Let's kick this week off right with another very awesome cypher goodie, this time in the form of a new optional rule—Insidious Knowledge.

Here at UO headquarters, we have had a lot of incredible roleplay moments using the Insidious Knowledge rule. We've traveled the Plane of Nightmares and faced our worst fears made manifest, we've encountered devils that used our flaws against us to gain leverage, and we faced a telepath who used illusions that tapped right into our subconscious and completely upended our superhero shenanigans.  The list goes on and on. Handing a great GM your character's deepest flaw and fear is a recipe for great moments later on in the game, no matter the genre or setting.

Enjoy and happy gaming!

~ Jess
Bluesky | Mastodon | Discord

Day Four - Optional Rule

Setting: -
Genre(s): Any

Insidious Knowledge

Characters being forced to reckon with the ugliest parts of themselves is a staple of fiction. Whether the protagonist is facing an otherworldly being that reveals their darkest flaw to weaken their resolve or they are dropped into a pit filled with the writhing, scaled embodiment of their most primal fear, witnessing a character succumb or triumph in these scenes makes immensely satisfying narrative moments. With the Insidious Knowledge optional rule, GMs can emulate those character moments in their own games.

At character creation, each player provides the GM—secretly or openly, as the table prefers—with their PC’s core flaw and core fear. A PC’s core flaw should be something simple and narrative, but nonmechanical. For instance, greed, apathy, or materialism are all core flaws that don’t affect a PC’s abilities or tasks but carry narrative weight for the character. A core fear could be something as deep as everyone finding out that the character in question is a fraud or as literal as snakes or the dark.

In situations where the PC is forced to brush against their core flaw or core fear, they must make an Intellect defense roll against the creature’s level (if triggered by a creature) or as determined for the situation by the GM (if triggered environmentally). If they fail, their actions are hindered for the remainder of the scene and the GM can make a free intrusion and doesn’t have to award XP for it.

GMs that utilize the Insidious Knowledge optional rule are encouraged to use the PCs’ core flaws and core fears to provide interesting character moments and high-stakes scenes that drive the game forward but should avoid the trap of using them as a constant bludgeon that makes players feel like they lack agency in the story.

When PCs advance their characters to the next tier, they may reexamine their character’s core flaw and core fear and determine whether or not they should be adjusted to reflect the growth or decline of their character’s personal arc.

Copyright © 2023 Underground Oracle Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means or in any form without express written permission from the publisher.

This product is an independent production and is not affiliated with Monte Cook Games, LLC. It is published under the Cypher System Open License, found at http://csol.montecookgames.com.

CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC