Cypher System – Gods of the Fall play report

I am writing this post straight after getting home after the game.  I want to get it all down now while I am still in the post-game glow so to speak.  When I said we would try the Cypher System Gods of the Fall I did not think that it would be one I would much go on.  I like the Cypher System and players’ as Gods but never thought it would be something that would wow me.  I was wrong.

Not a review, this is a play report

I am going to put together a full review of Gods of the Fall and this is not it.  This is a straight up play report centred on the starting adventure as presented in Gods of the Fall.  This adventure is part of the reason that I felt this would not be the style of Cypher System I wanted to play.  The Cypher System and the Gods of the Fall talk about how the game is about discovery.  The characters are not awarded experience for killing things.  But the introductory adventure is pretty much waves of foes attacking the characters and them killing them.

It was the system that shone through

The adventure was OK.  It is a good place to start and all the combat hammered home rules to the new players.  I get that is why the combat was so prevalent.  But to me, it was the Cypher System that really made me impressed.  It is simple.  It puts the gameplay into the players’ control and the narrative into the Game Masters (GM) control.  Due to the way that I bought the Gods of the Fall I also had a bunch of accessories that I thought were going to get in the way but they did not.

A few notes and a desire to narrate

That is all I needed to run the game.  After I had read the adventure and made a few notes around characterisation.  I presented the pieces of the plot and the players made it their own.  I was worried that my spontaneity for intrusions was going to be tested.  It was not.  I had the time to listen to the actions of the players and add in things I thought would be interesting additions to the actions.  The story was built from their actions in response and I learned so much about the story from the player involvement.  The play mat communicated so much to the players and the XP cards were a brilliant prop.  My folio was also a perfect place for those notes.  All in all, I had a brilliant time.

 Overall

So we have played Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) and now Gods of the Fall.  I am not certain where the players are at but I had a really good time tonight.  DCC is one of my all-time favourite games and so this game has thrown me a curve ball.  I also know that the gameplay was much better than my review will be of Gods of the Fall!  I suppose that is what I need to have an open mind about though.  We are going to be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) next time so I need to step back and be objective.  It is after all why we decided to go on this little adventure to try all the games!  Keep rolling!