Create your character
The basics
Creating a character for the Cypher System is really easy. Far more easy than in other systems like Pathfinder, D&D or DSA. Basically you only have to decide about three things, as every character is based on one simple sentence:
"I am a {descriptor} {type} who {focus}."
This might seem a bit abstract now. But only because I haven't introduced the most important terms descriptor, type, and focus yet. So let's talk about those next.
Type
The most simple part of your character is the type. Your type gives your character some starting values, that will be explained in other articles. But for now, you don't need to worry about them. It also gives you some first equipment, as well as abilities.
There are exactly four of them and these never change, no matter what setting you are using. In the case of Mirintha it is a fantasy setting, so let's see what that means for the types.
Examples: fighters, barbarians or valkyries
Warriors are physical, action-oriented people. They rely on their strength and are often more straight-forward oriented then other types.
For more information, on how this effects your stats, check out the related article about the Warrior.
Examples: scouts, adventurers or delvers
Explorers are the curious type, those who always want to see the world, fearlessly face new adventures and discover the unknown.
For more information, on how this effects your stats, check out the related article about the Explorer.
Examples: wizard, druid or witch
Adepts are used to wielding magic. They are more cautious than warriors, thinking about what they are doing in advance.
For more information, on how this effects your stats, check out the related article about the Adept.
Examples: bards, priests or traders
Speakers are good with words and with people. They prefer to talk things out instead of rushing into fight unnecessarily.
For more information, on how this effects your stats, check out the related article about the Speaker.
Flavor
Wait, what? Flavor? What is that now, it wasn't mentioned before? Fair enough, because it is not required for the character creation to use a flavor. But to make your character type or class more unique you can use something called flavor. In the base game rules you will find five different Flavors:
stealth, combat, magic, technology, and skills & knowledge.
There is always the possibility to come up with a whole new flavor if required. For the campaigns in Mirintha, we will likely stick to the five base-flavors. Of course you can read more about them in the article related to flavors.
Descriptor
Let's discuss Descriptors next. This is basically an adjective that describes your character. Two characters with the same type can be totally different, based on the descriptor they chose. The base rules of the Cypher System include 50 different descriptors. Of course you can always invent new descriptors to adjust them to the players' needs.
Descriptors give your character additional skills. They also change your stat pools, for example the descriptor "learned" gives your intelligence stat pool two more points. Most descriptors include an inability, which causes a higher difficulty on certain roles.
As Mirintha has a fantasy setting, we have a lot of species and ethnicities that come with certain specific characteristics. Aka a descriptor. As it would be boring to have only the species or ethnicity descriptor, every player is allowed to use two descriptors. It is important to include the GM in this process as he/she/they have the last say regarding any discrepancies that could arise from the different descriptors.
Focus
And finally we have the focus. There should never be the same focus twice in one group. Your focus gives you a new ability every time you level up your character. Besides this obvious advantage, each focus also ties the players of a group together. If you are lucky you even get some equipment that is required for your focus.
While the cypher system is not for everything (Old Gods of Apalacha, cough cough), the system does really nicely fit your setting without needing much editing - I am curious to see what elements count as cyphers and artefacts, and how you'd angle some of your NPCs for which edges.
Me too, me too :D Especially about the characters ...
Ran in several numenara campaigns. Favourite was a jack who exists out of phase with reality. The prefix was something agile based.