Before I begin let me apologize in advance for poor grammar, spelling and such. I'm using my phone and it's a wee less convenient.  

Anyway, for those interested, the updated Numenera core book "Discovery" is a streamlined, lovely book. A solid replacement as the original is phased out. Where things really shine is "Destiny" which adds salvaging, crafting and community building/management to the rules. I haven't used them yet, but they're very cool so far as I can tell.

A common and reasonable criticism has been that you only “kill shit and take its stuff” and that it's simply “D&D with sci-fi”. While that can certainly be the tone of the game, the new rules really broaden the scope. Entire campaigns can revolve around finding crafting plans and components and/or building a town's infrastructure and defenses.

Maybe you're part of a town that's hit by a horrifying nano-storm every generation and the protective shield recently broke. Your characters go about discovering rare components to repair the shield but discover the location for the components is protected by a tribe of automatons. Do you fight them or find a peaceful solution? Maybe they're shells for organic beings from another dimension and they suggest a symbiotic relationship with the town? If so, interact with the community rules and add a new group of assets.  If you fight them, use the same rules.

There are three new classes which were made for the scavenging, crafting and community rules (Delve, Wright and Arkus, respectively) although any class can do those things. Glaives are more robust and Jacks are now unique, not just a Glaive/Nano hybrid. You can still use everything from the old books if wanted, which is awesome.

I'm eager to get back into it and if you're a fan of Numenera, these books are great. If you're not, I'm not sure if they'll change your mind, however if you felt all the game was missing is what to do with your discoveries, you may enjoy it now.

I didn't pick this up as I wasn't a fan of the pricing on the Kickstarter.  It sounds like I may need to pick it up, though - what you're describing sounds like I'd love it!

More coffee table art.

Quote from: Tait Ransom;1053274I didn't pick this up as I wasn't a fan of the pricing on the Kickstarter.  It sounds like I may need to pick it up, though - what you're describing sounds like I'd love it!

I didn't back it, just preordered. I'm impressed with the small but solid changes I've seen. As far as "Destiny" goes, I really like what I've read. Feel free to ask whatever you may be curious about.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1053278More coffee table art.

Guess I need a coffee table then!

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1053280I didn't back it, just preordered. I'm impressed with the small but solid changes I've seen. As far as "Destiny" goes, I really like what I've read. Feel free to ask whatever you may be curious about.

Tell me more about Destiny - what does it cover?  How are the crafting, scavenging, and community rules?

Quote from: Tait Ransom;1053320Tell me more about Destiny - what does it cover?  How are the crafting, scavenging, and community rules?

It has three new Types which are,

The Arkus has a focus on social actions, both with individuals and communities.
The Delve excels in finding and salvaging the esoteric components of the Numenera.
The Wright is skilled in crafting both mundane and Numenera creations.

There are Descriptors and Foci to support the ideas of scavenging, crafting and community building.

There are rules for finding what's called "Iotum", which is the name for the rare and esoteric components needed to craft cyphers, artifacts, vehicles and installations. You also need a plan, for which there are many examples. What's neat is that most of the Iotum can be used as-is to give some weird effect, although this almost always consumes the resource. The rules for recognizing and salvaging Iotum are robust but don't seem clunky and I really like the idea of stockpiling unneeded Iotum to trade for a desperately needed type (there is an economy to support this). I really like the Iotum and can see players enjoying the hunt for rarer items, such as the highly-desired "Cosmic Foam".

The community rules are pretty solid so far, although I admit to not having focused on them as much as the other parts. There are ways to handle how communities interact and each Type (to include the three from Discovery) have ways to affect communities they're a part of. Building certain installations, such as a water purifier or lightning tower, add to attributes that affect a community. I can see players really diving deep into this aspect if they have a connection with a community.

There are example vehicles, installations, more cyphers and artifacts, as well as more creatures. Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase and it came in a beautiful slipcase. Oh, the art is fantastic as usual.

I hope this answered some stuff you were interested in and please ask me more if you want. If you get it, I'm up to share ideas!

Alderaan Crumbs, have you played either N1 or N2? If so, tell us about how it works at the table.

I got rid of my copy of Numenera for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it just wasn't that compelling. I backed The Strange Kickstarter, got rid of that, too. Same reason, I suppose. What makes Numenera 2 worth getting for someone who wasn't that impressed with the prior iterations if the system? I really want to be interested in the game, but I dunno...it seems flat to me.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1053524Alderaan Crumbs, have you played either N1 or N2? If so, tell us about how it works at the table.

I have run Numenera, The Strange and Gods of the Fall (a Cypher System setting). I have enjoyed them all. For me, their strengths are many. I'm going to hand over the reigns to the Gentleman Gamer and his wonderful review, as I feel it's a great primer. I hope that's OK.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oxz6tRPIZGs

As to how it works at the table, I love it. I very much enjoy how jaw-droppingly easy it is to use as a GM. I love to improvise and get creative and the system supports this remarkably. Pick a number 1-10 and multiply it by 3 to get the number you need to roll on a d20. There are ways to lower the difficulty that are player-facing. The adjudication is very forgiving and I quickly learned not to sweat it if I set what might’ve been better as a 4 as a 5, for example.

I can create a fully-statted NPC near-instantly, such as the villainous nano “Spinachcat; level 5”. Done. This means our baddie is a target number (TN) 15 to both hit and evade and he causes 5 points of damage per hit. I could get more elaborate a create “Spinachcat; level 5, level 7 with gravity powers, level 2 cooking”. This means that when using gravity powers, the TN is 21 (7 x 3) and at least one modifier must be used to lower it to 18 (6 x 3). Still pretty difficult! When cooking Spinachcat is only a 6 TN to beat. With everything else, be it singing, dancing, intimidation, etc. it’s a 15. If I had to pick one aspect as my favorite, it would be this. The setting is so robust and my imagination runs wild and I can just go with things.

For example, “Lord of the Iron Flies, Spinachcat; level 5” attacks by reaching out toward the Glaive and closing his hand in a tight fist. The Glaive feels immense pressure from everywhere as gravity instantly closes in from all directions. In response, the Jack takes aim and fires his buzzer. The disc screams toward the nano when suddenly it stops a few feet from its target and instantly plummets to the ground. Both of those effects were on-the-fly (which, going with the theme of gravity powers, the nano could do!) and everything is Difficultly 5/TN 15. It’s that simple.

I love GM Intrusions (GMI) as a “trade economy” way of GM fiat. I have found it both fair and fun, and it feeds into the XP economy well. Players have really enjoyed literally paying for different benefits and it keeps the mental load of how far to take things at a minimum.

Quote from: Brad;1053539I got rid of my copy of Numenera for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it just wasn't that compelling. I backed The Strange Kickstarter, got rid of that, too. Same reason, I suppose. What makes Numenera 2 worth getting for someone who wasn't that impressed with the prior iterations if the system? I really want to be interested in the game, but I dunno...it seems flat to me.

Might you elaborate as to what felt flat?

Very cool!

What makes the Numenara setting work so well for you?

Quote from: Spinachcat;1053639Very cool!

What makes the Numenara setting work so well for you?

I love sci-fan, to start. That's obviously a big help. Beyond that it's the "toolboxiness" of it. I can take the familiar and have a blast twisting it from sci-fi or fantasy to sci-fan. Almost every page has at least one thing to get my Imagination Ball a-rollin' and I very much enjoy saying to myself things like, "They're basically meeting the queen in her castle. What makes this Numenera?". That doesn't mean whacky of goofy (unless that's what you want, which is perfectly viable).

So, the castle might be the only structure not made of local materials, instead being constructed of shimmering blocks of a dark purple substance, clearly of the numenera, upon which an "oily light" moves. If, say, a nano scanned the material, they might discover that the blocks contained the trapped consciousnesses of trans-dimensional beings. Why? Do they even care to find out? The reasons could be nefarious and the energies from the trapped minds are used by queen to see and hear anywhere in her castle, as well as bolstering her energies. Upon meeting the queen they discover a beautiful, female form with only a mask of silver, liquid metal hovering atop her headless body. Flashing forward they PCs learn her body is a drone and her shriveled husk lies in stasis deep in the castle, feeding from the continuously captured and ever-tortured dimensional beings. It’s also learned that her subjects aren’t exactly as free and happy as seemed on the surface... Now, add in the assumption of heroic PCs with access to community-affecting abilities and the means to craft and modify numenera and the revolution is going to be a fantastic campaign!

I just made that one-the-fly and already have a few ideas as to levels and such, the ease of which is astounding given what I mentioned up-thread. That's why I love the setting.

To add, another bit I enjoy is the seamless shifting/blatant mixing you can have of post-apocalyptic, sword & sorcery/sandals, heady “What is the nature of X?”, pulp exploration, cosmic horror...you can do a lot and it’s all seen through a lens of sci-fan. Heck, I’ve taken bits from both Destiny and Warframe as inspiration for upcoming games. Like aspects of WH40K? That setting’s well within the timline of the game, so put Necrons under the sands of Mars as well as a cult who discovered fragments of the Omnissiah’s graces. And remember, when your imagination goes wild and you think, “You know? I think it’d be awesome if this vault had a Skitarii in stasis”, it’s a breeze to stat it out.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1053639Very cool!

What makes the Numenara setting work so well for you?

Similar to Alderaan Crumbs, a lot of the appeal to me is the wide openness of it all.  

Despite the pages and pages of setting material that Monte and crew have put to paper, I never fell like it is boxing in my own creativity.  There are still vast areas unknown.  I can drop in whatever I want, whether stuff I made up or something I saw elsewhere and converted, and it takes next to no effort at all.

That said, back to the pages and pages... if I am stuck for inspiration the amount of source material, GM aids (I really like the charts in the Jade Colossus book for creating ruins), etc give me plenty of back up when I need it.

This all also has the added benefit of making it stupid easy to say yes to my players when they have something specific they want to try and go do/find/create/whatever.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1053600Might you elaborate as to what felt flat?

Numenera is supposed to be a sci-fi setting a billion years in the future, but comes off as sort of generic fantasy in actual play.

Quote from: rgalex;1053663Similar to Alderaan Crumbs, a lot of the appeal to me is the wide openness of it all.  

Despite the pages and pages of setting material that Monte and crew have put to paper, I never fell like it is boxing in my own creativity.  There are still vast areas unknown.  I can drop in whatever I want, whether stuff I made up or something I saw elsewhere and converted, and it takes next to no effort at all.

That said, back to the pages and pages... if I am stuck for inspiration the amount of source material, GM aids (I really like the charts in the Jade Colossus book for creating ruins), etc give me plenty of back up when I need it.

This all also has the added benefit of making it stupid easy to say yes to my players when they have something specific they want to try and go do/find/create/whatever.

Exactly! I see it as a buffet of inspiration to be enjoyed as desired.

Quote from: Brad;1053667Numenera is supposed to be a sci-fi setting a billion years in the future, but comes off as sort of generic fantasy in actual play.

I love the original core book and didn’t mind that we were doing monster-slaying quests and dungeon crawls but the monsters were biomechanical horrors and the dungeons were automaton factories. I can see how it could feel generic as it didn’t facilitate much beyond exploring and fighting threats, especially if the sci-fan stuff wasn’t enough to carry you along on its own. I also wanted to see more “science-y” art and did get it in the new books.

I feel (at least from reading) that Numenera: Destiny was a fantastic addition and a thing I didn’t know was needed. If I’m correct it might be a missing piece to your enjoyment. The game still consists of voidglass swords and hardlight armor and tech-knights and nano-wizards (that’s just part of it, after all) visiting far-off lands, plundering inscrutable ruins and fighting bizarre creatures (very standard fantasy, to be sure). However, coupling the sources of things as being fantastic technologies with what to do with the places, people and things you find...that’s what I agree was missing. Will coming across communities and nurturing them (or creating one from scratch), delving into ruins to find tangible rewards and then taking said rewards and actually crafting things be enough to sway you? I don’t know, however I think it might and is worth a peek, if possible.

Quote from: Brad;1053667Numenera is supposed to be a sci-fi setting a billion years in the future, but comes off as sort of generic fantasy in actual play.

Problem may be with table, not with game.