Like I said on the first installment of this supplement, Maps of the Ninth World.

I love the Numenera setting. The ninth world is an amazing, awe inspiring world. It has geographical features that are impossible to the natural world. Conveying the magnificence of this setting can be a challenge. Thankfully, the art work gives a great boost on this endeavour. Nonetheless, having a map of an area is the cherry on the cake, if you ask me.

This supplement gives you not only the beautiful, high quality maps found on the source material, but gives you the same version without annotations or political lines. Additionally it will present you maps from specific areas like towns, cities or Numenera devices. As a bonus you get to see the super continent in all its glory and the portions of it that has been mapped already! I love that feature! ... So much land to map :D

A must have for lover of maps or anyone looking to bask on the magnificence of this amazing setting.

I love the Numenera setting. The ninth world is an amazing, awe inspiring world. It has geographical features that are impossible to the natural world. Conveying the magnificence of this setting can be a challenge. Thankfully, the art work gives a great boost on this endeavour. Nonetheless, having a map of an area is the cherry on the cake, if you ask me.

This supplement gives you not only the beautiful, high quality maps found on the source material, but gives you the same version without annotations or political lines. Additionally it will present you maps from specific areas like towns, cities or Numenera devices.

A must have for lover of maps or anyone looking to bask on the magnificence of this amazing setting.

If you're enjoying the Black Cube then Book M is one of the two things that I consider a must-have, the other being Secrets of Silent Streets. Focusing on what makes Book M so great, it gives you an additional heaping helping of everything the Black Cube gave you. Beyond the 200 or so cards of content, there's new Forte, Secrets, Spells, Rituals, and more.

Of particular note, I think Forte and Secrets are the most useful for your group. Those are some of the building blocks, big and little respectively, that you construct a character out of. Having more options not only lets you find and pick something that fits all the better. That alone makes Book M a treasure trove. Even better though, it gives you more and more ideas for characters that can populate your world.

Invisible Sun is an amazing setting but it paints in broad strokes most of the time, giving a few ideas for content in any particular area to get you going and moving on. However, this leaves an immense amount to be filled by your group. Don't get me wrong, that's some of the best parts of the game. But in Book M you can find all kinds of different, weird, amazing things that are both things that can be used by players and seeds you can grow NPCs out of, using the new ideas and concepts to expand out to characters that may hold those powers you never thought existed.

Back in the Kickstarter it was described as having more information to expand upon the Orders from the Key. If you were looking for that, there is nothing of that here. However, though I was sad to see that content didn't end up making it, that certainly doesn't make me disappointed with what I got in Book M.

Invisible Sun is a mad game about wonder workers in a surreal world behind, and superior to, the grey world we live in. It does this brilliantly in many many ways, though there are certainly places its lofty goals haven't quite been reached.

I'm going to talk about a couple different parts that really make an impression on me, good or bad: Creating characters, The World(s) of the game, the Rules and Actually Playing the game. I should also quickly mention, as others have, the Ambiance of the game is phenomenal. The art is gorgeous, the cards are perhaps a bit overwhelming but well made and attractive, the Black Cube is a freaking magical way of transporting/delivering you the game (albeit a HEAVY magic).

Character creation is Fun, which is a requirement for almost any game to be good in my eyes. Everyone is a magic-wielder and playing this game will make you hesitant to use paltry words like Mage or Wizard to describe them because they just don't do it justice here. The Classes/Schools/Guilds are interesting (except for Vances, that feel like the class to play if you just can't wrap your head around what this game is capable of)) and it makes deciding what to play a lot of fun, which is good because the rules aren't always super clear about the various bit mean (and there is a lot of new vocabulary in here to absorb).

Characters start pretty deep, which is wonderful. You not only create your character but work on defining/describing the people you know or who know you and why, Everyone starts with the strong possibility of having a house and income, a pretty shocking idea for most games, and there is a great mini storytelling session just deciding who your neighbors are! This provides a rich opening to adventures RIGHT out the gate. You can easily build a character and have 4 or 5 things YOU want to dig deeper into your character and where they live, day 1.

Characters are not defined by skills, which was a shock to me and took some getting used to (I only have three skills?!?) and is usually quickly remedied in-game if that remains important to you, which is might not. You have deeper things to understand than simply Skills.

The World(s) of the Actuality are well done at a theoretical level, but actual play has made me reach back to my Planescape days for deeper inspiration. The worlds of Invisible Sun are surreal and interesting but, perhaps intentionally, so vague as to demand that you fill in a tremendous number of blanks yourself. Again; this can easily be seen as a Feature, not a Bug. I'm perfectly happy to build them in the image my mind sees fit and believe the game all the richer for that lack of author-mandated definition. I DO believe that some GMs would be looking for more here, so in my mind this is a count against IS, but if you love inventing insane worlds like I do, you won't miss this much.

The Rules. Are kind of a beautiful mess. There are rules we didn't realize existed until after months of play. Rules we have decided as a group to ignore. The team did a great job of annotating "See page x in Book y" but there is simply a LOT here. Getting the PDF version so you can text search through it is strongly suggested.

I meant what I said about beautiful mess though, it has some Great stuff in this game! My favorite rules are How Characters Earn XP, How characters earn Despair and Joy and how you learn new things, the concept of Secrets, how you increase standing in your organization... some really really good stuff in there.

Actually Playing the Game. The ultimate test of any game is actually playing it, and while my group and I have certainly spent some time bemoaning various hidden rules or undefined things, that pales in importance because the Game is Awesome.

Within six adventures we were playing characters whose lives were worthy of any epic saga. Rich emotional situations and intractable problems, complex needs or desires and a built in group of friends to help you through them all. This isn't accidental, this is what Invisible Sun is really aiming for and holy cats they hit that goal straight on and full impulse. The game system of Joy and Despair MAKES characters intentionally choose or set up negative outcomes within their own personal stories and this is critical for their advancement. Having a system where characters get a needed reward for NOT succeeding at everything makes characters much more real and deep and interesting. Examples from my campaign: "I tried to understand why my character's Father was undermining all my successes and trying to ruin my standing and... well... I found out, but this knowledge just made everything worse. I have reason to believe I'm an illusion or a changeling or a spell gone wrong, that I don't even really exist!" "My character and her girlfriend had an instant bond, like we'd known each other for ages. The more we learn about each other the more we learn we MAY have actually known the other before and our mutual forgetting may have been because something terrible happened. Do I even WANT to find out?" These are pretty dark experiences for a character in game and where in other games this would entirely be the result of someone deciding this is what they want and the GM saying "Well, I guess we can have other people sitting around while you roleplay out your soap opera" in this game it is organic to the game and I cannot fully explain to you have fabulous the results are.

Another fascinating mechanic is one I have heard people use in other games but in this game really shines. The game comes with a "Sooth Deck", a tarot-like deck of cards with suggested meanings. Sure, you could just roll dice and get a Success or Failure but many situations are better served by having players state what they are trying to accomplish and drawing a card and riffing off of what is shows. "How did the big party I threw work out?", "I am going to ask the Spiders if they know anything about this Death Cult", "I have this strange orb of wild magic from a couple adventure ago. I'm out of ideas so I guess I'll just see what it does." None of these are clearly "make a roll against X" and pulling from the Sooth Deck gives you some really great ways of figuring out what could have happened.

The last thing I'll touch on is particularly unique to Invisible Sun: Time and Reality bend and stretch here unlike in any other game. You want to rebuild a character? Any time you want. You made a ruling you decide later is bad? The world has changed JUST NOW and that's just how it is now. The world is ever changing and changeable to a degree that few others can even conceive and you can weave stories here that would be impossible in other systems. You want to create a monster that eats familial love? Done. Want a form of succubus/incubus that doesn't seduce you but rather goes back in your timeline and replaces someone you love with themselves? Done.

I'd like to wrap up by saying how very impressed I am by the feeling of this game and the key mechanics it uses. The rules have some issues and balance is not always well addressed, but the game itself BLAZES. Every game we play digs us deeper into the stories about these characters in ways you don't often see until near the end of a long campaign in other systems.

Full disclosure, I’m a member of the MCG Asset Team, who demos games at stores and conventions and could receive swag through that program. I'm not getting anything for this, this is my honest opinion. This is the only game I have done this for, because I liked the game so much. I've run a couple games at a local convention to great success and am happy to tell you what I think, just ask and I'll expound!

TL;DR: The rules are a bit of a mess but game play makes some of the deepest, richest characters we have ever played and we're having a great campaign. One of the best storytelling games I've ever played.

When I read Into The Night, I could not wait to get my players started exploring the cosmos. The book gives you some options, but none is as beautiful as the Nightcraft. This supplement provides you with sleek, fully detailed spacecraft that my players loved since they laid their eyes on it.

This supplement also gave me all I needed to later create my own night-crafts once my players blew up theirs ;)

I have played this adventure multiple times. I have use it for conventions as a stand alone and for my own Numenera games integrating it into my campaign. Every time I have seen it play in different ways to my delight. I find this adventure to be exquisitely weird and open ended, allowing for lots of opportunities for unusual exploration. This can be frustrating to some or exciting to others. It also has an element for horror if you play it right, in the form of a dangerous predator that haunts the area.

The violet vale is a perfect example of how weird and exotic Numenera can be. It also helped me understand better how Numenera can affect the natural world. I really liked it.

I fell in love with Numenera when I discovered it 4 years ago and this update is fantastic.

This book is all you need to play Numenera (though the companion book "Destiny" adds some useful options) Character creation is simple, but produces a well rounded character... and I love the fact that the system doesn't rely on "optimising" your character, you can happily play a "Swift Glaive (Warrior) who Crafts Illusion" or a "Mystic Nano (Wizard) who Weilds two weapons at once" and you wont be at a disadvantage.

The Numenra XP deck was the first deck I owned from the cypher system; and I love it. I also play cypher games, and even though I could use my trusty numenera deck, it feels extra nice to have the themes match. As I wrote regarding teh Numenera deck. At first I thought it was just a luxury item that looks pretty but it is impractical to use or that I will seldom use. I now stand corrected as I use it in all my games and if I forget to bring it my session doesn’t feel the same.

There is this awesome feeling around rewarding your players with XP for their accomplishments. On the other end, as I player I love to be rewarded my XP with physical tokens. Also, it makes the Cypher System mechanic of a GM intrusion much more fun. Seeing the GM reaching for the XP deck starts the excitement of a twist in the story. Moreover, if I am the recipient of such intrusion, being “compensated” with two XP makes up for whatever inconvenience it may cause my character. Finally, it feels really good for me to hand over the card to anyone I choose.

All in all the XP deck is a great asset for my games as it makes them feel more tactile. Naturally, you have to print them out (preferably on cardboard) or all I said is moot.

The Jade Colossus is possiby my favourite Numenera suppliment. Not only does it provide a fascinating campaign setting including new Foci and organisations, but also includes several other Ruins that you can drop anywhere in the Ninth World for your players to explore. But by far the jewel in the crown has to be the Ruin Engine, with just a few rolls of the dice you can produce a "dungeon" complete with weird installations for your players to explore.

This setting changed my RPG life. I was already a fan of Monte cook because of Ptolus, but Numenera took my admiration to the next level.

I love the idea of playing in a setting set so far in the future that the line between technology and magic blurs depending how you play it. Numenera allows you to mix Scifi and Fantasy to yours heart content. Different players at the same table can approach the setting with different eyes. You can play the same character as a techno-mage or as a spiritual shaman which brings lots of possibilities to the table. The cypher system is streamlined and fun. We spent less time worrying about the rules and more on the story. Still it allows for awesome battles and the interaction with the world is interesting and detailed enough.

The book is easy to read. It is filled with reference, comment and notes on the sides that makes it a pleasure to read and complement the material you are just reading. The layout and art are beyond anything else I had experience before.

Character creation is really simple and the end products are rich, appealing and fully-fledged characters. The world is really stimulating leaving you pleanty of space to develop it further to any direction you wish. The creautres are wildly imaginative and easy to use. The technology (cyphers and artifacts) are a blast to read and even more fun to use in the game. It also has a few adventures to get you acquainted with the setting.

All together this system is really great to play. It changed the way I run my games, making my life so much simpler and fun.

Our group was missing a player for our regular Unmasked game, so we decided to give these rules a shot.

We came up with a ridiculous premise, Puppet Town, a noir and slapstick adventure in a world where humans live alongside muppet-esque creatures.

It was loads of fun. The rules are quick and have clear suggestions on how to use them. We're a group of cypher system veterans, and it took our group minimal time to make characters and prep the adventure.

I could definitely see us using these rules again for one-shots or for teaching new people how to play.

A robust dark coffee shot that was not filtered well. You will get a good kick, but it might leave a few grains on your teeth. Read a full review: https://d20.rs/changing-seasons-review

A Narrative Game of Surreal Magic that puts control in the players' hands

I've been playing tabletop roleplaying games since I was 10 years old. I started with Original Dungeons & Dragons, played and run every iteration through to 5th, nearly every White Wolf game line both old and new, GURPS, Traveller, Star Wars, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Cypher System, Call of Cthulhu and many more. A good 30+ years of gaming experience.

When I first read about Invisible Sun I was enthralled. When I played and game mastered it, I was sold. Many times RPGs are imbalanced on the division of labor for a good game. Many, like D&D, lean towards the bulk of the work being on the DM, with the players focusing just on their characters solely. Over the years, some games I've played and run have tried to fix this, putting more control in the players hands and trying to free up the GM. Over the years I've been less than impressed by these attempts.

Until Invisible Sun. Their first attempt, Cypher System, was a good start towards this, but in IS it really shines through.

The players are given more control and more responsibility. The mechanical side of the system is focused on the players. They perform the dice rolls, they build their ventures, the GM is left to simply set the challenge level and interpret the results. They create not just their characters, but homes, neighborhoods, neighbors, unique NPCs, landmarks and local issues. They do this as a group, which allows for a unique experience, and creation. The group decides why their are together, what goals they are focusing on and how they begin play. This does a lot for empowering the players and freeing up the GM for what they really need to focus on.

The GM, with those worries gone, can dedicate their time and effort towards weaving the stories that the players are creating for their characters together for a cohesive game and narrative. The GM is now able to direct their effort towards creating NPCs, interesting set pieces, and over-arching story arcs that combine the player characters' personal arcs.

The system gives the feeling of being minimal, while still holding unique systems for specific actions/magic, that can give each character type (Order) an individual feel and crunchiness that some players crave.

Overall, I am absolutely pleased with my purchase. I love the system, I love the setting (which I could write thousands of words on but won't) and the breadth of stories that can be told within it.

I understand that the first blush of the sticker price can be a shock. I felt the same way, however I would point out that this isn't just a book or two that makes up the game. You're getting four books, tons of cards, the sooth deck and more.

Tl;dr - I utterly love this game. It puts players in control of what is truly important, and frees the GM to create an amazing story. Absolutely worth the price!

Useful free resource for GM and player alike. Very helpful if you plan on running a game with new people you've never met before or if you want to run a campaign with intense themes.

Great GM screen,

the illustration came in two set (one the the Numenéra logo and one without) wich is a nice thing.

The GM part of the screen is convinient and not pack with too much informations, making it easy to read.

Tha landscape orientation fit raly nicely with the Deluxe Vinyl GM Screen :)