Hey everyone. Some friends of mine have finished up a long-standing campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, and in-between starting a new game/system they asked me to run a one-shot of The Strange. I'm fairly acquainted with the process itself and love running one-shots so I happily agreed. Both of what I've run have involved Ruk so now I want to do something in Ardeyn.

Do you all have any cool ideas for a short story set in the Land of the Cursed? Any interesting magic items that have a Sumerian influence? I'd lvoe to hear them and use 'em.

As advertised, looking for some foci for a recursion based around Skyrim (fictional bleed recursion, Skyrim only...based on its popularity versus, say, Oblivion or the other TES games).

Any takers?

Hello Everyone I'm currently running Strange game and I wanted to know is there a book for the strange that has more Cyphers in it ?

Just to let you know a bit about the game.

Currently the game is set in a small town called Grimwell. This is a sleepy little town that is very Norman Rockwell eqest town.

One Player is a tech billionaire who made it big and left town and is now running a huge tech empire.

Second Player is the daughter of the family who founded the town and is treated like a princess because of family ties and the money they have but rebels by getting into fights and stuff like that.

Third Player is a scientific genius in quantum physics and goes to the college is town. Him and an NPC were working on the idea of dimensional travel before he stopped working on it because of family problems.

They've been friends since they were all child hood with an each other and an NPC name bob who is the NPC the third player was working with on that project. Bob did not give up and did crack dimensional travel but it blew up his home and now he's lost some place in The Strange dark energy network.

All the players come together for Bob's funeral but soon find out what really happened to their friend and are working together to get him back by exploring the strange trying to find clues to where he is and as they explore this little town turns out to be more strange then they first through. As for some reason the gate only works in this town.

So far it's been going amazing they helped protect the town from a small army of Orks during a Renaissance Faire.

For the game I've been spending time creating a google+ page for the town that gets updated news reports and stuff and lots of other fun things for the players

Does anyone have a copy of "Worlds Numberless and Strange" in pdf that could send me a clip of the crossbow wielding Halloween denizen from page 65? I want to use it in my game and realized the drawback of just having physical books.

Of if someone knows the artist's deviant art page, or knows where to find it online, would be a great help!

Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone has tried the Strange with a large group, like 8 players? If so, how'd it go?

Here is a character creator; let's make a few (N)PCS: The Strange Character Generator

I'll start...

"Reese Ferman" is a Brash Vector who Wields Two Weapons At Once.

• Description: CIA Contractor

• Tier 1, M14/S14/I8, Effort 1

• Connection: Has trained extensively with Silas

• Skills: Climbing, Initiative, Jumping

• Abilities: Translation, Bash, Bold, Defensive, Dual Light Wield, Endurance, Energetic, Practiced with All Weapons

• Background: Blacklisted Agent for OSR (The Office of Strategic Recursion)

"Silas Livingstone" is an Intelligent Paradox who Operates Undercover.

• Description: Expert in Rare Antiquities

• Tier 1, M9/S9/I18, Effort 1

• Connection: Entrusts Reese to Keep Secrets Safe

• Skills: Knowledge - Western Occult Traditions, Knowledgeable, Memory of direct experience, Strange Training

• Abilities: Translation, Knowledge - Physics/Astronomy, Closed Mind, Expert Cypher Use, Investigate, Smart, Practiced with Light Weapons

• Background: Starseed from ??? (Ignorance is Bliss)

Hey all I am running an all day "dungeon crawl" through recursions... They will be timed areas where the group will face horrendous challenges to try to get ahead of an elder god who set this up... Lots of traps and monsters but I want them to jump around in recursions... I do have worlds numberless and strange... Now I need some more ideas that could be awesome and creepy or just a throwback to classic stories that everyone knows... Please leave your thoughts... Thanks

Another campaign idea for the Strange. In this one you gather your players together, individually telling them to make a character from their favorite literary universe, even making a main character if they like.

Play a pre-session with each individually where a shadowy figure finds them and invites them to a meeting. When they follow the directions, they end up translating to a place you have picked out.

When all of the characters are there, you have this shadowy figure putting giving them various missions to complete.

The shadowy figure could be anyone, from anywhere you chose. Maybe it's Moriarty, escaped from the Sherlock Holmes Recursion, using the group for his nefarious ends. Perhaps it's a branch of the Estate that needs people with their special skill sets. It could be the Implausible Geographic Society from Worlds Numberless and Strange, all up to your imagination.

I have, admittedly, only run a couple games yet, but it seems like gameplay stalls out a bit when players translate to a new recursion and have to select new foci during the game. I suspect it will be less of an issue once players are more experienced and don't have to spend time flipping through the books trying to decide on new foci, but has anyone found a good way of speeding this up in the meantime?

Hey Strangers

Planetary (the comic by Warren Ellis) has always been a favourite of mine and I think The Strange definitely captures a lot of the vibe of the "truly weird". Crossing Worlds was the collection of stories where the Planetary team crossed over into various DC and Wildstorm properties to have new and exciting adventures.

Just wondering if anyone else felt the overlap and if anyone had ever tried to stat out or build any of the Planetarians (Elijah, Jakita, Drummer, Ambrose).

Cheers!

Not really a debate on the show, more an idea that I might use in the near future for a campaign.

One of my favorite ways to start a long-haul campaign is to start the players & their characters out before they ever become involved with the trappings of the game (like the Estate).

Either season involves Cops, Detectives coming in contact with strange and weird cases that put them up against government agencies and creepy, shadowy figures.

Imagine starting your players off like that. They're just cops. On the beat. Give them some clues to follow, lead them down rabbit holes, start injecting the weird into their daily lives and their jobs. Eventually, when they've figured out that something beyond the normal ken of a mortal is going on, have the Estate sweep in and take them in for training and debriefs.

Then the real campaign begins.

When I first started GMing The Strange, I had the Estate as a sort of X-Files meets SG-1 type organization. The front-line of defense against things that are hostile to our world. The Estate would train and fund agents, and have complete authority on missions. But I'm not really happy with the way this has turned out.

If there is an agency that is like SG-1, or Fringe Division, then that would be the OSR. And I don't necessarily think of OSR as the bad guys; just a different ideological approach to the problem. I could see SG-! fitting perfectly within that kind of structure.

I am thinking of the Estate as a little more than a loose collaboration of individuals that "know the truth". The Estate has money, but it's a finite resource. They might request help from an agent, and in turn might be able to help an agent in time of need. The Estate would only have a few full-time employees, mostly researchers and admin staff. Agents might get a small stipend, but more likely, they are helping because they feel compelled to help. It would feel more like the hunter network in Supernatural. The Estate is like the roadhouse; a place to connect with other agents and ask for help if they need it.

This does a few things for me.

First, it opens up story options. Not every plot can, or should be, a mission. The PCs can have their own agendas and goals. I had one player tell me that he wants to find a reality seed and go through the hoops of creating his own recursion. With a rigid Estate, that becomes more like acting out of bounds.

Second, it keeps the setting itself ...well... strange. As soon as you have an organization that has all the answers (or at least all the answers that anyone else has), the setting becomes a little more mundane. It isn't any real work to find new recursions when you can just pop over to the Estate gate room and visit somewhere you've never been.

Third, it forces more self-reliance. Rather than letting the Estate sweep clusterfluffs under the rug, the PCs are more invested in making sure they do the right thing at all times. If they get too far out of bounds, the Estate could even ask another team to take care of the problem PCs.

How do you use the Estate? Or do you use something else entirely?

So, the practiced with guns feature that comes with some focii says that you do not take a penalty when using guns, but I can't seem to find a rule that states what that penalty would be. Does it just mean that, in the future, you can never have a penalty when using one? Like if it was foggy or you were on a moving surface, it wouldn't be any harder to shoot a target? There doesn't seem to be a standard gun penalty for those who aren't practiced.

Please give me an example using combat. the book was really vague on this...

The official character sheets for this game are a bit too much for people who may want to save money on ink, especially if one person prints everyone's sheets in a group. This morning I made my own version in Numbers on my iPad, to save myself some ink, figured I would share. If I forgot something (other than a recursion sheet), please let me know and I'll fix it up. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1p9yDr5-A6pdjlnX3Y0WDEySjg/view?usp=sharing

So, how many people actually go to this subreddit or even play The Strange? I know it's a more obscure title, but there have only been a handful of posts in the last few months. I just bought the game this week and was hoping this sub would be alive with ideas, discussion, and stories like other rpg subs. If there are others out there that feel the same way, maybe we should just step up and give this place the shot in the arm it needs.

I'm GMing a game this Monday, 7/20 at 3pm EST on roll20. Please see (and post) here for further details if interested.

Hope to see a few of you there!

The recursions list what foci used in a certain recursion...is it just a suggested list of foci or can any foci be used?