Numenera

Numenera is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) set in the far distant future, written by Monte Cook.[1][2][3] It has been translated into Italian,[4] German,[5] Spanish, French and Portuguese.[6]

Numenera

Numenera Corebook
Designer(s)	Monte Cook
Publisher(s)	Monte Cook Games
Publication date	2013
Genre(s)	Science Fantasy
System(s)	Cypher System
Playing time	Varies
Random chance	Dice rolling
Skill(s) required	Role-playing, improvisation
Website	Numenera.com

Game

Setting

Numenera Logo

Numenera is set on Earth approximately one billion years in the future. The setting is called "The Ninth World" due to the fact that eight civilizations have risen and fallen prior to the current era.[7]

Character creation

Character creation has been simplified by having players fill in the blanks to the statement:

"I am a __________ __________ who _________s."

1. The first blank, the adjective in the sentence, is filled in by a character's "Descriptor", a way to describe the character's strongest characteristic.
2. The second blank, the noun of the sentence, is filled in by a character's "Type", which is a "Glaive" (a warrior type), a "Nano" (a technology adept type), or a "Jack" (as in jack-of-all-trades).
3. The third blank, the verb of the sentence, is filled in by a character's "Focus", or what the character is most known for or their special talent.[8]

Technology

The name "Numenera" is a reference to the bits of technology left over from past civilizations. The word "numen" is a Latin root word meaning a "pervading divine presence"[9] and "era" refers to the period (1 billion years in the future) in which this universe takes place. The world is utterly filled with "nanites" (the divine presence) that some beings in this universe can tap into and control. With a nod towards Clarke's Third Law, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic",[10] the setting treats technology with much the same approach as magic in a fantasy setting. The native tech level is roughly medieval.[11]

Launch

Numenera was launched via a Kickstarter campaign, that set a record for "most money raised for a tabletop role-playing game" at $517,255 by 4,658 backers,[12] surpassing the previous record set by the Kickstarter for Traveller 5th edition.[13] Originally intended just to fund the initial Core rulebook, the campaign more than doubled its fund goal within the first 24 hours.[14] "Stretch-goals" that were announced as the level of funding grew increased the output of products, ending up producing an entire game line.[15]

Numenera 2

Numenera 2 is a revision of the original game to increase emphasis on exploration, discovery, and building. It also incorporated a few revisions from the Cypher rule system that had been released subsequent to the original Numenera release. Numenera 2 also used a Kickstarter campaign for initial funding obtaining $845,258 from 4,185 backers. The campaign ran in Fall of 2017 with first deliverables scheduled for Summer of 2018. Numenera 2 has two core rule books titled, Numenera: Discovery and Numenera: Destiny.

Discovery is essentially a revision of the original Numenera core book. The Jack character type was substantially revised to be more distinctive compared to Nanos and Glaives. Also added are player intrusions, a mechanism allowing players to alter the environment by spending an experience point. Destiny is nearly completely new material offering three new character types: Arkus, Delve, and Wright, new descriptors and new foci. The book also emphasizes crafting along with community protection and development with these character types taking lead positions in such an endeavor. A major section on crafting mechanisms and a major section on communities are provided. The manner of running a community game can be described as treating the community as an NPC in the game with stats that the player characters enhance. New monsters, NPCs, and settings are also offered in the Destiny core book.

As part of the Numenera 2 Kickstarter campaign several other supplemental materials are scheduled for production. As of July, 2018 only the Numenera 2 core books had been released in PDF format for Kickstarter backers.

Products

Core books

Title	Authors	Date	Pages	Formats	ISBN
Numenera Corebook	Monte Cook	August 14, 2013	416	Print, Deluxe, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-00-1
The main rulebook for the game
Numenera: Discovery Corebook	Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, & Sean K. Reynolds	October 17, 2018	416	PDF, Print	ISBN 978-1-939979-78-0
The main rulebook for the game, revised
Numenera: Destiny Corebook	Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, & Sean K. Reynolds	October 17, 2018	416	PDF, Print	ISBN 978-1-939979-77-3
The auxiliary main rulebook for the game
Numenera Player's Guide	Monte Cook	August 14, 2013	64	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-01-8
Book focused on the player characters; subset of content from the Corebook
Numenera 2 Player's Guide	Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, & Sean K. Reynolds	October 31, 2018	96	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-76-6
Book for Numenera 2 on the player characters; subset of content from Discovery & Destiny.
The Ninth World Bestiary	Monte Cook & Bruce Cordell	February 2014	160	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-09-4
A collection of Numenera creatures
Numenera Character Options	Monte Cook	May 2014	96	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-14-8
A collection of more descriptors and foci
Technology Compendium: Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera	Monte Cook	August 2014	160	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-20-9
A collection of Numenera cyphers, oddities and artifacts
The Ninth World Guidebook	Monte Cook & Shanna Germain	January 2015	256	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-24-7
A setting book about the Ninth World, its locations and denizens
Numenera Character Options 2	Monte Cook & Bruce Cordell	September 2016	96	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-55-1
A collection introducing two new character types as well as more descriptors and foci
Numenera Priests of the Aeons	Sean K. Reynolds	2019	191	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-89-6
Details on the Aeon Priesthood with new character options.

Adventures and Glimmers

Glimmers are short, PDF-only publications. There are also some adventure collections that have appeared in print:

Title	Authors	Date	Pages	Formats	ISBN
The Devil's Spine	Monte Cook	October 2013	96	Print, PDF	ISBN 9781939979025
Three 32 page adventures, "The Devil's Spine", "The Mechanized Tomb", "The Other Side of the Maelstrom"
Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera	Monte Cook	April 2015	96	Print, PDF
Ten fully developed adventures that can be run with little preparation time.
The Nightmare Switch	Monte Cook	August 14, 2013	32	PDF Only
A Kickstarter exclusive adventure
Vortex	Monte Cook	September 4, 2013	18	PDF Only
The Numenera launch adventure at Gen Con 2013.
Slaves of the Machine God	Bruce Cordell	2019	144	Print, PDF	ISBN 978-1-939979-86-5
Campaign book. Two story arcs, each containing eight separate adventures.

Game aids

Title	Date	Pages	Formats
Numenera GM Screen	August 14, 2013	N/A	Print, PDF
Four-panel, landscape format vinyl GM's screen
Numenera XP Card Deck	August 14, 2013	30 cards	Print, PDF
Cards representing a character's XP points
Numenera Cypher Card Deck	August 14, 2013	120 cards	Print, PDF
Cards representing cypher Numenera available in game
Numenera Cypher Card Deck 2	2014	120 cards	Print, PDF
Cards representing cypher Numenera available in game
Numenera Creature Card Deck	February 2014	100 cards	Print, PDF
Cards representing Numenera creatures
Numenera Cypher Chest	2014	250 cards	Print
Contains the XP, Cypher and Creature decks.
Numenera Character Sheets	2014	104 (print)	Print, PDF
Blank character sheets and a character generation walkthrough.

Fiction

Title	Authors	Date	Pages	Formats	ISBN
The Amber Monolith	Monte Cook	August 2012	18	PDF Only
Introductory short story to the Numenera setting; included within the Corebook
Tales from the Ninth World	Monte Cook	June 2013	79	epub, mobi, PDF
Collection of short stories set in the Numenera setting
The Poison Eater	Shanna Germain	January 2017	320	epub, mobi, print	ISBN 978-0857666352
The first full-length novel set in the Numenera setting

Related products

There have been several announced tie-ins to the brand:

• Thunderstone Advance: Numenera by AEG, an expansion to the Thunderstone deck-building card game, set in the world of Numenera.[16]
• Torment: Tides of Numenera by inXile, a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment by Interplay.[17] This computer game was also launched by Kickstarter and was itself a record setter for Kickstarter, being the fastest to $1 million up to that time.
• Reaper Miniatures released a boxed set of 28-mm scale miniature figures for Numenera.[18]

Awards

Awards Numenera products have received include:[19]

• 2014 ENnie Award silver:
  • Best Game: Numenera Corebook
  • Best Interior Art: Numenera Corebook
  • Best Cartography: Numenera Corebook
  • Best Monster or Adversary: The Ninth World Bestiary
  • Best Podcast: Numenera: The Signal
• 2014 ENnie Award gold:
  • Product of the Year: Numenera Corebook
  • Best Setting: Numenera Corebook
• Best Writing: Numenera Corebook
  • Best Production Values: Numenera Corebook
  • Best Aid or Accessory: Numenera Creature Deck
• 2014 Origins Award:
  • Best New Roleplaying Game: Numenera

References

1. Webb, Travis. (4 May 2013). "Tylerpaper.com: Kickstarted; "Crowdfunding" continues to change face of gaming". Retrieved 15 May 2013.
2. "Nerdluster: Numenera RPG Kickstarter". 14 August 2012. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
3. "Tech2: Monte Cook GenCon Panel". 19 August 2013. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
4. "Announcing the Numenera box set".
5. "Crowdfunding campaign for German translation of the corebook".
6. "Crowdfunding campaign for Brazilian Portuguese translation of the corebook".
7. "Transmissions from the Ninth World:A Billion Years in the Future!". Retrieved 15 May 2013.
8. "Transmissions from the Ninth World:Creative Characters!". Retrieved 15 May 2013.
9. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/numen
10. "The Sorcerer of Rhiannon", Astounding February 1942, p. 39.
11. "Transmissions from the Ninth World:Eponymous". Retrieved 15 May 2013.
12. "Kickstarter "Discover / Games / Most Funded"". Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-04-30. Retrieved 2013-04-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
14. "KickTraq: Numenera Pledges & Backers by Day".
15. "Rich Howard: Numenera".
16. "Thunderstone Numenera: Two Games Enter, One Game Leaves". Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
17. "Kickstarter: Torment:Tides of Numenera".
18. "Reaper Miniatures: Numenera". Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
19. "Official award list".

External links

• Official website
• Numenera wiki