As the Cypher corebooks finish the final stages of development and move into the production phase, the design team wanted to share some insights into the new Cypher—and, as a backer of this campaign, we're giving you an advanced look. (This series of articles will go up on our website, but not until we're much closer to the release of the new Cypher.) It's a small way of saying thank you to everyone involved in this campaign.

Later this year we’re releasing the new version of Cypher that you crowdfunded in 2025. The two game editions are very compatible, but there are a few changes to the rules that will have an impact on characters, creatures, and cyphers. This article is the first in a six-part series about how you can start incorporating some of these changes into the Cypher System game you’re playing right now!

Playing by the existing Cypher System rules, you’ve probably been in a situation where you roll on a task, the roll is pretty low, and then you realize you have a subtle cypher that would have eased the roll. In most cases (especially as it takes an action to activate a cypher), the cypher couldn’t help with that roll. But not anymore!

First, subtle cyphers (which, in the new Cypher, will just be called "cyphers") are becoming what we call instant effects—activating one isn’t an action. That means if you have a skill boost cypher that eases your next two Speed defense tasks by three steps, you can trigger it even when it’s not your turn, like when something is attacking you unexpectedly.

Second, most subtle cyphers that ease skill rolls can be used either before or after you roll. This means that if you roll and don’t like the number you got, you can activate the cypher and affect the roll—no more worrying that you forgot a bonus that could have helped you! You still have to decide to use the cypher before the GM tells you if you succeed or fail at the task, but it’s a nice advantage if you think you fell short by just a little bit.

Cyphers are an important option for players—that’s why we named the game after them! In the new version of the game, we wanted to make subtle cyphers extra useful, so you can take advantage of their benefits instead of saving them and missing an opportunity where they would have helped you. Also, because (unlike your type or focus abilities) your roster of subtle cyphers changes from session to session, you might forget you have a relevant cypher until the exact moment that d20 falls from your hand. Subtle cyphers being instant, and some of them usable after a roll, makes them a more intuitive part of gameplay.

 

Stay tuned for more ways to use new Cypher rules in your current game!

Numenera: The Amber Archive is funding the new edition of Numenera. The original Numenera launched the Cypher System, and this new edition is a setting for the new edition of Cypher. The campaign is not only fully funded and well into stretch goals, but thanks to your fantastic support, we passed a truly incredible threshold: $517,255. What makes this number particularly special (besides being over the gobsmacking half-a-million mark) is that it represents the funding total for the original 2012 Numenera crowdfunding campaign! Check it out now.

Greetings, million-dollar backers! 
 

We hope you’re enjoying the early access material for Cypher—we’ve had a lot of really positive comments about it! If you backed at the All In pledge level and have not yet redeemed your early access PDF, please log in to Backerkit and check your account. 

 

This week, we playtested the upcoming free adventure for Predation, along with some of the new character options! Four adventurers—including a Dinophile who Kills Time and a Sawbones—set out on a storm-chasing adventure. Thanks to some terrible dice rolls (how many 1s can players roll in a single game AND on a single turn?!?), they encountered much more than they bargained for. And that was even before they reached the dangerous and dino-filled storm!

 

We’re coming out with a series of weekly web articles previewing some of the changed rules and explaining how to implement them in your current Cypher System campaign. So, if you want to know how to convert creatures from Cypher System to Cypher, how best to use subtle cyphers and more, keep an eye on MCG’s news pages. 

As a reminder and for those new to MCG, here’s how you get your rewards.
 
When products are ready, you’ll get an email to the address you used for your BackerKit pledge. We don’t collect your shipping address until you request that we ship items to you. Please add montecookgames.com and backerkit.com to your whitelisted email addresses so you don’t miss notifications.

The full info can be found here. 

This science-fantasy fan favorite will be the first supplement to receive a Cypher overhaul and use the new rules. Its already funded and we’ve starting hitting stretch goals! Check it out now.
 

Thanks again for your support — we’re stoked to bring you more products for Cypher!

—Team MCG

 

Greetings, million-dollar backers! 
 

Again, a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped bring this campaign to life! You’re amazing!

 

In early December, we'll have the Character Rulebook manuscript ready to share with those of you who backed at the All-In (Print & PDF) pledge level. The Cypher Bestiary has been updated and will go to print when the Character Rulebook does. We're on schedule to have the first draft of the GM's Guide complete at the end of the year. Once we have specific dates for all this, we’ll let everyone know.

As a reminder and for those new to MCG, here’s how you get your rewards.
 
When products are ready, you’ll get an email to the address to you pledged to BackerKit with, letting you know. We don’t ask for your address or details until you request that we ship items to you. Please add montecookgames.com and backerkit.com to your whitelisted email addresses so you don’t miss notifications.

The full info can be found here.

Playtesting

Our Design Team ran several Cypher games at Gamehole Con in Madison, to hugely positive and excited feedback! Watch out for more info on Cypher and other projects. 

 

With the new edition of Cypher upcoming, MCG is going back to the wonderous setting of Numenera for our next crowdfunding campaign. We would love for you to come along to the Ninth World! Don’t forget to sign up now and receive the early pledge reward when you back the campaign.

 

Thanks again for your support and making this come to life!

—Team MCG

Hello, backers!

After an amazing 24 hours of Overtime Mode, this campaign reached its exciting conclusion Saturday evening. You unlocked sixteen stretch goals—and crossed the $1,000,000 milestone (for which, as a thank you, we're going to give you ALL the stickers).

We are so excited to be bringing you this incredible new iteration of Cypher, plus all the other rewards you’ve unlocked. It’s not just the results of this campaign. A game is more than its books and dice—it’s a community; a network of players that bring the game to life. You’ve really shown us how that community will shine as the new edition takes shape.

We want to tell you a bit about where things go from here—and we have some very exciting news for you—but first let’s give credit where credit is due:

While this campaign was running, Monte, Bruce, and Sean were putting the finishing touches on the Cypher Character Rulebook and Cypher GM’s Guide manuscripts. Shanna’s been working on the Divination Deck, while also putting the finishing touches on Come Hell or High Water (for the Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game) and Dominique has been editing other products in our pipeline like Make Your Statement (for The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game).

Bear and Javier will make our Cypher books shine! During the campaign, they designed stickers, imaged new products, and handled graphic design! With Teri, they’ve also been moving titles like All Your Gods Are Dead and The Darkest Woods into and through their production phases.

Jen, Olivia, and Kate have answered your questions (and are always available to provide support to you, our wonderful community) while prepping for Gamehole Con, which is just a few short weeks away.

Tammie has been steering the ship and keeping the logistics plates spinning. And Charles planned and ran this campaign (and is the author of this update!).

We are a small team, but we’ve worked diligently to keep all of our products coming while also running this campaign. We all thank you very much for backing this campaign. We love making mind-blowing RPGs with beautiful production values and immersive experiences, and your support makes that possible.

Now, here’s what to expect as we move forward from here. Please read it—and remember, there’s a big announcement at the bottom of this update!

Running a crowdfunding campaign is hard work, so we’re looking forward to getting a bit of rest. You may not hear from us for a little while, but don’t worry. Monte and the team have been at work on the new Cypher for some time, so things are already moving along at a great pace. We’ll post updates any time there’s news share. 

BackerKit began collecting pledges the moment the campaign closed. But it takes them a full two weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.

In the meantime, we will get the pledge manager fully set up. The pledge manager gives us the information we need to fulfill your pledge and lets you manage your add-ons and make any pledge upgrades you want. We’ll notify you when we open the pledge manager, which should be in about three weeks. Please look out for, and respond to, that notification!

Once you’ve completed the pledge manager survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. We’ll be busy crafting the Cypher corebooks, the revised Cypher Bestiary, Cypher Character Options, The Strange, Predation, and the other items you funded, in the months to come. We’ll post regular updates, but if you don’t hear anything for a few weeks, don’t fret.

At the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and updates include critical information about your rewards.

Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free, because you’ve already paid for it through this campaign), and check out.

This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time.

Please pay attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Follow for more info, and to be the among the first to get news, access Monte’s design diary, and receive a very cool exclusive reward!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, backers!

Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better! has now passed the $1MM mark.

What an amazing honor you’ve bestowed on Cypher! Only a handful of RPG crowdfunding campaigns not based on popular licenses or 5E have ever broken $1,000,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. We are excited and humbled to see Cypher enter those ranks.

As a small token of our thanks, we will now give every backer all of the stickers you’ve seen throughout this campaign—not just those that won their polls, but also the designs, which collectively received thousands of votes, that didn’t. It’s a total of about two dozen stickers.

We’d like to especially thank the community on the Cypher Unlimited discord, which cheered on the success of the campaign and helped keep Overtime Mode going through the night. If you aren’t a member of this fantastic, welcoming community, you should join.

Overtime Mode continues, and new pledges are still rolling it. More gamers are discovering Cypher. Please keep spreading the word!

And again, thanks for your help making this campaign—and Cypher—such a success!

—Team MCG