Hello, backers—

Thank you so much for all the work you’ve done spreading the word. The buzz for this campaign has reached thousands of gamers, and we’ve now passed 2900 backers. The upgrade to the Divination Deck is unlocked!

The Divination Deck will be a great resource, and a central feature on the game table of any GM who loves a bit of inspiration on the fly. This premium upgrade will make it as beautiful and pleasant to use as it is handy. (There's more about the Divination Deck and how it helps your game soar in our last update.)

As we do with every unlocked stretch goal, we’re giving you a little bonus reward—this vinyl sticker—free!

The sticker collection is growing! It’s our extra thank-you to all backers for helping this campaign soar by spreading the word and reaching new backers.

Which sticker design should we unlock as the next bonus? We have a new poll, below!

Cyphers are single-use special abilities. They represent an unexpected moment of advantage, a touch of insight or inspiration, a bit of luck, or simply a meta-game benefit for the player’s use. They keep your character sheet fresh, giving you new options in addition to your regular character abilities. And because they’re single-use, their effect on game balance isn’t an ongoing concern; they can be interesting, unusual, or flashy in ways that enhance, rather than undermine, long-term play.

Because they are frequently encountered and quickly used, writing out a cypher and its effects on a character sheet (only to erase it half a session later) can be a bit of a drag. And pulling out the corebook to roll on a big random table can slow down the game. That’s why we’re making the Cypher Deck—draw a card randomly for a pregenerated cypher, then simply hand it to the player to be kept until used. Each card contains a unique cypher, along with some advice on how to integrate its use into your game events in a way that feels natural and enhances the narrative.

We were planning a 60-card deck, but because it’s so useful, we’d like to expand it to 100 cards. This will take advantage of the expansion to the Cypher GM’s Guide you unlocked recently, and nearly double the number of cyphers at your fingertips. Get us to 3150 backers, and we’ll expand the size of the Cypher Deck!

And after that? We have so many great ideas for making the most of your Cypher experience, and weeks left to unlock more wondrous stretch goals! 

Tell us about your character! If you have a favorite Cypher character, we’d love to hear about it—and three winners will get beautiful custom illustrations of their characters, commissioned on their behalf by MCG. The promotion is almost over, though. Don’t miss this chance to get a custom illo for your character, and help promote the campaign by doing so. Click through for details! 

As we do with every stretch goal, if we unlock the expansion to the Cypher Deck we’ll add a free bonus to every backer’s rewards in the form of a vinyl sticker. So far we've looked at designs with a whimsical approach, but let's do something a little different this time. Which of these designs do you think we should do next?

Vote now, and keep spreading the word to help unlock even more stretch goals!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

What an exciting launch period we’ve been having—you’ve unlocked yet another stretch goal! The Cypher GM’s Guide is getting bigger, with more creatures, cyphers, equipment, and artifacts included in the many genres it covers. This matches the expansion you’ve already funded for the Cypher Player’s Guide. And both books, plus the Cypher Bestiary, have already had production upgrades including foil covers, giving your copies an exclusive premium finish that won’t be part of the standard edition available in the future.

And as a bonus, as we do with every stretch goal unlocked, we’re adding a vinyl sticker to your rewards—free! It’s just an extra little thank you for supporting the campaign and helping unlock these stretch goals.

You chose that sticker design via our recent poll. We’re starting up another poll for the next one—see below.

A (so far!) undersung offering in this campaign is the Divination Deck. The 50 cards of this Tarot-sized deck each feature a divinatory image that inspires all sorts of ideas on the fly. Any time you’re at a turning point in the game, or would like some inspiration for a plot wrinkle, a GM intrusion, a cypher choice, an NPC’s attitude, or even the weather, just draw a card.

Say you draw the Knife. It implies conflict or a wound. Change, a violent or at least drastic reaction, or the splitting of bonds. This alone can inspire the direction you take an NPC, a scene, or your narrative overall. But in addition, the accompanying book suggests intrusions, NPCs and their traits, cyphers, assets, creatures, and more.

You aren’t expected to use all of this each time you draw. Maybe in one scene, you simply want an adversary for a random encounter. Draw a card for a creature suggestion. Maybe later you’d like an intrusion idea. Draw three cards, and choose the one with the vibe that best matches the current scene, using the intrusion it suggests. And if you’re stuck for a plot twist later that session, draw another card for its divinatory recommendation. The Diviniation Deck is a limitless font of GM inspiration and time-savings in a beautiful format.

So let’s make it even more beautiful. With this stretch goal, we’ll upgrade the Divination Deck with premium features such as foil stamping on the card backs, upgraded paper and finish, and a deluxe box. We think the Diviniation Deck will be a central feature on the game table of any GM who loves a bit of inspiration on the fly, and we want to do it justice. We’ll unlock this upgrade to the Divination Deck when we reach 2900 backers.

And after that? We have so many great ideas for making the most of your Cypher experience, and weeks left to unlock more wondrous stretch goals! 

We’re unlocking stretch goals by reaching new backers. There are thousands of gamers out there who haven’t heard about this campaign yet—and try as we might, we can’t reach even a fraction of them without the help of backers. Sharing an image or a bit of information is a great way for you to help spread the word. It only takes a second.

Here are four great reasons gamers you know might love Cypher. (We'll post more in the future.) Right-click an image to download it. Then give it a share, with the link mymcg.info/cypher

Everyone you reach takes us one step closer to unlocking this stretch goal—and, hopefully, many more to come!

If we unlock this upgrade to the Divination Deck, we’ll also add a free bonus sticker to your rewards. Which one should we make?

The poll is at the bottom of this post—vote!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

Great news! You’ve unlocked The Strange, adding the first entirely new product to this campaign’s rewards. We’re so excited to be making this hefty hardcover campaign setting, which is now part of the rewards for all backers at the ALL-IN (print and PDF) pledge level (and in PDF for ALL-IN (PDF only) backers).

You can also get it as an add-on, but seriously: why add on a single book when you can upgrade your pledge and get so much more? The ALL-IN pledge levels were a great deal to start with, and are now even better—and the campaign is just getting started!

If you’re new to The Strange, this dimension-hopping, intrigue-filled campaign setting has been a fan-favorite for years, but the original has been long out of print. Learn more about it in our last update. 

As if a whole new book isn’t enough, your rewards now include another sticker! Voting was very close this time, but we have a winner:

We add a vinyl sticker as a free bonus reward for all backers, every time we unlock a stretch goal. Vote for the next one below!

One of your first stretch goals was an expansion to the Cypher Character Rulebook. The design team would love to similarly grow the GM’s book, particularly adding more equipment, cyphers, creatures, and artifacts to supplement the copious guidance and rules options for the many genres it covers. We anticipate this will add roughly 24 pages to the heft of the book, giving you that much more for your campaigns and adventures!

And while we’re at it…

We’ve unlocked three stretch goals so far, and added three bonus vinyl stickers rewards on top of those goals. We’ll add a fourth if we unlock this expansion. Which design would you prefer?

Vote in the attached poll! The winning design will be our next bonus reward.

This campaign is going gangbusters, and we have so many more stretch goals we’d love to hit. The way to make that happen—the only way—is for backers like you to help spread the word. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to tell us about your character—it’s fun, you’ll help spread the word, and maybe you’ll win some cool, custom art for your character!

Thanks for your support!

—Team MCG