Interested in trying out Numenera? Here's a one-shot with the introductory adventure, "The Beale of Boregal". (We can go on from there, but I am only promising a one-shot at this point.)
What is Numenera?
Information can be found:
http://www.numenera.com/
http://theninthworld.com/
It won the 2014 Origins award for best roleplaying game (beating out Shadowrun 5e, FATE Core, and 13th Age). It won a 2014 ENnie Gold award for product of the year, best setting, and a bunch of other stuff. It's pretty much one of the things to check out in the RPG world this year.
It's Monte Cook's Kickstarter project, which raised over US$500,000 at the time. Why? Monte Cook wrote a ton of Planescape content, along with the Ptolus setting. Monte also wrote a bunch of stuff in 3e. After "creative differences" with Wizards over 5e, Monte left the D&D business. Numenera is his new thing. (It's also the setting for the next "Torment" PC RPG game, sort of following up on the beloved Planescape: Torment.)
Numenera uses the "Cypher" system, which is Monte's creation. The system is MUCH lighter than 3e D&D... it completely does away with the battle map. Rolls don't have the layers of umpteen billion modifications like there are in 3e. It's straight up difficulty checks, with player-driven choices to shift difficulty in exchange for effort (read: use up some of your pool of "hit points" for various attributes). There's no requirement for tank & healbot classes, and there's no XP for killing. XP is earned by finding cool new stuff (exploring) and by taking on GM "Intrusions" (read Fate Points from FATE, Hard Moves from Apocalypse World, etc.).
It's basically D&D with a more narrativist bent, but it's not as wildly on the one side as 3e D&D nor on the other side as FATE. It's kind of a middle-of-the-road kludge-light narrativist-light system. A lot hinges on GMs using Intrusions without being giant donkey holes about it (and FATE/Apocalypse World/Burning Wheel experience helps you understand how to use this kind of thing).
What is the setting? It's set in the 9th Age of the Earth, which is basically a far future Dark Age... about a billion years ahead of our time. (Monte doesn't like the way our Fantasy Dark Ages do away with squalor, filth, disease, and the general unpleasant nature of Earth's Dark Age.) Everything that we know about the Earth is gone, except for humanity. There were 8 previous ages of the Earth, including eras in which Humanity no longer was the dominant species.
In the 9th Age, Humans exist in a future techno Dark Age. A lot of civilized Human effort goes towards uncovering the Numenera... which is described as the technological detritus of the fallen ages. It's technology that is so advanced, it's indistinguishable from magic, per Arthur C Clarke. Nanotechnology (its purpose long since forgotten) allows for wizardry & such. Basically, it's D&D without the poop & filth, and with more plastic & techno-weirdness.
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If you want to see what Numenera characters look like, check out the following character generator:
http://darkliquid.co.uk/playground/numenera/
There are 3 classes.
- Glaive - the fighting dudes
- Nano - technowizards
- Jack - jacks of all trades, which can be built as fighter/wizard hybrids and/or more technical specialists (Thief, Bard, etc.)
--- I am a (adjective) (Class Name) that ("verbs" some special ability)
That's about it. Picking stuff to fill out the sentence is the hardest part of character generation.
There's a chunk of additional work, including character background linkages that are implied by the choices you make in setting up your character. If you fire up the generator, though, you'll see how much more streamlined it is compared to 3e.
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So... looking for 3-5 players. No experience with Numenera is required.
If the game works out, those who want to continue onward can go on another premade adventure from the book. (We can always re-recruit for the next adventure because there will be no implied linkage to the next game.)