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Greetings RPG fans. I am seeking to run a game of The Strange here on this posting board. The Strange is a new game from Bruce R Cordell and Monte Cook, making heavy use of their "Cypher System", a d20 based system (With D6's and d100's occasionally used) that allows for a lot of options and fast resolution. On a scale of things its less crunchy than Pathfinder but more crunchy than say Fate.
As for the game itself, the Strange is a game about exploration. It has often been called "Sliders the RPG" by some. The Strange is a Dark Energy Network believed to be created by near-omnipotent beings untold millennia ago. The Strange has been long abandoned by its creators and has shaped itself since then based on numerous influences. The greatest influence on the Strange are the so called "Prime Worlds", where Earth is one of them. Prime Worlds, dimensions that have a large amount of Spark (Sentience) create through fictional bleed Recursions, alternate dimensions in the Strange that are shaped through mass consciousness and belief. Not all recursions though are created through this method as numerous recursions are utterly alien and have no basis in known reality of earth.
As for the characters themselves, they play as special people often called Recursors (Also known as the Quickened). These are rare individuals that have the ability to translate themselves through the Strange and visit other recursions. However as many recursions follow different laws of physics and reality, translating to a new recursion also changes the person into a form accepting of that recursion. This can drastically change the abilities and appearance of a person. In a fantasy recursion for instance you might become a powerful elf sorcerer who can wield earth shaking spells, while in a mad science recursion they might become a Cyborg killing machine with internal weaponry.
Now using the boxed version of the game normally the PC's are members of an organization known as the Estate who hires Recursors and use them to investigate and "Police" so to speak the strange. I don't want to run my game that way. I feel the Estate gives too much meta-knowledge to players and pigeon-holes them to a single game role. I prefer a more Sandbox game mixing a Down the Rabbit Hole mechanic with options for PC's to decide what path to follow after that. Hence the start of the game will somewhat different from most Strange games.
Character Creation
Characters will start out as apparently normal humans on earth, preferably living in New York City but you can be from out of town due to the circumstances of the game start. Your characters may pick their recurser abilities as normal but any power that goes beyond mundane reality will not function as your characters will not start out as Quickened at the beginning of the game but will become so in play.
1. Pick your character type. There are 3 character classes to chose from.
Vector: Vectors are the typical action guy/girl character. Their abilities are mainly built around physical force and start with the highest Might and Speed pools and use them to their advantage and are the only class that can use all weapons and armor without restriction. Vectors use "Moves", which are physical enhancements and abilities to overcome challenges. In addition Vectors are very good at easing a translation of a group allowing them to more quickly adjust themselves when entering a new recursion.
Starting Pools: 10 Might, 10 Speed, 8 Intellect. Edge 1 in Might and Speed.
Paradox: Paradoxes are the scientists and breakers of the rules of reality. They typically rely much on their intellect and have very overt abilities called "Revisions" that allow them to alter reality around them and perform acts that border on magic and/or sorcery. While they are the less proficient in physical pursuits their intellect and abilities to manipulate the Strange are unmatched. Paradoxes are very good at initiating a translation and more likely to allow Recursors to get to where they need to without a mishap.
Starting Pools: 8 Might, 8 Speed, 12 Intellect. Edge 1 in Intellect
Spinners: Spinners are the force of personalty. Their abilities make them good at manipulating people as well as taking leadership based roles in a group of Recursors. They also can be built to be covert and sneaky with the right options. Spinners tend to be the middle ground between Vectors and Paradoxes, more proficient in a fight than a Paradox but less skilled than a Vector. Spinners make use of "Twists" that allow them to alter minds or perform acts of trickery. Spinners are good at quickening a translation allowing a group of Recursors to translate to other recursions in a much reduced time period.
Starting Pools: 9 Might, 9 Speed, 10 Intellect. Edge 1 in Speed and Intellect.
2. Distribute Freebie Points.
All characters have 6 points they can distribute between their starting pools
3. Chose Descriptor: Your descriptor defines who your character is. This is what makes your character stand out and affects their core personalty. No matter what recursion you go to, your Descriptor never changes. As for available descriptors these may be chosen out of the following books: The Strange Core, In Translation, Numenera and Numenera Character options. Some Numenera Descriptors will be disallowed however as they do not fit the setting.
4. Chose a Starting Focus: Characters will start with an earth related focus. No two characters should share the same focus however. Try and chose ones from the Strange Core book or from In Translation although I will also allow selections out of the Cypher System Core Book if appropriate.
5. Chose Class Abilities: Characters should now record your class abilities. Those are listed under your character type. Note that any Moves, Revisions and Twists that defy reality will not function until you undergo your quickening.
Optional Rules in play:
Vectors may chose either Defensive (Asset speed defense when not in armor) or Practiced in Armor (Reduces the Might Cost and speed penalty of wearing armor by 2) as their starting ability. You may buy both by assigning a move slot to the other. They also have access to "Warrior" moves from the Cypher System core book.
Paradoxes can have access to "Adept" moves out of the Cypher system core book in addition to their normal abilities.
Spinners can exchange Manipulator for Stealth, Lockpicking or Pickpocketing if they wish. They have access to "Explorer" and "Speaker" moves from the Cypher System Rulebook.
In addition all recursors in human form have the "Flex Skill" ability. This allows to chose one non-weapon skill they are trained in at the beginning of the day. This skill must be a skill you are not already trained or specialized in. On worlds with different races or odd creatures, the PC's will lose the flex skill ability in exchange for the racial abilities of the creature they become.
I am also considering allowing "Flavours" as well for more character options (As given in the Cypher System Rulebook). This allows you to exchange abilities for those of a specific "Skill Set" to better break the standard mold of a character. The available Flavours are Stealth, Technology, Magic, Combat and Skills/Knowledge.
6. Starting Gear: Starting gear is flexible as I don't want to bother having PC's record everything they own. Record any starting gear your Focus gives you. If the focus does not have any starting gear, chose an appropriate starting gear package from another Focus. Beyond that any reasonable request for other gear may be granted. It is assumed PC's will have enough money to afford a car and a place to live unless their background says otherwise.
Character Background: While this game is sandbox and your characters could be from most walks of life, the starting scenario will have your characters attending a black market auction. Only selected clientele and their guests are invited to the event thus your character will fit in one of five ways.
1. Your character is a member of a gang, criminal organization or independent party who is attending as a representative of your organization.
2. You are an undercover FBI, CIA, MI6 or other outfit who is infiltrating the auction to investigate what is going on.
3. You have been invited as a guest or employee (Such as a bodyguard) of one of the NPC's attending the auction.
4. You are a wealthy entrepreneur that has enough connections and background wealth to be invited to this auction.
5. You have somehow got the details of this black market auction and are sneaking in or using some fake identification to get into the event.
Suffice to say your characters will by circumstance Quicken during play. Once your Quickening occurs you will have access to your more overt abilities.
So who would be interested in traveling to the Realms Beyond Reality in The Strange?
I am thinking of cautiously re entering the world of pbp. I do not know if this is the right way to do it, but your game does sound interesting. I do not have a character idea yet.
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Hello Nohwear,
The Cypher System is a much simpler system than Pathfinder. It only has 3 stats, Might (Brawn and Physical Resistance), Speed (Dexterity and Agility) and Intellect (Knowledge and Charisma).
You build characters on a sentence like:
I am a "Descriptor" "Class" that "Focus"
Although the unique thing about the Strange is that while your Descriptor and Class are constant, your Focus can change depending on the Recursion you visit. I can walk you through creation if needs be.
I forgot to mention that I am vary familiar with The Strange and the Cypher System. I have most of the books, and I ran both for them this Gen Con.
I would be interested in giving this a shot, as I too am tentatively looking to come back into pbp (having finally more or less gotten a grip on my workload), and I love non-dnd rpgs. I will take a look at the system and see what appeals to me.
I'm interested, but I don't have any experience with the system. I read a bit into it and I think made a character with an online creator, but I don't have all the resources of course.
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I swear I've read this before.
Okay, so I picked up the core book and the player's guide, and I have an idea for a couple of different characters:
One of my recent favorite action movies is John Wick. While the action is great, my favorite thing about the movie is just how terrified everyone is of him: the main villain, random mooks, pretty much anyone of worth (except, ironically, his main revenge target, who has "too stupid to live" written all over him). Were I to play this character, She would be an Intelligent Vector Who is Licensed to Carry on Earth.
She would be at the auction specifically looking for the types of explosives that would get you put on a fbi watchlist if you tried to purchase them. She would have been invited as someone repaying a past favor, who allowed her to go in his stead (and so that she could bid on certain items for him).
So for this character, I was thinking it might be interesting to make someone who is an absolute genius in a field of science so specialized that the average person would need to Wikipedia it when it gets brought up by the character in passing, like the science of quantum mechanics in the 80-90s, something so bleeding edge that even researchers in a related field would consider it untested at best, and pseudoscience at worst. He would be an Intelligent Paradox who Solves Mysteries on Earth.
He would be at the auction looking for stem cells from certain small ethnic or tribal societies, as well as fissionable material which would help him do is work. Having taken the time to develop the type of contacts he needs to get into such an auction, the good doctor would have been invited on his own.
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Either will work Vrog as we have not confirmed any other player yet. Basically I will run with 3 players but I would like at least one character of each class before I allow duplicates . Without a Paradox the PC's will end up botching a lot of translations(As Paradoxes can reroll a failed translation role). Without a Spinner translation takes 4 hours (Spinners can turn this into 10 minutes) and without a Vector you'll suffer major penalties for a while whenever you translate (Vectors can ease a translation allowing quick adaptation to a new environment). Mechanically it is good to have one of each type in a group.
If we are allowed to use descriptors from core, then I would like to play an inquisitive paradox who calculates the incalculable. I am working on my background.
Okay, I'll start getting her rounded out/built.
I was kinda interested in a kind of cat-burglar/professional thief type character, does that make sense for spinner? I can go make those choices on the character generator
"A clever spinner who works the system"
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Humm that would work although Works the System probably does not work well for a thief. I would recommend either Moves like a Cat or Works the Back Alleys as a focus. Otherwise playing a thief would be just fine to play with. And yes Steals, forgot about that one. I don't have every Foci memorized from all the books.
If you have In Translation there is the Steals focus for an agile second story man.
I am still working on my fluff, but the basic idea is that he is at the auction to buy something for his collection, likely coins. His powers will work buy finding backdoors to reality and will likely based on manipulating space.
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Just remember you won't start as Quickened but it will happen in game. I basically want to start you out as someone who has no idea about the Strange and then toss you headfirst into its wake. At best you might have some suspicions but have experienced no real proof, until now.
You can pre-pick your Revisions but will not work until you undergo your quickening in game Nohwear.
I have been thinking, if we start with cyphers, then mine would likely take the form of fractle programs, or items that he has absentmindedly pocketed.
Steals at level 1 gives:
Second Story Antics: Trained in Stealth, Lockpicking and Climbing
Fence: You have a network of people who can buy stolen goods for you or allow for the purchasing of such goods.
That sounds really fitting, I'd take that one, but I don't have the book its from. When new things pop up would you be able to help me out?
What equipment does 'Steals' come with?
Awesome! Character's going to be kind of a thief reminiscent of Frank Abagnale (real life criminal, focus of the movie Catch Me If You Can) or Neal Caffrey (from the show White Collar). Not a duplicate or anything, but it's a good comparison to get a feeling of it.
At the auction because the authorities recently took all of his assets and cleaned out his bank accounts, so he's hoping to grab something valuable. Wants to afford nice clothes, nice food, and a nice house, and generally live the nice life.
Maybe would be interesting if he was actually planning to steal something that one of the other PCs is interested in.
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Well you could be there because the auction might have something that would be useful in your job as a thief. You do have money on you remember as you have 2 G's plus the bonus money you get from Clever. Of course that does not cover all your assets, just what you have on you at the moment. As there is going to be a lot of bidders it may be hard to steal the merchandise. However you are interested to see if the auction meets its promises, if anything to case the joint and see if it lives up to the Hype.
Well you could be there because the auction might have something that would be useful in your job as a thief. You do have money on you remember as you have 2 G's plus the bonus money you get from Clever. Of course that does not cover all your assets, just what you have on you at the moment. As there is going to be a lot of bidders it may be hard to steal the merchandise. However you are interested to see if the auction meets its promises, if anything to case the joint and see if it lives up to the Hype.
Oh cool! I didn't know that. Then yeah, I'd probably be there for a combination of looking for nice things as well as seeing who is throwing down lots of money to see if they might be a nice target later.
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The Strange is pretty vague on personal property rules. Suffice to say they leave it to the discretion of the GM. They just give starting gear to quickly allow your character to jump into the action but hand waves things like owning a house, car, water heater etc. Besides when you're in other recursions anything beyond what's on you is worth jack s*!~ considering you won't be able to access it until you return to Earth. In addition when you translate you get a whole new body in the other recursion and your gear may change to fit that recursion. For instance your Clever Spinner that Steals might become in a fantasy world a Clever Spinner that Embraces Qephilim Ancestry and get a whole new set of gear. Still as "Steals" could easily be supported in a fantasy setting you could "Drag" that focus although your gear would still change to fit that recursion.
Cyphers remain fairly constant though although may change shape based on the recursion you go to hence another reason why they are useful.
Okay, I have my character more or less fleshed out. So without further ado, I give you Cassandra[Cassie] "Elan" Stone.
Cassie is a
Agile: +2 to your Speed Pool.
Skill: You’re trained in all tasks involving balance and careful movement.
Skill: You’re trained in all tasks involving physical performing arts.
Skill: You’re trained in all Speed defense tasks.
Effort: Your Effort is 1.
Physical Nature: You have a Might Edge of 1, a Speed Edge of 1, and an Intellect Edge of 0.
Cypher Use: You can bear two cyphers at a time.
Defensive: You are trained in Speed defense actions when not wearing armor. Enabler.
Practiced With All Weapons: You can use any weapon. Enabler.
Physical Skills: You are trained in balancing and running. Enabler.
Translation: You can participate in the process of traveling to another recursion. Each time you do, you can choose to initiate, hasten,
or ease a translation. If you choose to hasten or ease the process, someone else in the group must initiate the translation. As a vector, you are most effective at easing a translation. This easing advantage allows group members to acclimate more quickly after the translation is complete.
In order to translate, you must know that the recursion you are translating to exists. The GM will decide if you have enough information to confirm its existence and determine what level of difficulty is needed to reach the destination. Action to initiate.
Moves:
Endurance: Any duration dealing with physical actions is either doubled or halved, whichever is better for you. For example, if the typical person can hold their breath for thirty seconds, you can hold it for one minute. If the typical person can march for four hours
without stopping, you can do so for eight hours. In terms of harmful effects, if a poison paralyzes its victims for one minute, you are
paralyzed for thirty seconds. The minimum duration is always one round. Enabler.
Pierce (1 Speed point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. You make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage. Action.
Connection: Pick one other PC. You can see that the character needs some advice on how to handle a firearm.
Equipment: Clothing, light or medium armor, two weapons (one of which must be a firearm and three magazines of ammo), a cell phone, and $800.
Effect Suggestion: After being hit on the side of the head, the target is deafened for a few minutes.
Major Effect Suggestion: An artery hit causes the target to bleed for 1 point of damage each round until the target succeeds at a difficulty 3 Intellect or Speed task to bind the wound.
Tier 1:
Gunner. You inflict an additional point of damage with guns. Enabler.
Practiced With Guns: You are practiced with using guns and suffer no penalty when using one.
Her Might Pool is 10, and her Might Edge is 1
Her Speed Pool is 16, and her Speed Edge is 1
Her Intellect Pool is 10, and her Intellect Edge is 0
Cassie Stone began life as the daughter of one of the top hitters for the Pricato crime family. Unlike a majority of the men in his trade, Cassie's father was very much a loving family man who treated his wife and only child like a princess. Cassie, however, was unlike other little girls. She wanted to follow in her father's footsteps, and began asking him questions about his work. He resisted adamantly, stating that no daughter of his would ever join the "family" business.
All of that changed the week of her 15th birthday.
The Rigaletto Crime family was an up-and-coming syndicate who say the Stones as a good opening statement about how the Pricato family needed to be replaced. Cassie and her mother were out at a street fair when armed gunmen abducted them. They were held for a little under a week, and during that time, bad things happened (keeping things pg-13). When her father finally found them, her mother was dead and she was in a state of shock. After having the most painful of conversations with the men who had enjoyed themselves at the expense of his wife and child, Cassie's father took a good look at his daughter and was shocked, but not surprised, to see the same look in her eyes as he saw in his own right before a job. He took his daughter into the wilderness, and during the next two years he poured all of his knowledge into the girl.
For her part, Cassandra took to the art of assassination like she had learned everything else as a child: with a frightening will. She took her place at her father's side, and just in time for one of the biggest wars amongst the crime families in their history erupted.
During their time away, the Rigalettos had become something of an unstoppable force, taking over first gun running, then prostitution and bringing in a new type of synthetic Heroin that was virtually undetectable in a user. They leveraged all of the to make the head of their family the boss of bosses. When Cassandra and her father returned to the fold, they told their boss that it would take them two weeks to resolve the war. He just laughed and said "we shall see".
What happened next would become the stuff of underworld rumors and would cement the Pricato family's place of power. During the first week, The Stones gathered intelligence on the Rigaletto family and made their plans. During the second week, they wiped out the entire Rigaletto family. Any business they owned or protected were destroyed. Pimps were killed and their girls freed. The chemist who created the formula for their new wonder drug vanished. Finally, young Cassandra personally executed the heads of the family at the culmination of the week.
While her father was in good form, as he watched his daughter go about the work, he smiled and called her Elan, as it was the first time that he had seen join on his daughter's face since that ugly business more than two years ago. One of the Pricato family hitters heard it, and the nickname stuck. For the next 10 years, Cassandra was THE enforcer of the Pricato family. She never took jobs on any women, children, or people not in the mix. All of this came to a screeching halt with the death of her father. It was at this moment that the emotions she had been bottling up came flooding out, and she came to know peace. After she put her father in the ground, she went to the head of the Pricato family and explained that she was leaving the fold. He politely informed her that it was not an option. She countered that she had killed one crime family, and that two would not be much harder.
Conceding her point, the old man let her go....for all of a few hours. The men that he sent after her died neither quickly nor well, but they did have a purpose: Cassandra and the colts that she carried made clear to all of la costa nostra that she was retiring. No one else was willing to push the issue, and so she left Chicago and moved to New York to start her life over. She got a job, went to school, and basically avoided violence for the half decade, until the elementary school where she was teaching was assaulted by "crazed gunmen", who were actually soldiers from the other three crime families. It had been decided amongst the old men who ran the families that the "uppity b-word" could not be allowed to live. So they pooled resources and discovered her location.
The attack was timed such that she was out sick with the flu. She watched the news with horror, and that was when the pictures started arriving on her phone. Sick or no, she packed her bag and called an old friend, who explained the lay of the land to her and told her about an auction where she could get the gear she needed, if she was willing to go in his place. She agreed and went to the auction.
The rest remains to be seen...
I don't know about the system but have access to the books if there's room for one more?
Awesome! I have some ideas, but they depend somewhat on the style of auction. Are we talking a few people in a dark room or a swanky party with tuxedos, nibble things on trays, escorts and suits?... I'm thinking a spinner but specifics depend....
Probably looking at a spinner.
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Basically it a mix of NYC gangs, Maffia, Wealthy Investors, Independent criminals and the like. You of course could also get into the event if you're brought in as a guest. If you want to be a more "Moral" PC you also could be an undercover operative. Still morally questionable or not your are going to get a face first exposure to the Strange and you'll have to work together to survive and find out what's going on.
If you are fine with me just posting a drop box link in my sheet, then I should have the crunch done today.
I'll get an alt of my character above created shortly.
Likewise, this is Vrog's character.
Tadah! Battlespy's character. I think I have the relevant crunch?
I think I need to reformat it more like Vrog's though, because when the descriptor changes in a recursion you lose those abilities right? Mine are all just calculated together.
Ya, I think once we have different focuses, I'll probably do a net sum for each focus in the focus description, as well as moving my pools from my header to that section (since the values can change with focus I believe).
Sorry getting my backstory up! It got destroyed when saving.
Edit:
Should be finished!
Sorry for asking to join and then withdrawing,.... but i'm withdrawing. Unfortunately I've got a very busy time coming up and won't have time for this.
Have fun though!