Cypher 2.0 Update Streamlines Character Creation

Cypher, for those unfamiliar, is a setting-neutral TTRPG ruleset published by Monte Cook Games in 2013 as the engine behind Numenera, an award-winning TTRPG that centers on a science fiction world with heavy fantasy themes. It was later followed by The Strange, the author’s attempt at a multiversal dimension-hopping setting and then the official Cypher System Rulebook, which set the standard for the new game. Cypher has slowly grown in popularity and has had multiple supplements published to support the system, most notably The Magnus Archives and The Old Gods of Appalachia, where the designers adapted two popular horror podcasts into a playable format that has raised millions of dollars in crowdfunding.

Cypher is a setting-neutral ruleset, which is why MCG emphasizes how the new game allows you to play any genre or setting within it. Personally, I have a few friends who approach me and continually try to convince me to use Cypher rather than the established ruleset for a specific book.

The company announced in July that it would release an updated version of Cypher and launched the crowdfunding campaign for it in late August. The campaign has successfully raised more than $400,000 as of this story and I expect it to continue to rise.

But why is Cypher getting a rules update?

The main goal is streamlining, according to MCG chief operating officer Charles Ryan. The original Cypher system is a “wonderfully robust toolbox for building the game that you want to build, but hard to onboard straight into something,” Ryan noted, which is why the new ruleset aims to update the book so that players can pick up and play one-shots and short campaigns without having to jimmy together a character that fits your particular concept based on the specific archetypes and characters that someone might want to play.

The new Character Rulebook, which is one of the two primary texts being funded by Cypher’s campaign, now offers several sheets and archetypes that are built around Cipher’s pre-established systems. For example, it will have a chapter dedicated to fantasy, which will provide players with options for playing D&D classes like druid, fighter, or sorcerer within the setting, allowing them to be easily picked up. They’re also aiming to make the ruleset easier to use for building characters.

Those changes will focus on character building, meaning that all past sourcebooks published by Cypher will remain usable. “The changes are mostly due to character creation,” MCG marketing director Kate Evans told TTRPG Insider. “90% of everything that still exists, you can still use. That's the whole deal. So all the adventures are fine. Monsters are also good, but there's like a five-second change you might have to do in order to add damage to them.”

The core mechanic of Cypher (its Focus system) will stay in place. “Character creation is still I’m an [adjective] who can [verb],” Ryan emphasized. But what will change is how damage operates. Players will no longer track points out of a health pool and will instead track ‘wounds’ which will have more of a narrative effect.

Cyphers, a sort of one-use ability that provides special powers and skills to a player character, are also getting an update. While all the older cyphers will still work, the newer ones in the upcoming book will be more streamlined. Subtle ciphers, which are nonphysical abilities within the game, are getting more emphasized while “manifest” cyphers (aka special items that give you ability buffs) can offer buffs and bonuses. The subtle cyphers will take more priority in the ruleset since it’s more likely that a game or setting will use those buffs to their benefit.

There will also be the GM’s Guide, which will provide tools for storytellers to create new stories and threads quickly as well as new “genre templates”, which are the optional rules and mechanics that players can adopt to make Cypher fit their playstyle, whether it is eldritch horror or a wartime story in Europe.

The other significant addition will be enhanced VTT support, which includes providing tools to run Cypher on Roll20, as well as Alchemy. The company does hope to “expand into the VTT spaces gently,” but did not confirm any other VTTs. Cypher is available on Foundry, but it is a fan-made system rather than one officially managed by MCG.

Whether you’re a designer, content creator or just the biggest fan at your table, TTRPG Insider delivers in-depth reporting, original interviews and regular roundups of the news that you will not find anywhere else. Let us help you become the best designer, player or dungeon master at your table.

Subscribe now and get the advantage you require to excel in this exceptional hobby and industry.

How Fans Sparked the Cypher 2.0 Update

Many of the changes that MCG has planned for Cypher 2.0 were reportedly driven by fans, according to Evans.

“The community doesn't know they're involved, but they are. I think that's the biggest thing, and this is, we didn't poll the community, but we listened to the,” Evans emphasized. She also noted that they had been running games of all sorts at conventions like Gen Con and UK Game Expo, as well as online communities like the Cypher Unlimited Discord server. They’ve also been keeping an eye out for how the game has been recommended and discussed online by people across Reddit and other forums, and drawing that feedback into what they’ve changed.

“No game is for everybody,” Ryan admitted. “But sometimes you pick up how some people struggle with mechanics like how they have to spend their hit points, or that this particular mechanic doesn’t communicate how something as well as it should. We used that feedback to update what we planned.”

It has been an ongoing process, Ryan emphasized, but these discussions eventually led MCG’s design team to design the game’s update.

MCG hopes to finish the book by GenCon 2026, Evans noted, although the effects of tariffs and the economy could delay that goal if significant shifts occur in the future.

You can back Cypher 2.0 on Backerkit now.

Thanks to the Monte Cook Games team for sitting down to talk with us!

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].