The Strange From Monte Cook Games Gets Release Date, Price

[JonB]

The Strange From Monte Cook Games Gets Release Date, Price

The Strange will be a dimension hopping roleplaying game of exploration and intrigue.

Monte Cook Games has announced the release date of their newest roleplaying game, The Strange as August 2014. The Strange will use the same Cypher System utilized in Monte Cook Games' previous system, Numenera, but will include design work by Bruce Cordell in collaboration with Monte Cook. The game books are now available for pre-order, with the core rulebook a $59.99 and the player's guide at $19.99, both including an e-book edition. The Strange was Kickstarted last year [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1433901524/the-strange-a-tabletop-rpg-by-bruce-cordell-and-mo] for $418,478.

Both Monte Cook and Bruce Cordell are veteran designers who have worked on not just Dungeons & Dragons, but a variety of other roleplaying games over the years. Cook is known for his worldbuilding and setting creation, having a key hand in the Planescape setting for D&D. Monte Cook Games' other well known game is Numenera, a science fantasy epic which sold quite well [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132900-Dungeons-Dragons-Down-Star-Wars-Up-In-Popular-RPG-List-Update] will be featured in the upcoming inXile video game Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Here's the official word on what The Strange is all about from MCG:
[blockquote]
Beneath the orbits and atoms of our natural universe lies a network of dark energy. Those who have learned to access and navigate this chaotic sea have discovered an almost endless set of "recursions" in the shoals of our Earth: Worlds with their own laws of reality, reflected from human experience or imagination, given form in the swirling Chaosphere of the Strange. Worlds teeming with life, with discovery, with incredible treasures, and with sudden death.

Worlds sometimes jealous of our own.

The secret plunder of these worlds draws the brave, the daring, and the unscrupulous-and it draws dangerous enemies from these recursions back to our Earth.

And slowly but inexorably, it draws the attention of beings from beyond Earth's shoals-beings of unfathomable power and evil from the unknown reaches of The Strange.
[/blockquote]



You can see the official announcement over at Monte Cook Games' website. [http://www.montecookgames.com/announcing-bruces-birthday-and-the-strange/]

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[thedoclc]

Numenera was one of those mixed bags which left me with a strange feeling. See, it does all of this high science-fantasy in its fluff, but the rules for almost everything are set in a stereotypical fantasy universe so that the science-fantasy winds up acting just like D&D magic. The Cyphers, while interesting, are completely disposable items for the most part, so all a character gets with them is two to three unique tricks which will be highly situational most of the time and which have no relation to the character's background. The combat grinds the game to a halt, because by the end of the first round everyone has already selected their best tactics for every round and then it's rinse-and-repeat, and warrior-type characters (using the precious term glaives) cast from hit points, making them severely underperforming in many aspects.

And yet it has so many good ideas behind it that I want more of it. I wanted more versatility, more of that weird Monte Cook creativity.

So here's hoping to The Strange not just being Numenera in Space, and hoping they build on what didn't work while keeping the customizable weirdness.