Wednesday 2 October 2013

Numenera Is Weird And I Love It


Oh Monte, you delightful minx man. Last week we finally got together to play a game of Numenera, a game that I was back in the GM seat for. We also have an extra addition to the group in the form of my esteemed colleague Sam, who's decided to play some Texan crocodile Dundee, which is just fine by me. Anyway, more of that later.


Numenera is a bizarre game. I mean, it's great. The mechanics are light, GM fiat is a breeze and hell, I didn't even have to roll a dice. That seemed weird at first, but coupled with GM intrusions, whenever the players roll a 1 I get to mess with their minds in some way, it works well. Sorry, fudgers. But it's still a weird game. One player has a glass sphere that whistles depending on how angry he is. I can't tell you how hilarious this was when he was facing down some warrior jock who was getting all up in his grill. Also, all the stuff is definitely not what you think. One player has a metal box that produces a sheet of paper every day. What's that all about? I don't know but we love it.

At one point the party was tackling some furry flying disks called pallones. When they attack they turn vertically and then try their best to embed themselves into your head, the rascals. Should the players roll a 1 they get reinforcements. I like pallones. I also really like how monsters are written. They have very few stats, lots of flavour and nice little GM intrusions snuggled all up in the margins. Remember, the GM doesn't have to roll a thing, so the players are both rolling to attack and to defend. It feels more fluid for some reason.

Our first session left a good taste in my mouth. Numenera is all about exploration and figuring stuff out about the world around you. It's so batshit insane that you'll be hard pressed not to find inspiration for years of games somewhere in the core book (which is gorgeous, by the way).

Well done, Monte, you delectable dude. You've done it again.


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