by lordnightwinter

Related Item: Lost in the Deep

I'm in, that looks really cool

by Xyt4n

€200.00 for RPG Item: Forbidden Lands
Condition: New
Location: Germany

by awinnef

An item RPG Item: Alexander's Magical Experiments has been added to the geeklist 2026 Annual Geek Review Challenge

by brumcg

I know that I clicked on Path of Glory yesterday. I think it was something [user=BG05][/user] posted.

It's been on my wishlist for a potential purchase down the road.

by awinnef

I was determined to come up with a cool introduction to this review, but I'm simply too distracted by all these cool items my character could loot.

About this book

Technology Compendium: Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera is a source book for Numenera that lets you add tons of additional technological gadgets to your game. The book is available in PDF and print. I have the German hardcover version, a nice, sturdy 160 page book with a ribbon bookmark. It follows the D&D tradition of splat books with commentary from a quirky ingame character, though Sir Arthour's remarks in this book are used quite sparringly.

After a short introduction on Sir Arthour, the book starts with a GM chapter that talks about different types of real world technology and scientific concepts and how these might feature in a game set a billion years in the future. The marginal notes give a couple of keywords to research if you're interested in researching any of these concepts further (these are really just keywords like "anechoic chamber", "quantum computers" or "smart dust"). I think this was an interesting read, but in no way essential, and I would have preferred a bit of a bibliography of recommended literature over this format, as some of the keywords don't really give terribly useful search results until you really start to dig (e.g. terms like "apergy").

The most exciting part of the book are the additional lists of "magical" items. The core rulebook had a d100 table each for cyphers, artifacts and oddities. This book more than quadruples your choices by giving you 3 additional tables each for artifacts and oddities and a whopping five d100 tables for cyphers. Great! Not every single one of them is a revelation in itself, but there are a lot of them, and there's a nice variety of combat- and non combat items. For example there's a drill that allows a character to drill a temporal hole into the time-space-continuum. For 10 minutes, the character can use it to see 30 seconds into the future. Or an explosive device that shoots some kind of spores that turn everyone within the area of the explosion into plants. I always have a soft spot for the oddities in particular, as these are usually pretty useless items - until they aren't and a player does something cool with it. What would you do with a small pyramid made of a heavy metal that will always stand on its tip, no matter what? There must be a use for this...

Usability is great. You get the numbered tables first, then the more detailed description of the devices. Chapter 5 references all Cyphers and Artifacts - those from this book as well as those from the core rulebook - and lists them by type, in case you want to have a list of all devices related to healing for example. Pretty neat. And of course there's just a regular index of everything included in this book, too.

As usual for Numenera publications, Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera comes with tons of cool artwork (though not EVERY single item will have an illustration - but there's usually at least a small, often several mid-sized illustrations per spread. As usual, some of this artwork has been reused from other publications. Still pretty cool though.

My thoughts on this book
I really like this book. The system behind Numenera is called Cypher System for a reason. Especially cyphers are there so you can hand out cool stuff to your players like you hand out candy on Halloween, so having a bunch of additional tables of these items available is great. Also, the book is great in terms of usability. One of the first expansion books to get if you're running Numenera - though I am a sucker for monster books, I might even recommend a new GM to get this one before The Ninth World Bestiary. You'll get a lot of value out of it.

The bottom line
Who doesn't love more exciting loot? Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera offers a myriad of new "magical" items for Numenera. This is a great, well-organized ressource to have available while running the game.

Technology Compendium: Sir Arthour's Guide to the Numenera by Monte Cook, Bruce R. Cordell, Shanna Germain and Robert J. Schwalb, released 2014 by Monte Cook Games (German translation 2018 by Uhrwerk Verlag).

by cthompsonguy

Lagnis wrote:

Path of Glory - What is this doing on the hotness? Conjured from Trudvagn? I have not played or looked at this updated version, there's only so much time in life for...stuff.

Dragonbane is pretty hot right now, and the recent launch of the Trudvagn crowdfunding campaign probably drove it up.

by CthulhuKid

DocSavage2001 wrote:

I used to love going to Dreamation when I lived in NJ.
Dave

Maaaaannn, wish we had met back then. Imagine the epic games of Magic Realm we could have had!

by Maneloblast

An item RPG Designer: Reiner Knizia has been added to the geeklist 2026 Favorite Designer Challenge

by Lagnis

Path of Glory - What is this doing on the hotness? Conjured from Trudvagn? I have not played or looked at this updated version, there's only so much time in life for...stuff.

by Flyboy Connor

If you want to join, sure, come to the thread. Character sheet is not ready, but we can make one fairly quickly. I'd prefer you to think up your own character.

by Againsto

Flyboy Connor wrote:

I just had one player drop out of my Call of Cthulhu game (IC/OOC) before it started, due to personal circumstances. I have room for another player. Maybe a veteran who can jump in quickly? The other players are ready to start.

Character Sheet ready? I can play.

A new episode has been added to the database: 91 - Making A Talented Pianist Who Fights For Acessibility in Tide Breaker