By Jason Campbell
NOTE: no books or monetary gifts were provided in exchange for this review.
High Noon at Midnight is a genre and setting book for Cypher System games centered on the Weird West. The book was part of a successful Backerkit campaign in the Spring of 2024 from Monte Cook Games. It was released to backers a few weeks ago and is now in pro-order. The book was written by Bruce R. Cordell with Sean K. Reynolds, Mont Cook, Teri Litorco, and Dominique Dickey. The book is 224 pages and is available as a hardcover book or a PDF.
Overview
This is one of a series of genre books from Monte Cook Games known as the “white books”. White books are not rulebooks – you still need the Cypher System core rules to run a game in this setting. White books are dedicated to a specific genre – previous books discussed horror, sci-fi, fantasy and more. Each book discusses running games in the chosen setting, including story elements, additional character options (typically descriptors and foci), new cyphers and additional game options.
High Noon at Midnight is centered on an alternate version of the western U.S. in the late 1800s where monsters, magic and advanced technology are real. For inspiration, think of the 1960s TV series The Wild Wild West, 1999 movie Wild Wild West or the early 90s TV series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr..
Part One: Weird West Worldbuilding
The first part talks about building weird west settings, the elements of western stories, and some options for weird west settings. In the optional rules there is a strong emphasis on poker and card games. This includes rules for simulating poker games within the adventure, and rules for simulating poker with dice. It goes on to detail a way to replace d20 rolls with picking a card from a deck of cards. In western TV and movies of the 1940s and 1950s saloons with people playing poker were common and sometimes pivotal scenes in the game. If your group isn’t interested in this aspect of western life, you might skip this section.
There are also rules for curses and paranormal vices which can be added to the story of a campaign. This part ends with creatures for a weird west setting, including a lot of mutated animals, cursed beasts, flaming horses and magical coyotes. It also includes Forgeborn – metal animated golems.
Part Two: Weird West Player Characters
This section suggests which descriptors and foci fit a weird west setting. It introduces two species for player characters, Forgeborn (the animated metal golems previously mentioned) and Risen (similar to an undead creature). These species are descriptors, but unlike most standard Cypher System descriptors, each add abilities that can be chosen in place of abilities from the characters’ type. There are also 7 more “standard” descriptors with western themes like Trailblazing and Unforgiving.
There are also 7 new foci, such as Gambles It All away, and Rides Like the Wind. These have some interesting new abilities to help flesh out characters. The equipment and weapons section are useful to keep you aligned roughly historically, but there’s not a lot of new interesting items. The new cyphers are more interesting. The material cyphers are alchemical based so your weird inventors have some great things to aspire to. The book introduces another type of subtle cyphers: Power Words. Power Words are similar to a vocal spell, but the words themselves have powers and must be “captured” to use. There are many more weird west artfacts here which would be really useful in a longer campaign.
Part Three: Weird West Setting
This section builds a weird west setting. In most white books the settings are called “mini settings”, but this one really has some teeth, I think you could play an entire campaign in it without compromising the story. The lands are known as The Ghost Range, and are spooky , filled with interesting details such as star fall, a sort of magical material that can be collected and used in alchemy and other things.
Midnight is the largest city in The Ghost Range, much different and more detailed than your average stage post. Also detailed are the Outer Range – the wilds outside of the city, and the Otherlands, which includes Perdition, a town that’s literally the gateway to Hell.
Part Four: Adventures in the Weird West
This last section contains three adventures and two “shorts”.
NOTE: I haven’t yet run any of these, so this part of the review is only from reading.
Showdown in Alchemy Alley
This is a short adventure for Tier 1 characters. This one would need some modification to fit in a single 3-4 hour session, it’s a better fit for a couple of sessions. It’s got a great beginning, you start with the characters in the middle of a gun fight.
Five Card Fiasco
This is an adventure for Tier 1 or 2 characters and would also be difficult to fit in a single session. It’s centered around a poker tournament so it makes great use of the earlier mentioned poker rules.
When the Tomb Moon Is Full
This adventure is for Tier 3 characters, which is rare in published Cypher System adventures. It could fit into a campaign and features a creepy warlock. It claims to be able to run as a one shot, but a GM would have to edit a lot to fit within a four hour session.
Dead Vengeance (Cypher Short) and Gunsmoke Express (Cypher Short)
These two adventures would be a great addition to any weird west campaign, but they’d also be great as an introductory adventure for players new to the Cypher System. The shorts are built with building blocks, so a GM chooses the pacing by putting the encounters and GM intrusions together.
Conclusion
High Noon at Midnight is a strong entry into the Cypher System supplements library. Many of the newest rule additions such as Power Words and the cards as d20 could easily be used in other Cypher System games. The setting is very well built. The three full length adventures are text heavy, so a GM will need to read them carefully, perhaps a couple of times, before running them. They would be difficult to run during a first read.
What do you think? Are you interested in weird west adventures?
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