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:
A Deluxe Corebook and Slipcase Set
over 8 years ago
– Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 04:56:22 PM
Hello, Numenera backers!
Monte has talked a lot about some of his favorite memories of the original Numenera Kickstarter campaign, and one of them was the excitement and thrill of creating the Numenera Deluxe version. Gorgeous, high-end and sleek, it was a huge hit. Numenera gamers still come up to him to talk about how much they love their copy. And when we announced Numenera 2, one of the first questions we got from backers was, will there be a leather-bound deluxe version of this too?
We are thrilled that the answer is yes. We are super-excited to announce the offering of a deluxe version of the corebook set. The Numenera 2 slipcase set is already a work of stunning beauty, even at a standard retail price, but the success of this campaign has inspired us to commemorate it with an even more incredible deluxe set.
This was something we’ve been really, really looking forward to, but frankly we didn’t know if we’d be able to offer it in this campaign. (It’s not a stretch goal—we’re just going to make it!) After the astounding launch you gave us on Tuesday, and the numerous requests we’ve had for it, we’ve concluded that not only can we make it happen—but we want to make it happen ASAP!
The deluxe corebook set will consist of a premium leather-bound version of both Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny, in a special premium slipcase that is sure to make them the prize of your RPG collection. At an absolute minimum (because we’re still exploring the possibilities), the deluxe features will include:
Leather covers, with a beautiful design and foil-stamping
Eight pages of additional interior artwork
Gilt page edges and a ribbon bookmark
And every deluxe corebook set will come numbered and autographed by Monte and the MCG design team
And of course the deluxe slipcase will feature all the upgrades we’ve added to the regular slipcase, which include the Order of Truth medallion and extra content. This deluxe version will be offered only through this Kickstarter campaign.
As I mentioned above, this is not a stretch goal. It’s something we’re simply going to make. And we’re offering it to you as an add-on, and through the new PATRON backer level. We’ve just added it to the Kickstarter page—have a look! This new level includes not just the deluxe corebook, but also another Kickstarter-exclusive book: An art and essay book entitled The Essence of Numenera. This very limited title will include not just large, beautiful images of Numenera art, but essays written by Numenera’s creators, contributors, and others who have been influenced by (or been an influence on) the Ninth World. As with the deluxe corebooks, every copy of this exclusive item will be signed and numbered.
These are items we can't wait to see on our shelves, and we hope you’re as excited by them as we are!
Iadace! —Charles and the MCG Team
Corebook and Slipcase Upgrade!
over 8 years ago
– Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 09:02:03 PM
Hello, again, Numenera backers! What a delight it is to write an update first thing in the morning—because you have driven us through yet another stretch goal! That’s right: You’ve taken us over the mark and summoned into being the upgrade to the Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny corebooks plus the slipcase set.
To recap:
Numenera Discovery (print and PDF) gets a double-sided poster map
Numenera Destiny (print and PDF) gets a double-sided poster map
The slipcase gets some high-end upgrades to its production, along with useful content (quick-reference card, character generation walkthrough, reference bookmarks, and maybe more)—plus a beautiful Order of Truth medallion from the great folk at Campaign Coins
Here’s something that’s close to my heart: These are not Kickstarter-exclusive features. By helping us making the Numenera corebooks this much better, you’ve improved the Numenera experience for every player—those backing this campaign, and those first discovering Numenera years from now. This is a huge part of why Kickstarter is so important to us at MCG: It lets us do cool things that might not be practical when relying solely on conventional sales channels.
(That’s not to say Kickstarter exclusives aren’t also cool—and we’re working on those too. Read on!)
Our next stretch goal: How about another book?
Slaves of the Machine God
A powerful overlord with an army of automatons: is this a simple, straightforward threat to you and your companions, or is there something more going on than meets the eye? This epic adventure of twists and turns, in a 120-page book, will give you campaign material for months of play.
That’s right: A 120-page campaign. From the minds of the awesome MCG design team. You know it’s going to be awesome! Help us reach $310,000, and we’ll make this a reality—and everyone getting all the books gets this as part of their rewards!
Did you catch our last update, introducing Ellomyr? Ellomyr will be the basis of The Trilling Shard, and its fate (and the content of the Kickstarter-exclusive sourcebook) will be in the hands of you, the backers, as it faces the challenges of the Ninth World over the course of the campaign. If you haven’t read the update, check it out—and stay tuned for more over the days to come!
Iadace! —Charles
The People of Ellomyr
over 8 years ago
– Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 08:59:30 PM
Iadace, traveler. Today we return to Ellomyr with a little more background on the village and its people. Ellomyr is the centerpiece of The Trilling Shard, and we (you the backers, together with us here at MCG) will be telling its story throughout this campaign as Ellomyr faces the many dangers common to isolated communities of the Ninth World. If you missed our first Ellomyr update, you may want to go back and read that one first.
Gurner Fron lives in a thatched-roof house just next to the square, so he can hear the Trilling Stone whenever it decides to sing. Everyone in Ellomyr looks to him when they need a leader, which, fortunately, isn't often. That’s the way Gurner likes it. He's lived out the better part of nine decades and he would rather spend his remaining days dreaming up stories about the Prior Worlds for the village children doing any serious work. His tales include gods, monsters, and heroes, of course, but they always also center around the stone. It's all from his own imagination—among adults he claims no special knowledge of those timelost worlds—but telling stories and gnawing on gallen jerky with his few remaining teeth offer a pleasant enough way to spend his time.
Next to Gurner lives the Revell family, led by Dora Redmire, the finest woodworker anyone in the village has ever known. Her many children help scrounge bits of synth from the fields, which she works into her creations—cabinets, furniture, and the like. Her husband, Kole, was killed in a margr raid five years ago, and she wishes Ellomyr had some real leadership to prepare itself for another raid. "It's only a matter of time," she tells anyone who will listen.
Dora encourages Nieten to lead the people of the village and get them to take precautions against the dangers that could present themselves any day. Nieten, however, isn't much for people. She's a strong and capable glaive, but she spends most of her time alone, hunting in the hills. In her wanderings, she's found a blade made of steel that you can see right through as if it were glass. It cuts through granite without dulling the edge. Nieten’s biggest fear isn't the margr bands, but the iron wind, a devilish storm by that name can scour the landscape, obliterating or changing anything caught in its clutches.
In our next Ellomyr update: A glaive named Nieten, danger in the nearby wilderness, and a group of exotic strangers!
Welcome to Ellomyr
over 8 years ago
– Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 11:15:21 PM
Iadace, traveler. Today we begin our story of Ellomyr, a small, quiet village in the Ninth World. In the days and weeks to come, Ellomyr will face the kinds of challenges and dangers that many communities in the Ninth World are confronted with.
As Ellomyr faces these challenges, we’ll ask for your help. Together, using our numenera skills and knowledge, we will work to withstand these threats, keep each other safe, and hopefully allow Ellomyr to grow and thrive. Will Ellomyr ultimately become a thriving city that offers a safe and bright future for Ninth World citizens, or will it be lost to the darkness and dangers that threaten it? We’ll only know when this campaign is completed.
Ellomyr lies within a fertile valley, near what the locals call the Angry Red River. No one alive today knows why it’s called that, but the older folks say they heard when they were young that the river’s waters once carried a terrible sickness down from the hills. Over time, however, the contamination and the odd color faded away. The Angry flows into an enormous nearby sinkhole in a dramatic waterfall folks call “Glittermist Falls.”
Almost 200 humans call Ellomyr home. People around here saw a varjellen pass through once a few years back, but as far as non-humans go that’s about it. The village encircles a towering, symbol-covered stone called the Trilling Shard, which vibrates with sound from time to time. Gurner, the village elder, has wished his whole life that an Aeon Priest would come to Ellomyr and tell them what the Trilling Shard is and why it “sings,” but none ever have.
Far in the distance, one can see “the Golden Sliver” in the sky—a huge floating obelisk in the distance; another reminder that in the past the world was a far stranger place. No one in the village has ever traveled so far as to see it up close, but the children like to play games that imagine what the sliver might be.
Today, people in Ellomyr live simple lives, herding long-haired gallen and growing a variety of vegetables and grains in modest fields. Their biggest concern are the abhumans that dwell in the hills, upriver, but thankfully they haven’t been seen in years.
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Please check back in to see the events of the story transpire as you follow along. Post snippets of your own character's story in Ellomyr in the Kickstarter page comments (not the update comments—they’re too easy for people to miss), on social media, or on your blog (or all three). Where applicable, use the hashtag #Numenera2. If it's on social media or a blog, we might share it. While this is all in the spirit of a fun, joint experience, if we see something that really wows or entertains us, we might ask you if you'd like to contribute your snippet to The Trilling Shard sourcebook (and we pay our authors, of course). To begin, just introducing your character and stating that they're a part of helping Ellomyr is a great start. And if your favorite way to participate is art rather than writing, we'd love to see and share fan art of your character, of Ellomyr, or the events as they unfold.
We Have a Player’s Guide!
over 8 years ago
– Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 11:07:59 PM
Wow, what a day it’s been—and it’s far from over! Thanks to your astounding support, we have blown through our second BIG stretch goal already. The Numenera Player’s Guide is now funded. If you’re getting all the books, this will be among your rewards, as a 64-page softcover and/or PDF. Thanks for making this a reality!
Let’s turn our attention back to the corebooks. For our next stretch goal, we’d like to give a useful and beautiful upgrade to Numenera Discovery, Numenera Destiny, and the two-book slipcase—including the addition of new content for the slipcase! Here’s what we have in mind: Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny each get a double-sided poster map. (This will also benefit the corebooks on their own, so if you're only getting one of them, you'll get its map. The PDFs will also come with hi-res versions of the maps, too.) Furthermore, we’ll add several additional components to the slipcase set: A GM’s quick-reference card, a character generation quick-reference sheet, and bookmarks (with useful quick-reference info) for each of the two corebooks, at a minimum. The slipcase will get a production-quality upgrade as well, with an attractive spot varnish finish. And we’ll add a beautiful Numenera medallion, produced by our friends at Campaign Coins, based on the symbol for the Order of Truth. It will have a unique placement within the slipcase, making the two-book slipcase set a truly remarkable gaming core set—stunningly beautiful, and amazingly practical.
Since we’ve introduced the Player’s Guide, let’s also do a new backer level—this one aimed at entire gaming groups. We’re adding NINTH WORLD GAMING GROUP, which is equivalent to DISCOVERY AND DESTINY IN PRINT but also gives you five copies of the Numenera Players’ Guide. This is a great way for several people to go in on Numenera 2 together, or to equip your entire party for Ninth World adventures.
I’ve been promising an Ellomyr update all day. It isn’t delayed—we just didn’t expect to have all these other updates pushing their way ahead of it. It’s coming, so stay tuned!
