Creating a Story

Now you've got the basics. Before we delve into the detailed rules, let's briefly examine why we're doing this. When you play Cypher, you're doing it to have fun, obviously. It's a game. But there's more to it than that. Because when you're done playing a session, an adventure, or a campaign, you come away with a story. The PCs are the main characters, and the GM provides the worldbuilding, all the antagonists, and so on. But it's the group as a whole that creates the story at the table. The story is revealed in the process of actually playing so that we can see "what happens." The story is guided by the game's rules, almost like the rules of the game are the laws of nature in the fictional world.

But strictly adhering to a set of game rules sometimes gets in the way of the elements that make a great story. Cypher offers two similar tools to inject more ability to shape the story outside of the main game rules. These are called intrusions, both GM intrusions and player intrusions.

GM Intrusions

A GM intrusion is a tool the GM has to provide an additional challenge for a character (or all the characters). It's the moment in the story when the hero is running out of the burning building and part of the ceiling collapses around them. When the protagonist's opponent in a fistfight suddenly pulls out a knife. When the knight is battling the dragon, and the beast's eggs begin to hatch and little dragons come out to protect their mother. These moments happen all the time in stories, and we want to replicate those moments of tension, danger, and excitement in the stories we tell in our games as well.

A GM can, whenever it seems appropriate to the story, introduce a GM intrusion. Usually this is either a surprising development (the floor beneath you collapses) or an unexpected event triggered by a PC's action (the sleeping vampire awakens). A GM intrusion is typically brief and simple, although it can sometimes have a big effect on the story. The GM states the details of the intrusion and ends with "What do you do?"

A GM intrusion can be the result of a character's mistake, but just as often it comes as an event on the winds of fate. It's not a punishment. It's a way to heighten the tension and make things more exciting.

The GM awards 2 experience points (XP) to the player affected by the intrusion. The player then awards one of those XP to another player of their choosing (for whatever reason they want).

Reacting to an Intrusion: After the GM intrudes, you can spend 1 XP (assuming you have any to spend) on your next action to react to a GM intrusion to help deal with whatever new situation the GM introduced.

Intruding on an Automatic Success: One surprising way the GM can intrude is when you attempt an action that should be routine (an automatic success). For example, if you're climbing a wall and, through skill and Effort, you've reduced the difficulty to 0, you might assume that everything goes according to plan and it's a smooth climb without any issues, but the GM might intrude (offering you 2 XP) and say that part of the wall starts to crumble and suddenly you're at risk of falling.

Free GM Intrusion: If you roll a 1 on a task, the GM gets a "free" intrusion—they get to intrude, and they don't give out any XP for it.

The Cypher GM's Guide has a far more extensive discussion of GM intrusions, with many more examples.

Player Intrusion

A player intrusion is when you (the player) intervene to alter something in the campaign, making things easier for your character, and ideally more interesting for the story. Conceptually, it is the reverse of a GM intrusion: instead of the GM giving you XP and introducing an unexpected complication for a character, you spend 1 XP and present a solution to a problem or complication. What a player intrusion can do usually introduces a change to the world or current circumstances rather than directly changing your character. For example, a player intrusion that a cypher you just used still has an additional use would be appropriate, but a player intrusion that your character suddenly heals would not.

If you have no XP to spend, you can't use a player intrusion. Using an intrusion does not require you to use an action to trigger it—it just happens.

What follows are a few examples of player intrusions. Not every intrusion listed here is appropriate for all situations. The GM may allow you to come up with other player intrusion suggestions, but they are the final arbiter of whether the suggested intrusion is appropriate for the character and suitable for the situation. If the GM refuses the intrusion, you don't spend the 1 XP, and the intrusion doesn't occur.

Advantageous Malfunction: A dangerous device malfunctions before it can affect you. It might harm the user or one of their allies for a round, or activate a dramatic and distracting side effect for a few rounds.

Convenient Idea: A flash of insight provides you with a clear answer or suggests a course of action with regard to an urgent question, problem, or obstacle you're facing.

Friendly NPC: An NPC you don't know, someone you don't know that well, or someone you know but who hasn't been particularly friendly in the past chooses to help you, though they don't necessarily explain why. Maybe they'll ask you for a favor in return afterward, depending on how much trouble they go to.

Inexplicably Unbroken: An inactive, ruined, or presumed-destroyed device temporarily activates and performs a useful function relevant to the situation. This is enough to buy you some time for a better solution, alleviate a complication that was interfering with your abilities, or just get you one more use out of a depleted cypher or artifact.

Old Friend: A comrade in arms from your past shows up unexpectedly and provides aid in whatever you're doing. They are on a mission of their own and can't stay longer than it takes to help out, chat for a while after, and perhaps share a quick meal.

Perfect Setup: You're fighting at least three foes and each one is standing in exactly the right spot for you to use a move you trained in long ago, allowing you to attack all three as an action. Make a separate attack roll for each foe.

Perfect Suggestion: A follower or other already-friendly NPC suggests a course of action with regard to an urgent question, problem, or obstacle you're facing.

React to the GM's Intrusion: After the GM intrudes, you could decide to use your next action to react to a GM intrusion in a way that makes the story complication the GM just introduced improve your situation.

Serendipitous Landmark: Just when it seems like you've lost the path, something suggests to you the best path forward from this point, such as a trail marker, a landmark, or simply the way the terrain or corridor changes.

Unexpected Gift: An NPC hands you a physical gift you were not expecting, one that helps put the situation at ease if things seem strained, or provides you with a new insight for understanding the context of the situation if there's something you're failing to understand or grasp.

Weak Strain: The poison or disease turns out not to be as debilitating or deadly as it first seemed, and inflicts only half the damage that it would have otherwise.

Weapon Break: Your foe's weapon has a weak spot. In the course of the combat, it quickly becomes damaged and loses 1 to 3 levels.

Glossary of Game Terms

ACTION: Anything a character does that is significant—punch a foe, leap a chasm, activate a device, use a special ability, and so on. Each character can take one action in a round.

CHARACTER: Any creature in the game capable of acting, whether it is a player character (PC) run by a player or a nonplayer character (NPC) run by the game master (GM). In Cypher, even bizarre creatures, sentient machines, and living energy beings can be "characters."

DIFFICULTY: A measure of how easy it is to accomplish a task. Difficulty is rated on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Altering the difficulty to make a task harder is called "hindering." Altering it to make a task easier is called "easing." All changes in difficulty are measured in steps. Difficulty often equates directly with level, so opening a level 3 locked door probably has a difficulty of 3.

EASE: A decrease in a task's difficulty, usually by one step. If something is eased but doesn't say by how many steps, that's shorthand for reducing difficulty by one step.

EFFORT: Spending points from a stat Pool to reduce the difficulty of a task. You decide whether or not to apply Effort on your turn before the roll is made. Your Effort score indicates how much Effort you can use on an action. NPCs never apply Effort.

EXPERT: Having an amazing amount of skill in a task. Being expert eases the task by three steps. So if you are expert in climbing, all your climbing tasks are eased by three steps. Expert is better than trained or specialized.

EXTRA ACTION: A special case where an ability or effect gives you another action in a round in addition to the normal action you take on your turn. Because it's a separate action, you can use your full Effort on it even if you've used all your other Effort on a different task this round.

FREELY USE: Able to use a kind of equipment (such as medium armor or heavy weapons) without penalty. If you can't freely use the weapon you're attacking with, your attacks with it are hindered. If you can't freely use a kind of armor (such as medium armor), the dodge penalty for the armor applies to all of your Speed tasks.

HINDER: An increase in a task's difficulty, usually by one step. If something is hindered but doesn't say by how many steps, that's shorthand for increasing the difficulty by one step.

INABILITY: The opposite of trained—you're hindered whenever you attempt a task that you have an inability in. If you also become trained in the task, the training and the inability cancel each other out and you can try the task normally.

LEVEL: A way to measure the strength, difficulty, power, or challenge of something in the game. Everything other than you in the game has a level. NPCs and objects have levels that determine the difficulty of any task related to them. For example, an opponent's level determines how hard they are to hit or avoid in combat. A door's level indicates how hard it is to break down. A lock's level determines how hard it is to pick. Levels are rated on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).

ROLL: A d20 roll made by a PC to determine whether an action is successful. Although the game occasionally uses other dice, when the text simply refers to "a roll," it always means a d20 roll.

ROUND: A length of time about five to ten seconds long. There are about ten rounds in a minute. When it's really important to track precise time, use rounds. Basically, it's the length of time to take an action in the game, but since everyone more or less acts simultaneously, all characters get to take an action each round.

SPECIALIZED: Having an exceptional amount of skill in a task. Being specialized eases the task by two steps. So if you are specialized in climbing, all your climbing tasks are eased by two steps. Specialized is better than trained.

STAT: One of the three defining characteristics for PCs: Might, Speed, or Intellect. Each stat (short for statistic) has two values: Pool and Edge. Your Pool represents your raw, innate ability, and your Edge represents knowing how to use what you have. Each stat Pool can increase or decrease over the course of play—for example, you can spend points from your Might Pool when you rally to remove a wound, lose points to your Speed Pool if you take certain types of damage like poison, spend points from your Intellect Pool to activate a special ability, or rest to recover points in all your Pools after a long day of marching. Anything that requires spending from a stat, damages a stat, restores or heals a stat, or boosts or penalizes a stat affects the stat's Pool.

TASK: Something your character attempts, often as an action. The GM determines the difficulty of the task. In general, a task is something that you do and an action is you performing that task, but they often come down to the same thing.

TRAINED: Having a reasonable amount of skill in a task. Being trained eases the task. For example, if you are trained in climbing, all climbing tasks for you are eased. If you become very skilled at that task, you become specialized instead of trained. And if you become even more skilled, you become expert instead of specialized. You do not need to be trained to attempt a task.

TURN: The part of the round when a character or creature takes its actions. For example, if a Paladin and a Bard are fighting an orc, each round the Paladin takes an action on their turn, the Bard takes an action on their turn, and the orc takes an action on its turn. Some abilities or effects last only one turn, or end when the next turn is started.