Very Rough Outline
With the Kickstarter reaching it’s early stretch goals, the book has grown to be around 400 pages. The book will be a full-color hardcover. Here’s my rough vision for what the Numenera corebook will be like:
1. There will be about 100 pages of rules material, perhaps less. And the vast majority of that will be character options, rather than rules. The “how to play this game” part of the rules will likely fit into a dozen pages or so, at least as I have envisioned it now. (Playtesting usually makes such sections grow, so we’ll see.)
2. Another 100 page or so might be devoted to GM advice, and a how-to approach to running a Numenera game, including lots and lots and lots of interesting of numenera treasures and dangers to find. I really think that the game will benefit from lots of GM advice. There’s a lot to discuss regarding the technology and the wide-open nature of the setting, as well as the general “imagination gone wild” tone.
3. The rest of the book, about 200 pages (thus, about half the book now), will detail the setting. And an ample amount of that will be adventure material. Setting material would include a bestiary of foes: various creatures and a bunch of ready-made NPCs.
I plan on presenting adventure material for this book much like I did in Ptolus. Which is to say, at many different levels of detail. There will be many, many straightforward adventure hooks, suggestions, and rough outlines, for GMs who just want an idea or two to run with. That’s the first kind of presentation. The second, I would describe as a sort of intermediary approach: perhaps a map with brief descriptions, some ideas, and some NPCs or creatures to use. The last approach would be full-blown, fully-detailed adventures. This means that no matter what kind of GM you are, there will be adventure material for you. I’m a firm believer that nothing gets across how a game can be run than adventure material, and presenting it in many ways gives a lot of options.
Overall, the setting will have a “sandbox” approach, with a lot of information that can be used by GMs in a lot of ways. I’m more interested in really showing how to run a game in the Ninth World than I am in detailing what’s under every rock, but with this expansion in size there’s room for plenty of detail too.
This is all subject to minor changes, but you get the general idea of where I’m going with it.
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With mention of the world and the detailing, have you considered other races, going for a Human-Only approach, or even considering tossing this in with the Sandbox? General information about how races could crop up and be added, etc? Just a curiosity that hit me while reading the outline of the book and your ‘Sandbox’ approach. Thanks!
Also, congratulations on 100k!
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It’s quite humanocentric, but there are other playable races. It’s also worth asking–in such a far, distant, bizarre future, what does being “human” really mean?
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Even from the art alone, that approach seems very fitting. I’m really excited for this Sandbox approach, especially from a DM aspect. The simple idea that, upon reaching this new city in this new region, the ‘humans’ there could have evolved completely differently. Its a lot more versatile than the word ‘Human’ would give credit… Thanks for the reply.
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Makes me think of the hominids of Niven’s Ringworld.
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Will there be a lot of material (guidance,tables, etc.) on building your own Numenera sandbox, or expanding the sandbox beyond a “home base” that you detail–on making the setting one’s own? Or will it be more along the lines of “official” setting stuff that you detailed in the world?
And did that question make sense?
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I love maps and enjoyed the Maps in Arcana to help me get a feel for the land and where things are. I hope to see not only a world map but maybe an example of a City or town as well.
Even if every rock isn’t detailed, having pictures of an established place give me a good launching point to grow from. And the maps help me imagine whats in-between.
I also ADORED the name generation tables form Arcana. They really spiced-up the world and I can remember EVERY dracha name I created
SO please, Name Generator, Maps!
Thanks, looking forward to getting the NDA and play-test materials for Interested Patron!
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I would hope appropriate race name generation could be included within the app as well. That would be a very handy feature for use during gaming.
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Also, I really hope you are re-imagining the Akashic hive-mind as the Satellite web-net in orbit.
That is fantastic.
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Oh geez, this is like having to pee really badly just 3 minutes from your house.
Hurry up and make it woulddja! cuz I JUST. CANT. WAIT.
As for the race question, when I read the first announcement for this project, I envisioned it being totally about humans. I like an all human approach, but that doesn’t mean that furture humans are all the same.
I like the future presented over at orionsarm.com
I might even accept the concept of an “uplifted” animal as a race.
Overall, I prefer the all-human approach but will gladly consider anything you propose!
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Ok This sounds good, since there would be adventures being written too I like more the idea of hooks, places, monster and npcs than true adventures. But that is me
And aye I like the explore how different would be humanity in a billion years
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I think keeping the rules of play to about a dozen pages, with more devoted to stuff like character creation is the way to go for a rules light system. Intrigued by the sandbox approach and quite interested in how this will blend with your GM section. Personally I think the advice you gave in d20 cthulu was top notch, but that was for a very different style of adventure design, so eager to see how you approach sandbox advice. The page count for setting looksgood to me. I suppose the only concern you may have is people being intimidated by a four hundred page game book. But if this is all you need to poay the game, four hundred pages is actually quite reasonable.
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Monte, with that imagination of yours, I would like to see a post narrating a sample of the vision you have for this system as it would apply to an encounter and the player GM interaction. Just to get a visual to better understand your idea about this project.
Cheers, been a long time since I last saw you. Good luck with your project!
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You could add the adventure hooks (in rough outlines) to the description of the treasures, creatures, and NPCs.
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One thing I liked in Ptolus – and which might have received more attention in AE – is putting together adventures into a whole. Your campaign outlines in Ptolus were brilliant. I know for a fact that you can put together exciting campaigns, but other GMs have different strengths. So some advice as to how to weave something together would be suh-weet.
Oh, and maybe get more on board to make adventures. I imagine Rite Publishing and Fiery Dragon might be interested – if nothing else then for old times’ sake.
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I’m curious, do you see Numenera being focused on a single world, or is there plans to expand out into space/other planets/other stars?
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As soon as I know it’s going to hit $120k and a bestiary is guaranteed, I am all over this.
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@Shane: If you read the above there will be a built-in bestiary, I think the extra is that… extras.
“3. The rest of the book, about 200 pages (thus, about half the book now), will detail the setting. And an ample amount of that will be adventure material. Setting material would include a bestiary of foes: various creatures and a bunch of ready-made NPCs.”
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Soren mentioned getting more adventure writers on board and I immediately thought how nice it would be to have a few fiction writers take a stab at this stting too.
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I’m interested in this, and I’ll be following it in my blog (already started). I like info, and piles of Numenera, creatures and even NPCs would be of more use than yet another GM advice column. Numenera specific advice would be better than general GM advice. Kind of like how we don’t need re-prints of monsters in D&D modules that are in the MM, I already have, what, 10,000 pages of Monte Cook GM advice from various sources. I don’t know how you run Numenera, so that will be different; and I look forward to that. How to balance or use Numenera, monsters, organizations, and building up my own locale or my own Ninth World setting, that would be of huge benefit. CoC d20, McWoD, the DMG, plus your columns are already engraved or required reading. This could be a starter book, but most of us are long-time readers. Just saying what I’m looking forward to. Piles of Numenera, monsters, generic NPC stat blocks, and other basic building blocks I can refer to in a pinch.
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