TEXT: By Dennis Detwiller
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  
  2
  ABOUT THE ADVENTURE  
  3
  A DESCRIPTION OF THE FACILITY 
  4
  GAME START: THE BROWNCOW INCIDENT 
  5 
  ON THE SURFACE 
  12 
  RESOLUTION 
  13  
  PREGENERATED CHARACTERS 
  15
  CREDITS
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
   
  Writer/Designer Dennis Detwiller
   
  Creative Director Monte Cook
   
  Managing Editor Shanna Germain
   
  Editor Elisa Mader 
   
  Proofer Jeremy Land
   
  Cover Artist Kieran Yanner
   
  Graphic Designer  Bear Weiter
   
  Layout Zoa Smalley
  Artists
  Grzegorz Pedrycz, Chris Waller, Ben Wootten, Kieran Yanner
  Cartographer
  Hugo Solis
  Monte Cook Games Editorial Board
  Scott C. Bourgeois, David Wilson Brown, Eric Coates, Gareth Hodges, Mila Irek, 
  Jeremy Land, Laura Wilkinson, Marina Wold, George Ziets
  As we agree with the growing consensus that “they” can and should be used as a gender-neutral, singular English language pronoun when one is needed, 
  we have adopted that as the style in our products. If you see this grammatical construction, it is intentional.
  © 2017 Monte Cook Games, LLC. CYPHER SYSTEM and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games 
  characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC.
  
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  3
  or so to see how bad things have gotten. 
  All the HAARP experiments on the bizarre 
  equipment that runs there are operated 
  remotely via satellite by military personnel 
  at Crystal Palace, Wyoming, or at the Sandia 
  National Laboratories. The tests are all the 
  same: “Crew, flip breakers 78 through 1,913, 
  plus breaker 2,133, and then we’ll turn it 
  on. Nothing, huh? Okay. Why don’t you try 
  breakers 73 through…”
  The PCs are the full-time residents of 
  Gakona. All they do is eat, sleep, play cards, 
  watch videotapes of Three’s Company, and 
  occasionally track down a junction box in the 
  miles of tunnels to flip a breaker. It’s a boring, 
  isolated, stupid, waste-of-time life. Oh, and 
  there is no Internet or cable television.
  Aim high, Air Force.   
  THE WINTER OF 2016
  It is the winter of 2016. Four and a half 
  feet of snowfall cover the ground above 
  Gakona AFB. The hundreds of weird radio 
  transmitters that make up HAARP are 
  clear of snow, thanks to heating elements 
  that cause the snow to melt off, but the 
  airfield is closed and will be until at least 
  April—months from now. Still, the team at 
  Gakona is in touch with the various remote 
  scientific crews that put HAARP through its 
  strange turns (which, as far as the crew can 
  tell, do little or nothing except cause a low 
  thrumming sound throughout the base). 
  The good news is: the end is in 
  sight! HAARP is set to be permanently 
  shuttered as of May 1, 2017. You and your 
  “compatriots” are in the homestretch. There 
  are only ten more tests between here and 
  there. Ten more tests and then a plane back 
  to the world. Yay. 
  THE PREAMBLE AND THE CREW
  The preamble is this: You and your five 
  compatriots all work and live at Gakona 
  AFB. You are a skeleton crew looking after a 
  high-tech experiment in electronics and radar 
  ABOUT THE ADVENTURE
  Welcome to the High Frequency Active 
  Auroral Research Program! They call it 
  HAARP. You call it the rear end of a two-year 
  stint at the United States Air Force base in 
  Gakona, Alaska. Nothing ever happens at 
  HAARP—or at least nothing used to happen 
  until they really turned on the machine for 
  the first time. Now, everything happens 
  there, all at once. Can you and your buddies 
  survive one eternal shift at the center of all 
  space-time?
  GAKONA
  Welcome to Gakona, Alaska, armpit of the 
  Air Force.
  Gakona is precisely the kind of place you 
  don’t want to be assigned to as career Air 
  Force. Assigned is not even the proper word 
  for Gakona; you end up there. The dregs, the 
  near-washouts, the people the Air Force just 
  can’t come up with a real reason to shake—
  Gakona is their playpen, an isolated place 
  where they can stay and “work” while the 
  rest of the girls and boys protect the United 
  States from airborne attack. 
  Except for the bizarre mile-after-mile of 
  high-frequency radar arrays that cover the 
  ground like a grid of electric trees and a 
  jet-capable airstrip, most of Gakona AFB is 
  underground. There is a whole dorm, rec 
  rooms, cafeterias, resonance chambers, 
  sewage treatment rooms, and more—too 
  many rooms for the skeleton crew that 
  now occupies the base, really—all below 
  the snow. It was supposed to be a big 
  deal, HAARP, though no one on-site has 
  any idea what that deal was supposed to 
  be, precisely. It had something to do with 
  the magnetosphere, something to do with 
  radar. It’s complicated.
  They never could get it to work just right, 
  anyway.
  There are only six full-time residents of 
  Gakona now—the dregs, overseen by an 
  officer or two who fly in every six months 
  This adventure includes 
  page references to various 
  subjects accompanied 
  by this symbol. These 
  references are to the 
  Cypher System Rulebook, 
  where you can find 
  additional details about 
  that item, place, creature, 
  or concept. It isn’t 
  necessary to look up 
  the referenced items in 
  the book; doing so is an 
  optional way to provide 
  additional information to 
  your players.
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  
  4
  A DESCRIPTION OF THE FACILITY
  Gakona AFB consists of twelve miles of 
  tunnels that run directly under the hundreds 
  of odd “electric tree” high-energy arrays 
  which stand on the ground above. From 
  the air, the base looks like a bizarre solar 
  farm without the panels installed. This 
  forest of radio arrays covers eight square 
  miles. While the rest of the area for miles is 
  covered in thick snowfall, all the arrays are 
  devoid of snow, as heating elements keep 
  the snow from accumulating on them. 
  Buried under the snow, there are a jet 
  airfield, a low-slung, heavily sloped hangar, 
  a security door that leads to the big elevator 
  to the base—and below it all, about 30 
  feet (10 m) beneath the earth, a complex 
  of rooms and tunnels where the Air Force 
  personnel live and work.
  There is no cable or satellite TV, no 
  Internet, and nothing in the way of truly 
  modern amenities. There is a bitching 
  ping-pong table, a 1986 Nintendo 
  Entertainment System with four games, 
  and two jealously hoarded TV/VCR 
  combos, as well as a videotape collection 
  with the entire run of Three’s Company, a 
  single semiruined copy of Megaforce, and 
  a feature on the making of Logan’s Run. It’s 
  not exactly Club Med.
  TEST #24114
  Test #24114, designated BROWNCOW, is 
  being run by Dr. Evan Ionescu from the 
  applied physics and high-energy research 
  lab at the Sandia National Laboratories 
  in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ionescu is 
  a naturalized American born in Greece 
  who has dealt with the test crew before; 
  they call him “Doctor Nonsense.” He has 
  caused them no end of trouble, radioing 
  in incredibly complex instructions and 
  lapsing into Greek when something is done 
  incorrectly. During these tests, Ionescu 
  often asks the crew to run down the many 
  miles of service tunnels to manually flip 
  dozens of breakers in an attempt to get 
  a precise electromagnetic reading on the 
  satellite. Test #24114 seems like more of the 
  same. 
  The setup for BROWNCOW involved a 
  week of flipping various breakers in the 
  called HAARP—High frequency something, 
  something, something, whatever. You live like 
  moles underground, because aboveground, 
  it’s ice and snow and nothing for hundreds 
  of miles in all directions. You do what’s 
  asked of you via radio, the Air Force does its 
  experiments, and then you kill time until the 
  next test. On May 1, they will permanently 
  shutter the base and you’ll rotate back to the 
  world, but May is a long, long way away. 
  Today, you will carry out Test #24114, 
  Operation BROWNCOW. Whoopdeedoo.
  Hand out the six pregenerated characters 
  and let the players have a few minutes to 
  look over them. The six bullet points beneath 
  each character description contain the keys 
  to portraying the character—a secret, a skill, 
  and some info about relationships.
  The skeleton crew of Gakona AFB is 
  composed of the following: 
  • E-2 Airman Angela Ruiz is a Guarded 
  Explorer who Doesn’t Do Much; this Boston 
  native has a dislike of E-3s and a habit of 
  sneaking off to a hideout in the facility.
  • E-2 Airman Albert “Fish” Bogosta is a 
  Kind Speaker who Works the System; 
  this Floridian electronics whiz loves 
  Gakona AFB, where he runs to breakers 
  and troubleshoots to keep the base in 
  good shape.
  • E-2 Airman Kolani Watts is a Brash 
  Explorer who Looks for Trouble; this 
  communications and radio expert 
  from Chicago despises Gakona and his 
  compatriots, though he’d never let them 
  down.
  • E-2 Airman John Johnson is a Perceptive 
  Warrior who Entertains; this Minnesotan 
  used to living in isolation cleans the facility 
  and knows all its areas inside and out.
  • E-3 Airman First Class Elizabeth 
  Blumgartner is a Driven Speaker who 
  Fights Dirty; this stickler for rules from 
  Sacramento plays nice to Senior Airman 
  Berkman but can be mean to her inferiors.
  • E-4 Senior Airman Michael Berkman 
  is a Naive Warrior who Would Rather 
  Be Reading; this big, strapping Ohio 
  native—the ranking airman on-site—
  really wants to help people but looks to 
  higher authority when in doubt.
  
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  5
  go out into the tunnels. When they do so 
  during a test, they use something called a 
  degaussing station to remove any residual 
  static charge. Most of the time, a test lasts 
  an hour or two of the crew sitting in the 
  control room watching cameras and lights. 
  Not with BROWNCOW. Immediately, 
  everything goes south.
  • First, the entire facility shakes as if it were 
  being struck by a minor earthquake.
  • The power cuts out.
  • This, of course, cuts the radio, stopping 
  all communication, cutting off Ionescu 
  midquestion. 
  • The emergency power fails to come on.
  INSIDE THE CONTROL ROOM
  The control room is a small chamber 
  crammed with radio equipment, a wall 
  of screens that show the long expanses 
  access tunnels connected to the electronic 
  radio arrays above, and then checking and 
  rechecking that the proper switches were 
  thrown or turned off. In previous tests, 
  large numbers of breakers were on, but in 
  BROWNCOW almost all are off. Only five 
  switches scattered throughout the tunnels 
  at weird intervals are in the “on” position.
  GAME START: 
  THE BROWNCOW INCIDENT
  Welcome to BROWNCOW, January 29, 2017, 
  08:09.
  Now, with the crew gathered in the 
  control center on the radio with Dr. Ionescu, 
  the HAARP equipment is turned on. The 
  crew is usually kept here during tests to 
  avoid their catching static charges from the 
  array, though sometimes people have to 
  FPO
  
  6
  have convinced themselves they didn’t hear 
  anything, it happens again. 
  Investigating the Howl: Those poking 
  their heads out into the darkened corridor 
  listening for a repeat of the howl are 
  rewarded with one a few moments later. 
  This one comes from somewhat closer 
  and, disturbingly, it is joined by a second 
  howl from another direction that ends in 
  a very strange staccato hooting, which 
  sounds entirely unlike a wolf or dog, and 
  more like a wind instrument. Then, there 
  is silence. Those who wander off alone are 
  not seen alive again (see Extradimensional 
  Replacements on page 11 for more details). 
  WHAT DO THE PCs DO?
  • Find some weapons: There’s not much in 
  the way of weaponry in the control room. 
  There are four flashlights, three golf clubs, 
  and a packet of flavored tortilla chips, 
  though. Moving to the weapon closet 
  that Johnson knows of requires the PCs 
  to survive an encounter (as picked by the 
  GM). Once the PCs make it to the closet, 
  they can equip each crew member with the 
  following: a submachine gun (6 points of 
  damage) or pistol (4 points of damage), 
  two grenades (5 points of damage in a 10-
  foot [2 m] radius) and a single-shot LAW 
  rocket launcher (10 points of damage, 
  ignores 4 points of Armor). 
  • Turn on the auxiliary power: The reset 
  panel for the auxiliary power is quite 
  a distance from the control room 
  (about a mile). To get there, the PCs 
  will have to deal with two encounters; 
  the Raptormen! and the Plant in the 
  Walls! encounters (see below) are 
  recommended. Turning on the auxiliary 
  power restores lighting in most of the 
  crew area as well as the emergency 
  lighting in the tunnels.
  • Go to the main power plant: The 
  main power is equally far away in the 
  opposite direction (just under a mile). 
  To get there, the PCs will have to deal 
  with two encounters; the Raptormen! 
  and the Fifth Reich! encounters are 
  recommended. Once at the main power 
  plant, the PCs can restore all power to 
  the facility. 
  of most extension tunnels, and a control 
  board that indicates which arrays are 
  on or off. Before the test was triggered, 
  the configuration of lights on the board 
  matched Ionescu’s designation perfectly. 
  Now, after the power failure, it is dark—as 
  in, pitch dark.
  • The Radio: The radio is in A-OK shape, 
  except it (like everything else) has no 
  power. 
  • The Screen Bank: Like the radio, this 
  would work, except there’s no power.
  • The Control Board: Again, no power. 
  • Other Stuff: There is a medical kit in 
  the room, as well as a full toolkit, an 
  unopened bag of ranch-flavored chips, 
  and a golf bag and putter set with a 
  rolled-up mat of fake grass.
  • The Walkie-Talkies: Each crew member 
  has a walkie-talkie. Usually the devices 
  suck, and very rarely have they worked 
  properly. However, the advent of the 
  dimensional rift has somehow made 
  them amazing radio transmitters and 
  receivers. They will work flawlessly 
  anywhere in the facility or above. 
  OFF, BUT STILL ON
  Despite the power being cut, anyone with 
  a brain can tell the array is somehow still 
  functioning. There is an otherworldly hum 
  in the air. Touching the walls throws slight 
  sparks, and all the PCs’ saliva tastes of 
  metal. 
  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to 
  figure out that turning off the breakers 
  that were turned on should do the trick 
  and restore things to normal. The problem 
  is, between the PCs and the breakers, in 
  the shimmering, weirdly lit darkness of 
  the tunnels, things have come from other 
  dimensions to hunt, feed, and interrogate—
  and they don’t want those switches thrown.
  THE HOWL FROM THE HALLWAY
  While the PCs figure out what to do, there is 
  a long, low, weird howl heard from beyond 
  the locked control room door. Somewhere 
  out in the winding passages, something big 
  and most definitely not human lets loose 
  a chilling cry—it sounds like a wolf or dog. 
  The howl fades, and just when the PCs 
  
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  7
  moving a hand up and down a keyboard. 
  The facility and everything in it are being 
  thrown through hyperspatial rifts every 
  picosecond, and outside of the degaussing 
  chambers and the sealed Faraday cage that 
  is the control room, the air seems to swirl 
  with vague colors as it stutters through 
  twenty-two dimensions as well as up and 
  down the timeline of causality. Sometimes 
  things boil into existence in the base—not 
  all of them are friendly.
  Long story short is, there is only one way 
  to stop this, and that is to turn off all the 
  switches. Even without power, the effect is 
  still operating. (The power is on in some of 
  those dimensions, right?) 
  PLANT IN THE WALLS!
  The PCs come upon an area filled with 
  a hanging ground mist. Soon, the air 
  becomes rich with the smell of rotting 
  vegetation. There are even some small 
  pools of standing water. Those entering 
  the area find that they can see occasional 
  movement at the periphery of their vision. 
  Sometimes, a noise will draw their attention 
  away and they’ll catch sight of something 
  slithering down into the water, only to 
  vanish a moment later. 
  This plant-thing is from Earth at a 
  vibrational frequency of 11,011 MHz, and it 
  is controlled by switch 36. It is the classic 
  giant “Venus fly-trap,” but big enough to 
  gobble an economy car. Its sliding, ropy 
  tentacles will creep forth and then grab and 
  toss unsuspecting victims into its maw, 
  where they’ll be devoured. 
  Goals:
  • Grab!: The plant has a dozen fully motile 
  tentacles the size of fire hoses that 
  slink and move through the low pools 
  of water and attempt to snake around 
  a limb of a target. The target must 
  succeed at a difficulty 3 Speed-based 
  task or a difficulty 5 Might-based task to 
  struggle free. If the plant grabs a victim, 
  it pulls the target toward its maw (this 
  takes three rounds). On each round, 
  the target may attempt a difficulty 3 
  Speed-based task or a difficulty 5 Might-
  based task to struggle free (each person 
  • Turn off the breakers for BROWNCOW: 
  Those who can move about in the dark, 
  find the breakers they switched on for 
  BROWNCOW, and switch them off can 
  shut down the individual dimensional 
  effect that a breaker is causing. If the 
  PCs shut down switch 36, for example, 
  the plant-thing vanishes back to its 
  reality. The PCs must face an encounter 
  to access each switch. 
  • Go to the crew quarters or some other 
  crew room: These are closer than either of 
  the power stations or the breakers, but the 
  PCs encounter a pair of Gigantopithecus 
  blacki. See the How You Say Big…uh…
  feets? encounter on page 9. 
  • Attempt to reach the surface via the 
  elevator: See On the Surface on page 12 
  for more details.
  • Howl Back or Go as a Group toward 
  the Howl: Those who make significant 
  noise in the hallway, or who move as a 
  group toward the noise, end up in the 
  Raptormen! encounter on page 8. 
  INTO THE UTILITY HALLWAYS
  The tunnels are a confusing mess. Each 
  is labeled, but the letter and number 
  designations often don’t seem to make 
  sense. The passages wind in strange 
  patterns and sometimes cross over or 
  under each other. Occasionally, there is a 
  ladder to a small tunnel leading all the way 
  to a door that opens to the surface, but a 
  Might task (level 4) is required to open such 
  a door (see On the Surface on page 12 for 
  more details).
  There is a large breaker and control box in 
  the tunnels corresponding to each array on 
  the surface. Each box has two switches, one 
  red, one black. The red switches are marked 
  “Surface Snow Suppression,” and almost all 
  of them are on. The black ones are marked 
  “EM Control,” and almost all are off (except 
  for the ones activated for BROWNCOW). 
  EVERY DIMENSION TELLS 
  A STORY, DON’T IT?
  HAARP has worked, finally! But it has done 
  terrible things to the space-time continuum 
  in the process, playing with it like a toddler 
  Plant-Thing: level 9, 
  perception as level 6; health 
  55; Armor 3; fire attacks 
  ignore armor; tentacle 
  smash inflicts 7 points of 
  damage
  At the end of the plant 
  encounter, every character 
  should get a subtle cypher.
  Subtle Cypher, page 343
  
  8
  damage doing so. If they fail, they suffer 
  9 points of damage as the plant chomps 
  on them.
  • Reproduce!: If the plant-thing kills and 
  eats any human-sized target,  it fires a 
  spore to a nearby location on the next 
  round. Each round, that spore gains a 
  level and 6 health (from level 1 up to 
  level 9). At level 3 it can attack and eat 
  targets like its parent.
  Cross-Interactions:
  • Against the Raptormen!: The plant-thing 
  will eat the raptormen! Equipment might 
  be left over (chemical vials). 
  • Against How You Say Big…uh…feets?: 
  The plant-thing will eat the big…feet! 
  • Against the Fifth Reich!: The plant-
  thing will eat the Fifth Reich agents! 
  Equipment might be left over (machine 
  guns and grenades, etc.).
  • Against Double Duty!: The plant-thing 
  will eat the doubles! Interesting bits may 
  be left over (i.e., uniforms with name 
  tags identical to the PCs’, etc.).
  RAPTORMEN!
  The howling hoots in the hallways of 
  the facility come from four raptormen 
  from Earth at a vibrational frequency of 
  12,919 MHz, and they are controlled by 
  switch 2,123. They are intelligent, evolved 
  descendants of a world of dinosaurs where 
  the extinction event never occurred and 
  mammals never gained the upper hand. 
  While on patrol in their enclave, they 
  discovered themselves transported to the 
  interior of a web of bizarre metal tubes. 
  They have the intellectual capacity of 
  humans (and are maybe even a bit smarter), 
  but their technology is mostly chemical-
  based, and they limit their use of machines 
  to simple hand-operated devices.
  Each raptorman stands 7 feet (2 m) 
  tall and is built like a humanoid, though 
  it stands tipped slightly forward, with a 
  somewhat pointed ovoid face, faceted 
  spiky teeth, blue-green globe-like eyes, and 
  a spray of odd, stringy, colorful feathers 
  all over its body. It can jump, climb, and 
  move much faster than a normal human. 
  Each raptorman carries four colored vials of 
  helping them reduces the difficulty by 
  one step). On a success, they suffer 
  1 point of damage but are free of the 
  plant’s grasp. 
  • Eat!: If a target is dragged toward 
  the maw for three rounds without 
  successfully breaking free, they are 
  thrown into the maw on the fourth 
  round. They are permitted a single 
  difficulty 6 Speed-based task to dodge 
  the gnashing teeth of the plant-thing 
  and fall free. Still, they suffer 2 points of 
  One of the raptormen 
  carries a cypher (a 
  chemical vial that is a 
  curative, combat effort 
  enhancer, meditation aid, 
  or strength boost).
  
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  9
  HOW YOU SAY BIG…UH…FEETS?
  A duo of Gigantopithecus blacki, colloquially 
  known as “bigfeet,” have been snatched 
  from Earth at a vibrational frequency of 
  4,652 MHz, and the creatures are controlled 
  by switch 131. They are intelligent, and 
  represent the highest form of ape life on 
  their peaceful, silent world. The tubes 
  and tunnels of Gakona AFB are small, 
  constricting, and terrifying to the 10-foot-
  tall (3 m) beasts. They are certain the tiny 
  pink apes are responsible for their sudden 
  displacement. 
  Goals:
  • Hide and Stalk!: Despite their scale, the 
  Gigantopithecus blacki are shy, withdrawn 
  creatures. They will hide, fleeing away 
  from any sound, and only when they feel 
  they are unobserved will they double 
  back to track the PCs (or any other 
  living thing). After a time, they begin to 
  Imitate! them.
  • Imitate!: If exposed long enough to any 
  creature or threat, the Gigantopithecus 
  blacki learn to imitate its vocalizations 
  perfectly. Anytime they overhear a 
  human shouting something (like 
  “stop!” or “no!” or any command in 
  any language), they can replicate the 
  sound exactly. They are smart enough to 
  associate names with particular Gakona 
  AFB crew members if they stalk their 
  target long enough. 
  • Disable!: If confronted, the 
  Gigantopithecus blacki will attempt to 
  smash the target into unconsciousness, 
  but they’ll try their best not to kill it.
  Cross-Interactions:
  • Against the Plant in the Walls!: The 
  Gigantopithecus blacki smash and eat it!
  • Against the Raptormen!: The 
  Gigantopithecus blacki run away and stalk 
  the raptormen!
  • Against the Fifth Reich!: The 
  Gigantopithecus blacki smash the Fifth 
  Reich agents and run (but then stalk 
  them)!
  • Against Double Duty!: The 
  Gigantopithecus blacki run away (but 
  then stalk the doubles)!
  liquid on a bandolier shaped out of some 
  sort of leather. 
  Goals:
  • Stun! (or Kill!): The raptormen will 
  attempt to hit the target with their 
  red chemical vial to stun the target. If 
  the target is stunned, they attempt to 
  kidnap the target. If a target injures any 
  raptormen, they shift their attacks to 
  kill, and will lead with a chemical assault 
  followed by a claw and bite attack. 
  • Kidnap!: The raptormen lash any 
  stunned target with a weird, weblike 
  netting made of some sort of animal 
  skin and pull the target off at high 
  speed. They settle in somewhere in the 
  tunnels and set a guard—and then two 
  of the raptormen move on to Study!
  • Study!: A kidnapped target is subjected 
  to weird howls and hoots from the 
  raptormen, who have never seen a 
  mammal larger than a field mouse. They 
  have no knowledge of technology, and 
  devices such as radios will be baffling 
  and very interesting to them.
  Cross-Interactions:
  • Against the Plant in the Walls!: The 
  raptormen attack with the red chemical. 
  When the plant is poisoned, the 
  raptormen will wait for it to die and then 
  take samples.
  • Against How You Say Big…uh…feets?: 
  The raptormen attack with the yellow 
  chemical (bigfoot slip-and-slide)! If they 
  can’t kill one Gigantopithecus blacki in 
  three or four rounds once it is hit, the 
  raptormen will flee.
  • Against the Fifth Reich!: The raptormen 
  capture and study the Fifth Reich agents 
  as they would normal PCs! They will 
  strip all of them of their vacuum suits 
  and drag them around in their net, 
  hooting and poking and prodding them. 
  • Against Double Duty!: The raptormen 
  capture and study the doubles as they 
  would normal PCs! They will drag them 
  around in their net, hooting and poking 
  and prodding them.
  Raptorman: level 6, 
  perception, jumping, 
  running, and climbing as 
  level 7; health 22; Armor 1; 
  red chemical attack stuns 
  (Might); claw and bite 
  attack inflicts 6 points of 
  damage; blue chemical 
  attack causes disorientation 
  (Intellect); yellow chemical 
  attack causes target to 
  slip and fall (Speed); each 
  calls for a single difficulty 
  5 Might-, Intellect-, or 
  Speed-based task to avoid a 
  negative effect; if the victim 
  is affected, all actions for 
  that stat are treated as two 
  steps more difficult for an 
  hour
  Gigantopithecus blacki: 
  level 8, stealth, lifting, 
  smashing, and running as 
  level 9; health 50; Armor 1; 
  flailing arm smash inflicts 8 
  points of damage
  At the end of the bigfoot 
  encounter, every character 
  should get a subtle cypher.
  Subtle Cypher, page 343
  
  10
  Goals:
  • Locate and Contain!: The Fifth Reich is 
  here for one purpose: to document this 
  reality. They will investigate everything 
  they come across, paying special 
  attention to books or printed materials, 
  and they will collect small cultural 
  tokens from Gakona AFB. Once they 
  locate people, they will hunt them down.
  • Subdue and Transmit!: They have visited 
  hundreds of other worlds, but none 
  of them was an Earth where Germany 
  was defeated. Once they have subdued 
  targets, they will use their bizarre 
  transdimensional radio equipment to 
  radio Munich on Earth at a vibrational 
  frequency of 17 MHz—and tell them to 
  send more troops!
  • Exterminate!: Once their reinforcements 
  arrive, they will line up their prisoners 
  and dispatch them with ruthless 
  efficiency.
  Cross-Interactions:
  • Against the Plant in the Walls!: The 
  agents of the Fifth Reich use their 
  FIFTH REICH!
  A team of seven extradimensional explorers 
  from the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik, 
  Munich, on Earth at a vibrational frequency 
  of 17 MHz, has come through a portal to 
  investigate the strange world on the other 
  side. They are controlled by switch 541. 
  They come from an Earth where the Allies 
  conceded the war in 1957, England and 
  Russia are now German colonies, and the 
  United States barely hangs on in the midst 
  of a second Civil War. The agents of the Fifth 
  Reich are well armed and wearing vacuum 
  suits. They are under orders to kill and bring 
  back any odd specimens they might find on 
  the other side of the portal (including the 
  PCs). If any of the explorers is injured, they 
  very much subscribe to the “shoot first and 
  ask questions later” school of thought.  
  If they capture any normal human PCs, 
  one member of their team who spent the 
  early 1950s occupying England and speaks 
  English will interrogate a PC—possibly the 
  highest-ranking PC—and then compare 
  notes with his compatriots. 
  Agent of the Fifth Reich: 
  level 5, attacks as level 6, 
  science and technology as 
  level 7; health 18; Armor 
  1 (vacuum suit provides 
  24 hours of atmosphere 
  and +10 to Armor against 
  extreme temperatures); 
  thermite grenade inflicts 
  5 points of damage in 
  immediate radius; machine 
  gun inflicts 4 points of 
  damage
  The leader of the Reich 
  team carries two cyphers.
  
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  11
  AN ENCOUNTER DOES NOT 
  (NECESSARILY) MEAN COMBAT!
  Change it up. If the PCs have been in too 
  much combat, reel it back and let them 
  observe one of the new threats from a place 
  of concealment, to discover its motivations 
  and actions at a distance, or even have such 
  a threat approach them in a nonthreatening 
  manner. Or, if you want to amp the players 
  up, have them find evidence or hear a noise 
  from a threat they have not yet seen. 
  WHEN IN DOUBT, HINT!
  Giant footprints, spent Nazi machine-gun 
  shells, weird glass vials, webbing, or clothing 
  from near-identical dimensional duplicates—
  any of these items can be thrown in to make 
  an otherwise standard hallway become 
  suddenly interesting. Take these moments 
  to tell a story. (If a lone Fifth Reich survivor 
  whose team was eaten by the plant-thing 
  fled up the hallway away from a bigfoot while 
  emptying his machine gun, what evidence 
  would that leave?) Doing so will cause the 
  players to slow down, take a moment, and try 
  to figure out what is going on. 
  EXTRADIMENSIONAL REPLACEMENTS
  Players whose characters are killed in their 
  attempt to save Gakona can be handed a 
  duplicate of their dead PC who is alive and 
  well, but from another dimension. In other 
  words, they get to play their character again, 
  but with slight changes. 
  E-2 AIRMAN ANGELA RUIZ FROM EARTH 
  (8,919 MHZ)
  PICK ONE DIMENSIONAL CHANGE:
  • You are incredibly cooperative.
  • You love small spaces.
  • You come from Tranquility Base, 
  Tycho—the fifty-first state.
  • You are a firebug; fire is your friend.
  • You once dated Fish.
  • You are an electronics expert.
  E-2 AIRMAN ALBERT “FISH” BOGOSTA 
  FROM EARTH (8,919 MHZ)
  PICK ONE DIMENSIONAL CHANGE:
  • You look the same, but you’re a foot 
  taller and built.
  • You tend to mouth off to everyone.
  thermite grenades to attack the plant-
  thing and take samples!
  • Against the Raptormen!: The 
  agents of the Fifth Reich use their 
  Maschinengewehr! (“Machine gun!”)
  • Against How You Say Big…uh…feets?: 
  The agents of the Fifth Reich use their 
  Maschinengewehr! (“Machine gun!”)
  • Against Double Duty!: The agents of the 
  Fifth Reich capture and question the 
  doubles as if they were normal PCs!
  DOUBLE DUTY!
  Doubles of PCs that died have wandered 
  over from Earth at a vibrational frequency 
  of 8,919 MHz—from their alternate Gakona 
  where they never died. They are controlled 
  by switch 777. For some reason, only dead 
  PCs do this (perhaps only one may exist 
  on a vibrational plane at any time). Each 
  duplicate is extremely similar to their “home 
  world” counterpart, with some obvious and 
  some not-so-obvious differences. 
  A NOTE (OR THREE) 
  ABOUT PACING
  This scenario is meant to be free-form and 
  flowing. It contains several independent 
  elements that can appear, move about 
  independently, and interact with one 
  another. Here are some tips about making it 
  flow smoothly.
  THERE ISN’T ONLY ONE!?
  The five distinct encounters are not the 
  only beasties wandering the halls. Feel free 
  to improvise—anything can be wandering 
  the tunnels at Gakona AFB. Even better, 
  just because you triumph in one encounter 
  doesn’t mean there aren’t more mutated 
  plants, raptormen, bigfeet, Fifth Reich 
  agents, or dimensional duplicates out there.
  THEY FIGHT EACH OTHER, TOO!
  The doors truly get blown off a scenario 
  like this when the weird extradimensional 
  groups cross each other’s path and mix 
  it up. Have the Fifth Reich get into a 
  machine-gun fight with the plant-thing, or 
  have the Gigantopithecus blacki capture a 
  raptorman—nothing is static.
  A newly-arrived duplicate 
  of a dead PC has a full 
  allotment of subtle cyphers.
  Subtle Cypher, page 343
  
  12
  • You’re just waiting for your chance 
  to expose and kill Berkman, who is 
  obviously a spy from another dimension.
  • You are extremely lax and just want to do 
  as little as possible.
  • You are eidetic; you remember anything 
  you’ve ever looked at or read.
  • You wear a standard-issue Air Force 
  stunner, which causes 2 points of 
  damage and stuns a target for one round.
  • You have one shot of “cure-all,” which 
  can immediately restore all Pools to full 
  (or an NPC to full health). 
  E-4 SENIOR AIRMAN MICHAEL 
  BERKMAN
  PICK ONE DIMENSIONAL CHANGE:
  • You are decisive and wise, and people 
  look up to you.
  • You formulate multiple plans, and fall back 
  on contingencies when things go south.
  • You are totally bald.
  • You can levitate and fly (covering up to 
  a short distance in one round), and you 
  think everyone else can as well. 
  • You have a cybernetic Web uplink in your 
  eye that lets you surf the Internet.
  • You’re pretty sure all the others are 
  shapeshifting aliens who need to be 
  destroyed. 
  ON THE SURFACE
  PCs who somehow manage to make it to 
  the surface when breakers are still turned 
  on and HAARP is still engaged are met by 
  one of the following sights (this sight will 
  change as switches are turned off below). 
  • As normal, but the moon is a huge, 
  unblemished sphere—super close to 
  Earth—with not a single crater or mark 
  on it.
  • As normal, but a ring surrounding the 
  Earth (like the ring around Saturn) 
  traces a vast ellipse in a purple sky.
  • As normal, but the snow is light 
  green, and clear, harmless tentacles 
  are wiggling in the snow everywhere, 
  apparently growing from the ground.
  • As normal, but some sort of huge, 
  oblong metal structure hangs in the 
  sky in orbit. It is about a quarter of the 
  • You always carry an automatic pistol (4 
  points of damage) on you.
  • You can speak and read Japanese, 
  German, and Italian.
  • Your parents had three of you, and your 
  brothers (called “bottle babies”) live in 
  New York City.
  • You are very overweight and out of shape. 
  E-2 AIRMAN KOLANI WATTS FROM 
  EARTH (8,919 MHZ)
  PICK ONE DIMENSIONAL CHANGE:
  • You are a cook, and you have no idea 
  about anything to do with electronics.
  • You are a coward and will do anything 
  you can to cover your own ass. 
  • You killed Fish Bogosta, but most likely he’s 
  here when you arrive. That’s kind of scary.
  • You are a team player and think everyone 
  has something to add to the process.
  • You grew up in Tala, Alaska, in a city built 
  in the crater left by a nuke detonated 
  underground.
  • You don’t feel secure unless you’re 
  carrying (or using) a machine gun.
  E-2 AIRMAN JOHN JOHNSON FROM 
  EARTH (8,919 MHZ)
  PICK ONE DIMENSIONAL CHANGE:
  • You were once the commander of the base, 
  but you lost your rank due to drug use.
  • Your family is filthy rich, and you have 
  tons of valuable knickknacks such as 
  electronics and video game systems.
  • You have a terrible memory and sense of 
  direction—you have no idea where you 
  are going in the facility.
  • Your keys look like the right keys, but 
  none of them work. 
  • You have two hand grenades you keep 
  on your person, just in case (6 points 
  damage in a 10-foot [3 m] radius).
  • You are a secret operative of the Fifth 
  Reich from Earth (17 MHz), waiting for 
  your chance.
  E-3 AIRMAN FIRST CLASS ELIZABETH 
  BLUMGARTNER
  PICK ONE DIMENSIONAL CHANGE:
  • You were born in Austin, but your 
  parents left right before it was leveled in 
  the first dimensional war.
  
  THE INFINITY SHIFT
  13
  If dead PCs have been replaced by 
  duplicates from Earth (8,919 MHz), when 
  that breaker is shut down, the doubles 
  remain permanently integrated into this 
  Earth (perhaps they “slot” in to their new 
  Earth, filling the gap in reality left behind 
  by their dead counterpart). Each threat that 
  is dismissed in this manner causes the 
  remaining frequencies to double up (more 
  of the threat from that location begins to 
  appear). 
  Bodies, equipment, and other items 
  brought through (except for the human 
  duplicates from Earth at 8,919 MHz) 
  vanish when their breaker is thrown, but 
  the damage they inflicted remains behind 
  (though bullets from the Fifth Reich 
  would vanish from inside injured PCs, for 
  example).
  The PCs will have a very hard time 
  explaining to their superiors just what 
  happened here unless they manage to turn 
  on the auxiliary or main power. If they do so, 
  a closed-circuit television system captures 
  everything in every room and hallway, no 
  matter how bizarre.
  moon in size, and it has some sort of 
  geometric logo on it.
  • As normal, but a small blue-white sun 
  hangs in the air next to a low giant red 
  sun. The sky is lit red-green, and the 
  snow is double its previous depth.
  • As normal, but the snow is covered in 
  weird, thin casings that resemble leaves. 
  It takes a moment to realize they are 
  all just the desiccated, hollowed-out 
  exoskeletons of dead bugs. Occasional 
  swarms of these bugs fly in the distance, 
  boiling across the sky.
  No matter what, the surface is 
  inhospitable arctic tundra, and there’s no 
  real way out of Gakona. It should be clear 
  that if the PCs leave on foot, they will die of 
  exposure long before they find another soul.
  RESOLUTION
  Turning off all the breakers is the only clear 
  resolution to the problem of BROWNCOW. 
  Once a breaker is switched off, turning it 
  back on does nothing. The dimensional 
  effect does not return. 
  
  GM’S NOTES
  
  TM
  ATTACKS
  NAME
  DESCRIPTOR
  TYPE
  FOCUS
  IS A
  WHO
  TIER
  EFFORT
  XP
  MIGHT
  ARMOR
  MONEY
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
  SPEED
  INTELLECT
  SPECIAL ABILITIES
  RECOVERY ROLLS
  DAMAGE TRACK
  CYPHERS
  EQUIPMENT
  SKILLS • MIGHT
   T 
  S 
  I
   MOD 
  DAM
  LIMIT
  1 ACTION
  10 MINS
  IMPAIRED
  1 HOUR
  10 HOURS
  1d6+
  +1 Efort per level
  Ignore minor and major 
  efect results on rolls
  Combat roll of 17-20 
  deals only +1 damage
  DEBILITATED
  Can move only an 
  immediate distance
  Cannot move if Speed 
  Pool is 0
  ADVANCEMENT
  INCREASE
  CAPABILITIES
  +4 points into
  stat Pools
  MOVE TOWARD
  PERFECTION
  +1 to the Edge
  of your choice
  EXTRA
  EFFORT
  +1 into Efort
  SKILL
  TRAINING
  Train in a skill or specialize 
  in a trained skill
  T = trained, S = specialized, I = inability
  OTHER
  Refer to the
  SKILLS • SPEED
   T 
  S 
  I
  SKILLS • INTELLECT
   T 
  S 
  I
  Cypher System
  Rulebook
  E-2 Airman Angela Ruiz
  Practiced With Light and Medium Weapons
  Danger Sense (1 Speed point): The difficulty of your initiative roll is 
  reduced by one step. Enabler. 
  Fleet of Foot: If you succeed at a difficulty 2 Speed roll to run, you 
  can move a short distance and take an action in the same round. 
  Enabler. 
  No Need for Weapons: When you make an unarmed attack (such 
  as a punch or kick), you can choose whether it is considered a 
  medium weapon or a light weapon. Enabler. 
  Surging Confidence (1 Might point): When you use an action to 
  make your first recovery roll of the day, you immediately gain 
  another action. Enabler. 
  Utility knife
  Lighter
  Climbing 
  X
  Intellect defense tasks 
  X
  Discerning the truth, piercing disguises, and
       recognizing falsehoods 
  X
  Computers 
  X
  Deception or persuasion 
   
   
  X
  Utility knife 
  -1 
  2
  Doesn’t Do Much
  1
  10
  2
  15
  11
  1
  1
  Guarded
  Explorer
  
  BACKGROUND
  NOTES
  PORTRAIT
  You are from Boston, Massachusetts, and Gakona is as 
  close to open wilderness as you ever hope to come. In the 
  beginning, that wilderness was magical, but now, you are 
  absolutely sick to death of everyone, and since the winter 
  has come, you’re trapped underground with them. You’ve 
  been here for two years, and that’s two years too long. You 
  were dumped in this hole because you dated and then 
  dumped an E-3 at Andrews AFB, and he had his revenge by 
  getting you reassigned. Now you do what you can to ruin 
  all E-3s’ lives whenever you come across one. At Gakona, 
  you know everyone so well—too well. So much so that 
  you know what everyone is going to say before they say it. 
  You do your best to avoid work by making yourself scarce. 
  Often, you find solace in the nooks and crannies off the 
  utility tunnels—you’ve been building yourself a nest in a 
  small closet out there, having managed to smuggle in food, 
  some water, and an old integrated TV/VCR. You’ve only got 
  ten tests until this place is mothballed. 
  You are very good at arguing; in fact, it might be your 
  calling.
  You are claustrophobic in very small places such as pipes 
  or access tunnels.
  You have a hideout in the facility no one else knows 
  about.
  You want to ruin E-3 AFC Elizabeth Blumgartner’s life 
  without being caught.
  You kind of hate everyone’s guts (though Fish Bogosta is 
  okay).
  Your job is to make sure the test is a success, whatever 
  that takes.
  
  TM
  ATTACKS
  NAME
  DESCRIPTOR
  TYPE
  FOCUS
  IS A
  WHO
  TIER
  EFFORT
  XP
  MIGHT
  ARMOR
  MONEY
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
  SPEED
  INTELLECT
  SPECIAL ABILITIES
  RECOVERY ROLLS
  DAMAGE TRACK
  CYPHERS
  EQUIPMENT
  SKILLS • MIGHT
   T 
  S 
  I
   MOD 
  DAM
  LIMIT
  1 ACTION
  10 MINS
  IMPAIRED
  1 HOUR
  10 HOURS
  1d6+
  +1 Efort per level
  Ignore minor and major 
  efect results on rolls
  Combat roll of 17-20 
  deals only +1 damage
  DEBILITATED
  Can move only an 
  immediate distance
  Cannot move if Speed 
  Pool is 0
  ADVANCEMENT
  INCREASE
  CAPABILITIES
  +4 points into
  stat Pools
  MOVE TOWARD
  PERFECTION
  +1 to the Edge
  of your choice
  EXTRA
  EFFORT
  +1 into Efort
  SKILL
  TRAINING
  Train in a skill or specialize 
  in a trained skill
  T = trained, S = specialized, I = inability
  OTHER
  Refer to the
  SKILLS • SPEED
   T 
  S 
  I
  SKILLS • INTELLECT
   T 
  S 
  I
  Cypher System
  Rulebook
  E-2 Airman Albert “Fish” Bogosta
  Practiced With Light Weapons
  Computer Programming: You are trained in using (and exploiting) 
  computer software, you know one or more computer languages 
  well enough to write basic programs, and you are fluent in Internet 
  protocol. Enabler. 
  Encouragement (1 Intellect point): While you maintain this ability 
  through ongoing inspiring oration, your allies within short range 
  modify the difficulty of one of the following task types (your choice) 
  by one step to their benefit: defense tasks, attack tasks, or tasks 
  related to any skill that you are trained or specialized in. Action. 
  Fast Talk (1 Intellect point): When speaking with an intelligent 
  creature who can understand you and isn’t hostile, you convince 
  that creature to take one reasonable action in the next round. A 
  continued on back
  Electronics 
  X
  Oratory 
  X
  Pleasant social interactions 
  X
  Computer programming 
  X
  Detecting falsehoods in speech and mannerisms 
   
   
  X
  Works the System
  1
  11
  2
  12
  13
  1
  1
  Kind
  Speaker
  Utility knife
  Electronics toolkit (soldering iron, wire, electrical 
  tape, etc.)
  Utility knife 
  -1 
  2
  
  BACKGROUND
  NOTES
  PORTRAIT
  You are from Tampa, Florida. Everyone calls you “Fish,” and 
  it’s either because of your bug eyes, or the fact that you’re 
  the only one who likes the frozen fish sticks—you’re afraid 
  to ask. Gakona is a dump, but it’s your dump, and you do 
  your best to keep it running. Maybe, sometime, someone 
  will notice and get your ass out of here. Though everyone 
  keeps talking about the station being “end-of-life,” you just 
  can’t imagine it closing down. Everyone here is okay, and 
  you do your best to please anyone you can, within reason. 
  People sometimes call you a “kiss ass,” but you prefer the 
  term “operationally motivated.” You know your way around 
  a high-energy radar array and transceiver, and—miracle of 
  miracles—you’re self-taught. What else are you going to 
  do when you can’t go outside nine months out of the year, 
  after all? You can only play so many games of Master of 
  Orion.
  You are good with electronics.
  You must kiss ass straight up the chain of command.
  You are neutral. Everyone tolerates you (within reason).
  You love Gakona, and want to keep it in tip-top shape.
  You can climb, crawl, and maneuver through all the 
  nooks and crannies of the base.
  Your job is to run to breakers, or troubleshoot problems 
  as needed on the fly.
  reasonable action must be agreed upon by the GM; it should not 
  put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of 
  character. Action. 
  Hack the Impossible (3 Intellect points): You can persuade 
  automatons, machines, and computers to do your bidding. You 
  can discover an encrypted password, break through security on a 
  website, briefly turn off a machine such as a surveillance camera, or 
  disable a robot with a moment’s worth of fiddling. Action. 
  Interaction Skills: You are trained in two skills in which you are not 
  already trained. Enabler.
  Karma: Sometimes, strangers just help you out. To gain the aid of a 
  stranger, you must pay 1 XP to the GM, and the GM determines the 
  nature of the aid you gain. Usually, the act of kindness isn’t enough 
  to turn a bad situation completely around, but it may moderate a 
  bad situation and lead to new opportunities. For example, if you are 
  captured, a guard loosens your bonds slightly, brings you water, or 
  delivers a message. 
  Understanding (2 Intellect points): You observe or study a creature 
  or object. The next time you interact with it, the difficulty of the 
  related task is reduced by one step. Action. 
  Special Abilities (continued)
  
  TM
  ATTACKS
  NAME
  DESCRIPTOR
  TYPE
  FOCUS
  IS A
  WHO
  TIER
  EFFORT
  XP
  MIGHT
  ARMOR
  MONEY
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
  SPEED
  INTELLECT
  SPECIAL ABILITIES
  RECOVERY ROLLS
  DAMAGE TRACK
  CYPHERS
  EQUIPMENT
  SKILLS • MIGHT
   T 
  S 
  I
   MOD 
  DAM
  LIMIT
  1 ACTION
  10 MINS
  IMPAIRED
  1 HOUR
  10 HOURS
  1d6+
  +1 Efort per level
  Ignore minor and major 
  efect results on rolls
  Combat roll of 17-20 
  deals only +1 damage
  DEBILITATED
  Can move only an 
  immediate distance
  Cannot move if Speed 
  Pool is 0
  ADVANCEMENT
  INCREASE
  CAPABILITIES
  +4 points into
  stat Pools
  MOVE TOWARD
  PERFECTION
  +1 to the Edge
  of your choice
  EXTRA
  EFFORT
  +1 into Efort
  SKILL
  TRAINING
  Train in a skill or specialize 
  in a trained skill
  T = trained, S = specialized, I = inability
  OTHER
  Refer to the
  SKILLS • SPEED
   T 
  S 
  I
  SKILLS • INTELLECT
   T 
  S 
  I
  Cypher System
  Rulebook
  E-2 Airman Kolani Watts
  Practiced With Light and Medium Weapons
  Bold: You are trained in all actions that involve overcoming or 
  ignoring the effects of fear or intimidation. 
  Brawler: You inflict 1 additional point of damage in melee 
  (including with your bare fists). 
  Endurance: Any duration dealing with physical actions is either 
  doubled or halved, whichever is better for you. For example, if 
  the typical person can hold his breath for thirty seconds, you can 
  hold it for one minute. If the typical person can march for four 
  hours without stopping, you can do so for eight hours. In terms 
  of harmful effects, if a poison paralyzes its victims for one minute, 
  you are paralyzed for thirty seconds. The minimum duration is 
  always one round. Enabler. 
  Looks for Trouble
  1
  12
  2
  15
  9
  1
  1
  Brash
  Explorer
  continued on back
  Utility knife
  Four golf balls
  Tiny bottle of super glue
  Utility knife 
  -1 
  2
  
  BACKGROUND
  NOTES
  PORTRAIT
  You are from Chicago, Illinois. You play basketball in the 
  gymnasium to make certain you don’t kill anyone, because 
  man, everyone here has their idiot dial turned up to 11. 
  It’s not an irrational hate either. Each person here (except 
  maybe Fish Bogosta, who just does his job and tries to stay 
  out of the way) is just a unique piece of work. You trained in 
  radios, communications, and ELF arrays, and you’re here to 
  make sure that when Sandia or Wyoming rings up Gakona, 
  the connection comes through loud and clear. As far as you 
  can tell, HAARP is just another multibillion-dollar waste of 
  money that will amount to nothing; but some of the stuff 
  here is weird. When they shutter this place, you’ll dance 
  on its grave. And that can’t happen soon enough for your 
  liking.
  You are an expert on radios, radiation, and 
  communication equipment.
  You are forced to prove yourself whenever directly 
  challenged.
  You dislike everyone except Fish Bogosta.
  You are brave, and despite not liking most of the crew, 
  you’ll try your best to help them.
  You just want to do your job without having to answer to 
  stupid people.
  Your job is to keep the radio operating.
  Fleet of Foot: If you succeed at a difficulty 2 Speed roll to run, you 
  can move a short distance and take an action in the same round. 
  Enabler. 
  Muscles of Iron (2 Might points): For the next ten minutes, the 
  difficulty of all Might-based actions other than attack rolls that you 
  attempt is reduced by one step. Enabler. 
  Surging Confidence (1 Might point): When you use an action to 
  make your first recovery roll of the day, you immediately gain 
  another action. Enabler. 
  Wound Tender: You are trained in healing. 
  Special Abilities (continued)
  
  TM
  ATTACKS
  NAME
  DESCRIPTOR
  TYPE
  FOCUS
  IS A
  WHO
  TIER
  EFFORT
  XP
  MIGHT
  ARMOR
  MONEY
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
  SPEED
  INTELLECT
  SPECIAL ABILITIES
  RECOVERY ROLLS
  DAMAGE TRACK
  CYPHERS
  EQUIPMENT
  SKILLS • MIGHT
   T 
  S 
  I
   MOD 
  DAM
  LIMIT
  1 ACTION
  10 MINS
  IMPAIRED
  1 HOUR
  10 HOURS
  1d6+
  +1 Efort per level
  Ignore minor and major 
  efect results on rolls
  Combat roll of 17-20 
  deals only +1 damage
  DEBILITATED
  Can move only an 
  immediate distance
  Cannot move if Speed 
  Pool is 0
  ADVANCEMENT
  INCREASE
  CAPABILITIES
  +4 points into
  stat Pools
  MOVE TOWARD
  PERFECTION
  +1 to the Edge
  of your choice
  EXTRA
  EFFORT
  +1 into Efort
  SKILL
  TRAINING
  Train in a skill or specialize 
  in a trained skill
  T = trained, S = specialized, I = inability
  OTHER
  Refer to the
  SKILLS • SPEED
   T 
  S 
  I
  SKILLS • INTELLECT
   T 
  S 
  I
  Cypher System
  Rulebook
  E-2 Airman John Johnson
  Practiced With All Weapons
  Bash (1 Might point): This is a pummeling melee attack. Your 
  attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal but dazes your 
  target for one round, during which time the difficulty of all tasks it 
  performs is modified by one step to its detriment. Action. 
  Control the Field (1 Might point): This melee attack inflicts 1 less 
  point of damage than normal, but regardless of whether you hit the 
  target, you maneuver it into a position you desire within immediate 
  range. Action. 
  Levity: Through wit, charm, humor, and grace, you are trained 
  in all social interactions other than those involving coercion or 
  intimidation. During rests, you put friends and comrades at ease 
  so much that they gain +1 to their recovery rolls. Enabler. 
  Intimidation 
  X
  Perception 
  X
  Trivia 
  X
  Entertains
  1
  10
  2
  14
  12
  1
  1
  Perceptive
  Warrior
  continued on back
  Utility knife
  Giant tangled keyring
  Scary clown mask
  Utility knife 
  -1 
  2
  
  BACKGROUND
  NOTES
  PORTRAIT
  Your name is John Johnson, and you’re not from Wisconsin 
  (something you’ve been asked countless times). You’re 
  from Riley, Minnesota. Gakona is not too much different: 
  snow, some trees, animals, nothing… You know, a life 
  of isolation. Living at Gakona is like living on a very big 
  submarine. You wander the halls with your mop and bucket, 
  polishing your way back and forth around the miles of 
  corridors while listening to the Grateful Dead on your iPod. 
  When you reach one end of the facility, you start again and 
  go back the other way. You figure you’ll cover the whole 
  facility another forty to fifty times before it’s closed for 
  good.
  You have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the areas of 
  the facility.
  You have keys to all rooms, doors, and corridors.
  You tend to say precisely what’s on your mind all the time 
  (this is usually not good).
  You hate talking to groups of people; one on one you’re 
  usually OK, but in groups you sometimes freeze up.
  A month ago, you found an armory closet no one 
  seems to know is there. It’s filled with Cold War ordnance: 
  grenades, machine guns, ammo—heck, there are a dozen 
  LAW rockets in there! You cleaned the floor and left without 
  mentioning it to anyone.
  Your job is to clean stuff up and, sometimes, to point 
  people to the proper location.
  No Need for Weapons: When you make an unarmed attack (such 
  as a punch or kick), it counts as a medium weapon instead of a 
  light weapon. Enabler. 
  Swipe (1 Speed point): This is a quick, agile melee attack. Your 
  attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal but dazes your 
  target for one round, during which time the difficulty of all tasks it 
  performs is modified by one step to its detriment. Action. 
  Special Abilities (continued)
  
  TM
  ATTACKS
  NAME
  DESCRIPTOR
  TYPE
  FOCUS
  IS A
  WHO
  TIER
  EFFORT
  XP
  MIGHT
  ARMOR
  MONEY
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
  SPEED
  INTELLECT
  SPECIAL ABILITIES
  RECOVERY ROLLS
  DAMAGE TRACK
  CYPHERS
  EQUIPMENT
  SKILLS • MIGHT
   T 
  S 
  I
   MOD 
  DAM
  LIMIT
  1 ACTION
  10 MINS
  IMPAIRED
  1 HOUR
  10 HOURS
  1d6+
  +1 Efort per level
  Ignore minor and major 
  efect results on rolls
  Combat roll of 17-20 
  deals only +1 damage
  DEBILITATED
  Can move only an 
  immediate distance
  Cannot move if Speed 
  Pool is 0
  ADVANCEMENT
  INCREASE
  CAPABILITIES
  +4 points into
  stat Pools
  MOVE TOWARD
  PERFECTION
  +1 to the Edge
  of your choice
  EXTRA
  EFFORT
  +1 into Efort
  SKILL
  TRAINING
  Train in a skill or specialize 
  in a trained skill
  T = trained, S = specialized, I = inability
  OTHER
  Refer to the
  SKILLS • SPEED
   T 
  S 
  I
  SKILLS • INTELLECT
   T 
  S 
  I
  Cypher System
  Rulebook
  E-3 Airman First Class Elizabeth Blumgartner
  Practiced With Light Weapons
  Aggression (2 Intellect points): Your words twist the mind of 
  a character within short range who is able to understand you, 
  unlocking her more primitive instincts. As a result, she gains an 
  asset on her Might-based attack rolls for one minute. Action to 
  initiate. 
  Enthrall (1 Intellect point): While talking, you grab and keep another 
  creature’s attention, even if the creature can’t understand you. For 
  as long as you do nothing but speak (you can’t even move), the 
  other creature takes no actions other than to defend itself, even 
  over multiple rounds. If the creature is attacked, the effect ends. 
  Action. 
  Fast Talk (1 Intellect point): When speaking with an intelligent 
  Intellect defense actions 
  X
  Daily skill 
  X
  Perception 
   
   
  X
  Fights Dirty
  1
  10
  2
  15
  11
  1
  1
  Driven
  Speaker
  continued on back
  Utility knife
  Tin full of powerful breath mints
  Standard toolkit (screwdriver, hammer, etc.)
  Utility knife 
  -1 
  2
  
  BACKGROUND
  NOTES
  PORTRAIT
  You were raised in Sacramento, California. Gakona is the 
  result of your pushing your luck just one step too far. You 
  were this close to promotion to staff sergeant at Whidbey 
  Island when you were caught off base after hours—line 
  dancing of all things. NO ONE MUST KNOW. At Gakona, 
  you thought you’d have the highest rank, but then 
  “Jerkman” (Senior Airman Berkman) showed up. Now you 
  need to play second fiddle to a person who thinks Euripides 
  is a side dish at a Greek restaurant. So it goes. You can get 
  through anything. If you play your cards right and make it 
  through these last few tests, you can get reassigned back to 
  the world and catch that elusive promotion.
  You pretend to be super nice in front of Senior Airman 
  Berkman.
  You are mean and petty to the other personnel when 
  Berkman is not present.
  You are a stickler; everything must be completed 
  perfectly, or it is not completed at all.
  You try (and often fail) to quote deep and meaningful 
  philosophy.
  You go by the book. You’re no-nonsense and kind of 
  annoying—you like the limited power you have over the 
  others.
  Your job is to keep all the E-2 knuckleheads in line and 
  follow orders from E-4 Berkman.
  creature who can understand you and isn’t hostile, you convince 
  that creature to take one reasonable action in the next round. A 
  reasonable action must be agreed upon by the GM; it should not 
  put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of 
  character. Action. 
  Liar: You are trained in all forms of deception. Enabler. 
  Spin Identity (2+ Intellect points): You convince all intelligent 
  creatures who can see, hear, and understand you that you are 
  someone or something other than who you actually are. You 
  don’t impersonate a specific individual known to the victim. 
  Instead, you convince the victim that you are someone they do not 
  know belonging to a certain category of people. “We’re from the 
  government.” “I’m just a simple farmer from the next town over.” 
  “Your commander sent me.” A disguise isn’t necessary, but a good 
  disguise will almost certainly be an asset to the roll involved. If 
  you attempt to convince more than one creature, the Intellect cost 
  increases by 1 point per additional victim. Fooled creatures remain 
  so for up to an hour, unless your actions or other circumstances 
  reveal your true identity earlier. Action. 
  Taking Advantage: When your foe is weakened, dazed, stunned, 
  moved down the damage track, or disadvantaged in some other 
  way, the difficulty of your attacks against that foe is decreased by 
  one step beyond any other modifications due to the disadvantage. 
  Enabler. 
  Special Abilities (continued)
  
  TM
  ATTACKS
  NAME
  DESCRIPTOR
  TYPE
  FOCUS
  IS A
  WHO
  TIER
  EFFORT
  XP
  MIGHT
  ARMOR
  MONEY
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
   
  POOL 
  EDGE
  SPEED
  INTELLECT
  SPECIAL ABILITIES
  RECOVERY ROLLS
  DAMAGE TRACK
  CYPHERS
  EQUIPMENT
  SKILLS • MIGHT
   T 
  S 
  I
   MOD 
  DAM
  LIMIT
  1 ACTION
  10 MINS
  IMPAIRED
  1 HOUR
  10 HOURS
  1d6+
  +1 Efort per level
  Ignore minor and major 
  efect results on rolls
  Combat roll of 17-20 
  deals only +1 damage
  DEBILITATED
  Can move only an 
  immediate distance
  Cannot move if Speed 
  Pool is 0
  ADVANCEMENT
  INCREASE
  CAPABILITIES
  +4 points into
  stat Pools
  MOVE TOWARD
  PERFECTION
  +1 to the Edge
  of your choice
  EXTRA
  EFFORT
  +1 into Efort
  SKILL
  TRAINING
  Train in a skill or specialize 
  in a trained skill
  T = trained, S = specialized, I = inability
  OTHER
  Refer to the
  SKILLS • SPEED
   T 
  S 
  I
  SKILLS • INTELLECT
   T 
  S 
  I
  Cypher System
  Rulebook
  E-4 Senior Airman Michael Berkman
  Practiced With All Weapons
  Bash (1 Might point): This is a pummeling melee attack. Your 
  attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal, but dazes your 
  target for one round, during which time the difficulty of all tasks it 
  performs is modified by one step to its detriment. Action. 
  Fresh: You add +1 to your recovery rolls. 
  Incorruptible: You are trained in Intellect defense tasks and all tasks 
  that involve resisting temptation. 
  No Need for Weapons: When you make an unarmed attack (such 
  as a punch or kick), it counts as a medium weapon instead of a 
  light weapon. Enabler. 
  Swipe (1 Speed point): This is a quick, agile melee attack. Your 
  attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal but dazes your 
  Perception 
  X
  Cooking 
  X
  Climbing 
  X
  Would Rather Be Reading
  1
  14
  2
  10
  10
  1
  1
  Naive
  Warrior
  continued on back
  Utility knife
  Football
  Battered paperback fantasy novel
  Utility knife 
  -1 
  2
  
  BACKGROUND
  NOTES
  PORTRAIT
  You were raised in Dayton, Ohio. Listen, you have no idea 
  how you got here, okay, man? Dude. You’re big and good-
  looking, and you can follow basic instructions. You’re well 
  read (I mean, you LOVE books), but heck, you don’t really 
  like school. Still, after you read the E-4 manual, you walked 
  through your E-4 test without even really thinking about it, 
  and then you were on a plane to Alaska. It’s not really your 
  command (they have an E-6 technical sergeant who flies 
  in every half year or so), but you’re in charge while he’s not 
  here. You don’t like it any better than the people under you 
  like it. Why does this stuff always happen to you? 
  You often ask people what they think you should do, 
  despite the fact that this seems to upset them.
  No matter how hard you try (or how long you’re with the 
  same people), you can’t keep all their names straight.
  You really (like, really, really. man) want to help people, 
  but you always feel like you’re messing up.
  You are strong and fit—probably the strongest person on 
  base—and you often run and lift weights.
  Whenever you feel like you don’t know what to do next, 
  you try to call command on the radio.
  Your job is to keep Dr. Ionescu happy and make sure 
  BROWNCOW goes off without a hitch.
  target for one round, during which time the difficulty of all tasks it 
  performs is modified by one step to its detriment. Action. 
  Thrust (1 Might point): This is a powerful melee stab. You make an 
  attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if your weapon has a 
  sharp edge or point. Action. 
  Special Abilities (continued)
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Cypher System/Adventures/The Infinity Shift.pdf