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The Cypher System allows players to spends XP in several ways such as gaining advancements which lead to new character tiers, immediate rewards such as re-rolling, and for more permanent bonuses such as safe houses or connections.
Character Advancements (4XP)
For the cost of 4 XP a character can gain an advancement in one of five categories. It should be noted that each category can only be taken ONCE per tier. Once four categories have been taken a character advances to the next tier and gains whatever additional bonuses or abilities that entails.
1. Increasing Capabilities: You gain 4 new points to add to your stat Pools. You can allocate the points among your Pools however you wish.
2. Moving Toward Perfection: You add 1 to your Might Edge, your Speed Edge, or your Intellect Edge (your choice).
3. Extra Effort: Your Effort score increases by 1.
4. Skills: You become trained in one skill of your choice, other than attacks or defense. If you choose a skill that you are already trained in, you become specialized in that skill.
5. Other Options: Players can also spend 4 XP to purchase other special options. Selecting one of these options counts as purchasing one of the four stages necessary to advance to the next tier. The other three need to be from the other categories. The special options are as follows:
• Reduce the cost for wearing armor. This option lowers the Speed penalty for wearing armor by 1.
• Add 2 to your recovery rolls.
Non-Advancement XP Options
Characters can also spend XP on benefits that range from Long-Term to Immediate. The length and usefulness of these benefits determines the cost of these benefits.
Long-Term Benefits (3XP)
• Familiarity: The character gains a +1 bonus to rolls involving one kind of task.
• Contact: The character gains a long-term NPC contact of importance—someone who will help him with information, equipment, or physical tasks. The player and GM should work out the details of the relationship.
• Home: The PC acquires a full-time residence. This can be an apartment in a city, a cabin in the wilderness, a base in an ancient complex, or whatever fits the situation. It should be a secure place where the PC can leave his belongings and sleep soundly. Several characters could combine their XP and buy a home together.
• Title or job: The PC is granted a position of importance or authority. It might come with responsibilities, prestige, and rewards, or it might be an honorary title.
• Wealth: The PC comes into a considerable amount of wealth, whether it’s a windfall, an inheritance, or a gift. It might be enough to buy a home or a title, but that’s not really the point. The main benefit is that the PC no longer needs to worry about the cost of simple equipment, lodging, food, and so on. This wealth could mean a set amount— perhaps 50,000 dollars (or whatever is appropriate in the setting)—or it could bestow the ability to ignore minor costs, as decided by the player and GM.
• Artifact: The PC creates an artifact that has a power of his choosing. If the item is fairly simple, the GM can skip the crafting details and just say that after a period of time, the PC creates it. For an item that significantly alters gameplay—granting the character vast telepathic powers or giving him the ability to teleport at will—the GM might require difficult rolls, a considerable amount of time, and rare, hard-to-find components and materials.
Medium-Term Benefits (2XP)
• Temporary Ability: You gain access to a new ability for one scene or scenario.
• Situational Skill: You gain training in one skill, but only under a specific situation usually tied to a location such as climbing this specific mountain range or hacking computers in this specific facility.
Immediate Benefits (1XP)
• Re-Roll: A character can spend 1XP to re-roll any roll in the game, even rolls that character didn't make. XP can be spent to contiue re-rolling at the cost of 1XP per re-roll.
• Negate Intrusion: A character can spend 1XP to refuse a GM intrusion so long as the intrusion isn't caused by rolling a natural 1 or they have an ability that states that an intrusion may not be negated.
Character Advancements (4XP)
For the cost of 4 XP a character can gain an advancement in one of five categories. It should be noted that each category can only be taken ONCE per tier. Once four categories have been taken a character advances to the next tier and gains whatever additional bonuses or abilities that entails.
1. Increasing Capabilities: You gain 4 new points to add to your stat Pools. You can allocate the points among your Pools however you wish.
2. Moving Toward Perfection: You add 1 to your Might Edge, your Speed Edge, or your Intellect Edge (your choice).
3. Extra Effort: Your Effort score increases by 1.
4. Skills: You become trained in one skill of your choice, other than attacks or defense. If you choose a skill that you are already trained in, you become specialized in that skill.
5. Other Options: Players can also spend 4 XP to purchase other special options. Selecting one of these options counts as purchasing one of the four stages necessary to advance to the next tier. The other three need to be from the other categories. The special options are as follows:
• Reduce the cost for wearing armor. This option lowers the Speed penalty for wearing armor by 1.
• Add 2 to your recovery rolls.
Non-Advancement XP Options
Characters can also spend XP on benefits that range from Long-Term to Immediate. The length and usefulness of these benefits determines the cost of these benefits.
Long-Term Benefits (3XP)
• Familiarity: The character gains a +1 bonus to rolls involving one kind of task.
• Contact: The character gains a long-term NPC contact of importance—someone who will help him with information, equipment, or physical tasks. The player and GM should work out the details of the relationship.
• Home: The PC acquires a full-time residence. This can be an apartment in a city, a cabin in the wilderness, a base in an ancient complex, or whatever fits the situation. It should be a secure place where the PC can leave his belongings and sleep soundly. Several characters could combine their XP and buy a home together.
• Title or job: The PC is granted a position of importance or authority. It might come with responsibilities, prestige, and rewards, or it might be an honorary title.
• Wealth: The PC comes into a considerable amount of wealth, whether it’s a windfall, an inheritance, or a gift. It might be enough to buy a home or a title, but that’s not really the point. The main benefit is that the PC no longer needs to worry about the cost of simple equipment, lodging, food, and so on. This wealth could mean a set amount— perhaps 50,000 dollars (or whatever is appropriate in the setting)—or it could bestow the ability to ignore minor costs, as decided by the player and GM.
• Artifact: The PC creates an artifact that has a power of his choosing. If the item is fairly simple, the GM can skip the crafting details and just say that after a period of time, the PC creates it. For an item that significantly alters gameplay—granting the character vast telepathic powers or giving him the ability to teleport at will—the GM might require difficult rolls, a considerable amount of time, and rare, hard-to-find components and materials.
Medium-Term Benefits (2XP)
• Temporary Ability: You gain access to a new ability for one scene or scenario.
• Situational Skill: You gain training in one skill, but only under a specific situation usually tied to a location such as climbing this specific mountain range or hacking computers in this specific facility.
Immediate Benefits (1XP)
• Re-Roll: A character can spend 1XP to re-roll any roll in the game, even rolls that character didn't make. XP can be spent to contiue re-rolling at the cost of 1XP per re-roll.
• Negate Intrusion: A character can spend 1XP to refuse a GM intrusion so long as the intrusion isn't caused by rolling a natural 1 or they have an ability that states that an intrusion may not be negated.
