Cypher is on StartPlaying Games—plus the next poll!
7 days ago
– Tue, Sep 01, 2026 at 09:13:41 AM
Hello, backers—
Our Cypher event is LIVE on StartPlaying Games!
Monte Cook Games is excited to celebrate the launch of Cypher with
StartPlaying Cypher, with a two-week event featuring hundreds of online games on
StartPlaying Games!
The
StartPlaying Cypher event kicks off today and features
over 130 games happening between now and September 15th! No matter your experience with Cypher—whether you’re a diehard veteran or just discovering us through the new edition—you can start playing in just one session, and keep playing through scores of available games.
And as if that's not enough, take $10 off any participating Cypher game with code SPC26! That discount is enough to make many of the sessions free, or just a few bucks.
Here are just a few of the games that still have seats open:
You’ve been assigned a new case: Find the Missing Waller Triplets. They disappeared from a rural village in Devon, England and the locals aren’t talking—or when they do, all they’re giving you are wild stories about vampires in the Creston Grange—an old manor house that’s also supposed to be haunted.
Vampires. Ghosts. In 1921. Nobody believes in those old stories anymore. Figuring out the truth behind the stories might just be harder than finding those three boys. They probably just got themselves lost somewhere in the woods. But it’s not your job to enlighten the locals, you’re here to find the boys.
Dive into a world working to rebuild in the post-post-apocalypse, as you embark on dangerous and death defying missions across the reclaimed metropolis of Dump City. Complete odd jobs, and take on corruption within the city as you fight against gangs and their masters, The 3 Families Syndicate.
Join Pink Security and More today and make a difference!
This campaign takes place in the Tidal Blades setting for Cypher—you will go on adventures to build a complex dock system that will serve as a neighborhood for yourself and your friends. In the meantime, you'll build relationships, trade for supplies, overcome obstacles, and learn how to be your best and most powerful selves while building the kind of place you want to live.
And the fun doesn't end there!
After your game, head to the
MCG Shop with your special discount code to get
20% off any existing Cypher System supplement, ready to be integrated with ease into your new Cypher game. With just a few quick updates, virtually any creature, cypher, artifact, or character can be easily converted to the new edition.
Another new genre has been added to Cypher Decoded!
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, backers have added Espionage and Pulp Action to the book!
Yesterday, you voted in a poll between Western and Ultraviolence (and ultra skills). Have you been craving dusty action, smoky saloons, and tense standoffs? Or the fast-paced action of John Wick, Kill Bill, and The Raid?
The votes are in—over 550 of them!
If you’ve been following along, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that it’s time to pick another creature for the Cypher Bestiary II!
So far, you’ve added three new creatures to the Cypher Bestiary II through polls: the Wyvern, Inexorable, and Sphinx.
It’s time to end the reign of the winged beasts—your next poll features two very terrestrial monsters: the Gologoth and the Mokuren!
Vote now! The poll will close tomorrow morning.
—Team MCG
New cover art! And its time to choose our next genre!
8 days ago
– Mon, Aug 31, 2026 at 09:32:27 AM
Hello, backers—
Welcome to the final week of the Cypher—Advanced! crowdfunding campaign. In case you’ve missed an update or two, here’s a quick overview of the many Cypher announcements we’ve shared during this campaign:
🚀
A brand new Cypher event launches on StartPlaying Games tomorrow! Sign up for a game today and get $10 off with code SPC26. Whether you're new to Cypher (or to RPGs as a whole), or a longtime Numenera, The Strange, or Predation fan, there's a game for you!
🧝♀️
The public beta Cypher Character Builder is live! With literally thousands of Type, Descriptor, Species, and Foci combinations possible, your character will come to life! One cool feature of this new online tool is that it can easily export your character right onto…
🗡️ Roll20! We've completed work on a fully functional Cypher character sheet for Roll20. It's been submitted and will go live as soon as Roll20 approves it.
🎲
Cypher GM’s Guide is available for preorder on the MCG Shop—and it’s one step closer to being in your hands! Want a sneak peek? Check out the free preview available on the MCG Shop!
📚 We’ve just shared
The Joy of RPGs, a video about RPGs and MCG that derived from the filming of the short-form documentary series All Access with Andy Garcia, which airs on PBS stations across the US. We think it’s a really cool video that highlights what makes TTRPG gaming so special and fun, and hope you enjoy it.
🖊️
The Cypher Open License is waiting for you! The
Cypher Open License allows publishers, gamers, and members of the public to freely create and market tabletop roleplaying games compatible with, and using the rules from, the Cypher tabletop roleplaying game system. Publish your adventures, settings, and even complete new games—powered by Cypher
Believe it or not, that’s not everything we have to share! Make sure you stay tuned throughout this week for even more exciting news and announcements.
And for our first of these exciting updates...
New covers have landed!
When we talked about Cypher—Advanced! as a flash campaign, we weren’t joking. The lengthy design process for the new edition of Cypher had generated loads of potential content of
Cypher Decoded, but we didn't start working on the actual form of the book—including its cover—until we decided to launch this campaign.
What you’ve seen so far for these two new books have been mockups, pulling art from existing products—fine for launching the campaign, but not fitting for the final books. Fortunately Macli, the cover artist for these two books, is fantastic and moved just as quickly as the MCG Team, producing the final art in a very short time! We can now reveal what these books will officially look like. Here's a close-up look:
(Note that while near-final, we may still make a few tweaks to this art before it appears on the books themselves.)
A new free sticker has been added to your rewards!
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. The votes are in, and a third sticker has been added to your growing collection! This was a tight race, with over 450 votes and a 53/47 split, but the winner is...
It’s time to choose yet another new genre to add to Cypher Decoded!
We have so many cool ideas for Cypher Decoded and Cypher Bestiary II that we literally can’t squeeze them all into the books! We’re asking you to help prioritize our choices with polls via this campaign.
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, backers have added Espionage and Pulp Action to the book!
Your next poll is between Western and Ultraviolence (and ultra skills). Are you craving gritty action, smoky saloons, and tense standoffs? Or the fast-paced action of John Wick, Kill Bill, and The Raid?
—Team MCG
An exciting milestone, a new creature, and your next sticker poll!
11 days ago
– Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 08:34:18 AM
Hello, backers—
Happy Friday! We have exactly one week left in this campaign, and lots still to do—and to announce! Stay tuned for some exciting news, as well as your next sticker poll!
Cypher—Advanced! has crossed $200,000 🎉
Thanks to your fantastic support, this campaign is now QUADRUPLE funded! When we decided to run this campaign as a flash event with no signups, we genuinely had no idea how it’d go. But we had faith in our incredible community and in the games we wanted to make—and you’ve absolutely amazed us!
The momentum going into our last week is electric, but we don’t have long to reach new-to-Cypher players; if you can help spread the word, we’d really appreciate it.
Thank you again! We can’t wait to see how the last week goes.
You’ve selected another creature for the Cypher Bestiary II!
The winged reign of terror continues! Cypher Bestiary II will now include the Sphinx!
The Sphinx, Level 7, originally featured in Godforsaken, will join the Wyvern and the Inexorable.
Does that mean the Cambion will not be included in the Cypher Bestiary II? Not necessarily! We have the better part of 2,000 previously published creatures to choose from, and only so many we can fit into the book—not even including new creatures we want to add—but the Cambion could still make the list!
Our next poll is live! Help us pick a free sticker for every backer.
Your opinion is shaping what this campaign becomes. We’re conducting a poll every single weekday throughout this campaign to hear what you want to see published in Cypher Decoded and the Cypher Bestiary II. Yesterday, you voted on adding new content to Cypher Bestiary II. But some polls—like this one—will add a free bonus item to your rewards!
We’re going to make a handful of vinyl stickers, and every backer gets them, no matter your pledge level. Help us choose the next design—the third to be added to your collection!
Vote for your choice! This poll will close tomorrow morning.
Want to help this campaign have a smashing final week?
While Cypher—Advanced! may be a campaign built for expanded and upgraded campaigns, it’s also a perfect entry point to the new edition of Cypher! Whether you want to play a professionally GM’d session on
StartPlaying Games as part of their big Cypher event, start flipping 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!
Thanks so much for your support!
—Team MCG
Pulp Action has been unlocked—plus news about Roll20!
12 days ago
– Thu, Aug 27, 2026 at 09:36:43 AM
Hello, backers—
Happy Thursday! The good news is you’re over halfway through the week. The bad is that we’re also over halfway through the Cypher—Advanced! campaign. Not to worry, though: we still have lots of cool Cypher news to share, and chances for you to help prioritize the content of Cypher Bestiary II and Cypher Decoded. Speaking of which. . .
You've picked another genre for Cypher Decoded
Yesterday we opened our second genre poll, detailing two possible new genres that Cypher Decoded could explore: Pulp Action and Weird Fantasy. The results are in! The second genre to be added to Cypher Decoded, following Espionage (which you voted for last week), is Pulp Action!
The Joy of RPGs
We were asked last year 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 took much of the footage from that segment and created 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!
![]()
(A side note: We posted a different version of this video to our YouTube channel yesterday, but it turned out that some of the stock footage used in that version included props generated by AI (such as a character sheet—or “Cliascic Charcism,” as it seemed to be labeled). Our position on generative AI is well-established; we were disappointed that the production company used this footage and deeply embarrassed that we didn't notice it ourselves. We took that version down and re-edited it to remove those shots. We stress that none of the actual content was ever AI-generated; it was limited to some of the props used in stock footage.)
The Cypher character sheet is coming to Roll20!
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 for the Cypher: Faster. Easier. And Even Better! crowdfunding campaign. We've been working diligently on bringing that to you, and today we can announce a major step!
We've completed work on a fully functional character sheet for Roll20. It's been submitted, and will go live as soon as Roll20 approves it (possibly as soon as today!). 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!
Once live, the Cypher character sheet on Roll20 will be free to all users. In that regard, it's not technically part of the VTT crowdfunding reward—but bringing it live is a necessary step to enable the compendium and other elements of that package, which we continue to work on.
Haven't checked out Cypher Tools yet?
Build a Cypher character in minutes with the Cypher Character Builder, now in its public beta! This powerful tool takes you through the process quickly and efficiently. You can store and update your character throughout your campaign, and run your character directly from the Character Builder or by exporting to a PDF character sheet.
But that's not the only cool thing you'll find on Cypher Tools. Running the net in your cyberpunk game? Save time and keep those neurons fresh! Generate themes, glitches, and nodes complete with features and encounters with a single click. Cyberspace is infinite and moves at the speed of light—and so does the handy Hacker’s Matrix!
We make a lot of very handy decks, and the Datasphere Deck Tool makes them as useful and time-saving in virtual games as print decks are at the physical table. Draw or pick cards and “hand” them to your players through a DM, a VTT chat, your Discord channel, or however you run your game online.
It’s time to pick another creature to add to the Cypher Bestiary II!
So far, you’ve added two new creatures to the Cypher Bestiary II through polls: the Wyvern from Godforsaken and Inexorable from the Planar Bestiary.
These flying monstrosities are sure to add some terror to your next campaign. For our next creature poll, we have a really interesting matchup: the Cambion versus the Sphinx!
Vote for your choice! This poll will close tomorrow morning.
Got a second to talk about our Cypher?
We’ve been loving all the positive buzz online about Cypher, and ask you to keep it going just a bit longer!
We'd love to get
this post on Bluesky to 10 reposts. If you have a minute and want to help this campaign be the best it can be, will you stop by and repost it?
Thanks so much for your continued support!
—Team MCG
Take a look inside the Cypher GM’s Guide!
13 days ago
– Wed, Aug 26, 2026 at 08:54:34 AM
Hello, backers—
We’re just over a week from the end of this campaign, and it’s been a real whirlwind so far. Let’s keep the good vibes going through this week!
A second sticker has been added to your rewards
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. Yesterday’s poll saw a competition between the baddest boy and the goodest boy, and though it was close, the epic Nightfall Wolf just couldn’t be beat!
If you’re a part of this campaign, chances are you’ve already backed the
Cypher GM’s Guide, either through this campaign or last year's Cypher: Faster, Easier, and Even Better! if the latter, you’ve probably already redeemed your PDF edition of the book, too! (If you haven’t and want a refresher on how to do so, you can always
check out our handy guide)
So why mention that preorders are open? Because it means you’re one step closer to getting the physical edition of your book! We open preorders a few weeks before physical editions are due to be shipped to backers—and, barring any more global supply and transport issues, we should be receiving the
Cypher GM’s Guide in a few short weeks. We’re incredibly excited to get this gorgeous book in your hands, and hope you are too!
But that's not all: there's a pretty sweet FREE PREVIEW included on the preorder page as well!
Go take a sneak peek at what your book will contain 👀
It’s time to pick another genre to add to Cypher Decoded!
We’ve mentioned it before, but in case you’re just joining us: we have so many great ideas for Cypher Decoded and Cypher Bestiary II that we literally can’t squeeze them all into the books! So we’re asking you to help prioritize our choices with polls via this campaign—you’re shaping this book to be exactly what you want for your table!
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. Which of these two genres—Pulp Action (think Indiana Jones and Lara Croft) or Weird Fantasy (bizarro magic and monsters)—would you most like to see in the book?
Thanks so much for your support!
—Team MCG
