Claim the Sky Is in the House! (Well, Our House, at Least.)
over 2 years ago – Wed, Nov 03, 2021 at 06:06:34 PM

We have something exciting to show you today:

You’re looking at a first-off-the-presses copy of Claim the Sky, which reached us just this morning. The book is completing bindery today and will ship to our warehouses this week!

You’ve probably heard about widespread delays hitting all manner of manufacturing and shipping. Claim the Sky has not been immune, and today’s completion is about a week behind schedule. In the grand scheme of things these days, that’s not too severe, and we don’t foresee any delays in the book’s transit to our warehouses. (It was printed in North America, so it doesn’t have to board a ship or wait to enter a harbor.)

Assuming no further GM intrusions, we should begin fulfillment in about a week! But please note: delay risks are higher for our overseas warehouses. As we fulfill, shipments outside of North America may start a little later than they do here. We will, as always, do our absolute best to get rewards to all backers as quickly as possible.

Download a Free Preview of Path of the Planebreaker

The Kickstarter campaign for Path of the Planebreaker is on fire! You can download a free preview for a taste of the book’s content. 

The Planebreaker takes your fantasy campaign—5e or Cypher System—into the planes with details on the enigmatic Planebreaker itself, creatures and character options, and of course dozens and dozens of new planes to explore. The Kickstarter offers loads of cool rewards (including some exclusives) and is powering through stretch goals. Check it out now before it ends!

Thanks for your support!
--Team MCG

Claim the Sky Is on Press!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Oct 06, 2021 at 03:32:04 PM

Greetings heroes!

Claim the Sky is on press! We’re thrilled to hit this milestone, putting us in the home stretch of delivering this book to you. Generally speaking, production takes about four weeks followed by a week or two of transportation and prep for fulfillment—so it's not long now before your book heads your way. (But note that in these tumultuous times, any of these steps could be hit with an unforeseen GM intrusion.)

Check out these preview pages from the book!

Claim the Sky will go on preorder this week. At that time you'll be able to download a free preview of the book from the MCG Shop, if you'd like a closer peek at what's inside.

A few other updates: First Responders is in the final stages of editing before it goes to layout, and The Origin’smanuscript was completed this week—those of you with early access can expect the draft soon.
 In other news, the GM Intrusion Deck is going through its final stages before we send it to the printer. We’ve packed 3 GM intrusions on each card: one for combat, one for interaction, and a miscellaneous one that can work in various situations. It's going to be a super-handy resource for GMs of all Cypher System games.

Coming soon: The Planebreaker!

We’re excited to announce a new and exciting supplement for Fifth Edition adventurers: Path of the Planebreaker! Path of the Planebreaker is the lead title in the Planebreaker Kickstarter, coming soon!

A cursed moon hurtles through the multiverse, crashing from one plane to the next, never at rest, forever fleeing a catastrophe that predates existence itself. Behold the Planebreaker!

The Planebreaker visits all planes, all demiworlds, and all dimensions. Gods and demons, angels and mortals, undead and outsiders alike—all eventually see it streak across their realm. Some worlds visited by the moon are known to sages and planar travelers. But in a multiverse stretching across epochs, the number of previously uncatalogued planes is vast. The Planebreaker races through all of them, in time.

Path of the Planebreaker is a sourcebook that brings the wonders, terrors, mysteries, and treasures of new, alternate worlds—plus the inexplicable Planebreaker, an ever-travelling moon—to 5th edition players and GMs.

This gorgeously illustrated hardcover gives you everything you need to add whole new dimensions to your 5e game: dozens of planar creatures, playable planar species for PCs, new planar class options for players including subclasses, and exciting feats and spells to help you explore these new planes!

Don’t miss the Kickstarter—sign up to get notified when the Kickstarter launches, where you can download a free preview of Path of the Planebreaker.

A Look at Claim the Sky—and Beyond!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 06:40:52 PM

Greetings, heroes!

That’s new art for Claim the Sky, by the most excellent Katerina Ladon. We have one or two more cool new pieces for you below.

Claim the Sky is moving into an exciting new phase: it just emerged from the editing process and heads into layout in the next couple of weeks. We’re really excited about this book! If you missed it, check out the playtest report in our update last month. You might also check out this review by external playtester Dean Lewis.

Claim the Sky isn’t the only book moving forward, though! Design work on First Responders wrapped up recently, and that title is currently in development, soon to move to the editing process. (If you backed at a level that includes playtesting, look for files in August.) This book is different from many of our titles in several ways, such as how it closely emulates the activities, challenges, and even equipment of real-world of emergency workers, for example, and how it introduces a whole new system for taking on large-scale threats. The design team has been working hard to get it right, and that work has paid off. (As a result of all that, it’s possible this will turn out to be a larger book than promised in the Kickstarter!)

Also, just out of design is the GM Intrusion Deck. Sean put this together, with input from the rest of the design team. It’s in development now, and then heads to editing.

And, finally, Bruce is heads-down on The Origin. Design work on this title will keep him busy into the fall.

We can’t wait to bring you all these great Cypher System titles—it won’t be long now!

Meanwhile…

The Cypher System is easy on the GM. But what if there was a game with literally zero GM prep? A game you could pull off the shelf and be playing in five minutes?

This week we unveiled Monte’s next big thing: Stealing Stories for the Devil.

You’re a Liar. (No, not that kind. Well, yeah, probably that kind, too, but that’s not what we’re talking about.) You lie to reality, and your lies always come true. Need an access to the air ducts around that corner? Want that guard to fall asleep while binging The Office on her phone? Could you use a short-circuit in the security system … right … now? You say it, and it happens. You don’t roll to see if you’re successful—it always works.

And that’s good, because you’re not the only Liar out there. Someone else is telling lies, and it’s tearing reality apart. Fixing the problem requires finesse, skill, wits, and a bit of, well, lying. That’s why they call on you.

In Stealing Stories for the Devil, the GM and the players build elaborate heist adventures via the game’s unique structure, creating the scenario and the plan at the same time. It results in fun, fast-paced adventures filled with twists, turns, and the unexpected, that come together into beautifully orchestrated heists with literally no prep work ahead of time.

There’s a lot more to it than that, of course. Check out the Kickstarter for more details, and download the free 43-page Primer (available from the Kickstarter page) for a deeper dive into how the game works.

ISSUE #1: BROOD X IS BORN | Claim the Sky Designer Playtest Report
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 08, 2021 at 01:59:36 AM

Greetings, backers!

We've been working fast and furious on Claim the Sky, and the book is now transititioning through development and into editing. Playtesting is an important part of our process for all of our books—and honestly, it’s just fun, too. When Monte originally wrote the original Superhero rule module for the Cypher System Rulebook, playtests were also part of the process but that was six years ago! We wanted a fresh at-the-table experience to help guide our design on a book dedicated to superheroes. So, here’s what happened during our first playtest of Claim the Sky, where we played our original heroes in a session run by Monte.

The Heroes

Chicago’s favorite super team—the Sentinels—includes the dynamic duo Plum Devil (a second-tier Brash Warrior who Rages, played by Sean) and Lucent (a second-tier Impulsive Adept who Sculpts Hard Light, played by Bruce). You can find stats for both PC heroes at the bottom of this update.

ISSUE #1: BROOD X IS BORN!

Our heroes are dispatched to foil an in-progress burglary at an entomology and pesticide lab. They arrive on-scene in their high-tech SentinalJet and spot some well-armed soldier-types on the roof, carrying things into a jet helicopter readying for take-off.

Lucent uses his hard light powers to entangle the helicopter’s landing gear, while Plum Devil, using his diabolically enhanced muscles, leaps from the SentinalJet onto the roof and tears open one of the chopper’s side hatches. Of the six henchmen crowded inside the cabin, only the two closest to Plum Devil were able to fire their pistols at the muscular hero, who has little trouble dodging these paltry attacks. Meanwhile, Lucent sets the SentinalJet’sautopilot to circle the building, then flies out to the intact side of the helicopter. He sculpts hard light into a set of metal shears to cut open the side of the vehicle. Plum Devil shouts his catchphrase, “Fist of Avernus!” as he yanks one of the goons out of the chopper, and follows up with, “Horns of Acheron!” as he knocks out a second foe. The remaining soldiers, who were just about ready to open the other hatch and fire their automatic weapons on Lucent, turn their attention—and weapons—fully to the Devil. The hail of bullets bounces off of the Heroic Hellion’s armored skin but hits hard enough to sting.

Unimpeded, Lucent’s shears cut open the other side of the chopper, and he spots the stolen equipment: two large external hard drives, each the size of a small suitcase. Realizing his intent, the soldiers fire on the Lord of Light, but he boosts his resilient force field and completely blocks their attacks. Seeing desperate measures are needed, the pilot activates the helicopter’s jet thrusters. This tears the chopper free of the entangling hard light, knocks down all the passengers, and dislodges the heroes. Determined to thwart their escape, Plum Devil leaps again, miraculously landing inside the open hatch, and Lucent flies at top speed to catch up to the fleeing helicopter, his light burning brightly.

Inside the cabin, one of the soldiers picks up a stolen hard drive. As Plum Devil racks his frenzied brain to figure out the best plan of action, an area of sparkling dust appears inside the chopper, from which a white-clad hand reaches out for the second stolen drive. With a flick of his mighty mauve wrist, the Devil seizes this mysterious arm and yanks it hard, producing a man wearing a completely white costume that obscures his face. Nonplussed, the new arrival says, “You shall not vex Dust,” and shoots a cloud of white powder into Plum Devil’s face. This unexpected attack catches the Purple Pugilist off-guard, and reflexively he draws this powder into his mighty lungs,  instantly knocking him unconscious . . . to fall out the open hatch and hurtle towards the distant ground! The villain calling themselves Dust takes a moment to grab the hard drive he first reached for, then vanishes in another cloud of white powder. Plum Devil awakens in midair, and has the sense to use his heightened dexterity to spin himself towards a large swath of bushes in an industrial park to cushion his fall. His body creates a small crater on impact, and his rolling recovery obliterates several dozen feet of landscaping. But he’s okay!

Moments earlier, having seen Plum Devil survive harder falls, Lucent instead, focused a sustained light blast at the guard with the other drive, sending the man flying out the hatch. Lucent catches the falling guard who understands that his life depends on the hero’s goodwill; he clings to the hard drive with one arm and reaches out toward Lucent’s outstretched hand with the other. The flying hero lands safely with the soldier, just as people from the nearby business park come out to investigate the commotion. The local authorities (having pursued the airborne battle) arrive to collect the stolen goods as evidence and arrest the captured minion.

The heroes return to the laboratory and speak with Dr. Sanjay, who explains that the thieves seemed to know exactly which external drives to steal. However, the information on those drives is of no interest to anyone except entomologists—it details various aspects of the large cicada swarms expected this year, with unusually high swarm activity in a rural part of Indiana.

Despite foiling the hard drive heist, the heroes fail to protect Dr. Sanjay himself, who subsequently goes missing. The scientist knows the location of a site across the state line in Indiana with a particularly intense concentration of cicada emergence so, his kidnapper—probably Dust—will certainly learn it, too.

Fearing the worst, the Sentinels dispatch Lucent and Plum Devil to investigate. Jetting out to the location, our two heroes find a massive egg-like globule poking out of the ground. A group of local farmers is already on the scene, offering various pithy observations to all and sundry. The heroes learn the mass only recently emerged from the soil. Their investigation is cut short, however, when three supervillains appear through a glittering portal: their new foe Dust, a woman who controls shadow called Darkwave, and Amnesia, a young woman whose touch is like a psychic punch. Dust claims the pod as theirs.

Not today, buster!

The dynamic duo weather the villains’ first attacks, and even manage to push Darkwave and Amnesia back on their heels. But this gives Dust enough time to trigger the egg’s rupture. In a spray of flying soil and buzzing insects bursts forth the monstrous BROOD X!  Over 20-feet-tall and made entirely of swarming cicadas, the creature begins to indiscriminately smash. Plum Devil and Lucent fight it, withstanding massive blows and delivering equally concussive punches and coherent light blasts unrelentingly. As Brood X begins to decohere, it lashes out at Darkwave and unintentionally wings Dust, sending the mastermind flying.

Realizing they don’t have control of the creature, Dust and the other supervillains flee the scene, leaving Plum Devil and Lucent to finally end the threat. The fields of Indiana are safe once more!

Character Sheet: Lucent

An Impulsive Adept who Sculpts Hard Light

Tier: 2            Effort: 2               
XP: 0              Recovery Rolls: 1d6 + 2

Might: 9

Speed: 11

Intellect: 20 (Edge 2)

Armor: 2 (+1 from Resilience shift, +1 from Ward)

3 Subtle Cyphers:

[rejuvenator (CSR p 395)- level 4]

[rejuvenator (CSR p 395)- level 6]

[energy boost (CSR p 401)- level 6]

SKILLS

Initiative (specialized)

Speed defense

Might defense

Patience, willpower, or discipline (inability)

Attack Abilities

Onslaught (CSR p 167); eased, +3 damage [used 2 power shifts, Accuracy & Power]

Entangling Force (CSR p 136); eased [eased because of Accuracy shift]

Defense and Movement Abilities:

Ward (CSR p 196)

Distortion (CSR p 130)

Flight [applied 1 power shift to get this higher tier, new ability granting short-range flight each round]

Other Abilities

Sculpt Light (CSR p 180) [applied 1 power shift to get this higher tier ability)

Automatic Glow [new ability from Sculpts Hard Light focus]

POWER SHIFTS APPLIED

Resilience

Accuracy

Power (Onslaught, +3 damage)

Upgrade (replace Temporary Light with Sculpt Light)

Upgrade (gain new short range Flight ability)

Character Sheet: Plum Devil

A Brash Warrior who Rages

Tier: 2            Effort: 2               
XP: 0              Recovery Rolls: 1d6 + 2

Might: 20 (Edge 1)

Speed: 14 (Edge 1)

Intellect: 10

Armor: 2 (+2 from Resilience shift)

2 Subtle Cyphers:

[analeptic (CSR p 384)- level 5]

[effort enhancer—combat (CSR p 388)- level 6]

SKILLS

All strength-related tasks other than attack rolls (specialized)

Speed defense (specialized)

Might defense (specialized)

Light bashing attacks—unarmed

Movement involving acrobatics/dexterity

Initiative

Overcoming/ignoring fear or intimidation

Perception

Climbing

Jumping

Attack Abilities

Frenzy (CSR p 143) “I AM ARISEN”

Control the Field (CSR p 121) “FIST OF AVERNUS”

Successive Attack (CSR p 187) “HORNS OF ACHERON”

Attacks

Unarmed (trained), attacks eased two steps (11 points of damage)

Throwing something heavy (10 points of damage)

(Already figured in: Combat Prowess, No Need for Weapons, Skill with Attacks, Trained without Armor, Movement Skills, Greater Enhanced Might)

POWER SHIFTS APPLIED

Resilience x2

Strength x2

Dexterity

Early Rewards and Early Design Work!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Mar 18, 2021 at 05:42:05 AM

Greetings, heroes—

Great news for those of you whose rewards include existing MCG titles, either as part of your backer level or through add-ons: All existing reward items have been fulfilled. If products like the Cypher System Rulebook, the genre or world bundles of Cypher System titles, or Your Best Game Ever are among your rewards, check your email (if you haven’t already) for fulfillment instructions (or check your MCG Shop account to redeem the coupons).

What about the new rewards? Monte is hard at work designing the setting for Claim the Sky, which is called Boundless. He's trying to merge some fresh superhero ideas with all the general things that a setting for heroes needs, like various organizations, government involvement, superprisons, and of course villains. He's striving to capture the dynamic nature of the main comic book settings, such as how in Marvel Comics, villains like Magneto, Sandman, or Black Widow eventually become heroes, but then sometimes, eventually, become villains again. Or how both heroes and villains sometimes change costumes and even powers, but then again often change back. It's something he hasn't seen in a lot of superhero RPGs and he hopes he can pull it off here.

Meanwhile, Sean is also working on the book, designing the guidelines for how to create the exact character you want with exactly the powers you want within the structure of the Cypher System. It's coming together really well.

Lastly, we've recruited Bruce to create some additional characters (heroes, but of course, mostly villains) for the book that you can use in any setting. Oh, and Monte, Shanna, and Bruce have already begun the early stages of discussing and planning First Responders. It's a busy time for us!

Speaking of busy, we’re always looking forward to new things. Here’s another project we’ve been working on for some time:

The Darkest House

That house on the outskirts of town, sitting empty behind a crumbling wall. The one people whisper about. The one that has gone unlived in for years. Sometimes a few hearty souls creep in, it is said, to see what treasures or secrets they can find. Most find nothing—just an empty old house. Some return shaken. A few don’t return at all.

You’ve seen this house before. If not in this city, then in some other. You’ve heard the rumors—and if not, well, someday they’ll find you.

What happens to a house when it sits alone for so many long years? What jealousies and hatreds does it quietly nurture? What whispers echo through its empty hallways? What waits, crouched within its dark rooms, hungering for the return of life?

For you.

The Darkest House is built from the ground up for online play, with unique features that take advantage of the online environment for an awesome experience. It's compatible with the game you're playing now. In fact, it's made for it, and it will make your characters—those who come out alive—better.

The Darkest House is a really innovative product in an entirely new format. Want to check it out? Download the preview of The Darkest House from the Kickstarter page for a look at a few of the rooms and features. 

Go on, the House is waiting for you.