So you ofc don’t want to run out of points. You’d like to gain some, if you can. There’s a mechanism for resting an amount of time & gaining back points. So it’s not a zero sum game, you get to recoup in exchange for time.

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But & also, points can be spent from a Pool by PC purpose. Expanding effort is the most common discretionary Pool spending. Some abilities require spacing from a Pool to activate. Your survival is balanced against your ambitions. Every point you spend is a point unavailable to endure damage.

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The most basic form of harm is in the form of physical attacks by foes. So the normal pool to empty first is Might. But sometimes the damage is mental, removed from the Intellect Pool. If the pool you’re meant to remove points from is already empty, good news!

You get to decide which of your remaining non-empty pools gets points removed to represent damage done to you.

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Three hearts. Three strikes. You’ve probably known it from other games. That’s all every PC gets in Numenera

Three pools. When all 3 are empty, you’re incapable of all save the most ineffectual of actions. Down & perhaps out

Along the way to that, you’ll be able to endure as many points of damage as points contained by your 3 pools.

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I see now the error of my ways. Trying to compose doggerel about #Numenara focuses in pantser mode. Clearly a planner I must be for the #NinthWorldPrimer distillation of what a focus is & my Planner Mind says step one is to showcase a handful of illustrative contrastive examples.

Easy. Hopefully.

#WieldsWordsLikeWeapons, shattering the blade,
They that hear, they adhere, bespeak this serenade.

If you’re angry & looking to smash, you want #Rages
For your Focus. That’s all you’ll do, but it’s fun for all ages.

The skill to strike in special ways, is how one #BreaksDownWalls
Smashes ceilings, shatters open empty air.

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If you’ve been waiting for me to write about Foci in #Numenara 2 under the #NinthWorldMechanics tag, me too.

Having failed to construct a personal taxonomy which sparked joy, I’m just going to have to do this The Nails style.

Primarily that means it’ll be under #NinthWorldPrimer

Let’s focus in on Delves. People who know them will describe a Delve as: restless, perceptive, robust, curious. That’s a set of stereotypes not entirely w/o applicability.

But. Not a lot of people actually get to know a Delve v well. Delves spends most of their time off away from people. Exploring alone or w/ a tight crew.

Being the one who makes the map for others to follow.

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Suppose you’ve been born in the Ninth World. Not everyone who lives there is, but most people are. Assuming that you’re born in to a society which knows an average amount about the world you were born into, here’s what you’re taught.

You live on the planet Earth, a billion years from now. Almost everybody lives on Earth’s singular supercontinent. That’s right: they put the tectonic band back together. Somehow, in the unknown past.

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I’m going to be jotting some notes to myself about the #NinthWorld setting for #Numenera under the hashtag of #NinthWorldPrimer. Only popular notes will be visible beyond a month so if the hashtag seems sparse, it means that I haven’t had a Numenra thought in more than a month & so am probably in a coma.

Navarene, you’ll recall, doesn’t end anywhere in or before the #WestWood. Technically for longer than has been factual, Navarene ends at #RynessBay

& what forms the shore of that bay opposite #Navarene? Why that would be Ghan. The merchants who sail up & down the coast of the only contingent on the world? They load up Navarene cargo on their ships, more often than not.

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There’s always going to be one, among any group of peers, who has inherited a bounty. Among the #NineRivalKings there’s a case to be made that it’s #QueenArmalu of #Navarene.

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So what’s a normal day like in the Steadfast? It looks a bit like parts of Europe circa 1000CE. People grow crops, domesticate animals, craft durable goods, fall in love, argue, commit crimes, long for the past, prepare for the future. But they possess wonders of the past.

The crop might grow from seed to grain in a matter of hours, the animals might look monstrous to our eyes, the goods might be textiles woven from spun metal, the lover might not be human, &c

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The principle stabilizing force in the Steadfast are the Aeon Priest Claves & the principle stabilizing force in the Steadfast Claves is the Order of Truth, an organization dedicated to the betterment of the people of the Ninth World through the application of Numenera.

Most Steadfast Claves belong to the Order of Truth. Beyond the Steadfast, only a few Claves pay attention to the Amber Pope, the leader of the Order of Truth.

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The place where Claves are most dense, where the people in orbit about one Clave could trivially relocate to another, has a name.

The Steadfast. It’s something more than a nation, less than an empire. W/i its boundaries, kingdoms and villages thrive, struggle, war & pact w/ one another.

Geographically clustered, loosely connected by the Claves, the civilized peoples of the Steadfast are trying to build a better Ninth World than the one they were born in to.

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Claves of Aeon Priests are the seeds of civilization in the Ninth World. As they study & repurpose Numenera, the amenities they provide, the way their advantages ease the struggle of daily lives, draw others who form a community around the Clave.

An Oddity may serve as a source of endless ground flour but if a baker isn’t at hand, it’s of little use. But a baker who lives near a Clave w/ such an Oddity can easily find a symbiosis which enriches the Clave & themself.

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Risks such as traipsing off to concentrations of Numenera, evading the local predators, disabling the components of note, then schlepping that back to their Claves to study & work are ones few Aeon Priests willingly undertake.

& why bother, when there are industrious individuals happy to accept a handful of shins in exchange for w/e Numenera they run across out in the most dangerous places. The player characters, in other words.

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The specifics of what those categories mean are mechanical in nature, so not in scope here. The important thing is this: the Numenera, potent relics of the past, are Dangerous. Studying them, deciphering some subset of what the thing can do & not die in the process? Challenging.

Only the luckiest & smartest become Aeon Priests. One of the smartest ways to be lucky is to not take unnecessary risks.

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The recognized pieces from past worlds share a name: Numenera. (Hence the name of the game.)

Not everybody has the same level of understanding of the world, ofc. The sages of the past, the ones who study the remnants of the world’s past, are called Aeon Priests. They categorize Numenera in to 3 buckets: Artifacts, Cyphers & Oddities.

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What’s life like, in the Ninth World? It’s a world you know to have been shaped & reshaped. Irrefutable evidence surrounds you.

The air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you ingest, all contain tailored elements, nanomachines, exotic energies not native to this dimension.

The horizon you see, the land you tread, was sculpted, long before you were born. So long ago that time has eroded & distorted the artistry. But still sensed, if one knows how & where to look.

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