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:
Discover Your Destiny!
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 10:55:00 PM
We are closing in on the delivery of the new Numenera corebooks. Updates on that below, but first:
Discover Your Destiny
Discover Your Destiny is headed your way this week! This PDF title immerses you in the Ninth World, while taking you on a mini-tour of character creation and other key concepts introduced in Numenera Destiny and the new corebooks generally. This interwoven short story focuses on the narrative concepts to help new and experienced Numenera players discover and explore the Ninth World and start thinking about characters, adventures, and campaigns. Look for your fulfillment email before the end of the week.
Get a Free Numenera Adventure in July
Discover Your Destiny isn’t a rules primer, but if you’re looking for one (and a great, brand-new adventure specifically written for the new Numenera corebooks), Ashes of the Sea will be out in mid-July. This was our contribution to Free RPG Day, and it will be released as a free PDF on the MCG Shop. You get the adventure, a Numenera rules primer, and a set of six pregenerated characters built from the new corebooks. But regarding that rules primer: If you’re an experienced Numenera player, you won’t find it very different from the game you’re used to. The character sheets have loads of new options to explore, but other than some elegant streamlining, the core rules of Numenera remain pretty much the same!
Going to Gen Con?
If you’re headed for Gen Con, we could use your help: There are still a few open slots for GMing Numenera. (In fact, our Numenera sessions are all sold out on the player’s side—grabbing one of the few remaining GM seats may be the only way to get in on a game!) If you find the idea a bit intimidating, consider this:
You’ll get the adventure, Forgetting Doomsday, way in advance—we’ll be sending it to GMs next week. And it’s specifically designed to introduce both players and GMs to Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny. It may be the easiest introduction to GMing using the revised Numenera rules that you can get.
Not that you’ll need it: If you’ve GMed Numenera in the past, you’ll find the experience entirely familiar. Our GMs at Origins had no trouble running Ashes of the Sea at that event a couple of weeks ago.
And those GMs didn’t even have access to the full rules. But as a Kickstarter backer, you’ll get your PDFs of Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny early! Look for them in July, with plenty of time to get to know them ahead of Gen Con.
Our community of Gen Con GMs is fantastic, and there are loads of additional benefits (swag, an exclusive print adventure book, time with the MCG staff, maybe even a free Gen Con badge) to joining us. If you’re interested, you can learn more and sign up here.
Discovery and Destiny Are on Their Way!
Here’s that promised look at how things are coming along:
The Player’s Guide is finished and will depart the printer, headed for our warehouses, by the end of this week!
Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny wrap up their print run this week. (In fact, they may be done as of this posting.)
The slipcases are also finished, and in transit to the book printer.
The other slipcase components (the medallions and insert components) are done and waiting.
So when the slipcases arrive at the printer, in about a week or so, assembly of the slipcase sets will begin!
The deluxe corebooks are headed for the bindery, and the deluxe slipcases are in production now.
The Trilling Shard is on press.
We have the All Rolled Up dice bags for the Player’s Kits, and the other components are in route to us.
And we just got the first production samples of the Numenera Shin Set!
All of the above items (except perhaps the Shin Set) will fulfill in July. It’s going to be an exciting month!
Production samples of the shin set. This is actually just half a set--if you're getting a Shin Set, it will contain twice as many shins as you see here!
P.S.: Last Call for Invisible Sun!
Speaking of fulfillment, backers of Invisible Sun have been getting their Black Cubes over the past week or so, and the wonderful feedback has been overwhelming. If you missed the Kickstarter and have contemplated getting a copy, run—don’t walk!—to the MCG Shop and get your preorder in now. We anticipate closing preorders in the next week or two, as the number of available copies sells out. (We have already sold out of the Vislae Kit, and the game itself isn't far behind!) Last call for this innovative, groundbreaking RPG!
A Preview of Discovery and Destiny!
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Jun 01, 2018 at 12:19:02 AM
Numenera Destiny and Numenera Discovery are both off to press! Now that layout and proofing are fully complete on both books, it’s time to give you and the world a closer look at them. You can download a lengthy, free preview of the two books from the preorder page and take a look at some of the amazing artwork, new character options, and weird and wondrous places!
In Other News: Gen Con Events—and GMs
We have some neat stuff lined up for Gen Con this year, so if you’re one of the 70,000+ gamers headed for the best four days in gaming, read on. (Not headed to Gen Con? We have some cool news for you, below!)
Every year the official Numenera events at Gen Con sell out, and every year we add more. This year is no exception: We’ve scheduled more Numenera games than ever before. The adventure this year is Forgetting Doomsday, and you can bet it's chock full of Numenera 2 goodness. The only way to get a taste of it this summer is to sign up for one of our Gen Con sessions, before they all sell out!
(Weeeellll, there is one other way: Why not GM one of these games? We’re still looking for a few more GMs for our Gen Con events. It’s fun and easy, and you can get some great swag, including an exclusive print book with all of our Gen Con adventures, some other great GMing stuff, and even your Gen Con badge for free! You can find all the details here.)
You might also want to check out An Evening with Monte Cook Games, our gathering at a secret underground bar Thursday night. Hang with the MCG crew and other Numenera fans and GMs, get the scoop on MCG news, and enjoy a peaceful break from the Gen Con madness!
Free RPG Day
Speaking of exclusive free adventures for Numenera, make sure you stop in at your FLGS on Free RPG Day (Saturday, June 16th) to pick up your copy of Ashes of the Sea. This 32-page adventure includes quickstart rules that integrate new elements from Numenera Discovery and Destiny and a set of pregenerated characters.
Surely you know a young kid who’d like to try out RPGs? Or a family that likes games but hasn’t ventured into roleplaying? And surely there’s someone like that on your holiday gift list, right? Or maybe that even describes you!
Adding Choices While Staying Compatible
almost 6 years ago
– Tue, May 29, 2018 at 11:48:06 PM
Lots of exciting news this week! Numenera Discovery, Numenera Destiny, and the Numenera Player's Guide are off to the printer, and we're working closely with them to finalize the beautiful slipcases that hold your corebooks. We're hard at work on other products as well, including The Trilling Shard, Building Tomorrow, and Discover Your Destiny.
Keep your eyes peeled this week, too, because we'll be releasing PDF previews of the corebooks. See early glimpses of great new art, cool character options, and more!
This week, we have two articles to show off new elements of the corebooks, please enjoy them!
Giving Players More Choices
Sean tells us about revamping existing character options to bring more choice in Numenera Discovery:
"Numenera Discovery was an opportunity for the designers to take a hard look at Numenera player characters with a more experienced eye. We had observed the Numenera types in play for years, had designed new types for The Strange, Predation, Gods of the Fall, and the Cypher System Rulebook, and knew that we wanted to take all we’d learned and apply it to Numenera. In particular, we wanted to give players more choices for their characters. We knew the Nano was already a strong and versatile type, so much of our effort went into making sure that the Glaive and Jack had similar amounts of power and versatility."
Shanna tells us about a new mechanism we've invented to ensure that your original Numenera corebook is easy to use alongside the two new corebooks:
"Oddly, what gave us the most trouble was one of our favorite parts of our books: corebook callouts.
If you’re not familiar with the term, callouts are the references that we add to our books, along the edges of the pages. They include quotes, worldbuilding notes, additional information, and reference page numbers. Corebook callouts are page number references in supplements that lead back to the original Numenera corebook. For example, you might find a corebook callout in The Ninth World Bestiary for Effort that leads you to a page in the Numenera corebook, where you get an explanation for the concept. The problem is: we knew that the new corebook would change enough that those page numbers would no longer be valid."
Want to take a few items off your holiday shopping list, and grow the tabletop hobby? Back our Kickstarter to reprint No Thank You, Evil!, our game for creative kids and families, and have your copies in time for the holidays!
Whether you’re new to Storia or are already Awesome, No Thank You, Evil! – A Game So Nice We’re Making It Twice has got something great for you, like Bee Mail: PDFs worth of new adventures and other content, for both the Guide and players to enjoy!
In these final days, please help us spread the word by telling your friends and family, local conventions, stores, and organizations.
As one example of why we think this game is so important to get back in stock, No Thank You, Evil! gets kids taking ownership of their games, inviting them to take on the game master ("Guide") role. Watch Rowan run an Awesome live streamed game for a table full of 4 excited players:
Player Intrusions & New Types!
about 6 years ago
– Wed, May 16, 2018 at 01:02:51 AM
Illustration by Mirco Paganessi
A message from Shanna: It has been a very busy month on the Numenera front! The gorgeous slipcases are at the printer right now, as is Numenera Discovery, and we’re putting the final proofing touches on Numenera Destiny and the Numenera Player’s Guide. Additionally, Bear’s hard at work on the cool extras, like the poster maps, bookmarks, GM’s quick reference sheet, and medallions. The Trilling Shard is in layout, Bruce and Sean are designing cool new stuff for Building Tomorrow, and Monte and I are putting together Discover Your Destiny. We can’t wait to start showing off some of this incredible stuff to you!
Illustration by Federico Musetti
Today and last week we released Design Diaries on our website about two of the exciting new areas of design coming in Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny:
Player Intrusions
Monte tells us about an exciting new mechanic to sit alongside the GM intrusion:
“A player intrusion is the player choosing to alter something in the setting to their benefit. Conceptually, it is the reverse of a GM intrusion: instead of the GM giving the player XP and introducing an unexpected complication for a character, the player spends 1 XP and presents a (possible) solution to a problem or complication. It’s not some new power or ability the PC has, and it’s not about changing anything about the character. If anything changes, it’s the setting.”
Arkus, Delve, and Wright—Designing New Numenera Types
The design of the three new Numenera Types was an extensive process, as Bruce can attest:
“Numenera Destiny introduces three new types: Arkus, Wright, and Delve. As you can imagine, a lot of design time, iteration, playtesting, and re-design went into their creation in order to make each one shine. Though this article talks about two major drafts, in truth each type also saw countless smaller updates, upgrades, and passes for consistency, clarity, and maximum enjoyment.”
No Thank You, Evil! A Story So Nice We're Telling It Twice
Since we released No Thank You, Evil! two years ago, the game’s popularity has continued to grow, and now it's about to go out of print! To make sure no one misses out on aliens, astronauts, and Being Awesome, we’ve just launched a Kickstarter to reprint the game.
If you already have all the No Thank You, Evil! that there is to be had, don't worry—we’ll be announcing some new things in the Kickstarter that we think you and your family are going to love!
Check off a holiday gift item for kids or families in your life—this Kickstarter may be the only way to ensure that you receive the game by the holidays, because the reprint won’t have hit retail yet. Come Be Awesome with us!
P.S. Whether you love Numenera, No Thank You, Evil!, or any of our other games, we’d love to have you GM for us at Gen Con in August! We'll outfit you with swag and adulations, and If you run at least 12 hours of games/demos your badge is on us! Tell us you're interested here.
The Core of Numenera Discovery & Destiny
about 6 years ago
– Fri, May 04, 2018 at 01:17:29 AM
Numenera is two books: Discovery and Destiny. Numenera Discovery is a revision of the original Numenera corebook. While it’s still the same game—and still compatible with all the previous products, of course—it offers new options for player characters, new material, new adventures, new art, and so on.
The genesis of Numenera Destiny really lies with the original Numenera Kickstarter campaign back in 2012. I had to come up with a single sentence that explained what Numenera was. Specifically, a statement that described what characters do in the game—something clear and yet brief. I came up with “In Numenera, characters explore the ruins of the past and discover wonders to help build a better future.” (There were many variations on this statement, but that’s essentially the idea.) The game originally handled the exploring the rules and discovering wonders part, but the building a new future was always left vague and open ended…
Read more of Monte’s thoughts on the development of Numenera Discovery and Destiny here. As we finalize Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny, we’ll be posting regular Numenera Design Diaries from the Monte, Bruce, and Sean. Check back (or subscribe to our website!) to get first looks at new character options, rules for building and supporting communities, and much more!
Numenera on Geek & Sundry
Did you know you can watch Monte run Numenera on Geek & Sundry’s amazing show, Starter Kit? It’s true. This program teaches new players how to get started with Numenera, and it’s also tons of fun to watch. Check out Monte’s thoughts on the game, the Geek & Sundry studios, and more.
The Implications of World Building
Are you interested in the craft of building worlds? Curious how designers and writers think about the various elements of world building? Or maybe just how Monte and Shanna tackle these topics? If so, check out their Twitch show, The Implications of World Building, at 4:30 p.m. PDT tonight. If you miss it, you can watch it after the fact as a Video on Demand (VOD) on Twitch or a bit later as we upload it to our YouTube channel.
