One of the greatest supplements for the cypher system ever! My players and I found these foci weave their way into the story much better then anything monty Cook games has created. Some may say that battle wise they are weaker, but when it comes to flavor and story they are amazing. Who doesn't want to be a merchant or be a red shirt (and die all the time).

There is no reason to over look this one, it has more foci then anything else in the market. They are all crafted well and my players love them

What's In It

The Translation Codex is the first third party supplement for The Strange. It's fitting that for a game based around traveling to different worlds and assuming new abilities for each that the Translation Codex features one hundred new Foci for GMs and players to use. Of course it goes without saying that any fan of Numenera, or any other game using the Cypher System, could use this product to greatly expand the core offerings of Foci for player characters.

From the outset the presentation shows a great deal of forethought. The product is broken into sections of major themes, from paranormal to earthly and more, allowing the GM to quickly find like foci for use with a given recursion. Each foci is formatted for a single page, ensuring that they can easily be printed for use at a table. Chapters also contain a one piece piece of short fiction and a handful of short recursion ideas. Each recursion is only given half a page worth of space and so detail is light, but given that this product isn't geared toward recursions the light detail can be forgiven.

Rather than traditional artwork each foci has an icon, similar in style to the kind of line art one sees on safety signs, and presented in a color that ties it with the themed section to which it belongs. This is an interesting choice, but the art doesn't always sell the foci as well as traditional artwork would. These icons also pose one of the few sore spots in my mind. The oddly shaped icons, are usually placed between the two column layout with text wrapped around them. This results in strange line breaks and a great deal of hyphenated words broken across lines and spaces to accommodate the icons. The focus "Follows the Old Ways" is by far the most guilty in this regard, with the focus' symbol, a crooked staff, being placed in the center of the left hand column, breaking two paragraphs into difficult to read split columns.

But how are the actual foci? Split into five major themes and five minor themes the foci cover a lot of ground thematically. The writing is quite good and with a few exceptions each foci had well balanced Tier 1 offerings. It gets more difficult to assess the utility of the focus powers from higher tiers but none of the foci seemed overly strong or weak. A number of the foci utilized the long term benefits available for purchase with experience as part of their advancement. Gaining a contact or wealth is a nice reward and works well within the foci that utilize such benefits to deepen the thematic tie between mechanics, character, and gameplay.

Of course in any such collection of foci there will be those that stand out and make people want to play them. For my part, I was delighted to see "Brandishes a Death Ray" most of all due to prior gaming experiences. Meanwhile foci like "Bears a Holy Symbol," "Just Won't Die," and "Dies" (yes, you read that right) are all standouts that I would like to try in future games. The foci also go a long way toward showing the flexibility of the Cypher System, with entries like "Dons a Power Suit", "Controls Weather", and "Wields Cosmic Power" showing that the Cypher System could host a superheroes game as easily as it can low fantasy and high concept science fiction.

Closing Thoughts

One of the most common complaints I have heard about The Strange since launch is that the number of available foci within the game is small when split across the three major recursions. With the release of The Translation Codex that shouldn't continue to be a problem. Containing one hundred new foci this third party supplement ensures that GMs and players will have access to a wealth of foci for nearly any recursion they could hope to visit. Some formatting issues do create some clumsy word and/or line breaks, but only in rare cases is this more than an annoyance. The quality, variety, and number of foci this product provides more than make this product a worthwhile (and value packed) addition to Cypher System games.

Score: 90% - A fine addition to the Strange (or any game using the Cypher system).

Author's note: A complimentary review copy of this product was provided for the purposes of this review.

Yet another excellent supplement for Numenera, this one focusing on the down and dirty, the cruel and cunning, the criminal element. Like Whisper Campaigns before it, this adds some Descriptors and Foci to the mix, a variety of groups with which to flavor your campaign, and a bit more fleshing out for a specific setting within the Ninth World. Like the ten great houses in the political supplement, the crime organizations laid out all have that touch of weirdness that makes this much more than 'yet another fantasy gaming book'.

(Included is a chapter on the likes of the City Watch and those whose role it is to pursue the criminal element! Appropriately enough, the title is "Watch Keepers", which makes me think of Discworld and Sir Samuel Vimes, for no particularly clear reason. There are some descriptors and foci for the lawkeepers as well, and a number of useful organizations to give them their marching orders.)

If you intend to have a campaign involving less than legal activity, unscrupulous skullduggery of a mercantile nature, and general shenanigans that don't involve the thud and blunder of great houses butting heads with a Crown, then you probably want to pick this one up.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this for review purposes but have no other connection to Ryan Chaddock Games.

In a nutshell: wow! Just plain wow! This is a very useful supplement, fully in line with the high quality I'm coming to expect from anything from Ryan Chaddock Games. You aren't likely to use every single one of these options over the course of your group's flirtations with the Strange, but there's bound to be something that will come into play for your group.

I'd put this down on list as a must-have for the GMly toolbox or reference library!

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of The Translation Codex free as a review copy, other than that I have no connection to Ryan Chaddock Games.

SUMMARY: If you want extra foci and genre-based recursion ideas for your ‘The Strange’ game, buy this pdf, it’s a bargain and has a great deal of useful content.

WHAT YOU GET: As it says in the description, there are 100 foci, grouped thematically together in a variety of genres. The format and layout is as per the preview, although what that doesn't show you is the 1-page-per-foci layout. Each of these 1-page layouts follows the format of foci from The Strange core book and is illustrated with a unique icon, colour-coded for the genre/setting. These illustrations are basic, and some are better than others, but they are consistent and give the pdf a unified look and feel. WHAT I LIKE: The Translation Codex is useful on a couple of levels. Firstly, it provides a set of pretty interesting new recursions, of the 18 described I’d certainly use half of them with no alterations whatsoever. Secondly, it not only provides a lot of new foci, but it also categorises them by recursion/genre and also references the existing foci from the core book.

This plugs a gap in the core book, I found the number of Earth foci a little low and although a great number of other recursions are mentioned, the small number of foci available from the core book means that the recursions don’t have enough to distinguish them from each other. By adding selected foci from The Translation Codex, I feel I’d be able to further distinguish between the recursions listed in the core book.

This actually goes to a slightly hidden aspect of The Strange that this pdf really made me consider – the ‘distinctiveness’ of a Recursion is partly in its overall description, also in its Traits, but from a player perspective, the key differentiator is in the available foci –these really bring the genre of each recursion to life.

WHAT I WAS LESS SURE ABOUT: Some foci seemed a little underpowered, but that’s hard to assess without actually using them in play. My overall feeling was that I’d want to select the available foci for a given recursion quite carefully, depending on its genre. For the most part I think The Translation Codex has done this quite well.

OVERALL: This is a very solid product, absolutely great value and intelligently put together. If this was available in POD, I’d get myself a hardcopy.

Excluding the obvious cross-use for a Numenera game, or the fact that you could use it to play in your own setting before the Cypher System Rulebook comes out, The Translation Codex provides a lot of meat for your Strange game. The foci are as useable with the recursions in the main book as they are useful in creating your own. It stands alone, and provides a much needed expansion for The Strange line. At .05 cents a foci, The Translation Codex is an amazing deal.

Magarchy is RCG's first FATE outing, but they've already got a real handle on the game. It's not their wheelhouse but they've managed to leverage their talent for evocative settings and dynamic narrative into a solid game.

The Setting: The pseudo-cyberpunk re-imagining of Renaissance Europe is a bit esoteric, but after a good read it lends itself well to political intrigue. They've clearly put some energy into researching the era and happily convert a handful of historical figures into scheming wizards ready to be thrown at PC's. The three factions are unique (the nobles, the church, and the druids) although it seems like it'd be hard to have a party with characters from both the church and the druids. That having been said, each faction has enough depth to allow for a pretty diverse cast of characters even with only two of the factions in play.

The Rules: Aiding this political set-up is the introduction of a Reputation stress track, one of a few new rules presented in the book. The new stress track is a simple and unobtrusive way to handle social conflicts and consequences. As would be expected for the setting, Magarchy also presents a couple of magic skills: one for each of the major factions. Other than that Magarchy doesn't stray too far from FATE's rule-set, making it accessible to new FATE players. It's nice to see a FATE product that doesn't bog itself down with reams of complications to the core rules.

Overall: RCG's first FATE product is a great game for those with interest in historical fantasy or political intrigue. Hopefully we'll see more from them in this rule-set or genre soon.

Wits Alone is chock full of great mechanics, advice, and campaign fodder. Also, if Uxphon sounds familiar, it is the city that the Devil’s Spine starts off in. Which just adds to the utility of this book. The information in it enables you to flesh out the story before and after the official campaign, and perhaps send it spinning off in strange new directions. Check it out!

This was my first purchase from Ryan Chaddock Games. It won't be the last.

Where do I start? This is an incredible bit of work! From advice about building player character involvement in matters political, to an entirely new application for the Cipher System that handles the ins and outs of dirty political tricks (courtly version), to a collection of noble houses and knightly orders as strange and weird and wonderfully diverse as the rest of the setting, there's just too much good stuff here.

As someone who likes a touch of the ol' Machiavelli in his plotlines, I am greatly pleased to say that the Great Houses in this book are structured to reflect the Ninth World in a way that makes even the 'tried and true' sort of political plotline stand out a little bit more.

Definitely worth the time to peruse! There's a surprising amount of good material in a short book--I was expecting a bit more filler, in fact, and was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.

I don't normally involve the gods (or equivalent) in my games, but if interacting with the irascible and ineffable is a cornerstone of your vision of the Ninth World, then this is a good set of things to add to your toolbox. The additional ciphers and character options are all entirely too useful, and should one of my players take to a focus like Resurrects Dead Gods I may have to reconsider my usual reluctance to bring the likes of Zeus to bear on my heroes.

Celestial Wisdom played a key part in shaping my current Numenera campaign. I read this right around the time I was setting up the campaign, and the dead data gods proved a perfect fit for my campaign. It served to provide a long running subplot for one of my players that is still playing out.

I bought this product back when it was initially released. At the time, I was feeling that there were a real lack of adventure ideas for Numenera for me to use in my own games. This product came at the perfect time, providing me with a large variety of new adventure ideas to draw upon.

Angels and Ashes contains a fantastic range of new foci for Numenera. I had a player who was struggling to decide on a role and direction for his character. Angels and Ashes gave me just the focus I needed to help him better mold his abilities in the direction he was looking to take the character.

An excellent product, in my humble opinion.

The chapter about the noble houses in itself is worth far more than five bucks, and i instantly adopted it in my campaign set in the city of Charmonde. The different factions works perfectly well in a big city, and the more military ones are perfect with the nearby war against the gaians.

If i have to regret something, it's that the author is not working with Monte Cook directly. His work is top notch quality and could be included in some of the core books of the numenera game line, IMHO.

A must have for any seasoned gamers who are looking for a campaign with more than raiding and fighting.

More then game mechanics this great suplement is a great tool for GMs who want to take intriges inside their campaign. A lot os setting material tool.

Ryan Chaddock Games nailed it. Again.