The final stretch!
over 1 year ago – Sun, May 21, 2023 at 09:51:35 PM

First, all of you have been amazing! Due to your efforts, we are now barreling down on $50,000. Second, now is time to announce our final stretch goal! 

At $60,000, we will publish an alternate Mystery Flesh Pit TTRPG  with the science fiction rules engine, Esper Genesis. A 5e game already possessing terrifying creatures and horror-themed encounters, Esper Genesis is a great fit and we are already chatting with the designer, Rich Lescouflair.

This stretch goal will be delivered a little differently. If you have pledge level that offers the PDF stretch goal, you will receive a discount Print on Demand code for a hardback book. This code lets you buy the book at cost plus shipping. 

Introducing the Engineer 

While some Anodyne employees can only merely “contain” a situation within the Mystery Flesh Pit, an Engineer can actually solve them. 

This Type (the Cypher System analog to a class) is trained in the latest Anodyne technologies; letting them repair and modify the specialized equipment used to travel or mine within the pit. While engineers in R&D are often promoted by the time-honored Peter Principle, those in the field are renown for their level of discipline at fixing their team’s gear despite the distractions -- such as the nearby screaming and all the blood. 

Sooooo much blood.

If you prefer PCs who like technology and prototypes, the engineer will be for you. 

We did it!
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 17, 2023 at 08:02:11 PM

We made it to the $45,000 stretch goal! We are so grateful for your support! Thank you!

My apologies for the short update this time around but real life had to take priority for a couple of days. No worries. We will be back with more updates soon, especially about the TTRPG poll and whoever this guy is!

Less than $5,000 away!
over 1 year ago – Mon, May 15, 2023 at 08:43:22 PM

Our $45,000 stretch goal is just within reach! That means more art, more critters, more prototypes and more special issue items are coming! Keep spreading the word, let all rejoice in a tour of the Permian Basin Superorganism!

As they say in R&D, prototypes are one of a type!

If you want something awesome that won’t melt your face, the R&D scientist pictured above is the person you need to flatter or bribe.

The properties of the PBSO’s countless emissions and substances can often excite a PhD to the point of incoherency as they rattle off all the possibilities for new discovers to rewrite science as we know it. Some actually never stop rattling and are laterally promoted to an offsite residency program.

There is only so far you can understand a phenomenon in the lab or in a simulation, though, and you need to document how it interreact with the variables in the field … or how much of said field fuses flora with a fauna when the switch is turned on.

It has been noted some of these new apparatuses produce different results in the PBSO compared to utilizing them outside of the creature, thus both Public Service and Private Contactors are obligated to use them during their daily duties and, in theory, document the results.

As an example, a recent CARE team was issued this prototype:

Ultraviolet Goggles (This eye ware has with tiny needles lining the insides of the frame)

Level: 2

Effort: Specialized in low-light spotting for the next 10 hours while worn. The 10-hour countdown continues even if the goggles are removed. Might Defense Level 4 to avoid permanent Inability to vision-related actions.

One of the poorly understood phenomena is how prototypes react to each other when in close proximity. These newly discovered energies and frequencies often interfere with each other limited a person to carry only two or three such devices on a person before equipment fizzles out or lights start to flicker in the area. Some have even emitted pulses that attract intrapit lifeforms. 

Once an employee’s personal prototype limit is established, they should never falsify that information on documented Anodyne forms or face financial penalties.

The poll is closed

As a final bit of business, the poll for the next rule set to be done for the Mystery Flesh Pit is closed. We will let you know the results later this week!

Feeding time!

The live play game with the CU crew is this Thursday, May 18th, at 9 pm. Check it out the Public Service framework in action. See who survives and who wishes they had died.

Record Keeper Reminder

The Record Keeper pledge has typo and once a pledge has been picked, it can no longer be changed (though we have clarified the pledge in the KS Story section). This pledge includes a hardback POD and charges shipping. 

If you wish for an only digital pledge, including PDF stretch goals, look into the Docent pledge. 

Cypher 101
over 1 year ago – Thu, May 11, 2023 at 10:21:29 PM

For some supporters, Cypher is a new ttRPG and this update is to help them get up to speed on how the Cypher System is different from other games.

The highlights

There are a few core conceits to the game:

• All you need to play is a d20
• Everything is a Task Difficulty from 0 to 10
• Players get lots of cool toys while GMs get improv friendly mechanics
• Cypher leans into an endurance model vs collecting bonuses to your dice
• Even when a PC is down, they can still do cool stuff

The core roll

The GM assigns a difficulty from 0-10. Effort, skills, and assets reduce the difficulty a roll while bad things increase the level until a final difficulty is nailed down. For example, when a GM establishes the difficult for picking a tricky lock is Level 5 the PC can knock that down to a Level 2 by using Effort, their training in lockpicking, and a great set of lock picks that provide an asset.

A player multiplies the Difficulty by 3 to find the number they must match or surpass on a d20. Thus a successful d20 roll for a Level 2 challenge is a 6 or higher. That’s the essence of Cypher.

For the GM

First, the Cypher System is different from a lot of other ttRPG out there, starting with its asymmetrical design.  For the GM, the game is streamlined into everything being a Difficulty Level. Even creatures are essentially a combination of Difficulty level and that level multiplied by 3. The numbers represent the attack, defense, and hit points of the creature. Any advantages or flaws the creature posses can modify the stats:

Anodyne Guard: Level 3 (9); Perception as Level 4; Health 9; Inflicts 3 damage from taser.

There are some other nice features for GM who like to customize game for their settings:

• GM Intrusions add narrative complications and bribe the table to welcome them into the story.
• The core book has extensive breakdowns on how to create custom PC Types and Focuses
• Flavors further customize Types into PCs with additional abilities for Combat, Magic, Skills, and more.

For players

Characters are made from an evocative sentence, such as a Brash Engineer who Would Rather Be Reading or a Charming Marketeer who Was Raised In A Golden Circle. They also have several options to do cool things with Cyphers, Player Intrusions, Grit, and player facing rolls.

In short

Cypher System as a generic game, offers lots of options and customization for gamers without as overhead or mental jugging as other generic systems do. If you have not tried Cypher yet, it is time to check it out;

Resources

The creators of Cypher, Monte Cook Games, offer a free primer (with a sample horror scenario) that dives deeper into the game much  than this update can do. 

You can also , check out Qedhup’s YouTube channel for his Cypher basics or why Cypher is a great ttRPG in the first place.

Cypher and horror
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 10, 2023 at 09:15:10 PM

Out on the Internet, some have voiced confusion about using Cypher as a Horror ttRPG. While it is true that Cypher leans towards competent heroes that grown even stronger, a lot can be changed when a GM curates the power level of the Focuses they allow for a campaign. Rides the Lightning has a different Tier 6 vibe than Would Rather Be Reading for example.

The core game, though, has Stay Alive! a horror genre book and Monte Cook Game had a $2 million crowdfunding to use Cypher as a the ttRPG for the Old Gods of Appalachia podcast with Cypher. So the game is no stranger to the darker side.

What we tweaked

For Mystery Flesh Pit, we dig even deeper (see what we did there) to increase the horror vibe and impending doom. Some Cypher basics have been modified. 

A GM Intrusion cannot be rerolled with Grit (more on Grit in a later update), and the escalating Horror Mode from Cypher’s Horror genre chapter is cranked up to eleven, allowing a GM to activate the mode even when a character uses PBSO-Manifestation.

PBSO- Manifestations

Mystery Flesh Pit fans know the in-universe name for the Pit is the Permian Basin Superorganism, or PBSO. So what are Manifestations?

There is a new Flavor introduced in Mystery Flesh Pit game and it also serves as bit of side-canon to the MFP universe. Either by contact with industrial MFP by-product or simply having your ancestors live above a cosmic horror for generations, you have developed abilities. You may call them a curse, but Anodyne and others call them Manifestations. 

And as a Flavor, it costs a player their Type abilities to acquire them – but it is not the only cost.

Cyphers and Artifacts are still in the game as Prototypes and Special Issue. Prototypes are still one use items delivering amazing powers to the PCs, though they had a tendency to ruin your eyesight or explode. Special Issue items are much more dependable and several of them will look familiar to MFP fans.

If half those words didn’t mean a thing, we’ve got you covered on a future update!

Mea Cupa, Dang URLs

For whatever reason, Mr. Tarrasque's Isle of the Dreaded Accursed KS hyperlink  didn’t hyper nor link even though the link was in the copy. I’m trying this one more time to make good. Check his KS out for more Cypher System fantasy goodness.