Just as the gaming world turns its eyes to Indianapolis for Gen Con, Monte Cook Games has revealed plans for a significant evolution of its popular and versatile tabletop roleplaying game, the Cypher System. A new edition is slated for a 2026 release, promising to streamline the experience for new players while maintaining the core mechanics that veteran fans appreciate.
The Cypher System is the engine behind many well-regarded RPGs, including the science-fantasy world of Numenera, the folk-horror Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game, and the electrum The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game. Its adaptability has been a key feature, with Polygon noting in 2023 that it “powers tabletop adventures across genres from zombie horror RPG settings to Terry Pratchett-style fantasy and everything in between”.
This new edition is more of an evolution than a revolution. The publisher has been quick to reassure existing players that their extensive collections of supplements won’t be made obsolete.
Monte Cook Games highlighted,
“The changes in the new edition primarily affect character generation, corebook organisation, and a few specific mechanical systems. Because of this, existing Cypher System supplements remain largely compatible with the new edition!”
At the heart of the game, the core principles remain the same. The character creation sentence—”I am a [descriptor] [type] who [focus]”—is not changing, and the fundamental task resolution system, where players use Effort, assets, and skills to lower a difficulty from a 1-10 scale, is untouched. Creature statistics are also said to be nearly identical, with only damage values requiring a simple, one-sentence conversion.
The announced changes are targeted at smoothing out specific parts of the gameplay experience. These include:
- Genre-Specific Character Creation: To speed up the process for most campaigns and make the game more accessible for newcomers. The deep customisation options for GMs with unique settings will remain.
- Player Character Damage: An adjustment to how player damage is handled aims to free up characters’ resource Pools, allowing for more frequent use of special abilities.
- Player Character Armour: The rules for armour will be tweaked to make defensive actions a more interesting tactical choice.
- Abilities and Cyphers: There will be a greater emphasis on unique character abilities and a streamlining of “subtle cyphers”—single-use abilities that are the default in many non-fantastical genres.
The new edition will also see the rules split across two new corebooks: the Cypher Character Rulebook and the Cypher GM’s Guide. The Character Rulebook will contain all the rules for creating and playing characters across a dozen genres, from dungeon fantasy and cyberpunk to superheroes and horror. The GM’s Guide will house the remaining rules, advice on running games, and tools for customising the system for any world a GM can imagine. The two books will be available separately and as a slipcase set.
Monte Cook Games plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the new edition in late summer 2025. As is common with the publisher’s campaigns, backers can likely expect special editions of the corebooks and exclusive accessories designed to enhance gameplay.
This announcement comes over a decade after the Cypher System first appeared, and the publisher states that years of gameplay and fan feedback have guided this new design. Interestingly, they note that some of the mechanics being rolled into this new edition were influenced by or tested in standalone Cypher-powered games like The Magnus Archives RPG.
Via Monte Cook Games.
