no more than a new social media meme, destined to gutter out in a few more months. Or maybe it’s evidence of actual cross-recursion activity. As Estate operatives, it’s the PCs' job to determine which. Manifest cyphers turn up far more often when recursors regularly translate into and out of an area. If that’s what’s actually happening, PCs need to get to the bottom of it and, if necessary, stop it.
And guess what? I ran this adventure at Gamehole Con 2026 for three different groups. It surprised each group, since they thought they were playing an older adventure. Instead, they got to play a never-before-seen/not-yet-published adventure with the all-new types for The Strange.
A Time to Rend: This mid- to high-tier adventure begins in Overland Park, Kansas, in honor of it being an MCG stronghold.
The PCs are looking into "anti-Earth activists" in the area—probably the Karum, who seem to be interested in a newly established church in the area. The Karum are extremists. They would like nothing more than to see this whole planet vaporized. So, PCs need to figure out what's really going on.
Status-wise, the entire first draft is with Teri, our managing editor; next steps are development, editing, art ordering, graphic design...and in the fullness of time, publication!
—Bruce
The Strange, and all the other items from this campaign, are working through the design, development, editing, production, and fulfillment pipelines. There are a lot of steps to get each and every book, deck, zine, and more, into your hands—we’ll be back soon to share more progress updates!
BIG updates for the Cypher Character Builder!
The Cypher Character Builder, part of Monte Cook Games’s Cypher Tools suite of digital RPG tools, received a big upgrade to its free features. Here’s what’s been added, and a look at even more upcoming features!
In addition to the ability to build, run, advance, and export an unlimited number of characters based on virtually all of the options in the Cypher Character Rulebook, free features in this new rollout include:
Campaigns: Launching a sci-fi campaign with a space opera feel—but want to pull in a few types and foci with a hard sci-fi vibe? Launch your campaign, specify the character options you’re allowing, and then invite your players. They’ll build and maintain their characters using the options you’ve chosen for your specific game. As we add more books are to the Character Builder, you can define which titles—or character options within those titles—are appropriate for your campaign.
Custom Content: Want to reskin an ability so it matches the vibe of your game—or maybe tweak its mechanics for just the effect you’re looking for? Maybe you’re imagining a fantasy pirate campaign, and you want to build your own types or foci? You can now customize virtually all character components—descriptors, types, foci, species, abilities, skills, cyphers, equipment, and power shifts—or build your own from the ground up! Then share these options with the players in your campaign.
Roll and Track Dice: A new 3D dice roller lets you roll dice within the Character Builder. It logs die results in case you need to refer to them later (and hides rolls by the GM from the players).
These features are part of the Cypher Character Builder, currently in its beta release, and are free to use now!
Cypher Character Builder Adept Tier
In addition to its free features, additional new features in an inexpensive paid tier are coming soon to the Cypher Character Builder. We’re calling the suite of free features the Explorer tier, with the additional features falling under a new Adept tier. Here’s what you’ll get at the Adept tier:
Share With Your Players: Planning to launch an Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game campaign? No need for your players to all purchase the OGoA content for the Character Builder. If you own the Old Gods of Appalachia pack, simply set up your campaign and invite your players, and they’ll all be able to build OGoA characters. As more titles are added to the Character Builder, you can choose which to share with each campaign you run.
Share Your Custom Content: Have you built custom types or foci (or anything else) for one campaign, and want to use them elsewhere? Assemble your creations into a “sourcebook” that you can access from any of your campaigns. You can even export the data and share with other users. (Plus a bulk import feature lets you do your design work in your preferred work environment, then upload what you’ve created to the Character Builder.)
Make It Your Own! Create your own custom character sheet for the players in your campaign—or simply change the background on the standard character sheet. Customize colors and upload artwork. You can even reskin the dice on the 3D die roller! Give your campaign just the right look and feel, and all of your players will experience it that way, too!
Cypher Tools Adept Tier Launch Specials!
Annual Subscription Special! Purchase a one-year subscription now, and we’ll extend it through the end of 2027—you get the remaining months of 2026 for free! And to thank you for being an early adopter, we’ll also take $10 off the price. That’s just $39.99 for a year’s subscription—plus two bonus months!
Special Lifetime Subscription Offer! Get a lifetime subscription with a one-time purchase of just $199.99. This is a special thank-you to Cypher’s biggest friends, and will only be offered for a very limited time. We will not offer a lifetime subscription once this offer closes.
Thank you again for all of your support, and we hope you’ve been loving the new edition of Cypher! —Team MCG
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