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Cryptomancer

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NOW INCLUDES VERSION 1.5 RULES - JUNE 2020

Cryptomancer is a tabletop role-playing game made for hackers, by hackers. It features an original  fantasy setting and gameplay informed by diverse security disciplines: information security, physical security, intelligence analysis, clandestine tradecraft, and risk management. Players assume the role of characters on the run from a shadowy organization that rules the world through mass surveillance, propaganda, and political coercion.

  • Explore a rich fantasy setting connected by the Shardscape, the magical equivalent of the Internet 
  • Attack and defend fantasy networks built upon real networking and cryptography principles
  • Build up your safehouse and manage covert cells of spies, scouts, political agitators, and assassins
  • Customize your character with dozens of talents and spells emphasizing stealth, deception, and creative problem-solving

Kill all the orcs, hack all the things!
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Reviews (13)
Discussions (23)
Customer avatar
Branden W December 11, 2021 4:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
Purchased this for a yule gift for my partner, who is a PhD of computer science at Wittenberg U. In Springfield, Ohio. She's excited to run it.
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad W January 18, 2022 12:38 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Nerds. :P
Customer avatar
Chad W November 24, 2021 4:13 am UTC
PUBLISHER
For anyone interested in how cybersecurity informed Cryptomancer's IT/cryptography abstraction, this is a video of the author presenting the ideas behind Cryptomancer at a cybersecurity conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_2hvrGdBO4
Customer avatar
Chad W January 24, 2021 11:49 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The official and illustrated sourcebook for Cryptomancer 1.5 is now available at: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338663/Code--Dagger-Volume-I
Customer avatar
Arokha S January 19, 2021 9:52 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ok, wait, so... I own this and it now includes "CodeDagger_Volume_I.pdf" and "Code_And_Dagger_Vol_2.pdf"
... which is entirely different and unrelated to https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338663/Code--Dagger-Volume-I ?
Might be worth clarifying that somewhere or renaming one of the things? Probably easier to rework the PDFs!

It's a bit strange, to say the least, to have two books for your system, both called "Code & Dagger Volume 1", when they are unrelated, and there's even a "Code & Dagger Volume 2" that's also totally unrelated to your for-sale sourcebook at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338663/Code--Dagger-Volume-I.
Customer avatar
Chad W December 31, 2020 2:02 am UTC
PUBLISHER
The official sourcebook is now available: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338663/Code--Dagger-Volume-I
Customer avatar
Chad W August 21, 2020 8:35 am UTC
PUBLISHER
What's new in version 1.5?

As a physical artifact:

-It prints *much* better now. The black ink really pops now and all illustrated borders extend all the way to the edge of the page.

As a game:

-Core Mechanic is simplified (only 1's are botches, not 1's and 2's).
-Alternate campaign mechanics (no more mandatory death spiral).
-All Talents are new or rewritten, and there are a lot more of them.
-All Spells are new or rewritten, and there are a lot more of them.
-All Safe House Upgrades and Cells are new or rewritten, are much more useful, and feature party-created NPCs.
-Changes to the Threats section not only add new threats (e.g. Cryptovores, vampires) but make changes to others.
-All Downtime subsystems have been rewritten/tweaked.
-The last chapter, the introductory adventure, has been 90% rewritten into a massive sandbox setting that can spawn dozens of potential campaign from the point of view of different factions...See more
Customer avatar
Stacie W June 28, 2020 10:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Will PoD come back?
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad W July 02, 2020 7:26 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
It sure will! Once we address every last question, balance tweak, clarification, and spelling/grammar issue the community identifies, we'll be back with the POD. We've also learned a lot about printing since last time, so we hope the new POD will be much sharper and cleaner.
Reply
Customer avatar
Auden J August 04, 2020 6:02 am UTC
PURCHASER
If we purchase the PDF now, can we get a discount on the PoD?
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Customer avatar
Chad W August 05, 2020 9:30 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes, but we cannot commit to how much exactly at this point. We are currently waiting on receiving a final printing proof and hope to bring PoD back mid-late September.
Customer avatar
Yevgeniy Y June 11, 2020 6:16 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is there a way to see changelog?
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Customer avatar
Chad W June 11, 2020 8:51 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I have to make one. Almost everything has changed either a lot or a bit. Here are the highlights.

-Core Mechanic simplified (only 1's are botches, not 1's and 2's).
-Alternate campaign mechanics (no mandatory death spiral).
-All Talents are new or rewritten.
-All Spells are new or rewritten.
-All Safe House Upgrades and Cells are new or rewritten.
-New Threats.
-All Downtime subsystems rewritten.
-Last chapter, the adventure, has been 90% rewritten into a massive sandbox.
-And a bunch of other stuff.
Customer avatar
Chad W June 10, 2020 1:37 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Here is your invitation to the Shardscape, the official Cryptomancer Discord: https://discord.gg/w8UJUv5
Customer avatar
Joseph R August 25, 2019 5:48 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Sorry if this was explained in the sourcebook and I just missed it, but how do you calculate the cost of a custom weapon? Is there some equation to use based on its rules/properties?
Customer avatar
Gregory W July 27, 2019 5:21 am UTC
PURCHASER
Still love this game. And now that another year has passed, I am going to ask, any plans to keep it going with new books?
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Customer avatar
Chad W July 27, 2019 6:37 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Cryptomancer 2.0. Launching Kickstarter in 2020 some time. New game, new vibe. Full color. 100 years after the Spire fell. Your safehouse is an Airship. Cheers.
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Customer avatar
Stacie W June 10, 2020 1:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
That's very cool. This will be a game I'll back on KS.
Customer avatar
Gregory W June 14, 2018 9:00 pm UTC
PURCHASER
So I have both the core book and the CodeDagger 1. I was wondering if you had any plans to continue the franchise or is it basically done? I would like to see more.
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad W June 15, 2018 2:44 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Code and Dagger 2 came out. It's free on DriveThru if you bought the core book, but contact me via the game's webpage and i'll hook you up if you need it.
I'd like to do another Code and Dagger 2 next year. There' some user made content here, too: https://fifthlevelnerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/cryptomancer-group.pdf
Customer avatar
Jeff M March 29, 2018 11:34 pm UTC
PURCHASER
hello, i have a question more about the setting, was it more or less inspired by .hack or Sword Art Online ? just currious.
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Customer avatar
Chad W April 01, 2018 11:58 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
No. It's typical fantasy role-play (kill things and take their stuff) re-imagined with systems engineering goggles.

It has absolutely no "virtual reality" or "digital alternate reality" component at all.
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Customer avatar
Jeff M April 03, 2018 12:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I see, at first glance it looked like it, thanks for you for the answers.
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad W April 05, 2018 11:00 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you for asking, and for purchasing. :D
Customer avatar
Ralph T November 17, 2017 5:12 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I see two PDFs with the same Cryptomancer titles, and at a quick glance I don't see anything different in the two. They are both black and white, have the same 430 pages, and the same Table of Contents, so what is the difference in the two PDFs?
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad W November 24, 2017 6:37 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
One *might* contain bookmarks(?). Honestly, I didn't want to remove either in case it somehow would negatively impact availability of the download.
Reply
Customer avatar
Mak K March 16, 2018 3:33 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Both have the same MD5 hash, and so are exactly the same.
Customer avatar
Chad W August 13, 2017 4:19 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
A purchase of Cryptomancer now includes Volume I and II of "Code & Dagger," the official Cryptomancer sourcebook.
Reply
Customer avatar
David-Christian L August 31, 2018 6:13 pm UTC
PURCHASER
That's really cool. But I assume these Volumes are not included in a POD of the core book, are they?
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad W August 31, 2018 6:23 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
They come with the PDF purchase. If you want them, you can contact me via the contact information on the cryptorpg.com homepage
Customer avatar
Chris T January 29, 2017 8:40 pm UTC
I'm truly puzzled as to why the game's description isn't more transparent about being a death spiral, or at least why it doesn't take some pains to emphasize the inherent hopelessness of the setting. If I hadn't read multiple reviews both on and off this site I'd have assumed it was a more neutral, or even player empowering game, would likely have bought it, and been left a very unhappy customer. That's simply not my game.
There IS a very solid market for those who enjoy a doomed struggle, and thus no need to conceal or obfuscate the setting's nature. I'm disappointed that I had discover this via third party commentary.

Edit: I am aware of the free expansion as mentioned in the publisher's reply to Carsten H.'s review of the game, but I still maintain that this product would better serve itself and its buyers by being upfront with the game's nature.
Reply
Customer avatar
Sascha W February 15, 2017 5:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Agreed. I read of the downward spiral and instantly knew: I can't play it with my players like that.
They know the risk of character death, of course, but they want to be able to be victorious in the end.
Reply
Customer avatar
Chad W February 24, 2017 12:57 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Sascha! Thanks for supporting the game!

An easy hack to make the game more heroic for the table is to replace Risk Eater assassinations with "Big Campaign Events"... the arch-duke gets assassinated, a zombie pandemic happens, orcs invade, etc.
Reply
Customer avatar
Yuri L November 06, 2017 9:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh wow, that's actually really clever.
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Product Information
Platinum seller
Artist(s)
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Pages
432
ISBN
978-0-9974802-0-7
Publisher Stock #
RFC1A
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5.81 MB
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This title was added to our catalog on July 27, 2016.
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