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Arms of the Chosen: Fogsword Mistweaver is a 4-dot black jade reaver daiklave (read: cutlass). In the end years of the Shogunate, the looter Kaito Owari sought to plunder the fallen Valley of Golden Needles, whose kingdom had died under a curse of endless mist. He commissioned the blade to help with that, and it worked well. He returned from his first two adventures there with priceless, ancient relics and great trophies, but he never returned from the third expedition. Historians believe he may have run into No Key, the Mushroom King, and died in battle. After his disappearance, the blade reappeared centuries later, during the Contagion. It was wielded by Lady Ermine, a powerful warrior of the North, who used it to control the freezing fogs of the White Sea. She terrorized ships and cities across the sea until slain by the dragonlord Peleps Mizu, who has wielded Mistweaver ever since. The sword is jet black but for the edge, which is a deep blue due to blue jade mixed in the alloy. Coils of fog flow from it perpetually. In hot, dry areas, these are thing, but in cold or wet places like the sea air, the blade is essentially invisible under the mists. It has three hearthstone slots. The wielder of Mistweaver can see through all fog and water. They can hear through rainfall, see through fog and sense danger even in a turbulent sea. Many of its evocations grow stronger when in watery concealment, defined as any kind of water-based obscurement (such as fog or clouded seas) enough to cause Awareness penalties. Further, the wielder is immune to those penalties. Once per turn, reflexively, the wielder may carve an opening in watery concealment, either a clear spot in Close range or a path out to Short range. The cut edges remain intact until the end of their next turn, after which the vapor, clouded water or weather flows back in at a natural rate. For clouded water, only the obscurement gets cut, not the water itself. At Essence 3 or higher, the borders instead remain intact for the entire scene as long as the wielder isn’t dissonant with jade. Also, the first Evocation is gained free on attunement, as long as you’re not dissonant with jade. Fog-Raising Gesture lets you call forth a fog blanket out to Short range, which gives a penalty to Awareness checks, especially vision-based ones. Gale-force winds or desert heat can disperse this over a few turns, and hurricanes or volcano heat can disperse it instantly, and stunted area-effect powers can carve gaps or paths. Otherwise, it remains in place all scene. You may reactivate the power on further turns to keep growing the fog blanket or refill carved-out sections. Cloud-Warrior Stance gives some of your Solar Melee Charms the Mute keyword while in watery concealment (meaning they don’t add to your anima banner). Essence 2 is all Essence 1 Charms, Essence 3 adds Essence 2 Charms and Essence 5 adds Essence 3 Charms. I see no reason not to allow this to work for other Exalt types, either. Sea-Smoke Veil penalizes foes trying to attack you or detect you in stealth while you’re in watery concealment, and if resonant also adds damage to your unexpected attacks from watery concealment. Death in the Mist increases the Defense penalty of surprise attacks you make from watery concealment, and if resonant, also increases ambush damage. Brumous Entanglement lets you ensnare a foe in fog, making them count watery concealment as difficult terrain and, if resonant, gives them a penalty to actions in it. Cloud-Gathering Practice is gained free if you’re not dissonant with jade when you uphold a Major or Defining Intimacy by defeating a non-trivial foe within the daiklave’s fogs. It lets you activate Fog-Raising Gesture reflexively when you win Join Battle. The ultimate power is Mist-Weaving Mastery. It can’t be learned if dissonant, and can only be used once per story. It creates a blanket of unnatural fog that can extend up to 100 miles in radius, lasting for weeks or months depending on the climate. Crops spoil in it, predators stalk the streets of towns, people travel unseen and armies can march openly without being spotted. Most magical wind or weather powers can’t disperse the fog, though it can be ended with an Ambition 2+ Celestial sorcerous working, and a city-sized region can be cleared within it via an Ambition 2+ Terrestrial working. If resonant, you may instead make a magical mist of the type that’d be native to the region, such as freezing fog in the North, Wyld-mists in a bordermarch or blood-drenched brume at Calibration. These phenomena are smaller in scale and duration, usually no more than a few square miles and lasting only a few days. Nightmare Shard is a 4-dot moonsilver skycutter (recall, a boomerang). It was made by the Lunar shaman Soul Orchid as a weapon against the Gentry of Autumn’s End, a Raksha court who trapped entire cities in illusionary paradises that fattened them up for the slaughter. She went into the Wyld to steal an incomprehensible truth that could not exist elsewhere, forging it with moonsilver to create a weapon that could cut through dreams and illusion. Nightmare Shard’s edge is elegantly made, but its mirrored surface shows a warped and grotesque reflection, born of Soul Orchid’s fears and nightmares. This allows the blade to cut happiness as easily as flesh, and while Soul Orchid was able to free the people from the Fair Folk, she could not bear wielding the weapon any longer and abandoned it. Nellens Radagar has recently returned to the Blessed Isle from the conquered satrapy of Salt bearing the blade as a trophy. Since his return, he has been troubled by its dark power, though his family hails him as a hero. He takes qat and opium to balm his conscience, taking counsel with the masked sage that came with him from the provinces. It has a single hearthstone slot. The wielder of Nightmare Shard gains its first Evocation free on attunement. Cracked Mirror Blight lets you infect someone you hit with a Decisive attack with a nightmare disease, also called cracked mirror blight, with power based on your Manipulation and resisted by Integrity rather than Resistance. Medical treatment does not work on it unless enhanced by magic. As a Minor symptom, the victim occasionally has surreal, vivid daydreams that show their nightmares, causing a Minor Madness Derangement as well as the normal effects. As a Major symptom, this becomes a Major Derangement, as the hallucinations happen daily. As a Defining symptom, the Derangement is also Defining, as the hallucination becomes essentially constant. Cracked mirror blight never kills its victims. Truth in Silvered Reflections is learned free if you aren’t dissonant with moonsilver when you defeat a non-trivial foe that has a Derangement or a non-trivial creature of the Wyld. It lets you detect derangements with an Occult-based read intentions action. Nightmare-Drinking Thirst allows you to use the Solar Charms Spirit-Drinking Stance and Breath-Drinker Method on victims of cracked mirror blight and creatures of the Wyld as if they were spirits. It doesn’t gate any other Charms, so that’s nice. Primal Horror Fang makes your attacks deal Aggravated damage against victims of cracked mirror blight and creatures of the Wyld, and increases your damage against them based on the disease’s strength. (All creatures of the Wyld are considered to have it at Defining level.) Watcher at the Gates of Chaos cannot be purchased, but is gained for free when you willingly expose yourself to cracked mirror blight and allow it to rise to Defining level. It permanently increases your Resolve against fear-based influence and gives a bonus on Willpower rolls to resist Derangements. Dream-Rending Strike allows the Solar Charm Order-Affirming Blow to be delivered via a Thrown-based gambit that gets a free full Excellency applied to it. Again, it doesn’t gate anything off. Night of Endless Horrors lets you make a Withering attack against a victim of cracked mirror blight or a creature of the Wyld, with a bonus on the damage roll. If you Crash the target this way, their cracked mirror blight is worsened one step and they must immediately make a Willpower roll against it. If you Crash someone with Defining symptoms or a creature of the Wyld, they instead just lose a Willpower, which you gain if resonant. The ultimate power is Cobweb Glamours Torn Asunder. Once per story, this may be used to cut a Derangement or a Psyche-keyworded effect out of a target’s mind in one blow. The target suffers Decisive damage based on its intensity or the Essence of the character that put the keyworded effect in place, ignoring Hardness. (This may require a Decisive attack if the target is not willing – a willing target just takes the damage automatically.) This may also be used to nullify wide-scale unnatural influence that affects many characters. The mechanics for that are ‘the player and GM work together to determine how you do that, making a task that is difficult in relation to the scale and power of the effect,’ such as killing a Raksha to flee its victims from a nightmare plague, defacing an idol to free a town from a sorcerous working imbued in it or so on. Next time: Sekhem, Shipbreaker
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Apr 17, 2019 22:16
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I'm saddened at the lack of Evocations for spread-the-water knives.
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Apr 17, 2019 22:33
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Yea WHFRP is great but you kinda gotta just house-fluff everything to the east because holy poo poo did they just go full crazy racist. The not-mongols are filthy savages who are too stupid to be anything but traitors, the not-Chinese are shifty untrustworthy motherfuckers because they serve not-Chaos openly, the not-Arabs are just kinda generic and bland 'they're Arabs...but not'...I forgot what India is but I'm sure it wasn't good given the rest! The one good thing to the east is the Ogre Kingdoms and that's just because they're big fat party monsters that eat everything
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Apr 17, 2019 23:01
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Ego Trip posted:I'm saddened at the lack of Evocations for spread-the-water knives. please do not denigrate the bat'leth by using false names for it
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Apr 17, 2019 23:08
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Night10194 posted:Seriously, this stuff is wonderful to generate. As someone who mainly DMs, I love the ticking time bomb of Li Na in particular. Laws of drama being what they are, it's only a matter of time until people learn that she was once a Chaos marauder, and I find both the prospect of her as a villain, and the prospect of her as an antihero - exploring the idea that maybe not everyone in the armies of Chaos is a bad person - both interesting possibilities.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:22
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Mors Rattus posted:please do not denigrate the bat'leth by using false names for it
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Apr 17, 2019 23:35
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Cythereal posted:As someone who mainly DMs, I love the ticking time bomb of Li Na in particular. Laws of drama being what they are, it's only a matter of time until people learn that she was once a Chaos marauder, and I find both the prospect of her as a villain, and the prospect of her as an antihero - exploring the idea that maybe not everyone in the armies of Chaos is a bad person - both interesting possibilities. They specifically say if you get a Dark Secret that will be a non-factor or that no-one will ever discover reroll it because that's not what they're there for. Also, Marauders and mortal soldiers are still usually people. It's when they get to being Warriors that they start getting overwritten.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:36
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Night10194 posted:Also, Marauders and mortal soldiers are still usually people. It's when they get to being Warriors that they start getting overwritten. Yeah, I know, I'm talking from an in-setting perspective. I'm under the impression that pretty much everyone who's not a Norscan or the like assumed that everyone under Chaos' banner are like Warriors, and Li Na jumped out at me as a good way to introduce in-setting the idea that they're not.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:40
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Basically assuming Chaos doesn't have their hooks deep into you yet via mutations and doing horrible irredemable things that no sane mind could survive redemption isn't impossible and is a pretty interesting plot point for a PC group of ex Chaos cultists trying to survive in a world after abandoning Chaos while still having to hide your past affiliations.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:44
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It really doesn't want you to know you can get out, though. Which is going to neatly explain one of the Region Threats/Monsters I rolled!
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Apr 17, 2019 23:47
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For some reason I am now struck by the idea of a Shallyan priestess who was once a cultist of Nurgle. Her immediate superiors know about her background, but she has spells so Shallya doesn't seem to mind. Perhaps for those in the know, she's even privately held up as a "In your rotting FACE, Nurgle!" example, namelessly making her way into Shallyan mythology.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:52
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ChaseSP posted:Basically assuming Chaos doesn't have their hooks deep into you yet via mutations and doing horrible irredemable things that no sane mind could survive redemption isn't impossible and is a pretty interesting plot point for a PC group of ex Chaos cultists trying to survive in a world after abandoning Chaos while still having to hide your past affiliations. The further west and south you go in Norsca the less Chaosy and more trade oriented the tribes become, to the point where the gods need to send warlords to knock some heads together occasionally because they start wondering why they keep going south to die for some spiky rear end in a top hat instead of making bank doing sea trade.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:53
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Yeah I'm aware and it was some really great flavor from the Tome of Corruption. While Chaos itself is pretty bland and shallow, the humans that follow Chaos have much more depth to them and room for fun storytelling.
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Apr 17, 2019 23:55
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I love the Peoples of Chaos and the ways they contextualize serving it or even tell it to gently caress itself. Why I went with that for the unusual prince from far away. E: The Peoples of Chaos actually being pretty interesting is also why the original Hung sucking so hard stood out so much. "Hey look at all these cultures being warped, enslaved, and brutalized by this horrible force and then oh actually the guys from the east are just awful." Night10194 fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Apr 18, 2019 |
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Apr 17, 2019 23:58
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 Neotech 2 Part 21: We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...  I get the feeling that the N2 writers really likes drugs because there are a whole bunch of them listed in this chapter. Much like the cybertech chapter we get a fairly detailed look in the myriad of drugs, both narcotic and medicinal, that exists in the setting. The chapter begins with that drugs are common in 2059, both the Pharmaceutical industry and the narcotics trade both rake in profits. The drug trade is active all over the world with a number of different ones. Drug laws aren’t as strict now as it was in the 20’s, by which it means the 2020’s in this case, when you could go to prison if you sold some hash. The legislation differs from country to country. In some places almost all drugs are considered legal, but in certain countries, like in Scandinavia, it’s usually only hash and marijuana that is legal - even then you need to follow certain rules. I get the slight feeling that the writers might have be regular smokers or have a more open view about drug laws. The drugs that are banned in general are the kinds that are addictive or causes aggressive behaviour. The banned list also includes drugs that can be used for criminal purposes as well. If you want to use drugs there are multiple ways of doing so. With methods ranging from the usual tablets, effervescent tablets, smoking, inhalation to pads, sprays or capsules. The only method that actually has rules attached to it is intravenous where you need to roll a medium difficulty check against RÖR or First Aid in order to find a vein while sticking yourself with the needle. Almost all drugs are addictive. For each type of drug in N2 you have an addiction value, or BG. This always starts at zero, at which point you’re obviously not addicted to it, but it can increase every time you use it. All addictive drugs have an addiction roll that tells you how easy it is to become addicted to it. Mechanically speaking it works the same as making a skill check. Each time you use a drug you need to roll for the addiction check. If you roll over the BG for the drug then that will get raised by 1. If you roll under nothing happens. Each time the BG is raised then you get 1 point of psychosis, this in order to simulate the psychological dependence on it. Starting might be easy but quitting is much harder once you’re hooked. The withdrawal symptoms can be very challenging, if not unbearable. Each day that progresses where you don’t use a drug you need to roll a special weaning roll against the drugs current BG value. How many dice involved in the roll depends on what drug you’re hooked on. If you have access to it, or get offered some then the roll is decreased by one because it’s then harder to resist. There are also drugs that makes the weaning process a lot easier, which means that the roll goes up with one dice. Successful therapy will have a similar effect as well. If you roll under or equal then you’re going to everything in your power to get another dose. The book highly encourages the player to do everything they can in order for the player character to reach this goal, they will also get the abstinence syndromes relevant to the drug used. If you roll over the BG value then you manage to hold out for the day. You will also only gain half the effect of the abstinence syndromes. In order to get rid of those you need to be clean in intervals of seven days. After each period has ended the check gets one level easier and it isn’t until the weaning off roll has been reduced to zero that the need to get high disappears. If you happen to use the drug again you start from the BG value you have at that time and you need to start weaning off again from the beginning. Each year that goes without you using a particular drug its BG value gets lowered by 1. So obviously what you need to do in this case is to use multiple types of drugs and not just focus on one so that their BG values are kept at even levels. Although this just sounds like lots and lots of meaningless bookkeeping. If you decide to overdose then the effect gets improved. Difficulty rolls gets modified one step up or down depending on what is advantageous. The obvious drawback is of course that all potential side effects and abstinence symptoms get doubled, so all modifications get double the amount of dice as normal. Any exhaustion is quadrupled as well. You also need to roll extra Shock and Death saves, but only if you already have a difficulty modifier present. When overdosing you get Ob1D6 psychosis points, and it also makes you more addicted with the BG roll becoming one level harder. With most of the rules over with the book starts rattling off the various drugs available in the game. Amongst all of these is stuff you know from real life like Amphetamines, Heroine, Cocaine, LSD and so on. Those I’ll ignore and just mention the more original ones. According to a footnote in the table about completely illegal drugs you can in some cases get them if a doctor prescribes them to you. There’s more but the sentence about what the GM decides in this case just ends. This chapter is oddly enough the first time where a bunch of grammatical and typos suddenly start creeping into the text. Maybe the writers or editors were using their own products while working on this. Should be noted that when I say a drug is legal or illegal then I’m going off the tables in the book and not taking into account the footnote mentioning that things might be different in some countries.
But then again going back through the previous chapter it seems as if you can recover those cyberpsychosis points normally. As I’m not seeing any special rules about them being permanent marks on your psyche. So what’s the point of this drug then if you can just recover that naturally? What do you even gain from using that drug outside of the mechanical benefits of panic and psychosis checks being easier? Something other drugs can do as well.
There is also some non-prescription drugs as well. But only a very small sample in comparison to the four pages of the more addictive stuff. The GM is also encouraged to come up with new things if the need should arise.
Funny enough we don’t actually get any tables with drug effects that you can use. So I suppose you have to either derive them from what is listed in the chapter or get creative with the GM. Instead we get two different tables related to the optional rule about drug quality that is just tucked away right at the end of this. So that’s the chapter about drugs, which feels taken up by too many addictive drugs and not enough actually helpful medicine. Unless the majority of that has been shunted way back in the book where the equipment chapter resides. Otherwise there isn’t all that much to say about this other than some dubious ideas and the usual overly clunky rules. Still not sure if this reflects the writer’s opinions about drugs or they simply went all in on the cyberpunk cliché of a world riddled with drugs and violence. Next time: You're poison, running through my veins
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Apr 18, 2019 01:43
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Ah, the good old poison useless hyperaddictive drugs list.
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Apr 18, 2019 01:48
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Not Weed: Harmless but you probably shouldn't be waking and baking every day if you're a functioning merc or wizard or whatever, still even getting 'addicted' to it is more an annoyance than anything. Not Coke: Ok yea don't do this, addiction is rough but it does make you faster/more aware so if you're that kinda guy it may help but super easy to get dependent on. Not Heroin: Also real bad but opposite of Not Coke, can help you handle some intrusive mental issues with self medication but really not good to deal with long term. Not LSD: lol trippy man hallucinations am I right rainbow unicorns farting cheeseburgers~ There, any 'drugs section' deeper then that is just padding space.
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Apr 18, 2019 03:39
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Your game doesn't have a drugs section until you can buy an artificial gland implant that constantly titrates tailored stimulants directly into your bloodstream.
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Apr 18, 2019 03:46
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I mean that's a standard bit of gear in CP2020 and Shadowrun
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Apr 18, 2019 03:50
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sexpig by night posted:Not Weed: Harmless but you probably shouldn't be waking and baking every day if you're a functioning merc or wizard or whatever, still even getting 'addicted' to it is more an annoyance than anything.
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Apr 18, 2019 04:30
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Nessus posted:Seems like you could include meth, but then again the behavior of a player-character is in many ways indistinguishable from someone hitting the crystal. yea it feels like most RPGs just give you the wandering methhead experience normally. "You've just rolled into town and are in the local inn to get a feel of the land." "I'M GONNA GO HANG OUT WITH THAT GOBLIN WHO HAS SHOWN NO INTEREST IN ME COMING OVER AND INSIST TO INSERT MYSELF INTO HIS LIFE, PLEASE USE ALL MY GOLD TO KEEP BOOZE COMING WHILE WE TALK" "Uh, he's having trouble with his...wife...'s boss? He's a real harsh guy and overworking people..." "gently caress LET'S KILL THAT SONOFABITCH"
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Apr 18, 2019 04:32
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sexpig by night posted:yea it feels like most RPGs just give you the wandering methhead experience normally.
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Apr 18, 2019 04:36
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Night10194 posted:Ah, the good old poison useless hyperaddictive drugs list. I want to see a sci-fi rpg with an entry for 'chocolate' on the list of dangerous and addictive drugs. The Lone Badger fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Apr 18, 2019 |
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Apr 18, 2019 04:41
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I think drugs add a bit of worldbuilding for criminal activity and the feel for your grimy punk world, but yeah, you don't actually need rules. "It's synthetic heroin originally designed to help with anxiety from neuroboosters. Technically requires a prescription, but doctors are willing to prescribe to anyone with implants who ask." Good! "-12% to all DEX rolls and roll a D12 to see if you become addicted. On a 12, your character overdoses and takes 5 aggravated damage." BAD!
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Apr 18, 2019 04:46
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The Lone Badger posted:I was to see a sci-fi rpg with an entry for 'chocolate' on the list of dangerous and addictive drugs. It would really work if it's something like HSD (but better) where theobromine is not fatal but produces an acute narcotic reaction in canine-human hybrids. Feline hybrids would obviously be smoking catnip.
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Apr 18, 2019 04:48
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Tibalt posted:I think drugs add a bit of worldbuilding for criminal activity and the feel for your grimy punk world, but yeah, you don't actually need rules. yea it's good to know the ~drug scene~ of a world in general, you just really don't need any rules for it beyond a divide between 'common recreational stuff/highly addictive' and 'upper/downer/trip time'.
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Apr 18, 2019 04:50
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Drugs are a hard design problem. Either they're too punishing (with their addiction and withdrawal and side-effects rules) so no one bothers with them (Cyberpunk 2020 is a really hilarious example of this), or they're too useful in which case they just become another boring always-on buff that everyone takes.
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Apr 18, 2019 04:51
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Tibalt posted:I think drugs add a bit of worldbuilding for criminal activity and the feel for your grimy punk world, but yeah, you don't actually need rules. I'm going through Hardwired, the "New Game +" of Cyberpunk 2020, and it's funny how pretty much all of the psychologically-addictive drugs include the line "but you like having better/higher stats, right?", to the point I feel you don't even need that disclaimer and just let the players find out for themselves. Hardwired's great because the drug prices feel pretty realistic: in CP2020 and other games, they're prohibitive expensive for their effect and drawbacks. In Hardwired, you do generic "uppers" like speed or meth and it'll give you a +1 or +2 REF for 4-6 hours for a dollar a hit.
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Apr 18, 2019 04:56
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funny enough I've found Call of Cthulhu does it pretty well. Being addicted is bad, it'll gently caress your stats up if you go without and all, but A) there's a fairly 'realistic' divide between the light and hard drugs and B) all drugs have uses without being 'buffs' per say. They help cure SAN loss and stuff like heroin/opium/etc can help you enter Dreamlands stuff, and you do have some stuff like cocaine helping reflexes and all but it doesn't feel like a super required 'buff' thing. The addiction rules do a fairly good job of keeping a line between typical 1920's style 'yea so what I do opium every so often' and 'aw man Jerry's addicted to cocaine'. Plus the 'addicted' flaws are in a good spot where they're neither character breaking or just free points. Being addicted to your 'medicine' is gonna be a problem, but unless poo poo is really going wrong you PROBABLY won't grind the game to a halt because you gotta see your dealer unless you're in a situation where you desperately need those points that your very early stage shakes are shaving off.
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Apr 18, 2019 05:02
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sexpig by night posted:funny enough I've found Call of Cthulhu does it pretty well. Being addicted is bad, it'll gently caress your stats up if you go without and all, but A) there's a fairly 'realistic' divide between the light and hard drugs and B) all drugs have uses without being 'buffs' per say. They help cure SAN loss and stuff like heroin/opium/etc can help you enter Dreamlands stuff, and you do have some stuff like cocaine helping reflexes and all but it doesn't feel like a super required 'buff' thing. The addiction rules do a fairly good job of keeping a line between typical 1920's style 'yea so what I do opium every so often' and 'aw man Jerry's addicted to cocaine'. Plus the 'addicted' flaws are in a good spot where they're neither character breaking or just free points. Being addicted to your 'medicine' is gonna be a problem, but unless poo poo is really going wrong you PROBABLY won't grind the game to a halt because you gotta see your dealer unless you're in a situation where you desperately need those points that your very early stage shakes are shaving off.
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Apr 18, 2019 05:06
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Nessus posted:My main criticism of Call of Cthulhu's system is that it's called "Sanity" instead of "Psyche" or something because otherwise it's pretty drat well put together. If I had to run a generic game of any kind I'd use the system, although skill list proliferation is a problem... yea I know a few groups that just switch SAN to 'psyche' or 'mind points' or whatever. It's a bit of an unpleasant holdover to have ~sanity~ be the sliding scale that decides how useful you are, yea. Skill bloat can be a problem but it feels like the new edition helped out, maybe not by actually pruning things (I don't THINK they did but maybe?) but more by much better clarifying 'ok look, if you're an accountant you should have these skills, they're what you use for accounting things, I know some of these other skills sound useful for that and hey more power to you if you want them but these are the core skills for 'good with numbers and money'.'
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Apr 18, 2019 05:13
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Cults: Anubians, pt. 4 Degenesis Rebirth Primal Punk Chapter 3: Cults RANKS ANUBIANS  1. Initiate We covered this before: get scratched by some dirty old bone, develop eczema, have a trippy experience in a crypt, become an Embalmer's unpaid intern. The only new thing here is that sickles are used to lop off Raze-infected limbs before the sickness reaches the heart. Before an Initiate can advance further, he must go into the jungle and do some Duat fruit synthesis 2. Enchanters So you ate some strange fruit and drank suspicious white liquid. Congratulations, you're an Enchanter now. Which means that you are entrusted enough spiritual lore to guide the Scourgers, and officiate marriages. quote:One day, a Hogon will ask him to choose. Does he want to continue guiding Africa’s destiny as a wise man, to keep up the wave as a warrior in the land of the Crow, or to offer up his body as a Healer? Hogons are probably the most active of all end-game carreers in Degenesis. A finger in every pie, a hustle everyday and being the level-up dialogue in a CRPG all at once! 3a. Embalmer Embalmer is the top dog when it comes to speaking with spirits and guiding others in spiritual matters. Oh, and they're able to decide which of the 8 ancestors influences the region. This power doesn't work in Europe... unless Scourgers munch on some seeds. 4a. Soul Seer “Anubis is a principle” is a thing that Soul Seer understands, which makes the whole background of the faction even harder to decipher. If Anubis is a principle, so what about all that junk with the books and bringing them to be judged? What about the dream trips? Oh, and in Africa, a Soul Seer can telepathically control Psychovores. quote:In Europe, that makes no sense. Here, he relies on the like-minded: the Spitalians. In hidden labs, he researches genomes side-by-side with them, identifying populations with extraordinary traits. He organizes the medical Cult’s forays into the Psychovores. In Europe, he does eugenics! He also lies about mystical stuff to Neolibyans and Scourgers, because half of this fluff was written by a redditor, swear to God. 3b. Healer Here's to the crafting class! A Healer knows how to make potions and poultices... but also how to catalyze Duat fruit for fun and profit. They make the Marduk Oil, too. Once the people begin to believe that he has magical powers, he ascends to become a Hecatean. 4b. Hecatean quote:A Hecatean can repair a person’s torn Thread of Life in the Imiut skin. He has elevated the catalysis to a new level. His skin changes color, sometimes smelling lovely, sometimes bringing the Raze through a simple touch. He is able to reconfigure his metabolism and keep up this change for minutes or even hours. Not sure how sewing someone up in jackal skin to gently caress with their DNA heals gunshot wounds, but I'm not a walking medicine crafting bench. 3c. Sickle Sickles are the ones who sense the glowing Psychonauts weakspots in their own bodies. quote:They feel the corresponding Chakra bleed dry. They feel the emptiness. They want to get rid of it. Armed with a Khopesh, they are the perfect weapons against the Aberrants. With only a few cuts aimed at the Psychonaut’s singular Chakra, they slice through his Thread of Life. Much like with Healers going on to become Hecateans, a Sickle reaches his next form once he's venerated as a peerless warrior. 4c. Ammit Getting willingly called after the devourer of souls in your own religion (even if you don't believe it anymore) is a weird flex, but OK. Besides the ability to sense weakpoints, they also sense lies. They're like soul-eating Batmen. 5. Hogon The third circle is the last one you'll ever see in the wild and the last tier that the players can reach. This is probably the first Cult that bars players from ultimate power within their group. Anyways, they know a lot of poo poo, go through Psychovore jungle effortlessly and worry about innitiation procedures. Yawn. Nex time: What do Anubians think about you?
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Apr 18, 2019 07:44
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Halloween Jack posted:I mean that's a standard bit of gear in CP2020 and Shadowrun Might be one in Neotech as well but I can't remember on the top of my head.
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Apr 18, 2019 10:39
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Arms of the Chosen: FIRE GUN Sekhem is a 4-dot red jade dragon sigh wand. That’d be a magic flamethrower rifle. When the elemental courts beyond Dazra Province rejected the authority of Daimyo Sirisun, he had the artificer Open Hand forge a weapon to demonstrate his power over them. The core was a brilliant dragon scale unearthed in a vault under Chiaroscuro, said to come from the Elemental Dragon of Fire itself, and fine red jade. Open Hand made a weapon of such might that even fire elementals would burn in its flames. Sirisun sent his champion, Keiken Mai, to conquer the ifrit lords. She did so quickly and well, but while she succeeded, she was sickened at killing immortal beings for the pride of an old man. When he abused the lords of Dazra, Mai led them in rebellion, and she ended up burning the daimyo alive in his palace, even though he was a Fire Aspect, and set a young, idealistic Dragon-Blooded officer in his place. After, she gave Sekhem to the ifrit lords as an apology. Sekhem is mostly red jade, with orichalcum fittings and the carving of a dragon along its muzzle, with the dragon’s long tongue serving as a bayonet. The weapon is always hot enough to sear flesh and char wood, burning anyone that touches it as per its charm Smoldering Steel Ignition unless they are wearing the accompanying pair of red jade gauntlets to protect themselves; attuning to the weapon also attunes the gauntlets free. It has two hearthstone slots. Sekhem’s flames burn hotter than even it can contain. It has a Heat rating that begins at 0 and rises by 1 each time it is fired, to a max of 10. Its Heat falls by one after any round in which it is not fired, and drops to 0 at the end of the scene. Withering attacks add Heat to their damage, including attacks with the bayonet, as fire rolls along the blade. At the start of each turn, you roll dice based on the Heat reduced by your Essence, to a minimum of 0. If any of the dice rolls a 1, Sekhem’s barrel cracks. While the barrel is cracked, all attacks and damage rolls get a penalty, Heat no longer increases and all Evocations cannot be activated. Repairing it as a Major project that takes a few hours and cannot be sped up. Certain Evocations require Heat to be at a certain level or higher before they can be used, and most get better as Heat increases. Dragon’s Scorching Breath is gained free when you attune as long as you aren’t dissonant with jade. It lets you reload the gun without ammo, and gets cheaper as Heat rises. Fire That Burns Flame lets an attack ignore some armor and any effects that would reduce damage from heat or flame, and fire elementals or other spirits of fire take Aggravated damage from the attack. It also gets cheaper as Heat rises. Smoldering Steel Ignition lets you make a gambit to superheat the target’s weapon. If successful, an artifact gets too hot to hold for the rest of the scene and a mundane weapon is destroyed. The opponent has to make a roll to drop the weapon or get burned (dealing damage and taking a penalty to all actions with that hand until it heals). Heat must be at least 1. Incandescent Exhalation makes a Decisive attack that gets extra damage from Heat and has Fire That Burns Flame on it for free. If blocked or if it loses a clash against a close-range weapon, it superheats the weapon as per Smoldering Steel Ignition. Heat must be at least 2. Stone Cannot Endure, once per scene, lets you burn or melt nearly any non-magical substance, affecting an area ten feet in diameter within Close range, up to three feet thick. It can cut holes in walls, vaporize cage bars or melt stone into lava. Anyone caught in or beneath a wash of molten stone takes a one-time nasty environmental hazard. In combat, Heat must be at least 3; outside combat, this is waived. Stronger Than Fire is gained free when you are Crashed by a powerful foe while acting in service to a Major or Definining Intimacy, but can’t be learned if dissonant with jade. It lets you ignore the penalties of cracking the barrel of Sekhem for the scene, holding it together with your anima, and makes you gain Initiative when your turn starts for the rest of the scene. When the scene ends, Sekhem breaks entirely and must be repaired per the normal artifact repair rules. The ultimate power, Phoenix-Immolating Conflagration, can only be learned if resonant with jade. It is gained free when you face a powerful fiery foe while Stronger Than Fire is active. Once per scene, while Stronger Than Fire is active and Heat is at least 5, you can make an unblockable Decisive attack that automatically and at no cost as Fire That Burns Flame applied. Its damage is increased based on Heat and ignores Hardness. It does not include your Initiative in the damage roll and does not reset your Initiative. Any enemy damaged by it is set on fire, taking continuous damage until the end of the scene, which is Aggravated if vulnerable to the Aggravated damage of Fire That Burns Flame. Extinguishing the fire without magic is a miscellaneous action that costs 5 Initiative, sends the person doing it prone and can’t be flurried. As long as the victim is a fire elemental or other fiery being, if they become Incapacitated while on fire, they are permanently dead. Shipbreaker is a 4-dot black jade siege crossbow. In ancient times, when the undersea nations of the West formed the Niobraran League to oppose the Exalted, the Solar Ianthe of Nengur Deep sided with them against the other Exalts, seeing herself as one of the sea peoples first and Solar second. She descended into the pre-human abyss, studying with the spirits there and using their arts to forge Shipbreaker, a terrible weapon she wielded against the fleets of the Exalted Host. Together, they sent many warships to the depths. Even when the tide of battle shifted against the Niobrarans, Ianthe remained loyal. However, when a Lunar came to offer clemency not only to her but for all of Nengur Deep, she saw that it was the only option. She surrendered the secrets of the Niobraran forces, leading Nengur Deep in ambush against their reserves at the Battle of Saffron Wave, where the Niobraran will was broken. When Ianthe died in the last days of the war, Shipbreaker was taken up by Dragon-Blooded heroes, whose descendants wielded it against the Solars in the Usurpation. After the Contagion, it fell into the hands of the Exigent god-admirals of Cabochon, and has since come into the control of the Lintha Family, whose demon-blooded pirate captains use it to terrible effect. It is a black jade crossbow with orichalcum fittings and string, and orichalcum inlay in the stock showing a kraken destroying ships. It has 2 hearthstone slots. Shipbreaker ignores all penalties for being fired into or out from water, and if a Water-aspect hearthstone is slotted, it lets the wielder breathe underwater and swim freely while wielding it. As long as the wielder isn’t dissonant with jade, they get the first Evocation free when they attune. Draw to the Deep lets you fire off a bolt powered by the pull of the depths. It can only be used against vehicles, warstriders, things of Legendary Size or other large-scale targets, and it embeds a cumbrous bolt into the target. In combat, this is a gambit, while in naval combat it is a broadside that also has its normal effects. Encumbered targets get a penalty to movement, Sail and Ride checks to avoid hazards and naval combat stats. Cumbrous bolts lose their power when the scene ends or if removed, which requires a feat of strength of great difficulty. Flying Fish Method reduces the cost of a number of Solar Athletics Charms when traveling through, over or across water and lets them be used to run or jump on water. It doesn’t gate anything off. Kraken’s Unseen Arm gives a bonus in naval combat based on how many cumbrous bolts you’ve shot into the target, and in normal combat, it gives a bonus to rush or disengage based on that instead. Crushing Force of the Depths lets you, once per scene, detonate your cumbrous bolts in a massive shockwave, automatically damaging one foe that they’re embedded in without need for a Decisive attack roll or reset of Initiative. Thousand-League-Current Pursuit can’t be learned if dissonant with jade. It makes Draw to the Deep’s power indefinite, allowing you to keep your motes committed to prevent the cumbrous bolts from losing power and increasing the Strength required to remove them, as well as giving you a bonus to track anything that has your cumbrous bolts embedded. The ultimate power, Maelstrom-Summoning Shot, also can’t be learned if dissonant with jade. Once per story, it lets you fire a bolt twisted with water Essence, which creates a whirlpool where it strikes water. This is a special attack that does not target an enemy, but a location, where the whirlpool centers on and extends out to Medium range. Anyone that is caught in or enters it must make an Athletics roll or be dragged inward and lose some Initiative to the user. Anyone at the center starts to drown and must roll Athletics to escape, which can’t be flurried. Uncrewed ships and other scenery caught in it takes arbitrary damage at the GM’s whim and may become an environmental hazard as debris fills the whirlpool. In naval combat, this lets you make a custom stratagem that holds a target ship in place and forces the ship to make an opposed roll or be destroyed, killing all trivial characters aboard. (Non-trivial NPCs and all PCs get a chance to escape.) Alternatively, you can use it to boost an attempt to escape naval combat or pursuit by trapping the pursuer in the whirlpool, which also does the whole ‘make a roll to not have your boat instantly die.’ (Because this doesn't actually give an exception for artifact boats, it is perhaps the most powerful naval combat trick in the game.) Next time: Sirrush, Strife’s Crucible
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Apr 18, 2019 14:16
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Young Freud posted:It would really work if it's something like HSD (but better) where theobromine is not fatal but produces an acute narcotic reaction in canine-human hybrids. I was thinking more along the lines of 
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Apr 18, 2019 14:31
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The Lone Badger posted:I was thinking more along the lines of Reminds me of one of my favorite covers of all time.  (Umpty Candy is a non-narcotic candy that's just perfectly delicious and addictive. They end up imprisoning the creator in space so he can't share the recipe.)
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Apr 18, 2019 14:47
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UMP DUST
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Apr 18, 2019 14:51
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Renegade Crowns More people than some Imperial Provinces! So, now we've got our Princes and our land. But Princes don't matter much if they're just Princes with no-one to rule over. And Adventurers need settlements to do quests for (and so they can buy stuff like food and swords). To do this, you generate towns, villages, and hamlets/homesteads in each Prince's territory and then settlements in the unclaimed lands of your region. Towns are major sources of economic activity and big regional hubs, having 1000+(3d10x100) people; many Princes won't have a town in their territory and if they do, they only have one. To check if a Prince has a town, you roll d100+the number of squares they own. If you get a number over 100, they own a town. Place it on a Fertile Valley or Tor, or if they don't have either, near a Pool or River. If neither exist in their territory, put it wherever you think it'd be interesting and describe why there's a big settlement there. Towns are only found in territory with a Prince. This is for several reasons: One, big communities actually need a leader and having some form of actual governance (even a Border Prince) is usually for the better. Two, Border Princes really want to control towns. They're the perfect place to build a base of power, because you have lots of people all in one place. One place that has walls, even. Walls are good. Lots of people means lots of taxes. Central locations usually mean a market and lots of trade. Trade means more taxes. More people also means more soldiers. Still, the general level of fortification across all homes and communities in the Border Princes is the main thing that sets them apart from settlements elsewhere in the Old World. If you thought Goatman Prime lurking in the bushes back in the Empire was bad, imagine being near one of the major orc homelands and having Goatman Prime in the bushes while not having the State Troops. Towns all get distinguishing features, and also get a bunch of economic resources because they're towns; one per 1000 residents. We'll get to those soon. Villages are smaller, though not as tiny as Sigmar's Heirs imagined villages to be. The average village is 3d10x10 people, so about 180. These are fortified farming and resourcing communities, or the communities that spring up around a keep or stronghold. It's assumed there may be more villages in the area than the ones you actually roll; you just roll the ones that have interesting features. Depending on the number of squares a Prince controls, their territory may have anywhere from 1 to 8 villages of note. Like a town, villages roll for a special feature nearby, but don't have guaranteed economic resources. Homesteads are much smaller multiple-family farms or mining colonies or religious communities with 3d10 people. Each Principality has d10 'interesting' homesteads and as many more as the plot demands. They also get distinguishing features. Unlike towns, homesteads and villages definitely exist without Princes ruling them. You generate 1-6 interesting unclaimed villages per map and d10 homesteads of interest, as if the unclaimed land of your region was a medium Principality. The average village or town is relatively self-sustaining. Like anywhere else in the world, they'll contain a shrine or small temple to an important God for the people, a mill, a town hall, all that sort of stuff. They just also have higher walls than elsewhere in the world. Little things like which God the villagers like best are up to the GM and there's no table for basic local color. The main results on the community resources table are economic resources, strongholds, chokepoints, an infestation of cultists, or a 'special' feature beyond normal (any roll of 91+, any roll with a 0 for the ones digit). Resource rolls provide +10 to the roll for the next community in line, making special features more likely. Cultist rolls provide -10 for the next one, making them less likely and also making it so if you roll 0 or less, the next community has no actual special features. The special table provides the possibility of really weird situations like having a Shallyan hospital or an outpost of Templar knights or a monster the village has some kind of agreement with. It can also just provide 2 distinguishing features instead. Resources roll again to see if they're a Resource, an Oddity, an exceptional local Craft, or if the settlement is a major Market and hub. Resources are things like furs, mines, etc. Gem, silver, or gold mines automatically become Strongholds as well; the settlement has enough money to build serious defenses and really needs it because it's producing something ridiculously valuable. These resources represent not just the town or village, but the 8 squares adjacent to it; the places people could walk to in a day relatively easily. Many of these resources and crafts aren't immediately useful to Adventurers, but exist to fill in the economic activity and flavor for the region and set stakes for adventure. As the book says, if you're defending the only iron mine in the region during an adventure, your success or failure suddenly has much bigger consequences. Many places will still have a smith, or a weapons maker, or whatever even if they don't roll that they have one; an Armorer in a settlement just indicates it's one of the best places in the region for buying armor. Maybe that's the only place you can get plate. Placing that kind of stuff also gives the PCs reasons to travel to specific places when they need things, and adventure can always find them on the way. A Market in an area makes it count as one size higher for purposes of PCs finding rare goods there; a town with a Market is about as good as a City beyond the Border Princes and can be a big hub for Adventurers. Oddities are especially unusual and meant to be GM fiat, though some ideas are presented on the next page. These can be things like an honest, competent doctor who always keeps their tools clean, or a weird cRPG merchant who will always buy goods at half their fairly assessed selling price with 0 questions asked no matter what they are. I appreciate you, cRPG merchant, for being a weirdo. It could even be that the local inn is super eccentric and rents lots of private rooms at cheap rates that should drive them out of business but that are really comfy and safe. Or that the locals have a spectacular pie recipe. The locals could even have a treasure filled dungeon and a community bent around catering to dungeon delvers. Some other oddities are really funny, like the town being a decoy designed to trick raiders into attacking the fake town while the villagers actually live in a cave system nearby, or a town with an anti-goblin trench (it's full of shiney objects to distract them). Strongholds mean the settlement has a good well, food stocks for a siege, good walls, possibly an actual keep or castle, and that it's generally going to be a tough nut to crack for the small armies seen in the region. Princes often like to live in strongholds. Many strongholds were built by a would-be Prince, but even if they have no political purpose anymore, villagers will happily take over and maintain a stronghold. Any community benefits tremendously from protection. Choke Points represent strategic locations; river fords, mountain passes, or even a toll settlement built on an important road. All villages and places with Choke Point have additional features; you roll once more for them. These are big meeting places and very important communities. Cults happen. Especially in an isolated place like the Border Princes, you can run into entire communities dedicated to the Dark Gods. Large communities dedicated to Khorne or Nurgle don't last; Nurglites eventually dissolve into goo and horror, Khornates eventually kill one another over using the wrong fork when stabbing your neighbor to death at a communal supper. Slaaneshi and Tzeentch worshipers can persist a surprisingly long time, though. A community with a Cult is not necessarily all in on the Dark Gods; decide for yourself if the whole community is a hidden cult that's taken over the town and is luring outsiders for sacrifice or if it's just a portion of the population. In the latter case, Khorne and Nurgle will do just fine. Most cults have ridiculously grandiose aims to rule the whole Border Princes and turn the land into a dark land of evil. It tends to go about as well for them as it does for anyone else. It's also possible to end up with a Shallyan hospital, a Templar order chapterhouse (which instantly makes the settlement a Stronghold, too; knights fortify their territory), a place with a beneficial magical effect the GM designs, a monster that lives nearby and has some kind of deal with the community, a witch, a trained wizard, or a monastery. The towns and villages of the Princes can be quite colorful places, and these rules do generate surprisingly fun realms. I enjoyed making the economy, population, etc of Pferdekrieg almost as much as I liked making the Princes. They give you a good sense of a 'setting'. They have enough detail to make the region feel like a populated place and it's fun to see what each Prince owns to get a sense of their overall realms. This section also contains the worst part of the book, the new classes. The issue with the new classes isn't just that they're weak (though they are), it's that most of them have terrible Exits. Let's take the Swamp Skinner as example. They're a 'ranger' class, good at scampering through nature, hiding, and searching for stuff. That would be perfectly fine, but their only Exits are Mercenary, Peasant, and Vagabond. All 1st tiers, and of them only Vagabond even really continues on a 'ranger' track. The Advanced Careers are a bit better aside from the inexplicably terrible Badlands Ranger, which is just a much shittier Scout except you can only advance into it from various 2nd tiers for some reason. The Enforcer is a decent Tier 2 wandering vigilante who is decent in a fight, okay at investigation, and promotes into Witch Hunter. The Border Courtier is an interesting alternative to Courtier; they're worse at social matters but much better with a knife and poison. Politics in the Princes can get a little more physical. The extra classes just feel like an afterthought, like they didn't really have any exciting ideas for the new land and just had to put a few in for the purposes of saying the book has some new classes for tradition. Next Time: The Towns and Villages of Pferdekrieg
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Apr 18, 2019 14:55
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Renegade Crowns Oh, so that's why no-one's killed Alaric yet We'll start with Li Na's realm, since it's fairly large but it's actually the least populous of all the regions. Which makes sense, she's a mountain bandit ruling a bunch of forested mountains. Not really a place that supports large scale agriculture and population. Since all 4 Princes have reasonably small realms, I decided to roll for the two biggest in land area (Alaric and Li Na) as if they were medium Principalities even though they don't have 80+ squares. Li Na rolled a 10 for her Number of Villages chart and got 6. Her main village will be the one that rolls highest in population, at 260 people, placed on the fertile valley near the waterfall where the Hundshemd river flows down from the mountains. It gets a Special for its feature, and rolls 'Roll Twice'. Rolling again, it gets Stronghold and a second Special, which rolls Magical Effect. So she controls a mountain bandit fortress with a nearby magic trait; I rule that as this is the source of a major river, there's a river spirit that dwells in the area and it makes the water especially clean and safe for this community in return for regular gifts of food. A bit like something you'd find in Kislev. This will be Li Na's personal base of operations because she flubbed the 'have a town' roll. She also controls a village with a Market, which I say is down where the river meets the plains. This is where the produce of her realm comes together to get sent on to other areas. She's also got another village with a cult problem hidden up in the mountains; she hasn't detected that and they're frighteningly close to the ruins of the dwarf temple. They might be a problem later. Also owns another with the main iron mine for the region and another with the best armorer around, which will be two major advantages for her realm in defending itself. Finally, she has a major source of building stone. Her homesteads contain a skilled bowyer, a fur trapping outpost, and a homestead with a Hospital. There's a small Shallyan outpost in her territory that her troops protect and permit. I keep this in mind for later. So she's got a sparsely populated realm that probably needs food from elsewhere; the locals rely on hunting and trapping, and that won't feed a large population. But she's got a lot of resources and her people are hardy mountain folk. She and her boys probably spend a lot of time patrolling and occasionally raiding the plains, stealing from the other Princes she hates and leaving Renata's realm alone. About right for a kingdom being established by a mountain bandit warlord who is slowly becoming a better captain. Renata is next because she's small. She only controls 16 squares, but she rolls a 90 on 'have a town', so she has our first town in the region, with 3600 people. I place it down on the tor near the river in the hills, surrounded by grassy plains the locals use for farming. She only has a single village and 2 homesteads, so her lands are almost entirely just her big, well-defended town on a natural chokepoint. I decide to fiat in that her town has a chokepoint feature because c'mon, it's built into a natural fortress on a major river passage. For its other feature, it ends up with a larger Shallyan hospital; I'm going to say that the small one up in Li Na's realm comes from these Sisters. Renata got permission and a promise from Li Na that she'll allow them to operate and defend a small missionary outpost in her territory. The town is also a major Market, which makes sense as it's on the gateway out of this region by river. It also has a good general smith (not a weaponsmith or armorer, someone who makes tools and horseshoes) and some excellent tailors. I think Renata's trade-town probably feels like one of the most developed areas in Pferdekrieg. She runs barter town. Her one village produces medical plants, which makes sense with the Shallyans in the area. Her homesteads are built around a copper mine and the last is a tiny Templar chapterhouse. I'll say she invited Verenan Templars since she's highly devout, so they'll be a small chapter of the Order of Everlasting Light because I love those silly cursed knights of justice and they suit the Border Princes. Renata controls a small, but stable and well developed economic center for the region. Her home is the most built up part of the region, even if it's a tiny Principality. It's very desirable, and others probably plot to overthrow the terrifying 'wizard lord' and take it from her. But for now, it's a comfortable home and someplace she can study. Her alliance with Li Na probably helps keep her secure and from the presence of the Shallyans and Verenans, I think her realm is considered one of the more faithful and 'civilized' in the area, which probably drives Alaric nuts since he still thinks she's a Slaaneshi. Marcelle also got a town, but only two villages and three homesteads. Marcelle's town location is obvious; the fertile valley next to the pool on the forested hills. It's really good land, with fresh water nearby and fertile, pleasant land in the immediate area. It still only has 2000 people, but that makes sense, since he doesn't have a lot of non-swamp land to support a big place and it isn't connected to the rivers and such like Renata's. Still, this is clearly his home base. Its two resources are quite powerful, too: He has the best Weaponsmith in the region and he rolls a 40 for the second, getting him the 1% chance of having a gunsmith. He has the only source of locally produced firearms in all of Pferdekrieg. For the other feature of his town, he's also got a major brewery for beer. This pisses him off to no end; his land is terrible for wine and he has to make due with beer and ale like a dwarf or worse, an Imperial. His villages continue this woe, having another brewery and a major clay pit. His home produces so much beer and he hates it! But his men love it, so he gets by. The homesteads get a bit weird. One is a major chokepoint, a lonely toll booth guarding a strip of solid land leading through the swamps to the river. Since that gets them another feature, they're also a fur trapping outpost. He's got more clay in another homestead; potters all over the region rely on Marcelle the swamp king. Finally, the third homestead is both noted for its fat frogs and juicy snails (which are sent directly to Captain Marcelle's table) but also for being the lair of an astonishingly intelligent hydra. The beast has a deal with the settlement. They lead the occasional Adventurer to it and give it part of the bounty they get in return for the frog harvest, and in return it keeps from eating the homestead. It's just smart enough to realize leaving the screamy two-legged scaleless critters to gather food for it is better than just eating the twenty of them now. Marcelle is not aware of this deal or the existence of this beast and would want it dead (by someone else's hand, he's not getting near it) if he was. Marcelle has some stuff other people want and is pretty well set up to rule his kingdom of the swamp on the southeastern section of the map between the Katzenhosen and Alpaka-Schuhe. He's content, for now. Except for his plans to gently caress up Alaric some day. Screw that guy. So if everyone hates him, why isn't Alaric dead? I was thinking this the whole time I was working on him, and the dice answered it. He has no town, but he's got 6 villages like Li Na. And they're a loving fortified crusader kingdom. He has a gem mine, 2 normal strongholds, and a templar stronghold for 4 of his 6 villages. Which means the majority of his villages are castles or heavily defended, and he has a big source of raw income. The existence of a full village-sized chapter-stronghold of Myrmidian Knights of the Righteous Spear also suggests he has some outside support. Another village in the area is a Chokepoint and also produces a lot of medical plants; I'll say this is on the plains in the western border of the region. Thus, he controls one of the major road routes west and into the mountains and out of the Border Princes in general. His last village is a den of secret Slaaneshi cultists that he's missed in his hurry to find proof that Renata is a Slaaneshi. The irony is not lost on them. He also has 5 Homesteads, and one of the is a silver mine! I think he's working on trying to expand that into a full village after some prospectors struck silver. That also means it's a Stronghold, too. He has another Stronghold Homestead that I'll say is an armed toll collection station for the roads he controls, plus two other small steads with good smiths and the area's only vinter. Before he and Marcelle had their falling out, he was Marcelle's only source of local wine. No wonder they fell out so hard when they did. His last homestead is another den of cultists, and I'll say this is a small place he established at advice of the Slaaneshi village to spy on Renata's lands and look for 'proof'. In truth, the cultists there are missionaries, who also suspect Renata is a Slaaneshi and want to reach out to her to betray Alaric to her, not realizing that she is not actually in league with Chaos and loving hates it. That should make for fun fireworks later when PCs stumble into it. So Alaric's lands have no major river routes or many terrain features, but they're on fairly fertile grassy plains and he clearly has both mineral wealth and a lot of dug in, well-defended settlements. Not to mention outside support from his cult. He must have some friends back in more developed territory. His realm is brittle, though; if he loses those sources of income or they run dry, he'll go bankrupt trying to maintain so many fortifications and such a largely militarized population. Still, this is why no-one's driven him off yet. He might be a blowhard, but he's a blowhard with a squad of actual plate-armored knights templar and a bunch of keeps. Finally, the independent villages: There's only 3 of note, and I put them up in the northeast, so it can be a base if the players explore the scrub mountains up there. This is important, as the two Oddity ruins are in the scrub mountains in the northeast and the worst, most dangerous part of Marcelle's swamp, which he hasn't explored, and they'll be important to long-term plots in the region. Two turn out to be simple Resource villages, with a market for all the areas not served by a Prince (excellent for basing PCs) and the best shoe and boot maker in the region. The third is Special, defended by a Monster. I think this village will be the hint about the Golem mess up in the Oddity ruin in the mountains, having figured out some way to make its wardens (a nest of giant eagles) protect them, too. Finally, there's only a single homestead of interest, and it's another nest of secret cultists. I think they're trying to get close to the Golem Oddity too, tipped off by the curiously well defended village near the mountains. The Northeast area is there partly so players can establish their own Principality here in case they want to rule one and don't want to overthrow an existing Prince; I left it open on purpose. So there. All four realms came out pretty interesting! I didn't do much fudging or rerolling here beyond putting more villages than their squares would indicate in Li Na and Alaric's domains, but they still turned out to have a nice variety of economic and strategic elements to them. Their realms also explain why they're at something of a stalemate despite the Princes having so many bad feelings between them; Alaric is too dug in to take out directly, Marcelle is across two rivers and a swamp and on a hill, and Li Na lives in a mountain. Renata is probably the most vulnerable, but the Tor makes her town a naturally well defended area and it's one of the most important places to local commerce, plus no-one actually hates her. Alaric suspects her of all kinds of evil, but I imagine he still allows trade with barter-town. In fact, I think I'm going to call her town Tauschdorf, because Renata runs Barter-Town. She's the most vulnerable of the Princes, though, something that probably worries her girlfriend (and her). This also produces a region that has a nice mix of bases for the PCs to explore the various ruins and menaces, if they're focusing wholly on adventuring rather than trying to become Princes themselves. The conflicts are also at a level that works great for PC involvement; Alaric could hire them to spy on Renata, someone could hire them to sabotage his gem mine, they could go after the Curiously Intelligent Hydra, etc etc. Lots of potential for stories in the region and the towns and villages only help that further. Plus, Li Na's waterfall stronghold just sounds cool as hell to see. Next Time: Wandering Monster.
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Apr 18, 2019 16:24
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Chipping in with my plot sense here, I'd also say the alliance between Li Na and Renata also makes a hell of a lot of sense even aside from their personal relationship: Li Na has raw resources, Renata has the trade hub. Renata is strategically vulnerable, Li Na has military forces and experience, and that stone quarry means Renata could fortify if need be. Add to that the Shallyans, and I think Alaric's Myrmidians are probably well aware that these ladies are a much tougher nut to crack than they seem at first glance.
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Apr 18, 2019 16:34
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