Monte Cook's Blog, page 79

A Strange Box Kickstarter is Now Live!

One question we get asked at every convention is whether we’re going to do a boxed set for The Strange like we did for Numenera. We asked fans of The Strange and they responded enthusiastically. So, we decided to give them the most spectacular experience with The Strange that we could create: a deluxe boxed edition—A Strange Box. As you can imagine, we want to make it absolutely beautiful and crammed full of all the coolest extra content we can come up with: character sheets, new XP cards, an...

Cypher Chronicles, vol. 6-2017

Iadace and welcome to Cypher Chronicles! MCG News If you’ve picked up Into the Outside, or checked out the free preview, you’re probably overwhelmed with weird and cool ideas for where your Numenera game might go next. But running an adventure in a realm of pure thought, or a reality made only of sound, can be tricky. This week we released the companion glimmer, In Alternate Dimensions, that makes GMing transdimensional adventures a bit easier. Among other things, you get 100 transdimensional...

Invisible Sun Design Diary 4: Long Form Magic

Spells, rituals, and so on in RPGs rarely feel like magic in fiction or real world occult studies because they’re usually so straightforward and quantified. You spend a specific amount of points (or uses, or slots, or whatever) and you do a specific amount damage or you fly at a specific speed for a specific amount of time. Or whatever. And that’s fine. It makes perfect sense—it’s a game, and games need rules and rules require some kind of quantification. Many spells in Invisible Sun work the...

In Alternate Dimensions

Discovering new worlds is now even easier! The Ninth World can be a weird place, but those realms outside the natural world are even weirder. Navigating a reality of pure sound, a realm with only two dimensions, or a plane where time is inconstant, can be a serious challenge to Numenera characters—and an even greater challenge to Numenera GMs. In Alternate Dimensions gives GMs three critical tools for running adventures in the many alternate realities PCs might accidentally—or purposefully—fi...

How to Use the NPC Deck

One of the greatest challenges for a GM is creating NPCs that are interesting, unique, and fleshed out—particularly when time is short. (I’m ashamed to admit it, but my campaign in high school was populated by NPCs named after various kinds of candy.) Fortunately, the 100-card NPC Deck helps you breathe life into your NPCs with details of their appearance, personality, abilities, and possessions—even their names. In this video, Charles shows how the NPC Deck helps you create memorable NPCs by...

Cypher Chronicles, vol. 5-2017

Iadace and welcome to Cypher Chronicles! MCG News Monte, Shanna, and Charles recently shared a statement about MCG’s core values. It’s a statement we all stand behind. Today (Friday, February 10th) is the last day to take part in The Strange Crow Hollow Sale. Use the coupon code CrowHollowSale at checkout to get 48% off The Strange print products, plus get 10% off everything else in print by clicking on the 10% Product Discount coupon that will appear on your checkout screen. We’ll be donatin...

Happy Valentine’s Day from MCG

Happy (almost) Valentine’s Day from Monte Cook Games! Unfortunately, we can’t send each of you candy hearts or flowers. For those of you going on a date in the near future, here are some GM intrusions worth spending 1 XP to avoid! (And check the end of this list for some MCG-themed Valentine’s Day cards!) The ex of you or your date shows up at the same location with their date. Someone gets food poisoning. Your date pickpockets one of your cyphers. The restaurant you chose is incompatible wit...

Happy Valentine’s Day 2017 from MCG!

Happy (almost) Valentine’s Day from Monte Cook Games! Unfortunately, we can’t send each of you candy hearts or flowers. For those of you going on a first date in the near future, here are some GM intrusions worth spending 1 XP to avoid! (And check the end of this list for some MCG-themed Valentine’s Day cards!) The ex of you or your date shows up at the same location with their date. Someone gets food poisoning. Your date pickpockets one of your cyphers. The restaurant you chose is incompatib...

The Strange Crow Hollow Sale

A Strange Sale for Strange Times! 48% off The Strange print products (use the coupon code CrowHollowSale) 10% off everything else (coupon appears automatically in your cart—just click it to apply) 10%+ of all sales go to the ACLU In a couple of weeks, Monte Cook Games is launching a new Kickstarter campaign for an awesome, exclusive boxed set for The Strange. This will be an incredible box of treasures, on the model of the Exclusive Numenera Boxed Set we funded a couple of years ago. To celeb...

Our Core Values

Our core values at MCG have always included acceptance and inclusion. In our products, in the events we support, and in the gaming spaces we strive to create, we welcome people from all walks of life, all genders and orientations, all religions and cultures, and all ethnicities. We support the civil liberties of all people, and manifest that support in our own small way: through the fun and imagination of games. But now we find that we must add to those core values. We must add truth. Althoug...