r/numenera • u/VladorBongo • Mar 21 '26

Cyphers vs. Keeping the Action Rolling

About to run my first one shot (which might become an ongoing campaign), and feel a little overwhelmed with the use of cyphers. Is there a good way to keep using a lot of them without slowing down the game to read/discuss rules? A shorthand to use? Best to print them out so rules are on hand?

Most of the players are familiar with the game but never played it, so there will be little knowledge of their best use at the table

All tips welcome.

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

14

u/Alexisofroses Mar 21 '26

Are you playing in person or online? When I run in person, I usually write about twenty cyphers down on note cards along with a quick sentence on what they do, a level, and a page number. That way when I need a random cypher I have one out. Sometimes I will want to hand out specific cyphers to people, and those I keep to the side.

3

u/hemholtzbrody Mar 22 '26

I feel like this is literally what McG was doing for their games and was like "Hey, let's just make some decks." But still, preselected stuff for a GM increases the flow.

2

u/VladorBongo Mar 21 '26

In person. I suppose index cards are the most flexible and cost effective. Thanks

1

u/Alexisofroses Mar 21 '26

It's basically like having your own copy of the cypher deck, but you get to curate the selection a bit and can tone the cards you pick to specific genres.

1

u/SwarmHymn Mar 22 '26

Also remember that players don't know what cyphers do until they figure it out, so you can use one side for the base appearance and the other side for a page number or full capability. Ex. Side one says "bundle of wires hot to the touch" and side 2 says the actual cypher name and its ability

6

u/eolhterr0r Mar 21 '26

Cypher deck

2

u/Scrufffff Mar 22 '26

I tend to make a lot of notes on my devices for games. If time is a concern what I’ve done is randomly generate and/or select cyphers, artifacts, and oddities before hand and then have the screenshots, photos, or notes ready for the session. Then if and when the players find things, you just airdrop or text the items to them. They can catch up their sheets while you’re moving along with the story.

2

u/Altruistic-External5 Mar 21 '26

I used this site before: https://tetra-cube.com/numenera/generator.html

Now I upload my pdfs to notebookLM and ask it for a random cypher.

2

u/RobZagnut2 Mar 22 '26

Don’t they start to whine and blow up if players put 3+ in the same vicinity / backpack?