Can someone explain to me how this system works? Is it sucky? why/why not?

Basicly only the players get to roll dice.  The GM gets to say what happens and what is the challenge rating that ranges from 1 to 10.  The TN to succeed the challenge is three times its challenge rating so the most you can see is TN 30.  

Now with only one d20 that seems impossible, but that is where your skills come in.  Each rank in a skill decreases the challenge by one.  So a person with three ranks in dodging can treat a challenge rating 7 (TN 21) attack as if it is challenge rating 4 (TN 12).  You can also use effort which spends your attribute points, but reduces the challenge rating as well.  

Yes your attributes are hit points and if you run out your dead.  Though you can heal them with rest and recovery.  You can also get special items called cyphers that can further aid you.

DO NOTE:  I am by no means a expert and all my info is coming from Numenera which was the first setting to use the cypher system.

It seems to be a bit of a marmite system...

All game rolls (skills, attacks, defences) are handled with a d20.  The GM specifies a difficulty from 1 to 10.  Multiply that number by 3 to get your target number for the d20 roll (high rolls are good). Beneficial factors and skill reduce the target number.  Deleterious factors can increase it.  You can also burn points to bring down the target number, which brings us to:

Every character has just three stats - Might, Speed and Intellect. These are both your 'hit points' and your ability to push yourself further.  Want to be more successful at a Might based test? Spend some Might points to buy down the difficulty.  The cost of buying down and the maximum amount you can buy down both tend to increase as you gain levels. Stats are targeted by attacks, with physical attacks reducing Might or Speed at the choice of the player. One stat to zero is a serious wound, two to zero is unconsciousness and all three is death. Some abilities cost points to activate.

Another interesting feature of the system is that the player always rolls the dice.  The GM never rolls for enemies in combat.  If you want to hit them, you roll against their defence difficulty.  If you want to dodge them you roll against their attack difficulty.  For simple enemies these numbers are the same but creatures can be better at attack than defence or vice versa.

That's the core of the system right there.

Characters are defined by the phrase "I'm a ____ ____ who ____s". You could be a "clever jack who masters weaponry". The three bits are a descriptor, type and focus respectively.  The type is a class, descriptors tend to modify your stats and skills a little, whilst the focus gives you an additional set of powers and abilities which improve as you level up.  It means you can make some very diverse characters.  The three types are slightly different in Numenera and the Strange, and there will actually be four choices available in the Cypher System generic book which is coming out soon.

There is a meta game element in the form of spending XP to buy increased chance of success and potentially receiving extra XP through a mechanism called 'GM Intrusions'.  These are kind of like compels in Fate, or GM selected critical failure results, or just plan hosing down one of the characters.  It sounds a little weird, but in play we found both mechanisms were fine.

My group enjoyed it, but then 13th Age came up and people were drawn away by the new shiny.  I've pre-ordered the Cypher System book and I'm planning to give it another go with my group when that arrives shortly. It's a fairly light weight system which still has a fair amount of mechanical differentiation for characters, and it's less 'out there' than Fate for my group.

Skills have one rank. You either have it or you don't. Then you can specialize, and that could reduce the difficulty by one more. But of course, it's for a narrower subject. Max -2 difficulty from skill.

Your abilities have two ratings; I can't remember what they are called, but one is how many points you have, and the other reduces the point cost to reduce the difficulty.

So, say you have a difficulty 5 task to break down a door. Your might is a 6/2. You want to reduce the difficulty. Normally, you would spend 3 points per point of difficulty, but because you have that "2" there, you only have to spend 1. You spend 2 points and reduce the difficulty to 3. 3x3 = 9, so you have to roll better than 9.

Damage and armor are set values. If you roll a natural 18, 19 or 20, you can do extra damage.

I'm no expert either, this is what I remember off the top of my head.

It is a lighter rules system with plenty of character options. The Numenera setting and The Strange settings are lavishly detailed, mapped and illustrated (as one might expect from Monte Cook game. :-). The books are gorgeous, but the system hasn't clicked with me nor do I feel inspired to run. Time may change that of course (I was in both KS and have all the books). Personally, I think it's worth checking out, there's a lot of great material. If you dig the system, you will have LOADS of great stuff to run a game with (2 bestiaries, setting guides, plenty of adventures...).

Quote from: dbm;843417I've pre-ordered the Cypher System book and I'm planning to give it another go with my group when that arrives shortly.

Just a heads up: depending on where you pre-ordered it, your PDF may already be in your account library.

Quote from: Paraguybrarian;843453Just a heads up: depending on where you pre-ordered it, your PDF may already be in your account library.

Thanks, yes I have that now. Didn't get an email but noticed others had theirs so went looking.

Isn't this the game where the GM has to include temporary cyphers (magic items) that pcs can use because there's next to no character growth ruleswise in the game?

There's character growth in that you get better at doing things and you can more easily do difficult things as you advance.   You also gain more powers over time.

The cyphers seemed like a way to compromise between having slower character progression while still giving new things you could do each session.

Quote from: Bunch;843576There's character growth in that you get better at doing things and you can more easily do difficult things as you advance.   You also gain more powers over time.

The cyphers seemed like a way to compromise between having slower character progression while still giving new things you could do each session.

I think that's a pretty fair assessment. Characters start off rather powerful, and by Sixth-Tier they're able to do insanely crazy shit. The Cypher system itself is super simple, which makes it really easy to run when you're drunk (I ran it twice, both times very inebriated). I backed both Numenera and The Strange, and think the latter has a better implementation of the system. If you have cash to blow, definitely worth the money.

Quote from: Scutter;843559Isn't this the game where the GM has to include temporary cyphers (magic items) that pcs can use because there's next to no character growth ruleswise in the game?

The game has 24 levels of advancement separated into 6 tiers. As you advance through the tiers, your characters will become significantly better at things, even ignoring the new abilities they're gaining. (And that's not even taking into alternative abilities that can be purchased off the core advancement track.) So, short answer: No. The cyphers aren't compensating for a lack of character growth, because the game actually features a robust system of character growth.

Cyphers are a spice of awesome. The reason they're one-use items is because it largely frees you up to make the spice as awesome as you can imagine without having to worry as much about whether or not the result is perfectly balanced: If it turns out that some arcane interaction of cyphers and abilities allow the PCs to do something that would "break" the experience of the game, it's not really a big deal because they can't do it again.

A lot of the Cypher System is built around mechanical structures that give the GM permission to take larger creative risks without having to worry about long-term consequences. The rest of the system is built around simplifying the mechanical preparation required to execute creative ideas, making it far easier for GMs to improvise new material on the fly.

The combination is surprisingly potent in actual play.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;843596The game has 24 levels of advancement separated into 6 tiers. As you advance through the tiers, your characters will become significantly better at things, even ignoring the new abilities they're gaining. (And that's not even taking into alternative abilities that can be purchased off the core advancement track.) So, short answer: No. The cyphers aren't compensating for a lack of character growth, because the game actually features a robust system of character growth.

Cyphers are a spice of awesome. The reason they're one-use items is because it largely frees you up to make the spice as awesome as you can imagine without having to worry as much about whether or not the result is perfectly balanced: If it turns out that some arcane interaction of cyphers and abilities allow the PCs to do something that would "break" the experience of the game, it's not really a big deal because they can't do it again.

A lot of the Cypher System is built around mechanical structures that give the GM permission to take larger creative risks without having to worry about long-term consequences. The rest of the system is built around simplifying the mechanical preparation required to execute creative ideas, making it far easier for GMs to improvise new material on the fly.

The combination is surprisingly potent in actual play.

Interesting

The website linked to though, says that a skill specialisation equates to a -2 to the difficulty. If that's 0, -1, -2, that not much growth at all.

Quote from: Scutter;843600Interesting

The website linked to though, says that a skill specialisation equates to a -2 to the difficulty. If that's 0, -1, -2, that not much growth at all.

That is only one source of growth. Three other factors also influence your capability. As you level up you increase your Effort, which is the maximum additional effort you can invest to decrease difficulty ratings. This rises from 1 to 6. Actually investing effort costs points from your pools. Directly increasing the size of your pools help increase capacity here, so you can push harder for longer. Finally, there is an Edge rating for each stat which can be increased separately. Edge reduces the cost of effort or other drains on your pools (such as activating special abilities).

Then there are additional capabilities you gain as you level up (from both your type and focus, so two sets of improvement for every tier you gain) and you gain extra skills through levelling up (giving horizontal growth) or you can swap skill increase for small perks like reducing the penalties for wearing armour.

There really is quite a lot of mechanical growth.

Thanks for the heads up

Been looking for a universal rpg after my players dumped on Fate Core.

This might be worth taking a look at

Hmm yes it sounds potentially interesting. There's aspects of it that sound a little... odd. I'd have to see it in play. Hmm. HMMM...

Quote from: Scutter;843600Interesting

The website linked to though, says that a skill specialisation equates to a -2 to the difficulty. If that's 0, -1, -2, that not much growth at all.

Reduction in difficulty by one or two is more significant than you'd think, equivilent to a bonus of 3 or 6, respectively, on a d20.