House Rules: Expanded Cypher Use (Cypher System)

Expanded Cypher Capacity
The number of Cyphers a character can carry is doubled. This means that a Tier 1 Glave or Jack can carry four cyphers and a Nano can carry six. Similarly, abilities that increase the number of Cyphers a character can carry, such as the Adept Cypher Use, are also doubled (adding an additional 2 Cyphers).
Occultic Cyphers still require 2 slots to carry while Anoetic Cyphers require only one.

Reusable Cyphers
Cyphers are highly unstable and retain little charge, but they retain slightly more life. Cyphers gain a depletion roll. Such depletion rolls are generally 1 in d4. More "reliable" Cyphers might have a depletion of 1-2 on a d6, but even the most "stable" should never have a depletion of less than a 1-4 on d10. Obviously, some types of Cypher are completely inappropriate for this special rule (pills, elixirs, thrown devices, ammunition, etc). On the other hand, the more powerful the effect from a Cypher the more likely it is to burn out critical components or drain the device completely.

Scavenging
This replaces the rules on PG 280 and 298 describing scavenging Cyphers and Artifacts.
When exploring an area that does not see regular (humanoid) traffic or after an encounter (including any GM intrusion) a character can attempt to scavenge Numenera from the area. This is a difficulty 4 Intellect task which requires d6x10 minutes to complete. The duration is not known before attempting the task.
Trained in Numenera is always an applicable skill, as are Numenera Crafting skills (p107) if appropriate to the area. Other skills may elevate your proficiency to specialized (but not provide the basic trained level) if they are particularly appropriate. These types of skills include metalworking in an area of heavy industry or being skilled with identifying plants and animals (per the Lives in the Wilderness focus) in woodlands or jungle areas. Anything in the Ninth World can produce Numenera; acetylsalicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, was a derivative from willow bark and frogs that coat themselves with hallucinogenic oils are parts of the 21st century world. Even in the middle of a desert an unusual interaction with a patch of drit might cause it to reassemble into a device otherwise destroyed by corrosion, though it might as easily set off the Iron Winds.
Unlike normal rolls, do not reduce the difficult based on effort, assets, trained/specialized, etc. Instead add bonuses to the roll (generally +3 per level of difficulty reduction). The normal limits still apply (2 skill bonuses, 2 assets, Effort limit, etc). Further, regardless of bonuses, the roll always fails on a 3 or less on the d20, with a 1 producing a free GM intrusion.
If the check to discover Numenera is successful the character discovers at least 1 cypher. For each additional 3 points the character discovers an additional cypher. If the character would find 7 or more cyphers reduce the number of cyphers discovered by 7 and they discover an artifact. Scavenged Cyphers and Artifacts are randomly determined. The GM decides the form of the items (and how they are discovered) unless the player spends 1 XP to do so.

Artifacts
Universal Charger
Level: 1d6+3
Form: A small crystal rod
Effect: When the this rod is passed over a depleted Artifact you may reroll its depletion roll. On a successful roll the Artifact is reactivated. If passed over an expended Cypher a roll other than a 1 on a d4 restores it.
Depletion: 1 in d6

Toolbox
Level: 1d6+1
Form: A rectangular belt-mounted device
Effect: When activated this device deploys a series of tendrils, multi-jointed arms ending in fine manipulators, small spare parts, and other specialized tools which work with the wearer on a project. This device provides an asset on crafting rolls of a specific type.
Depletion: 1 in 100

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I find the Cypher System (Numenera is the game I've got the most familiarity with, and have mostly looked through the Strange to pillage it for ideas) extremely interesting because of the way it approaches resource management and player agency in challenges. It also achieves a balance across character types by setting them equal in a number of ways that D&D seems to have looked for and rarely found. Meanwhile, the background of Numenera is something that calls to me because it matches long held parts of my own worldview.
This is not to say that there aren't aspects of Numenera that bother me. Mr. Cook commits what I feel to be one of the cardinal sins of game design fairly regularly; waving away "balance" as unimportant. I find this striking because, at its core, the system is extremely well balanced. The result is that the feeling of those areas where the balance has been waved away (listings of skills being one very clear example) feel lazier for it. The weird and diverse range of environments and abilities that a world like Numenera covers makes an exhaustive listing of skills an insane proposition. However, there are some very clear upper limits provided (combat skills are their own category of skill) so waving away balance rather than trying to provide some guidelines for what the lower limits should be, or trying to make them all equal as "story skills," falls flat.
One of the aspects of the Cypher system that I'm torn about is the Cyphers themselves. While Mr. Cook has stated that he feels the Cyphers are the central aspect of the system I simply cannot agree. They are an interesting aspect of the system, but, also something he says; they are simply too unreliable to be a defining part of the player experience. A player's experience with a system will always be defined by the tools they can reliably reach for; mechanically defined abilities on their character sheet, powers that are common to all characters, and equipment that does not degrade over time. Cyphers are intensely limited by the DM's ("generosity") freedom in granting what most gamers cannot help but think of as "treasure," the low numbers that can be carried at a time, the specific utility of most devices, and their non-reusable nature.
Because of this, my observation has been that they don't get used nearly as freely as seems to be intended. Intense encounters or perfect fits can reliably pull Cyphers from a character's inventory. Largely, however, they get hoarded until a new trove is discovered, then a burn of the weaker devices happens as the options available are traded up. The overall effect is that the existence of Cyphers becomes a juggling act more than the type of free use that is described as desired. Expecting them to be used like potions simply because they are supposed to be fire-and-forget ignores the other key features that makes potions so freely used; their prevalence.
Healing potions, or abilities that replicate their effect, are so common in most settings that they simply provide an additional means of accessing the ability, magical (or cypher based) attacks are largely interchangeable in effect, and most other potions or scrolls are simply part of a large list of such items or abilities a character carries. By changing either of these additional features (large variety or reliable access) you change the willingness of players to "waste" something that suddenly feels like an intensely limited resource. Mr. Cook comments that players tend to go through "weapon" cyphers more quickly than "utility" cyphers. I would hazard a guess that it's for exactly this reason; weapon cyphers are more easily replaced with something similar enough while utility cyphers have fairly specific uses.
These house rules are each designed to address this in different ways, though they aren't necessarily intended to be used together. They very from raising the likelihood of having the "right" cypher that can't be passed up to ensuring a reliable flow of Cyphers independent of GM determination.