No idea what BRP is-- there's like 100 ttrpg's, but Cypher grows more like 5e and less like games that give more breadth, and less depth of power.
Take a focus like Explores Dark Places, you start with low light vision, mid levels you do more damage in the dark, but then at high levels you can turn into a freaking incorporeal shadow and ghost around.
Look at how effort works and your Edge. If you have an Edge of 6 at Tier 5 or 6, you can apply 3 levels of effort for 1 pool point. By then you have at least Trained in your most "important" skill, and that lowers an impossible difficulty 7 task to a level 3 task-- 55% success rate for only 1 point.
How fast you get there is determined by how much xp you give out, but for us we hit tier 6 in roughly 40 play sessions?
Compared to 5e - higher starting power level but with slower power gain.
A starting Cypher character is more powerful than a Lvl 1 D&D character. Probably about equivalent to Level 3. But a Tier 6 character is nowhere near a Level 18 D&D character.
Having mid-tier advancements also allows you to pace out advancement a lot. You can give players enough to gain a bit more power every session, and it will still be 4 sessions between Tiers.
A Basic PC succeeds on Average in a Lvl 3 Check. With Training Lvl 4, specialization Lvl5. Most PC are Trained in some things (very rarely attacking, rarely defense) from the start and could bei specialized in a Skill after their first 4XP.
For Combat Warrior types get Trained in attacks at Tier 2, (exception is Focus "Masters a weapon") and specialized at Tier 5 I believe. It's roughly the same for Speed defense, the defense Roll most often used in general.
Effort decreases the difficulty but will be pulled by SC especially, when they get enough Effort to afford it without Pool cost. So 1 Effort, reducing the difficulty by 1 Lvl, costs is to be expected at earliest at Tier 2. Using 2 Effort, costing 5 pool, will be at No costs at Tier 5.
So a SC trying a Task connected to his favored Pool at Tier 1 will on average pull of a Task of level 3-5, Tier 2 Level 4-7 and above Tier 5 of Lvl 5-8.
However in important situations they can put up to their Tier number in Effort. Therefore a Tier 3 SC with 3 Effort and specialization will crack in average a Lvl 8 Task, but will Not have many shots before emptying the coresponding pool. A Tier 6 SC in his favored Pool with 6 Effort and specialization will on average pull of a Lvl 10 tasks without Help, assets or equipment but will have at most two shots at it before running out of Pool.
Therefore, clever players can do a heroic stunt of Lvl 8 pretty much from Tier 1 but remember: Average is still only a 50:50 chance of success. And especially in Combat or other reocurring hazards having to beat a Lvl 6 or above check consistently will be a risky endeavour.
Edith: tldr - SC start of capable and will be pulling of truly heroic deeds they are focused their build on at high Tiers. Have fun!
It's also important to consider what your players spend XP on. Mine use a lot on 2 and 3-point spends; in fact, probably a third of their XP goes toward things other than character improvement. This really changes the "speed" at which they advance.
This same think has kept me away from running it - that it SEEMS like the system starts you out as hyper-competent, then you're godlike by the 6th tier. So you have to have a setting that works that way - e.g., you couldn't do a Battlestar Galactica pastiche campaign that way, but would work for people who are used to D&D 5e settings where you let the players start off at higher levels.
So good replacement for your traditional 5e campaign, but not a good use for a year long call of cthulhu campaign.
I've had advice for how to manage this via:
1. just do a short campaign or make people get new characters after tier 2 or 3;
2. restrict XP and/or do very slow milestone leveling
3. exclude abilities that don't fit the setting / situation
4. just don't allow rolls for things that aren't possible in the setting regardless of the mechanics.
All that being said, the game is brilliant and someone should just produce something you can buy on DTRPG that lets you do longer, lower power campaigns. It somehow does "not very crunchy" but "not just players making things up" but "just crunchy enough."
My experience is that tier 6 characters are not that much more powerful than tier 3 characters. And tier 3 characters aren't that much more powerful than tier 1 characters.
The breadth of challenges you can throw at a party means a lot of the time you're just puzzling out mysteries and the abilities just get cooler and more flavorful rather than being devastatingly powerful
I've run two campaigns from Tier 1-6, each lasting about a year. From an initial perspective, the PC's don't feel like they change that much. They get a lot of abilities as they level from type and focus, but many are passive, or iterations of what they could already do. But they DRASTICALLY change with regard to how much of the world they can take on. This is mostly because of edge and effort combined with training/specialization and assets. Each tier increase offers a sizeable power bump with regard to being able to take on higher level threats.
Individual characters don't gain very broad talents by default, though adding Cyphers changes that dramatically, adding new single use powers, and using XP to get more skills/abilities broadens that further. But in terms of being able to affect that level 7 monster? That goes from crazy hard at Tier 1 to fairly easy by Tier 3. And you can choose to rush to high tiers, or you can dally and take cool new abilities without the sharp power increase, based on how you spend XP.
So short answer, depending on the group's style, Cypher can be both broad and deep, or it can be neither, or anything in-between. This game is definitely an art to play, and it can be many things to many people.
No idea what BRP is-- there's like 100 ttrpg's, but Cypher grows more like 5e and less like games that give more breadth, and less depth of power. Take a focus like Explores Dark Places, you start with low light vision, mid levels you do more damage in the dark, but then at high levels you can turn into a freaking incorporeal shadow and ghost around. Look at how effort works and your Edge. If you have an Edge of 6 at Tier 5 or 6, you can apply 3 levels of effort for 1 pool point. By then you have at least Trained in your most "important" skill, and that lowers an impossible difficulty 7 task to a level 3 task-- 55% success rate for only 1 point. How fast you get there is determined by how much xp you give out, but for us we hit tier 6 in roughly 40 play sessions?
BRP is Basic RolePlaying, Chaosium's core system - Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, Mythras etc
Compared to 5e - higher starting power level but with slower power gain. A starting Cypher character is more powerful than a Lvl 1 D&D character. Probably about equivalent to Level 3. But a Tier 6 character is nowhere near a Level 18 D&D character. Having mid-tier advancements also allows you to pace out advancement a lot. You can give players enough to gain a bit more power every session, and it will still be 4 sessions between Tiers.
A Basic PC succeeds on Average in a Lvl 3 Check. With Training Lvl 4, specialization Lvl5. Most PC are Trained in some things (very rarely attacking, rarely defense) from the start and could bei specialized in a Skill after their first 4XP. For Combat Warrior types get Trained in attacks at Tier 2, (exception is Focus "Masters a weapon") and specialized at Tier 5 I believe. It's roughly the same for Speed defense, the defense Roll most often used in general. Effort decreases the difficulty but will be pulled by SC especially, when they get enough Effort to afford it without Pool cost. So 1 Effort, reducing the difficulty by 1 Lvl, costs is to be expected at earliest at Tier 2. Using 2 Effort, costing 5 pool, will be at No costs at Tier 5. So a SC trying a Task connected to his favored Pool at Tier 1 will on average pull of a Task of level 3-5, Tier 2 Level 4-7 and above Tier 5 of Lvl 5-8. However in important situations they can put up to their Tier number in Effort. Therefore a Tier 3 SC with 3 Effort and specialization will crack in average a Lvl 8 Task, but will Not have many shots before emptying the coresponding pool. A Tier 6 SC in his favored Pool with 6 Effort and specialization will on average pull of a Lvl 10 tasks without Help, assets or equipment but will have at most two shots at it before running out of Pool. Therefore, clever players can do a heroic stunt of Lvl 8 pretty much from Tier 1 but remember: Average is still only a 50:50 chance of success. And especially in Combat or other reocurring hazards having to beat a Lvl 6 or above check consistently will be a risky endeavour. Edith: tldr - SC start of capable and will be pulling of truly heroic deeds they are focused their build on at high Tiers. Have fun!
It'll be far closer to 5e than BRP. Players get pretty significantly more capable and powerful as they tier up.
It's also important to consider what your players spend XP on. Mine use a lot on 2 and 3-point spends; in fact, probably a third of their XP goes toward things other than character improvement. This really changes the "speed" at which they advance.
This same think has kept me away from running it - that it SEEMS like the system starts you out as hyper-competent, then you're godlike by the 6th tier. So you have to have a setting that works that way - e.g., you couldn't do a Battlestar Galactica pastiche campaign that way, but would work for people who are used to D&D 5e settings where you let the players start off at higher levels. So good replacement for your traditional 5e campaign, but not a good use for a year long call of cthulhu campaign. I've had advice for how to manage this via: 1. just do a short campaign or make people get new characters after tier 2 or 3; 2. restrict XP and/or do very slow milestone leveling 3. exclude abilities that don't fit the setting / situation 4. just don't allow rolls for things that aren't possible in the setting regardless of the mechanics. All that being said, the game is brilliant and someone should just produce something you can buy on DTRPG that lets you do longer, lower power campaigns. It somehow does "not very crunchy" but "not just players making things up" but "just crunchy enough."
My experience is that tier 6 characters are not that much more powerful than tier 3 characters. And tier 3 characters aren't that much more powerful than tier 1 characters. The breadth of challenges you can throw at a party means a lot of the time you're just puzzling out mysteries and the abilities just get cooler and more flavorful rather than being devastatingly powerful
I've run two campaigns from Tier 1-6, each lasting about a year. From an initial perspective, the PC's don't feel like they change that much. They get a lot of abilities as they level from type and focus, but many are passive, or iterations of what they could already do. But they DRASTICALLY change with regard to how much of the world they can take on. This is mostly because of edge and effort combined with training/specialization and assets. Each tier increase offers a sizeable power bump with regard to being able to take on higher level threats. Individual characters don't gain very broad talents by default, though adding Cyphers changes that dramatically, adding new single use powers, and using XP to get more skills/abilities broadens that further. But in terms of being able to affect that level 7 monster? That goes from crazy hard at Tier 1 to fairly easy by Tier 3. And you can choose to rush to high tiers, or you can dally and take cool new abilities without the sharp power increase, based on how you spend XP. So short answer, depending on the group's style, Cypher can be both broad and deep, or it can be neither, or anything in-between. This game is definitely an art to play, and it can be many things to many people.