One of the things I love about Cypher System is how flexible the game system is. The book has 450 pages of glorious options that include everything you need to build a character, define a plot and play a game! So, saying this, I need to first address how easy it is to create a character. The process is really simple. You form a Character Concept in the form of phrase (Character Name is a Descriptor Type who Focus). You literally fill in the blanks from chapters five (Type), seven (Descriptor), and eight (Focus). Let's start with Types-- I know, it's in the middle of the damn character concept, but that's where the Rule Book begins, and I'm pretty sure there's a very good reason for that...
There are four basic Types in Cypher. A Warrior, an Adept (mage), an Explorer (jack of all trades), and a Speaker (a face or leader). Each one of these options lists several variations that would be better suited for other genres. And if those don't fit, you can certainly create your own, but really, I think Monte Cook and company has done a pretty good job of boiling down most character types down to these four broad options. However, chapter six (Flavors) details more about how to tweak these major Type categories for other genres. For example, you may have a Warrior as a base, but you can Flavor (or style) it to be more like a Rouge/Covert-Ops (as one example).
Next lets talk about Descriptors. These help to describe your Character Concept by adding extra abilities, skills, and additional modifications to your Stat Pools. This is also where you'll find things such as Defects / Flaws (Inabilities) that add some role play potential to your character. There's a pretty extensive listing (nearly 50) to choose from (and more in other adjacent products), but if you can't find one that accurately fits your concept, there are customization rules at the end of the chapter as well.
Now on to the bread and butter of your Character Concept: the Focus. This is the verb part of the phrase, it's what your character does! The chapter begins with information for creating background and history to flesh out your character, but quickly moves on to the more than 90 Foci listed. And if that's not enough options for you, the end of the chapter gives you step by step instructions for how to create a new Focus with the more than 1,000 Abilities that are listed in chapter 9!
One thing I will mention. Monte Cook and crew have stated in their SRD (System Resource Document) that Game Masters and Creators alike can use all the rules or none of the rules listed in the Core Book. This quote doesn't really hit a person until they are feeling stuck with the available options. For example: I want to mash up multiple genres together, and I was feeling a bit restricted in my character options. I needed my characters to be able to do two things (two Foci). I took my dilemma to the Discord, and I was reminded of this quote. Just add a second Focus. So long as every character in the game has two Foci, there's nothing unbalancing going on!
Another thing I wanted to possibly add is another Resource (Stat Pool) for Mana. There are no official rules in the Core book about doing this, however, apparently on the Discord, there are Game Masters who have done just this, and it's fairly popular! Just be sure that every (player) character has the new Resource to manage.
So, that's how easy it is to modify the Cypher System. Is there room on the official character sheet for my modifications? Not really, but playing on a forum allows you to create a text document as a character sheet. Plenty of room for a messed up revision of the character sheet!
There are four basic Types in Cypher. A Warrior, an Adept (mage), an Explorer (jack of all trades), and a Speaker (a face or leader). Each one of these options lists several variations that would be better suited for other genres. And if those don't fit, you can certainly create your own, but really, I think Monte Cook and company has done a pretty good job of boiling down most character types down to these four broad options. However, chapter six (Flavors) details more about how to tweak these major Type categories for other genres. For example, you may have a Warrior as a base, but you can Flavor (or style) it to be more like a Rouge/Covert-Ops (as one example).
Next lets talk about Descriptors. These help to describe your Character Concept by adding extra abilities, skills, and additional modifications to your Stat Pools. This is also where you'll find things such as Defects / Flaws (Inabilities) that add some role play potential to your character. There's a pretty extensive listing (nearly 50) to choose from (and more in other adjacent products), but if you can't find one that accurately fits your concept, there are customization rules at the end of the chapter as well.
Now on to the bread and butter of your Character Concept: the Focus. This is the verb part of the phrase, it's what your character does! The chapter begins with information for creating background and history to flesh out your character, but quickly moves on to the more than 90 Foci listed. And if that's not enough options for you, the end of the chapter gives you step by step instructions for how to create a new Focus with the more than 1,000 Abilities that are listed in chapter 9!
One thing I will mention. Monte Cook and crew have stated in their SRD (System Resource Document) that Game Masters and Creators alike can use all the rules or none of the rules listed in the Core Book. This quote doesn't really hit a person until they are feeling stuck with the available options. For example: I want to mash up multiple genres together, and I was feeling a bit restricted in my character options. I needed my characters to be able to do two things (two Foci). I took my dilemma to the Discord, and I was reminded of this quote. Just add a second Focus. So long as every character in the game has two Foci, there's nothing unbalancing going on!
Another thing I wanted to possibly add is another Resource (Stat Pool) for Mana. There are no official rules in the Core book about doing this, however, apparently on the Discord, there are Game Masters who have done just this, and it's fairly popular! Just be sure that every (player) character has the new Resource to manage.
So, that's how easy it is to modify the Cypher System. Is there room on the official character sheet for my modifications? Not really, but playing on a forum allows you to create a text document as a character sheet. Plenty of room for a messed up revision of the character sheet!
