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The Cypher System Core Rulebook
Originally published 5/17/22 on Substack.
If you’ve been reading Against the ’70s for any amount of time, you know I’m pretty big on the Cypher System rpg. It’s the basis for all my rpg material I post here. If you’ve been curious about the game, but have yet to pull the trigger, now may be the time, as Bundle of Holding have announced a Cypher System bundle!1 For $17.95, you get pdfs of Cypher System Rulebook (the latest edition), plus Numenera Discovery, Numenera Destiny, and The Strange. How good is this deal? I bought the Cypher System Rulebook for $5 more than this, and the BoH deal includes three other books. So, that good.
Some books in the Bundle of Holding: Numenera Discovery, Numenera Destiny, and The Strange
The Cypher System Rulebook is a ruleset that’s intended to be adapted to whatever genre you plan to use, whether that’s fantasy, science fiction, horror, superheroes, or just about anything. Numenera is a specific setting, a kind of fantasy/SF hybrid that takes place so far into the future that everything is more or less magic. I believe you can use either book to play; one is geared towards exploration, and the other towards creating and maintaining communities in the bizarre and dangerous Ninth World. The Strange is about hopping through the multiverse, and apparently players get to change their characters to adapt to each new world? How, uh, strange.
Then if you “level up” (pay over a certain amount; as of this writing, that’s $40.41), you can get a crapton of more Cypher System books. I’m not going to list them all here, go see for yourself, but they either add new rules ’n stuff to the game, or are new settings to play in. According to BoH, the first part of the bundle retails for $95, and the second part $159.50. Ten percent of your payment goes to Direct Relief, a pandemic-related charity that provides protective gear and medications to health workers.
I’ve paid for a number of Bundles since 2013, and it’s a great service, with great offerings, and is generally terrific. I won’t be purchasing this one — I already own too much of it to be a good deal — but as a Cypher System fan, I’d be remiss not mentioning it.
(I just learned today that Bundle of Holding is the brainchild of Allen Varney, a legendary game designer who has been in the business for almost as long as I’ve been alive.)
One of Allen Varney’s board games, from 1983. IIRC, it came, not in a box, but in the form of a magazine, with the board and counters to be pulled out from the center cardboard insert.
This offer has, of course, expired. But go to the link and check out what Bundle of Holding currently has, and consider signing up for their email. All their offers are fantastic; it’s just a matter of what kind of game material you’re looking for.↩︎
