Numenera: The ninth World

"There have been eight previous worlds. You may refer to them as ages, aeons, epochs, or eras, but it’s not wrong to think of each as its own individual world. Each former world stretched across vast millennia of time. Each played host to a race whose civilisations rose to supremacy but eventually died or scattered, disappeared or transcended. During the time that each world flourished, those that ruled it spoke to the stars, re-engineered their physical bodies, and mastered form and essence, all in their own unique ways. Each left behind remnants.

The Ninth World is built on the bones of the previous eight, and in particular the last four. Reach into the dust, and you’ll find that each particle has been worked, manufactured, or grown, and then ground back into drit—a fine, artificial soil—by the relentless power of time. Look to the horizon—is that a mountain, or part of an impossible monument to the forgotten emperor of a lost people? Feel that subtle vibration beneath your feet and know that ancient engines—vast machines the size of kingdoms—still operate in the bowels of the earth."
-Numenera Corebook, chapter 1.

Numenera is an existing tabletop RP game set far in the future, with an existing lore and RP system. Its incredibly flexible, allowing the players to go from medieval style sword fighting, to fantastical 'nano'(mage) battles, to space travel. There are hundreds of pages of lore that can be provided on google docs to any interested participants, but gameplay will mostly be dictated by the GM, rather than rolls.

I'm a little interested in this, but will you be using the Tides system for personalities and conversations?

I am not familiar with the setting but I would like to be. If you have links to anything on it I would appreciate that.

Also interested! Numenera is an interesting setting, to be sure :) .

I'm one of Benny's players in the actual tabletop game he's running for Numenera, and I wholeheartedly give my support and recommendation to anyone who wants to join. Obviously, I'll be joining this game the moment it starts up!

Another one of Benny's players here! Great DM, and allows a lot of creative input from the players, definitely signing up and looking forward for this. <3

@GenniNo, I'm not familiar with the Tide system, but I'm happy to allow players to develop their characters however they like, as long as its not too jarring to other players.

Character development through conversation is a big part of numenera, so i'll certainly be promoting that through the sessions.

@TenslashsixSure! Below is a google doc to the corebook of numenera. It goes over the setting, and how to play the game.

drive.google.com/file/d/13RFghRQbqZoK…

I'm not familiar with the Tide system

Basically it's just a way to easily codify a person's personality, depending on their primary motivations. Different driving motivations are linked to certain colours, such as passion, emotion, action, and zeal all being linked to the colour red.

In a way this is similar to the alignment system in D&D, but rather than moralising about whether someone is good or evil it instead makes no such judgment on their motivations, Someone can be passionate in both good and bad ways after all.

The way this affects conversations is that if someone tends to use a personality other than the one they originally chose, they can switch from one colour to another, or even become a blend fo different colours. Hence the name 'Tides', since they can ebb and flow from one situation to the next.

In the game, someone who is a paragon of a certain Tide can use their collected points to help force an issue by accessing Tidal Surges, the use of which varies depending on which Tide the character is promoting within themselves.

For instance, a proponent of the Blue Tide, which represents wisdom, enlightenment, and mysticism might be able to make an outstanding leap of logic, which allows for a breakthrough of scientific knowledge in a moment of great need due to their long years of study and dedication to the gathering of knowledge. In the story this could be a moment where they need to determine how a highly complicated device of unknown origin works within a few seconds to prevent it doing something which may harm the party, and immediately know exactly which button to press to avert disaster.

This can be used as a reward to players who act in a manner fitting to the way they descibed their character, or dedicating themselves wholy to a new personality trait over a long period of time. Or it can be used to reward any specifically important act which would exemplify a certain Tide, for instance a follower of the Gold Tide (charity, sacrifice, and empathy) voluntarily choosing to relinquish an item of great worth to someone in great need of it, despite requiring that item themselves to a greater degree.

@Genni Its an interesting mechanic, and might be a good substitute for rolling in a forum style RP, but i've never used it before. That being said, I'm happy to implement it if the majority of players want to use it, though I would personally prefer basing outcomes on what a character would likely know.

For example, if your character is a numenera academic, its likely that they would know how a certain device functions, whilst someone that trained as a fighter in Ba-Adenu Forrest might not even recognise what a button is (depending on backstory, of course).

For example, if your character is a numenera academic, its likely that they would know how a certain device functions, whilst someone that trained as a fighter in Ba-Adenu Forrest might not even recognise what a button is (depending on backstory, of course).

The scientist would be drawing from the Blue Tide due to their years of study.

A fighter might be either a follower of the Silver Tide, focusing on strength and power, or the Red Tide, focusing on action. In a fight they would either wait until their attack would have the greatest effect (Silver), or charge in relentlessly (Red.) You could also have tactical fighters, who would study their enemies and wait for a weakness or vulnerability to reveal itself (Blue Tide), or protective ones who deliberately place themselves in harm's way, as to protect other members of the party (Gold Tide.)

The Tides system never restricts what actions a person could do though, but does make them consider their motivations for why they choose to take those actions rather than any other. Using the examples above, at the beginning of a battle involving three players, one jumps forward to attack, the second takes up a defensive stance and the third begins to ready an ability to strike with.

• The first fighter could be just eager to get into battle (Red), they could be trying to draw the enemies away from the others (Gold), or they could want to take the honour of the kill for themselves with a swift victory (Silver.)
• The second fighter could be reserving their power for a good moment to strike (Silver), they could be studying their opponents for weaknesses (Blue), or trying to keep things calm and under control (Indigo.)
• The last fighter could be choosing to let the first take the glory for themselves (Gold), acting with tactical insight (Blue) or holding back so they can steal victory out from under their companion with an attack against an almost defeated foe (Silver.)

It would be up to players to actually justify why they were doing a certain thing, so instead of saying "my character quickly attacks the target" they instead say "following the Red Tide my character leaps forwards, eager to bathe their blade in the blood of our enemies". Doing this would gain them a Red Tide point for their love of action and their passionate attitude towards the battle, but would cost them an Indigo point for being bloodthirsty and a Gold point for lacking compassion.

Once they'd collected enough Red points, for sake of argument let's say 10, they'd be able to spend all those point to do something significant to the story, such as defeating a particularly threatening opponent with an overwhelmingly swift attack, managing to open a door blocking the party's path with quick action, or convincing someone to support the party by inspiring them with a passionate speech.

As a quick note, you can have a negative value of Tidal points, and usually you'd lose two for every one gained in a different colour. This would mean that to earn enough points to benefit from a Tidal Surge you'd have to suffer a twenty point deficit in other areas. This would encourage players to consistently act in a certain manner, rather than switching between whatever they think might be the best way to win the scenario at any given time, even when that wouldn't be 'in character' for their character.

@GenniI see, thanks for the explanation buddy.

I'm happy to incorporate it into a game for the entire group, but it may been too convoluted for some people who would rather focus on the story and character development of numenera (despite the tide system incorporating that). It could easily be used by one person. It would give that person an edge over other players, but if a player doesnt want to follow the tide, they dont have the same benefits.

...if a player doesnt want to follow the tide, they dont have the same benefits.

Or setbacks.

Without being linked to the Tides a player could just do whatever they liked with their character without having to put as much thought to motivations, so for people wanting more freedom for their characters this would probably be a better choice.

You could almost view the Tides as a religious undertaking, with those strictly following the doctrines of their chosen Tide being 'blessed' with good fortune, while those not following a 'faith' wouldn't be limited in their actions.

If a player decided to follow a Tide at first, but then decided against it and started acting without considering their chosen motivations, they'd no longer be earning points as effectively, and would functionally lose the bonus of having chosen the Tide in the first place. So no harm done. :)

I'm afraid I'm not a fan of the tide system, it reminds me too much of the DnD alignment chart in the way it pigeon holes characters towards a specific path. There's no such system on the RPG book and I definitely prefer the flexibility of the original rules.

I have to agree with Stitches; I've not used the tides system before, but it does seem to tend towards putting characters in compartmentalised boxes.