I am a sucker for some science-fantasy that is mysterious, quirky, and goes out of its way to do significant world building. It should come as no surprise then that shows like the X-Files, Heroes, and Warehouse 13 have been among my favorite pieces of entertainment. Each has its separate charm–leaning into drama, mystery, and a “just out of normal focus” world.
So when I saw the write up for Monte Cook Games’ The Origin I knew I had to pick it up. This spin on the Cypher System blends some of the best elements of those three shows and creates a unique lore in which the players can adventure.
The Structure
The Origin is broken up into four parts.
Part 1: Metahuman Manifestation covers the unique aspects of the game world. This is the “rules” section of the book, which gives advice on how to build characters, different ways to introduce them to the world, and the unique artifacts and cyphers which inhabit it. Interestingly, at 29 pages, it’s also the shortest part of the book.
Probably my favorite aspect of this section is how The Origin uses the Mandela Effect to explain the existence of cyphers. I won’t give that all away here, as I want some surprises for readers, but it’s the best explanation for the oddness of cyphers I’ve seen in any Cypher Core book. Aside from the single use magic items of pure fantasy settings, that is. Cyphers in The Origin are what give the game it’s Warehouse 13 vibe.
Part 2: Setting of The Origin introduces GMs to the world lore. It explores the different factions with which the characters can get mixed up, as well as presenting a deeper overview of how this world came to be. The Origin‘s setting is fascinating, and the different factions surrounding the metahuman phenomenon give the game its Heroes vibe.
Part 3: Metahumans, Monsters, and More are a collection of named NPCs, as well as other adversaries, the characters may encounter during game play. Because the named NPCs all have connections to different in-game factions this section also feels like a nod to Heroes. The character biographies and abilities are terrific, and each has some wonderful artwork.
Part 4: Adventures presents four different adventures which suck the characters into the world of The Origin. These are set up much like different acts in a movie, complete with a grand finale. If a group goes through the four adventures they can be used as story beats which sound the shift of the campaign into its new act. Adventures in-between the four presented in the book can be used to let the characters advance, make some contacts, or discover a bit more of the world’s lore. It’s a rather nice setup and is where the game gets its X-Files vibe.
The Set Up
The Origin is, at its core, a Cypher System modern setting. The recommended way to build characters for the game is, in fact, to create typical modern characters–people like teachers, mechanics, or lawyers. These characters go through life, happy as can be, until they share a memory which changes their lives.
They remember the world ending.
And they don’t remember it like it was a fuzzy dream, they remember living through the end of the world. At the same time, they also remember the world not ending. The characters, then, live at the junction between two conflicting realities–one in which everything is fine and another where the Earth got ripped to shreds. This memory ends up changing the characters, who then develop powers.
But it’s not that simple. In The Origin characters aren’t born with abilities, nor do they gain them through comic-book style accidents. It is the memory which links them to their powers, and that moment where the memory emerges is intense. So intense, in fact, that the characters manifest uncontrolled powers. A random chart, found on page 11, is used to determine which powers the character manifests during their discovery. To handle the powers, the character must succeed on a level 3 intellect task 1. If they don’t the character can’t take any intentional actions, but their manifested power will still impact the world around them. The example in the book is a character who becomes a lion, but is unable to control it. That could be a tad frightening for the character’s friends!
During discovery the typical rules of Cypher don’t apply. The abilities are super powerful, and characters will not enjoy that level of “do anything” with them again in the future. Once the abilities are controlled three times, however, the characters reach a state of equilibrium and it’s then they can try to wrangle their manifested powers into some kind of theme–or just pick entirely new powers if that’s their wish.
Chapter 3 goes over the process of shaping a newly manifested metahuman. Characters can take a new focus, to mark their new life, they are also granted three power shifts. This is an optional rule from the Super Hero chapter in the Cypher System Core Rulebook 2 which grants a character automatic levels of effort for certain tasks. This lowers the level of any task using a skill or ability to which a power shift has been applied, demonstrating how their new abilities have enhanced the character. Shifting strength tasks by three, for example, is how Cypher System presents a character with super strength. Mathematically it’s a +9 to any strength task, which means characters can attempt much more difficult strength tasks than typical humans.
For their powers characters will also be given two abilities. These are handled using The Cypher System Core Rulebook, the Claim The Sky super-hero “white cover” supplement, or both. At the start of their journey, however, characters will suffer from two inabilities which correspond to their powers. This is done present the new metahumans as untrained, still coming to grips with their new reality. Characters are able to remove their inability by spending XP to become practiced, and then trained, in their powers. I appreciate this nod to a more gritty style of play.
In game the characters inabilities have two effects. First, it raises the difficulty by 1 for tasks using that power–effectively a -3 to rolls. Second, the chances of suffering a GM intrusion on a die roll is increased. If the character has an inability with both powers the chance is 1-3. If the character has an inability with only one of their powers, the chance is 1-2. Once the character has practiced their powers the typical GM intrusion trigger, on a roll of 1 only, is in play.
When a character loses control of their ability they suffer a “flame out.” This can put the character’s identity at risk, cause harm to those around them, damage nearby property, or even cause a self-inflicted wound to the character! Six different types of flame outs are listed on pages 18 and 19, and GMs are encouraged to use the flame out that best fits the narrative at the moment.
Book Design
The Origin is a 162 page hardbound book and uses the same glued notch binding that many of Monte Cook Games’ products use. This is much more durable than a typical glued “perfect” binding, as the glue binds to the paper fibers, and some claim it is more durable than even stitched binding.
Notch bound books tend to need breaking in, however, as the glue binding the signatures together is stiff. This often makes reading the extreme front and back portions of books with this binding difficult to hold open. The Origin, however, doesn’t suffer from this issue, probably because it’s much shorter than the core rulebooks Monte Cook Games has released. The book lays open just fine without having to be broken in, which is very nice. In fact, it laid open so well I assumed it was stitched binding.
Interior Design
Monte Cook Games’ books all share a similar design language, and The Origin is no different.
Each part of the book has its own accent color, and every element in that section takes on that color. Heading fonts, drop caps, table borders and titles, alternating row colors, headers and footers, and margin notes all look like they belong to that section of the book. This way, when someone flips through the book and the accent color changes the reader has a visual cue they are in a new portion of the book. It’s one of the aspects of Monte Cook Games’ design language I very much appreciate.
Each part of The Origin also boasts its own title page, complete with a mini table of contents. These internal title pages display the accent color for the book section and have a piece of compelling artwork front and center, in a target scope overlay. It’s a great way to show the nature of this world, that the characters will be hunted, while also offering some quality of life navigation aids.
Call outs use a complimentary color to the primary accent, which does a fantastic job separating the call out material from the body text. Pull quotes are surrounded by a double border, which uses the accent color for that section, and is capped by a target overlay similar to the title pages. This is one way the “you are hunted” feel of the book is reinforced for the reader.
Headers and footers are simple. Headers display the book title on the left page, and the chapter title on the right. A stippled texture, using the section’s accent color, borders the text area, and the negative space which separates the chapter title from the texture looks like a file folder. It’s a great design. Footers have a swoop of the texture moving in from the outside corners, along with the current page number–in a target scope 3.
In fine Monte Cook tradition, The Origin also does away with footnotes and replaces them with margin notes. For a visual reader this is a fantastic quality of life innovation, because the margin note appears at the same level it does in the body text. This does, however, play havoc with text to speech readers, since PDFs have no actual structure. If there was a way to keep this contextual link between the note and the body text which would allow folks with visual impairments to enjoy this innovation, that would be awesome.
The Artwork
The artwork in The Origin, beginning with the cover art by Mirco Paganessi, is beautiful. Much of the art strives to capture the presence of the fantastic intruding upon the mundane, and succeeds. The interior art sets the tone for how a metahuman’s life works, and the NPC character portraits communicate each characters’ essence with style. The art captured my attention, but none so much as the interior cover pieces for the book. The front cover could be a frame capture from The Matrix, its mood and sense of desperation are palpable. The interior rear cover expresses a sense of deep menace. Including them on the inside covers is a perfect choice. A number of pieces are reused at different points in the book, later appearances tend to give more context to earlier inclusions.
Conclusion
I saw this book in the wild and purchased it without hesitation. The world’s setup is fantastic and weird, with room for some oddities that border on creepy. I will run this game at some point, if for no other reason than to see how people react to manifesting their in-game powers. It looks like a ton of fun.
At its core, The Origin reads more like an extended campaign book than a full on supplement. But this may be part of its strength, as The Origin can pull from any super-hero source material for Cypher System, and just re-narrate it for the more clandestine nature of the world. If you enjoyed Heroes, had fun with Warehouse 13, and ever wondered who the Cigarette Smoking Man was then this book is a love letter to you. It’s well worth picking up.
A print book is currently $44.99 on Monte Cook’s website, while a PDF is listed for $17.99. The PDF and print book can be purchased together for $50.39 total. It’s a pretty nice pick up.
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That’s a 9 or higher. ↩
