Sunday, March 5, 2023

Cypher Play: Road War

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

So I sat down to play a hybrid "Road Warrior" post-apocalyptic-style campaign with Cypher System, which worked very nicely. I am just in the "getting started" part of the game, with some running around a built-up fortress town, running errands, and getting to know the city. I am playing solo and using the Mythic GM Emulator to fill in any blanks, but keeping it on the lighter side and not over-relying on charts.

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

My character is a delivery service driver, so random deliveries are the "tutorial missions." The delivery van the company issues is a piece of junk, and it had three breakdowns on three separate deliveries. Traffic is treated as a monster, so it has a level and must be rolled against to avoid a table of random incidents. This is a cool trick to Cypher, making any sort of hazardous environment a monster with a level and health and letting the characters deal with it like an enemy.

Not all "leveled challenges" need to be enemies; they can be environments too. I could imagine a "rowdy bar" as an "enemy" in the system, and defeating them means either fighting them, entertaining them, or being best buddies with a few with social skills.

Vehicles (in my game) are like creatures with a level, armor rating, and health. Some vehicles vary widely in health; the van is level 4, with light armor, 12 health, and (when the front and back LMGs are loaded) has a damage of 2 (light vehicle weapons, mounted front and back). There is also a broken RPG turret (medium weapon, HEAT shells ignore 2 points of armor) up top. The company does not allow the trucks to be loaded with ammo in town since those are the rules. Outside of town, the truck will have ammo. Character skills modify tasks done with the vehicle, and vehicle armor would modify SPD effort as usual.

Money is strange, and I was giving out dollars, but I want to give out uses of "item prices" as rewards. A day of work at the delivery service? You can afford one moderate-priced item and any reasonable number of inexpensive items. A 5-day week of work would be expensive if no money is spent during the week. It roughly translates to saving 5 of one item type allowing 1 of the next higher.

  • 5 inexpensive items or one moderate item = 1 day of work
  • 1 expensive item = 5 days of work
  • 1 very expensive item = 25 days (1 month) of work
  • 1 exorbitant item = 125 days (1/2 year) of work

The above are in working-person wages. I would multiply wages by the character's tier rating for the base level and then by another rating from 1-6 for work experience or how well the job pays. For example, a tier 2 character paid double the rate - could buy 4 moderate items daily (or one expensive item-ish).

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

The system works very well, and the "daily grind" of delivering in level 5 traffic made for a long day. My character took someone from the garage to give them directions and watch for traffic hazards, which counted as an assist. A level of driving skill counted as another, and the truck sucked, which counted as a hindrance. The truck broke down once (GM intrusion), twice (random encounter), and three times (another random encounter).

The final GM intrusion was an expensive sports car pulling out suddenly in front of the truck. A driving roll with effort (and no spotter assist allowed) narrowly avoided an accident. The driver got out and had a fit, but some quick thinking smoothed it over and earned the player a new contact in the wealthy part of town - and I got a new cypher from the encounter and a thank you.

In the end, my character was tired, having spent 9 of their INT pool and 5 of their SPD pool. This was a long day with many delays, repair rolls, and using a cypher to fix the truck (which resulted in the truck losing its hindrance with a 20). If anyone says Cypher System is too easy on players, they are not forcing point spends and using scene hindrances and hazards to good effect. Add hindrances and deny assets if they do not apply. Also, require point spends to even attempt some actions.

To do well in this system and complete missions, you need to be a "big spender" on effort and use those pools hard, which is how it should be. Referees! Make sure those point spends are happening. Toss a GM intrusion in there if the fight is going too well, make a sandstorm happen, and add a hindrance to the scene. Use your tools and drain those pools.

If your characters are not half-dead tired from effort use, you are not playing Cypher right. That "pool burn" is essential to tension and challenge, and there were moments when the truck broke down. I had no idea how the day would be completed successfully at a few points. You should be looking forward to and carefully spending those recoveries.

If you are burning pools down, you are having fun.

Narratively, the system works incredibly well for solo play. This game was much smoother and more interactive than 5E, Pathfinder 2, C&C, or some of my OSR favorites. In many d20 games, you are not burning resources out of combat; unless you are in combat, the game falls flat. In Cypher, you are burning resources all day with any secondary mode of play (exploration and interaction), and in combat, your pools are directly under attack. Even in Savage Worlds you get that combat-focused resource burn, and I like how Cypher makes you burn through pools just to complete a non-combat package delivery mission. It felt like I was going to fail, which got my attention.

Next session? We are diving into vehicle combat with a dangerous delivery outside of town.

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