Cypher System Announcements

[Poe the Homunculus]

And you all saw that many of the creatures are now public?
Cypher System Creature Index

[Saagael]

Hey all, the latest changes have been pushed to LIVE.

[Saagael]

6/27/2023 Update

This update is focused almost entirely on the character creation workflow. Types, Descriptors, Foci, and Ancestry are all now automatically handled when dropped onto a PC sheet. Notably Flavors are not managed right now and unless I can come up with a user friendly workflow will probably remain a manual process when building a character.

The next update include a number of user and gameplay features (ammunition tracker, combat tracker updates, new effects for rolls, player intrusions, and more), as well as automating character advancements.

System Changes

• The GM can now right-click on a PC entry either in the combat tracker or in the character connection list (top-left of the screen when players are connected) and select the "Invoke a GM Intrusion" button at 9 o'clock. This will prompt the owner of the PC to select to either accept or decline the intrusion. If they decline the system will deduct 1 XP. If they accept, they will have to choose another character, and both of those characters will gain 1 XP.
• Restructured most of the rolls to cut down on message clutter. Most d20 rolls are now split into 2 separate messages, the first of which shows the PC's roll with all of their modifiers, and the second compares that result to their target (or the global target if there is no target).
• D20 rolls can now be drag/dropped directly from chat onto a target to compare and apply the results.
• Paying the cost for rolls and abilities has been separated into its own chat message that occurs prior to the ability or roll.
• Added "Flex" as an option to the Stat Pool character modification template (found in Abilities, Descriptors, and Ancestries). When selecting this modification, the user will be prompted to fill out what stats they want to increase
• Fixed a number of minor bugs

PC Changes

• Added a new button to the Main tab of the character sheet, in the upper left corner of the section that contains the character's name, type, descriptor, and focus. Clicking this button will open the progression tracker, which is a list of all of the modifications a character has undergone through character creation steps outlined below.
• When a Type is dropped onto a PC, a pop-up window will appear and prompt the user to select their starting stats, starting edge, and starting abilities (when applicable depending on the Type)
• When a Descriptor is dropped onto a PC, all of that descriptors Features are applied to the PC
• When an Ancestry is dropped onto a PC, all of that ancestry's Features are applied to the PC
• When a Focus is dropped onto a PC, the PC will gain all of the abilities from that Focus. If the player needs to decide between a number of abilities, a window will pop up allowing them to select which one to gain.

[Poe the Homunculus]

6/27/2023 Update

• The GM can now right-click on a PC entry either in the combat tracker or in the character connection list (top-left of the screen when players are connected) and select the "Invoke a GM Intrusion" button at 9 o'clock. This will prompt the owner of the player to select to either accept or decline the intrusion. If they decline the system will deduct 1 XP. If they accept, they will have to choose another character, and both of those characters will gain 1 XP.
  ...
• Added "Flex" as an option to the Stat Pool character modification template (found in Abilities, Descriptors, and Ancestries). When selecting this modification, the user will be prompted to fill out what stats they want to increase

PC Changes

• Added a new button to the Main tab of the character sheet, in the upper left corner of the section that contains the character's name, type, descriptor, and focus. Clicking this button will open the progression tracker, which is a list of all of the modifications a character has undergone through character creation steps outlined below.

Have I mentioned how much of a total BOSS you are Saagael??

[Saagael]

7/3/2023 Update

This is a smaller update to get out some quality of life features while I still work on getting all of the character building and advancement automation in place.

System Changes

• Added standard game options to enable health bars or health dots on tokens. Because PCs have what are effectively three health pools, the health indicator is measured against the sum total of all of the PC's stat pools.
• Health status is now displayed in chat as character's take damage. This allows anyone to set up chat-based audio triggers when stat pool thresholds are met
• Added a game option to increase the maximum difficulty level up to 15, and added global difficulty icons to the desktop.
• Swapped out the difficulty icons for some that are more dark-mode friendly.
• A number of small bug fixes.

PC Changes

• Added a Player Intrusion button on the main tab of the PC sheet. When clicked, this button will pop up a dialog box that prompts a player to select a type of intrusion they want to invoke. This automatically deduct XP and sends an appropriate message to chat.
• Moved the optional Hero Points counter to the main tab below the name/type/descriptor/focus section.

[Saagael]

8/1/2023 Update

It's finally here! This massive update focuses on filling out the automation for building and advancing characters.

System Changes

• Added ADV and DISADV effects. When applied to a character, their d20 rolls will instead roll 2d20 and either take the highest (ADV) or take the lowest result (DISADV). These effects accept the normal tags of "stat", "skill", "atk", "dmg", "init", "might", "speed", "intellect", etc.
• Added GRANTADV and GRANTDISADV effects. Rolls that target the character with these effects will either roll 2d20 keep highest or lowest, respectively.
• The "Damage" field on combat tracker entries now correctly supports drag/drop operations and will apply damage as expected
• The "Type" filter for abilities now accepts a comma delimited list in that field and will filter based on those separate values.
• Using a skill name as a tag for the "ASSET" and "EFFORT" effects now correctly applies an asset or level of effort.
• Fixed an issue where damage types and piercing values weren't being applied correctly.

PC Changes

• Automated and guided advancements
  
  • When a PC selects an advancement but does not have 4 XP available, a message in chat will let them know they don't have enough XP and the advancement will not be checked off
  • When a PC selects an advancement and has 4 XP available, that XP will be deducted and a pop up window will be displayed, prompting the user to select what they want to do for their advancement.
    
    • Stat advancements will prompt the player to select where they want to place their 4 stats
    • Skill advancements will prompt the player to select which skill they want training it. It will allow them to select from their existing list of skills, a new skill, or select one of their abilities that they can become trained in (the abilities must have an attack or roll action on it)
    • Effort advancements will increment the PC's Effort by 1
    • Edge advancements will prompt the player to select which stat they want to gain an Edge in.
    • Recovery advancements will increase the character's recovery value by 2
    • Ability advancements will allow the player to select a new ability to gain from their type or focus that they haven't selected (or is available to be selected multiple times)
    • Armor advancements will reduce the speed effort cost for armor by 1.
  • When a character has taken all four advancements, their tier will increase by 1 and they'll be prompted to select which abilities from their type and focus they want to gain.
• Add a new tab on the PC sheet for Character Arcs
  
  • Added new game rules to customize the XP cost and rewards that character arcs grant
  • When adding a new character arc, the first one costs 0 XP, but everyone one after that will cost XP (default 1)
  • Character arcs are tracked via a graphic that has four stages: opening, in progress, climax, and resolution. Clicking on the various parts of the arc will move the PC between those stages.
  • Arcs have a details window where a player can enter the details for each stage and step of an arc.
  • Completing a character arc step is done by changing the "Complete" field from "No" to "Yes", and doing so grants XP (default 2)
  • When all character arc steps are completed, a button on the climax tab will appear and allow you to select whether you succeeded or failed at the finale. Both earn you XP (default is 4 for success, 2 for failure)
  • Once the finale is done, a button on the resolution tab appears that will let you select whether the arc is resolved. Successfully resolving an arc gains the PC XP (default 1)
• Attacks now have a "Uses Ammo" property that, when set to "yes" will cause an ammunition tracker to appear below that attack's entry. Attack rolls automatically use one ammunition.
• The Armor and speed effort penalty fields on the main tab of the character sheet are now read only. You can adjust these fields by clicking the details button next to these fields. This opens up a new window where you can set the base values and modifiers for these two properties.

[Poe the Homunculus]

• Added ADV and DISADV effects. When applied to a character, their d20 rolls will instead roll 2d20 and either take the highest (ADV) or take the lowest result (DISADV). These effects accept the normal tags of "stat", "skill", "atk", "dmg", "init", "might", "speed", "intellect", etc.
• Added GRANTADV and GRANTDISADV effects. Rolls that target the character with these effects will either roll 2d20 keep highest or lowest, respectively.

I was just adding this to the cyphers I am coding last night! (I have add all cyphers up to those that start with "H" from both Numeneras, the Strange, and CRS)

• The "Damage" field on combat tracker entries now correctly supports drag/drop operations and will apply damage as expected

Super! Thank you

• Attacks now have a "Uses Ammo" property that, when set to "yes" will cause an ammunition tracker to appear below that attack's entry. Attack rolls automatically use one ammunition.

That was going to be a suggestion of mine. Thank you so much for the work

I am coding all the cyphers I can find into the items, and then hope to make the cyphers into a .mod file to share with everyone. I've got about all the Types and Descriptors into a Reference manual, need to start to tackle the Foci and powers soon...

[Saagael]

I am coding all the cyphers I can find into the items, and then hope to make the cyphers into a .mod file to share with everyone. I've got about all the Types and Descriptors into a Reference manual, need to start to tackle the Foci and powers soon...

Rock on! I've spent so much time working on the ruleset that I've neglected to create any of the content for my own game, so I would definitely appreciate having the cyphers and abilities in a mod file.

[wndrngdru]

8/1/2023 Update

You, sir, are my new favorite human being! Amazing stuff!

[Saagael]

8/15/2023 Update

The Effects Update! This update focuses primarily on expanding the effects available in the ruleset. There are a number of smaller features and bug fixes in there however. Because the number of effects has grown so large, the documentation for such no longer fits in a single forum post, and thus I have moved the documentation to its own wiki.

Effects Documentation

The number of effects for this ruleset has grown in size and scope, and to help both myself and users get the most out everything available I have leveraged the wonderful work done by SoxMax and created an Effect Builder plugin extension that is available on the Forge. You will need to subscribe to both the Effect Builder extension as well as the Cypher plugin extension. Both links are below.

Effect Builder by SoxMax
Effect Builder Plugin - Cypher System

Once you have both extensions enabled for your campaign you can access the effect builder by using either the /buildeffect or the /effectbuilder commands in chat to bring up the effect editor GUI. I recommend saving one of those commands to your hot bar for quick access.

System Changes

• Added basic support for Death Markers. There are new game options to set when death markers are added to a map.
  
  • Because Cypher doesn't really have a concept of creature types, the implementation is fairly basic and the creature types used are the ones from D&D 5e.
  • One game option allows you to set whether death markers are added when a creature with 0 HP is removed from the combat tracker.
  • One game option allows you to set whether death markers are added when an NPC is reduced to 0 HP
  • One game option allows you to set whether death markers are added when a PC moves down on the damage track. i.e. when they become impaired, debilitated, or dead.
• When creating an Edge feature in abilities, descriptors, or ancestries, you can select "Flex" as the stat. When this feature is applied to a character it will prompt the character to select the stat to apply edge to.
• Fixed an issue where the EASE and HINDER buttons on the defense prompt window would not toggle correctly.
• Fixed an issue where advancing to tier 3 or 6 would not prompt the character to select their focus ability for that tier
• Fixed several issues around applying flex stat and edge features to characters.
• Fixed an error that would pop up when a player moved an item from their inventory to the party sheet
• Fixed an issue that preventing adding ability features to abilities, descriptors, and ancestries
• Fixed an issue where defense training features would not apply

New Effects

• Added Ongoing Damage effect. Deals damage to the effect's owner at the start of their turn. DMGO: [number] [stat damaged] [damage type]
• Added Regeneration effect. Heals the effect's owner at the start of their turn. REGEN: [number] [stat healed]
• Added Vulnerability effect. Increases the damage the effect's owner takes. VULN: [number] [stat] [damage type]
• Added Shield effect. Acts as temporary hit points and will be deducted from the effect's owner's stats first. SHIELD: [number] [stat] [damage type]
• Added effects that grant levels of training.
  
  • Give training to rolls. TRAIN: [stat] [roll type] [attack range] [weapon type]
  • Give specialization to rolls. SPEC: [stat] [roll type] [attack range] [weapon type]
  • Gives an inability to rolls. INABILITY: [stat] [roll type] [attack range] [weapon type]
  • Attack range can be either "immediate", "short", "long", "very long"
  • Weapon type can be either "light", "medium", "heavy"
• Added effect that allows character to ignore the negative effects of being Impaired. IGNOREIMPAIRED
• Added IF and IFT conditional effects. These allow you to check a condition to determine whether the rest of the effect should be applied. You can invert the check by putting "NOT" before the effect (e.g. IF: NOT HALE). More details can be found in the documentation.
  
  • HALE
  • IMPAIRED
  • DEBILITATED
  • WOUNDED
  • MIGHT([number] or "max"). PCs only
  • MIGHT([operation][number]). PCs only
  • SPEED([number] or "max"). PCs only
  • SPEED([operation][number]). PCs only
  • INTELLECT([number] or "max"). PCs only
  • INTELLECT([operation][number]). PCs only
  • LEVEL([number]). NPCs only
  • LEVEL([operation][number]). NPCs only
• Added effect that allows the effect's owner to convert one type of defense roll into another. CONVERT(defense, [new stat]): [original stat].
  
  • [Original stat] and [new stat] can be either "might", "speed", "intellect", or "all".
  • When a character would make a defense roll that matches the [original stat], they will be given the option to instead select the [new stat] to roll
• Added effect that allows the effect's owner to convert the stat they use to pay a cost to another stat. CONVERT(cost, [new stat]): [original stat].
  
  • [Original stat] and [new stat] can be either "might", "speed", "intellect", or "all".
  • When a character would spend stats for effort or to activate an ability, if the stat spent matches the [original stat], the player will be prompted to choose either the [original stat] or the [new stat].

PC Changes

• In any place where a PC can select their training level (defense, skills, attacks, etc), the dash ("-") indicating "no training" has been replaced with the text "Practiced"
• Moved the details for armor and armor speed penalties to their own window to clean up some space on the main tab.
  
  • Added a new field for Armor called "pierce-proof" armor. This field allows you to specify how much of a character's armor should be immune to armor piercing damage.
  • When you add a Feature to descriptors, ancestries, or abilities that modify a character's armor, you can specify whether the armor should be immune to armor piercing.
• Added automation for character Flavors when building or advancing characters
  
  • When building a character, if you add a Flavor before you add a Type, then when you add the Type you will be allowed to select abilities from the character's Flavor
  • When a character takes an advancement to select a new ability from their Type, they can choose to select an ability from their Flavor
  • When a character increases their tier, they can select abilities from their Flavor in addition to their Type
• Effects actions on abilities (on the Actions tab) have been updated with some new features
  
  • You can add dice to the duration of an effect, which is randomized whenever the effect is added to someone.
  • Effect durations can now scale with effort spent. Directly beneath the duration of an effect is a line to set its scaling. Here you can specify a multiplier based on the effort spent. For example, if a player applies an effect with 1 level of Effort, and that effect has a base duration of 1 minute and a scaling mod of 1 with a scaling mod multiplier of "Effort" will have its duration set 2 minutes (base 1 + 1 Effort).
  • Effects can now have their text line scale with effort spent. To use this you'll need to fill in the Scaling information below the text line, and then use the specific text "{{EFFORT}}" including the double braces. When the effect is applied, the {{EFFORT}} text will be replaced with whatever the scaling amount is evaluated to.