Numenera is a game in which player characters explore the ruins of aeons past to gather amazing treasures and help build a new future for a world struggling in darkness. Since the launch of Numenera in 2013, we have delivered well on the first part, but we’ve always wanted to do a more thorough job exploring that second part. That desire has led us to Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny.
Numenera Discovery will be a book that covers familiar territory; it is basically a revision of the original Numenera corebook. Next summer, we will allow the original corebook to go out of print, and Numenera Discovery will take its place. In Numenera Discovery, you’ll get some revisions to make things clearer and more fun, and to increase the options available to players. Nanos, Jacks, and Glaives will get an overhaul. Many foci and some of the descriptors might see some reworking. You’ll have more options, clearer rules, and perhaps a bit of expansion to the regions of the Steadfast and the Beyond that are covered in the existing corebook.
As excited as we are about Numenera Discovery, we may be even more excited about Numenera Destiny. This title will enable characters to truly become a part of the setting—to help shape the future of the Ninth World. The people of the Ninth World are locked in a medieval-like state, a world of struggle and danger and often suffering in the shadow of the prior worlds’ wonders. Numenera Destiny allows you to build adventures and campaigns in which players don’t just explore the wonders of the past—they utilize them to help lift the Ninth World out of darkness.
You can make the world a better place. Help a community defend itself from abhumans or the iron wind. Create centers of learning or trade. Innovate, build, and protect. Manage an entire community and help it prosper and grow—or simply create a cool base or vehicle for your adventuring group. Numenera Destiny will allow you to take what you discover and make your mark on history as someone who elevated the Ninth World into the future.
Adventuring—exploring the weird and wondrous remnants of the prior worlds—remains, of course, at the core of Numenera play. Numenera Destiny will give you new things to do with your discoveries, along with entirely new and epic ways to structure your campaigns. You’ll discover materials, power sources, and treasures that you can utilize in an entirely new, robust crafting and building system. And perhaps best of all, Numenera Destiny will offer three new character types and a number of new descriptors and foci geared toward this innovative style of play.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Followers in Discovery and Destiny
over 8 years ago
– Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 10:11:13 PM
All player characters in Numenera 2 have the option to gain followers as they advance in tier. Followers do not need to be paid or housed, though a character who gains followers can certainly make such arrangements if they wish. A follower is someone who a character has inspired (or asked) to come work with the character for an extended period, aiding the character in a variety of endeavors. A follower puts the PC’s interests ahead of or at least on par with their own.
Not all followers are the same. Each has a specific skill or area of expertise they can share, providing an asset to the character's actions. For instance, an entertainer follower grants an asset to the PC attempting to engage in positive interactions with the social lubrication they can add to a situation. A scholar follower could grant a character an asset to knowledge tasks if the scholar is given some time to research.
As PCs gain tiers, they gain the opportunity to gain higher-level followers, if they wish. A higher-level follower usually provides specific benefits to the community that the character is fostering. A builder increases a community’s infrastructure value. A healer increases a community’s health value. Of course, a PC could choose to gain a follower known as a porter, whose chief function is to carry things for the character (including one unused cypher that doesn’t count against the character’s cypher limit).
At the highest tier, a PC can gain a very competent follower that is both higher level than other followers and who can also directly affect a community’s base power level, known as the community’s rank, in specific instances. For example, a commander modifies a community’s effective rank by +1 for any task involving attacks or defense, while a scout modifies a community’s or horde’s effective rank by +1 for any task involving sensing danger or avoiding sneak attacks from stealthy hordes. These same followers could serve as deputies for characters who spend significant times away from the community, and represent the character’s interest during those periods.
When a character gains a follower, there’s a small chance that the follower will be exceptional in some way, a cut above the other followers of their kind. The GM determines when an exceptional follower is found, possibly as an additional reward for smart or engaging roleplaying where the PCs impress or otherwise positively interact with one or more NPCs, some of whom may later go on to become one of the PC’s followers.
Thank you for all your support! —The MCG team
Help Defend Ellomyr from This New Threat!
over 8 years ago
– Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 07:09:35 PM
Hail, defenders of Ellomyr—
The city of Ellomyr really needs to improve its defenses, as the iron wind-mutated margr gather their forces. Walls and towers may have helped years ago, but these new foes are far more powerful. We need to reach 3000 backers by Wednesday, October 25 (that’s tomorrow!) to bring the defenses up to the minimum level to keep the city from being overrun by this new threat.
Hensan and Maralokin climbed the ridge and peered down at the abhuman encampment below. It seemed, as they watched, that the creatures were celebrating something. An unsavory, almost bestial scene spread before them as the creatures feasted on flesh or fought savagely against those near them for a choice cut. Strength and ferocity ruled this band.
Hensan couldn’t get over the variation. Some—was it right to even call them margr anymore?—stood about as tall as a human, but others must have risen to a height of ten feet or more. Some were horned and hirsute, but others sported scaly flesh or even armored plates of what seemed like living steel. Some possessed multiple limbs, or misshapen, asymmetrical features. One thing seemed constant, however: there were no weak individuals. No one was sick, feeble, or frail. It seemed unlikely that such weakness would last long in this terrible horde.
A single individual stood in the middle of the group. Not small, but certainly not the largest of them. It raised its four arms above its head and chanted, as if invoking some deity. Its words, however, meant nothing to the human observers. The other creatures grew quiet and expectant.
The chanter suddenly grabbed the nearest individual, which burst into a living column of flame. The surprised captive howled in pain, but then both creatures shot up into the sky with a roar. The crowd cheered. Just as quickly, the flaming pair hurtled back down and crashed to the ground like thunder. The four-armed thing stood up from the small, smoldering crater it left, burning remains of the other still in its claws, and then it laughed. The rest of the band shouted ecstatic approval.
Maralokin watched the enflamed creature through the lens of the device she carried, and then looked back at Hensan, eyes tight with worry.
“We need to get back and report to Michah and the city elders,” Maralokin whispered. This is worse than we thought.”
Thank you for all your support! —The MCG team
How Will You Hold All Those Books?
over 8 years ago
– Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 01:45:00 AM
Hi, Numenera backers!
Throughout this fantastic campaign, as it keeps surpassing our expectations, we’ve been motivated to offer additional items that we think would be fun and exciting for your game. These aren’t stretch goals, they’re just cool things we’d like to make and share with you.
Today, we’re excited to introduce these beautiful bookends!
The design isn't 100% final, but we're getting close!
Since the original Numenera campaign, back in 2012, we’ve published well over a dozen print titles (and that’s just for Numenera—not counting our other games). And we’ve already funded eight more titles through this campaign! These beautiful books deserve a beautiful place on your shelf. And while the Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny corebooks come in a fabulous slipcase, you don’t want your other titles just tumbling out over your bookshelf!
So we’re going to create a set of attractive Numenera bookends. They’ll be resin-cast, making them sturdy and giving them heft to hold your books up in style. They’ll look great bracketing your collection of Numenera RPG titles, or a set of deluxe Numenera hardcover novels, including Tomorrow’s Bones, which we hope to unlock in the days to come.
The Numenera bookends join the Discovery and Destiny T-shirt, Player’s Kit, deluxe corebook set, and writing seminar with Shanna as an add-on you can select now. Never done an add-on before? Just increase your pledge amount by the value of the add-ons you want, but don’t change your backer level. After the campaign ends we’ll ask you what the extra funds are for. (You can use the pledge calculator at the end of the main campaign page to easily total your goodies.)
We’re looking forward to having these beautiful bookends on our shelves—and we hope you are too!
Thank you for all your support! —The MCG team
Ellomyr Faces an Evolved Threat
over 8 years ago
– Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 12:48:55 AM
Hail, defenders of Ellomyr—
Years have passed, and things have been quiet in Ellomyr. In case you missed it, there’s a lovely image of the town, showing how much it’s grown, in Saturday’s update.
But few things remain quiet for very long in the Ninth World. There’s a new threat brewing, and it looks like it will get here Thursday. We’re going to have to work together to keep Ellomyr safe—stay tuned for more on how you can help!
The sheaf of papers Ander slapped down on Michah’s desk made a loud sound. Obviously, Ander wanted it that way. Michah looked up.
“Didn’t I tell you I didn’t want to hear about this anymore?” Michah asked him.
Ander shook his head. His mouth twitched. “That was when there was only one report. But there’s more now. And worse.”
Michah had been in charge of Ellomyr’s defense for thirteen years. Her grandfather had fought in the Battle of Ellomyr against the margr horde. Her mother had helped place the crystals that protected them from the iron wind so long ago. Her blood flowed with the life of this city. She leaned back in her chair, not looking at the papers. “Worse? What does that even mean?”
“That first account. It talked about some strange creatures in the hills. Something we’d never seen before.”
Michah nodded. “The wilderness is home to a lot of strange things.”
“But we’re seeing them everywhere now,” Ander said through gritted teeth. “In the hills, ambushing travelers. Making camps in the valleys. Living in the old margr caves. Calaval’s Eyes, Michah, I think these things are the margr. Or rather they were.”
“What?”
“It’s Thominas’ theory, actually.”
“You spoke to the old woman about this?”
“Yes. She’s still our foremost expert on it.”
“It? What exactly are you trying to say?”
“The iron wind. When it was here. We were saved, but the margr were not. We thought most of them were destroyed, but it seems at least some of them survived. And they were changed. It’s like what they were, their very existence was… re-written. They’re bigger, hardier, and some of them seem to display strange powers.”
He wiped his brow with a handkerchief. “And they’re gathering in numbers again. We have to face facts, Michah. The margr are coming back and they’re far, far worse than last time.”
Thank you for all your support! —The MCG team
We Have Upgraded Slaves of the Machine God!
over 8 years ago
– Mon, Oct 23, 2017 at 12:43:31 AM
Wow! Thank you, backers—those who recently joined us and those who have been with the campaign since day one! We have unlocked our latest stretch goal in what seems like record time.
Thanks to you, we’re upgrading Slaves of the Machine God to a huge adventure book—a full 144-page hardcover with a double-sided poster map. So everyone who gets this book, either as an add-on or as part of their rewards, gets loads of additional adventure content at no additional cost.
Next up: As we mentioned last week, we’re going to do another Numenera novel: Tomorrow’s Bones, by Shanna Germain. We’ll produce this in a deluxe hardcover edition (for those of you getting your rewards in print) as well as all popular ebook formats (for everyone getting this reward). If you haven’t read the first official Numenera novel, The Poison Eater (also by Shanna), you really should—it’s been a big hit with fans and critics alike. The Night Clave, co-written by Shanna and Monte, comes out in a few weeks. (You can download a free sample of it now.) Tomorrow’s Bones will make a great addition to your Numenera library. We’ll make Tomorrow’s Bones if you can get us to $590,000.
The campaign ends on Friday. If it’s anything like our past campaigns, the final few days will be very fast-paced. We have plenty of additional great stretch goals we’d love to hit, and there’s every reason we can reach at least several more. Keep spreading the word, and let’s make it happen!
And be sure to check back on Monday—we have something pretty neat to show you!
