Still the Best Narrative Game

Cypher is still the best narrative game out there. Many newer narrative games become overly "cute" with their mechanics, introducing unnecessary complexity. Daggerheart's "hope and fear" dice are far too granular, happening on every action, which makes the system tiring and overdone. I am not interested in coming up with a "dramatic flourish" for every dagger strike! It is too much. I don't care, nor do I wish to spend the mental energy coming up with hundreds of little good and bad things that happen - especially when they really won't matter in a larger narrative sweep.

The Genesys RPG had the same problem. This was an excellent system that utilized a variety of special dice, producing cool results. Still, it completely fell apart in blow-to-blow combat because the dice had to be reinterpreted with every blow. This worked great for "macro actions" like one roll of the dice to "sneak across town without the guards noticing you," but was terrible in turn-to-turn combat. We wished combat could be handled in one roll, and we could move on with the narrative, as this constant, turn-to-turn reinterpretation got tiring.

Game designers get far too clever for their own good.

Daggerheart remains a good game, boasting beautiful production values and a solid card-based system. It is a highlight of 2025, but it makes a few of the mistakes Genesys did, so I feel a future version will roll back the "narrative granularity" issue and smooth out the system's tight tuning. I like story mechanics in games, but not on every roll.

Game designers will design a "gee whiz" system and then overextend the design to include everything, which will inevitably break at either a very low level or a very high one.

Cypher strikes a good balance, keeping the low-level "blow-by-blow" combat free from narrative hangups, while still allowing for the possibility of narrative intrusions at key, critical moments. The narrative sweep in Cypher has meaning, as they are part of the "narrative currency flow" and are only triggered at significant moments. The XP system is directly tied into GM & Player Intrusions, and those are the tools that the narrative shifts and flows.

You don't have to do this every time you roll the dice. You are not deciphering symbols or comparing the numbers on the dice, and "wondering what happens?" It happens on the macro level, not with every individual die roll. When does the story change? Only at significant milestone moments.

And the system in Cypher is integrated with the XP system, so you can trade off progression for success or buy off complications. Alternatively, you can accept new complications to make the story harder on you, earning net XP as a future resource.

Cypher System makes designing a wide range of character types easy, and it handles these broad, narrative sweeping plots that you see in streaming shows far better than a highly granular game.

Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better!

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/monte-cook-games/cypher-system-faster-easier-and-even-better

The new Cypher System Revised BackerKit is up!

I had a few reservations, but I trust the team, so I am in with the Player's Guide and GM Book slipcase. Keeping backward compatibility is smart. Spread the word, this is a great system, and the best one for narrative mechanics and play, far outshining the alternatives. 

I am Not Feeling the Need

I know, I know, I know...

For a game I bounced off of so hard, that it was impossible for me to learn of several tries, now I am having reservations about a revision to Cypher System?

I love this system for its elegance. I don't want too many extra systems tacked on. Maybe adding a wounding system and a bunch of other "we need this to make a part of the game make sense" will begin to make Cypher like any other game, with armor hit points, wounding tracks, stress tracks, action economies, treed talent branches, and all sorts of other structure and scaffolding that take a game that can be anything and turn it into another 5E-like system.

The ability pools are an elegant resource. I don't need a "wound track" since the difference between losing 2 points from a light weapon attack and spending 2 points to use effort is a huge difference I can track in my head. With the attack, I know that character took damage, and that "assumed wounded condition" exists on that character and I can use GM Intrusions against it.

GM Intrusion, you are leading a blood trail that is easy to track. Here is your XP, and another to hand out.

Spent pool points and lost the same amount of points? The GM Intrusion makes no sense. The character never took damage. Maybe they missed something by being distracted, or are taking deep breaths.

Even losing all a character's pool points with damage means death, while if they spent them all on effort, got to all zeros, and dropped unconscious from exhaustion - I have the freedom to rule that without a wounding pool. I don't need wounds. I know this stuff.

I have more freedom to make rulings without all these extra unneeded pools.

We lose that with a wounding system that "tells players explicitly what wounding is" and the game feels dumbed-down. It creates more to track and manage. With pools, XP, rests, and everything else - we do not need another resource to track! The ones we have will mean less.

I also worry about the narrative economy, please don't add a hope and fear pool system like Daggerheart, what we have with XP is perfect. Don't make "doom points" for monsters to activate abilities, GM Intrusions are the way. I don't want another 5E clone.

I just have a lot of reservations about the direction we are going in.

I want this to be good. 

Cypher Changes

https://montecook.substack.com/p/its-right-there-in-the-name

Monte Cook posted a worthwhile article on Substack about the changes to the cyphers in the game. This is a good read. For my modern games, I had no trouble with manifest or subtle cyphers. I would invent drones, special hacking tools, and all sorts of other things to invent to hand out characters in a modern environment.

OG Cypher is easy enough if you apply yourself and use your imagination. I do fear trying to make the game easier for the 5E crowd, to simplify and dumb it down, to reduce the need for imagination and creativity, will make the game lose its elegance and expressiveness.

I have faith though they can do a good job. 

Cypher Evolved Edition Announced

 

https://www.montecookgames.com/announcing-cyphers-new-evolved-edition/

In 2026, we are getting the next edition of Cypher! This is a nice announcement, as they are keeping backward compatibility while making tweaks to the core system. While I like the version we have today, they are making changes to clarify systems like wounding and other areas to make them easier to understand.

I bounced off this game a few times trying to understand it, so I get the frustration people have with learning the game. When I started, I just did not "get it," and the concepts of "why this is easier" felt alien to me. It seemed like a mess of pools, spending pool points to avoid taking damage to those pool points, and thus taking damage anyway, and a bunch of other unintuitive mechanics.

I want a better new player experience. The current books drop you into the whole system, and it's sink or swim. I sank four times trying to grasp this game.

I am looking forward to this. Cypher remains the best narrative game on the market, and I particularly enjoy the narrative economy and infinite possibilities within its system.

Maybe I Don't Like Wounding Changes

A counter-argument to the wounding changes in Cypher System is that it adds another layer of complexity to the game that it does not need. Those well-versed in Cypher know what the consequences of taking damage are, even if the same mechanical effect happens by spending pool points to avoid it.

If I take a wound, it opens my character up to GM Intrusions based on injuries. Even a roll of one could introduce a lethal complication for a character who has a wound.

If I spend pool points, it does not.

Why do I now need to track a wound pool? That is another thing to keep track of. Taking a game that is so elegant and streamlined, it becomes like all the other games, and possibly worse, since the more we add to it, the more complex the game becomes to play.

I have my ability score pools, my XP, resting, and now wounds to keep track of. At some point, it becomes too much, and the power of each resource diminishes.

Even "death at zero pool points" is up to referee discretion. If I got there by just spending pool points but never got a scratch on me or took one injury, isn't that exhaustion, and I collapse instead of dying?

There is a risk here of overcomplicating things for an audience who will never really grasp this game, nor appreciate the original design's elegance and charm.

Wounding Changes

There was a new Cypher System email updating wound changes. I will leave most of this to the email to lay out, and sign up for the crowdfunding to get them!

The most crucial point is that the wounding system is getting decoupled from the ability score pools.

Finally! Now, there is no conflict between "spending pool points to avoid damage" and "just taking the damage and losing the pool points." They are both the same to many groups, even though I would adjudicate this as "wounds are real narrative things," and they can be sources of extra hindrances and GM Intrusions.

Now, the wounding system is more like "hit point systems" that people are used to, but a bit more abstracted and easier to use. This is a good change overall, and it simplifies the process of taking wounds, making it one less confusing step and more straightforward in a narrative sense.

Pools are pools, and wounds are wounds.