About
Numenera 2: Discovery and Destiny
$845,258
4,185
They say there have been eight worlds before ours. Eight times the people of this Earth, over vast millennia, built their civilizations, reaching heights we cannot even fully imagine now. They spoke to the stars, reshaped the creatures of the world, and mastered form and essence. They built cities and machines that have since crumbled to dust, leaving only their barest remnants.
This is the Ninth World. The people of the prior worlds are gone—scattered, disappeared, or transcended. But their works remain, in the places and devices that still contain some germ of their original function. Some call these magic, but the wise know that these are our legacy. They are our future. They are the...
Set a billion years in our future, Numenera is a tabletop roleplaying game about exploration and discovery. The people of the Ninth World suffer through a dark age, an era of isolation and struggle in the shadow of the ancient wonders crafted by advanced civilizations now millennia gone. But discovery awaits for those brave enough to seek out the works of the prior worlds. Those who uncover and master the numenera can unlock the powers and abilities of the ancients, and bring new light to a struggling world.
The original Numenera RPG was launched via a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that shattered every record (at the time) for tabletop RPGs. The corebook has seen four printings, and Numenera is enjoyed by tens of thousands of gamers in an active global community. We have published over 60 supplements and accessories, and released a terrific starter set for new players. The Ninth World has spawned a critically-acclaimed hit computer game, board games, an excellent short film, a line of novels, and other licensed items, and Numenera has been translated into many languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, German, and Portuguese.
This has been a fast-moving campaign, with lots of new information revealed and many stretch goals unlocked. If you're new to Numenera, scroll down. If you're familiar with Numenera and want a guide to the information and stretch goals unveiled so far, check out the info at the bottom of this update.
Numenera is a game in which player characters explore the ruins of aeons past to gather amazing treasures and help build a new future for a world struggling in darkness. Since the launch of Numenera in 2013, we have delivered well on the first part, but we’ve always wanted to do a more thorough job exploring that second part. That desire has led us to Numenera 2 and this Kickstarter campaign.
Through this Kickstarter we’re going to replace the existing corebook with two new corebooks. The first is called Numenera Discovery and the second Numenera Destiny.
Numenera Discovery will be a book that covers familiar territory; it is basically a revision of the original Numenera corebook. Next summer, we will allow the original corebook to go out of print, and Numenera Discovery will take its place. In Numenera Discovery, you’ll get some revisions to make things clearer and more fun, and to increase the options available to players. Nanos, Jacks, and Glaives will get an overhaul. Many foci and some of the descriptors might see some reworking. You’ll have more options, clearer rules, and perhaps a bit of expansion to the regions of the Steadfast and the Beyond that are covered in the existing corebook.
But Numenera Discovery is not a new edition. We will make virtually no changes to the way the game plays mechanically—and none of those changes affect the way NPCs, creatures, or items like cyphers or artifacts work. We also won’t be making changes to the setting. So if you already play Numenera, your bestiaries, adventures, card decks, character portfolios, and books like Into the Night, Technology Compendium, and Jade Colossus will not be affected by these changes. We will not issue any “second editions” of the existing supporting titles—and if you choose not to get Numenera Discovery, future Numenera supplements will work fine with your existing Numenera corebook. Your ongoing campaign will flow smoothly through the change in corebooks. You will even be able to mix existing characters with those from Numenera Discovery into your game. In fact, the game can be played with both the existing corebook and Numenera Discovery in use at the same game table!
(One small exception: Numenera Character Options and Numenera Character Options 2 will remain compatible, but will become substantially less relevant following the improvements to characters in Numenera Discovery. We will retire those titles.)
As excited as we are about Numenera Discovery, we may be even more excited about Numenera Destiny. This title will enable characters to truly become a part of the setting—to help shape the future of the Ninth World. The people of the Ninth World are locked in a medieval-like state, a world of struggle and danger and often suffering in the shadow of the prior worlds’ wonders. Numenera Destiny allows you to build adventures and campaigns in which players don’t just explore the wonders of the past—they utilize them to help lift the Ninth World out of darkness.
You can make the world a better place. Help a community defend itself from abhumans or the iron wind. Create centers of learning or trade. Innovate, build, and protect. Manage an entire community and help it prosper and grow—or simply create a cool base or vehicle for your adventuring group. Numenera Destiny will allow you to take what you discover and make your mark on history as someone who elevated the Ninth World into the future.
Adventuring—exploring the weird and wondrous remnants of the prior worlds—remains, of course, at the core of Numenera play. Numenera Destiny will give you new things to do with your discoveries, along with entirely new and epic ways to structure your campaigns. You’ll discover materials, power sources, and treasures that you can utilize in an entirely new, robust crafting and building system. And perhaps best of all, Numenera Destiny will offer three new character types and a number of new descriptors and foci geared toward this innovative style of play.
You can back this campaign to receive either Numenera Discovery or Numenera Destiny, but you’ll really want to get both books. When purchased in print as a set, they come in a beautiful and handy slipcase, giving them a truly deluxe feel. We've upgraded this through stretch goals to include some extra handy components and a beautiful Order of Truth medallion.
We at Monte Cook Games have a long and successful history with Kickstarter, and one of the things we love most is that it allows us to build the products we’d really like to see and play. It’s often too risky to add unusual or expensive features to an RPG product if you’re just launching and selling it through normal channels. But through Kickstarter we can propose improvements and ideas through stretch goals, and if you fund them we can make them a reality.
We have some cool Kickstarter-exclusives as part of your rewards. But every upgrade to the new corebooks, the slipcase, or any additional titles unlocked through stretch goals will improve the product for everyone who plays the game—whether they back this campaign now, or purchase the book at a game store three years from now. In other words, the more we can accomplish through this campaign, the better we can make Numenera for every player, ever!
But speaking of those Kickstarter exclusives. . . .
A major focus of Numenera 2 involves helping and fostering the communities and people of the Ninth World—making the Ninth World a better, safer place for its inhabitants. So, throughout this Kickstarter campaign, together we’re going to build and grow a Ninth World community called Ellomyr. Your involvement will directly impact the story of Ellomyr as it (hopefully) grows and flourishes. And when the campaign is over, we’ll take Ellomyr’s story and make it into a sourcebook called The Trilling Shard. This is a Kickstarter-exclusive item not available anywhere else, and it’s included (in PDF, print, or both) in every backer level. Pay close attention to this campaign, read the updates, comment and vote and help pull in more backers, and you’ll contribute directly to the content of The Trilling Shard.
In addition, we’re also going to produce a short Discover Your Destiny ebook that every backer will get in PDF format. It will be delivered ahead of the release of Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny.
As a skilled adventurer, you have traveled more than most and seen your share of small, isolated communities in the Ninth World. But there’s something about the village of Ellomyr that has caught your attention. The folk welcomed you warmly when you arrived, sharing their food and their homes. These people clearly work hard to maintain a safe place to live and raise their families. Like so many little villages, it lies in the shadow of ancient ruins that no one completely understands. Among other weird relics of the prior world, Ellomyr’s central square is built around the infamous and immovable Trilling Shard, an ancient symbol-covered stone that quavers with sound at rare times.
But the Ninth World is a harsh, unforgiving place, filled with dangers arising from the prior worlds. Raiders and strange biomechanical beasts, weird radiation and mysterious technologies, terrible plagues and dangerous storms all threaten the people here. They need your help.
Over the course of this Kickstarter campaign, we’re going to track the development of Ellomyr and hopefully watch as it grows and flourishes. But it will only do so if brave and capable individuals such as yourself help the people there overcome dangers and deal with challenges. As threats or needs arise, you, the backers, will help the community face these challenges. The more you participate in the campaign, the more easily the challenges will be overcome and the more Ellomyr will thrive and grow as a community.
In other words, you will become a part of Ellomyr’s ongoing story. When The Trilling Shard is released, you’ll be able to recount how you participated in the events that shaped the community. Will it become a thriving city that offers a safe and bright future for Ninth World citizens or will it be lost to the darkness and dangers that threaten it? We’ll only know when this campaign is completed.
So please check back in and see the events of the story transpire as you follow along. Post snippets of your own character's story in Ellomyr in the comments, on social media, or on your blog (or all three). Where applicable, use the hashtag #Numenera2. If it's on social media or a blog, we might share it. While this is all in the spirit of a fun, joint experience, if we see something that really wows or entertains us, we might ask you if you'd like to contribute your snippet to The Trilling Shard sourcebook (and we pay our authors, of course). To begin, just introducing your character and stating that they're a part of helping Ellomyr is a great start. And if your favorite way to participate is art rather than writing, we'd love to see and share fan art of your character, of Ellomyr, or the events as they unfold.
As always, if you want to share a link to this Kickstarter, that's sincerely appreciated.
Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny: Each of these titles is a 416-page, lavishly illustrated hardcover (that’s the same size as the existing Numenera corebook). When purchased together in print, they come in a sturdy, beautiful slipcase that has been upgraded with premium production design, additional content, and a nifty Order of Truth medallion.
The Trilling Shard: A sourcebook on Ellomyr and its challenges, setbacks, opponents, solutions, and triumphs over the course of this campaign. The exact specs of this product remain to be determined (in part by your contributions to this campaign!) but at a minimum it will be a 64-page softcover with a poster map.
Discover Your Destiny: This PDF product will come out early next year (before Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny). It uses story to introduce players to the Ninth World, and focuses on the narrative concepts behind Numenera 2. It leads players—both new and experienced—through creating a character using some of the brand new material from Numenera Destiny and highlights some of the changes people will see in the transition from Numenera to Numenera 2.
Numenera Player's Guide: Create characters, explore the setting, and learn the basic rules in this inexpensive second copy of key rules and setting material. The 64-page softcover is perfect for getting a taste of the game, for having an extra rules and setting reference on hand at the gaming table, or for game masters to hand to new players.
Building Tomorrow: More installations and items to build, more allies to recruit for your community, more sample communities to build from—and more challenges to face. Building Tomorrow is a 160-page hardcover sourcebook that expands on the community-related content introduced in Numenera Destiny.
Slaves of the Machine God: A powerful overlord with an army of automatons: is this a simple, straightforward threat to you and your companions, or is there something more going on than meets the eye? An epic adventure of twists and turns in a 144-page hardcover with poster map.
Priests of the Aeons: This 192-page hardcover with poster map includes new foci and descriptors, cyphers and equipment, and other options and items for your character. It also covers the Aeon Priesthood in detail, giving you information on working with—or joining—the Aeon Priesthood to help enlighten the Ninth World.
Ruin Deck: When the characters start plumbing the depths of a prior-world ruin, the GM needs as much help as they can get. This deck allows GMs to generate an exciting, vivid and—of course, since it’s Numenera—weird set of ruins to explore. Limitless adventures in one deck of cards.
Ninth World Bestiary 3: More weird, wild, wondrous—and generally dangerous—creatures with which to populate the Ninth World. This 192-page hardcover with poster will feature over 150 all-new creatures for your Numenera campaign, perfect as threats to your growing clave or general encounters in the wilds of the Steadfast, the Beyond, or beyond the Beyond.
Tomorrow's Bones: Ancient ruins, strange ships, weird creatures, and Jaekel pirates all spell a Ninth World high-seas adventure with a Numenera twist. The third official Numenera novel, in deluxe hardcover and popular ebook formats.
Io Deck: 100-card deck that GMs can use to generate iotum, shins, and cyphers found when the PCs salvage numenera. However, some of the cards also contain potential dangers that can arise, making every draw from the deck a possible game-changer.
Explorer's Keys: A 96-page softcover featuring ten (yes, ten!) Instant Adventures. The unique Instant Adventure format is perfect for running low-prep games, making these adventures just as suited for an impromptu game as they are for adding to your ongoing campaign. Many are community focused, but all work great as exciting standalones as well.
Creature Deck 3: This 100-card deck offers a selection of creatures from the Ninth World Bestiary 3 and other new sources so that you can easily reference them at the table in a handy format. Pull out just the creatures you need for a session, or even generate an encounter randomly with the turn of a card.
More products will be added to this section if we’re fortunate enough to unlock them via stretch goals.
Add-ons are additional items you add to your reward level. Simply increase your pledge by the appropriate amount. Check out our pledge calculator; it’ll help you figure out exactly how much to pledge based on the backer level and add-ons you desire. After the campaign ends, we’ll get in touch with you about the extra money you pledged and what it was for. Some of these add-ons items are only available through this Kickstarter campaign—if you want them, be sure to add them to your pledge now!
Retailers: The NINTH WORLD RETAILER level is a flexible way for you to decide how many copies of Numenera 2 products are right for your store, and to avoid tying up your cash between now and release. Your pledge is a down payment for an order to be placed, at a retail-friendly discount, when Numenera Discovery and Numenera Destiny are ready to ship. You can choose as many copies as you like of the corebooks individually and the slipcased set. For every copy of the slipcase set you order, you’ll get a print copy of The Trilling Shard for free. You’ll pay for your order (less your $80 deposit) at that time. It is likely (but not guaranteed) that you will get them ahead of street date, and you are welcome to begin selling them immediately. In addition to those books, you get a free deluxe Numenera PoP kit. You also get a copy of The Trilling Shard for yourself, in print and PDF, and the Discover Your Destiny PDF. MCG covers domestic US shipping.
IMPORTANT NOTE: "SHIPS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD" does not mean free shipping. It's Kickstarter's way of saying that backers anywhere can support this project. If you are outside the US and getting physical rewards, see below.
REWARD FULFILLMENT Soon after this campaign ends, we will invite you to review your pledge on BackerKit. This allows you to confirm your pledge and add anything that you might have missed.
While we use BackerKit to organize backers, pledges, and add-ons, we don’t fulfill rewards through them. Instead, your rewards from this Kickstarter campaign will be fulfilled through the MCG Shop, which puts you, the backer, in charge of redeeming them at your convenience.
Here’s how it works: when a reward is ready, we’ll send you an email letting you know it is time to log on to your account on the MCG Shop and redeem your rewards, which you will do for free with coupons. You decide when to use the coupon, and give us your correct shipping address at that time. (So if you’ve moved, or want to send the reward to a friend as a gift, you’re providing a totally up-to-date address.) If you have multiple rewards coming, you may delay redemption of some and bundle them together if that’s more convenient for you (or you'd like to save on international shipping costs). We guarantee a product will be in stock for you as one of your rewards for at least one year after the product's release date.
DOMESTIC SHIPPING We offer USPS basic shipping within the United States for free. If you’re super-eager to get your rewards, you can upgrade to a higher shipping class, but you’ll be charged accordingly at the time of fulfillment.
SHIPPING WITHIN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND EUROPE* Your reward will be filled by our shipping center in the UK. The cost of shipping is not included in your pledge. You will be charged shipping at the time of reward redemption. However, it will be much less expensive than paying for shipping from the US to you, since you will not be charged importing/customs fees.
*The UK shipping center ships to the following countries: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
OTHER INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING International shipping is not included in your pledge. (Backers in the UK or Europe: please refer to the previous section, above.)
International shipping is expensive. We don’t have any control over that, and we can’t accurately predict what shipping rates will be at the time of fulfillment. If you’re an international backer and have questions about shipping rates, we recommend you visit the USPS website to get an estimate. Please also be aware that you are responsible for import duties, taxes, and brokerage fees, and that we must comply with international law and cannot mark your reward as a gift or as a zero-value item.
If you have multiple items coming as rewards, you can mitigate shipping costs by waiting to have several of them shipped together. We guarantee that each reward will be available for a minimum period of one year from its official release date.
To ease the burden of international shipping costs, we subsidize all non-UK/Europe international customer orders and backer reward fulfillment orders with a $10 discount. You’ll pay the shipping costs at the time of fulfillment, minus the $10 discount, which is automagically (and invisibly) applied through the inner workings of the MCG Shop (you won’t see the discount reflected on your order, but it is applied to all international orders outside of the UK/Europe). In other words, if the cost to ship the parcel to you is $52, you’ll pay $42. The $10 shipping discount is applied once per parcel, not per item.
Risks and challenges
This is the tenth Kickstarter campaign for Monte Cook Games. All of our previous campaigns have been successful and jam-packed with rewards. Most of those campaigns are completely fulfilled, while those that are not continue to deliver their rewards on schedule. That means we’ve delivered over 200,000 rewards to date. These include such varied items as corebooks for Numenera and The Strange, leather-bound deluxe corebooks, boxed sets, almost two-dozen hardcover supplements, signed bookplates, playtest access, special-access seminars, meetings and dinners with the creative team, online and in-person games, and so much more.
Thus, while there are always challenges that can arise, we've probably already faced them.
We are extremely proud of our track record. Of course, there’s always the danger of meteor strikes, T-rex attacks, or catastrophic solar flares. But our staff is spread out across the country, so we’re unlikely to all be wiped out at once. Unless the planetovores breach into the universe of normal matter to consume the Earth without Carter Strange around to save us, we are confident that the project will meet all its promises.
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Funding period
- (38 days)