I Could Not Learn This Game...

When I first got Cypher, I felt I had wasted my money. I could not learn this game. I bounced off many of the concepts. I did not understand the sentence-based character creation system, how edges and effort worked, the pools, what easing was, how the descriptors worked, or anything else about the game.

I tried twice and failed both times.

I should have started with the Rules Primer (above), but I was an idiot and tried to start with the core rulebook. Looking back, I should have started with the Primer and learned the basics the first time.

There was something I learned from more crunchy systems, how things were supposed to work, the six ability scores, armor class, hit points, and skills. I needed those frameworks to play a role-playing game. My mind felt programmed to think of things one way, and I could not break out of that mold.

Years of D&D, GURPS, Palladium, Pathfinder, and other systems had forced me into a rigid, inflexible, one-way-is-right style of thinking. A role-playing game has to be one way!

And I kept stumbling over the Cypher System concepts. Difficulty times three, and roll that on a d20 or higher. What do you add to the roll? Where are my modifiers? What is easing and hindering? How does a monster attack? What do I do for initiative? And so on.

What frustrated me the most was watching YouTube and seeing people praise the game as the one they would take to a desert island. I couldn't understand the game, yet I wondered why people were praising it so much.

I had to slow down, read the game paragraph by paragraph, and force myself to understand it all. I tried creating a character, and that helped. The book's extensive cross-referencing was extremely helpful, and I could easily jump to the relevant pages to make my selections. I still did not understand the game, but at least I had a valid character. That was frustrating, because there was so much I wanted to do!

Then, I made a few rolls against challenges. There isn't the concept of an ability, save, or skill roll in the game, and that was one of my biggest hang-ups. The game has no skill list? But it has skills. The cliff in front of you is rated with a difficulty number.

• Do you have a skill that would help?
• Do you have an asset (equipment or beneficial situations) that would help?
• Are you spending points (effort) to reduce the difficulty of a pool?

Skills and assets can only ease the difficulty by two each. Effort reduces it by a maximum of the character's edge in that score, and the pool cost must be paid (make notes of the price above one level). Oh, this is starting to get easier. The ability scores are pools, and edge reduces the cost, providing the maximum level of ease when effort is spent.

Once I learned initiative and how effort could raise damage, how monsters worked, and the special numbers of the d20, I knew the game. That was it. Once you understand both character creation and how to make the rolls, you are 90% of the way there. Do not give up!

I played this solo extensively, and it is one of the best solo systems on the market. Use one of your dice as an oracle, and you are all set. Rating challenges is easy. The game plays amazingly fast and gives instant, cinematic results.

Then, I played with my sister, who is a first-time role-player, does not grasp things quickly, and has never really liked games like this. It was an instant hit for her, and it became her favorite game. We had a great time and laughed for hours with this. She grasped all the concepts, and she did all her own dice rolls. She knew how to strategize and use her abilities. She knew how all the systems worked together and what she could do. The grasp of the game she had was far faster than mine, and it was an instant to take to the game.

I, a long-time role-player, had these "ways things work" burned into my head by other games, and I could not break free of them. She had a much easier time.

Stick with Cypher, you can learn this.

It will become a favorite game of yours once you do.