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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 typically 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, 8 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. I may allow some Numenera foci if they can be justified to work in a modern day human society (Such as Works the Back Alleys).
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 trade Defensive for another Tier 1 Move if they feel it does not meet their character. Vectors also have access to Glaive abilities from Numenera (But ask me first before taking one).
Paradoxes can take Nano abilities from Numenera (But ask me first before taking one).
Spinners can exchange Manipulator for Stealth, Lockpicking or Pickpocketing. They also can take Jack abilities from Numenera (But ask me first before taking one).
In addition all PC's have the "Flex Skill" ability of the Jack. 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.
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 marked 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?
Dotting for interest.
This game sounds really neat, and I'd never heard of it before
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Glad to see someone is interested in this game. Thought I would not get a response. There is an online character creator actually that makes it easier to build a character quickly. Unfortunately it does not give the full array of options available in a lot of the supplements so while it can work it also puts limits on options. Here is the link.
Dotting also. I'm also not familiar with the rule system, but I like the setting, its pretty interesting. I'll try out the character creator, probably a paradox character.
Hehe... "Sliders the RPG" sounds tasty. I enjoyed the show when it was on. Plus I like "off the beaten path" stuff, which this certainly is.
I might have a go at respinning Denny here as a paradoxical. He's orphaned from a GM-aborted Lovecraftian campaign in which he was a student at Miskatonic University. And it's not horribly far from Arkham, MA to NYC. ;o)
(I'm not suggesting a Cthulu crossover. He came in as a normal college kid with a science bent who got an unexpected acceptance letter to MU and was sucked into the bizarre happenings there. The Strange could go a long way towards explaining how some of the weird stuff actually happened. It just seems like a good fit for the existing "mental model" of the PC, even with the Lovecraft angle completely stripped away.)
I'm totally unfamiliar with The Strange, but I'm off to do some research and play with the character generator a bit.
tl;dr: "Dot."
Okay, my first glimpses were intriguing enough that I purchased the .pdf player's guide. I've reworked Denny's profile as a Strange Paradox who Works the System. It's only a first cut, but I believe I got most everything. And since I used the official chargen it should be "technically correct."
If you're willing, I'd like to try approaching this game as a continuation of his earlier incarnation. Why I think it's a good fit:
He's studying at Lovecraft's Miskatonic University in Massachusetts, but he was born and raised in a bad neighborhood in New Jersey right across the river from NYC. So attending a black-market auction will be like coming home for him.
He was at MU to research his own crackpot theories based on Maxwell's Demon, so he's already digging in and trying to understand entropy and some of the finer-grained details of reality. He's primed to soak up anything about The Strange that comes his way.
He's never cast any magic personally -- he's an everyday college student -- and the mystical stuff that happened was courtesy of the tome he was given. Said tome has pages missing that can be added back... which seems a perfect vehicle for occultic cyphers. (Not to mention a nice prop; he's usually going to have his tome with him, probably with screen prints, code snippets, sticky notes scribbled with physics equations, and so on jammed in between and spilling out of the pages.)
He was given that tome because someone sensed that he was one of the rare people who could do something useful with it... in other words, someone with a strong natural inclination to quickening.
And he's already had to tangle with strange entities that could've easily been critters from fringe recursions. He doesn't understand how or why it happened, but it's obvious to him that there's something freaky about reality. Once he becomes quickened, things will suddenly make more sense.
I absolutely don't need any of that. It has no mechanical benefit, and probably won't even come up in the game except for possible passing references. But it makes for an expanded backstory, and it's a nice bit of continuity from his origins through to this game. I fleshed out the basics (adapted slightly for this game) and can/will expand and clean it up eventually if I get GM approval. Let me know what you think.
On another subject, I hope you don't mind providing a little extra guidance as I (we?) get the hang of this system. It looks pretty straightforward but I know I'm going to forget/overlook/misunderstand stuff at first.
tl;dr: "Denny's ready, let's play!" :o)
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Hello Denton. Sorry for the slow response but the game has not got a lot of interest thus far. I will certainly provide extra guidance for the system. As for "Magic", Earth does not support magic as it supports fundamental physics. However Cyphers can do magical stuff as its powered by energies of the Strange. For short amounts of time magic users and magic using creatures can also survive on earth if they use an In-opposite Gate although at best they'll eventually lose their abilities or at worst die as Earth cannot support them.
As for your background you aren't going to start out as one of the Quickened. You are perfectly able to have maybe studied some unusual things but you aren't going to start the game as a Recurser or knowing about the Strange. You're basically going to be dropped headfirst in the first session into the Strange and become Quickened and then going to have to figure out things from there of what to do. It will be pretty sandbox but there will be plot points you can explore and choices will be given of what you want to do.
Anyway thanks for signing up Denton. Looking forward to playing.
Dotting. I'll definitely be submitting a character for this.
Dotting. I'll look more into the system tomorrow, but you've certainly grabbed my attention.
Thanks for the reply, and no worries on the timing.
As for "Magic", Earth does not support magic as it supports fundamental physics. However Cyphers can do magical stuff as its powered by energies of the Strange. For short amounts of time magic users and magic using creatures can also survive on earth if they use an In-opposite Gate although at best they'll eventually lose their abilities or at worst die as Earth cannot support them.
Yep, I was aware of most of that from having read the Player's Guide. As I said, Denny never did any magic (no humans did; the setting was basically modern-day Earth), and most of the things we fought in that game were just abominations. I wasn't aware that magic from Ardeyn et. al. could function short-term; that could explain the one beast that radiated sort of a "fumble field." And I framed the tomes as being vehicles for Cyphers with the "no magic" thing in mind.
As for your background you aren't going to start out as one of the Quickened. You are perfectly able to have maybe studied some unusual things but you aren't going to start the game as a Recurser or knowing about the Strange.
Understood; you'll note all the stuff specific to being quickened is "ghosted" (OOC) on Denny's profile, because they won't apply at game start. (I did leave "Expert Cypher Use," only because of the presumed Cypher/tome crossover.)
Anyway, if I somehow implied that Denny is one of the Quickened or understands any of this I apologize, as that's totally off the mark. He has a natural aptitude and a strong sense that something's "off," sure, but that's as far as it goes. He's fought monsters (mostly using a stick) and occasionally got his tome to do something useful, but that's it.
So, while he might've had slightly more exposure to bizarre stuff than the man on the street, rest assured he's merely a smart college kid harboring an unhealthy fascination with crackpot pseudo-scientific theories.
You're basically going to be dropped headfirst in the first session into the Strange and become Quickened and then going to have to figure out things from there of what to do.
Haha... and this is a great example of why continuing his story makes sense to me. That's pretty much exactly what happened in the other game. He got a scholarship for a school he didn't apply to, on the train someone shoved a mysterious book into his hands, he arrives for an Orientation-related meeting and suddenly there are explosions and fires and he's in the basement battling strange creatures. And through a big part of it he thought it was some kind of fraternity hazing.
So this game will be, "Here we go again..." :o)
Let me repeat that the connection to the other game is not a necessity. I just think it'd be great continuity, it gives him a richer background, and if you'll trust me with it I'm confident I can make it flow smoothly if not fit seamlessly. But I'll ditch it all if it makes you uncomfortable.
Anyway thanks for signing up Denton. Looking forward to playing.
"Dude," he says, extending a hand, "only my mom calls me 'Denton.' And pop when he's pissed. It's 'Denny' for regular people. Pleased ta meetcha."
Rumors of a page from an ancient tome being offered at a black-market auction in New York have reached the university. Normally Allison would be the one to look into such things, but she's tied up with something no one seems to want to talk about.
And Denny drew the short straw to take her place.
If the GM allows that the university (or at least certain people at the university) -- which deals with questionable materials and artifacts that can't always be obtained legally -- would have shady connections, then the first option (representative of a connected organization) would apply. That's the one I assumed I'd be going in under.
If not, then option five (using falsified papers/sneaking in) would probably have to do. Based on what little I know of Allison, she likely could arrange a pretty convincing fake ID.
Cool, thanks!
Scaffold Kane here. I have something thrown together in this alias. I'll write a backstory a bit later, but I'm still getting a grasp on how it all works.