The Strange - Player's Guide.pdf

PLAYER’S GUIDE

by Bruce R. Cordell and Monte Cook

PLAYER’S GUIDE

CREDITS

Writers/Designers Bruce R. Cordell and Monte Cook

Rules Developer Monte Cook

Creative Director Shanna Germain

Proofreader Ray Vallese

Cover Designer and Lead Artist Matt Stawicki

Graphic Designer Sarah Robinson

Artists

Brenoch Adams, Reece Ambrose, Dreamstime, Joe Slucher, Lee Smith, Grzegorz Pedrycz, Matt Stawicki,

Cyril Terpent, Tiffany Turrill

Monte Cook Games Editorial Team

Scott C. Bourgeois, David Wilson Brown, Eric Coates, Ryan Klemm, Jeremy Land,

Laura Wilkinson, George Ziets

THE STRANGE 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. Printed in Canada.

PLAYER’S GUIDE

The shots from Jim’s Glock 41 echoed through the
office building’s plain white corridor. The security guards
returned fire. Karen rounded the corner, breathing hard,
to stand behind Jim and Matt.

“Diane can’t initiate the translation with this gunfight

going on,” she told them. “Even if I help her hasten, it’ll
still take too long.”

“Uh, we’re doing our best,” Matt said. He lifted the

device he was holding. It looked a little like a label
maker, but it emitted a green blast of energy that sent a
suddenly paralyzed guard crashing to the floor.

Without hesitating, Karen stepped in front of the two

men, amid the hail of bullets, and began to talk. She
talked of beauty and family and childhood. The hallway
grew silent except for the sound of her voice. Guns were
lowered. A guard took off his helmet, seemingly intent on
not missing a word that she said. All of them stared at
her as if she were the only person in their world.

Karen finished quietly, and the guards continued to

stare. “That will hold them for a while,” she whispered to
Matt and Jim. “Let’s move.”

The three of them ran to the CEO’s office. They had

already ransacked it and found a map of the September
Project’s secret base. But the map hadn’t shown any
location on Earth. Rather, it showed another world—
Ardeyn, a recursion built and hosted in an alien data
network that they called the Strange.

Diane sat cross-legged on the mahogany desk. Matt

locked the door and Jim pushed a heavy bookcase

in front of it. The team took positions around Diane
without a word. They had translated before, and they all
knew their roles. They closed their eyes, drawing upon
their quickened talents that came from a connection to
the Strange itself.

They focused on Ardeyn.
They’d been there before, but that didn’t mean that

the process was easy or foolproof. It was a place of magic
and dragons, once fictional but now given a reality of its
own thanks to the Strange. It was a frightening place to
go, but no more frightening than the offices of a major
corporation with murderous security guards and a secret
agenda that threatened more than one world.

Minutes later, they opened their eyes. They stood in

the exact spot where they’d left Ardeyn last time they
were there—a forest clearing in the Green Wilds. Jim
stood in glistening armor and both Matt and Karen
wore leather jerkins. Diane’s blue and gold robes trailed
across the tall grass, and she held a long staff covered
in glowing runes. It took a few moments to acclimate
to the new context around them. They were different
people, yet the same, and they stood in a meadow that
could not be found on Earth.

The map, part of the context of Earth, didn’t come

with them, but it didn’t matter. Matt’s memory was
sharp. “This way,” he pointed. “We don’t have much
time.”

EXPLORE, DEFEND, CREATE

s a character playing T

Trange

™, you have

a unique connection to the Strange—you’re
quickened, which means you can visit and

explore these recursions, defend them (and Earth)
from threats large and small, and maybe even create
a few recursions of your own!

This book is The Strange Player’s Guide, not the full

rulebook. The Player’s Guide offers a brief overview of
the setting and the rules of the game, and provides
all the information you need to create a character so
you can play The Strange, explore various recursions
hosted by the dark energy network, and discover its
wonders and dangers for yourself. To help you begin
exploring right away, we’ve provided you with an
assortment of pregenerated characters (see page 82).

In a roleplaying game, the players take on the roles

of people in a fictional world (though the fictional
world you begin playing in The Strange looks a lot like
modern-day Earth). Each player creates a character
to portray, and together, the players create a story.
In their imagination, the players experience the
same challenges and rewards that their characters
experience. To facilitate this, the rules of the game
govern whether characters succeed or fail at what
they try to do.

In addition to the players who are the characters in

the story, there is another player—the game master—
who is not only the arbiter of the rules but also the
crafter of the narrative. The game master (GM)
introduces complications, enemies, allies, twists,
and surprises into the story. He or she should have
a copy of The Strange corebook, which includes all
the information from this book, plus much more. If
you have additional questions about The Strange, the
worlds within it, or the terms used throughout this
book, your GM should be able to answer them using
the corebook.

The Strange is all about exploration and story. In

the game, your character will discover wonders of
alternate recursions, and in them, alternate rules of

existence including magic, mad science, psionics,
and more. You will uncover mysteries to solve and
meet interesting people who populate all these
recursions. You will discover dangerous foes in the
form of demons forged of corrupted dead souls,
genetically engineered clone soldiers, mutants living
in the aftermath of the apocalypse, and even some
of your favorite (or most feared) characters from
literature, brought to life in a recursion! You’ll also
discover that the alien data network that hosts these
many worlds around Earth also seeds them with
odd bits of flotsam called cyphers that will aid your
characters in whichever recursion they visit.

The key to playing The Strange is the story. The way

to “win” this game is to come away with a great tale.
Always remember that your character is one of the
main heroes in a fabulous narrative that blends many
genres, including horror, science fiction, fantasy,
and modern-day espionage. The many recursions of
The Strange are amazing places, and the challenges
and setbacks you face are part of that story. Through
your character, you will discover
things unlike anything you’ve
dreamed of and in so doing
craft a tale with your friends
that you’ll always remember.

Read through How to

Play the Strange (page
8), and then jump right
in and make a character.
You don’t have to read
through every character
option right away—
just choose a type,
descriptor, and focus
that sound interesting,
and get going!

Whole new worlds

beckon, and all of them
are Strange.

Welcome to the Strange, a place containing many

alternate worlds called recursions. When fictions on

Earth leak into the Strange, they become limited

realities of their own.

FROM THE DESK OF LEAD OPERATIVE

KATHERINE MANNERS

Welcome. You’re here because you’ve sworn to defend the Earth

from all threats of the Strange. For that, you have the

organization’s heartfelt gratitude. Now it’s time to get down to business.

As an operative of our organization, you’re expected to commit

certain critical and confidential pieces of information to memory.

That information includes what you’ll find in this briefing dossier.

Please read the entire document, then read it again. You know

what to do with it after that.

Thank you for your prompt attention,

Katherine J. Manners

ESTATE E

YES ONL

WELCOME TO THE STRANGE

STRANGE PRIMER

The Strange is a network created by

[redacted] aliens several billion years ago.

Estate researchers believe the Strange

was built to allow intergalactic travel. It’s

unknown at this time what went wrong, but

the builders lost control of their creation.

In the course of passing aeons, the Strange

became something wild, chaotic, and with-

out rules or laws (which is why we also call

it the Chaosphere).

NATURE OF THE STRANGE

Think of the Strange as its own boundless

realm—as a separate universe underlying

our own. The Chaosphere has no direct re-

lationship to matter and space as we under-

stand it: There is no up or down, there is

no ground beneath a visitor’s feet in most

places, and merely gazing into its lawless

void damages the human brain (“alien-

ation” is the preferred term for the pain

and derangement most operatives experi-

ence upon visiting the Strange).

PLANETOVORES

Creatures live in the Chaosphere. The

worst of these are called planetovores.

They thrive on the fact that no rules bind

them within the Strange. We call these

creatures planetovores because a) the

Estate has good evidence that one tried to

consume our planet when Earth first dis-

covered the Chaosphere; and b) because

they [a whole long sentence that should be

redacted goes here].

Planetovores can’t normally reach areas

where natural laws restrict the environ-

ment, such as on Earth. But bridges up

to Earth can be made, either accidentally

or purposefully. Finding or constructing

such a bridge seems to be the main goal

of all planetovores and their intermediar-

ies. Preventing that from happening, by

whatever means necessary, is the Estate’s

primary mission.

RECURSIONS IN THE

STRANGE

Stable regions called recursions exist with-

in the Strange. Recursions are like tiny,

self-contained universes. Each one oper-

ates under a particular set of rules, which

means that planetovores have almost as

difficult a time entering a recursion as

they do entering Earth. In fact, a recursion

can act as a barrier for preventing a plane-

tovore from getting to Earth, thanks to the

presence of the recursion’s rules.

Earth and the visible universe operate

under a familiar set of rules, called Stan-

dard Physics. But different recursions

often operate under alternate sets of rules.

The Estate has classified the following ad-

ditional laws under which recursions oper-

ate: Magic, Mad Science, Psionics, Substan-

dard Physics, and [redacted].

RECURSION OF ARDEYN

Ardeyn is a recursion where magic works,

dragons live, and creatures that might as

well be demigods exist. Ardeyn’s creation

was the unanticipated side effect of com-

puter researcher Carter Morrison’s dis-

covery of the Strange, and the Estate was

founded in his memory. Carter Morrison’s

whereabouts are unknown at this time.

Ardeyn is populated by humans and a

race of people called qephilim—please ask

your lead for a qephilim visual reference

at this time. The Estate has several agents

embedded in Ardeyn, and its largest field

office covertly operates in the city of

Hazurrium. One of our main activities is

keeping tabs on the Betrayer. Though the

Betrayer is not a planetovore, we suspect

he aspires to become one.

RECURSION OF RUK

Ruk operates under the law of Mad Sci-

ence, and it appears to be populated with

Earthlings. Don’t be fooled. Ruk comes

from someplace else in the universe and

has been hiding in the Shoals of Earth for

thousands of years, possibly much longer.

Ruk contains more factions than the Es-

tate can track. We believe the most danger-

ous to be a faction named the Karum, who

believe that if Earth were destroyed, Ruk

would be free. Obviously, we—you—cannot

let that happen.

OTHER RECURSIONS

Most recursions are created through what

we’ve come to understand as “fictional

leakage.” The upshot of this is that you

can probably find aspects of your favorite

fictional universe rendered as a recursion.

Yes, that means that somewhere around

Earth is a recursion featuring Star

[redacted]. Note: That is no excuse to

BADGES

As an operative, you are required to carry

your Estate badge while on campus and off,

unless you are working undercover. Your

badge allows you to gain entry to Estate

buildings and into areas of those buildings

for which you are cleared.

Badges are

to be displayed above the waist at all

times while on campus.

TRANSLATION

AND YOU

During your time with the Estate, you’ll

translate between recursions. Sometimes

new operatives find the process of trans-

forming into someone with different abil-

ities and maybe a different shape to be

disconcerting. If you become distressed or

confused after translating, tell another op-

erative immediately. Enemies of the Estate

often target addled operatives first.

CYPHERS

As a beginning operative, you’ve been is-

sued one or more cyphers. A cypher is a

small device that can create a single, of-

ten spectacular effect. A cypher may look

ordinary, but each one is something spe-

cial—a manifestation of the Strange that we

don’t fully understand. We expect you to

use your cyphers to accomplish your mis-

sions. Hoarding cyphers is imprudent and

a waste of needed resources; replacement

cyphers are always around the next corner

for someone with your abilities.