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:
Ninth World Creatures, Adventures, and Lots of Other Cool Stuff
almost 7 years ago
– Thu, May 30, 2019 at 10:30:48 PM
Since we last sent out an update, hordes of Ninth World Creatures began their invasion of our world. The Ninth World Bestiary 3, with over 150 new creatures and NPCs, is in the hands of Numenera players everywhere—not just Kickstarter backers, but also gamers getting it through their FLGS, DriveThruRPG, or the MCG Shop. But that’s not the end of this intrusion: The Numenera Creature Deck 3 is finished and on a ship headed our way. We expect to fulfill it in late June, so if it’s one of your rewards, look for a redemption email then!
But that’s not all. Have a look at this:
That’s the first production set of the Numenera bookends, and holy cats are we pleased with them! So far, only Bear, our Art Director, has a set. The rest of the production run is finishing up over the weeks to come. We will have them in our warehouses sometime in July, and we’ll fulfill them as soon as possible (note that Gen Con may set us back a week or two, depending on when they reach us).
Explorer’s Keys and Origins
So what’s next?
Explorer’s Keys has just completed proofing, and is heading to press now. If you’d like a taste of these ten Instant Adventures, join us at Origins or Gen Con, where we’re running Trailblazer Trials, one of the adventures from the book, at our official Numenera game events.
(If you’re going to Origins, don’t forget to vote in the Origins Awards. Both Numenera and Invisible Sun are nominees in the Best RPG category. Voting takes place at booth 1166 in the exhibit hall.)
Also in the Works
Believe it or not, we’re closing in on the final rewards from this epic Kickstarter campaign. Here’s what’s left:
The Salvage Deck just went to press, and will begin fulfilling in August.
Already in production is the Numenera Deck Box. It should fulfill at the same time as the Salvage Deck, if all goes to plan. We’re really excited about this item—we think you’ll agree that it’s an innovative design that will be super-useful for managing and using your Numenera decks. We hope to have a production mockup to show you soon!
Tomorrow’s Bones is written and in editing. It will go to press in just a few weeks.
We’ve begun work on the Numenera fiction site. It’s scheduled for later this year.
And that’s it! That’s every reward from this campaign!
Your Best Game Ever Videos
Join Monte and other members of the MCG team as we take a deeper dive into some of the key sections from the forthcoming Your Best Game Ever. The Your Best Game Evervideo series also lets you discuss your experiences, tips, and questions with the broader community in the Twitch and YouTube comments.
The series kicked off on Twitch last Tuesday with "Don't Randomize Fun." Next Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. EDT (5:00 p.m. PDT), tune in for "Finding the Group That's Right for You." Come join us in chat, or watch the video and Twitch chat later on. The series continues weekly on Tuesdays, with topics like worldbuilding, being a great player, character creation, adventure design, and more.
More News on Priests of the Aeons and Deluxe Corebooks
about 7 years ago
– Sat, Mar 23, 2019 at 02:19:39 AM
In our last update, we said we’d fulfill Priests of the Aeons and deluxe corebook slipcase sets the week of March 18th—that is, the week that’s just coming to an end. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make that happen. But we’re almost ready, and we will fulfill on Monday.
(That’s the short version. The longer version is that we received a very large batch of Book M for Invisible Sun on Monday. Unfortunately, our Kansas warehouse received not just its supply, but also the quantity that was supposed to go to our Atlanta location—and the Kansas facility isn’t very big! It took a lot of wrangling to fit it all in, and then to get the Atlanta quantity onto a truck headed for the correct location. Dealing with that set us back a couple of days this week.)
We’ve already begun pre-packing shipments, so we have a leg up on the fulfillment process for when we open it up early next week. If the deluxe corebook slipcase set or Priests of the Aeons is a reward for you, look for a fulfillment email reaching your inbox on Monday.
Priests of the Aeons in PDF, and Deluxe Corebooks
about 7 years ago
– Sat, Mar 09, 2019 at 01:02:02 AM
We have great news about Priests of the Aeons and the long-awaited deluxe corebook sets: Both titles have reached us and are in our US warehouse!
That said, the timing isn’t great. The books arrived at our Kansas warehouse (from which we do all fulfillment for the Americas) a couple of days ago, but our Kansas staff are embarking for the GAMA Trade Show tomorrow and will be gone for a week. (The GAMA Trade Show is an annual industry gathering, where we, alongside 150 or so other game manufacturers, will show off our plans for the year to hundreds of game retailers and distributors.) Furthermore, supplies of the deluxe corebook set won’t reach our warehouses in the UK and Australia until late next week anyway. So as excited as we are to have these two products in-hand, we aren’t quite able to ship them out to you yet.
So here’s the plan:
We will fulfill the PDF of Priests of the Aeons right away. If Priest of the Aeons is one of your rewards, look for the PDF fulfillment email in the days to come.
We will fulfill print copies of Priests of the Aeons the week of 18th (not next week, but the week after), as soon as we’re back from GAMA.
And if you’re getting a deluxe corebook slipcase set, it will also ship the week of the 18th.
Please note that the PDF of Priests of the Aeons is being fulfilled more than week or so ahead of the print version. That’s a change from our usual practice of fulfilling both at the same time, so if you’re used to that, don’t panic when you only get your PDF redemption coupon to start with. The print book redemption coupon and the print book itself will follow!
We’re really proud of these two products, and we think you’re going to love them!
Priests of the Aeons, Deluxe Corebooks, and a Big Rewards Roundup
about 7 years ago
– Fri, Mar 01, 2019 at 10:44:21 PM
In an update about a month ago we told you that Slaves of the Machine God was about to ship. Well, things have been busy, and now we’re excited to make a similar announcement for Priests of the Aeons!
Those are first-off-the-presses copies. The main shipments are on the way to our warehouses now, and should arrive in a matter of days. We’ll be fulfilling this title next week, assuming no surprises in the shipping pipeline. Didn't back for Priests of the Aeons? You can preorder it now!
(Worth noting: This winter the shipping pipeline has been absolutely chock-full of surprises—and none of them good. So while we’re not anticipating anything specific, nothing’s 100% certain until we have the books in hand.)
Next up: Ninth World Bestiary 3! This book is in proofing now and heads to press in a few weeks. Here’s a quick peek between the covers of this really cool new book—192 pages (plus poster map) of Ninth World wonder and weirdness for you to encounter or put in front of your players:
Deluxe Corebooks
We have some great news about the deluxe corebook slipcase sets: At long last, they are in hand, and we’re shipping them to our overseas warehouses now.
We’ve been very, very frustrated by the excessive length of time it’s taken to get these through the production pipeline and into the hands of Numenera players. If the deluxe slipcase set is one of your rewards, we’re sure you’re frustrated as well. We’ve suffered GM intrusions at nearly every phase of the process—but the end result is spectacular, as we’re sure you’ll agree. We’re in the process of getting these books to our overseas warehouses, and expect to be fulfilling them very soon.
Everything Else
Here’s a complete roundup on where we are with every deliverable in this campaign.
Items delivered so far:
Playtest (this is still ongoing, of course, for last titles in the pipeline)
Discover Your Destiny in PDF
The Trilling Shard (with poster map) in print and PDF
Ninth World Bestiary 3 (with poster map) in print and PDF: This will be out in May.
Creature Deck 3 in print and PDF: This will ship with the Ninth World Bestiary 3.
The Essence of Numenera in print and PDF: Ditto.
Signed and numbered art prints for PATRON levels: These are in the works now. Normally an art print doesn’t take a load of time, but Lie Setiawan, the incredible artist who did the covers of Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny, lives in Indonesia. The prints have to go to both him, and to Monte (in Seattle), for autographing. They should ship at about the same time as The Essence of Numenera.
Tomorrow's Bones in print and ebook: Look for this in June.
Explorer's Keys in print and PDF: This is the final book title funded by this campaign! It’s written and in editing now. It will ship this summer.
Io Deck in print and PDF: This is in development right now, and will ship with Explorer’s Keys.
Deck Box: As will this. Development on this project has been really fun, as we’ve been thinking outside the box (so to speak) about how to give you a product that’s super useful when it’s on the shelf, full of your decks, and also when it’s in use at the table.
Bookends: These are also slated for July, but their exact production schedule isn’t completely finalized yet.
Ninth World website for posting fiction: This is in the early stages of development, and will likely launch in the late summer.
Some early 3-D printed and laser-cut prototype components of the Numenera Deck Box. We really want to deliver something that's optimized for use at the table, as well as a good storage solution for all your Numenera decks.
We funded a LOT of great stuff through the Numenera 2: Discovery and Destiny Kickstarter campaign. As things currently stand, the overall campaign is trending ahead of schedule, so we’re really happy to look back at that list of delivered rewards and see so many titles and items in your hands. (Given the length of the list, if I’ve overlooked anything while penning this update, I apologize.)
If you see a fulfilled item above, and you haven’t received yours, log into the MCG Shop (using the email address you gave us in BackerKit), go to your account, and click on Coupons. Click the coupon to add the item to your cart. Repeat for all items before checking out. If you don’t see a coupon, contact us at [email protected].
Thanks for making this all a reality. We can’t wait to finish those last few deliverables and get them into your hands!
Slaves of the Machine God is in, and Priests of the Aeons is Off!
about 7 years ago
– Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 12:52:57 AM
Today we have two great pieces of news to share.
That’s a first-off the presses copy of Slaves of the Machine God. This 144-page hardcover (plus poster map) two-part adventure campaign is going to knock your socks off. The shipment was scheduled to reach our warehouse today, but due to weather delays (more on that below) the trucking company has told us that it will probably deliver Thursday or Friday. Regardless, look for your fulfillment email in the days to come!
Next up is Priests of the Aeons. This one went to press just yesterday, so we’re only a month or so away from it! Here’s a quick look inside.
Looking further ahead, Shanna also recently completed the first draft of Tomorrow’s Bones. And the Ninth World Bestiary 3 is entering layout in the next couple of weeks. We’ve been working hard to get these great Numenera books out to you!
We also have news about deluxe corebook sets. The short version is that we’re closing in on them, but still can’t promise a timeline. Here’s the longer version: If you live in North America, particularly the middle or eastern part of the continent, you probably know that huge winter storms have swept through in recent weeks. Apparently, this has been pretty disruptive of the transportation network, throwing rail and trucking schedules out of whack in the way an airport closure in the Northeast can cause flight delays all over the US.
The deluxe slipcases landed in Canada on 8 January, but didn’t arrive in Montreal (the location of our book printer) until this past Friday. That normally only takes a couple of days, so a 10-day trip was pretty aggravating. It would also be normal for a shipment like that to move from the freight depot to the destination in just a day or two, but as of today we still haven’t received confirmation that they’ve been received by the printer. We’re monitoring the situation on a daily, sometimes hourly basis.
Once the printer has the deluxe slipcases, they’ll assemble the sets and ship them out to us. That should take no more than a week for each of those steps, but with schedules in this much chaos, that’s not a guarantee we can make. We’re doing everything we can to ensure that the printer moves quickly.
If you’re awaiting a deluxe corebook set, we share your frustration. (Our Art Director, Bear, who’s in charge of the production process, has the only complete sample we’ve been sent—even Monte doesn’t have one.) We’ll let you know as soon as we have a reliable schedule. In the mean time, if all goes well—and barring any further weather delays—we hope to fulfill this reward in about two weeks.
Finally, Shin Sets and Ruin Decks are in the wild! If one or both of those items is a Kickstarter reward for you, don’t forget to redeem them. If they aren’t part of your Kickstarter rewards, take your Ninth World experience to the next level and check them out on the MCG Shop.
