Miscellaneous ideas for the upcoming The Magnus Archives TTRPG by Monte Cook. Many will be reblogged from other people, some are ideas for my own campaign.
As some mechanics are still unreleased, I am basing all stats on the default Cypher system until further notice.
If you are in my campaign (main blog is @v0idspeak) then you might get spoilers for creatures, Artefacts, Avatars, locations, abilities, etc. You have been warned.
I'm getting over-hyped for the TMA TTRPG despite not having the pre-release Kickstarter tier, and so here we are.
I am currently reading the Cypher Core rulebook (yes, all 418 pages of it), and this has sparked a handful of ideas for my own campaign. I then decided I could probably grab some more ideas from Tumblr, and one thing led to another, and thus here we are, one semi-custom CSS made to imitate the Dark Mode of the TMA Transcripts later (as is my custom).
My goal is basically just to have an organised library of ideas for my own campaign - which I'll be DMing... probably in late 2024, unless I get early access to the TMA TTRPG rulebook early - and to give anyone who'd be interested some ideas as well!
For this purpose, I'll be reblogging and posting any ideas for the following, with ideas for stats, levels, etc. based on the Cypher system.
Avatars (once human, now channelling the Fears)
Manifestations (either never-human creatures or locations)
Statement ideas (which would include the 'voice' of the Statement-giver, as well as an outline for the events that happened to the NPC, and some ideas of what the PCs could do to investigate and what sort of shenanigans this may cause)
Artefacts and Cyphers (Artefacts tend to be more powerful, and last several times; Cyphers are, in the Cypher system, basically one-use items, ideas/inspiration, etc.)
Character descriptors (stat alterations), foci (sort of subclasses), and other miscellaneous abilities
Any ideas not in these categories will be marked as Other in the tags. I'll figure out a tag for when I'm making a post (like this one!) that isn't an idea, too.
An update to this: the TTRPG is out and I am currently reading the book! Please send me any ideas or ping me in reblogs and I will TTRPGify them as soon as I have a fuller grasp on the systems this particular release of the Cypher System uses!
For the TMA Campaign I'm in, we've been very silly recently as we have more or less started making small statements, journal entries, social media posts, etc as our characters in between sessions to keep track of what the hell is going on to them (and keep eachother guessing on lore!).
I did silly diary entries as I felt like it would be the easiest/most fun way to get Artie to express his emotions. They’re redacted for silly lore sake/in case the others are LURKING. But feel free to ask for hints/lore if any strike a cord :]
Additional Tags: missing person, field, witnesses
Investigated: July 19, 2025
Investigative Team: Magnolia Harkness, Katalina Valentine, Lucas George, Theodore Flowers, Wilbur Bubblespout
Report Written By: Magnolia Harkness
Case State: Statement resolved, more research may be needed
*Report was found with a sticky note that read, “I doubt Teddy reads these, but don’t show him this one.”
Report:
We planned our follow-up excursion to take place during the same ‘Potato Blossom Festival’ that Allison disappeared during last year. I’m still unsure whether this was a good idea or not, given the copious amounts of people present during the investigation. The potato field itself turned out to be much larger than I had initially anticipated. During what I had intended to be a cursory look at the field, I found myself lost and turned around while the others had stayed at the festival. It is easy to understand how one could get lost there - even my cell signal mostly gave out. Admittedly, I seem to have lost substantial track of time while I was in the field; I’ve been informed that what I was sure was several hours was, in fact, only about twenty minutes (perhaps not relevant but I thought it important to note regardless). Some amount of time into my exploration I came across none other than Allison MacDougall, the subject of the statement herself. I will make it clear that she was not a ghost. She spoke to me of the vastness of the universe and her place in it while we navigated our way out of the field. It is my opinion that she simply ran away from home - evidenced by her fervent opposition when I told her that her father was searching for her. I stand by my decision to tell her father I found only her body and let her leave. She was a troubled girl who clearly needed to find her place and I will be sure to file this report somewhere the police will not have easy access to it. I ask anyone who reads it to honor that decision - I am only writing it in the first place to have an honest record of the investigation.
I do worry that she may have held some resentment toward the pageant itself as she showed up the next day and - I hesitate to say that she did something to the participants, as I am unsure how to explain what, exactly, she did. Wilbur, who had disguised himself to participate for some inane reason, described that he had been falling through an endless sky but was able to wake himself as soon as he figured out what was happening. Wilbur is usually highly unreliable so I am unsure what to do with this information. However, no one was harmed and everyone woke up only slightly disoriented. I do not know where Allison has gone now.
So my TMA ttrpg idea wrapped up and omg! It was so much fun.
The mystery surrounds the BBC Broadcasting House. A radio engineer at the BBC reports to the team that their partner, an investigative journalist at the BBC, has disappeared, and ever since, they've been hearing their weird static at work. At first they thought it was just an audio glitch, but as it got clearer, they can hear their missing partner begging for help and giving clues on how to locate where they are being held.
Through the investigations, the team finds (a real) article from the Observer that MI5 secretly used room 105 in the basement of the Broadcasting House to vet journalists for communist sympathies from the 1930-1990s, another (real) article about how George Orwell used 105 as inspiration for Room 101 in his book 1984, a custom statement about a charwoman at the Broadcasting House whose friend had an affair with George Orwell and then went missing at the Broadcasting House, and a (real) copy of 1984 from the missing journalist's latest unpublished investigation, with sections describing Room 101.
I'm not sure if I should put who/what is at the end of the mystery here though? I think people will love it.
Very interesting overall! I love the various inspiration sources, and I hope your players got the references (or did the research during the games to figure them out)! Feel free to reblog with the final answer to your mystery if you so wish!
So the answer is that the investigative journalist was investigating the Magnus Archives and found the statement about the BBC Charwoman and George Orwell.
In the statement, she tells how her friend had an affair with Orwell. Orwell went missing briefly, so she goes to look for him. She finds him coming out of room 105, mumbling "2+2 is 5" (a line from 1984), escorted by a strange but alluring man. The charwoman's friend then goes missing, and she realizes, years later, that like the main character in 1984, Orwell must have been trapped in room 105 and tortured by his worst fear, until he begged to swap places with her friend.
The journalist realizes that the strange alluring man must be the basis for the villain of 1984, O'Brien. And the journalist realizes that he is also the same O'Brien who is currently a producer for the BBC.
O'Brien is actually a Web Avatar (on level with Peter Lukas and Simon Fairchild), and his friend Elias Bouchard warns him of the journalist, whom he locks in room 105.
Room 105 is a Spiral-like entity, a room that tortures the victim with whatever their worst nightmare is until they either die or get someone else to replace them, just like Room 101 in the book 1984.
The journalist, tortured beyond reason, is now trying to reach out to his girlfriend, the BBC audio engineer, to get her to find him and trick her into taking his place. And after coming to the team for help, she is convinced to go save him from the room.
All O'Brien wants is for another person to go into the room. He would prefer the girlfriend, but he doesn't care if it's her or one of the players. If a player is trapped in the room, they have the option to either find someone to replace them as well, or try to find the heart of the room and fuse with it, all while suffering their own worst nightmares.
The Goal: keep anyone else from going in the room.
So my TMA ttrpg idea wrapped up and omg! It was so much fun.
The mystery surrounds the BBC Broadcasting House. A radio engineer at the BBC reports to the team that their partner, an investigative journalist at the BBC, has disappeared, and ever since, they've been hearing their weird static at work. At first they thought it was just an audio glitch, but as it got clearer, they can hear their missing partner begging for help and giving clues on how to locate where they are being held.
Through the investigations, the team finds (a real) article from the Observer that MI5 secretly used room 105 in the basement of the Broadcasting House to vet journalists for communist sympathies from the 1930-1990s, another (real) article about how George Orwell used 105 as inspiration for Room 101 in his book 1984, a custom statement about a charwoman at the Broadcasting House whose friend had an affair with George Orwell and then went missing at the Broadcasting House, and a (real) copy of 1984 from the missing journalist's latest unpublished investigation, with sections describing Room 101.
I'm not sure if I should put who/what is at the end of the mystery here though? I think people will love it.
Very interesting overall! I love the various inspiration sources, and I hope your players got the references (or did the research during the games to figure them out)! Feel free to reblog with the final answer to your mystery if you so wish!
Hey, I got an idea for a mystery, I would love to run it by you, but I don't want to risk my player finding it on my Tumblr. Is it okay if I DM? We're playing on Sunday, after which, you can definitely post it.
Sure, go ahead! Though I suppose you can post it publicly at this point, ahah! I haven't been on Tumblr in a hot sec.
Some of you in the TMA fandom will recognize this title. It is taken from Scritches for the Archivist (link to fic). In fact, it's the fanfic's core plot item! But what if you want to use it in your own TMA Cypher system game?
Here's a quick item sheet that should allow you to do just that!
Train Your Cat to Be the Best They Can Be
Level: 6
Related Entity: Spiral, possibly with a side of Flesh
Stress: 3 Stress while reading, 3 Stress each time its effects worsen.
Form: A simple training manual, with no author, no publisher, and apparently from the early '70s. It explains in detail how to care for cats and kittens, how to interpret feline body language, and so on, including eight pages about why cats should be kept indoors. The cover is blank save for the title, written in bold, black letters over a picture of a cat curled up in an armchair. The first page contains a gilded bookplate marking it as part of the library of Jurgen Leitner.
The last few pages are lined and empty save for a cheerful request, written in yellow: "Write down your progress! Experience is the best encouragement!" These pages fill themselves with whatever progress the reader goes through.
Effect: Upon reading a line or two, the reader must succeed an Intellect defense roll or find themself leafing through the book. After reading for thirty seconds, they will feel no difference, but everyone else will be unable to tell who they are. Whenever they look at the reader, they instead see a cat. Any interactions they have with the reader is interpreted as an interaction with a cat instead, such as brushing hair being replaced with brushing fur, and talking being replaced with meowing.
Anyone interacting with the reader will also forget any recent interactions with the reader, and instead remember interacting with a cat, unless they succeed in an Intellect task of difficulty 8 to fight against the effects of the book. Any particularly odd behaviour made by the "cat" counts as a singular asset (thus lowering the difficulty to 7).
Any attempt from the reader to leave messages using contemporary technology fail, as the files corrupt. Recordings made on older technology (especially supernatural older technology, such as the tape recorders) succeed upon succeeding a flat roll of difficulty 5 (15 or higher on a d20), though they seem to appear from nowhere rather than from the reader. Video recordings through VCR work in the same way, though they are distorted, and any audio is replaced with static.
Avatars of the Eye and the Spiral can see through the illusion, though the latter are not likely to point it out.
Once the book has started taking effect, it vanishes, and will reappear at a later date.
Fear (triggered when a GM intrusion is triggered around the book or its effects): The reader is slowly altered to fit with people's expectations. Each triggered transformation is gradual, and causes the reader Stress. They tend to occur during the night after having nightmares about them.
The reader's eyes change in some way. One or both eyes turn yellow. Eventually, the yellow eye(s) become vertically slit, like a cat's.
The reader's nails fall out, possibly one at a time.
The reader's hands become painful and stiff, possibly one hand at a time.
The reader's fingers shorten, possibly one finger at a time.
The reader's empty nail beds are slowly replaced with retractable claws, or the first knuckle vanishes (as though the cat had been declawed).
In order to reverse the book's primary effect, the reader must simply erase or rewrite their progress in the last few pages. If the reader's eye colour changed, that change is permanent. Once done, the illusion falls away, causing Stress for everyone who suddenly remembers who the reader is. Any injuries heal at normal speeds.
Something that I find interesting about The Stranger is its ties to the Circus and Fairs because, in times before the internet, they were a prime feeder of The Stranger. Picture this, you are living in a small town of 20 or so people in the middle of nowhere. You know everyone, everyone knows you. If something happens, you know about it instantly. You can have a perfect interaction with everyone.
Then they come. A group of people from elsewhere. They come, set up shop in Mr. Whatnot's abandoned field, and then open the gates. Strange colors fill your eyes, unknown scents fill your nose, and you partake in activities that you could have never thought of. All the while, the outsiders that opened the circus or fair do activities that should be impossible for people to do. They swallow swords, breathe fire, and their bodies contort in odd manners. They all wore masks and heavy makeup, so you can't tell their true feelings or emotions. You try and talk to them, but theirs something wrong. You don't know them well enough to have meaningful conversations, and what you can learn is but the surface of who they truly are.
Then, after the weekend, they're gone. You'd expect their big top to take down longer, but it doesn't. They're just gone Monday morning. You will probably never see them again, these outsiders, with their strange games and abilities, masks to hide their identities, and unknown personalities are gone, forever. Maybe they come again, maybe another group like them, but it's always different, a little uncanny. If one of their numbers were to come without a mask or makeup, you wouldn't recognize them, and they would have probably worn many different masks and makeup schemes throughout one night, so you couldn't even place them if you had talked to them.
And sometimes, these outsiders would disappear with someone. The blacksmith's son, or the orchard keeper's daughter. Or they give something. Maybe the old miller has a weird plant he likes to burn now, maybe the general store owner's wife now has a cough, not unlike the lion tamer had, and now the doctor has it too. You know this is linked to the strange people from elsewhere that brought the carnival to town, or maybe not. You wouldn't know. You don't even know what one looks like underneath the mask. You didn't spend enough time with them before they left to recognize their voice. If that doesn't scream Stranger, I don't know what will.
Mmmm, that would be a great way to introduce a Stranger's Circus for a campaign! You could easily use this to attract the players towards a significant Stranger arc. The Circus could easily be populated by some low-level Circusgoers. A contortionist or a trapezist could have increased Speed defence stats, a lion tamer could be surrounded by large felines and animals that they command and hide behind. You can easily set up some fun little kiosks and tents to visit.
There's also a lot of opportunity for deception-based interactions where the village is populated in part by Circus employees who hide behind a more... metaphorical mask, that of a real, human face... which may or may not really be theirs.
