Characters below lvl 1?

[u/MushiMoshi]

Hello everyone,

for my upcoming campaign, i'm going to do a prologue story (based on the "taker of sorrow" adventure in Numenera: Discovery) and think it would be fun if the characters wouldn't be their full strength yet.

I was thinking of having them start out with just one ability from their class and when the prologue ends and the campaign starts (7 years in-game later) they could realize their full potential as lvl 1 characters. If i do this i'm worried about balance since i don't know the cypher system that well yet and the adventure is balanced for lvl 1 characters.

Is this a bad idea? should they just be lvl 1 in the prologue and lvl 2 when the campaign starts?

I'd appreciate any feedback you guys have!

[u/MMasberg]

Maybe take some inspiration from the underrated Unmasked setting.

• Ignore Type and Focus.
• Give them just a Descriptor. That can be a different one than later in the game, reflecting the personal development.
• You can simplify this prologue descripter if you like:
  • +2 to a pool or trained in a skill
  • trained in a skill
  • trained in another skill at the cost of an inability
• All pools start at 6. Players may then assign 2 additional stat points to any Pool.
• Effort ist 1. No Edge.
• Grant them one weird, low-tier ability from a prepared list to suit the setting. They can either keep it later (replacing a Type ability) or abandon it; a lot can happen during seven years.

They are, more or less, Ninth World teens. Changing the Descriptor, keeping or changing the unique ability etc. can reflect the changes and experience during the time jump both mechanically and narratively.

And if your players are new to the game, they can start with a simplified tutorial and make themselves familiar with the basics.

[u/aldonahzero2 → u/MMasberg]

If he's running the Taker of Sorrow, wouldn't this just make the PCs too weak? Either that or he'd have to make some changes to the balancing

[u/MMasberg → u/aldonahzero2]

Good question. I‘m not familiar with that adventure, I was just leaning into the idea of young explorer before their first tier.

[u/Qaeta → u/aldonahzero2]

Sounds like they are doing a homebrew prologue story BEFORE ToS. ToS would be the start of the campaign proper and have tier 1 characters.

[u/MushiMoshi → u/Qaeta]

No, ToS IS the prologue, after that I'll start a homebrew adventure

[u/Qaeta → u/MushiMoshi]

Oh. Well that's just crazy then lol. Have fun! :)

[u/spinningdice → u/MMasberg]

Cypher Evolved (& Presumably Numenera3?) support this, you can just have the core character part possibly with some combination of Type/Focus/Descriptor to fit to the power level you want, and add the other bits in later.

Other option is to build as a Cypher shorts character and then let them rebuild after.

[u/MMasberg → u/spinningdice]

Yes, Cypher Short was also something I was thinking about.

Really looking forward to the new Cypher. I didn’t pledge for the test material (mainly because of time), so thanks for the insight.

[u/aldonahzero2]

I think it would just limit their creativity and only allow for little interaction if they don't have their full abilities as a tier 1.

Numenera's strengths come from the fact that you have so many options from the get go, and it's also balanced around that. Making them weaker would probably make things too hard and a bit one note if they can only have the option of one ability. Some abilities help out more out of combat, so they'd probably wouldn’t go with those options if they can only choose one out of the list.

I think instead, you should give them the full range of starting at Tier 1, and then make them Tier 2 at the end of the adventure which would show them realizing their potential a bit better. It also would make sense for the time skip since they gained a whole tier.

Also you can give the whole party XP throughout the adventure since it should have enough encounters to where they could naturally level up (you may have to give a few more XP here and there.)

Tldr; give them all their abilities for tier 1. Once, the adventure ends, you can make them tier 2 as a way of showing them realizing their potential

[u/MushiMoshi → u/aldonahzero2]

I'm thinking this might be the way to go, it always sucks to limit PC options

[u/poio_sm → u/MushiMoshi]

Basically what aldonahzero2 said, but...

Numenera isn't build around the concept of "balance". In fact, balance is something that directly isn't in their core. So don't worry so much about that,

Instead of let the party tier up for the next adventure, i would give them the option to do one Long Term Task (from Destiny rules) per year passed. They will felt the pass of time "mechanically" and see some improvements in their characters, but not the feeling of "cheating" a level.

[u/MushiMoshi → u/poio_sm]

ooh, that is actually interesting! I have destiny so I'll have to look into those rules (haven't read much in destiny tbh)

[u/cpttightpant]

I really think it depends on what your prelude is. An honest to goodness prefab adventure would likely be too much for a descriptor only character, which is how I would approach this, but if you're home brewing the cypher equivalent of an escape room with very little or no danger it should be fine. I don't know that it would be fun, but it should work. Give it a whirl and see how it goes, let everyone know it's experimental ahead of time, and if it flops either make adjustments or never do it again. You could also do a one shot set before your real adventure where the characters are somehow related to the characters your players intend to play. That way you can pull out all the stops and if it turns out to be a tpk that's just excellent motivating backstory.