A Cypher character is defined by a descriptive sentence like a Charming Wizard who Rides the Lightning or a Stealthy Tech who Talks to Machines. But before you get to looking at the parts of that sentence, you start with the core of a character, which gives you your basic stats, a couple of skills, and a few other game bits that every character needs (like how many wounds you can take). A core character is an entirely playable (if slightly uninteresting) character. As a core character, you know how to perform common actions and interact with the world the GM presents.
Later chapters explain additional things you get for having a type, focus, and descriptor—all those interesting words in the character sentence like “Charming,” “Stealthy,” “Barbarian,” “Android,” “Employs Magnetism,” “Fights Dirty,” and so on. These things layer on top of your core character to make you capable, dynamic, and extraordinary. We'll get to those later (you'll see notes throughout the chapter about additional things your type, focus, and descriptor give you).
First, look through this chapter to see what you get as a core character, and record this info on your character sheet.
(If you don't have a premade character sheet, you can make your own or just use a blank paper or page from a notebook.)
Tier is a measure of your accumulated experience. A core character starts at tier 1. A tier 1 character is more than just a novice; you're reasonably accomplished and capable, on par with a college student or person in a typical job that requires some experience or training.
Over the course of the game, as you travel, experience things, and accomplish goals, you will advance to higher tiers and unlock new capabilities. Very experienced characters will reach Tier 6, and perhaps even higher. A Tier 6 character can accomplish a lot more than a Tier 1 character.
Your character has three defining characteristics, which are typically called statistics or “stats.” These stats are Might, Speed, and Intellect. Each of the three stats has two components: Pool and Edge, so you have a Might Pool and Might Edge, a Speed Pool and Speed Edge, and an Intellect Pool and Intellect Edge.
Your Pools represent your raw, innate ability. You spend points from your Pools to activate your abilities and improve your actions.
A core character's Pools all start at 8. In addition, you get 6 additional points to add to the three Pools as you wish.
Other parts of your character sentence may add to your Pools.
Edge reduces the point cost when you spend Pool points (it's like a discount). A core character has an Edge of 0 for all three stats.
Other parts of your character sentence may add to your three Edge stats.
Your character starts the game hale and healthy. But you're likely to encounter threats at some point and risk becoming wounded. Wounds can come from such varied sources as the attack of a predatory beast, a fall from a great height, or a supernatural effect like an explosion of magical fire. Anything that hurts you gives you a wound.
Wounds come in three severities: minor, moderate, and major. A core character can take up to three minor wounds, three moderate wounds, and three major wounds. When you're wounded, record the wound on your character sheet—there's a box for each of them. Each kind of wound has a different effect on your character. Your character type usually increases the number of wounds you can take.
Minor Wounds: These are nicks, scratches, bruises, and other inconsequential injuries that no longer hurt after a few hours. Individual minor wounds don't negatively affect your character in any way. When you're out of minor wounds, any new minor wounds you take become moderate wounds.
Moderate Wounds: These are open cuts, weapon grazes, sprains, minor fractures, and other injuries that no longer hurt after a few days. When you take your last moderate wound, all of your actions are hindered, and any new moderate wounds you take become major wounds.
Major Wounds: These are fractures, large open cuts, gunshot wounds, and other significant injuries that generally take anywhere from days to weeks to recover from. Each major wound you take hinders all of your actions. When you take your last major wound, you die.
Sometimes a rule refers to the different wound severities as steps, as in “You reduce the severity of a wound by one step.” Don't confuse this with easing or hindering a task's difficulty by a step.
A skill is any kind of knowledge or ability that you can get better at through practice and training. Athletics, perception, computers, and history are examples of skills. Having a skill makes tasks relating to that skill easier.
Your core character starts with two skills. The skills you can choose from depend on the genre of the game the GM is running (such as sci-fi, fantasy, or postapocalypse).
You have the option of starting with a third skill, but in exchange you have to pick a meaningful skill that you're bad at (called an inability). Having an inability in a skill makes tasks relating to that skill harder. For example, you could choose climbing as your third skill, but you'd have to pick another skill (like perception or stealth) to be bad at.
When you pick a skill for your inability, it has to be something meaningful that could significantly impact your character from time to time, such as climbing, perception, or persuasion, not a skill like farming or philosophy.
When you really need to accomplish a task, you can try harder. In game terms, this is called applying Effort. Applying Effort costs 3 points from the appropriate stat Pool. Effort makes a task easier, just as a skill does.
A core character has an Effort of 1, meaning you can only use Effort to ease a task by one step. A character with a higher Effort score can apply more Effort to a task, easing it by additional steps.
Cyphers are one-use abilities that your character has. They change from session to session, and you'll always be getting more of them, so use them when you need them (don't hoard them). A cypher might be a bit of luck that helps you out, a moment of inspiration about the answer to a problem, or a surge of adrenaline that pushes you beyond your normal limits. The GM will tell you what cyphers you have and will decide when you get replacements for the ones you've used.
Although most cyphers are not physical objects, in a fantasy game, a magic scroll or potion is a cypher. In a space opera game, a mysterious alien gizmo is a cypher.
You can have up to two cyphers at one time; this is your cypher limit. Your character type might allow you to have additional cyphers at the same time.
To recover points used from your Pools, you rest and take a recovery. A core character's recovery is qual to a 1d6 roll plus their tier, so 1d6+1. The result of the roll is how many points you get back; you can add them into your Pools in any combination you like, up to your normal maximum for each Pool.
You can heal wounds by rallying (spending an action and a few Might points), treatment (requiring some time and simple first aid), or resting (either on its own or as part of a recovery).
Weapons are divided into categories of light, medium, and heavy (light weapons are things like punches and small knives, medium weapons are baseball bats and longswords, heavy weapons are rifles and big axes, and so on). A core character can freely use light weapons (“freely use” means your attacks with light weapons don't have a penalty). You can't freely use medium or heavy weapons, so if you attack with one, your attack is hindered.
Armor is divided into categories of light, medium, and heavy (light armor is stuff like thick leather, medium is chainmail, and heavy is plate mail). A core character can't freely use any kind of armor, so if you wear armor, it hinders some of your physical tasks.
Your character type may give you additional weapons and armor that you can freely use.
Your character begins with basic equipment appropriate for the genre, one set of appropriate clothing, and enough extra cash to pay for something that's moderately expensive like a nice backpack or a hunting knife. (Cypher uses abstract price categories instead of specific amounts of dollars, gold pieces, and so on.) (Your character type gives you the option to gain a suggested equipment bundle instead:
Your type includes suggestions for appropriate equipment to pick if you're in a hurry.]
A core character is just the skeleton of a character; there's more you can do to make your character fun and interesting. Now you have two possibilities: make a “real-world” character, or make a character for a specific genre such as fantasy or science fiction (sci-fi). Ask your GM what sort of game they're running and what sort of character you need to make.
If you are playing in a campaign set in the “real world” and are playing a normal person, you also get a descriptor (which gives you another skill and more points to add to your Pools) and get to pick another skill based on your profession. More information about turning your core character into a real-world character is explained in The Real World.
For most other games (such as fantasy or science fiction), you'll need to pick a type, focus, and descriptor; together with what you chose as a core character, this means you're an extraordinary person (and probably live in an extraordinary setting). You can choose your type, focus, and descriptor in any order, but many people like to start with a type because it includes a lot of important stuff related to the game genre. The types you can choose from depend on what genre the GM is running—fantasy, science fiction, superhero, and so on. As you continue building your character, it's okay to go back and make changes to things you decided earlier. For example, if you put most of your core character's Pool points into Might but the abilities from your type or focus mostly use Intellect, it's okay to move some points around so your final character's Intellect Pool is bigger than how you set up your core character.
Whether you're making a real-world character or a genre character, the information in the other chapters will remind you about what a core character gets and how the new parts of your character add to that.
This section walks you through two examples of people creating new characters. The first is Josie creating a martial artist for her GM's fantasy game, and the second is Ray creating an explorer for his GM's science fiction game. Each of these examples has lots of notes in the margins telling you where to look up more information about everything mentioned in the walkthrough.
Josie wants to create a character for her GM's fantasy campaign. She decides that her character is a martial artist, more likely to fight than talk.
All core characters start with 8 in each of their three Stat Pools: Might, Speed, and Intellect. A core character gets an additional 6 points to add to their Pools. Josie wants her character to be strong and agile, so she puts 2 points into her Might Pool and 4 into her Speed Pool; her stat Pools are now Might 10, Speed 12, and Intellect 8.
As a core character, her Might Edge, Speed Edge, and Intellect Edge are all 0.
A core character can take three minor wounds, three moderate wounds, and three major wounds.
For her core character's two starting skills she chooses athletics and healing—she's a very physical character and knows how to treat injuries from brawls and battles. She decides to take intimidation as a third skill, and in exchange for that she chooses an inability in persuasion; her character is the strong, silent type, good at looking tough but not much for pleasant conversation.
As a core character, her Effort is 1.
A core character can have two cyphers. The GM could give them to Josie right now, but decides to wait until Josie is done creating her character before doing so. (The GM may want to wait on handing out cyphers to make sure Josie doesn't end up with one that's similar to one of her other character abilities. It's more fun if a cypher lets you try something new.)
Josie's starting equipment is clothing (a comfortable set of durable clothes for traveling and a nicer outfit in case she has to talk to someone important) plus enough money to buy a moderately expensive item. (In addition to any further equipment the GM might give her, such as torches and strong rope, Josie has the option to exchange this starting equipment with an equipment bundle for her type.)
At this point, Josie has finished everything she needs to do for a core character. But because her GM is running a fantasy game, she gets to add a type, descriptor, and focus.
(If Josie's GM was running a real-world game, instead of a Monk she might be a mixed martial artist, and instead of choosing a type and focus, she'd see in the Real World chapter that she picks a descriptor and one additional skill from her profession.)
The GM is running a dungeon fantasy game, so Josie looks at the dungeon fantasy types in the fantasy genre chapter and decides she wants to play a Monk, a person skilled in unarmed combat.
The Monk type increases the number of minor wounds she can take by three (for a total of six) and moderate wounds by one (for a total of four). It also gives her +2 to her Might Pool (for a total of 12) and Speed Pool (for a total of 14). She gets +1 Edge in one Pool and chooses Speed (increasing her Speed Edge from 0 as a core character to 1).
A Monk doesn't add to what weapons and armor a core character can freely use. Josie decides she doesn't care much about physical possessions, so she saves time by taking the suggested Monk equipment bundle. A Monk starts with the abilities Flurry, Nimble, and No Need For Weapons.
While she's looking at the fantasy chapter, Josie double-checks the Fantasy Skills list to make sure the ones she picked as a core character are on the list. They are, so she can move on to the next step. (If her core character skills weren't appropriate for the list, she could swap them for different ones.) [CALLOUT: Fantasy Skills, page XX]
Josie looks at the descriptors and decides her character is Fast—she's quick on her feet and quick with a punch. The Fast descriptor adds +2 to her Speed Pool (for a total of 16) and gives her training in initiative.
Finally, Josie checks with the GM to see what foci are available, and the GM says that anything on the list of suggested foci for a dungeon fantasy game is allowed. Josie wants to go all in on unarmed combat, so she chooses the Fights Unarmed focus. She can choose two tier 1 abilities from that focus and picks Brawler and Resilience. Both of her focus abilities permanently improve some other part of her character, so she makes note of that in the appropriate places on her character sheet (in the Attacks and Wounds sections).
(Sometimes your type and focus overlap in concept, and one of your focus ability options is the same as one of your type ability options. There's no benefit for taking a similar ability twice, so pick something different!)
Josie looks at her abilities again and sees that two of them cost Speed points to activate, and the rest don't cost any points at all. She has a high Speed Pool and her best Edge is in Speed, so she's happy with how she's set up her character and doesn't want to change her Pools or Edge.
(Josie could have moved points from her Might Pool to her Speed Pool to make her even faster, but it wouldn't really have made her more or less interesting or powerful in the long run.)
Now that Josie has chosen a type, descriptor, and focus, the GM gives her two cyphers. The first is retaliation—she can immediately deal damage to someone who just attacked her, even though it's not her turn. The second one is perfect moment—she can treat any one action as if she had rolled a natural 20 (a result of “20” on the d20). 20 (a result of “20” on the d20).
Now all Josie has to do is pick a character name, come up with some background details (like why she became a martial artist and if she developed her skills on her own or by studying with a mentor), and she's ready to play.
(If Josie wanted to, she could have chosen her focus before her descriptor, or changed her descriptor after deciding on her focus. When creating your character, you're allowed to redo your choices so you end up with the character you want.)
Ray wants to create a character for his GM's science fiction campaign. He decides that the character is a traveler who likes exploring alien planets.
All core characters start with 8 in each of their three stat Pools: Might, Speed, and Intellect. A core character gets an additional 6 points to add to their Pools. Ray wants his character to be tough enough to handle a lot of overland travel, but also be smart and resourceful to avoid dangerous hazards, so he puts 3 points into his Might Pool and 3 into his Intellect Pool; his stat Pools are now Might 11, Speed 8, and Intellect 11.
As a core character, his Might Edge, Speed Edge, and Intellect Edge are all 0.
A core character can take three minor wounds, three moderate wounds, and three major wounds.
For his core character's two starting skills, he chooses navigation and perception—as an explorer, he needs to be able to find his way around and spot problems. He decides not to take a third skill because he'd have to take an inability in a fourth skill.
As a core character, his Effort is 1.
A core character can have two cyphers. The GM could give them to Ray right now, but decides to wait until Ray is done creating his character before doing so. The GM may want to wait on handing out cyphers to make sure Ray doesn't end up with one that's similar to one of his other character abilities. It's more fun if a cypher lets you try something new.
Ray's starting equipment is clothing (a comfortable set of hiking gear and regular clothes for when he's in a city) plus enough money to buy a moderately expensive item. (In addition to any further equipment the GM might give him, such as a backpack and utility knife, Ray has the option to exchange this starting equipment with an equipment bundle for his type.)
At this point, Ray has finished everything he needs to do for a core character. But because his GM is running a sci-fi game, he gets to add a type, descriptor, and focus.
(If Ray's GM was running a real-world game, instead of a planetary explorer he might be a park ranger, and instead of choosing a type and focus, he'd see in the Real World chapter that he picks a descriptor and one additional skill from his profession.)
The GM is running a space opera sci-fi game, so Ray looks at the space opera types in the science fiction genre chapter and decides he wants to play a Scoundrel, someone who is on the wrong side of the law now and then. The Scoundrel type increases the number of minor wounds he can take by two (for a total of five) and moderate wounds by one (for a total of four). It also gives him +2 to his Speed Pool (for a total of 10) and Intellect Pool (for a total of 13). He gets +1 Edge in one Pool and chooses Intellect (increasing his Intellect Edge from 0 as a core character to 1).
A Scoundrel can freely use light and medium weapons, and freely use light armor. The type also gives him a weapon of his choice, and instead of picking individual items Ray decides to take the suggested Scoundrel equipment bundle (which includes the weapon a Scoundrel gets). A Scoundrel starts with the abilities Desperate Defense, Fast Talk, and Hand to Eye.
While he's looking at the science fiction chapter, Ray double-checks the Science Fiction Skills list o make sure the ones he picked as a core character are on the list. They are, so he can move on to the next step. (If his core character skills weren't appropriate for the list, he could swap them for different ones.)
Ray looks at the descriptors and decides his character is Charming—he may be a scoundrel, but he's a likeable scoundrel. The Charming descriptor adds +2 to his Intellect Pool (for a total of 15) and gives him training in persuasion.
Ray checks with the GM about what foci are available, and the GM says that anything on the list of suggested foci for a space opera game is allowed. Ray wants his character to have a couple of tricks up his sleeve, so he chooses the Masters Telekinesis focus. He can choose two tier 1 abilities from that focus, and picks Steady Hand and Telekinesis.
Ray looks at his abilities again and sees that none of them cost Might points, one of them costs Speed points (Speed or Intellect, actually), and three of them cost Intellect points. Ray decides his character doesn't need as much Might as he thought he was going to, and he'll rely on Intellect for a lot of abilities, so he moves 2 points from his Might Pool to his Intellect Pool, and his stats are now Might 9, Speed 10, and Intellect 17.
( It would also have been okay if Ray didn't move any points from Might to Intellect; you don't have to create a perfectly optimized character to have fun.)
Now that Ray has chosen a type, descriptor, and focus, the GM gives him two cyphers. The first one is an equipment cache—at any time, he can find a useful piece of equipment of his choice (such as a spare blaster or a vacuum suit), probably an item that someone stashed nearby for an emergency. The GM decides his second cypher is a big bonus to one dodge task—useful in case someone unexpectedly tries to shoot him in a bar. tries to shoot him in a bar.
Now all Ray has to do is pick a character name, come up with some background details (such as if he has any enemies and what his goals are), and he's ready to play.
(If Ray wanted to, he could have chosen his focus before his descriptor, or changed his descriptor after deciding on his focus. When creating your character, you're allowed to redo your choices so you end up with the character you want.)