Player Perspectives is a regular feature here on the Monte Cook Games website, penned by guest writers—players of Numenera, The Strange, and the Cypher System.
Last week, some great folks created a Cypher System fan Discord server called Cypher Unlimited! Discord is a free chat and voice service made for gamers, so it’s great for discussing things in different chat rooms, as well as wrangling together a group to play a game over voice channels.
Co-creator Al Mejias is here to tell us about it this week, followed by a Discord 101 to get you started!
Hi there! Cypher Unlimited Discord server co-creator Al Mejias (AncientAlbatross) here.
I want to start off by saying whoa. The response to the creation of Cypher Unlimited has been incredible. When Anthony Fernandez (Spiggs18) and I made plans to create a cypher-centric Discord server, we never thought it would blow up like this. We especially never thought we would get promoted by Darcy Ross on the Numenera subreddit and the Monte Cook Games team on their Facebook. It was like a dream come true – we were being recognized by the people who created Cypher System.
It’s only been a few days, and already we have nearly 150 members. There has already been some very lively discussion about game ideas, helpful tips for games, and friendly banter about whatever is on people’s minds. Everyone who has joined has been fantastic so far and we even have regulars already. Regulars! We’re so happy to have had a hand in creating a space for people to meet and discuss Cypher System-related things. It’s an amazing feeling.
We are looking forward to watching the server grow, as well as hearing more about the wonderful ideas you all have for games. To everyone who has already joined, thank you so much for your support and just know that you rock. To everyone who’s interested in joining, please check out the Discord 101 information below. We hope to see you soon!
- Al “AncientAlbatross” Mejias <3
- Anthony “Spiggs18” Fernandez
Discord 101
Join the Cypher Unlimited server. Want to join but are new to Discord? No problem. When you click the invite link, you’ll be prompted to list a username. Following that, you’ll be sent directly into the Cypher Unlimited server. You will be greeted by a welcome message in the Welcome channel, and on the left you’ll see a list of other channels to visit (they’re all lower-case and preceded by a #). To use your account, you’ll need to claim it by clicking Claim Account at the top of the screen. This will link your username with your email.
Discuss things in the text channels. Most chatter happens in the ‘General’ channel, but we have all sorts of side channels for specific topics. We have channels for Numenera, The Strange, Gods of the Fall, and Predation, as well as channels for game masters and players to make “looking for group” posts. To join a text channel, just click on the name, scroll through to see existing messages, and feel free to start posting your own messages. Text channels that are white have unread messages in them if you want to catch up, while greyed-out channels don’t have any new chatter for you.
Play a game or chat on a voice channel. The voice channels are listed on the left below the text channels. You can access any voice channel by simply clicking the name of the channel (in the image, Darcy is currently active in the General channel). Users are welcome and encouraged to run their games on our voice channels – just pick one of our channels, like Intrusions Galore or Door Number 3, and tell your friends to join you there for the game! We also encourage general voice chatter if you aren’t in the mood for typing, perhaps in the General voice channel.
To disconnect from the voice chat, simply click the disconnect button in the bottom left corner, which looks like a small phone handset with an x underneath it. To mute yourself, tap that microphone icon to the right of your username beneath the “Voice Connected” bar. The headphones icon to the right of that lets you quickly mute both yourself and your reception of the voice chatter in case you need a quick break to deal with something away from the keyboard.
Go forth and game – the Cypher possibilities are indeed unlimited!
