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Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
Spelljammer seems like it could probably stand on its own from D&D.

Also much like with Rogue Trader, I think it must be rusted-on old RPG thinking that the helmsman HAS to be a player character.

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8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Prism posted:

...
Less than you'd think, according to one of the sidebars, which says that 'the plane of gravity is very low in the ship, in some cases almost on line with the keel itself', though generally this isn't backed up by art. And presumably if you're keeping nothing but boxes at the lowest level, it doesn't matter much if some of them press upward against others pressing downward, though a sudden drop would be an issue.

Regardless, this isn't even mentioned in the section on cargo space or outfitting, even just to say 'the inside of a ship counts as on top for purposes of gravity', or at least I can't find it on a quick skim. I may have forgotten. It's been a while.

When I was running Spelljammer I basically ruled the gravity plane as matching the keel on most ships to avoid having to think too hard about it. The gravity bisecting the ship is a cool idea for ships designed for that in mind but the majority of the ships in the setting are just fantasy ocean sailing vessels.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
Cults: Hellvetics



Degenesis Rebirth
Primal Punk
Chapter 2: Cultures




Hellvetics

Shift Change

We are introduced to the Angery Swiss chapter with a fluff bit on how a Hellvetic starts his day. It starts with a dude waking up in darkness, pulling out his Trailblazer rifle from under the bed and “completely” disassembling (rather than just field stripping – though I doubt the authors know the difference) it by touch.

The Trailblazer has three barrels, by the way.

As he works on losing rifle bits in the dark, the Hellvetic recalls his entire life, as one does in the morning.

”Shift Change” posted:

Deep down to the beginning: the day he received his weapon. It was a few days after his fifteenth birthday, barely able to hold the Trailblazer. The feeling of pride he had that day reaches through the decades; it feels like only yesterday. He smiles. He was sixteen when he fired his first shot and dislocated his shoulder.

It seems the future Swiss had decided to solve the child soldier problem by making rifles ludicrously heavy to carry and kick like mules.

Back to our Hellvetic, he had his first kill a few years later when his patrol found some “illegal crossers” (you can try crossing the Alps without paying for the use of the Hellvetic tunnels, but you have to contend with sharpshooters). He fired five shots, hit three times, and killed one dude.

”Shift Change” posted:

They said the first one was always the hardest one. They had lied. The first twenty were hard.

That's a lot of shooting! But life wasn't always about tagging tangos. Some rescue op in Gotthard went south and he got shot. Worse, he endangered the patrol and left one dead/behind.

”Shift Change” posted:

Then he was punished by ammunition reduction and scorn. He had that coming. He had endangered his comrades and left one of them behind. They put recruit Tillis’ bloodsoaked, torn undershirt onto his pillow, a little gift.

I think that giving less ammo to soldiers that hosed up but are expected to serve on is somewhat counterproductive. However, this whole thing apparently taught our Hellvetic about responsibility and soldierly duty.

By the time synthetic chime comes over the loudspeaker and the lighting changes from “from red and white to headache blue,” the Trailblazer is reassembled and warm (presumably from all the gun-waking). The Hellvetic wears a skin-tight Harness of reassuring weight. He walks through the empty corridors (with lights coming on before him and shutting down behind him – seems like an unnecessary use of sensors) until he reaches areas with more Hellvetics. It's not explained why he's the only one from his corridor awakened for the shift.

Eventually, he crosses rows of vehicles in permanent mothball and emerges onto a bridge that Hellvetics built over the Reaper's Blow.



Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Who Got Shot While Illegally Crossing The Alps

Sanctuary

Back in 2072, the Swiss raised a question: what if the asteroid shield of “paladin satellites” wasn't going to provide 100% protection? That's why they implemented Plan B: Vault program, but with the Alpine Fortress (there’s no such thing in Switzerland; googling the name brings up a Nazi evacuation plan in WWII while the Swiss National Redoubt was contingency plan in case the Germans invaded them in the same war). Cultural treasures as well as scientists, politicians and artists would be safely stored to emerge and restore Switzerland even after a total collapse. They were to be accompanied by 2000 career soldiers: men and women who would help them secure the land.

For a year, all sorts of goods and equipment were ferried into the Alpine Fortress. Then the selection process for people to be housed inside began. The last step was “emptying” museums and galleries for culturally important stuff to store. It was around that point that the folks understood just how serious the whole thing was. Protests grew into riots and the Swiss Stream (not internet) was brimming with applications that an expert system sorted, but could do nothing with: there was no more room left.

Wasn’t the stream supposed to be down due to the whole “2 to the power of 16” thing at that point? Anyway…

Isolation

When the gate closed, those left outside felt cheated (...but probably not for long, what with meteorites and all) while those inside felt helpless and isolated.

The good thing is that they didn't have to feel that way for long!

”Isolation” posted:

The Reaper’s Blow split the Alps like a divine axe blow. The massif of rock broke open, stone avalanches splintered from the breaking point, crashed down with a deafening noise and buried rising magma under millions of tons of stone, a fragile seal on Pandora’s Box. The Alpine Fortress was mortally wounded. The great access gates caved in or were buried under rubble. Tunnels that had led into hangars and barracks only yesterday now ended in dizzying heights and opened onto newly formed valleys. Deep black, toxic columns of smoke curled skywards, searing heat welled up. The mountain had become a prison.

Entire sections were cut off from the core and nobody knew the fate of the Swiss trapped there. Most of them were civvies, instrumental to the rebuilding effort (as well as some insufferable interpretive dance artists, I'm sure).

”Isolation” posted:

The survivors devised a rescue plan so absurd it could have only been conceived in that time of flamboyant gestures and actions: They wanted to build a bridge across the Reaper’s Blow, across Purgatory itself.

So while the proto-Spitalians were busy being overwhelmed by the masses and ur-Chroniclers were coming down with a Stream crash, the Swiss were building a bridge over a bleeding wound in the mantle of the Earth. Only “flimsy asbestos suits” protected them from the heat rising from the bubbling magma. From those hellish working conditions and gallows’ humor came the name “Hellvetics.”

The first of six bridges was finished in 2076 – and recon specialists had managed to cross the Blow a year before. However, they found that two vital sections – housing high command and government representatives – had caved in so completely that “not even ashes remained” (creators of Degenesis have a flimsy understanding of what happens when human bodies get crushed by cave-ins). It is never clarified if the sections with artists and scientists survived or got crushed as well.

This would have severely demoralized the survivors if not for Hellvetic (so a non-civvie?) Leonard Gboy who occupied their minds with discipline and purpose.

”Isolation” posted:

A Corps Commander who had to guarantee the area’s safety autonomously was assigned to all of the Swiss Territorial Regions. He commanded smaller units of a few dozen soldiers that were supposed to be constantly checked for quality by an independent section commission. The chain of command was restored, and the Hellvetics felt like they were part of a Swiss clockwork again.

That's when they officially renamed themselves as Hellvetics, to make a break from the past (great job preserving that Swiss identity, guys).

Next time: rebuilding Switzerland, whether it wants it or not.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

Mors Rattus posted:

Over the past century, many Aztlani have attended Thean services at some point, but few are able to bring themselves to worship a god that they can't tlak to. They find it odd that someone omnipresent and omnipotent will only use a handful of human intermediaries, the Prophets, rather than acting or speaking personally, even when those Prophets are murdered. After all, in Aztlan, the gods walk the earth and protect their people. Therefore why worship a god who does not?

Oh hey, we finally have an entire continent of people who find this point necessary to address :v:

I'd also say something about Aztlani ignoring metal armor/weapons because "we don't use them, so who cares" being a somewhat losing proposition when faced with people who will use those things no problem - and the overly optimistic attitudes to ship building - but, ugh...

So are the ye olde Aztlan godde actually Syrneth or what? Does any book give a definitive answer on who they were (not space locusts) and what happened to them? Or are they better left as a mystery, since the excact details of their life doesn't matter when you're orbital bombing Rourke?

Seriously, is there any person more worthy of gun-to-the-face than Rourke?

JcDent fucked around with this message at 07:50 on Aug 20, 2018

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



I'm imagining that there's some kind of happy Pacific Rim neo-social democratic state which has regional cooperation and wonders why the gently caress Europeans are so stoked to be weird bondage fetish people.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
The Triop was the only ship I remember having a gravity plane straight through the middle. It was neat, in that it was designed to be perfectly mirrored top to bottom.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Alien Rope Burn posted:

I always felt like Spelljammer had a sort of quadratic goofiness to it. Or: "Do you know how goofy D&D is? Imagine a product that's as goofy to D&D players as D&D is." It almost seemed to me to have an almost aggressive lack of style or coherency, and doesn't really work in an intuitive sense given that it's not space as we think of it, nor it is sky, it's... something else. Like, sometimes it's really self-aware and silly and other times dead-serious and it feels a lot like a kitchen sink of notions the authors had.

As you can probably tell, I never really hookd onto it. I think there's definitely the seed of a lot of fun games to be had in it, but it didn't seem quite sci-fi enough or quite fantasy enough for me to grasp what they were going for.
Yeah, kinda. If I'm going to be honest about my experiences with it back in the day, I think I love spelljammer dearly and there's a lot of stylish and creative stuff in it, but at the same time it's an absolute goddamn thematic mess with no consistency from book to book and most of the actual mechanics involved with the setting were absolute hot garbage. Having to render a player character literally useless in order to meaningfully interact with the setting is just the tip of the mechanics iceberg, and there's a lot of really inventive worlds and cosmology setups that basically get ignored by later supplement writers.

Planescape or Dark Sun were way better examples of the "total conversion" settings that 2e came up with.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
4e Dark Sun introduces a whole bunch of stuff that you'd be mad not to backport to regular play. One of those total overhauls that's basically a rebalance.

Tendales
Mar 9, 2012
When I mashed spelljammer into 4e, one of the things I did was just say that a spelljammer helm is an artifact that you can cram onto any vessel, and then the normal operation of that vessel lets it travel through wildspace. No one actually has to put the spelljamming hat on, but you do need to crew the vessel normally.

Also, it works on any vessel. Sailing ships are nice and familiar for the job, but feel free to cram your spelljammer helm onto a horse-drawn carriage. Or a lightning train.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
Replace the spelljammer helm with a magical guitar, have the bard literally spelljam through the aether.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!


Rifts World Book 17: Warlords of Russia, Part 12: "Russians especially enjoy flavored vodka; limmonaya (lemon vodka), persovka (with hot pepper), zubrovka (made with certain grasses), ryabinovka (containing ash berries), tminaya (caraway), starka (dark and velvety), ahotnichaya (hunter's) and zveroboy (the only reference we could find said "Animal Killer!"); all cost about 1-3 credits more than usual."


industry

The Sovietski

So, as mentioned previously, Russia had returned back to some sort of benevolent Communism. Because if you try something hard enough, I guess it works even when it objectively never really did. In any case, between the apocalypse and the winter, most of that went away, but one "ultra-modern" military base survived for eighty years while being trapped in winter. How'd they find food? LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! And that's how they fed themselves in a sterile military shelter for eighty years.

In any case, once winter ended, they popped out and started reclaiming and scrounging various cities, and returning people often flocked to them for protection. They became the New Soviets, or "Sovietski". They shot monsters a lot and started expanding their sphere of influence. However, they ignored the Warlords for the most part, which has been a problem, because it let the Warlords get strong enough to start mercing their poo poo. And since the Sovietski's power was largely concentrated at their based, figures like Warlord Orloff and Warlord Burgasov could tear away at their edges. This is exacerbated by their lack of allies, though they have overtures to Warlord Romanov and Germany recently. Most people outside see them as uncaring isolationists, which isn't far from the truth.

Unlike the Coalition or the New German Republic, they don't really have a strict attitude towards D-Bees and other dimensional immigrants and refugees, though they're only a tiny minority. Racism is an issue, but not particularly prominent enough that it's omnipresent. However, gargoyles and brodkil are targeted for death wherever they're found. Which given their conflicts with the Polish brodkil, it makes some sense. In general, compared to a lot of human-controlled nations in Rifts, the Sovietski come across as pretty average folk - arrogant and isolationist, but they don't have any particularly sinister turns to them.


government

Civilized Russia

Generally speaking, the Sovietski are presented as a near-idealized Socialist state. They're trying to learn from the mistakes of the past, and are trying not to repeat the mistakes of historical Socialist states. People are well-motivated to work through patriotism and the fears of external threats, but everybody is provided for. As a result, class and wealth imbalance is pretty low. Their biggest issue is that the military generally has far more power than the rest of society - only they have access to weaponry and enhancements, and few restrictions on their power. In addition, most of the politicial leadership is made up of military or ex-military forces. This is a similarity they share with the Warlords, but compared to most of them, they're far more benevolent. New Moscow is their new capital, and most of their communities are centered around military bases. They have full utilities for their cities, however, and it's comparable to modern life at the time of this book's writing. Mind, how this is possible without the broader industries we have in the modern day is always a conceptual issue with Rifts books, but that's nothing new. Just shout "technology!" and wave your hands around a lot, I suppose.

We get notes on rubles, which are bronze coins issued by the Sovietski. Refined diamonds are apparently used for high-level purchases. We also get notes on matryoshka dolls, caviar, and vodka, because Russia.


Soviet classes: Helmet O.C.C., Hat O.C.C., Cap O.C.C.

General Katya Nikforov
Current Director of the Sovietski


Oddly for a Rifts book, we have a country being run by a woman, and an older one at that- though the book reassures us she looks like an "attractive and vibrant 40", on account of being a partial cyborg. She's a generically dedicated servant of the people. While she's racist against and suspicious of D-Bees, she holds a firm line against their extermination; she believes it's important to understand them in case of a future conflict (which is likely, she believes). She finds the Sovietski loss in land regrettable, and has bolstered their defenses against Orloff and Sokolov. Eventually, she hopes to take their land back.

Otherwise, she's a 10th level Military Specialist, even though you technically can't be that and a partial cyborg because the class system doesn't work that way. Her Intelligence and Affinity are both exceptional, and though her attributes are as unlikely as nearly any Rifts NPC, in this case they'are at least hedged by most of her attributes coming from being a cyborg.

Religious Enclaves

Suddenly, Catholics! Apparently there are a variety of religious enclaves claiming to be the inheritors of Orthodox Catholicism. The largest is associated with the Sovietski, but apparently every village has a church and enclave now, previously unmentioned. They're apparently one of the first structures you have to build in the Rifts World Book 17: Warlords of Russia 4X game. One of the core roles of the Russian Orthodox Catholic church in the grim post-apocalypse has been to preserve knowledge and art. They tend to restrict access to it, however, and only those associated with the church or its defense are given any access. Otherwise, they often serve as center of the community and provide social support where needed. In general, this is a very careful, very glowing treatment of the church in question. Unlike the Christian preachers from New West, they actually get some very slight supernatural powers. I suppose Protestantism was wrong all along! It's not much - they can make holy water, ward away demons / vampires / faeries with a cross, damage the same by laying a cross upon them, automatically exorcise demons and spirits, and make churches proof against entry by demons and entities. Yes, "Catholic" is the wrong terminology, but it says it repeatedly, it's not just a singular typo.

We get the Catholic Priest NPC class, which is banned to players even in a game that lets you play demons and dragons. If it wasn't, you'd only have a 33% chance of playing one because it has attribute requirements even as an NPC class. Otherwise, it's a deeply middling class with some bonuses against the supernatural and a bunch of lore and homebody skills. And-

Rifts World Book 17: Warlords of Russia posted:

Note: This is a very general Priest O.C.C. designed specifically with Rifts Russia in mind. These Priests tend to settle in one community and serve to inspire and counsel people in living good, honorable lives. They are not prone to adventure or war and are not recommended as player characters. This NPC is included because Christianity has played a large role in the lives of the Russian (and Polish) people throughout history. Including modern religions and beliefs in a "game" can be awkward, inappropriate and disrespectful. If played badly, it can offend fellow players or make someone's faith a laughing stock, and none of us want that. We believe that in the context in which it is presented in these pages, there is nothing offensive or in poor taste. Use the Catholic Priest, Church and faith sparingly and as more of a backdrop and good guy helper and advisor rather than an active military, political or monster-stomping force.
Indeed, we have to be careful, lest the Patriarch bring down a new crusade on Palladium Books for your private depiction of a minor local religious figure in the safety of your own home. Now, having Hindu deities being beaten down by the Splugorth and exiled to Earth in Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse? That was fine and sensitive. Mega-sensitive!

Next: Some guns for the road.

Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 12:07 on Aug 20, 2018

Terrible Opinions
Oct 18, 2013



Alien Rope Burn posted:

I suppose Protestantism was wrong all along!
As is good and right.

So real question does Rifts not realize that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are very much different and separate organizations? Like Russian Catholic Orthodox is a phrase that hurts a bit to read.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Replace the spelljammer helm with a magical guitar, have the bard literally spelljam through the aether.

I can't remember if Bardic helms were in the core box or a later book but they were totally a thing.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

Terrible Opinions posted:

As is good and right.

So real question does Rifts not realize that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are very much different and separate organizations? Like Russian Catholic Orthodox is a phrase that hurts a bit to read.

I just wiki'd it and us Papists aren't the only ones to claim the word "Catholic". Apparently the official name is "Orthodox Catholic Church" though this is the first time I'm hearing it used.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!
I realized how wrong it was right before posting but let it go because that's the terminology the book uses, but just added a little more clarification. Siembieda seems to think Russian Orthodoxy is a "faction" of the Catholic faith, which is incorrect. It's true that some Orthodox Churches refer to themselves as a Catholic Church (in the sense of "Catholic" as an adjective), but that's different than being the Catholic Church.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

Alien Rope Burn posted:

I realized how wrong it was right before posting but let it go because that's the terminology the book uses, but just added a little more clarification. Siembieda seems to think Russian Orthodoxy is a "faction" of the Catholic faith, which is incorrect. It's true that some Orthodox Churches refer to themselves as a Catholic Church (in the sense of "Catholic" as an adjective), but that's different than being the Catholic Church.

It's like he wiki'd it, saw the title and ran with it. I wonder if he mentions the priest being celibate or not.

shades of eternity
Nov 9, 2013

Where kitties raise dragons in the world's largest mall.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Replace the spelljammer helm with a magical guitar, have the bard literally spelljam through the aether.

Mate the guitar with a. Golem and I think you just recreated Macross 7. 😛


As for Warlords of Russia, it's kinda amazing how flat they made communism, especially after seeing the death of Stalin.

shades of eternity fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Aug 20, 2018

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

7th Sea 2e: The New World - Cosmology

The gods teach that reality is a single unit in which all things are interconnected. All life has a role to play. All Aztlani creation myths posit that the world was made by a creator, either a parent god or possibly gods, who either disappeared or sacrificed themselves as part of the process of creation. The world was the result, populated by the living gods and mortals. The god-kings that follower the creator worked within the creation, despite their power, and even they had to honor the creator's sacrifice. However, this doesn't mean the universe is stagnant or unchanging. Far from it. The Aztlani hold that the entire universe is a cosmic cycle of death and rebirth, as shown by the sun's rise and set, the moon's wax and wane, the growth and harvest of seeds.

In theory, all of reality can be reduced to a dynamic balance of opposition. Life and death, chaos and order, that kind of thing. All are a part of it, and no force may exist without its opposite. The role of the gods is to watch over large parts of reality, such as the stars or the natural cycles. By their efforts, the world remains habitable. The gods may not violate this order, and so wise Aztlani do not pray to them for anything but that they continue to preserve reality. If a drought comes, the gods cannot send rain, because the drought has a cause. Perhaps a ceremony was not done properly. Thus, all that can be done is to ensure that things are done properly next time, so the next drought does not happen; the gods fixing it would require them to bend reality to human will, and they aren't going to do that.

In Aztlani religions, there are considered to be three main parts of reality, three separate spheres of existence - interconnected, but apart from each other. They exist independently, and typically the inhabitants stay in their own realm, but they are close enough to move betweeen them. These worlds are not found in the cardinal directions, and geographical orientation is useless in describing them. The Overworld and Underworld aren't up or down - those names denote their status. The exact specifics and names may vary between cultures, but the Aztlani agree on some general characteristics of these worlds.

The Overworld is the dwelling of the gods. It is from here that the gods rule over nature, and it is here that the sun, moon and stars exist in their primordial form. Thus, careful observers may determine the movement of gods based on the movements of planets and stars. It is generally considered that the Overworld contains multiple strata, usually 13 layers, and that the uppermost is always the one the gods live in. According to the Kuraq, only the noble may enter this area after death, while in Tzak K'an, it is said that this honor is given to those who die in battle or to women who die in childbirth.

The Middleworld is the physical world. The Nahuacan say it is on the back of a giant marine monster that is also a giant toad, while in Tzak K'an it is said to be just one of many realities that can be considered a Middleworld. Besides the cardinal directions, it contains one major location of importance: the Axis Mundi. Each culture says it lies somewhere different, but all agree that it is in Aztlan and is the true center of the world. It is vital, for it is the point from which the directions radiate and which connects the three realms. Most beliefs hold it to be the most appropriate place from which to communicate with the gods, and therefore a lot of work has gone into building great temples where it is believed to be, which generally also end up becomign the political centers for their nation, except for that of the Nahuacan, who believe the axis mundi was inhabited and destroyed by the god-kings of the Aztlani Empire.

The Underworld is where the dead go. It is commonly said to be of nine distinct, descending levels, through which souls must journey to find their resting place, usually on the lowest level, or they transcend to the overworld. It is widely believed to be possible to enter the Underworld via certain geographic landmarks, often caves or lakes. These, especially the watery ones, are often said to have healing properties. However, the Underworld is also a place of decay and disease, full of terrible punishments. Most Aztlani scholars or priests say that these are required to purify the soul for its ultimate destination. Still, tales of the Underworld are usually considered not to be for the faint of heart. Of course, Kuraq disagrees, dealing with dead spirits on a daily basis. They believe that the others are idiots that squander the greatest power.

While every Aztlani culture has its own gods, calendars and beliefs, there are a few ceremonies that are widespread. Because the Aztlani hold that all things are connected and that humans exist to serve the gods by worship, the core of Aztlani religion is not about belief and faith, but about responsibility. You know the gods exist, and that you exist to empower them to maintain reality. Therefore, it is your duty to offer your thoughts, prayers and sacrifice to sustain them. This is seen as a mutually beneficial relationship. Humans give of themselves for the gods, who then preserve reality for humans to live in. This cycle is the core of Aztlani life.

Besides this practice of personal worship and devotion, there are also communal ceremonies. These tend to be transcendantal rituals with immediate results, provided by the divine conduit that helps to bridge the mortal and divine. The rains may come, the winds may shift, the sun may darken. The deity involved may even appear in physical form, if the ritual was of great significance. The rituals vary by culture or even city, as even small communities have gods with personal ties to them. Generally, however, they all follow a certain pattern of activities done in the same order, generally with an obsessive attention to detail. A few steps are nearly universal for large or important ceremonies.

First is the Declaration of Purpose, in which participants attempt to connect to the chosen deity. No manifestation of power has yet happened, but the step creates a vital state of mind to commune with divinity. Typically this includes a sort of pre-gamed prayer, meditation or chant, often in a separate location, to prepare for the ritual itself. Once this is done, the Establishment of Protection is performed. This ensures the safety of both the ritualists and the god, and typically involves both physical and mystical protections. Once a ritual is started, it tends to be hard to stop, thanks to these protections. Often, this involves renewing or inscribing sacred markings. Next is the Banishment of Unwanted Beings, in which the ritualists ensure no other spirits can interfere. This is because every ritual involves the offering of power, usually in the form of a figurative sacrifice, which can attract unwanted entities. Typically, they are warded against by communal prayer, chant or dances designed for the purpose. As a note - this is no longer human sacrifice. Human sacrifice was once common, but has now been almost universally abandoned, and its practice is publicly despised by most priests.

Once all of the above conditions have been met, the leader of the ritual enters the Trance stage, briding the mortal and divine. While all ritualists have equal responsibility for the rite, only the chosen conduit may communicate with the god effectively, in both directions. This is always very taxing both physically and mentally, which is why it is done only by the trained. Often, the conduit loses consciousness, speaks in tongues or dances to nonexistent music. After the ritual is completed, the Closing is performed to sever the conduit's connection, in order to prevent others from abusing it. This is usually similar to the banishment stage, but often in reverse, breaking or erasing marks made during cleansing and liberating the energies involved. Finally, the Recovery and Restoration phase is performed, to return ritualists to a greater sense of self, removing the state of divine liminality. Typically the leader of the ritual will perform a secret series of sounds or gestures to 'awaken' the others. All of these may be done very differently as needed, and are often more organic than a step-by-step list.

Besides specific ritual, the Aztlani also have festivals - loosely structured ceremonies that are now in common use and whose meaning has largely been lost by all but those who are conduits or who care about esoterica. They are, therefore, the easiest experiences of divinity to take part in, even for children or outsiders. These are public exultations of the gods, reenactments of their tales by music and dance and story. They are times of celebration and education. They typically honor all the gods, though a few are dedicated to a single god and done only on specific days. Festivals usually correspond to astronomical events or seasonal patterns. The Nahuacan also often celebrate after military victories, while Tzak K'ani festivals are strictly calendrical. Local festivals are banned in Kuraq, as the Empress seeks to focus everyone only on state-sponsored festivals. The sacrifices involved are almost always symbolic, and the priests will generally, if pressed, explain that it was never about flesh and blood, but about devotion and surrender to a higher power. There are various stories about why the shift from real human sacrifice to symbolic sacrifice happened, but all tend to agree it was a shift due to negotiation with the gods. The symbolic sacrifice is maintained as a preservation of tradition, and general involves the burning of effigies or ritualized slaughter of animals, which are then cooked and eaten by the festival-goers.

Next time: Conduits

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

shades of eternity posted:

Mate the guitar with a. Golrm and I think you just recreated Macross 7. 😛

Sadly, I don't think AD&D 2e bards can liberate the minds of Illthid thralls by singing at them.

Though being just thoroughly useless for around half of the campaign does fit, I suppose!

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
So can you gank an Aztlani god by interfering with the ritual?

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

JcDent posted:

So can you gank an Aztlani god by interfering with the ritual?

Probably, if you were sufficiently powerful, but it's not very helpful because death is not a permanent state for most of them.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

7th Sea 2e: The New World - THE CONDUIT

Aztlani expect that only properly trained people can bridge the mortal and divine worlds. These people have many titles and names across many cultures, but their job is universal: maintain the connection between human and god. They are kings, queens, priests, oracles, shamans, healers and diviners. As a general term, they are conduits. All cultures agree that their job is of great import, requiring only the best, most trustworthy and trained people. This is even more important when they're also the rulers. Because these are usually elected by a council (as in Nahuaca) or directly appointed after death (as in Kuraq), their training is even more rigorous than those of 'normal' conduits. Conduits keep communication open, lead rituals and help praise the gods. However, because the gods can also walk physically in the world, they can also just choose people to talk to, who do not need to be conduits. Indeed, the gods often select people who have no formal training at all to teach lessons for them.

Children that wish to enter divine service are required to receive at least some formal education, whether that means a priestly academy or a mentor of great wisdom. This education generally covers a wide variety of things, such as literacy, astronomy, music, dance, proper etiquette in addressing gods and ritual performance. The aspiring conduit must also pass a number of tests designed to show their knowledge, wisdom and humility. Only a few ever finish this basic training, and even those that fail are considered to be wise, knowledgeable people in whatever they decide to do after. While priests are the most common conduit, they are not the only ones, and a culture may acknowledge several roles that serve as conduits. For those that pass their tests, well, now they have to dress and act the part for their superiors while serving as assistants to more experienced conduits. Those that survive this intensive on-the-job training end up taking on the full role of conduit almost without realizing it. They're just given more and more responsibility until one day they realize they're doing the job without ever really having been formally told their apprenticeship is over.

That said, being a conduit doesn't mean you get immediate access to the divine hotline. Conduits are chosen by the people, not the gods. The gods will talk to them, sure, but the gods also pick their own people to talk to. A conduit is just the community's chosen speaker. Even if they rarely directly commune with the gods, they hold great social power, and have a very serious responsibility to their people. The gods just rarely give a poo poo. Of course, the gods are most likely to give guidance to those that know the proper forms and rituals, which in theory should just be the conduits, but others interact with the gods directly anyway, as the gods decide they need a human for some reason or other.

Rulers, especially those seen as partially divine, are expected not only to deal in the mundane governance of a nation but also to speak to the gods on its behalf. Only one who understands the gods is worthy of rule, in Aztlani eyes. Thus, a ruler must not only be a skilled administrator, but also scholars of the divine, to use their power properly. That is why many Aztlani cultures see their rulers as semi-divine beings of exceptional nature. Some Theans misinterpret this as a cult of the ruler rather than a reaffirmation of their worthiness; the Aztlani are more than able to bring down a 'divine' ruler who proves no longer worthy.

The book now moves into a section written in character for the monsters bit. It is presented as excerpts from a Castillian explorer's notebook on Aztlani legends, and notes that most native Aztlani would not agree with many of his conclusions. The Ahuitzotl (rough translation: 'spiny aquatic things') resemble a dog, but with a hand on their tail, spikes, smooth black skin and an insatiable craving for parts of the human body. They prefer shallow waters, grab victims with the tail-hand, and drag them to the depths, then eat their eyes, nails and teeth, but nothing else. The locals claim they were made by the rain god Tlacatpochtli, and that they serve him. They eat those body parts, it is claimed, because that is where the soul lives, and they are to deliver chosen souls to their god. Oddly, neither they nor any other monster in this section receives stats.

The Ohuican Chaneque are a species of sprite-like creatures said by the Nahuacan to be nature elementals defending the land against intruders. They are able to shapeshift into various forms, and apparently attempt to lure people into the Underworld. It is said that those who escape them often have no memory of what happened in their absence, and they are often blamed for inexplicable disappearances. They are also claimed to have the power to terrify the soul out of the body, which they will then trap, causing the victim to die horribly if they cannot retrieve their soul. There is a similar Tzak K'ani species known as the Aluxo'ob, and there are also noted similarities to certain Castillian and Montaigne legends about deuendes and gobelins.

Quinametzin are said to be ancient giants, in Nahuacan legend, which built many immense, now-ruined pyramids. Many of these constructions have been deemed impossible by Thean architects, who can find no means by which such perfect structures should exist on such a large scale. Certainly the Nahuacan of today lack the technology to construct them. Nahuacan legend claims the Quinametzin were destroyed because they angered the gods and did not perform proper worship. Apparently there are a number of Nahuacans attempting to find descendants of the Quinametzin as part of the Nahuacan Restoration Movement, so that they can regain the technologies used by these lost giants. It is unclear if such descendants either exist or have that knowledge.

The Victims of Ehecah Totech are a group of people who received the attentions of the god Ehecah Totech, who is both lord of agriculture and plants, and of disease, war and flaying. The locals claim these people were skinned alive, that the god might wear their flesh. Skinless bodies left behind after this ritual do not die, but instead become a form of monster obsessed with stealing the skin of others to cover themselves with. However, their touch causes any skin they wear to decompose quickly, so their quest can never end. Fortunately, it appears that no new Victims have been made in a very, very long time.

B'olon T'oon, the Nine Strides, are not gods. They are the spirits of destruction that appear at the end of a world, at least according to the Tzak K'ani. They appear to have nine legs; just about all other reports on them are contradictory. Various groups have encountered them, but always under very bizarre circumstances and usually just before vanishing without much trace. There are no known survivors of any encounter with them, or at least none that remained sane. They appear to have some sort of message, but it is unclear what this message is.

Camazotz, the death bat, is both the name of a Tzak K'ani god and the name of the bats that live in the Tzak K'ani underworld, Xibalba. They are described as immense, skeletal bats who can tear off a human head in one strike. It is said that, if provoked, they can leave Xibalba in such numbers as to blot out the sun, and have done so at least three times in the past. They may also be found just wandering around outside any area that leads to the underworld - that is, any sufficiently weird cave or well. They are aggressive against outsiders and attack quickly. There also appears to be a related species of bat-winged person that brings the deals of Lord Tohil, presumably a god, which are never good.

The Manikin are said by the Tzak K'ani to be the remnants of the gods' first failed attempt to create humans. They are human-like beings carved from wood, who walk undetected amonst living people, but who do not speak and have only a mindless gaze. They don't appear aggressive or dangerous, though the author certainly seems to be terrified of the one he saw, which was a wooden copy of himself. It is unclear where the things come from or what they do.

Next time: More weirdo stories.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
Camazotz, Manikin, Xibalba, bat-winged people...

Hmm, I hope Dominions VI has firearms :v:

Freaking Crumbum
Apr 17, 2003

Too fuck to drunk


Prism posted:


    * Time-keeping in space is generally based around a standard day (24 hours) broken into three 'sections' instead of morning, afternoon and night: first watch, second watch, and night or graveyard watch. A standard week is seven standard days; a standard month is four standard weeks (so 28 days). There is no standard time longer than that as pretty much everybody in space has a different opinion of how long a year should be, so most long-term things are counted in months, or local years based on where you are.


i assume the answer is NO, but do the rules account for things like time dilation and relativistic speeds and etc? or do you just move the "regular" distance you would be expected to move and going from one setting to another would take decades of travel time? or do the spelljammers do something special for long distance travel so that an adventuring party doesn't age 80 years between moving from Krynn to Aber-Toril?

edit: and because D&D fuckin' loves wacky and unnecessarily complex cosmologies for each setting, does SpellJammer address how the elemental planes from each setting interact with crystal spheres and philogiston? because it seems like the elemental planes already served as a conduit between certain settings, so I'm wondering if SpellJammer is just an alternative method of travel or whether it even cares about the elemental or alignment planes at all.

Freaking Crumbum fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Aug 20, 2018

ZeroCount
Aug 12, 2013


Freaking Crumbum posted:

i assume the answer is NO, but do the rules account for things like time dilation and relativistic speeds and etc? or do you just move the "regular" distance you would be expected to move and going from one setting to another would take decades of travel time? or do the spelljammers do something special for long distance travel so that an adventuring party doesn't age 80 years between moving from Krynn to Aber-Toril?

edit: and because D&D fuckin' loves wacky and unnecessarily complex cosmologies for each setting, does SpellJammer address how the elemental planes from each setting interact with crystal spheres and philogiston? because it seems like the elemental planes already served as a conduit between certain settings, so I'm wondering if SpellJammer is just an alternative method of travel or whether it even cares about the elemental or alignment planes at all.

bold of you to assume that the speed of light exists

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


As I understand it, Spelljammer doesn't even pretend to have real laws of physics. The whole gravity plane thing is just to make the grogs shut up and enjoy jumping between pirate ship in space.

Prism
Dec 22, 2007

yospos

Freaking Crumbum posted:

i assume the answer is NO, but do the rules account for things like time dilation and relativistic speeds and etc? or do you just move the "regular" distance you would be expected to move and going from one setting to another would take decades of travel time? or do the spelljammers do something special for long distance travel so that an adventuring party doesn't age 80 years between moving from Krynn to Aber-Toril?

edit: and because D&D fuckin' loves wacky and unnecessarily complex cosmologies for each setting, does SpellJammer address how the elemental planes from each setting interact with crystal spheres and philogiston? because it seems like the elemental planes already served as a conduit between certain settings, so I'm wondering if SpellJammer is just an alternative method of travel or whether it even cares about the elemental or alignment planes at all.

Travel in the phlogiston is really fast. I haven't written up the next section yet, and probably won't have time today, but we're not talking years. You've only got four-ish months of good air and you can, if you know where you're going and the currents cooperate, get basically anywhere in that time period. There is no time dilation.

We'll get into elemental planes though.

Prism fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Aug 20, 2018

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

7th Sea 2e: The New World - THE CONDUIT

The Tzak K'ani say that Terra is just one in an array of worlds, and they speak of the Pet Mo', the 'descendants' of a deity that is no more. This name is used in reference to 'the One True Sun,' shot from the sky by the Hero Brothers of lore. For some reason, a Vodacce treasure hunter is looking for these descendants, beings said to possess some of the same power as the original Pet Mo' deity, seeking knowledge of the "previous" world that predated Terra. Apparently the Pet Mo' can give this knowledge, for a price, though it is unknown what that price might be, nor what other abilities they have inherited.

The amaru is a large, two-headed serpent, with one bird head and one puma head. These creatures have been seen around the Kuraq Empire, and seem to have the ability to vanish or teleport. The locals claim they can transcend the earthly plane and go beyond, probably to the Ukhu Pacha, as the Kuraq Overworld is known. It is said that the amarus may be the guardians of paths to this celestial realm. They are also identified as servants of Suway, the god of Death and patron of Kuraq's Empress. Some even say they serve as the god's eyes and ears, which would make them very powerful tools of the empire, if true.

The Inkarri are those leaders of the Kuraq who die and are not mummified, thus trapping them in the physical world and denying them their right to become ancestors. These beings are dead and dismembered, but remain alive. It is claimed by some that, in life, they angered the rulers of Kuraq, and it was feared what they might do in the afterlife, so they were dismembered and had their body parts buried in far-off locations, that they might never communicate their will to their descendants. It has not worked, if so. The Inkarri vow to rise again and take revenge on those who offend them. One legend says they were "pieced together by the Death God in the bellies of the lost city of Kachu Paul" - and using their patched together bodies, they now seek out vengeance.

The Kuraq claim that the previous world ended in a terrible flood brought down by the gods, though they don't say why. The story merely says that the creator, Ninaq'ara, summoned many spirits to unleash the flood around Lake K'ayra, and only two humans were saved, who have lived in the area since. These are Nawpaq and Iskay, who warn the Kuraq that if they do not repent of their wicked ways, the Unu Pachakuti, the water spirits of the last flood, will come again. Many ignore them, but others fear that if they don't do something soon, the floods will come and kill them all, pointing to the recent climatic disasters and heavy rains as proof.

The Oqe Phutiy are spirits associated with a belief that the wak'as, the sacred places, are angered by the presence of foreigners. They are said to possess some Kuraqs, causing them to dance and speak cryptic messages declaring that all Theans must be driven from Aztlan. They speak in strange voices and claim to be the will of the wak'as. Some reports also have the locals worshipping these manifested wak'as, but others do not.

The chapter then has a section on notably dangerous deities, again written in character. Ayar Kochi is the brother of Manqu Chapaq, and he is known to be a giant trapped under the Hark'apa Mountains, imprisoned by his brothers within the Llakipakuy Caverns. It is unclear why, though the Kuraq agree it was probably related to his violent behavior. He is said to be extremely strong, able to destroy a mountain with one hurled stone. His brother, Manqu Chapaq, is no longer alive, but speaks through various vessels and says it is imperative that Ayar not be allowed to escape, no matter the cost. He has offered great riches to any who will go into the caverns and ensure that Ayar is safely locked away and sleeping. An entire priesthood remains dedicated to him, hidden in the Kuraq armies, and pray to him for strength.

Nacatlicue, the Deadly Mother of the Nahuacans, wears a skirt of writing snakes and many necklaces of human hearts, hands and skulls. She is the meeting point of life and death, and she was slain by her daughter Coyolxuahqui with the aid of 400 of her other children. Even in death, she brought forth the god Huitzilopochtli and swore to slay all her betrayers. And so, as her head was severed, the patron god of the Nahuacan emerged to avenge her. After this, she continued to exist, though her beautiful face was replaced by two bloody snake heads. She brings both life and death, and her wrath continues to grow against her traitor children. If it were unleashed, no one could be certain who would be caught up in it. She is worshipped across Aztlan, and she is known to guide the Nahuacan in agriculture and farming. While her priests no longer perform blood sacrifices, they are happy to post-hoc declare her blessing over deaths in her name.

Lum Pak' and Cabrakan are the gods of Deepest Earth and Earthquake respectively. The Tzak K'ani say Lum Pack' is a giant caiman, so potent he could make mountains until he was turned to stone by the Hero Brothers. Even now, mountains occasionally just appear, then vanish some time later, which suggests he has broken free somehow. His counterpart is even more dangerous, with no regard for life or worship, though there are currently fewer earthquakes in the area now that the mountains have apparently started moving. This might be good or bad. Both gods have a handful of worshippers, but Cabrakan does not speak to his followers, ever, save for the rare and confusing vision. Lum Pak' meets with his priests regularly in the city-state of Yok'ol. While Most Tzak K'ani do not believe any would truly worship him, the cult of Lum Pak' exists and is quite dangerous.

Next time: the Nahuacan Alliance

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

Freaking Crumbum posted:

i assume the answer is NO, but do the rules account for things like time dilation and relativistic speeds and etc? or do you just move the "regular" distance you would be expected to move and going from one setting to another would take decades of travel time? or do the spelljammers do something special for long distance travel so that an adventuring party doesn't age 80 years between moving from Krynn to Aber-Toril?

edit: and because D&D fuckin' loves wacky and unnecessarily complex cosmologies for each setting, does SpellJammer address how the elemental planes from each setting interact with crystal spheres and philogiston? because it seems like the elemental planes already served as a conduit between certain settings, so I'm wondering if SpellJammer is just an alternative method of travel or whether it even cares about the elemental or alignment planes at all.

There are basically two scales of speed for spelljamming within a crystal sphere, one for combat, the other which is more or less like leisurely warp drive.

Planar travel and spelljamming are unrelated. A stray paragraph in a Planescape book suggests that the Phlogiston is basically the Prime Material Plane, but I'm not sure that was ever really made canon.

Quinn2win
Nov 9, 2011

Foolish child of man...
After reading all this,
do you still not understand?


Panic at the Dojo: Making Villains

There are three types of enemy NPC builds! The power of each one is measured in 'units', with the design intent that an equal battle should have the name number of units as there are heroes.
  • Warriors are your standard one-unit enemy fighters. In terms of raw power, each one is about equivalent to one Hero, but they have less flexibility.
  • Stooges are groups of weak loser enemies who are easy and fun to mop the floor with. They have special rules surrounding them, and a group of three to six Stooges is worth one unit, depending on their fighting style.
  • Bosses are the big end-of-arc bad guys, who can take on a whole party of PCs alone. They have multiple healthbars, and are worth multiple units.

Warriors
The easiest type of enemies to make, requiring no special rules. They're like pared-down Heroes - each gets one Stance and one health bar. Pick a Style, pick a Form, combine them, then pick any Fused Archeytpe Ability (doesn't have to match their Style) or Boss Archetype Ability (more on that in a bit). They get a Skill from their Form, and don't get a Build.

That's it! They're reasonably strong, but having only one Stance, they have more weaknesses that clever PCs can exploit.

Stooges
A group of Stooges collectively count as one enemy, and take up a number of spaces on the map. To figure that number out, make a Stance for them to fight in - the number of Action Dice they get is the number of spaces they occupy. Each Stooge can only take one Action per turn, so you basically roll X dice, then use each die to make one of the Stooges do something. Stooges get a Build (usually Bumbling) but not an Archetype Ability, and whenever a Stooge uses an action to move, all of the Stooges can move at once. If you end up with more Action Dice than you have Stooges to use them, the remaining dice must all be spent on this Stooge-specific move:

1+: Reinforcements
Heal, then place a Stooge anywhere in play. This uses the new Stooge's action for the turn.

Stooges share HP, all going down at the same time when the squad's health bar runs out. If one of them is Taken Out, they don't return to the fight next round like other characters - they're just gone, and can only restock by using Reinforcements. There's an option for Super Stooges in here - they have two Health Bars, take two turns accordingly, and get a Fused Archetype Ability. Stooges also can't have Copies, so if a Stooge would be Copied, just add another Stooge to the pile instead.

Endless Stooges are a special rule for when the party is fighting an unending horde of idiots while trying to defeat someone else. In this case, Reinforcements is tossed out, and any damage dealt to a Stooge removes it from play. However, at the start of the Stooge's turn, it automatically restocks a number of Stooges equal to the heal value, placed adjacent to any Edge or Obstacle.

Bosses
The big bads. Bosses have multiple health bars, take multiple turns, and count as multiple units. The numbers for all of those depends on how much enemy power they have backing them up - as always, the number of health bars in the fight should be equal on both sides. So, if you have five PCs, and two Stooge groups, then the Boss would have three health bars. Interestingly, this means that a Boss who's fighting alone is actually *stronger* than a boss who's brought his friends to the party, because Boss turns are more dangerous than Warrior or Stooge turns.

Bosses get an Archetype, the Fused Archetype Ability for that Archetype, and one of their three Stances must use a Style from that Archetype. In addition, they have access to Boss Archetypes for this choice, which are special enemy-only Archetypes for Bosses and Warriors. Bosses don't get (or need) a Build, get Skills the same way as PCs, and whatever Action Dice their Stances have, they add an extra d4 to each.

Beyond all that, Bosses have one unique benefit and one unique limitation. The benefit is that if a Boss is thrown off an Edge, they return to play instantly at the start of their next turn, taking 3 damage instead of losing their turn. The limitation is that, like Frantic Heroes, they can never use the same Stance two turns in a row.

Boss Archetypes
These are simpler than regular Archetypes. Each has a Boss Archetype Ability, and four Styles from the main Archetype list that it's associated with. Let's get through those things real quick!

The Blur
After you perform an Action, move one space.
Styles: Jumping, Lightning, Rocket, Winged

The Immortal
The first time each turn that you deal damage with an Action, you heal.
Styles: Elder, Phoenix, Vampire, Vortex

The Giant
You take up a 2x2 space on the grid, and max range goes up by 1. You can move over Walls, turning them into Rubble, at the cost of one extra Speed Token.
Styles: Knockdown, Ogre, Overwhelming, Whip

The Necromancer
At the start of your turn, place a Copy into an empty space. At the end of your turn, all your Copies can move one space, then each Copy deals 1 damage to one adjacent enemy.
Styles: Charging, Mastermind, Spirit, Zombie

The Swarm
At the end of your turn, for each Copy in play, choose one: Gain 1 Power Token, gain 1 Iron Token, move 1 space, all your Copies move on space, destroy a Copy and deal 1 damage to each enemy adjacent to it.
Styles: Crystal, Illusion, Ten Thousand, Syphon

The Tank
When you are pushed or pulled, move one less space.
Styles: Artillery, Aura, Caged, Unbreakable

The Untouchable
At the start of your turn, gain one Control Token. When you spend one to counter an action, the action targets its user in addition to its other targets.

The Vehicle
The GM puts a shape on the field, and that's the shape of the character. Enemies and allies can move on top of you. When you move, everyone on top of you moves with you. Spaces inside of you are always in your Range. Can destroy walls as per the Giant.
Styles: Explosion, Machine, Precision, Ricochet

Next: A little encounter design, a lot of monsters.

Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



Prism posted:

Travel in the phlogiston is really fast. I haven't written up the next section yet, and probably won't have time today, but we're not talking years. You've only got four-ish months of good air and you can, if you know where you're going and the currents cooperate, get basically anywhere in that time period. There is no time dilation.

We'll get into elemental planes though.
"The Phlogiston" is more like the Hyperspace in Star Control 2 (with bonus nerf for fire attacks) I think. Probably also including Slylandro Probes if you're nasty.

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Freaking Crumbum posted:

i assume the answer is NO, but do the rules account for things like time dilation and relativistic speeds and etc?
I'm pretty sure the answer is "that's a thing in the real world, not spelljammer".

DAD LOST MY IPOD
Feb 3, 2012

Fats Dominar is on the case


i tend to like stuart's work a lot more than raggi's (within the realm of OSR/retroclones) but i wish he'd stop adopting raggi's bizarre formula of "by the way, if the PCs fail in this specified way, here's a complex plan of how the entire world gets destroyed" (see: the book from God that Crawls)

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

7th Sea 2e: The New World - Conquest

The Nahuacan Alliance has proven its might in battle and conquest. It stretches from the eastern shore to the west, united all of the many Nahuatl-speaking states of Aztlan - whether they want it or not. The Nahuacans have a rigid social hierarchy, yet also a strong appreciation of heroism and excellence regardless of class. Their sorcerers wield powers derived from the heart of their culture and the beasts of their land. Their armies have subjugated every state in their region. They are strongest - it is what it means to be Nahuacan. However, they are now at risk from within. Chichahua Tlatoa, the Great Speaker, is young and untested. He lacks the influence and power of his predecessors. The leaders of the Eagle and the Jaguar, the two greatest military forces of Nahuaca, are fighting to control him, either by influence or conquest. He knows they plot against him, but he can do nothing to stop them. It is only a matter of time before one makes an overt move. Nahuacan is a nation of culture, order, wealth and security - and a nation of robbery, tyranny and uniformity. It is home to great heroes and to great villains.

The current Alliance spans the full northern third of the continent. While it covers a wealth of environments, most of its interior is hot, dry and arid, full of deserts cut through with roads and way-stations between its great cities. The people of the Alliance are not a monoculture, but the Alliance is as much a cultural thing as a civic one. Some things remain consistent. Most of the history of Nahuacan's origins is about conquest and battle. Before the battles, though, was the doomed Aztlani Empire. It was a time of myth and mystery, and many of the core Alliance states claim to be the inheritors of the Empire. Others say that the Aztlani Empire was an entirely different people, a progenitor culture whose life is now unknowable. The Nahuacan do agree on one thing about them, though: they know why they failed. At the height of Aztlani power, the imperial government, ignored by the decadent god-kings, grew complacent and undisciplined. Petty crime was rampant, and bandits and witches seized political power shamelessly. The imperial armies were thinly spread and ineffective at keeping the peace.

Feuds tore the Aztlani Empire apart, and the god-kings, who would not lead with purpose, failed to intercede as their empire fell to simultaneous natural disasters. Only one coalition of families, associated by friendship, kinship and marriage, managed to flee into the wilds. They found caverns under a mountain, where they could survive, sheltering in a system of seven caves. As the Aztlani Empire burned around them, they slowly reverted to the ways of their ancestors - hunting, gathering, hiding from predators and bad weather. Long after the Fall, four beings entered the caves, calling the elders of the families there. One had skin black as obsidian and eyes like sparks. One was blue, like fire. One had no skin, her bloody muscles exposed to all. And the last was a white-feathered serpent with calm and sad eyes. They said they were four children of an ancient god, a casualty of the lost age, and that they were the new gods, come to protect humanity from itself and lead them back to civilization.

The people who would name themselves Nahuacans came forth from the cave, desperate and afraid but trusting these new gods. When enemies came from the south, the god of blue fire uncoiled his belt into a kilometer-long burning serpent, scourging the foes and sending them fleeing into the night. When enemies came from the east, the bloody goddess seeded the land with her blood, bringing forth great cacti to ward off the foes. When enemies came from the north, the black goddess breathed forth a blinding mist, then sent moths and bats with wings of obsidian to stab the foes to death in the confusion. When enemies came from the west, the serpent-god grew to the size of a great pyramid and devoured them all.

Even at that ancient time, the weapons and armor of the Aztlani Empire was legendary, unable to be replicated after the Fall. The fine weapons they had made were scattered to the winds. The Nahuacans had few of them and could make no more. Instead, they learned to use what they found around them to fight. They made simple yet deadly weapons from obsidian and copper, armor out of plants and feathers. They learned the ways of the forest, studying new tactics to outmaneuver better-armed foes - skills they would later use several times to defeat Thean forces. Every Nahuacan, even children and elders, learned to fight. Even the young and old could set spears against a charge, while greater warriors stood ready for anything more complex. They learned which techniques worked best, drilling in every spare moment. The Nahuacan military tradition was born out of fear and desperation, but it worked, and it has lasted, unbroken, to today.

The Aztlani Empire had feared magic, which was used only by hedge wizards and witches on the edge of civilization, who used wicked powers for the benefit of those too desperate to go anywhere else. The Nahuacans, now, were in that wilderness, had become those outsiders. They begged their gods to teach them sorcery, that they might be able to defeat evil on their own. The gods said magic was not evil, and would happily teach them how to use it. Each of the gods taught a different sorcery. Itzzohualli, the black goddess, taught the Nahuacans to see possible futures in a mirror hidden by a smoke curtain. The white serpent, Apocoatl, taught them to bring forth their souls in animal shapes, taking on the traits of a beast-totem or even summoning it. Fiery Tlehuitzin taught them to channel spells via arranged bird feathers, to protect against harm. And skinless Nacatlicue taught the power of sacrifice, that the death of something sacred to a god, or a death affected by a god's purview, could call forth an apotheosis and draw the dead to live again in the godhead. These powers spread through Nahuacan society, and their sorcerers could stand, spell for spell, against any witch. They used the divination to foresee enemy movements, used the power of beasts to move properly in battle, and sacrificed captives to strengthen their gods. In the modern day, many Nahuacans fear and reject such magics as dangerous, as the ancient Aztlani did, but no one can deny their worth after the Fall.

More and more people joined the Alliance, but the sheer numbers brought division and strained resources. Each of the four gods was strong and wanted worship of themselves above the others. In-fighting was common, as the gods encouraged their followers to attack each other. It took only a few years for the Nahuacan to fragment into four groups, each ruled by a different god and priesthood. Itzzohualli's people went north, where the volcanic valleys were thick with sacred obsidian. Apocoatl's people went west, where they began to dredge and clear the swamps, building temples above dark water and learning to use the plants for food and medicine. Nacatlicue's people went east, where they found rich grain fields and fertile lands. Tlehuitzin's people went south, where the hunting was good and the people were hardened by the dangers of the forest, using fine bird plumage to make art and magic.

In this time, the four great cities, Milllahco, Tecuehtitlan, Oloxochicalco and Nexhuatipec, rose to power. Many city-states rose around them, stockpiling weapons and worshipping other gods, though it was clear the four gods of Nahuacan had the true power. Oloxochicalco developed a standing army first, then Tecuehtitlan, as their surplus of food allowed them to separate out soldiers to train in martial arts and attack weak neighbors. The other two cities rushed to raise armies in response, but could not afford such large ones, instead focusing on smaller orders of elite troops. The specialists of Milllahco were the Ocelomeh, the Jaguar Knights, who were fast and stealthy, using poison and darkness to murder foes. Nexhuatipec's were the warrior-priest Cuaumeh, the Eagle Templars, who used magical feather suits that could block any blow and so became the heaviest, most durable of Aztlani fighters. Each state rushed to repay their gods for the glory, sacrificing crops, goods, animals and people to strengthen them. For centuries, the cities fought each other, no one rising over the others, as when one became strong, the other three would unite against them, then collapse to squabbling.

Each war brought with it new military technology, new tactics and strategies, and many new human sacrifices. At last, all four armies marched to battle at the intersection of their borders. Their gods towered over them, their manifestations made immense by sacrifice. However, before the first conch could sound the battle call, one officer emerged from the forces of Nexhuatipec and gave a speech saying he would not fight for the aggrandizement of a god, that he was tired of all the fighting, and that he was done, even if it meant he would be killed. He dropped his helmet and back banner and macuahuitl and just sat down. Tlehuitzin, the most warlike god, reached down and picked him up, lifting him to eye level - but rather than eat the man, the god agreed. The man was right, he said, and that while he loved war, war was only sacred when fought for an ideal or a passion or survival, and that the current wars had no import at all. And so, his priests strode forth to perform a ritual of sacrifice - but rather than a human, they broke their weapons in sacrifice. For the first time in centuries, the gods were reunited, and they sat upon the ruins and took the human leaders and spoke to them. The four city-states spoke as brothers and sisters once more, and the Nahuacan Alliance was formed. That warrior that spoke out first was named the Great Speaker, a new duty that placed him above any other in rank, and was given the new job of arguing with the gods on behalf of humanity.

One new law unified the Alliance: every human killed by other humans must die for the greater good of all, or must not die. There would be no more human sacrifice, even if this meant the gods should weaken. The gods, exhausted by the destruction of what they loved, agreed. Not that this meant the end of war for Nahuaca - far from it. The four martial traditions were now united, sharing their knowledge and skills. The seat of the Alliance was formed in the center, Pepechotlan, a neutral city meant for all gods equally, which would be home to the Great Speaker and elders of each of the four great cities. While each city continues even now to have vast political power, Pepechotlan is the city that unites them. The alliance has produced the most devastatingly effective army in Aztlan, and over the next two centuries, every nearby city-state would end up within the Alliance, either by diplomacy or armed conquest. Those who resisted faced the full brunt of the Nahuacan military, their capitals ravaged and rebuilt in the image of the Alliance.

Odisean explorers made first contact with the Nahuacan in 1576, when they set up coastal factories to make clothing, art and manufactured goods for trade with the locals. At first, it was all quite benign and profitable, though the Theans primarily wanted precious metals, rare woods and so on over Nahuacan crafts. (And also cochineal insects.) However, the Nahuacan grew nervous when they heard about Tzak K'ani talking of Thean technological marvels and plentiful iron. The Nahuacan looked over Thean weapons and materials, their heavy armor that broke obsidian blades and their guns and crossbows that could pierce any non-magical armor, their horses that were unstoppable in open land. They realized a Thean invasion could be catastrophic. This was not helped by the Castillian grandes that came seeking the wealth and artifacts that lay inland.

Next time: Thean Misadventures

Prism
Dec 22, 2007

yospos
Everything You Know About Space Is Wrong: A Fatal & Friends Spelljammer Exploration

Chapter 2 (Concordance of Arcane Space): AD&D Rules In Space
Nobody Likes You Anyway, Clerics


Chapter 2 is AD&D Rules In Space. As it helpfully tells us, most rules work exactly as they usually do, but there are some changes, additions, and new options. This is a summary chapter, as some of the details are gone through more in depth in later chapters, as are brand-new rules like ship-to-ship combat and piloting.

Ability Scores

No change. Literally none. The paragraph here starts with 'AD&D ability scores are unaffected in play in space.' and could end there.

Character Races in Space

All the usual races from various worlds can go to space and have the same stats as they do wherever they came from, including level restrictions on classes and special abilities. This means you can mix and match from different settings.

There's also a new race, the spacefaring lizard men. Lizard men are... uh, they're lizard men, you know what they are. Humanoid reptiles, claws, scales, not necessarily real bright. We'll get to their theme in the Lorebook of the Void, but the brief summary is that they were originally brought to space as slaves and figured out that lizardmen that hatched closer to the sun were generally smarter, so now they go out of their way to do that.

Lizardmen have a minimum strength of 8 and constitution of 6, and can't have 18 Intelligence (even the spaceborne ones). They have a natural AC of 5 because they have thick, scaly hides, and don't get any benefit from armour unless it's better than that; they also don't get an AC bonus from Dexterity. Lizardmen can be fighters (maximum level 12), thieves (maximum level 11), or clerics (maximum level 7), but cannot multiclass.

Lizardmen have natural attacks: two claws at 1d2 and one tail-slap at 1d6. They can wield weapons, and 'dual-wield' their weapon and their tail with all the usual penalties for dual-wielding. There is nothing that says they can't do this with a two-handed weapon. Lizardmen who aren't wearing armour can swim very quickly, but they're otherwise on the slow side. They don't breathe water.

Character Classes in Space

All character classes in the PHB exist in space.

Special Races and Classes

quote:

Many worlds have special player character classes and/or races: samurai, hengeyokai, minotaurs, and other 'specialty' classes and races unique to particular campaigns. These classes function normally in wildspace, within the void's physical limitations. They are not normally used for player characters in space.

Why would you not let someone play a world-specific class or race? I mean, that's part of the fun of Spelljammer, right? Didn't we just go over this in Character Races in Space?

Ah well.

Magic Use in Space

Clerics
Short form: clerics are hosed way more than wizards.

Clerics are fine in the crystal sphere they came from, but because you can't contact other planes in the phlogiston, they can't get direct contact with their deity or servants thereof to regain spells. They can use any spells they have, but they can't regain spells over 2nd level without getting around that restriction.

Similarly, clerics in a crystal sphere where their deity is not worshipped also cannot regain high-level spells. Gods have power in a given shell if they have established worshippers or an organized church in that system.

Many standard deities are worshipped in multiple crystal spheres. Additionally, there are also some space faiths that have a presence in many spheres.

Conjuration/Summoning
Calling-style spells don't work if there's nothing to call around. If you cast, say, call animals while in the process of flying from the planet to the moon, you aren't getting anything because there are no animals there.

Any spell that contacts another plane doesn't work at all in the phlogiston, so you can't summon elementals or cast contact other plane or anything else you might be thinking of. They work fine in any crystal sphere though. Similarly, planar or dimensional travel doesn't work in the phlogiston, but work normally in any crystal sphere. This includes accessing extradimensional pockets, so your bags of holding are just regular bags in the flow.

Fire
Fire spells work normally in wildspace inside air pockets.

Here's one of the first conflicts: This section claims that instantaneous fire creation spells work in the vacuum too, so you can fireball space but not light things on fire in the void with it. The section on magic later explicitly calls out fireball as not being capable of detonating in the void, though. Which one is correct? Probably the one where it doesn't work.

Fire spells work too well in the phlogiston and do triple damage in triple the area of effect, always centered on the caster. If you are immune to fire, presumably you can do some stuff with this.

New Spells
Just a quick summary of each spell.

Create/destroy air (Priest 1): Guess. It's enough for one person for every two levels of the caster and will refresh their bubble if they're in the void; you can also use it to get an extra saving throw against foul gases. Destroy air actually makes it fouled, not deadly or vacuum. It doesn't make enough air to refresh or damage a ship's air envelope.
Locate portal (Wizard 2): Locates the closest natural portal on a crystal sphere. It has to be cast within 100 yards of a crystal sphere (so you have to drive right up to it and stop) but it detects across the entire sphere; generally the portals for a normal-sized ship are between 2 and 20 days' flight away.
Contact home power (Priest 2): When cast in a crystal sphere, makes the cleric able to regain spells as if their deity was worshipped there for one week. Still doesn't work in the phlogiston and there is no way for a cleric to ever regain spells above level 2 there. At least this is only level 2 so you can always memorize it.
Detect powers (Priest 2): Lets you know which deities have power in the sphere you're in, and especially if your deity has power here. If you're not in a sphere that the DM already decided exactly who is worshipped there, yours has a one in ten chance of being worshipped (and thus you can regain spells normally), and a four in ten chance of a related power on good terms being available, in which case you can regain spells once you talk to their priests.
Chill fire (Wizard 3): Makes phlogiston less flammable (not non-flammable) in a 40 yard radius for 10 minutes per level. Magic fire does normal damage at normal area of effect, but still centers on the caster. Doesn't say precisely what it does to regular fires, so I presume they just act normally.
Enhance/reduce rating (Wizard 3): Makes a spelljammer helm work better or worse for 1d4 + level minutes.
Softwood (Priest 4): Surrounds a person in soft wood. It's a life support bubble. It flakes away in breatheable air over about a half hour, but if you put them somewhere there is no air, it lasts indefinitely.
Create portal (Wizard 5): Makes part of a crystal sphere intangible and thus usable as a portal for a couple hours.
Enhance/reduce maneuverability (Wizard 5): Makes a ship more or less maneuverable for 1d4 + level minutes.
Create minor helm (Priest 5, Wizard 6): Makes a temporary (1 week/level) minor spelljamming helm. Can't be made permanent with permanency.
Create major helm (Wizard 7): Like create minor helm, except it only lasts one day per level but counts as a major helm. There is no priestly equivalent.

And that's it for adjustments to rules we already know. Next time it's

Chapter 3: Ships of Wildspace
Ship rules and stats!

Prism fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Aug 20, 2018

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

No dex bonus to AC? That sounds pretty bad for a Fighter in 2e.

Prism
Dec 22, 2007

yospos

Night10194 posted:

No dex bonus to AC? That sounds pretty bad for a Fighter in 2e.

Less than you'd think. You don't get a defensive adjustment from Dexterity until you have at least 15, which many fighters simply won't have, especially if they're rolled to AD&D 2nd Edition standards.

Dexterity provides a defensive adjustment of -1 AC at 15, -2 at 16, -3 at 17, -4 at 18-20, -5 at 21-23, and -6 below that. Lizardmen do get the other bonuses for high dexterity, like the bonus to hit with missile weapons... except there are none until 16+, so they probably won't have it anyway.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Yeah, I just remember getting a high Dex being a huge boon if you were lucky enough to roll it. Obviously not as important as an 18 Str for warriors since they got the Exceptional Strength table.

It's weird little stats were likely to affect your PC if you were doing the standard roll down the line thing in 2e, since the expected ranges didn't produce bonuses or penalties and you had to have an outlier of a stat to have your stat matter at all.

That Old Tree
Jun 24, 2012

nah


Night10194 posted:

Yeah, I just remember getting a high Dex being a huge boon if you were lucky enough to roll it. Obviously not as important as an 18 Str for warriors since they got the Exceptional Strength table.

It's weird little stats were likely to affect your PC if you were doing the standard roll down the line thing in 2e, since the expected ranges didn't produce bonuses or penalties and you had to have an outlier of a stat to have your stat matter at all.

It was even weirder when combined with Ability score minimums.



You have to roll above average on multiple, specific Abilities, in a specific order, if you want to play most classes, and most of the required scores don't actually amount to much because the big bonuses don't start kicking in until 15. But if you roll generally lovely, you can probably still be a Fighter or Thief, I guess, gently caress you. And then there's the Paladin with his gently caress-you Charisma requirement, and the Ranger that you can't even play without getting four pretty good rolls.

All the "minimal competency" requirements of 9 are weird, too, because penalties don't really start kicking in until you get down to 6-7.

It's such a loving mess unless you specifically want to be forced to play a mechanically terrible character by the rules.

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Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The first game I ever played in had you roll 3d6+d4 but with a cap of 18, on every stat. I picked that up and did it for every 2e game I ran because hey, it was how I first encountered the system at age 14 and it made players happy.

It made the game a lot higher power, but it also made it possible to roll a Paladin.

It also left me with a weird idea of how often high ability scores happened.

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