The Void Repository will be based on Numenera: Discovery and Numenera: Destiny. And whatever other resources the GM happens to acquire.  And the ongoing weirdness that players make up as we go along.

For now, allowable Types are: Arkus, Delve, Glaive, Jack, Nano, Wright.

All Descriptors and Foci from Discovery and Destiny are available.  It is preferred to eliminate overlap of these, if possible.

If you have a Descriptor, Type, or Focus you really, really want to play that does not appear above, please discuss this with the GM during character creation.  The ability to cite a source and copy or share the pertinent information will likely help your case and be necessary if your choice is allowed.

The game will start in earnest when we have 3-5 active, ready players.  Characters will begin at Tier 3.  Explanations of XP use for Tier advancement will be discussed for each Tier during character creation.  Please submit your first character sheet as Tier 1 and we'll discuss the upgrades during character generation.

Some initial experience points may be awarded for good backstories.  Well-written posts and character development are always appreciated.

It is hoped that players will post at least once or twice a week.  The GM will likely check in daily.

People unfamiliar with Numenera and/or the Cypher system are encouraged to apply.  We're all learning as we go and tutorial information will be made available as needed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:32, Sat 07 Sept 2019.

A billion years in the future ...

"There have been eight previous worlds.  You may refer to them as ages, aeons, epochs, or eras, but it's not wrong to think of each as its own individual world.  Each former world stretched across vast millennia of time.  Each played host to a species whose civilizations rose to supremacy but eventually died or scattered, disappeared or transcended.  During the time that each world flourished, those who ruled it spoke to the stars, reengineered their physical bodies, and mastered form and essence, all in their own unique ways.

"Each left behind remnants.

"The Ninth World is built on the bones of the previous eight, and in particular the last four.  Reach into the dust and you'll find that each particle has been worked, manufactured, or grown, and then ground back into drit - a fine artificial soil - by the relentless power of time.  Look to the horizon - is that a mountain, or part of an impossible monument tot he forgotten emperor of a lost people?  Feel that subtle vibration beneath your feet and know that ancient engines - vast machines the size of kingdoms - still operate in the bowels of the earth.

"The Ninth World is about discovering the wonders of the worlds that came before it, not for their own sake, but as the means to improve the present and build a future.

"Each of the prior eight worlds, in its own way, is too distant, too different, too incomprehensible.  Life today is too dangerous to dwell on a past that cannot be understood.  The people excavate and study the marvels of the prior epochs just enough to help them survive in the world they have been given.  They know that energies and knowledge are suspended invisibly in the air, that reshaped continents of iron and glass - below, upon, and above the earth - hold vast treasures and that secret doorways to stars and other dimensions and realms provide power and secrets and death.  They sometimes call it magic, and who are we to say that they're wrong?"

-from Numenera: Discovery by Monte Cook, Bruce R. Cordell, and Sean K. Reynolds.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:56, Tue 03 Sept 2019.

Below is a basic template for character sheets.  Please do not use grey text in character sheets.

A(n) [adjective] [noun] that [verbs]  (i.e. A Descriptor Type that Focus)

Character name:
Tier:
Effort:
Armor:
Recovery:
Recovery rolls used:
(a. 1 action / b. 10 min / c. 1 hr / d. 10 hr)

Might Pool:
Current:
Edge:

Speed Pool:
Current:
Edge:

Intellect Pool:
Current:
Edge:

Skills:
example - T
example - S

Inabilities:


Type and Focus Abilities (Esoteries, Fighting Moves, etc.):
name (cost) - brief description

Distinctive and Beneficial Mutations:


Harmful Mutations:


Cosmetic Mutations:


Items:
list of (starting) mundane stuff.

Weapons:
weapon name - light/medium/heavy, short/medium/long range, damage = #, ammunition count

Oddities:
Name and/or brief description

Cypher Max:
Cypher 1: name (level) - brief description
Cypher 2:
etc

Artifacts:
name (level) - brief description

Money Log:

XP Log: (i.e. what you got it for and what you spent it on)

Numenera uses the Cypher System.  The link below offers an explanation of how this works.  The link is through Monte Cook Games website.

http://cypher-system.com/gameplay/

I find it useful to delineate a few things in the in-game threads using colored text.

Please use orange only for OOC comments and put OOC: at the start of them.

It can sometimes help if Player Character (PC) dialog is in color, usually with each character having their own color, but any consistent means of separating out dialog is helpful.  If there is some color that is harder for a player to read, we can sort that out as we go.

Just a bit of clarification for the sake of choosing skills, there are 3* categories of Numenera activity that can be trained:

Understanding Numenera - what they are, how they work, what level they are, and occasionally what civilization they come from (ex. identifying a cypher you found)

Crafting Numenera - Building new devices with new parts; how to create a reliable effect/product with a given set of materials and plans (ex. building an installation from plans you have)  This also includes repairing numenera.*

Salvaging Numenera - Taking apart existing technology (whole or broken) in such a way as to extract useful constituent parts like Iotum (the Numenera-y stuff), mundane parts (like pipes and wires and plates and such), and shins.  This process can occasionally yield oddities, cyphers, and even plan seeds. (ex. taking apart the remnants of a defensive automaton that you've "killed" to get at the fun bits inside)


Additionally:
For sake of some expediency and to leave the level of entanglement slightly more manageable, a character is ok to proceed with only one connection to another PC determined.  It's totally fine if more than one works and is played, but don't sweat it past the first one.

Each player can pick one Cypher for themselves.  GM will determine the Oddity and remaining Cyphers.

For initial weapon "proficiencies", Practiced means you can use that weapon category with no penalty, but also no bonus.  It is possible, especially for glaives and jacks, to get Trained/Specialized in a more specific weapon category.

If you have any questions, as always, please feel free to ask.

* updated from original post.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:11, Thu 12 Sept 2019.

Numenera Destiny adds community effects and rankings.  Each Type also has a positive effect on the ranking of communities they are helping, related to pertinent skills.  For the Glaives, Nanos, and Jacks without easy access to Destiny, your Tier 1 and Tier 3 Community Abilities are as follows and should be added to your character sheets.

Caveat:  It is entirely possible that these attributes will have no effect on the game at all.  (But hey, what do I know?  I just run the thing.)

Glaive- Community Defender: While you are present within a community, and actively and personally working on behalf of that community, the community's effective rank for damage inflicted is +1.  Enabler.

Improved Community Defender: A community continues to modify its effective rank for damage inflicted by +1.  However, you do not need to be constantly present in and actively working on behalf of the community for it to gain this benefit; it gains it merely because of your past defense of the community.  Enabler.

Nano- Community Scholar: While you are present within a community, and actively and personally working on behalf of that community, that community's health and infrastructure are both increased by +1.  Enabler.

Improved Community Scholar: A community continues to modify its effective health and infrastructure by +1 rank.  However, you do not need to be constantly present in and actively working on behalf of the community for it to gain this benefit; it gains it merely because of your past efforts on the community's behalf.  Enabler.

Jack-  Community Fixer: While you are present within a community, and actively and personally working on behalf of that community, the community's effective rank for health or infrastructure is increased by +1.  You choose which is modified during any given community action. Enabler.

Improved Community Fixer: A community continues to modify its health or infrastructure by +1 rank.  However, you do not need to be constantly present in and actively working on behalf of the community for it to gain this benefit; it gains it merely because of your past efforts on the community's behalf.  Whichever stat you modified last remains active until you return and modify it to something else.
 Enabler.

Based on my reading of the Mutant "descriptor", you can create a mutant with either:


2 beneficial mutations

or

1 harmful mutation and either:
      3 beneficial mutations
or   1 powerful mutation
or   1 beneficial and 1 distinctive mutation

Independent of the above, you can have 0 to 4 distinctive mutations.

You may choose up to 4 cosmetic mutations. (GM's discretion)


You must decide before rolling which aspects will be determined.  I will allow rerolls for duplicate results or conflicting results (ex. scales and hirsute, or tendrils for eyes and black eyes)

It is possible to overcome an Inability.

If you take training in a skill that you have an inability for, that benefit and detriment net out and you end up with zero effect on the roll.

You can then take Training in that area again, followed by Specialization, to fully max out that particular skill.

Players will have at least nominal affiliation with one formal group, organization, powerful noble, or government.  They may be members or loyal hired hands.  They will be acting for the benefit of this greater entity.

The initial set of players will collectively determine whose interests they will be furthering with their blood, sweat, and tears.

This is likely to be a dangerous mission, so the characters may be down on their luck and slightly desperate, shamed in the eyes of the organization and looking to redeem themselves, lower class/caste people looking to prove themselves/claw their way up, or some other variety of poor and desperate or redemption-seeking zealotry.

Possibilities include:

The Order of Truth - working at the direction of the Amber Papacy, PCs will be helping to establish a new research clave, ideally to learn information to benefit the citizens of the Steadfast, and strengthen the Aeon Priests' influence in Malevich.

The Convergence - PCs will try to create a defensible fortress, foundation of a Sanctum yet to be designed, that would allow magisters and magistrices to glean secrets of power left behind by the Voidgliders and their inscrutable pilots.

Amber Gleaners - Hoping to create a fully independent field station and command control of the information and riches within, PCs would help the Gleaners establish a library and workshop to base exploration of the installation and perhaps create a trading post to fund further operations.

The League - Seeing the installation as an opportunity to draw many factions to the same location, the League is hoping to create a base of cooperative research ventures, bringing various competing factions together, strengthening the ties between far flung communities and the powerful people who hold sway there.

The Nation of Malevich - Acting under orders from Regent Ellabon, the PCs will try to establish the base in hopes of strengthening her government, as well as increasing the prosperity, stability, and/or defensibility of the citizens of Malevich.  Who knows what great secrets might be revealed by the humans staggering out of that strange chasm?

Other - Players can hash out thoughts in OOC and we'll work from that.  A specific organization and clear agenda should be part of this.

Update: The starting players have chosen to work with the Order of Truth.  No PC will start out as a full-fledged Aeon Priest, but can work toward that.  All PCs should be designated as Order (within the hierarchy of the Order of Truth and working toward Priesthood) or Independent (a reliable contractor or hired help that has worked with the Order before, but has no aspirations to be an Aeon Priest), player's choice.  Your character can always change their mind as events unfold, but that will come with consequences (as will not changing their mind.  That's just how the world works.).
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:37, Sun 15 Sept 2019.

This game has been marked as Mature as it may contain mature themes, strongly emotional content, and/or somewhat graphic depictions of violence.  This would likely fall somewhere between PG-13 and R ratings, if we were talking US movie ratings.

It is entirely possible that posts will not contain this "mature" content, but I'm acknowledging the possibility that they will.

For anyone interested in a more-informed gaming experience, I would recommend the following:

https://www.montecookgames.com/consent-in-gaming/

It's a free 13 page document on consent as it applies to RPG groups.  If anyone wants to "fill out" the checklist and submit it, I will certain work to respect that.  Mostly I'd be looking for red flags and things to actively avoid so as not to make Players uncomfortable.

Characters, on the other hand, I have no qualms about traumatizing.

Long term tasks, as listed in Destiny (with duration).  Not all of these options would be suitable/likely choices for this campaign (or this time in this campaign).  If you want more info on a given choice, just ask.  If you have a long term task in mind not listed, please ask.  Approved tasks will be added to this list.

Any character:

Build up food or water stores (1 month)- collect 1d6 days of food or water for everyone in the community.
Craft object or structure (time varies)
Discover new area of interest (1 month)- difficulty 5 task, locates a prior world ruin or some other area of interest that can be explored or salvaged during regular gameplay.
Enhance community happiness (1 month)- permanently increases the community health by 1.  Actions include things like regularly entertaining citizens, providing sweets and treats, hosting friendly games and competitions, etc.
Establish satellite settlement (time varies)
Focus on an ability (1 month) train in a fighting move, esotery, precept, etc.  Practice this ability to become Trained in it.  Cannot use this long term task to become Specialized.
Gain experience (1 month)- by practicing, studying, etc., a character can gain 1 XP per month.
General maintenance (1 month) spend time providing general repairs to existing structures, roads, etc.  Permanently increases community infrastructure rating by 1.
Help another PC (time varies)- Support another PC with a task.  If a roll is required, this eases the roll.  Both PCs gain the benefit of the task.
Create a relationship (1 month)- find and gain a friend/lover/spouse of (level x months spent).  Gain one point in one stat pool.  The relationship must be maintained, or the stat point is lost, and decreases a further point for the next 3 months.
Raise a child (time varies)
Recruit a follower (1 month per level of follower)
Relax or pursue hobbies (1 month)- recharge and relax.  After a month of this, a character may ease all tasks for one day of their choosing for each month they relax.  Benefit cannot be gained more than twice in a 12 month period.
Scavenge iotum (1 month)- searching in relatively safe, nearby areas, character gains 2 units of iotum from the iotum results table each month, never higher than level 4.
Treat with a neighbor community (1 month)- Difficulty 5 task.  Set up a meeting with the leader of a community within 1 week's travel.  Various outcomes can be sought and will likely be role-played for the meeting.

Arkus Tasks:
Demonstrate grace under pressure (2 months)
Cultivate followers (4 months)

Delve Tasks:
Prospect for Iotum (1 month)- As Scavenge for Iotum, but gain 4 units of Iotum up to level 5.
Find Specific Iotum (1 month)- Search for specific iotum, with a task difficulty equal to the level of iotum sought.  Earns one result from the Iotum Result Table.

Glaive Tasks:
Train defenders (2 months)
Teach martial skills (4 months)

Jack Tasks:
Develop community networks (1 month)- work with various community members to improve overall community social functioning.  Eases tasks to become aware of internal problems, etc.  In addition, the Jack gains 2d20 shins or 1d10 io, Jack's choice.
Develop external networks (1 month)- keeping a stealthy eye on nearby communities, abhuman colonies, etc.  Reduces the benefits to an ambushing horde.

Nano Tasks:
Develop kommunity knowledge (4 months)- Permanently increases community rank by 1 for understanding and using numenera.
Operate workshop (1 month)- establish a business to collect, fix, upgrade, and help keep in order minor numenera items, like oddities.  Provides the community with +1 infrastructure each month operated.  In addition, the Nano gains one oddity (01-70%), cypher (71-90%), or artifact (91-00%) each month operated.

Wright Tasks:
Craft objects or structures (time varies)- as above, includes crafting numenera
Find or develop a specific plan (1 month)- roll difficulty equal to the minimum level of the plan developed/sought.
Operate workshop (1 month)- as the Nano task, but objects gained are oddity (01-30%), cypher (31-70%), or artifact (71-00%) each month of operation.

Just a reminder that XP for character advancement costs 4 points each.  You may only choose a given upgrade once per Tier advancement.  Four of the following upgrades are necessary to advance to the next tier:

Add 1 to Edge in one stat
Add 4 points to your stats (you choose)
Add 1 to Effort (increase the levels of effort you can apply to a roll)
Train in 1 skill or Specialize in an existing skill
Learn a new Ability in your current Tier or lower for either your Type or Focus
Permanently increase your Recovery rolls by +2 (house rule, you may only take this a maximum of 3 times)