Thursday, June 25, 2020

GameDreaming: Fantasy AGE + Numenera's 9th World



As much as I want to love the Cypher System that powers Numenera I simply feel it's approach is counter to my expectations. At the same time, I own most of Green Ronin's supplements for the Adventure Game Engine that was created for the Dragon AGE TTRPG and evolved into Fantasy AGE, Modern AGE, Blue Rose, and the Expanse and haven't gotten much out of them.

While contemplating the AGE system tonight it dawned on me that the Fantasy AGE classes of Warrior, Mage, Rogue mapped pretty well to Glaive, Nano, and Jack (yeah, I know two other Roles were introduced, but I'm ignoring them) for Numenera.

That also let me begin to think about importing Descriptors (which I love) and having specific stunts for them. That part could be a lot of work, but I think it would be damn cool.

Sadly, I won't ever get a chance to run every idea I have, but this could be a good way to use my many Numenera books and my many AGE book and that is what I call a win-win.

At the same time, my mind also flashed to using Modern AGE for the next Storm Trooper one-shot, not that I have one on the horizon. So may ideas so little time.

5 comments:

Brian I said...

I've been enjoying AGE, and especially The Expanse. I've wrapped 15 or so session with my players. Fun times.

Cross Planes said...

That is awesome and thank you for sharing. I keep trying to make time to either read the books or watch the show.

Brian I said...

I like them both. Despite some differences, I find the show fairly faithful to the feel of the books, and a visual treat. From a storytelling/GM perspective, their casting on a lot of the key NPCs is fantastic, so I find extra value there.

Cross Planes said...

That is great to hear. I just need to carve out some time to enjoy them.

Chris Negelein said...

I often find that newbies who have never played in a ttRPGs have few issues with Cypyher. It's the gamers who've played a lot of traditional RPG who have a harder time wrapping their head around it.

It focuses on an heroes endurance than how they minimize bad luck (spending attribute points vs bonuses to the dice.)

But it also does several other things that buck expectations, such as player facing rolls and being highly asymmetrical for the GM vs players.

I hazard that many long term cypher campaigns are made up of players who are pretty chill with using any rules while the GM appreciates the way Cypher supports improv.

I enjoy the Age system and I favor Modern AGE much more. If I ran fantasy, I'd use 5e.

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