And that's a wrap! Open this update for KEY INFORMATION!
3 days ago
– Sat, Sep 05, 2026 at 09:29:17 AM
Hello, backers—
After several hours of Overtime Mode last night, the Cypher—Advanced! campaign has drawn to a close. Thank you all so much for your wonderful support! We are so excited to be bringing you the
Cypher Bestiary II and
Cypher Decoded, complete with all the creatures and genres that you selected, as well as everything else we’re making as a result of this flash campaign.
If you missed the campaign's closing, you can still make a late pledge!
Once again, Cypher players, GMs, and fans prove just how truly unique they are: your dedication to great games and an even better community is wonderful. When we were first floating the idea of this campaign, we knew we had books we truly believed in—tools for making your game more unique, deeper, and more comprehensive. It is thrilling to know 2500 of you agree!
We want to tell you a bit about where things go from here—and we have some very exciting news for you—but first, let’s give credit where credit is due:
While this campaign was running, Sean was heads down, working on developing Predation and the final review of Face Your Fears. Bruce has been hard at work on The Strange and other books funded in the Cypher: Faster, Easier, and Even Better! crowdfunding campaign, while Monte has been working on Jewel in the Sky. After passing her baby, Predation, to Sean for development, Shanna’s been working on the preliminary design for a new project (read on to find out what!).
Dominique has been editing a variety of products, including the Cypher Deck and Manifest Cypher Deck—all while making sure these updates are clear and error-free! And Teri has been diligently herding cats—er, valued team members—making sure everything is going to get into your hands on time.
Bear and Javier have been polishing new books and getting them through their production phases. During this campaign, they’ve also designed stickers, imaged new products, and handled graphic design!
Jen and Kate have answered your questions (and are always available to provide support to you, our wonderful community) while prepping for Gamehole Con, which is just a few short weeks away.
Tammie has been steering the ship and keeping the logistics plates spinning (don’t ask us how she manages to make it look so effortless—we have no idea). And Charles and Olivia planned and ran this campaign—while also attending trade shows, making guest appearances on Cypher Unlimited, and generally running around like maniacs.
We are a small team, but we’ve worked diligently to keep all of our products coming while also running this campaign. We all thank you very much for backing this campaign. We love making mind-blowing RPGs with beautiful production values and immersive experiences, and your support makes that possible.
Now, here’s what to expect as we move forward from here. Please read it—and remember, there’s a big announcement at the bottom of this update!
The Immediate Future
Running a crowdfunding campaign is hard work, so we’re looking forward to relaxing over the holiday weekend. You may not hear from us for a little while, but don’t worry. This campaign can only be described as a passion project, so believe us when we say that progress is well underway! We’ll post updates any time there’s news to share—make sure your email notifications for us are turned on.
The Next Few Weeks
BackerKit began collecting pledges the moment the campaign closed. But it takes them a couple of weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.
In the meantime, we will get the pledge manager fully set up. The pledge manager gives us the information we need to fulfill your pledge and lets you manage your add-ons and make any pledge upgrades you want. We’ll notify you when we open the pledge manager, which should be in about three weeks. Please look out for and respond to that notification!
The Next Few Months
Once you’ve completed the pledge manager survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. In the months to come, we’ll be busy crafting Cypher Decoded, the Cypher Bestiary II, Pocket Cypher, the Advanced Character Portfolios, and more. We’ll post regular updates, but if you don’t hear anything for a few weeks, don’t fret.
At the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and updates include critical information about your rewards.
When Your Rewards Ship
Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free, because you’ve already paid for it through this campaign), and check out.
This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time.
Please pay attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.
And now it’s time for the special news you didn’t know you were eagerly awaiting!
Celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic. Dreamwalking, sea-singing, and crow communication. Dangerous gods, difficult choices, and sweet romances. Explore The Meridian, setting of Rebecca Roanhorse's bestselling Black Sun trilogy!
Thanks for your support!
—Team MCG
We’re in Overtime Mode!
3 days ago
– Fri, Sep 04, 2026 at 05:00:21 PM
Hello, backers—
We’ve reached the scheduled closing time for this campaign—but it’s not over yet!
BackerKit has a feature called Overtime Mode: as long as new pledges keep rolling in, the campaign remains open.
- Overtime Mode is dependent on the Backer Train.
- Each new person who backs Cypher—Advanced! resets the Backer Train timer to 10:00—functionally extending the campaign by 10 minutes.
- As long as someone backs within 10 minutes of the last person, the campaign keeps going!
- Cypher—Advanced! will only end once 10 minutes have passed without any new pledges being made.
How long will Overtime Mode last? Sometimes it’s just ten or fifteen minutes, but often it’s several hours—or even well into the night. During the Cypher: Faster, Easier, and Even Better! crowdfunding campaign, it lasted days! It all depends on whether pledges keep rolling in—and that depends on you.
So please go out there, share this campaign, and help spread the word!
It’s the last day of Cypher—Advanced, & we have exciting news about Roll20!
4 days ago
– Fri, Sep 04, 2026 at 09:12:49 AM
Hello, backers—
It's the final day! Let’s see some stats 📊
We still have a day left, but let's look at some of the amazing numbers you've generated over the course of this short campaign. Over the past couple of weeks, you:
- Have closed in on $250,000—quintuple our funding goal. How much further can we take it?
- Voted in 13 polls, choosing from 26 options to select 5 creatures for the Cypher Bestiary II, 4 genres for Cypher Decoded, and 4 free stickers!
- Cast 4,147 unique votes in polls! (Not counting today's poll.)
- Left 174 comments on updates.
- Posted 35 new threads in the Community tab.
- Got $10 off StartPlaying Cypher with code SPC26!
Those are some pretty fantastic numbers! (And yes, I really did count them all.) I wonder how much higher we can get a few of them before the campaign ends tonight?
It's finally live! Yesterday the Cypher character sheet completed the review cycle on the Roll20 virtual tabletop platform and opened to the public.
We're so excited. This elegant, full-featured character sheet is a wonderful asset for anyone who plays Cypher online. It's the first in a series of steps to bring top-notch support for Cypher to the VTT realm!
You can roll dice directly from the character sheet. Applying Effort? It automatically adjusts your Pool points—and it calls out special roll results (extra damage or effects). You can easily share details of abilities, gear, and skills via chat. A fluid design gives you a thoughtful layout at any screen size. And you can import characters directly from the new Cypher Tools Character Builder!
(Find instructions here.)
When we announced the new edition of Cypher last year, we committed to full VTT support—in fact, we included VTT implementation as a reward in the Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better! crowdfunding campaign. We've been working diligently on bringing that support to life. The Roll20 Cypher character sheet is the first step, to be followed by the forthcoming Cypher rules compendium, asset packs, and Cypher support on additional VTT platforms.
A new website for Cypher!
Are you new to Cypher? Or looking to share news about it with friends who haven't yet jumped in? Today we unveiled a new Cypher website.
Check it out! (And try the cool task demo—with a dice roller—while you're there!)
(Honestly, this is something we really wanted to get done last month, with the launch of the
Cypher Character Rulebook. But we're a small team, and as you've seen these past weeks we've been very,
very busy!)
The results for your last genre poll are in!
Cypher Decoded will, among the many topics it touches, include a bunch of new genres—complete with new types, genre abilities, and genre-specific optional rules.
So far, you’ve added Espionage, Pulp Action, and Ultraviolence! We asked you to add one more genre to this lineup: either Psychic or Capers!
The votes are in! At 45% to 55%, Psychic just took the win!
That's the last poll for genres, but it won’t be all of the genres included in Cypher Decoded: Monte and the team still have a few secrets—and several more cool ideas!
It’s time for the final poll of this campaign!
Let’s vote on one more creature to add to Cypher Bestiary II! Cypher Bestiary II will—of course—include many new creatures, but, with your help, we’re pulling from the over 1500 creatures we've previously published for the original edition of Cypher.
On one side of the ring we have the awful, half-bull, half-man, miiiiinooootauuuur! And in the other corner, the one, the only, furious Erinyes!
Vote now! The poll will close tomorrow morning (even if the campaign has finished being in overtime mode).
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for such an amazing flash campaign!
When we decided to run this campaign as a pop-up event with no forewarning or sign-ups, we had no idea how things would go. This campaign was truly a first for us, which is wild given that MCG has run dozens of successful crowdfunding campaigns and we consider ourselves experts at the format. We won’t lie: it was odd to not know how a campaign was going to be received!
But WOW—you have amazed us!!
We had an astounding first day, with well over 1,000 backers taking us over $100K. Over the past two weeks, we’ve more than doubled that with over 2,300 backers and nearly $250K—meaning we are now quintuple-funded over our original $50,000 goal.
Thank you for not only supporting this campaign, but also going out and sharing the word about Cypher. We see you, and we appreciate it more than words can express.
Let’s have a smashing final day!
How does Overtime Mode work?
We know most of the people following this campaign are likely very familiar with crowdfunding (and with MCG’s crowdfunding history). But just in case, here’s a quick overview of Overtime Mode and what the next few days will look like!
- Overtime Mode kicks in at 7:00 pm CDT, when this campaign is scheduled to close.
- Overtime Mode is dependent on the Backer Train.
- Each new person who backs Cypher—Advanced! after 7:00 pm resets the Backer Train timer to 10:00—functionally extending the campaign by 10 minutes.
- As long as someone backs within 10 minutes of the last person, the campaign keeps going!
- Cypher—Advanced! will only end once 10 minutes have passed without any new pledges being made (after 7:00 pm).
-
How can you help this campaign have a phenomenal end? Share the word about Cypher! The more new eyes that see the campaign, the longer it is likely to last. You fantastic Cypher fans were able to keep Cypher: Faster, Easier, and Even Better! open for DAYS after the campaign officially closed.
After the campaign closes, you’ll see another update from us detailing the next steps. Almost certainly this won’t be until Monday (we’re going to party wildly calmly celebrate this campaign like adults over the weekend. Or sleep. Sleep is good.).
—Liv (and all the members of Team MCG)
More Datasphere Deck Tool news—and today's Cypher—Advanced! poll
5 days ago
– Thu, Sep 03, 2026 at 11:21:14 AM
Hello, backers—
We have just two days left in the Cypher—Advanced! crowdfunding campaign (not including overtime, which we know our superfans are, well, fans of). There’s still lots to talk about in these last 48 hours! Let’s get into it:
Your free sticker collection is complete!
As part of this campaign, we’re going to make a handful of vinyl stickers, and every backer gets them, no matter your pledge level. You’ve been voting on this collection for the last two weeks, adding stickers to each and every backer’s pledge.
Yesterday’s poll is in, and a fourth sticker has been added to your collection!
Cyphers are online with the Datasphere Deck Tool
The first content addition to the new
Datasphere Deck Tool went live today, with the free versions of the Cypher Deck and Manifest Cypher Deck now available!
If you backed the Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better! campaign last year, and these decks were among your rewards, you can look forward to us fulfilling the digital versions soon. Once that happens, you'll be able to access the full decks on the Datasphere Deck Tool.
And if that's not you? The decks will be available for purchase later this fall. In the meantime, the free versions are fully usable; great for grabbing a cypher or three in a pinch. They have all the features of the full decks, but with a limited selection of cards.
This is just step one of many! This new content marks the beginning of a process that will see all of MCG's many handy decks migrated into the Datasphere Deck Tool over the months to come.
If you haven't checked out the Datasphere Deck Tool,
give it a try now! Part of the
Cypher Tools suite of free online tools (including the Character Builder), this browser-based application makes our decks—filled with cyphers, creatures, GM intrusions, and useful prompts—as convenient, handy, and time-saving in the digital space as they are at the physical game table. Draw random cards or pick cards of your choosing and “hand” them to players through a DM, a VTT chat, your Discord channel, or however you run your game online—just like you would at a physical game table. Additional features, including the ability to customize decks, are in the works and, as just noted, MCG's existing decks will all be migrated to the Datasphere Deck Tool over the months to come.
It’s time for your final genre vote for Cypher Decoded!
As you know by this point, we’ve been asking backers to help us choose some of the genres to be detailed in Cypher Decoded. We just have way too many cool ideas to fit them (reasonably) inside the books we’re making in this campaign!
Over the last two weeks, you’ve added Espionage, Pulp Action, and Ultraviolence (& Skills). We’re sure this combination of genres (complete with new types, genre abilities, and genre-specific optional rules) will create some epic games at your table and settings in your mind.
Your final genre poll is between Capers and Psychics.
Heists. Ocean’s Eleven. Leverage. Lupin. Or a world filled with unique psychics, each more powerful than the last. Which do you want to run?
Remember: campaigns only soar with YOUR help!
The final few days are usually some of a campaign’s best—but only with your help spreading the word!
Post! Tweet! Shout! Tell the world why you're backing this campaign! If you aren't feeling creative, go to MCG's social media and pick a post you like to share. Or grab any of these graphics (right-click to download) and share them, along with a link to mymcg.info/cypher—advanced.
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You blew our socks off with the overtime in the Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better! crowdfunding campaign—and we can’t wait to see how electric the last 48 hours of
this campaign are!
—Team MCG
There are just TWO more days of Cypher—Advanced!
6 days ago
– Wed, Sep 02, 2026 at 09:46:00 AM
Hello, backers—
Happy Wednesday! We have just a couple of days left in this whirlwind campaign. Stay tuned this week for some exciting news (and read on for your final sticker poll!)
You’ve selected another creature for Cypher Bestiary II!
After a very tight battle,
Cypher Bestiary II will now include the Mokuren!
Does that mean the Gologoth will not be included in
Cypher Bestiary II? Not necessarily! Winning this poll scores a spot for the Mokuren, but Cypher Bestiary II will feature scores of creatures, so the Gologoth might still make the cut.
Have you seen The Joy of RPGs? 🎲
Last year we were asked to contribute to a segment of the short-form documentary series All Access with Andy Garcia, which airs on PBS stations across the US. The production company used much of the footage from that segment to create this video about RPGs and MCG. We love the message of community and togetherness in the short film's story (it even won a couple of awards!). We hope you like it too!
Help us pick your FINAL free sticker!
Your opinion has shaped this campaign from the very start—you’ve unlocked three free stickers for backers at all levels, three new genres which will now be detailed in Cypher Decoded, and four creatures to be included in the Cypher Bestiary II!
Your collection of stickers thus far includes:
What would you like to have to round out your collection?
Vote for your choice! This poll will close tomorrow morning.
Want to help this campaign end on a high?
While Cypher—Advanced! may be a campaign built for expanded and upgraded gameplay, it’s also a perfect entry point to the new edition of Cypher! Whether you want to play a professionally GM’d session during StartPlaying Games’ big Cypher event, flip through the Cypher Character Rulebook, or build your first character on the Cypher Character Builder, there’s never been a better time to be a Cypher fan!
Here are a few graphics you can use to spread the word about Cypher (click through to find a post you can link to, as well!):
Thanks so much for your support!
—Team MCG
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