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Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better!

Created by Monte Cook Games

The award-winning TTRPG perfect for forging the stories YOU want to play. Lightning-quick character generation. Super easy to GM. Unique and imaginative campaigns. And all the flexibility, story focus, and fast-paced play Cypher is famous for!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

GM’s Guide Expanded!
9 months ago – Thu, Aug 28, 2025 at 08:06:36 AM



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.

Let’s Talk Divination Deck

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! 

But We Need Your Help!

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!

Sticker Time!

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

The Strange Is Unlocked!
9 months ago – Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 08:39:50 AM



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. 

Your Bonus Reward

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!

Shall We Expand the Cypher GM’s Guide?


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!

We’ll unlock this expansion when we reach 2600 backers.

And while we’re at it…

Let’s Choose Another Sticker

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.

You Make It Happen

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

Corebooks Upgraded. Now Let’s Try to Enter The Strange!
9 months ago – Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 07:01:26 PM



Hello, backers—

You made short work of that stretch goal! Thanks to all your great help spreading the word, the upgrade to the Cypher Character Rulebook, the Cypher GM’s Guide, and the matching version of the Cypher Bestiary has been unlocked, and they’re all getting foil-printed covers!
And as a bonus reward, every backer gets this vinyl sticker added to their rewards! That makes two you’ve unlocked so far. Here's the winner of today's poll, and the collection you've built so far.


Let Us Tell You about The Strange

Earth. The present day. The world as we know it.

Except: in the dimness of a chaotic extra-dimensional zone known by a few as “the Strange” lie thousands of Earth’s “recursions”—pocket dimensions that spawn from human myth, legend, and fiction. Rarely larger than a continent, and sometimes no bigger than a few city blocks, these aren’t full-fledged parallel universes. Rather, they’re reflections of human imagination—one might be the halls of Valhalla; another the sands of ancient Egypt; yet another the foggy East End of Jack the Ripper’s London or even the plains of Rohan. If a realm has been imagined on Earth, there is probably a recursion somewhere in our world’s shoals that represents it.


These mini-worlds have gone unnoticed for millennia, but in recent times, a rare few have discovered them—and how to reach them. Some do so for the sake of discovery. Some for plunder. A few for even more nefarious purposes. Regardless of these motives, the rare but increasing traffic between Earth and its recursions has inevitably allowed forces from these realms to discover ours.

For while most beings in these recursions are simply facets of the fiction that creates them, a rare few have “the spark.” Awareness. An ability to recognize that their own realm is limited—but that a broader, fuller world exists. Some of these beings cast ambitious eyes on our Earth. And some are very, very dangerous.

The Strange roleplaying game was originally published by MCG about a decade ago, and powered by the Cypher System. (In fact, its publication predates the original Cypher System Rulebook.) It’s been out of print for a while, but remains a fan favorite. Player characters work for The Estate, a secretive organization that seeks to protect Earth from the dangers increasingly leaking into our world. Adventures set on Earth have an X-Files sort of feel, as the PCs investigate odd happenings and combat other shadowy figures and organizations that exploit the Strange and its recursions. When adventures take them into these other realms, the PCs usual take on aspects of the recursion. They don’t just visit a space-opera realm. They translate to it, becoming, in part, the types of aliens and characters that inhabit that world.

It's a dimension-hopping game filled with intrigue, mystery, and planet-threatening danger. And we want to bring it back!

Stretch Goal: The Strange

We want to create a whole new edition of The Strange, powered by Cypher! It will be a setting book you use with your Cypher corebooks (it won’t contain its own game rules), and will be thoroughly revised and updated, with new content, adventures, and options.

And it will be a whole new book—a thick, hefty hardcover—added to the rewards of the ALL-IN (print and PDF) pledge level, as a PDF to the ALL-IN (PDF only) pledge levels, and available as an add-on for backers at other levels.

We will unlock The Strange when we reach 2200 backers.

Oh, and a Sticker!

Every time we unlock a stretch goal, we throw in a bonus reward—a free thank-you for every backer, no matter what pledge level. Help us choose the next vinyl sticker to add to the collection:


Vote for your choice, and it will be added to your rewards, for free, when we unlock The Strange!

It’s Up to YOU

We need your help to reach 2200 backers and unlock The Strange. If you haven’t already, you can take part in this contest to help spread the word—and maybe win some beautiful custom art for your Cypher character!

And here are some great graphics to share on social media, on reddit, or wherever you talk about games online—right-click to download them:


Thanks for your support!

—Team MCG

Cypher Character Rulebook Expanded!
9 months ago – Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 12:07:46 PM



Hello, backers—

It’s the first afternoon of the campaign, and already you’re knocking out stretch goals. The expansion to the Cypher Character Rulebook is unlocked, and the book is getting bigger and better with more types, species, and other character options!

And a Bonus Reward!

If you’ve backed one of our recent campaigns (The Magnus Archives: Tangled in the Web, for example, or Invisible Sun: Electric and Indigo), you might recall that sometimes we add a fun extra bonus reward to every stretch goal. We’re excited to be doing that with this campaign, too!

So, as a thank-you for unlocking this first goal, in addition to expanding the Cypher Character Rulebook we’re also giving every backer this vinyl sticker:
It’ll look great on your laptop, water bottle, car, or whatever you like to decorate. And it’s yours, free, as a bonus reward no matter what pledge level you’ve chosen to back.

And it gets better: we’ll add a sticker, as a special thank-you, every time you unlock a stretch goal. More on that below.

Stretch Goal: Let’s Upgrade the Books

Your corebooks aren’t going to be exactly like those that future gamers find in stores or order from Amazon. As a backer of this campaign, helping to bring this new edition of Cypher into being, we’re adding special features to your books that won’t be available to non-backers, giving you an upgraded exclusive edition that won’t be widely available to anyone else!

The first upgrade will be an exclusive deluxe foil finish to the book covers. This premium cover treatment will give the books a lustrous glow. We’ll add the foil to the Cypher Character Rulebook, the Cypher GM’s Guide, and the matching version of the Cypher Bestiary, so they’ll all look fantastic in their slipcase.
We’ll unlock this deluxe upgrade when we reach 1700 backers.

Help Us Choose the Next Sticker

Let’s have another bonus reward to go with this stretch goal. Which sticker should we unlock?


See the poll at the bottom of this update. Vote for your choice, and we’ll make a free bonus reward for every backer when we unlock the upgrade!

One Last Thing…



That’s a tiny glimpse of our next stretch goal. If you’ve been a fan of MCG’s games over the years, maybe that image reminds you of something. If so, it’s time to get excited!

And even if it doesn’t, well, we think you’re going to like what we announce next. We’re pretty hyped about it!

You Make it Happen!

Remember, this campaign’s goals are based on the number of backers that discover and pledge to this campaign. And a crowdfunding campaign soars when—and only when—its backers help spread the word—and that means you! Share these items and help spread the word about Cypher and this campaign:


Just right-click to download, then share the graphic along with a link to mymcg.info/cypher

Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG

Let’s Talk Stretch Goals!
9 months ago – Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 11:03:59 AM



Hello, backers—

What a great first day we’re having (and it’s far from over)! Since funding, we have been busy managing the frenetic early hours of the campaign. Now that things are a little less hectic, let’s talk about stretch goals!

But First: Help to Hit Stretch Goals AND Get Your Cypher Character Illustrated!

Every crowdfunding campaign lives or dies by the enthusiasm its backers bring to it. If you’re excited about Cypher, sharing that excitement is the best way to help us reach stretch goals. In fact, it’s the only way. Most of the backers so far (including, probably, you) are already Cypher players and fans—gamers who know about Cypher and why it’s such a great game system. But if this campaign is really going to soar, we must reach out to gamers who aren’t already in the loop.

Here's one way you can show your support for Cypher—and win some sweet custom character art as well:



Stretch Goal: Cypher Character Rulebook Expansion

In addition to the rules for playing Cypher, the Cypher Character Rulebook delves into a wide range of genres (dungeon fantasy, epic fantasy, swords and sorcery, hard sci-fi, space opera, cyberpunk, gritty postapocalyptic, fantasy postapocalyptic, superheroes, horror, and “real world”), with types, foci, and descriptors for each. Even in the basic form you’ve funded, it’s a hefty book.

But one of the great advantages of the new Cypher is faster, easier, and more immersive character generation. That’s because, for each of the genres, we’re providing a range of types precustomized for the common character types of that style of play. You don’t have to take the Adept and choose options that make it into a wizard, druid, or cleric for your fantasy game—we’ve done that for you. But we’d like to do even more—because who doesn’t love more cool choices?

So for our first goal, we’d like to add even more types (and perhaps a few descriptors and foci as well). The tranche we have in mind will add one or two new types to most of the genres (such as the Witch, Powerstar, and Operative), include a couple of additional species for fantasy and science fiction games (like Hellborn and Delph), and include a few additional items—an expansion of the book by about 24 pages.

We’ll unlock this expansion of the book when we reach 1200 backers! We look forward to more expansions and upgrades to the Cypher Character Rulebook and Cypher GM’s Guide, along with other items and a few surprises, through future stretch goals. 

Moar Backers, Please!

We hit stretch goals based on the number of backers we bring into this campaign. We’re doing our best to reach as many gamers as we can, but we need your help! Please help spread the word by sharing these graphics on your socials so we can expand the Cypher Character Rulebook and move on to other exciting goals!


Just right-click to download, then share the graphic along with a link to mymcg.info/cypher

Thanks!
—Team MCG