What now?
Continuing on the resounding success of my previous non-review (I’ve seen no statistics, but I am quite full of myself), I will now attempt to go one step further in my analysis and experience with the Cypher system, as presented in Numenera (arguably a recursion in The Strange … think about it…) and attempt to convey my understanding, enthusiasm and joy. Today I will be covering GMing, but as you’ll see (and probably know), you can’t talk about GMing without also talking about playing, which includes talking about the players and the playing of the game.
Intrusions and coffee?
GM intrusions can be a bit like thick, black coffee. It may be a bit too hot, a bit too bitter … at first … but then you realise what a source of goodness it is. In time you’ll learn to love thick, black coffee, in fact you won’t be able to function without it, so too – I think – with GM intrusions.
So what are GM intrusions? In Numenera GMs don’t roll dice. Yeah. I know. Awesome isn’t it?! Wait, you like to roll dice? It gives you power? Agency? How else can you tell a story with random elements? Well, it’s not like you’re not allowed to roll dice as a GM, but it’s unnecessary. The random elements can still of course be rolled for if you prefer that kind of GMing (I’m not judging), but MonteCook Games (MCG) has provided a series of card decks that provide intrusions and other random weird stuff. You may call it a money grab, and you’ll probably be right. That doesn’t change the fact that they’re useful and provide a tad more information than a table in a book would, is arguably more handy too … still, preferences and that.
So, once more, what are they? They’re the stuff that may happen on a Threat or Despair result in FFG’s Star Wars RPG, but instead of having to upgrade the difficulty and get that one in twelve result, you can either wait for a natural 1 on the d20 … or give the players XP and introduce the intrusion/despair result. So what are they? Bad stuff introduced by the GM when s/he finds it appropriate.
As an active GM you’ll want to change the battlefield, add new challenges or have your NPCs, monsters or environments (not mutually exclusive categories in Numenera) change, become more dangerous or do that crazy §#!? you just thought of and that would be amazing. Intrusions are not just for combat of course, it’s for any context: exploration, sneaking, persuading, lying, climbing, swimming, and thinking … it’s for any kind of task. Walking down the street in Uxphon going back to the inn after shopping for the stuff you need for climbing the Black Riage, INTRUSION! Hand out XP, let some street urchin steal something important (chase sequence), perhaps there’s suddenly a band of thugs or perhaps abhumans rising from the ground attacking the city… or a lady is certain you’re her lost brother, sister or runaway husband/wife… Or perhaps you rolled really well on the persuasion check to get into the most exclusive pub in Qi, but then INTRUSION: the bouncer recognises (or believes s/he recognises) something you’re carrying or someone you’re with and a new challenge arises… As you carefully reset the strange numenera, having attached all the tentacle-like tubes and having drained energy from three of the group’s cyphers to get enough juice to get this thing going, succeeding the check, you’ve done it INTRUSION!: The activation of the numenera device results in any one of the following: waking some old automatons whose job it is to purge the facility of foreign biological matter (i.e. the players); another use for the numenera besides creating food and water that will save a nearby village from starvation is to transmit high-pitched sounds that attracts a certain type of abhuman/dangerous creature; the numenera also produces radiation that seems similar to the Iron Wind. It will eventually change the facility, the area and all the inhabitants unless … new adventure! (And get out of there!)
Intrusions are your (GM) tool to add the unpredictable, add the danger, be the story and be the challenge. It is a tool, much like black coffee. It is also potentially addictive. Beware: whereas coffee is just plainly great, intrusions can be disruptive if used too much. Intrusions can be random and unpredictable, requiring little explanation or rationale; however using intrusions to add to the story as a logical (if a bit extreme) consequence of the players’ actions is, in my opinion, simply good GMing and good use of the intrusion tool in Numenera.
Intrusions and XP?
Intrusions provide XP (unless they’re activated by rolling a natural 1 on the d20). Intrusions represent a very useful storytelling tool for GMs. It’s perhaps not always easy to come up with them, but to me it seems an intrusion can be anything plot-related (or not) and the severity – to use FFG terms – can be anything from 1 threat to 5 despairs. This can of course seem unfair. One solution is to let natural 1s be worse than the ones introduced by giving XP. Which of course could be seen as a bit douchey, but I think it should be fine as long as severity is evenly distributed in the group. Also: context, context and context. Some intrusions are well timed and/or even planned, others come at bad times or happen in the spur of the moment. All intrusions should add to the game, to the fun.
As intrusions normally award the players XP, it makes sense that players can pay XP to negate intrusions. If they have a spare one. This brings us to XP in this game. Whereas in most games XP is something you simply collect and eventually spend on gaining a level or buying new skills or talents, in Numenera the idea – as I see it – is somewhat different: XP is first and foremost a resource to negate intrusions and make re-rolls on failed checks, secondly you spend them (4 XP at a time) to buy skills, effort, abilities, edge and pool points to move towards the next tier (level).
XP as a resource makes the game more interesting and potential power-creep can be easier to control. Just handing out XP can also be a good way of using intrusions, don’t shout it out loud, don’t make a big issue, just hand it out… sometimes to the whole group if it affects all of them equally (this may not be RAW, but in my opinion a good idea when chasing tier 1 players through a naturally formed labyrinth with 4-5 Chirogs).
Intrusions are big or small, difficult or just annoying. They add to a situation, encounter, scene, session or the whole campaign. They are your tool as a GM to create a story intentionally as well as randomly generated through the roll of the die. Keep in mind intrusions, while serving the story, should be a challenge for the players. It is some new adversary or challenge. It should have an immediate effect first and foremost, be it disarming the character or knocking him/her down in combat or introducing a new fact in a social encounter the players will have to solve–a new negotiator, an offence caused by one of the players resulting in the loss of face or just a simple insult that is turned into a something more dire, perhaps lethal. While the initial intrusions should be dangerous or challenging, the secondary or tertiary result of the intrusion can be useful. Being attacked by an ancient defensive system, could lead to discovering an old Nightcraft… which could lead to adventures elsewhere.
Intrusions are, however, not the only adversity the characters encounter. Consequences stemming from the characters’ actions should still be just that, consequences. It is when these are extreme or when the consequence is because of a lack of information that one can start to ask whether or not it’s an intrusion, but it is when the GM intentionally introduces it into the game spontaneously (or players rolling 1) we know it’s an intrusion. It is when it is put there to further challenge the players, to break with the expected, to challenge them without just piling on more adversaries (although more adversaries could arguably also be a GM intrusion) in a way that won’t necessarily add anything more than more difficulty. In my opinion they should sometimes add to the story as a whole, or at least the session/episode. It becomes more memorable.
