Anyone here play the tabletop game?

[dirigibalistic]

So after immediately falling in love with this game’s setting, I decided to try out the tabletop game. I was going to buy the core book, but then I found out there are two new books coming out in a few months, one of which is apparently just a newer, better version of the original core book.

Has anyone here played tabletop Numenera? Do you have any idea what’s in these books, and what the difference between them is? Should I buy the book now, or would it be better to wait for the new one to come out?

[jack_of_tears]

You should probably wait for the new edition, as it will hopefully solve the problems Monte knew the game possessed when he released the original but kept in there so he could sell books to fix the problems he created. I lost all respect for Monte during his Numenera kickstarter - the guy left WotC for the same scumball tactics he later went on to perform himself. I was in the beta test and he was made aware of several problems he did nothing to solve prior to release. Because of that, I will never buy a book from him again.

It is worth owning second hand, though, so he doesn't get any of your money. The system is interesting but easily broken - there are six levels of difficulty in the game and my players were so powerful that they couldn't fail lvl 3 challenges immediately after character creation. The Nano class is poorly represented and they will all end up playing pretty much the same way unless you buy the supplemental book to give them more options.

Monte knows how to create worlds, though, and the setting is very well developed. It's based off the works of Gene Wolfe and Jack Vance though he inexplicably fails to credit Vance despite the fact that Wolfe admits to being directly inspired by that author and the material is clearly referential of Dying Earth. Still, it's good material and worth owning - just don't pay Monte for it, don't support his bad behavior.

[Crixler]

Some corrections of the above claims:

Difficulty (levels) actually goes up to 10, not 6. But even then, 10 is just the standard cap, and there are some (very rare) cases where difficulty goes even higher. The Torment book has a couple examples of that - the Bloom Heart is level 11. A difficulty 3 task requires you to roll a 9 or higher on a d20, or use effort and skills to lower it. A fresh character will usually be able to drop that down to diffculty 2 (roll 6) or 1 (roll 3) fairly easily, this is true. So? It's 3 out of 10, not 3 out of 6.

Nanos have roughly the same number of options in the Corebook just as much as the other 2 types. It's true that the Corebook alone doesn't offer a whole lot of ability variety, but that is true of the other types as well. Moreso, in fact, as the glaive, for instance, has almost entirely combat-focused abilities. The nano and jack are much more versatile.

The back of the Corebook lists several inspirations for the setting, including Gene Wolfe, Frank Herbert, Arther C. Clarke, and yes - Jack Vance.

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So. All that being said, should you wait for the new Corebooks, or get the current one?

Well, the system itself is not really changing. The game still uses the same difficulty mechanics, the same character structure, etc. All past books will remain compatible, with the partial exception of the old Character Options books. The descriptors, foci, and organizations from the Character Options books will still be compatible, but some of those will be rolled into the new Corebooks. The new abilities from the first CO book will be obsolete, though, as abilities for all types are being redone. The nano is actually the type that's seeing the least amount of change. Glaives will be given new abilities that make them more useful outside of combat, and jacks will be given their own more distinct identity, rather than merely being a hybrid type as they currently are.

That's the biggest change that's happening in the new main corebook, overhauling and expanding character options. There are some other changes throughout, though, such as using the updated armor rules from the Cypher System Rulebook.

One other noteworthy change is that the four adventures included in the original corebook are supposedly being replaced with new ones. So if you want those, then that's some incentive to go ahead and grab the current book. One of the Corebook adventures involved Dracogen, who also appears in Torment, so that one in particular might be interesting to you.

So overall, I would say definitely get the new upcoming corebook. If you're impatient or want those 4 extra adventures, then you could also get the current corebook. If you do get the current one, I would perhaps recommend watching for a sale on DrivethruRPG and get a PDF copy.

[dirigibalistic]

Thanks! That was more info than I’ve been able to find anywhere else. Including the Monte Cook Games website. :|

I am pretty impatient, but I think I can wait a few months if there are that many improvements.