MonteJCook

The Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe is probably one of the biggest influences on Numenera. Others would include Vance's Dying Earth, Moorcock's Hawkmoon, Nausicaa, and of course the artwork of Moebius and Philippe Druillet. Among many others.

From my perspective, it actually does just the opposite. We've seen wizards that can turn you into a frog a thousand times, but a sentient data cloud with the ability to alter the molecular bonds of matter around it to create bodies for itself? Smart liquid that can be shaped and hardened to create liquid objects like armor or weapons? Data encoded onto organic compounds so that secrets can literally be written in your cells? That's just cool.

To be clear, I'm not actually dissing fantasy or magic. Anyone who's even a little familiar with my work is going to know that I love fantasy and I love magic. But the take the Numenera has is invigorating and new, at least from my perspective, and that's exiciting.

And in the end, if you hate that approach, it's easily ignored. Most of the people of the Ninth World call it all magic and the supernatural. They call weird transdimensional beings "demons" and nigh-omnipotent intelligences "gods." Maybe they're right.

Locking Colin in a room is a given. It's for his own safety. And the safety of others.

Well, I'm actually playing two roles. Thanks to the Kickstarter, I'm one of the designers on the game, but I'm also the licensor. In that latter role, my job is make sure that the entire game fits into the Ninth World setting of Numenera and represents the tabletop game well to its fans. It's not so much "veto power" as just a working relationship that we all want to respect the original setting as well as the needs of both games.

Glad you liked the story.