Check out this Excerpt of "Ghosts of Ironsaddle" from Adventures in the Cypher System!
Hello, backers—
In our last update we showed off some page spreads from It’s Only Magic. We’re excited to let you know that title is now off to press. We expect to receive it i...
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Charles Ryan
about 1 month ago
A Peek at It's Only Magic, an Awesome Online Character Builder, and More!
Hello, backers—
Things are moving quickly for the Cypher System, and for your rewards. Just a couple of weeks after fulfillment of the Cypher System Bestiary, It’s Only Magic i...
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Charles Ryan
about 2 months ago
XP Deck, Bestiary, and Other Fantastic News!
Hello, backers—
We have a bunch of great news to share with you today!
We’re Fulfilling Decks and the Bestiary!
If you backed for the Cypher System XP Deck or the Cypher Syst...
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Charles Ryan
3 months ago
Starter Set, Decks, a Cool Character Builder, and More!
Hello, backers—
If Rust and Redemption was among your rewards, we hope you’re enjoying it! It’s been getting some great press, and Cypher System players everywhere seem to real...
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Charles Ryan
4 months ago
Take a Peek at Rust and Redemption!
Hello, backers—
We’re super excited to have the first copies of Rust and Redemption in our hands! The book has completed production and is now in transit to our warehouses.
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Charles Ryan
5 months ago
Rust and Redemption Is Headed to Press!
Hello, backers—
Have a look at these!
Rust and Redemption is in the final stages of proofing, and goes to press imminently. We hope to have this title in our warehouse by m...
In our last update we showed off some page spreads from It’s Only Magic. We’re excited to let you know that title is now off to press. We expect to receive it in June and to begin fulfillment shortly thereafter!
But that’s not all. The next book, Adventures in the Cypher System, isn’t far behind. It’s through editing and is now well into the layout phase. To give you a taste of what’s inside, we have excerpt from one of the adventures, “Ghosts of Ironsaddle,” by Bruce R. Cordell.
Bounty Hunting
The adventure begins with the PCs about three days’ ride into sparsely inhabited regions, on the lookout for cursed beasts, hoping to collect on cursed beast bounties. (If you’d prefer an alternate reason for the PCs’ to be out and about and their subsequent encounter with the ghost town of Ironsaddle, update the situation according to your game’s circumstances.)
Cursed Beasts: Cursed beasts are a fusion of two or more different beasts stitched together with dire sorcery, or creatures that time would’ve been better off forgetting. Sometimes called “cryptids” by alchemists, cursed beasts include chupacabras, jackalopes, grizzly bulls, deathtumblers, quetzalsaurs, and nightcrawlers, among others.
Bounties Offered: Most western towns offer a bounty on cursed beasts, sometimes because their parts are useful to alchemists, but more often because cursed beasts are scourges and the fewer of them, the better.
However, the PCs have a deal with an alchemist named Huyen Reeves, who promised she’ll pay the characters five times the standard bounty for chupacabra quills, nightcrawler egg sacs, grizzly bull pelts, and quetzalsaur wings.
Standard Bounties and Rewards
Nightcrawler egg sac $10 (moderate)
Chupacabra quills (10) $50 (moderate x5)
Grizzly bull pelt $150 (expensive)
Quetzalsaur wing $300 (expensive)
What PCs Know About Cursed Beasts
If PCs ask what they know about any specific cursed beast, refer to the following.
Chupacabra: Part huge dog, part crocodile, and quilled like a porcupine. PCs found one as a mummified corpse and harvested what quills they could (see Tally So Far).
Grizzly Bulls: Rumored to be a bison magically crossed with a grizzly bear. Filled with demonic rage. No PC has seen one.
Nightcrawlers: These huge worms are a dozen or more feet (3.6 m) in length. They prey upon those sleeping rough or under scant shelter, pulling them down beneath the ground. No PC has seen one.
Quetzalsaur: Pulled out of time by cursed magic, this giraffe-sized flying monstrosity has an elongated, spike-shaped face and a 40-foot (12 m) wingspan. No PC has seen one, and they probably hope not to.
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Tally So Far: The characters have successfully gathered the 10 chupacabra quills (from an air-mummified chupacabra corpse), which are carefully stored in a game bag.
Thanks to their deal with the alchemist who’s agreed to pay extra, that’s about $300 (one expensive item’s worth of bounties). To pay off their various debts and/or satisfy their specific needs, they’ll have to do much better.
Harsh Landscape: The dry creek bed beneath PCs’ mounts is uneven, with sandy soil broken up by rocks and boulders. Scents of pine and warmed stone fill the air. To the north, rocky outcrops lead into a series of jagged, bleached badlands. A wide plain of scrub brush and rocky outcrops borders the PCs’ route to the south. Ahead, the storm-wreathed heads of low mountains brood, but the weather in the arroyo is clear and dry.
Choice of Cryptids
The PCs see a couple of potentially lucrative signs; this excerpt focuses on evidence of nightcrawlers in the area.
Nightcrawler Castings: Choose a PC; they notice something resembling a termite mound. Ask that character to make a difficulty 4 Intellect-based roll for cryptid lore. A success means they realize the lumpy spire of tubular, compacted soil is probably a nightcrawler casting, given its large size—3 feet (1 m) tall—and it’s sulfuric odor. If PCs investigate directly, the find the texture is crumbly and airy, collapsing with a light touch. This reveals some partly digested animal bones mixed in with the rest.
Following up, PCs discover that additional castings are visible to the north, popping up with more frequency in the canyons between the jagged, bleached badlands. Given the number of castings visible farther into the canyon, PCs suspect a whole clew of nightcrawlers (4–6 individuals) must have moved through the area recently.
Tracking the Nightcrawlers
PCs could choose to hunt the nightcrawlers for their egg sacs.
Tracking The Crawlers to their Burrow: It’s a routine task to track the crawlers into a canyon. The canyon sides rise about 50 feet (15 m) high on average, though sometimes much higher, and are topped by scraggly pines. The trail of castings peters out about a mile into the canyon, though the canyon continues. If PCs take a moment to look around, they notice a 3 1/2-foot (106 cm) diameter tunnel on one canyon wall concealed by a thick growth of thistle.
Tunnel in the Canyon Wall
If PCs attempt to determine how recent the castings outside the tunnel are, a successful difficulty 4 Intellect-based roll for cryptid lore reveals the freshest ones are probably from about a half-hour before sunrise.
If PCs decide to wait outside the tunnel in hopes of ambushing a nightcrawler, a couple emerge when twilight arrives, but they attempt to retreat back into their warren if attacked.
Nightcrawlers resemble 20-foot (6 m) long earthworms. Their skin is a stitchwork of hide stripped off past prey, all somehow still animate, but voiceless.
GM intrusion: The bitten character is caught in the nightcrawler’s mouth until they succeed on a Might roll as their action to escape. Caught targets take damage automatically each round and their physical tasks are hindered (including their escape task).
Nightcrawler Warren
The narrow tunnel in the canyon wall descends steeply, curving downward some 40 feet (12 m) into pitch darkness. Human-sized creatures could crawl through single-file, but the narrow confines hinder all their physical tasks. If PCs have light or can see in the dark, they see the tunnel opens into a natural cave some 60 feet (18 m) in diameter. The floor is covered in loose soil redolent of sulfuric acid (it’s made of collapsed castings). Besides the entrance tunnel leading from the canyon the PCs used, four other tunnels lead off toward other subterranean locations.
Warren Defense: At any one time, about four adult nightcrawlers rest in the warren, and (as a GM intrusion) two more adults arrive to reinforce those already in conflict within a couple of rounds. Six voracious nightcrawler young (level 2) are also present in the warren.
The nightcrawlers vigorously defend their warren, chasing after retreating PCs, or if the PCs prove the stronger, defending it to the death (though the last couple attempt to escape through side tunnels).
GM intrusion (group): Two more adult nightcrawlers arrive to reinforce those already in conflict.
Exploring Nightcrawler Tunnels: If the PCs want to explore the warren’s side tunnels (or they feel overwhelmed and need to flee in that direction, and/or you decide the time is right), the characters encounter the wandering ghost town of Ironsaddle in a subterranean vault about half a mile (800 m) deeper; see Discovered by a Ghost Town (found in Adventures in The Cyphers System). Otherwise, they don’t find much and eventually find other exits to the surface.
See you at Gen Con?
"Ghosts of Ironsaddle" is one of our Gen Con adventures—so if you’re headed to Indianapolis for the Best Four Days in Gaming, sign up for a session. Or just drop by the MCG room (#132 on Hoosier Concourse—close to the main entrance to the exhibit hall) and say Howdy!
Things are moving quickly for the Cypher System, and for your rewards. Just a couple of weeks after fulfillment of the Cypher System Bestiary, It’s Only Magic is in proofing now, and heads to press soon. We’re going to give you a peek inside, but first, here are a couple of other bits of exciting Cypher System news:
The Cypher System Character Builder Is Now Live
We’ve been working on an exciting suite of free online tools to make your Cypher System games even easier to play and run, and this week we unveiled something super cool: the Cypher System Character Builder.
Build, store, advance, maintain, edit, and even share Cypher System characters online with this free tool. There are multiple modes for creating characters—the Guided mode, in particular, is super fast and easy. It takes you through the process step-by-step. You can build a character in literally three or four minutes.
And when you’re done, generate a form-fillable PDF character sheet, export it to a VTT, or simply play your character right from the Character Builder.
The Character Builder includes all the character options from the Cypher System Rulebook plus all of our existing genre books—The Stars Are Fire, Godforsaken, We Are All Mad Here, Stay Alive!, Claim the Sky, and even Rust and Redemption. So you have thousands of character options from a huge range of genres. Build virtually any character you can imagine!
Have you received your copy of the Cypher System Bestiary (if it was among your rewards)? If so, you could do us a huge favor by posting a photo or two on social media, showing off this gorgeous book. It’s on pre-order now (and will be out later this month), but perhaps more importantly, we’d love your help getting the word out about the Cypher System and our current campaign: Knights of Dust and Neon.
We’re currently funding two more genre books plus a really cool new Cypher System setting—but the campaign ends this week, so time is running out.
Remember, as a backer of this campaign, if you return to back Knights of Dust and Neon you’ll get a super-exclusive gift added to your rewards: a set of all-new foil-stamped XP cards to add to your Cypher System XP Deck. If you received the foil-stamped deck as a backer of this campaign, you know how stunningly beautiful the cards turned out. There is no other way to get these new cards, and they’re exclusive just for you. Don’t miss the chance to grab them—check out the campaign now!
And Now a Look at It’s Only Magic
As we mentioned above, It’s Only Magic is now in proofing, and will go to press in a matter of weeks! Here’s a look inside:
We’re really excited about this hefty genre book covering every aspect of modern magic.
The final rewards of this campaign continue to march toward conclusion, too. We’ll give you a look at the Adventures in the Cypher System adventure book in our next update—and maybe even be able to show off a production copy of the Cypher System Starter Set.
It's a really exciting time to be a fan of the Cypher System!
Now that we’ve taken you through all the exciting news, why not take a few minutes to give the new Character Builder a try? And don’t forget to share your thoughts on it, and the Cypher System Bestiary, online before Knights of Dust and Neon comes to a close this week!
We have a bunch of great news to share with you today!
We’re Fulfilling Decks and the Bestiary!
If you backed for the Cypher System XP Deck or the Cypher System Bestiary, great news: they're fulfilling now. Check your email for redemption instructions.
The same goes for the foil promo deck. If you signed up to be notified of the campaign, or backed in the first 48 hours, you’re getting this reward for free! Again, redemption instructions are in that email.
Photos don’t do these cards justice—you really have to hold them in your hands to truly appreciate their magnificence. If you missed out on this promo (or if you’re getting these cards, and want even more), we have great news. We’re currently running the Knights of Dust and Neon campaign for new Cypher System books and other cool items. As an Adventures in the Cypher System backer, if you also back Knights of Dust and Neon, we’ll add another mini-deck of five new foil-stamped XP cards to your rewards!
You don’t have to do anything to claim them—just back the Knights of Dust and Neon campaign at any pledge level, and as a returning Adventures in the Cypher System backer, the mini-deck will be yours. This is an exclusive offer just for backers of this campaign—nobody else will be able to claim these new foil-stamped cards.
The Cypher System Bestiary turned out spectacularly—we can’t wait for you to have it!
Character Builder Is Testing Now
In our last update we talked a bit about the new suite of Cypher Tools we’ve recently unveiled. Key among these is the new Character Builder, a free online tool for creating, storing, advancing, modifying, and using Cypher System characters. This week it entered a brief closed test with about 50 or so users. We’re continuing to make tweaks based on their feedback, but overall it’s been an amazing success. The public launch is not far off!
Join Us on Knights of Dust and Neon
We’ve already mentioned it above, but it’s worth repeating: the Knights of Dust and Neon campaign is now live, and it’s going gangbusters. We’ve funded two new genre books—cyberpunk and weird west—along with a really cool new campaign setting. Plus a gorgeous GM Campaign Journal, a kick-ass set of premium metal dice, and immersive and useful extras for the books.
And as we mentioned above, as an Adventures in the Cypher System backer, your rewards will include another, all-new mini-deck of foil XP cards, automatically, as an exclusive thank-you for returning!
If Rust and Redemption was among your rewards, we hope you’re enjoying it! It’s been getting some great press, and Cypher System players everywhere seem to really like it. We hope (and believe) you’ll love It’s Only Magic, the Cypher System Bestiary, and other forthcoming rewards just as much!
Speaking of those rewards, we have quite the load of exciting news to share. Let’s start with an unboxing of the Cypher System Starter Set.
A Look at the Starter Set
That’s a pre-production copy. The Cypher System Starter Set has been in manufacturing for several weeks now. A boxed product like this takes longer to make than a book, and it’s produced overseas, so it takes considerable time to reach us once it’s ready. We don’t expect to fulfill the Starter Set before May—possibly June; GM intrusions are almost the norm with international freight these days. But we thought you’d like to see how nicely it’s shaping up. We couldn’t be happier with how it’s turning out!
The XP Deck—and the Foil Deck
Now how about this:
That’s the Cypher System XP Deck on the left. And it’s not a pre-production copy, either—it’s the real deal! The full shipment is scheduled to reach our US warehouse in about a week, and we’ll fulfill shortly thereafter. (But see what we have to say about the Cypher System Bestiary, below, before you rush off to redeem it.)
And look at those cards on the right! Those are the special foil-stamped promo cards for backers who signed up to be notified of the campaign, or backed in the first 48 hours. It’s hard to capture in a photograph just how stunning these are in real life. Look out—once you get these cards, you’re going to want to just sit around the house all day, granting and spending XP!
If they’re among your rewards—or perhaps even more importantly, if they aren’t—read on. We have a really cool offer for you below!
Other Rewards
Before that offer, though, some news about other rewards:
The Cypher System Bestiary is on press now, and is almost done with its production run. We anticipate it will reach our warehouses in about two weeks—very shortly after we receive the Cypher System XP Deck. If you’re receiving both rewards, you can save yourself some shipping if you wait until both items are available before redeeming them.
It’s Only Magic has moved through editing, and is now in layout. We’ll give you a peek at it in our next update. And here’s some more cool news: we’ve added a second campaign setting to this tome, increasing its page count from 224 to 240 pages. That’s more magic at no additional cost! Again, we’ll have additional details in the next update.
Cypher Tools and Other News
The Cypher System is amazingly easy to GM and play—not just mechanically, but also because we’re dedicated to making products optimized for a smooth, efficient RPG experience. Today we announced a suite of online tools that help you make the most of your Cypher System game.
At the heart of this toolset is the new Character Builder, which launches next month. Build a Cypher System character in minutes—this powerful tool takes you through the process quickly and efficiently. You can store and update your character throughout your campaign. There’s even a massive library of pregens, if you need to get playing right now!
Other tools include the Creature Index, available now. Looking for just the right creature for your next encounter? There are so many choices—especially since everything in the Cypher System is compatible. The Creature Index makes it easy to find the perfect creature for your needs—just choose your criteria. It already includes content from the forthcoming Cypher System Bestiary!
And in other news, content from Rust and Redemption has already been added to the Cypher System Reference Document, making it available to third-party creators who want to build post-apocalyptic-themed adventures, settings, or even complete Cypher System-based games under the Cypher System Open License. (You heard it here first—we haven’t even announced this CSRD update to the public yet!)
More Cypher System Awesomeness—and a Special Offer Just for You!
The Cypher System is on fire, with all this exciting news—and there’s more to come! Speaking of which, we have a special offer for you:
If you’re getting the promo foil-stamped XP mini-deck we just showed you, we guarantee that once you see those cards, you’ll want more. And if you missed out on that opportunity? All the more reason to get your hands on some!
So we have a special offer, exclusively for you—backers of this campaign. In a few weeks we’re launching the Knights of Dust and Neon crowdfunding campaign, with exciting new Cypher System supplements. If you back it, we’ll add a mini-deck of five new foil-stamped XP cards to your rewards—automagically! You don’t have to do anything to claim them—just back the Knights of Dust and Neon campaign at any pledge level, and as a returning Adventures in the Cypher System backer, the mini-deck will be yours! This is an exclusive offer just for backers of this campaign—nobody else will be able to claim these new foil-stamped cards.
(We’re also offering a special reward for gamers who sign up to be notified when the campaign launches. If you sign up, and you’re a returning backer from this campaign, you’ll get both promo items!)
We’re super excited to have the first copies of Rust and Redemption in our hands! The book has completed production and is now in transit to our warehouses.
Look for fulfillment to begin as soon as we have it—it won’t be long!
(If you know anyone who’d love a big helping of post-apocalyptic awesomeness, but who missed the crowdfunding campaign, be sure to tell them that preorders for this title are now open on the MCG Shop! Preorders ship shortly after crowdfunding fulfillment, so it’s a great way to get a copy of Rust and Redemption early.)
While we have you, we thought you might like to see this:
That’s a mockup of the Cypher System Bestiary. It’s what’s the printing industry calls a “white book” (for obvious reasons)—a sample created by the printer that shows how the product will be physically put together.
As you can see, this book is going to have some very cool fold-out pages. There are about ten of them throughout the book, and we’re using them for select creatures that can benefit from the extra space for expanded treatment. Here’s an early look at how we’re making the most of this feature.
Our Managing Editor, Teri Litorco, talked a bit about this feature in a recent appearance on Cypher Unlimited Live. Have a look!
We’re well into the layout of the Cypher System Bestiary now, and it heads into production in a matter of weeks. We can’t wait to get this into your hands (and to start using it in our games, too!).
Rust and Redemption is in the final stages of proofing, and goes to press imminently. We hope to have this title in our warehouse by mid-January—and, as always, we’ll begin the fulfillment process as soon as we have it!
As we mentioned in our last update, the Cypher System Starter Set has gone through the proofing process, and is now headed to press. As a boxed set, its production process requires more time than our books and it also has a longer freight journey from the vendor as well. We expect it to arrive in our warehouse around March.
The other titles you funded continue to march toward completion. The Cypher System Bestiary is currently being laid out, It’s Only Magic is wrapping up design and will soon be going to editing, and the designers have been internally playtesting and developing the many adventures of Adventures in the Cypher System.
In the meantime. . .
As our design team closes in on completion of the titles you funded, we’re looking ahead toward more Cypher System goodness. Sign up to be notified!
Oh, and one more thing:
It’s a holiday tradition at MCG: we give you $10, and you can use it to get something at the MCG Shop—or donate it to charity! 100% of the donation goes to the chosen charity, and over the years we’ve given thousands to some really worthy causes. So take $10 off a gift for a loved one (or yourself!) or tell us which charity you’d like us to give it to. It’s the MCG Holiday Gift!
We’ve been quietly plugging away at Rust and Redemption, It’s Only Magic, and Adventures in the Cypher System. The Cypher System Bestiary has completed development and will be going into editing next week. And the Cypher System Starter Set is heading to proofing, which is the last step before manufacturing.
With all that going on, we thought you’d enjoy seeing some new art that’s come in for Rust and Redemption.
We also thought you might like to see some of the cards from the new XP Deck!
Rust and Redemption is headed into layout, as is the Cypher System Starter Set. We’ll have some page spreads to show you in our next update, in a month or so.
See You at Gamehole Con?
We’re going to be at Gamehole Con—and by “we,” we mean almost the entire MCG staff! Come join us at this delightful, relaxed mid-sized RPG convention in Madison, Wisconsin, the weekend of October 19th – 22nd. Join us in the MCG Lounge, where we hang out and host dozens of games. There’s a bar in our area, and coffee and ice cream stands adjacent—it’s really living the best con life! We’d love to see you there!
Have You Entered the Actuality, Vislae?
The astonishing and legendary Invisible Sun Black Cube is returning.
Highly praised by gamers and critics alike for its detailed, immersive, and truly innovative surrealist setting, rich mechanics, and astounding beauty, Invisible Sun is one of the most sought-after tabletop roleplaying products of recent history. Learn more about it at the Invisible Sun website. And don’t miss the campaign to summon the Black Cube back into existence!
The deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook (CSR) reached our warehouses this week, and as promised, we began fulfillment immediately.
It turned out beautifully—this is an edition that Cypher System fans will be proud and happy to have at their game tables!
And as you may recall from our last update, we’re also fulfilling the T-shirt with the deluxe CSR.
If either of these is among your rewards, check your email for fulfillment instructions. Or simply log into the MCG Shop (using the email address you gave us in the pledge manager—that’s very important!), navigate to My Account and click on Coupons, then click the Add All Coupons to Cart button.
How Are the Other Books Coming?
While the deluxe Cypher System Rulebook was in production, we’ve been working hard on the other titles you funded. Here’s a quick roundup; we’ll have more detailed information, and perhaps a sneak peek, in our next update!
Rust and Redemption is fully designed and well into the editing process. It will enter layout soon!
The same is true for the Cypher System Starter Set. While its in-house timeline is pretty similar to that of Rust and Redemption, its production process will take substantially longer.
The Cypher System Bestiary is in the final phases of the design step. There’s a complete draft, and now it’s going through what’s called development, where the design team sort of takes it for a test drive to make sure everything works the way it’s intended.
It’s Only Magic is in design now.
And design of Adventures in the Cypher System is just starting.
200 years of unsettling supernatural encounters paint a chilling picture of the forces gnawing at humanity's edges
An odd figure beckons drunken pub-goers into an alleyway—never to be seen again. A calliope, found in an attic with dozens of dismembered dolls, plays music you can’t stop hearing. A meat grinder compels its user to merrily feed it their own limbs. A late-night subway train burrows itself into the earth, all but crushing its lone occupant. A book empowers its reader to rearrange the bones of others, to grisly effect.
For 200 years, the Magnus Institute has quietly collected statements from people of all walks of life, detailing their personal experiences with the supernatural. These disparate statements can be unsettling—even deadly. But as one digs into the archives, the implications become truly terrifying.
Because these incidents aren’t isolated, unconnected events. The patterns they paint hint at forces gnawing at the edges of humanity, forces whose malignancy and malice threaten everything we value.
Forces that must be held at bay—but even beginning to understand them might bring you under their influence.
Enter the archives and help investigate the supernatural horrors found in its records. Encounter the NotThem, the Anglerfish, or the Man Upon the Stair. Learn the truth of the books of Jurgen Leitner, the coffin that is also a pit, and The People’s Church of the Divine Host. And begin to see the patterns that reveal the true horrors connecting these disparate statements.
We’ve just come back from Gen Con. We have some tidbits from that show to share to share, and a bit of less cool news, too. But first, have a look at this!
The T-Shirt
That’s the Cypher System T-shirt offered as an add-on during the campaign. We just received it from the vendor, and it’s a beautiful color with a wonderful, soft feel—if it’s among your rewards, we think you’ll love it! We’ll fulfill it along with the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook. But speaking of that:
Deluxe Edition Update
We hoped to have the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook reach our warehouses just as we returned from Gen Con, but no such luck. Our printer is now telling us it will ship to us in about ten days.
We’ve worked with this print vendor for over a decade, and in that time they’ve printed nearly 100 titles for us, totaling well over half a million books. Their track record for quality and reliability is fantastic. Plus they already delivered the standard edition portion of the same print run—several weeks ago. So when they tell us they’re doing their best, we’re confident they’re not mucking about. Sadly, we live in times of uncertain supply chains, and it’s affecting the unique features and binding process of the deluxe edition.
We’ll keep the pedal to the metal and let you know when we know more. Usually, once books ship from this printer, it’s just a matter of days before they reach our U.S. warehouse (a little longer for overseas), and we’ll begin fulfillment immediately. Unless things take another unexpected turn, that should be by the end of the month.
200 Gamers Playing Rust and Redemption
We had a fantastic Gen Con! Over 200 gamers took part in sessions of the adventure Bitter Seeds, from Rust and Redemption, and the reception was great. If you were there, thanks for joining us! If not, we can’t wait to get this adventure—and the rest of the book—into your hands. If the Gen Con feedback was any indication, we think you’ll love it!
We also ran scores of events for Numenera, the brand new Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game (which is based on the Cypher System), Stealing Stories for the Devil, and our family RPG No Thank You, Evil! Hundreds of gamers also tried short demos of our various games, and hundreds more stopped by our stand to purchase products—we sold out of almost every Cypher System title!
It was enormously fun, and our cadre of fantastic GMs ran really wonderful games. We’re all pretty exhausted, but already looking forward to next year!
We’re heading into an exciting and busy period here at MCG. Gen Con is coming up (see this update for info on our Rust and Redemption-related Gen Con events). We’re preparing to tackle one of the most ambitious RPG crowdfunding fulfillments ever, the Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game. And, in preparation for that, we’re moving into a whole new warehouse, giving us loads more room for new games and for sending out your crowdfunding rewards and MCG Shop orders.
(And speaking of the MCG Shop and the new warehouse, we’re currently holding a massive warehouse sale to draw down inventory before the move. If there are any Cypher System titles you’d like to get your hands on, now’s a great time! But hurry—it won’t last long.)
We have an update on the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook, but first, here’s a quick update on our designers’ work on other titles you funded through this campaign:
Dominique is putting the final touches on Rust and Redemption. We could not be more excited about how this book is shaping up! It’s moving into development soon, and then heads to editing.
Sean contributed a chunk of Rust and Redemption, but has now moved on to the Cypher System Starter Set.
Bruce has been hard at work on the Cypher System Bestiary. We’ll start showing off some of the cool features of this book in future updates, because, as we promised during the campaign, it’s going to be pretty extraordinary.
In the meantime, we recently unveiled the Cypher System Creature Index. (This isn’t a reward for this campaign—it’s just something really cool and useful we’ve been working on.) It’s a great resource for finding just the right creature for your next encounter—and because everything in the Cypher System is compatible, it includes creatures from sources like The Strange and Numenera, as well as every MCG Cypher System title. There are around 750 creatures currently included from about fifteen products, and we’re rapidly adding more—in fact, we just added a couple of books yesterday! It will ultimately include every creature published by MCG.
That’s the good news, but we have some less-good news. We had been shooting to get the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook to you in June, but in this era of supply-chain disruption, we’ve suffered a bit of a GM intrusion. Our printer tells us they won’t be able to deliver the book until late July. It will hit our warehouse right around the time we’re away at Gen Con, so we probably won’t be able to fulfill it until we get back in early August.
As always, we’ll continue to work closely with our printer to shave time off this schedule if possible. And we’ll keep you informed as we get closer to fulfillment.
It's time to redeem existing rewards and since all backers get the Cypher System Rulebook in PDF, this message is for you! Plus, if you backed at a level that includes other existing Cypher System titles—the five genre books; the Ptolus bundle; or the Worlds of the Cypher System titles, for example—great news: It's time to redeem those rewards, too—huzzah!
Click here to log in to the MCG Shop. After you log in, you'll be taken to your cart and you'll see all of your rewards that are ready for redemption. All that is left is to pay shipping (if you have any physical rewards) and check out.
For an in-depth explanation of redeeming rewards, check out this article, complete with screenshots. If you have any difficulty with redemption, please contact us and we'll sort it out for you.
It’s been a few months since we last reached out to you—and during that time we’ve been hard at work. Rust and Redemption is through the bulk of the design phase; the team has been playtesting and having a lot of fun with it. The Cypher System Starter Set and Cypher System Bestiary are both also in design. And the Deluxe Edition of the Cypher System Rulebook is on press now. That means we're looking forward to fulfilling it next month!
Existing Titles Are about to Fulfill
If you backed at a level that includes existing Cypher System titles—the five genre books; the Ptolus bundle; or the Worlds of the Cypher System titles, for example—or if you are getting these bundles as add-ons, good news: We’re fulfilling all of these existing books starting next week—huzzah!
Look for your redemption email soon. If this is your first time redeeming rewards from one of our campaigns, be sure to read the instructions in your email. We do things a little differently, due to the scale of our campaigns and the fact that rewards are often delivered over the course of several months. It’s a smooth and easy process that eliminates pitfalls and gives you a lot of control, but if it’s your first time you’ll want to make sure you understand the steps.
The Deluxe CSR Is Off to Press
We have sent the deluxe edition of the Cypher System Rulebook off to press. This is going to be a beautiful book. There are a lot of extra steps involved in creating a deluxe edition like this, with page gilding, debossing, and other elements all adding to the process. Nonetheless, we expect to have it back from the printer in late June. If it's among your rewards, look for news about fulfillment in a month or so!
Step into Rust and Redemption at Gen Con!
Raiders, radiation, and other threats of the post-apocalyptic wasteland—including a mysterious warlord with no face—stand between you and a before-times seed bank with life-saving grain.
That’s the description of Bitter Seeds, our official Cypher System event at Gen Con—inspired by our work on Rust and Redemption! Gen Con event registration opens on May 21st. There will be roughly three dozen sessions, so it shouldn’t be too tough to grab a seat at the table—if you hurry. Our events usually sell out, so act quickly when event registration opens.
If you’re going to Gen Con but don’t manage to grab an event ticket, drop by anyway—our games start every two hours, and there are often no-shows, so seats might be available. All of our events—in fact, the entire MCG presence—will be in a large gaming room on the Hoosier Concourse (across from the Exhibit Hall). You won’t be able to miss it.
We’re looking forward to the best four days in gaming, and hope to see you there!
This is a very specific mini-update for backers who pledged additional funds for an add-on during the campaign, but that add-on isn't in your cart, nor is it listed as an add-on that you can select. If this is you, please get in touch with BackerKit Support (<<use that link) and they will help you.
We promise we will work with the wonderful folks at BackerKit to get this fixed for you as quickly as possible.
This is a mini-update to let you know that we've started opening BackerKit Pledge Manager for Adventures in the Cypher System—huzzah!
The first step in opening BackerKit Pledge Manager is to send surveys to 5% of backers from each pledge level (the 5% of backers to receive surveys is selected at random). BackerKit calls this step the Smoke Test. Once the surveys are sent, BackerKit collates data on the response rate, the proportion of support inquiries received, and the add-on purchase rate to let us know if the survey and pledge questions are working appropriately.
Once we’re sure all is well, surveys will be sent to all remaining backers. This process—from Smoke Test to sending surveys to all backers—will take a few days to complete, so please be patient. By the end of the day on Friday, all backers should have been invited to BackerKit Pledge Manager for Adventures in the Cypher System.
For your friends who missed the campaign, it isn't too late! They can join in via a pre-order. Just link them to the main landing page for this campaign and have them click on the MAKE A LATE PLEDGE NOW button.
As is usually the case, the final days of a campaign are turning out to be pretty fast-moving. You’ve unlocked the upgrade to the Cypher System Bestiary, which is expanding to a very hefty 192 pages!
This brings us to an interesting crossroads.
Overnight, this campaign surpassed Invisible Sun to become our third biggest crowdfunding campaign to date (not including Old Gods of Appalachia, which is in a class all its own). Our other top campaigns each revolved around a major product—new corebooks for Numenera, the historically massive (and historically awesome) Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire, or the ground-breaking Invisible Sun Black Cube. In contrast, this campaign is focused on expanding and growing an existing line without a "tentpole" item. No campaign of this nature—by MCG or, to our knowledge, any other publisher—has soared to such heights. Thank you so much for making it happen!
In exceeding our expectations, you’ve also taken us through all our envisioned stretch goals for the products we’ve lined up for this campaign. To celebrate this remarkable success, we want to cap it with a fun, cool new product—an exclusive new title just for you, the backers who brought us to this point.
A Fun New Product
We want to make something a little different—and a lot of fun. A special mini-bestiary with full Cypher System stats and write-ups for NPCs like a finicky housecat, retail clerk, YouTuber, dopey dog, middle manager, rules lawyer, perpetual grad student, IT professional, AI chatbot, artist, game designer, influencer, game store owner, powergamer, anime fan, and so on. Who knows—maybe you’ll even see a character from inside MCG!
This will be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but given that Rust and Redemption and It’s Only Magic both have modern characters at their roots, these NPCs will be more than a fun read—they’ll bring color and perhaps a bit of levity into your adventures and campaigns.
This is a “mini-bestiary,” not a major product. However, we’ll make it in print and PDF, and the print version will be made especially for you, the backers of this campaign. It will not be widely available in print through any other source.
Like all of the new items we’ve unlocked through this campaign, it will be added automagically to the rewards at the Cypher Hero, Cypher Expert, and All In: Cypher Voyager! pledge levels (in print and PDF), and the Digital Cypher Expert level (PDF only). If you aren’t backing at one of those levels, you really should consider an upgrade—just look at all the stuff these levels get!
Now, What Should We Call It?
To add to the festive nature of this stretch goal, we invite you to help us come up with a title for this product!
If you have an idea, post it in the comments to this update. Check in on the comments throughout the day, and give a thumbs-up to ideas you like. At the end of the day, we’ll review your ideas and pick one from among the most popular choices.
Help Us Unlock This!
We’ll unlock this fun stretch goal at $750,000. To reach that, we’ll have to hit $85,000 over the course of the day (we're already well on the way). Doable? Invisible Sun hit $85,000 in its final day. Ptolus did more than $115,000. Numenera 2: Discovery and Destiny? $140,000.
Those campaigns all had one thing in common: Their supporters helped to spread the word. If you can give this campaign just a little boost today, we should be able to reach this goal before the campaign closes this evening.
