Wow, backers!

It took you less than two days to hit this goal—that’s the sort of pace we normally see in the first or final week of a campaign, not the dead-center! Thanks to so many of you helping to spread the word and keep the buzz going, we’re now expanding The Strange. This already-hefty campaign setting is getting even meatier with new types, new creatures, new adventures, and more!

And as always, we’re including a little bonus for every backer—a thank-you for unlocking this stretch goal, whether The Strange is among your rewards or not:

Welcome to the Cretaceous. Our ancestors won’t climb down from the trees for another 66 million years, but here we are now. Time travel seemed like a good idea. Exploring the ancient world. Building. Creating an entire society here in the jungles of our primordial Earth. Until those SATI guys messed it all up.

We’ve got gear. We’ve got guns. We’ve even bioengineered a few dinos to our liking. And that’s good, because we’ll need it all to survive. History says there’s an asteroid headed our way, and there’s no one left alive who knows how to get back to the future…

That’s a peek into the world of Predation, one of our favorite campaign settings. It’s got a little sci-fi, a little post-apocalyptic feel—and a whole lot of dinosaurs! Shanna, who brought the world of Grevakc to life in the original book has been hankering to write a new adventure for it. So let’s unlock one!

This PDF-only adventure, titled “A Quirk in Time,” will stand on its own—you’ll be able to play it without needing the Predation campaign setting. (Though it will be richer if you do have the setting, and you’ll be able to integrate it into an ongoing campaign if you like. A PDF of Predation is included in every  Amazing Campaigns and All-In pledge level.) Here’s a quick summary:

Something new has been stirring across Grevakc. Anomalies that people are calling time quirks are delivering neither remnants nor cyphers, but something else entirely: living creatures from other periods. Is this just another oddity of time travel? Are there people in other periods, trying to cross through time?

We’ll deliver it on the early side, around the time the corebooks launch, so you’ll have a prepared adventure to kick off your experience with the new edition. And, if we’re fortunate enough to be able to unlock more Predation-related content before this campaign ends, we’ll integrate this adventure into it.

This adventure will be added to the rewards of all backers at the ALL-IN (print and PDF) and ALL-IN (PDF only) levels. We’ll unlock the Predation adventure when we reach 3575 backers!

The MCG team has been playtesting the new edition of Cypher for months, but with the rules have now almost 100% complete, we’re able to play full-fledged games just for the fun of it. Monte ran a cool dungeon fantasy game for us this week. You can see how it went in this Bluesky thread by Shanna. (Bruce and Charles also shared some thoughts.)

We’ve seen this campaign rev up nicely this week as backers spread the word and help us reach the thousands of gamers who don’t know about Cypher or this campaign.

If you haven’t done so already (or even if you have), here’s a fun way to keep the buzz going. MCG is holding a Cypher meme competition. Check out this earlier update for details, then put together and share your own clever meme.

Not feeling creative? Here are a few entries so far—right-click to download them, then give them a share along with a link to mymcg.info/cypher

Every time we unlock a goal, we give every backer a little extra thank you in the form of a bonus reward. Which sticker should we unlock next? See the poll at the bottom of this update!

Vote your favorite, then enter the meme competition to help us reach our next goal quickly!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Hello, backers—

Things naturally slow down in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign, but thanks to your help spreading the word, we’ve continued to truck along nicely—and now the Cypher GM Screen is unlocked! It’s being added automagically to the rewards of all backers at the ALL-IN (print and PDF) pledge level. (And in PDF to backers at the ALL-IN (PDF only) level.)

We’re also making it available as an add-on. But, seriously, if you’re adding on the products we’re unlocking, you should really consider upgrading your pledge level to ALL-IN instead—it’s a much better deal!

And, as we do every time we unlock a stretch goal, we’re adding a little free bonus to every backer’s reward. It’s just an extra thank-you for every backer, regardless of whether you’re getting the GM Screen.

The GM Screen isn’t the first entirely new product you’ve unlocked: earlier in this campaign you unlocked The Strange. We’re reviving The Strange roleplaying game (a Cypher-based game that predates the original Cypher System Rulebook and which is long out of print) as a hefty, robust campaign setting for Cypher. The Strange has a diehard following, and fans were as excited as we are that it’s coming back into being.

So let’s go even further.

Let’s add new types—so in addition to updated versions of the Paradox, Spinner, and Victor, you could also play a Librarian, Narrator, or Prodigal. We’ll update existing foci, and include new ones such as Embraces a Fictional Ancestry and Channels Dark Energy. We’ll add new factions and groups, plus add new creatures, new adventures, and more.

We were already planning on a pretty hefty book, but with your support, we can grow it substantially. And we’re going to make it easy: We’ll unlock this expanded version of The Strange at 3450 backers!

Crowdfunding campaign soar—they only soar—when excited backers spread the word. If you’ve ever seen a campaign break records or hit unexpected highs, it’s always because the backers made it happen.

You can do that—and have a little fun along the way! Olivia just launched MCG’s Cypher meme competition. You can find the details in yesterday’s update. Generate a fun meme and post it to enter. Or just share a few that make you smile. The more these spread, the more gamers hear about this campaign—and the sooner we unlock this stretch goal and move on to others.

And we have lots of exciting ideas for more stretch goals!

Every time we unlock a goal, we give each and every backer a little extra thank you in the form of a bonus reward. It’s nothing huge, but it ensures that even if The Strange (for example) isn’t among your rewards, you can still enjoy the benefit of a little reward with every goal.

Which sticker should we unlock next? See the poll at the bottom of this update!

Vote now, then enter the meme competition to help us reach our next goal quickly!

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

No one knows better than team MCG how creative and hilarious Cypher players are, and we want to celebrate your cleverness! Last year we ran a wildly fun meme competition that generated loads of entries... Now, almost exactly a year later, we’re doing Round 2! Roll for initiative!

What excites you about the evolved edition? Which changes do you think will be your favorites? Why is Cypher the BEST TTRPG system?!? (Feel free to share current-edition memes, as well!)

 

The raffle competition runs from September 8th to the 15th. Three winners will be selected randomly and will receive $50 in MCG Store credit! 

 

To enter, post your meme on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube and make sure you've tagged @montecookgames. And share it on the cypher-meme_competition channel of the Cypher Unlimited Discord! MCG will repost our favs! 

 

Psst…not a part of the Cypher Unlimited Discord? Join now! It’s a fantastic community filled with Cypher, Numenera, The Strange, and Invisible Sun fans, players, creators, streamers, and GMs!

 

One quick note: MCG reserves the right to disqualify any meme that’s disparaging of Cypher, MCG, other RPGs, or, well, anyone, from winning. That’s just not our vibe (and we don’t think it’s yours, either).

We can’t wait to see what you come up with! Good luck to everyone entering, and happy gaming!
 —Team MCG

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