05/07/2019 Numenera - Wikipedia

Numenera
Numenera is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) set in the far
Numenera
distant future, written by Monte Cook.[1][2][3] It has been translated into Italian,[4]
German,[5] Spanish, French and Portuguese.[6]

Contents
Game
Setting
Character creation
Technology
Launch
Numenera 2
Numenera Corebook
Products
Core books Designer(s) Monte Cook
Adventures and Glimmers
Publisher(s) Monte Cook Games
Game aids
Fiction Publication 2013
Related products date
Awards Genre(s) Science Fantasy
References System(s) Cypher System
External links Playing Varies
time
Random Dice rolling
Game chance
Skill(s) Role-playing,
Setting required improvisation

Numenera is set on Earth approximately one billion years in the future. The setting Website Numenera.com (htt
is called "The Ninth World" due to the fact that eight civilizations have risen and p://numenera.com)
fallen prior to the current era.[7]

Character creation
Character creation has been simplified by having players fill in the blanks to the statement:

"I am a __________ __________ who _________s."

1. The first blank, the adjective in the sentence, is filled in by a character's "Descriptor", a way to describe the
character's strongest characteristic.
2. The second blank, the noun of the sentence, is filled in by a character's "Type", which is a "Glaive" (a warrior
type), a "Nano" (a technology adept type), or a "Jack" (as in jack-of-all-trades).
3. The third blank, the verb of the sentence, is filled in by a character's "Focus", or what the character is most known
for or their special talent.[8]

Technology
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The name "Numenera" is a reference to the bits of technology left over from past civilizations. The word "numen" is a Latin root
word meaning a "pervading divine presence"[9] and "era" refers to the period (1 billion years in the future) in which this universe
takes place. The world is utterly filled with "nanites" (the divine presence) that some beings in this universe can tap into and
control. With a nod towards Clarke's Third Law, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic",[10] the
setting treats technology with much the same approach as magic in a fantasy setting. The native tech level is roughly medieval.[11]

Launch
Numenera was launched via a Kickstarter campaign, that set a record for "most money raised for a tabletop role-playing game" at
$517,255 by 4,658 backers,[12] surpassing the previous record set by the Kickstarter for Traveller 5th edition.[13] Originally
intended just to fund the initial Core rulebook, the campaign more than doubled its fund goal within the first 24 hours.[14]
"Stretch-goals" that were announced as the level of funding grew increased the output of products, ending up producing an entire
game line.[15]

Numenera 2
Numenera 2 is a revision of the original game to increase emphasis on exploration, discovery, and building. It also incorporated a
few revisions from the Cypher rule system that had been released subsequent to the original Numenera release. Numenera 2 also
used a Kickstarter campaign for initial funding obtaining $845,258 from 4,185 backers. The campaign ran in Fall of 2017 with
first deliverables scheduled for Summer of 2018. Numenera 2 has two core rule books titled, Numenera: Discovery and
Numenera: Destiny.

Discovery is essentially a revision of the original Numenera core book. The Jack character type was substantially revised to be
more distinctive compared to Nanos and Glaives. Also added are player intrusions, a mechanism allowing players to alter the
environment by spending an experience point. Destiny is nearly completely new material offering three new character types:
Arkus, Delve, and Wright, new descriptors and new foci. The book also emphasizes crafting along with community protection and
development with these character types taking lead positions in such an endeavor. A major section on crafting mechanisms and a
major section on communities are provided. The manner of running a community game can be described as treating the
community as an NPC in the game with stats that the player characters enhance. New monsters, NPCs, and settings are also
offered in the Destiny core book.

As part of the Numenera 2 Kickstarter campaign several other supplemental materials are scheduled for production. As of July,
2018 only the Numenera 2 core books had been released in PDF format for Kickstarter backers.

Products

Core books

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Title Authors Date Pages Formats ISBN

Print, ISBN 978-
August 14,
Numenera Corebook Monte Cook 416 Deluxe, 1-939979-
2013
PDF 00-1
The main rulebook for the game 

Monte Cook, Bruce ISBN 978-

October PDF,
Numenera: Discovery Corebook Cordell, & Sean K. 416 1-939979-
17, 2018 Print
Reynolds 78-0
The main rulebook for the game, revised 

Monte Cook, Bruce ISBN 978-

October PDF,
Numenera: Destiny Corebook Cordell, & Sean K. 416 1-939979-
17, 2018 Print
Reynolds 77-3
The auxiliary main rulebook for the game 

ISBN 978-
August 14, Print,
Numenera Player's Guide Monte Cook 64 1-939979-
2013 PDF
01-8
Book focused on the player characters; subset of content from the Corebook 

Monte Cook, Bruce ISBN 978-

October Print,
Numenera 2 Player's Guide Cordell, & Sean K. 96 1-939979-
31, 2018 PDF
Reynolds 76-6
Book for Numenera 2 on the player characters; subset of content from Discovery & Destiny. 

ISBN 978-
Monte Cook & Bruce February Print,
The Ninth World Bestiary 160 1-939979-
Cordell 2014 PDF
09-4
A collection of Numenera creatures 

ISBN 978-
Print,
Numenera Character Options Monte Cook May 2014 96 1-939979-
PDF
14-8
A collection of more descriptors and foci 

ISBN 978-
Technology Compendium: Sir August Print,
Monte Cook 160 1-939979-
Arthour's Guide to the Numenera 2014 PDF
20-9
A collection of Numenera cyphers, oddities and artifacts 

ISBN 978-
Monte Cook & Shanna January Print,
The Ninth World Guidebook 256 1-939979-
Germain 2015 PDF
24-7
A setting book about the Ninth World, its locations and denizens 

ISBN 978-
Monte Cook & Bruce September Print,
Numenera Character Options 2 96 1-939979-
Cordell 2016 PDF
55-1
A collection introducing two new character types as well as more descriptors and foci 

ISBN 978-
Print,
Numenera Priests of the Aeons Sean K. Reynolds 2019 191 1-939979-
PDF
89-6
Details on the Aeon Priesthood with new character options. 

Adventures and Glimmers

Glimmers are short, PDF-only publications. There are also some adventure collections that have appeared in print:

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Title Authors Date Pages Formats ISBN

Monte Print,
The Devil's Spine October 2013 96 ISBN 9781939979025
Cook PDF
Three 32 page adventures, "The Devil's Spine", "The Mechanized Tomb", "The Other Side of the Maelstrom" 

Weird Discoveries: Ten Instant Monte Print,

April 2015 96
Adventures for Numenera Cook PDF
Ten fully developed adventures that can be run with little preparation time. 

Monte August 14, PDF

The Nightmare Switch 32
Cook 2013 Only
A Kickstarter exclusive adventure 

Monte September 4, PDF

Vortex 18
Cook 2013 Only
The Numenera launch adventure at Gen Con 2013. 

Bruce Print, ISBN 978-1-939979-

Slaves of the Machine God 2019 144
Cordell PDF 86-5
Campaign book. Two story arcs, each containing eight separate adventures. 

Game aids

Title Date Pages Formats

Numenera GM Screen August 14, 2013 N/A Print, PDF
Four-panel, landscape format vinyl GM's screen 

Numenera XP Card Deck August 14, 2013 30 cards Print, PDF

Cards representing a character's XP points 

Numenera Cypher Card Deck August 14, 2013 120 cards Print, PDF
Cards representing cypher Numenera available in game 

Numenera Cypher Card Deck 2 2014 120 cards Print, PDF

Cards representing cypher Numenera available in game 

Numenera Creature Card Deck February 2014 100 cards Print, PDF
Cards representing Numenera creatures 

Numenera Cypher Chest 2014 250 cards Print

Contains the XP, Cypher and Creature decks. 

Numenera Character Sheets 2014 104 (print) Print, PDF

Blank character sheets and a character generation walkthrough. 

Fiction

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Title Authors Date Pages Formats ISBN

The Amber Monolith Monte Cook August 2012 18 PDF Only
Introductory short story to the Numenera setting; included within the Corebook 

Tales from the Ninth epub, mobi,

Monte Cook June 2013 79
World PDF
Collection of short stories set in the Numenera setting 

Shanna January epub, mobi, ISBN 978-

The Poison Eater 320
Germain 2017 print 0857666352
The first full-length novel set in the Numenera setting 

Related products
There have been several announced tie-ins to the brand:

Thunderstone Advance: Numenera by AEG, an expansion to the Thunderstone deck-building card game, set in
the world of Numenera.[16]

Torment: Tides of Numenera by inXile, a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment by Interplay.[17] This
computer game was also launched by Kickstarter and was itself a record setter for Kickstarter, being the fastest to
$1 million up to that time.
Reaper Miniatures released a boxed set of 28-mm scale miniature figures for Numenera.[18]

Awards
Awards Numenera products have received include:[19]

2014 ENnie Award silver:

Best Game: Numenera Corebook

Best Interior Art: Numenera Corebook
Best Cartography: Numenera Corebook
Best Monster or Adversary: The Ninth World Bestiary
Best Podcast: Numenera: The Signal
2014 ENnie Award gold:

Product of the Year: Numenera Corebook

Best Setting: Numenera Corebook
Best Writing: Numenera Corebook

Best Production Values: Numenera Corebook

Best Aid or Accessory: Numenera Creature Deck
2014 Origins Award:

Best New Roleplaying Game: Numenera

References
1. Webb, Travis. (4 May 2013). "Tylerpaper.com: Kickstarted; "Crowdfunding" continues to change face of gaming"
(http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20130504/FEATURES0701/130509912). Retrieved 15 May 2013.
2. "Nerdluster: Numenera RPG Kickstarter" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131110022852/http://nerdluster.com/indi
e/17-kickstarter-knuggets/110-20120824-numenera-rpg-kickstarter). 14 August 2012. Archived from the original (h
ttp://nerdluster.com/indie/17-kickstarter-knuggets/110-20120824-numenera-rpg-kickstarter) on 10 November
2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.

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3. "Tech2: Monte Cook GenCon Panel" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131110023217/http://tech2.in.com/video/xbo

x/779782/x7WezKF1qJikqq6Guoe1ppeJvK7JorSXuKi5pbiqqISlh9qr/monte-cook-gencon-2012-panel-numenera-p
art-1). 19 August 2013. Archived from the original (http://tech2.in.com/video/xbox/779782/x7WezKF1qJikqq6Guoe
1ppeJvK7JorSXuKi5pbiqqISlh9qr/monte-cook-gencon-2012-panel-numenera-part-1) on 10 November 2013.
Retrieved 15 May 2013.
4. "Announcing the Numenera box set" (http://www.montecookgames.com/announcing-the-exclusive-numenera-box
ed-set-edition/).
5. "Crowdfunding campaign for German translation of the corebook" (https://www.startnext.com/numeneradeutsch).
6. "Crowdfunding campaign for Brazilian Portuguese translation of the corebook" (http://www.catarse.me/pt/Numene
ra).
7. "Transmissions from the Ninth World:A Billion Years in the Future!" (http://transmissionsninthworld.blogspot.com/2
012/11/a-billion-years-in-future.html). Retrieved 15 May 2013.
8. "Transmissions from the Ninth World:Creative Characters!" (http://transmissionsninthworld.blogspot.com/2012/11/
creative-characters.html). Retrieved 15 May 2013.
9. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/numen
10. "The Sorcerer of Rhiannon", Astounding February 1942, p. 39.
11. "Transmissions from the Ninth World:Eponymous" (http://transmissionsninthworld.blogspot.com/2013/02/eponym
ous.html). Retrieved 15 May 2013.
12. "Kickstarter "Discover / Games / Most Funded" " (https://web.archive.org/web/20130430153007/http://www.kicksta
rter.com/discover/categories/games/most-funded#p1). Archived from the original (http://www.kickstarter.com/disco
ver/categories/games/most-funded#p1) on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
13. "Archived copy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130430153007/http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/ga
mes/most-funded). Archived from the original (http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/games/most-funde
d) on 2013-04-30. Retrieved 2013-04-24.
14. "KickTraq: Numenera Pledges & Backers by Day" (http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1433901524/numenera-a-ne
w-roleplaying-game-from-monte-cook/#chart-daily).
15. "Rich Howard: Numenera" (http://www.richhowardauthor.com/2012/09/numenera-kickstarter-from-monte-cook.ht
ml).
16. "Thunderstone Numenera: Two Games Enter, One Game Leaves" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131110023944/
http://www.alderac.com/thunderstone/2012/08/31/thunderstone-numenera-two-games-enter-one-game-leaves/).
Archived from the original (http://www.alderac.com/thunderstone/2012/08/31/thunderstone-numenera-two-games-
enter-one-game-leaves/) on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
17. "Kickstarter: Torment:Tides of Numenera" (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera).
18. "Reaper Miniatures: Numenera" (http://www.phdgames.com/reaper-miniatures-numenara). Retrieved
15 December 2013.
19. "Official award list" (http://www.numenera.com/awards/).

External links
Official website (http://numenera.com)
Numenera wiki (https://numenera.gamepedia.com/Numenera_Wiki)

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