The Cypher Wars

THE CYPHER WARS

Approximately five months ago, strange items began appearing around the globe. At first they were odd archaeological finds, but then touching them sometimes – did things that could not be explained at all. They were made of substances we couldn’t identify, and in time the name ‘cypher’ stuck to them among the few who studied them. They were rare and strange, and as a result, a few wealthy people tried to collect them. The end results of those actions were explosions, deaths, and tears in the fabric of the universe. By the time it was understood that too many active cyphers in one area was a very bad idea, the damage had been done.

Only the damage was never what people thought. Because the cyphers changed people. Not everyone, but a few people gained the ability to focus and take on powers and skills that weren’t native to this world at all. Beyond that, some of them can touch the cyphers and have a far, far better understand of what to use them for than other people do. There are more cyphers appearing every day but the fact that people are changed by them is still hidden. Because some of the changed people can hide that from the rest of the world.

It seems a stroke of luck, but luck doesn’t last forever. It’s not only cyphers that come through now: creatures do as well, and they are even less easy to explain or understand. Is this another dimension? A war? Some kind of mass exodus to this world from another world? No one knows, and everyone is just trying to get by as best they can.

Some manage it better than others.

The Cypher Wars is a cypher system (Cypher System Rulebook (CSR), Numenera, Strange) campaign starting at tier 1. The city of Bridgeport – population 30,000 and one of the smallest cities ot have its own subway system – is where the game begins, set next to a lake in middle America. Game time is Friday nights, ~6:30 pm PST.

The effort system should, ideally, mimic the feel of lighter anime. We'll see how it goes.

Characters work as follows:

Your descriptor is who the character is in terms of personality etc.

Type is self-explanatory. A type from any of the core books is allowed, as is flavouring them via the CSR rules.

Focus is your transformative power that taps into the Dimension X stuff. You call upon it and transform, able to wield your powers and the less mundane aspects of your type as well. How it looks is entirely up to you, but it doesn’t pass as normal. Tapping into the lower end of abilities is less noticeable, of course.

Setting notes:

Thus far, the existence of people touched/changed by these alien energies has been hidden from the world. Because a certain portion of those people changed – called Gatekeepers, among other terms – have the ability to hide the existence of focii and such from the world. Conceptually, they’ve basically become artifacts and futz the mind of people so they convince themselves they didn’t see someone, say, turn into a creature of stone in the middle of the street. This ability is passive and not perfect: continued exposure wears away at it and deliberate demonstrations will work.

If you want friends/family to know about your PC, they do. In general, people will know something is off. The Gatekeepers are pretty much trying to keep things on the down low, though to what end no one is sure yet.