We all know that on Halloween Night, the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch and brings gifts to all good boys and girls. And evidently, I have been a good boy this year (mostly, let’s admit it, for a distinctive lack of opportunities), and this Halloween the Great Pumpkin came to visit a little before the fateful midnight.
Or thereabouts.

There is currently an incredible offer out on Humble Bundle: spend little more than twelve euro, and you’ll bag 28 volumes of the Numenera 2 roleplaying game, by Monte Cook. Everything you need to play and then some, and some again.

For those that have missed it, Numenera is a science fantasy roleplaying game powered by the Cypher System and inspired by classic planetary romance stories, and by Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Gene Wolfe’s New Sun and similar settings: a billion years in the future, the earth is littered with the remains of a thousand civilizations that rose and fell through the ages. An alien world to explore and discover. Secrets to unravel, strange artifacts to find and test…

As it is normal with Monte Cook’s games, the setting is a wonder, the system works fine with the world, and the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. The books available in the bundle cover everything, from the basics to every possible twist and turn, offering a huge palette of choices.
The first edition was absolutely smashing.

Numenera is an adult game with deep themes and a great sense of fun, and I am particularly interested in the second edition, as it adds a number of options to promote exploration and invention – something I was told would never work and would never sell when I was designing my own game.

This is really Christmas two months in advance or, as they say, the Night of the Great Pumpkin…

This wealth of gaming material for twelve bucks is an absolute steal – and you contribute with your purchase to a charity taking care of our world’s oceans.
Check it out.