![]() All of the setting books that Monte Cook Games has done follow this pattern, and it’s perfect for me. There’s enough information for me to riff off of and not so much that I feel like I’m boxed in with cannon. For me, personally, the setting section of the original corebook and Numenera: Discovery are exactly the right mix of information, vague hooks, and lack thereof. This is another one of the Numenera books that I struggle critiquing. They are not necessary, and the standard game will work just fine in Greater Garravia, but if you wish to add additional flavor from the game, the rules are available to you. Finally, there is a chapter dealing with the Tides (a primary force – like Gravity) that exists in the Ninth World and how to include them in your game if you choose. There are 4 new descriptors, 3 new Foci, and a new racial option – the Ghibra. Following this are some optional rules that you can add in (or not) to color your experience some. More Numenera (cyphers and artifacts), more creatures, and NPCs from the area. The next three chapters give additional game material to add to your campaigns. In fact, I like this format so much that we mimicked it in our Hope’s Horizon material.Ĭhapter 12 deals with the Organizations and Groups in Garravia, so that the GM has a sense of the power players in the area and can use them front and center or for a backdrop for their games. Then at the end of a section, there are some suggestions for hearsay in the region and “weird” of the region (because it just wouldn’t be Numenera without the “weird”). A location or environ is detailed, either with interior locations (as with the Sagus Cliffs) or site locations (as with Garravia Sound). The format of these chapters is very much the same as both the original corebook and Discovery. The next nine chapters (93 pages) detail out the area of Greater Garravia, located East of the Clock of Kala, past the Beyond (both of which are detailed in Numenera: Discovery). As one who has both the first and revised editions, the layout is roughly the same between the original corebook and Discovery, so the page differences are fairly small in size (typically 1-5 pages at most in my observation). One simply has to ignore the page references and find them in the new books. The content, however, works perfectly fine with the revised edition ( Destiny and Discovery). It is worth noting that this book was originally written to pair with the first edition of the Numenera game which only had a single corebook. The first two chapters of this book are a brief introduction to the content, both from the designers of the Computer Roleplaying Game (CRPG) Torment: Tides of Numenera, inXile, and from Monte Cook Games. This book is, once again, a fine example of the quality work that Bear Weiter, Monte Cook Games’ Art Director and his team of freelancers put out. The cartography style is the same as in previous offerings and is, at least to my amateur map-making eyes, excellent. The artwork in the book is excellent as usual with the inner cover boasting a two page width map of Greater Garravia. The layout is standard for Numenera products, two-column with an outer sidebar, and the print readable and easy on the eyes. The manufacturing quality is excellent, with quality cover material, sturdy binding and sturdy pages with good ink quality. Weighing in at a respectable 160 pages, Torment: Tides of Numenera – the Explorer’s Guide is an example of what I have come to view as a “typical” Monte Cook Games offering. It was released separately as a sourcebook to the first edition Numenera game. Unlike many of Monte Cook Games’ other products, this book was not a Kickstarter offering or a stretch goal. Written by Shanna Germain and released in 2016, it provides the detail for a GM to take their players outside the Steadfast, beyond the Beyond and into a new area of the supercontinent. Torment: Tides of Numenera – the Explorer’s Guide is a supplement that covers the section of the Ninth World illustrated in inXile’s game known as Greater Garravia. It is a review of the book that the game spawned. ![]() This article is not a review of that game. Released to generally positive reviews, it has since come under some fire by those who felt that such a claim was unwarranted. Claiming to be the spiritual successor to one of the highest-rated computer RPGs of all time, Torment: Tides of Numenera was based on the Numenera tabletop RPG that had kickstarted August 9 of the previous year. It went on to gather over 4 million dollars in pledges. On March 6 of 2013, inXile launched a Kickstarter for a new video game that was funded in 6 hours with an initial ask of $900,000. Torment: Tides of Numenera – the Explorer’s Guide, by Shanna Germain, a Numenera Setting Supplement
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |