I truly love the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games. When I first read Numenera, it was a much needed breath of fresh air. When I picked up The Strange from its Kickstarter, I discovered a dimension hopping game that was playable from “first level”. That has always been one of my favorite genre of fantasy. And finally when the first edition of the Cypher Systems Rulebook came out that felt like it opened the doors for infinite homebrew games.
There are a million reviews on the Cypher System, and even live plays out there, if you want to see them, so I am going to pass on giving a system review. Instead lets focus on what would be immediately useful to the solo gamer.
The biggest problem that solo PCs have in game designed for a group is Health/Hit point attrition and action economy. The first is pretty easy to fix. When creating the character give it 4 extra points to divide amid its pools (for a total of 10). As the pools are used to both measure the endurance of the character (similarly to Hit Points in other games) and to activate powers, the solo PC will need a little leg up. Additional, change the recovery rolls from d6+Tier to d6+Tier x2. This is a small advantage at first, but as you go up in Tier and face greater challenges that extra point per Recovery roll will make a big difference.
The next problem is action economy. This is the classic solo game problem. I offer two solutions, either of which would work, but I use both.
First, I do compose a full party with the PC as its de facto leader (even if you use more of a face NPC as the front man). The rest of the party though are handled as NPCs. Instead of having Tiers they have Levels and specialties , that fit the party you want to play. So lets say you want to play a fantasy adept. Add an NPC warrior and an NPC scout. Go ahead and write out their descriptor sentence as you would if you were going to make a full character, but instead of giving them full character sheets that sentence guides you as to what their specialties are. If they are assisting the PC do something they count as an Asset.
If they act on their own, either compare the level of the task to their effective level or roll a d6 for the NPC and add their level and an additional d6 for the opposition (also adding its level). Who ever rolls highest wins the contest. If it is a simple binary effect then that is the end of it.
If it is a combat situation the defender is either unharmed (should it have rolled higher) or it causes damage equal to its effective level (modified by any armor the defender has of course). That allows you to overcome the action economy problem with a single sentence description and an assigned level. I would suggest level 4 for warriors, with a level penalty for things they are bad at. For your scouts and adepts a level 3 plus the level of 4 of specialties that line up with the descriptive sentence. The reason for this is that warrior types need that extra 3 Health to serve on the front line. (Don’t hesitate to give them some good armor too).
Every time the PC goes up two tiers add an extra level to the NPCs and make any necessary changes to their specialties. This will make them slightly more complex than a standard Cypher System NPC, but far less complicated than a full character would be. If you are ever writing enough that it overflows an index card, it is probably time to go back over the character and simplify it.
Unless the NPC party member is some sort of Adept or other cypher expert reserve them to holding two cyphers. That still adds enough cyphers to the party that they can see regular use, without needing to change the rules so the PC can carry more. The game is strongly designed around these little burst of power evening the odds, so don’t cheat yourself.
Because PCs take the spotlight, use your NPCs as Assets to the PC’s roll when ever you don’t need to shore up the body count in a combat. Keep the focus on the PC. There are no rules for NPC healing, so I suggest either a point per hour of down time or if you prefer a simpler method there level daily in points.
The other suggestion is a bit harder, but not so much so as to be a hassle. That is enemy gangs and enemy attrition. If you are attacked by a mob, use the optional swarm/mob rules (in summary every +2 opponents adds +1 to their Level), that treats a number of homogenous attackers as 1 creature. Split them if they are facing multiple targets.
This mob rule only counts for attacks. As defenders they are still individuals of their original level. This option cuts down on the number of dice rolls per combat round. As members of the mob go down so does the danger it poses as an attacker.
(As an aside: GM against yourself with the same fair mindedness you would a party of your friends. Don’t overwhelm the party without notice. Let the challenges be challenging but not impossible, unless the dice really don’t favor you, and leave some sort of escape hatch, possibly through a Player Intrusion or Short Term Benefit).
Enemy attrition is a hack of my own, but it is similar to the the swarm rules. Just like PC weaken as they run low on their pools, so you can weaken an enemy as it runs out of health. I would suggest for every 6 points of damage lower the level of the enemy by 1. That shows the effects of the pummeling, without completely nerfing the encounter. If the enemy is level 1 or 2 this probably won’t be necessary, but if the enemy is 5 or over I highly suggest this tactic. Even with good NPC back up there is only 1 PC.
XP in Cypher System games comes in a few forms. End of adventure xp, for learning things, usually 1-3 points. End of arch xp which is 2-4 points, and GM intrusions worth 1 point.
If your oracle throws out a random event that catches you off your guard or steers the game into rough waters treat that as a GM intrusion. I also suggest any roll of 1, which will generate a GM intrusion be worth 1xp. The PC will need that xp to exert some player influence on the narrative, such as re-rolls and player intrusion, and short term benefits. Once again, there is only the one player, your NPCs can't use xp, but you could use your xp to have an alley do something remarkable that your character could not, and thus pull fat out frier.
When the you purchase a raise to pools as part of moving towards the next tier, I suggest you give 6 points rather than 4. This compensate some for the need for one PC to use Effort more often.
Lastly and most optionally consider letting the PC have a pick every tier from the Flavors list for their flavor and tier as a bonus ability.
When adventuring, if using pre made monsters, look at their Armor rating and Health. These may need adjusting on the fly down to 1 in the case of armor and the standard 3 Health per Level in the case of Health, depending what sort of campaign you are running. There are a lot of exceptions in the standard monster books. The core rule of 3 Health per Level is plenty challenging for a solo Adept or Speaker.
While Type, Focus, and Flavor abilities are fixed, consider allowing 1-2 xp cost, rule bending, or perhaps the expense of Effort to try a rule bending to add more flexibility to character abilities. Effort to buy in seems appropriate.
There is an optional rule for Wizards, that should be expanded to other archetypes as well. (see CSRB 2e magic). The gist is that Wizards can acquire “spells” from other abilities or lists that are thematically appropriate, but the use of them cost recovery rolls or time. These must be from the characters current tier or lower and cost 3xp (as long term benefits). Every day the Wizard can switch their “known spells” and send other into the cost list. I see no reason a stealth, face, combat, or tech oriented character couldn’t do the same thing. But it must stay within the theme of the character.
Cypher System Rulebook 2e nerfed a some powers, for the sake of game balance. I suggest use 1e powers to give your solo characters a leg up, but there is a ton of useful material in CSR2e. If both are not reasonable just get the Rulebook 2. Some games like Numenera and The Strange are complete on their own and don't need support from the CSR. Feel free to reskin powers from any book to fit your current campaign. Solo games are all about stretching the limits to me, so I encourage you to do the same.
I hope some of these tips will help your solo Cypher game run more smoothly. Thanks for reading
W.D.
EDIT: I left out probably the most important hack. With just one PC they are going to going to sometimes find they are over their heads, a great way of balancing this out is to allow Effort to be applied after the roll. This still depletes the pool, leading to an expenditure of the character resources, but it does make them more capable which in a solo game is an essential survival safety net.
Recently I have also been allowing PCs to take damage for NPC which are gained as part of their ability set (be it through focus, type ability, or short/long term advantages). Again this weakens the PC but it preserves, what may well be, an essential resource.
Lastly, though it isn't stated in the rules, allow NPCs the standard ability players have to keep up to 2 cyphers. This widens the available tricks up the sleeves of the party.
I hope these additional hacks enrich your game.
W.D.
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