Revised Cypher System Character Creator Update (Plus a Blog Update)

The new version of the Cypher System Character Creator (for TCS 2nd edition) is fairly close to being ready for launch. Done so far: descriptors and types. Still to do: new foci and genres. As noted in the previous post, once this is done, there will be two CS character creators: one for first edition and one for second edition.

The introduction of genre-specific species descriptors in the new book brought an interesting challenge since the generator's code was not originally designed with these in mind. After some thought, I decided not to add code that would dynamically take away or add in these descriptors based on genre selection, since it would require a major overhaul of the setGenre code for the sake of only a handful of descriptors. On top of that, many of the genre-specific descriptors could potentially work in other genres/settings. For example, space elves are a fairly common trope-- think Eldar from Warhammer 40k or Minbari from Babylon 5. Space dwarves are less common, but not unheard of. So, depending on setting (and GM approval, of course) Elf and/or Dwarf descriptors could potentially be used in a Science Fiction game. Similarly, the Half-Giant, Helborn, Morlock, and Roach descriptors could also be alien species with a little tweaking. On the other side of the coin, Artificially Intelligent could be used to represent a clockwork/automaton character in a Fantasy or Fairytale setting (think the Tin Woodsman from The Wizard of Oz or the clockwork soldier whose name escapes me at the moment from Return to Oz).

And moreover, not all fantasy settings have Elf or Dwarf characters; in fact probably most fictional fantasy worlds do not. To my mind, these species descriptors are not so much genre-specific as they are setting-specific (or perhaps one might prefer the term universe-specific).

So instead, the way it is set up now is that the species descriptors are available to all genres, but selecting one will display a brief note indicating that your descriptor choice is "genre-specific" and subject to GM approval. Obviously it goes without saying that everything is subject to GM approval, but these are definitely something you will want to run by your GM before becoming too attached to your Roach Adept Who Exists Partially Out of Phase or whatever.

Also of note, while updating descriptors I discovered that the Virtuous descriptor was missing from the existing first-edition Cypher System generator (and presumably has been MIA all this time). This has bee rectified; apologies to all frustrated would-be goodie-goodies out there.

Blog Update

The blog set another record this past November with 1701 views over the course of the month, a substantial increase over the previous monthly record of 1517, set back in August. In fact, the blog has not had fewer than 1200 views a month since last June. Most of the traffic is, as always, to the Numenera character generator, but an increasingly large slice goes to the Cypher System character generator now too. Those two pages together now account for well over half the site's total views.