Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Part 1: The Ninth World | Starter Kit - Numenera

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Game master Monte Cook introduces our players to the fascinating game of Numenera. Follow the party members while they create their heroes and embark on Mauro’s Quest in the Ninth World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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turns at AKA.m.m.S. College PC. Welcome to your starter kit. I'm Jason Charles Miller. Some of the most fun moments of my life have been spent with my friends playing role-playing games, rolling dice, slang a few monsters, and most of all, telling stories together. I want to bring that same satisfaction of collaboration and discovery to other people, and that's why I created starter kit. Today, we'll be learning to play Numenera.

Numenera takes place on a far future Earth, a billion years from now. Civilization has risen to dizzying technological heights and collapsed into dust eight times over the millennia, and a ninth civilization is struggling to rise amid the mysteries and dangers those previous eight left behind. Numenera is the brainchild of Manny Cook, a longtime influential voice in the world of role-playing games, and one of the architects of Dungeons and Dragons third edition. Monty will be our game master, leading our journey through the ninth world, and teaching us the elegant cipher system that powers Numera. Mani? Hey, Jay.

Hey, come on in. Have a seat. So tell me about the world of Newman era. So after all these great civilizations have fallen in the distant, distant future, what we have is the ninth world. And in the ninth world, the people there have about a medieval level of technology. Okay. But because there's all the leftovers of these prior worlds, they look at that stuff as though

it's magic, right? So it's like a science fiction setting that feels like a fantasy setting. So you created a whole new gaming system for this game telling you. Tell me a little bit about that. What I wanted to do with the cipher system is create something that is not necessarily as focused on combat as some games, but is focused more on exploration and discovery. And I wanted to make something that was really easy to be the GM. I wanted the GM to focus entirely on telling the story.

That's why the GM doesn't roll dice in this game at all. The players do all of that. And I also really wanted to focus on what I call just the weird. Right? I like that. I like that. You've got all these prior civilizations and these things that are left over. And to our characters, some of that stuff gets really, really weird and kind of incomprehensible,

but in a kind of a majestic way. Well, I can't wait to play, and we're going to meet our party soon. The table's yours. Thanks. I'm Monty Cook, creator of Numenera, and this is your starter kit. The Ninth World is built on the bones of the previous eight. Life hears about struggle, about discovering the wonders of the worlds that came before it, but not for their own sake, but as the means to improve the present and to build a future.

Most people in the ninth world are simple farmers or laborers. But there are those who risk mysterious dangers to recover the relics of the past. So let's meet our players and build those characters. Hey. Hey, Tara. I'm Monty. It's so great to meet you. So I'm to understand that you have not played a role playing game before.

I've never played a role playing game before. I've never watched a role-playing game before. I really know nothing about this, but I'm very excited about it. It's going to be great. You're going to be fantastic. Okay. So this is your rule book. Okay.

And this is your starter kit. That's your character's name. My name. Cool. So we talked a little bit about your character. Why don't you tell me what you've kind of decided on as far as what you want your character to be like? Okay.

So Bix is a kid. and I don't want anyone to know their gender. Bix was always very helpful around the house, around the farm, and was following the footsteps of the dad, and some sort of marauders or somebody came in and was ravaging the town, and the whole family was killed while Bix was sort of away from the house a little, maybe nearby in a cave.

And they saw it happen from a distance, but they weren't there. So Bix was saved, but their entire family was killed. was killed. So a tragic background. Yeah. And then that's kind of shaped Bix a little bit. Yeah, so Bix doesn't really speak.

Bix can speak, but doesn't. Okay, that will make for some interesting challenges. Okay. But I think it'll be really fun at the table. Yeah, I think this sounds like a great character. So now, based on your character description, we've already kind of decided that the noun, the type, is going to be a jack.

Yes. Now, jacks are the kind of people who are, they're a little bit good at everything and, you know, sort of, they can be sometimes kind of sneaky, they can be, you know, eloquent, they can be all kinds of different things. You can shape that however you want. I think that the focus, that's the verb part of the sentence, should be maybe explores dark places.

Does that sound like something that fits Bix? Absolutely. I think that Bix probably feels the safest. Okay. In a cave or maybe in a dark place. Okay. Because that's almost a comfort. So that gets us two parts of the sentence, but we still need a descriptor.

This is the adjective part of the sentence. And I'm thinking maybe for Bix, we want to go with stealthy. That really kind of fits the rest of it, right? Which would mean that you are a stealthy Jack who explores dark places. Stealthy Jack who explores dark. Do I need to write this down? Yes. This is where we bring out your character sheet, and that is in the book.

Okay. Okay. And now if you open that up, The first thing we're going to talk about are your stats. Now, these are kind of what makes your character you. Okay. And in Numerara, we have three stats. There's might, which is like strength and toughness.

There's speed, which is quickness, but it's also dexterity. And then there's intellect, which is what it sounds like, but it's also like how well you are interacting with people. Now, as a jack, you start with a base in 10, but you get to customize that and add up to six points in any way you want. any way you want. So Bix would probably have more dexterity. You might want to just have 16 speed.

Oh, I do have 10. I'm adding additional to that. Exactly. So you can just fill that in. Now, there's also a concept in the game called edge. Edge is the thing that you are best at, because it's like a discount. Every time I'm gonna ask you to spend points out of a pool,

if you have an edge in that pool, you spend one less. Oh, it's one of these things. Yes, exactly. It's a numerical value. It's just a one that you put And I would recommend speed. So I add it to speed. Yeah, just where it says edge.

Oh, the edge. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I see why that's there. Okay. Okay. All right. The next thing that we would do for your character is figure out what your skills are.

That's what Explores Dark Places does. It gives you a bunch of these sort of stealthy kind of, you know, operate in the shadows kind of skills. So you're already good at a lot of those things. Okay. Great. But as your stealthy descriptor figures in, you know, and it actually kind of doubles down on that. And it's gonna make you even more so.

The first thing that stealthy does is it's gonna add two more points to your speed, making that actually 18. Okay. And then, so it'll make it so that your hiding skill there is actually, so what the little T's mean is trained. Okay. That means that you're some skill in it.

You're some skill, but the S means specialized. Oh, okay. So you'll actually be specialized. You can black out that little circle there next to hiding, because you'll be really good at that. Okay. There is a drawback, however, to being stealthy. You know, you're really good at kind of moving around,

kind of, you know, silently and quietly, and so people can't see you. But when it comes to like more dramatic movements, like climbing a cliff or running really fast, you're not so great at that. And so we call that an inability, and it's kind of like a negative skill, really. Now as a Jack, again,

You're really good at a lot of things. It gives you the flex skill ability. We'll get to that in the game itself. So really the only other things that we need to talk about are the things that Bix carries with them. I thought maybe, not like in a sense of getting into a fight, but more as more like tools, might carry like a knife or a hatchet or something like that.

Yeah, because you could get something in the space out of something. Exactly, exactly, right? And so under attacks, if you do have to get into a fight, For damage, that's what that is. Each one of them does two. So the last thing that we need to do is get you your jack tricks of the trade. These are the special things that you can do because you're a jack. I think that because of Bix's nature, they're a kid, they're small, they're probably

kind of fast and quick. Maybe it should be hard to even get hold of them. So let's have you have, as your trick of the trade, as one of them, it's called Skilled armor, you're fast as long as you're not encumbered. So that protects me because I'm not being able to be caught. Right. Okay. Right. Another good sort of kind of defensive thing, if Bix is down in caves and whatnot,

they're probably, for a kid at least, kind of tough, right? They probably run into some scrapes and whatnot. So let's have Bix be skilled with defense, specifically might defense. And that's kind of, what that means is that gives you you resilience. Okay. So I think that you're done. I think that's, you've got a new Minera character.

Thank you. All right, and we will gather together in a few minutes and get started. Great. Thank you so much. I'm excited. Hi. Hi, Nicole. I'm Monty.

Nice to meet you. So we didn't talk about this before, but what role-playing game experience do you have? I have some. I've played a D&D. I'm like, I play more than the average person, I guess. Okay. We have worked out a little bit about your character. Why don't you tell me exactly what you've decided on?

I wanted a character that was strong and fierce and independent and maybe just a little too impulsive and doesn't think things through and just kind of like acts before thinking about things. Do you see yourself as more like a warrior type character? Or? Definitely warrior. Definitely getting in there, fighting as much as she can.

Okay, okay. We have a character sentence in Numerara that makes everyone sort of a blank, blank who blanks. Now, Warrior type is called a glave, and that's the middle part of the sentence. We have already kind of worked out what the latter part of the sentence is too. Why don't you tell me a little bit about

the fuses, flesh, and steel part? Because my character is the sort of impulsive type. She's gotten in some scraps before, and one was really bad, where she kind of, she was injured probably mortally and was brought back to life by being fused, used with metal and the computer parts and all that stuff. Awesome.

And I understand that in this world, like, it's kind of something to be ashamed of. It can be, but you can, you know, you can own it too if you want that, right? No, I think she's definitely the type that owns it and resents people for, like, looking down on her type. I like it. Yeah. Very, very cool. Okay, so here is your Numerara Rulebook.

Cool. And here is your starter kit. Oh boy. Oh, nice. Got my character's name. Name late. In there you'll find the dice that you'll be using. Ooh, yeah, love it.

And a notepad and paper that I'll definitely need. Okay, so let's take a look at your character sheet, which is in your rule book there. All right, so right at the front here, we've got your name, which is... Devalu. Devalu? Mm-hmm.

All right. That's a very cool name. Thank you. Now remember I said every character has a sentence. as a sentence, you're a blank, blank who blanks. So there's still one thing that we have to determine, right? And that's the descriptor, which is sort of the adjective in the sentence. I'm keying off of something that you said.

You said you wanted to be strong. Yes. We could just use strong as your descriptor. Devalu would be a strong glave who fuses flesh and steel. Great. So if you open that sheet up, what we get to are the stats. And as a glave, you've already got some base figures for these.

Plus, you've gotten enhancements in both your might and your speed because you fuse flesh and steel, right? You've got cybernetic parts that are making you faster and stronger than most people. You do get six more points to divide up among those three stats however you want to kind of customize your character further. I think I'll add three to might and speed. Okay, that makes sense.

So that'll be 17 and 16. So next we will. want to take a look at your skills, and some of this is gonna come from your descriptor. So first of all, well, I forgot that it adds plus four to your might. Wow. Four, you are really strong.

But you know, that makes sense, right? You've got metal arms and whatnot. You can crush things with your bare hands. So that'll be 21. That's amazing. Wow. That's a great starting from set. And you'll also have two extra skills for being strong.

One is just you're good at breaking things, right? Which sort of makes sense. Great. So you can write that down with your other skills. You're trained in breaking things. And then also in jumping. So each one of those would be, you'd use the T for trained.

Great. Now, glives are really good with weapons and whatnot. What do you see as your weapon of choice? I don't picture her having a weapon. I picture her like fighting hand to hand and because like she's so enhanced, that's a good enough weapon. That's great.

So one of the glave abilities that you can choose is called no need for weapons. Great. You just punch people. Yeah. So you can write that down under special abilities. And you get to choose one other ability. I might recommend something kind of defensive maybe.

Like you could use your speed to be, you know, better able to dodge incoming attacks. We would call that speed defense. Sure, that sounds great. You can write that down as well. For most people, your fist would do two points of damage. But because of your metal hand and whatnot, you'll do four points of damage.

You can write that down. Great. So the only other thing really to talk about is your equipment. I thought maybe you should probably wear like some kind of armor. If you wore like a leather, jacket or something like that that would give you some protection, but it wouldn't be encumbering at all.

And it would look badass. It would look badass. Yeah, yeah. And because you're already partially metal, you get one point of armor for that, and then the leather gives you a total of two points of armor. Cool. All right. I think we are finished with your character.

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That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash critical role for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash critical role. Hey, Jeremy. Hey, Monty. Nice to meet you, man. Nice to meet you. Yeah. All right.

Love this. How familiar are you with role playing games? Definitely a rookie. Yeah. This is, uh, The Sarkas of Sundry Madness was my first game ever. All right. Which was awesome and I'm like, I'm hooked now.

Yeah, you want more? I want more. All right, well, welcome to it. Yeah, awesome. All right, this is your rule book. Cool. And this is your starter kit. Yeah, look at that.

Yeah, it's beautiful. There's like somebody jump out of it? I'll hold it open for you here. Wow. Nameplate with your character. Very cool. Could you pronounce that for me? Ajnia.

Ajnia. And there's your dice. Oh yeah. Yeah. Do a little roll here. Oh yeah, look at it. Very cool. So we talked a little bit about the character that you'd like to play.

And I know that you've kind of referenced the vision from Marvel Comics. Tell me about your character. Well, Ajnia was, it's the other name for the third eye chakra, which is, you know, like the pineal gland and all that. It kind of helps you to go into other dimensions when you're meditating and things like that. And also the vision. because not only is a vision, awesome, but I like the idea of having those mental powers and being able to command mental powers.

Also, I thought about maybe it was something that made me feel a little bit vulnerable. And like, I don't really want others to know I have this power. Oh, okay, great. We could make that work. Yeah. So let's turn this idea into a new Minera character. I love it.

All right, based on the things that you'd already said, I thought that your type, your character type might be jack, kind of makes you a little bit good at everything. You're a jack of all trades, basically. And very obviously for you, the focus would be commands mental powers. We've already written that down in your sheet, but that's basically you can use telepathy, right?

You can talk to your friends, you can talk to strangers, just exactly what it sounds like, right? Yeah. And so all we need to do, do is determine what your descriptor would be. Okay. Now, in the world of Numenera, there's kind of this dichotomy of the stuff left over from the prior worlds. It's called the Numenera, and some people think of it as magical, but some people realize that it's actually technological.

Do you have an idea of how you would see that? Well, couldn't there be maybe a little bit of both? It could be both. Sure, absolutely. So what I'm getting at here is that we have a description. We have a descriptor for you. Okay. It's got two names, mystical and mechanical. All right.

If you want, you can call it both, right? You can call it mystical mechanical. Mystical mechanical. All right, I like it. Very cool. Okay, so if you open up the character sheet to the inside, then, we have three stats. Now, as a jack, you kind of start out pretty good at all of them.

So your starting stats are 10, 10, and 11. A 10 in intellect, but you get one for commanding mental powers, too. You get to customize that a little bit further by adding six points to any of these scores in any combination. Well, I think intellect would be high, right? It sounds like that makes a lot of sense to me. So maybe three here.

Okay. Let's add two to Mike. And then one. And then Mystical Mechanical is gonna give you two more in intellect. So that's gonna bring it up to 16. So that's pretty good. So there's something called Edge. And we'll get to this more as we're playing.

But basically, which of these three things that you really are best at, the one that you can really use a lot without kind of tiring yourself out. Sounds like maybe it's intellect. Yeah, that's what I would go for. Yeah. That's what I... This is a character, not me personally, right? Because that's... Right, right. We always have to distinguish, right? Because that edge would be somewhere else.

So I would just put one an edge there for intellect. Okay. All right, so now next we're going to talk about your skills. I thought that might defense would be a good one. Might defense is sort of like how hardy you are and, you know, can you take poisons and diseases? No, well, you can resist that kind of thing. Sure. And mystical mechanical also gives you some skills as well. Anything involving mechanical, mystical stuff. Sure.

Right? So we can just call that the numinera. So you'd be trained in using the new manera. Any time you want to identify, you know, if you find something weird out in the wilderness, or you come upon something you don't understand that comes from these prior worlds, worlds, you know, you're better at that than most people. You have a little bit of knowledge in that. All right.

Mystical Mechanical also gives you a couple of cool special abilities. One is that you can kind of sense magic. Again, in this context, magic means, you know, the leftovers of the prior worlds, it's new manera, right? But you can sense when it's around. And then the other thing that I think that you'll kind of like, it's called hedge magic. This is like little telekinetic kinds of things that you can do with the power of your mind, you know, moving little objects.

That's under special ability. Unfortunately, mystical mechanical comes with kind of a drawback. Uh-oh. People kind of sense that there's something not quite right about you. The hair and their arm kind of stands up when you get close. Like, oh, this guy's a little shady. Yeah. Even though you're trying to cover up your mental powers, it's almost like it bleeds out of you a little bit.

You know? Jacks get these things called tricks of the trade, which are little abilities like one might be that you're really good at just dodging attacks. Okay. And that would be, we'd call that speed defense. Yeah, I like that. Okay. And then what kind of weapon?

Do you see yourself carrying a weapon? Yeah, definitely. Okay, what do you see? I don't know. Like, I want to think I could come out and just start shooting laser beams out of my hands. You'll get there. You'll get there.

I want to jump the gun, Moni. I want it now. I know. Okay, but yeah, so. To start with, though, shooting something. Yeah, so in Numenera, They're at about a medieval level of technology, except they have a few things that they've picked up

from this stuff that's around from the past, right? So there are these things called buzzers, and it basically magnetically projects a little razor disk. So you could have a buzzer. If you wanted to as a jack ability, you could have the ability called Pierce. And Pierce allows you to do even more damage with that kind of an attack. I love all that. All right, cool, cool.

So you want to write down Pierce under special abilities? Pierce. And then under attack, you'd put buzzer. That just sounds dangerous. All right. Very cool. That, I think, wraps up our character. I'm excited, thank you.

Cool. This is gonna be fun. Hi. Hi, Erica. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So, you ready to play some new Minera? I'm so ready.

Do you have any role-playing game experience? Yeah, but mostly just Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah, okay. I've done like one shots of some other games, but I haven't ventures. I haven't ventured out too far. That's a baseline I can work with. That's totally great. This is your rulebook for Numenera.

Oh, awesome, thank you. And this is your starter kit. So cool. Oh, nice. So your character's name is... Shanza. Yeah. Very cool.

Oh, this box is so cute. Oh, these are beautiful. Yeah, those are the dice that we'll be using today. Mostly be using the 20-sided. Is this a dice tray? Oh, that'll be handy. Cool. I'm so excited. We talked a little bit about your character ahead of time. Why don't you tell me what you've kind of decided on?

Well, she exists partially out of face. So she is very ghostly, transparent-looking, and that has caused her a lot of strife in her life. Yeah. She got it from one of our ancestors who was an exotic animal merchant. Okay. And so he came across this crazy, like, like, an interdimensional creature that bit him.

You know, he led most of his life unaware, but then eventually he just kind of disappeared. And so somehow after generations, they thought that, you know. That fits into Numerara perfectly. Oh, good, yes. That's great. That's great. Yeah. And so what kinds of things do you do?

Are you a more warrior, more of an outdoorsy person? Outdoorsy person. She was sort of exiled. Sure. They thought she was like a cursed ghost. Probably spent some time out in the wilderness. Yeah, a lot of time by herself. Any time she tried to interact with people,

they tried to exercise her and, you know, just. So you live by your wits and you're kind of on your own a lot. That sounds like a jack to me. Jack is kind of short for Jack of all trades. You're kind of a little bit good at everything. So in Numenero, what we do is we have a character sentence that describes the character, but it also sort of informs the game mechanics.

So you're a blank, blank, who blanks. Now we've sort of already figured out that you're a jack who exists partially out of phase. Right? So we just have to decide what the descriptor is. What you're saying to me sounds an awful lot like, you know, Eragorn Ranger type person. So there's a descriptor in Numerary called Rugged, which fits that perfectly. So let's take a look at your character sheet. So all we need to do is add the rugged part. Okay. Cool. You can open it up and all of the The important stuff that will come up during the game is in the middle. We'll start with the stats.

Now as a jack, you kind of start out a little, pretty good at all of them. You start out with a base score of 10 in each of them. But you get to choose to add six points in any combination to those three stats to kind of customize how you see your character. Well, I feel like, as you said, might and speed are pretty important.

Yeah, you could just kind of focus half in one and half in the other. Yeah, I don't need to be that smart. So what rugged does as a descriptor is it gives you a lot of skills. And we've recorded most of those on your character sheet already. But there are the kinds of things that you would sort of expect. You're really good at operating in nature and tracking and those kinds of things. The drawback is that because you're used to spending time alone in the woods,

you're not great at interacting with people. Okay. So this is called an inability, and it's kind of like a negative skill. It's not that you can't do it, it's just that for you, it's a little bit harder. You probably relate to animals better than people. Yeah. As a jack, you get some special abilities. They're called tricks of the trade.

They're little things that you have picked up. And for your character, I think, something maybe defensive to kind of, you know, you know, You've had to keep yourself alive, you know, on your own. You could have skill with defense, but you can kind of choose. Do you want it to be, you know, you're good at defending yourself physically, like dodging, or maybe you're good at resisting, like if someone's trying to affect your mind with some kind of weird ability? Probably dodging. Yeah, okay.

Just based on the life I imagine. Sure. So we just call that speed defense. Okay. Do you see yourself as, you know, you're pretty tough, you probably get into fights now and again. Do you want like a combat sort of ability? Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. Yeah, okay.

You probably want to have like a bow or a crossbow, something like that. Yeah, a bow sounds more naturey to me. Okay, and then what about, you know, when you've got to get a little bit closer, what sort of weapon do you see using? A glave is the, like, long with the blade, right? Okay, that's what I see her using. So there's an ability called thrust, and it allows you to do more damage. You'll just want to note that thrust costs one mite point.

We'll get to what that actually means as we're playing the game. And so then under attacks, you'd put your bow. Okay. You can just go and put four points of damage. And the glave, that also does four points of damage. You'll just want to remember that if you use thrust, it'll do five.

Do you see your character wearing armor? Mostly like leather. Yeah, like a jacket or a jerkin or something like that. Okay, great, that's light armor. And so you'd put one in the circle there for armor. Okay. Great. And so the only other thing we've got is the exists partially out of phase.

That's the ability where you basically can move through solid matter. You kind of have to concentrate, and so you can't move really fast yet, right? You'll get better at it. And that should be, everything that we need to get started. Okay, cool.

All right, a couple minutes, we'll just gather everyone together and we'll start playing. All right. Hey, Jason. All right. I have to dig in. Yeah, yeah.

Well, so I know you've got some role-playing game experience. Why don't you tell me a little about that? Started playing D&D when I was eight. Played that pretty much my whole life in one capacity or another. Played a lot of the other role-playing games that came out at that time, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, stuff like that.

But you've not played Numerra before. No, and I've decided not to, because I want to learn with everybody else. All right, well, here's a copy of the rules for you. This is great. And here is your starter kit. Whoa! All right.

So we got a nameplate in there. My name tag for my character. What character name did you choose? I came up with the name Adaron. Awesome. Thought that was kind of, you know, futuristic and medieval sounding at the same time. Some dice.

All right. This is awesome. I'm ready to play. Cool. Awesome. We have talked a little bit about the kind of character that you want to play. Why don't you tell me a little bit more about that? Some of the things that I was looking at was there was a trait, I guess, called Rides the Lightning,

where he can control electricity. Right. That was really fascinating to me. So you're going to be playing a nano. And what a nano is, is that it's someone who sort of understands the Numenera better than everyone else. And so, and a lot of people think, A lot of people think of them as like sorcerers or wizards. What they really are people who understand the past a little bit better.

Oh, okay, great. And rides the lightning is a perfect focus for you. So we've already got, you're a nano who rides the lightning. We want to choose a descriptor for you. I can tell you right now, I think what you're probably going to be interested in is a descriptor that's maybe like intelligent or maybe learned that shows that you have really kind of mastered some of the lore. I think for him it's learned.

Like maybe he spent his early youth discovering old books or finding, you know, looking for, just thirsting for knowledge. Okay, great, great. Adarin is a learned nano who rides the lightning. Okay. Now, as a nano, intellect is going to be your strong suit, right? We're going to start you with 12 in intellect. Okay.

But might and speed, not as much your thing. So you start with a seven in might and a nine in speed. and a nine in speed. But here's the good news. You have six points to divide up among those pools however you want. I think I'd like to spread it out, actually, to give him more of like a...

If he's got to get in a scuffle, I don't want him to fall apart immediately. Okay. So can I add two to each? Sure. Okay, great. And as you're doing that, I'll also tell you that your descriptor, learned it, is going to also add two more to your intellect.

Oh, great. Okay. What's the edge there? So what edge is... Think of it as your employee discount. Okay. Any time, see each one of these stats, you're going to be spending points out of those pools. So you have an edge of one in intellect. That means that any time you're going to spend intellect points, the first one's free.

Oh, great. So the skills over here, you'll see, we've already got one, and you're skilled in the numinera. Now the numinera is the word that we use to represent all of the past wonders and technology. kind of the general term that we use for anything from the prior world. Okay, so it's not like an energy force or anything, it's just... No, no, it's, if you see a weird device, that's the Numenera. If you see some kind of weird energy field, that's Numerary.

Got it, okay. As a learned character, you're gonna have three extra skills that you can choose. But these skills need to be sort of intellectual lore knowledge skills. So you could be trained in history or geography, or or anything that you think suits your character. Are they out of the book or they're just out of my head? There is no skill list. Okay, great.

They're customized to what you want your character to be good at. Well, I think history and geography for sure. Okay. Rather than choose a third one, you could double up on one of these, including your knowledge of the new manera. So you could be specialized in that. I'll take your advice and double up on the new manara. I think that's a wise move. So the only thing I need to inform you, and this is,

This is the bad news of learned is that because you're learned, you've spent so much time in libraries and focused on learning and everything, that you're not really a people person. You have an inability with interaction. It's something that you're particularly not good at. You can still try it, but it's not your forte. Okay, so as a nano, you're gonna get to choose two special abilities, kind of cool powers that we're gonna incorporate into your character concept of having

devices sort of hidden around your, on your person. Okay, great. Now, I'm gonna recommend for sure, based on your character description, that one of the things you're gonna wanna choose is onslaught. An onslaught is you shoot a blast of energy, right? And for you, that's perfect,

because that would be the electricity, right? The other one is more up to you. Maybe you want something that is protective. What sort of things do you have in mind? I feel like it would be protective, and maybe like party protective. Yeah, so at first here, the defensive power that you have available to you is just protects you.

It's called Ward. And the nice thing about Ward, though, is that you don't have to activate it or anything. It's just always on. It always gives you a point of armor. You'll want to mark down a one in the little circle for armor. Oh, great. So the only other thing that we need to do

is take a look at your focus ability. Now, you've already chosen rides the lightning. And your focus ability at first tier is called shock. You activate this power, you touch someone, zap, right? Great. So with your electrical powers, you'll have a ranged attack with the onslaught or a close-in melee with your touch.

Okay, great. Now, over on the other side of the character sheet, we've got equipment. As a nano, you don't start with a lot of stuff. So my concept of a giant suit of electricity is not gonna fly at tier one? Not at tier one, but it's a good. It's a great aspiration, right?

It's his dream. But what you do start with is some books, because you're learned, right? You start with a book on the Numenera, and you start with two other books. So book on Numenera for sure. Right. And then two others. See, I thought maybe he might have found a book on Nikola Tesla. And that's what inspired him for his, you know, a billion-year-old book.

Well, a billion-year-old book is probably not going to have survived, right? But having a book specifically about electrical things and whatnot, totally a viable choice. Okay. What might you suggest for the third one? You're probably going to be exploring weird new places. You might be encountering weird new life or plant life or anything. You might want like a reference for something like that. Flora and fauna. Sure. Sounds great. You could also carry some kind of light weapon. I might have like a, you know, a walking stick or some kind of item, but I think he'll primarily... Mostly de-zapping.

Shocking and charging. All right, cool, cool. So I think that gets you a finished Numeria character. You're ready to play. Okay. Thanks, Jason. All right, well, I'm so glad you guys all have joined me here to play some Numerara today.

I think it's gonna be a good time. So you all live in what's called the Ninth World, the far, far distant future. There have been all these prior worlds that have come and gone, civilizations that have risen and fallen, and they've left behind the remnants of their civilization, and the discoveries that they made

and the incredible advances that they made. So you live amongst all of these ruins. Everywhere you look, there's some reflection of this deep, deep past. So even though you all come from a society that we might describe as maybe medieval in level of technology, you've got all these remnants of things

that they're basically just magic to you. Not all of these remnants are helpful or good. good, right? There are creatures, there are weird diseases, there are strange weather. Everything in this world from our point of view is a weird, weird thing. But nevertheless, you all have decided to brave these dangers and go the step farther that most people in the ninth world don't take. Most people stay to their little village and never go out into the world, but there's just something in you that has propelled you to go farther than most people. So with In that in mind, why don't we start talking about who you guys are and introduce yourselves to each other?

Jason, let's start with you. My character's name is Adarin. He's a learned nano who rides the lightning. He looks rather eccentric, kind of like a cross between the professor in the Metropolis movie and Nick Nolte's mugshot. His hair is just everywhere. He wears like a mitch mash of different clothing. He's got sort of wires running everywhere. He's obsessed with lightning and he's obsessed with electricity.

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All right. I'm Erica and I'm playing Shanza. Shanza is a rugged jack who exists partially out of phase. So basically, she looks like a ghost all the time. She's transparent. But from what you can tell, she has short, kind of like curly hair. If she wasn't transparent, she'd be pretty,

like bronze skin, and she's very, very. slender and muscular. Cool, I'm playing Davaloo. She is a strong glave who fuses flesh and steel. So she is part cyborg, basically. But she's like a warrior. She's super strong, think like Serena Williams or any of the women on them mascara, but she happens to have like robotic parts.

So I am picturing like an arm is like that. And it's circuitry that's running all throughout her body. And yeah, that's who she is. I'm Jeremy, I'm playing Ajnia. As you can see, I've got my third eye crystal here. Ajnea is a mystical, mechanical jack who commands mental powers. Kind of like the vision, marvel the vision,

but part vision, part badass. I just love to get into the minds of people around me, even though sometimes it gets me into trouble, and it makes me a little vulnerable, and it makes me a little bit like, oh, I kind of know what's going on, but I don't know if I should really use that. So that's Aja Neal.

I'm Tara. I am playing Bix. Bix is a stealthy Jack who explores dark places. And Bix is a child. Bix saw their family killed in front of them, and so it's mostly mute. and also doesn't want anyone to know their gender. Very cool.

Very secretive. So the five of you, you all know each other, you've known each other for a little while. You live in a place, it's a little village, it's called Alderville. And Aldervale is located in the foothills of a black mountain range, dark, dark, tall, massive peaks that is known as the Black Rage.

Most people just think of it as just impassable. And the people of your village, Most of them are herders. They tend these flocks of these creatures called yawl that have long, long yellow hair that they use for wool, but you also use y'all for meat as well. It's a fairly quiet, tranquil place. And there's one really unique thing about Aldervale,

and that is that it was built around a remnant of the prior worlds. And the locals all call this thing, this big device that's just sitting in the middle of the village. They call it the sing-song because it occasionally just emits these chimes, just makes music. And everyone just thinks, oh, that's cool, right?

We've got a little music. Everyone except for one person, there's a young man in Aldervale and his name is Morrow. He's young, but he's a prodigy. Everyone thinks of Morrow as being wiser and more knowledgeable about the Numenera, about the past, the remnants of things from the prior worlds, more knowledgeable than anybody else. And Morrow has a theory.

Morrow thinks that the chiming sound is a code. And after quite a bit of study, he has, he thinks, deciphered the code. And he thinks that what the sing-song is actually omitted. is a series of coordinates for a place somewhere deep in the mountains. So Morrow has decided he's going to go off and find this place. He thinks that's his destiny. The problem is, Morrow is kind of frail. He spent most of his time, you know, with his nose in a book.

He is not a physical person. And everyone in the village has tried to talk him out of this. They don't want him to go. Everyone is pretty sure that he can't. can't possibly survive this trip, but he's determined because this is his destiny. And so some of you have decided Maro needs an escort, Maro needs someone to go with him.

When Maro learns of this, you can see tears kind of begin to well up in his eyes. And he looks at all of you and he says, I can't even express how much this means to me that you would help me with this. Why? Why? Why? Why are you coming with me? You're the most knowledgeable guy I've ever seen in our village, our small little village.

I thirst for knowledge and you are knowledge. There's no way I'm letting you go out there by yourself. I appreciate that. Shanza? I believe you have answers to a lot of questions about the past worlds that I have, and I want to help you find these answers to what you're looking for as well.

Thank you. Davaloo? I was built to fight and there's no way I'm getting any fighting done in this town. I need to get out of here and see what's out there. I'm really going to be glad to have you along. Ajna? Maro, I sense magic and I sense there's a lot in you and around you. And I want to help you find the real magic of Numenera.

Thank you. Thank you. So then he looks at Bix, and he knows that Bix doesn't speak. So Vicks looks at Morrow and holds up the pack because Vix has a little pack with all of Bix's things, and Bix reaches out their hand. Morrow takes their hand. Morrow takes their hand.

And he nods, and he says, thank you. I'm going to go try to get some rest. I know it's a big journey, but I'd really like to leave tomorrow morning, and Morrow leaves. He goes back to his house. probably to gather his things and maybe get some sleep, who knows. Probably a stressful, a stressful, anxious night, but nevertheless. But you guys are all still here together.

Man, I'm ready to leave now. I mean, I just want to go. Do you ever have to sleep, by the way? That's a rude question. Do you go up to everybody and just ask them personal things like that? Well, you're like half, like machine or something. I'm still trying to figure you out. I'm still a person.

I'm going to go to Ben. All right, you've all decided to help Morrow on Morrow's quest and head out into the black triage. It's not going to be easy, and we'll find out what happens on that journey next time on Starter Kit. Next time on Starter Kit. It's an almost vertical cliff, and that could be dangerous. I got an idea. We both take a shot.

Bix loses their grip. Bix, I'm coming for you. Bix actually falls. at Cayman Jack Margarita and taste your escape. It's America's number one for a reason. Cayman Jack is a premium malt beverage with flavors. Please drink responsibly.

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The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else. rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges

organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the Shadow Dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the Glass Cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark.