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The Heroes of the Cypher System launches on Kickstarter this morning! Last week I ran a one-shot supers game for my teammates just using the Cypher System Rulebook. I'm gonna make this a thread about the PCs, NPCs, and how the game went. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/montecookgames/heroes-of-the-cypher-system https://twitter.com/MonteCookGames/status/1325868301038346244
Everyone played a teenage superhero inspired by one of the Avengers. They were tier 1 (just starting out) and couldn't do everything their inspiration hero did, or at the same level of power, but they definitely had the same vibe.
Monte played BROOKLYN HERO (modeled after Captain America, an Appealing Warrior who Brandishes an Exotic Shield. Monte decided her backstory was that she made her own super-soldier formula, which… gave her the ability to psychically create a shield-shape force field.
Her power shifts (a Cypher System game mechanic designed to make superhero PCS) are in accuracy, dexterity, and strength, which makes her a great natural athlete and her punches (and shield) hit really hard.
Jennifer was to play HOMESCHOOLED RAGE MONSTER (a Hulk analogue), an Empathic Adept who Rages. (Unfortunately, Jennifer's internet access was spotty because she was offsite, and she didn't get to play.)
I thought it was fun to have a scientist-type character with a lot of physical abilities (like the Hulk), so she has some mental powers (a Ward shield, the ability to Scan and identify things, telekineticallly Push things, and a Far Step that models the Hulk's big leaps) plus…
the Frenzy ability which makes her pretty tough in combat. Then add in her power shifts (strength x2 and resilience) and she's a mighty creature who hits hard and can take a lot of damage.
LaTia played IRON YOOT (an Iron Man analogue), an Intuitive Adept who Wears Power Armor. ("Yoot," as in how some New Yorkers pronounce "Youth.") Half her abilities are from her big brain, the other come from the armored suit she built (inspired by discarded Stark tech she found).
Iron Yoot's power shifts are savant (giving her a big boost on computer and machine skills, which she used A LOT in the adventure), intelligence (boosting all of her int-based rolls), and Onslaught (her force blast attack, making her very accurate & hard-hitting).
I also decided that her cyphers (one-use abilities) would be *manifest* cyphers—physical gizmos she built and could modify into other things. The other heroes all had subtle cyphers (nonphysical, like a burst of luck).
Bear played KID THUNDER (obviously a Thor analogue), a Clumsy Warrior who Wields an Enchanted Weapon. (WaEW is actually a focus I wrote for my fantasy sourcebook Godforsaken, and it was inspired by Thor, so this all connects and makes sense.)
Kid Thunder's power shifts are in "hammer" (making him REALLY good at swinging or throwing his hammer), resilience (Asgardian toughness!), and Charge Weapon (so when he adds lightning to the hammer, it adds A LOT MORE). Bear played him a congenial teen who hit puberty early.
Charles played Spider-Teen (this one should be obvious), an Impulsive Explorer who Moves Like a Cat. MLAC gives him a ton of extra Speed points, so we was all set to do crazy acrobatics (I think the only time he got hit in the game was from an area attack he couldn't dodge).
Charles REEEEAALLLY played up the Impulsive part of his character sentence, which got him into a lot of trouble in the game. Also, bc Spider-Man is an actual teenager, Spider-Teen is VERY young ("Spider-Tween didn't sound as cool," he says in a high-pitched voice).
Spider-Teen's power shifts are in dexterity (making him really good at dodging and acrobatics), strength (the proportionate strength of a teenaged spider!), and healing (giving him an extra recovery roll, a la "c'mon Peter... c'mon Spider-Man!").
I didn't grab any character art for these characters because I didn't know what gender, ethnicity, or overall look the players would want for their pregens—that way they could describe their character any way they wanted. I DID grab some art for the two supervillains…
Similar to how Zemo in the MCU movies created Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the end boss of the adventure used advanced technology to create two new supervillains the (Marvel-aware New York-local) PCs had never heard of: Red Punch and Frackula.
I did some searches for "supervillain concept art" and found a few that I liked. I ended up settling on this one for Red Punch, and I made a "title card" with his name on it for when he appeared in the story. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AV3XuV0rI9FtRbhnLM6m7e5AvO5EOcRAxaQY-w32xsjwJChzObLDBKQ/
Red Punch has a glowy energy punch that hits for a lot of damage. Unfortunately, the PCs all made their dodge rolls, and used cyphers and other abilities to keep him from attacking a couple of times, so he was defeated and captured.
This was an alternative option for Red Punch, but I decided to go with the previous one because I liked the glow-hands aspect of it. (But if there's ever a followup game, maybe this person will make an appearance…) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/639651953295993030/
The other supervillain, Frackula, had a disintegrator-type energy beam and could drain life energy from her foes. I chose this illo because it's very energy-vampire-ish. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/538602436671596247/
For her "title card" I changed her eye color and glowing wounds to match Red Punch's magenta coloration (same power origin).
The heroes dodged all of her single-target attacks, but she did manage to blast them all with a web of her weird energy.
The heroes dodged all of her single-target attacks, but she did manage to blast them all with a web of her weird energy.
The PCs fought hard against her, and that battle ended when Iron Yoot blasted her through a wall with an augmented Onslaught force blast.
This was an alternative idea for Frackula, but I thought the other illustration was more of what I wanted. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AYHu1EJWbl0QvjGGKjijWFIa09GtqBR70WVx1wXQrOAje2Pw62SGX6w/
(Frackula's powers were inspired by how fracking works—inserting high-pressure liquid and sand to crack open the earth, so she has a liquid-like disintegration beam that lets her extract life energy from her target.)
In the final battle in a large hangar in a private airfield, the PCs fought the supervillains, and some ineffectual scientists using prototype weapons they were building on-site. Spider-Teen impulsively grabbed & activated a prototype... not knowing it was a gravity gun…
… which sent him flying upward to crash through the cheap sheet metal ceiling and into an upper chamber where a very tall man in a business suit was doing repairs on… a UFO! The man pulled a big weapon out of a coat pocket (too big to actually fit there) and …
… used it to send Spider-Teen crashing all the way back down to the ground. Splatto, Spider-Teen! Suit Guy levitated down through the hole Spider-Teen made and drew another too-big weapon from another pocket. The heroes turned their attacks on him, and that was enough to…
… disrupt the holographic field he was wearing, revealing him to be…a Kronan, aka "the Stone Men of Saturn," a classic Thor villain from the comics! (I also made a "title card" for the Kronan.) https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Kronans
(The chatty rockman alien Korg from Thor: Ragnarok is a Kronan, just to help you picture what species we're talking about.)
After one round of combat he was was starting to weaken. Because we were nearing the end of the time slot we alloted for this game, I narratively wrapped up the combat—they captured the Kronan and most of the scientists, and got a nice heroic writeup in the newspaper!
I had a great time running this game, it was fun to show off power shifts and such, and I think my MCG players ( @bearthw @CharlesMRyan @LaTiaJacquise and @MonteJCook ) had quite a fun time, too!
So if you'd like to see MORE superhero-style fun from MCG (as well as another book about real-world heroes like firefighters, EMTs, and doctors), check out the Heroes of the Cypher System on Kickstarter, launching later this morning! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/montecookgames/heroes-of-the-cypher-system
