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Plus, even if you don't care about the feminist messages it's still a rad game about bombing Nazi's. A game can have a message, but it should be a good game first.
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Apr 8, 2016 12:39
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Well, that spell is like that because they didn't even consider using it for trans purposes in the book, in the game it's pretty explicitly just as a way to explain why the villains can create hideous monsters and the Orc-analogues of the setting. Blue Rose kinda forgets trans is a thing, which is understandable: Gay Rights was a big thing when they wrote it but the idea of Trans Rights being a big issue is actually fairly new and the creators probably didn't even think of it.
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Apr 8, 2016 17:55
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 Reign is, at its simplest, a very well made fantasy RPG based on Greg Stolze’s One Roll Engine, which also powers Monsters and Other Childish Things, Wild Talents, Godlike, and Better Angels. Reign runs off of a simplified version of those engines that works well as a “base” to build off of. If you want just the engine and don’t care about the built in setting of the game, that’s no problem: You just have to get Reign Enchiridion which is just the mechanics, and is a very good affordable game for only $10 for the PDF. But we’re covering the original book, because I do want to tell you about the setting. About the nations, the geography, the magic good god the magic. I also want to talk about the mechanics, how it streamlines the stuff nobody cares about while giving goodly content for the stuff people do. The biggest selling point is that this is a game built around being Important. Being big, powerful, and mighty, but not how most RPGs handle it: Nowhere in this game are there rules for becoming a god, the greatest of spells can be foiled by a bowman with good aim, and the greatest weapon in the world is a competent officer corps. This is a game of Lords and Leaders. Now, lone heroes are a great, and truly can change the world on their own, but this is a game that assumes your end goal isn’t a Sword of Lightning Stroke, or to master the Cataclysmic Transformation, it’s to rule the world. To be a power of your own, to wear the crown and bear the sceptre and control the lives of millions. So, welcome to Reign. quote:By my words, cities burn.
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Apr 20, 2016 18:26
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 quote:“The hand is my sword,” the martial expert explained. The One Roll Engine This part will go quick: There’s no need to over explain and the ORE is shockingly quick and simple to learn, so let’s just jump into it! Basic Resolution All rolls are made with d10s only. When you make a roll you grab as many dice as are in your pool for that roll, generally this is your Skill+Stat, plus any bonuses you get from items, magic, special abilities, etc. For a simple example: Most combat is done with a roll of the Body Stat (General physical might and fitness) plus the Fight Skill (General combat ability). If your character has Body 3 and Fight 4, then you would roll 7 dice in your pool, notated as 7d. Once you roll you look for sets, multiple die with the same result. Any dice that are not part of a set are called Waste Die. Normally they do nothing, but there are spells or special techniques or items that can make them matter. Sets are read as Width x Height. Width is how many dice are in the set, and Height is what number that set’s die show. A set of 3x8 is three 8’s, 4x2 is four 2’s, 2x10 is two 10’s, etc. Higher and Wider are both good, but sometimes you have to pick between multiple sets for a roll, and when that happens the differences between Height and Width come into play. Width determines, in general, speed. The Wider a roll, the faster it is. It determines what order people go in combat, how fast you climb a tree, how long it takes to forge that sword, if the haggling session takes 3 minutes or 30, etc. Height is quality, how well you did the thing. Where your axe blow lands on their body, how sharp that sword is, how big a discount you get from that merchant, etc. So, if time matters, wider is better, if time is no issue, higher is better. But ideally you want to roll sets that are both wide AND high. Types of Rolls This is pretty standard stuff, no surprises which isn’t bad: Don’t fix what ain’t broken. There’s three kinds of general rolls you’ll make, Static, Dynamic, and Opposed. Static is simple: Roll Pool, if you get any sets the thing succeeds. If the GM thinks that’s too easy, he can add a difficulty or penalty. Difficulty is a minimum Height you have to roll to succeed: Difficulty 3 means you got to have a set of 3 or higher to win. Penalties mean you have less die in your pool, simple. These are for when a PC wants to do something hard or dangerous or difficult, but there isn’t something or someone else involved to compete with, just the situation. Dynamic rolls are for when two or more people want to do something, but not all of them can succeed. Debates, competitions, races, that sort of thing. Importantly, this is for two people trying to do the same thing, but not in opposition to each other. This kind is also dirt simple: everybody rolls their pools, whoever gets the best set wins. The GM decides whether Height or Width decides based on the contest. The final kind is Opposed, which is for when one person wants to do something, and the other wants to stop them. Both characters roll their pools, which can differ: Attacking with a mace might be Body+Fight, while the target might try and stop it with Coordination+Dodge to avoid the blow. If the active character, the person doing the thing, fails he fails and the blocker’s roll doesn’t matter: That mace blow didn’t even come close to hitting. If the active succeeds and the blocker gets no successes, the active… succeeds. The blocker’s attempt just flat does nothing or doesn’t work. If they both succeed though, then the blocker’s pool becomes [/b]Gobble Dice[/b]. Each Gobble Die can counteract and eliminate a die from the active character’s set, as long as that die is of equal or lesser value. Once you lower a set to a single die, it’s no longer valid. But, Gobble Die have to be used before the active person can do their thing, so they also have to have a higher width. So, to successfully oppose another's roll, the blocker has to roll a set at least as wide and high as the active character’s. Mind, the width only matters if time is a concern, if time isn’t an object then only Hight matters. Game Terms This is a section for some miscellaneous game terms that are needed to understand later parts of the book, so I’ll just hit the important ones.
That’s it for basic mechanics! There’s more detail in the Combat and Magic chapters, as you’d expect, but for now that’s enough to let you move on to Character Creation! Which we’ll cover next time. quote:“Now you kill us for them. Is that a better peace?”
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Apr 20, 2016 19:49
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Well, the game doesn't hide that at all. There's a chart right in the book that flat tells you the odds of getting a match with each dice pool size: It isn't obscured at all, and in fact it's way easier to get a match. Expert Die only cost 1xp. The game is not really about getting matches, sets are common and getting a roll with no sets at all is meant to be a rare occurrence. It's built more around getting better sets as the ideal not just sets at all. Also, it's easy as poo poo to get up to pools over 5 for whatever you want your character to be good at, and it's perfectly reasonable for a starting character to have 7d or 8d in their important pools and 5d in most others. Reign is built around the idea that characters flat failing rolls should be rare, instead most issues come from being beaten at a roll by other things, or failing because of penalties or difficulty.
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Apr 20, 2016 20:12
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Character Creation Character creation is pretty straight forward, so this will go quickly. There’s not much here that will be new to regular RPG players, so I’ll mainly focus on the more unique parts and skim over most of the things in the book. The first part of the chapter is actually a nice few paragraphs about the practical reasons to create a varied party while at the same time making sure they work together as a coherent whole, with exploration of party composition strategies and making sure the GM and players agree what sort of characters belong in the game. Character creation works on two ways: standard Point Buy and good ol’ One Roll generation. Point buy is bog standard, you get so many XP , either 85, 120, or 150 depending on what power level the GM wants the characters to be at, to buy stats, skills, advantages, etc. Absolutely nothing surprising here, but once again: if it ain't broke don’t fix it. There’ s nothing wrong with just sticking to good old Point Buy for the default character generation. If you want to look at the costs of everything, here they are: quote:Increasing a Stat by 1: 5 points. One Roll is more unique, but it’s boring to explain: Roll 11d10, check all the set results and waste die on a series of charts that tells you what sorta stuff you get. Instead of going through everything, here: A REIGN Character Generator. This’ll let you get a good feel for what sort of characters this generates. For example, I'll just use that to roll up a quick generic character: quote:History So, from one random roll we have a charater who: Was raised in the wilderness, a wild animal child. As they grew, they wandered, back to the city, finding a pace in civilization as a street entertainer and part-time thief. But, sadly, one day they were press-ganged, appearently into the Marines, as they were forced into a career as a foot soldier. This gave them a lingering dislike towards sailors, but eventually they rose up to the rank of Squad Leader, which might be what they are when the game begins. Neat huh? Stats and Skills Next up is a quick overview of Stats and Skills. Both get elaborated in a later chapter, but this part is more based around helping a new player quickly understand what each ability does when making a character. Stats are all pretty self-explanatory:
Skills are the same, and I’m not going into most of them because it’s all the old standby’s in general. Athletics, Climb, Perform, Stealth, Weapon: Whatever, Haggle, etc. I’m just going into the more interesting and special skills that are unique to Reign or how Reign works.
That’s skills done. Next is a bit talking about Esoteric Disciplines and Martial Paths. These are the Feat equivalents of Reign, things you buy with XP to give special abilities generally tied to a specific skill. They’re covered properly in other chapters, so we’ll come back to them in a later bit. There’s also a short bit about Money, but that comes later as well. It’s just here so you know that money is a thing and why you would want to buy it up at creation. Passions If you’ve ever played any Burning Wheel games, this will seem quite familiar. Passions are the driver forces of your character’s personality. There are three kinds, and you can have one of each, or none at all. Your character’s Mission is a concrete goal your character wants to accomplish, a definite task that can be completed. If you fulfill your mission, you get bonus XP and can pick a new one. A Duty is more vague, this being a sort of overriding ethical or moral principle. “I Shall Never Kill”, “Always aid a Woman in Distress”, “My Life is the Empress’”, etc. You can spend 10XP to get rid of a Duty, but if you don’t start the game with one you can only get one through plot and roleplay. A Craving is a personal and selfish goal, a defining desire or passion. You get one at character creation and can never get rid of it or change it. This is where you put your flaws, foibles,and delightful little quirks. “Make love with as many willing partners as possible” and “Get drunk whenever nobody is counting on me” are two examples given. How passions work are easy: If whatever you are doing is in direct pursuit of a passion, you get +1 die to any pools you roll. Pursuing two passions? +2 die to your rolls, and +3 die for all three passions. You can also use these “bonus die” to offset penalties to your rolls. The catch is if you are doing something counter to your passions, then you get a die penalty. These are optional: your character can have none or all three or any in-between, it’s just some mechanical reinforcement for acting in character which can act as a hindrance as much as a bonus. Advantages These are little, or big, things that you can get to boost your character that don’t fit into any other categories. Special possessions, unique physical traits, special social connections, you get the idea. Some are good, some are crap, and I would actually remove them from the game because of it.
Spells are considered an advantage, but the proper rules will wait for the magic chapter. It works simply as more powerful spells cost more XP to get. You can either spend Xp for two spells of the equivalent level, or for one spell of the next level up. So 1 XP gets you a level 2 Spell, or two level 1’s. 2xp is one level 3 or two level 2’s, etc. Problems Problems are your general disadvantages, get them to get bonus XPs fi they cause problems. Except they don’t give you the XP at character creation. You get them for free, up to 3, but they only give you XP when they actually come up in the game to cause issues. If they never come up, you get no XP. Also, the Problems are all amazing.
And that’s pretty much it for character creation! The last part is a bit dull to cover, but is actually really nice for players and I wish more RPG designers would include it: A strategy guide to creating a good character. Stolze breaks down the actual odds of getting matches with each size of dice pool, how to choose between investing in Stats vs. Skills, whether being a generalist or a specialist is better, and when you would want an Expert Die vs a Master Die on a skill. But, that’s it for Character Creation, next up is the start of my favorite part of this game, the Setting! Well, part of the setting. Reign splits the setting bits up into several chapters throughout the book, instead of clomping it all into one big chunk. So, next time The First Nation: Uldholm. quote:Kranach preened his feathers and elaborately yawned at the fortress before him. “Easy,” he said.
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Apr 21, 2016 22:47
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The First Nation: Uldholm This is the ballad the Uldfolk sing: quote:“Clever Criff was a baker’s son, a bold and dissatisfied lad  The Uld are a modern, egalitarian, hard working, progressive, forward thinking people. Theirs is one of the few rare non-feudal nations in the world, instead the Uld are ruled by a council of Trade Guilds, who fairly and equally represent the Uldish people in a meritocracy based government where the competent and hard working are rewarded. That is of course assuming you aren’t too lazy or unskilled to join a guild, in which case you don’t deserve any of the proper privileges of good Uldish Guildfolk. Or if you weren’t a native-born Uld, immigrants obviously cannot be trusted to know what’s best. Or because you just so happen to practice a trade that doesn’t have a guild, but that’s their fault for practicing a worthless trade. Or just because the guilds don’t like you due to byzantine internal politics, but in that case you obviously aren’t worthy or deserving of being a part of a guild you worthless leech. It’s not hard to be more egalitarian than feudalism after all. This isn’t to say Uldholm is a bad nation, in fact it’s a downright nice place to live. It truly is the most egalitarian nation in the world, has a very good quality of life, and just the fact that you can actually improve your lot in life instead of getting stuck farming the same patch of dirt as everybody else in your family for the rest of your life is a revolutionary idea. As a culture the Ulds value ambition, loyalty, personal excellence, innovation, and cleverness. Uldfolk are obsessed with the concept of progression, modernity, and upward mobility. One of the largest philosophical issues in Uldish culture is what the best way to pursue those values actually is. Most Uld fall into one of two ideological camps, the “Visionaries” who are progressive and always seek a better, more efficient, and easier way to do things, and the “Traditionalists” who believe the best way forward is through hard work and traditional Uldish Values. History of Uldholm These values, and this unique system of government, came about due to the simple expedient of the total extinction of anybody with noble blood in the entirety of Uldholm. You see, Uldholm used to be a traditional feudal monarchy, with dukes and princes and a King at the top ruling by divine mandate and all the other standard things. This lasted until the Empire showed up. The Empire was expanding rapidly, conquering nation after nation, but they had hit a bit of an issue: While they can certainly conquer a nation, holding one is another thing. If the Empire left enough troops in a conquered land to ensure control then they wouldn’t have enough to keep conquering, but if they did keep expanding the conquered lands would fall to chaos and insurrection. Fortunately, the empire found a solution: Bloodcutters. The Bloodcutters were an order of sorcerers whose magic worked through ties of blood. By casting magic on one person, they could then strike at anybody related to that person, no matter how distant. They could slit your second cousin’s throat, and wipe out the entire family tree in one swipe of a blade. To show the power of the Bloodcutters, Uldholm was chosen to make an example to the rest of the world. Whenever a nobleman was captured, his entire family line was dead within a fortnight. Nobles either fled to foreign lands or were killed off, eventually culminating in the death of the entire Uldish royal family. This lead to other nations quickly capitulating to the Empire, allowing them to rule without having to disrupt the local power-structures of their conquered lands. Meanwhile though, Uld one of the few nations that didn’t surrender. Instead, with the elimination of the nobility, the local Trade Guilds stepped up to lead the nation, in particular one General Rolf Sorgersaard a common born soldier. As the Uldish nobility was wiped out, Rold found himself with more and more power and leeway to fight the war against the empire as he wished. Through his tactical expertise he turned the war from a traditional affair into a bitter guerrilla war, which the Empire was poorly equipped to fight. In time the Empire gave up on holding Uldholm, ending the war and allowing the Guilds to consolidate their power and found modern Uldholm. Uldish Culture The Uld’s favorite genre are tales of hard working, clever, innovators who rise to power and success through their own talents and hard work. Two of the most popular Uldish tales are those of “Rolf’s Battle”, a dramatized war epic recounting the life story of Rolf Sorgersaard which has essentially created its own literary genre full of stories and songs meant to fill in details of the story, tell of events both before and after the tale, and essentially build a Star Wars-esque expanded universe around the story. The other is The Ballad of Criff the Clever, and Uldish Culture Hero who personifies all good Uldish things. The ballad is fifteen verses long, telling the tale of the clever Criff’s various adventures making money, seducing women, and foiling the wicked Imperials at every turn always in service to his homeland. Throughout the tale, Criff acts as a member of every one of the Uldish guilds, and acts as a unifying figure for the people. In the arts the Uldish prefer music that is upbeat, peppy, shallow and fun. For theater, there are three rough genre’s in Uldholm: Buffoonish slapstick comedy, over-the-top action plays with magic special affects, and heavy romantic tragedies called “anguish plays”. Yes, the Uld listen to pop-music, watch low-brow comedy, special effect driven action flicks, and Oscar bait dramas. In the Crafts though, they are unmatched. While purely decorative art is rare, most artwork is built into architecture, murals, walls and the like decorating a practical object, their functional work is without compare. Uld artisans are skilled and rewarded for it by the Guilds, pushing Masters to always innovate and improve. Uldish cuisine is typified by bread, meat, and booze, in as many varieties and flavors they can get. Bread and pastries are the staple foodstuff of the Uld, in as many types and varieties as possible: quote:Walk down an Uldish bazaar and within a mile you’ll be offered fresh sweet rolls with honey glaze, thick black bread reputed to promote virility, fi ne-crusted bread fi t for the daintiest of teeth, chewy sourdough pies with meat baked in the center, long rolls, hard rolls, fl aky and delicate pastry rolls… any sort of bread one might imagine and some (like the peculiar “horse hair string bread,” an acquired taste) that one might rather not. Ulds eat fresh fruit and cooked vegetables, though these are generally a side or garnish for bread or meat. The Uldish are obsessed with meat, anything that flies, swims, walks, hops or digs and doesn’t talk back there’s a gourmet recipe for it. What meat you eat is based on your income, with the poorest Uld make do with pork and beef often sausage form with properly greasy and questionable contents, while the rich dine on sparrow brains, lizard tongues from the Truil Wastes, snake meat of the Tuumblahd Strangler, and Pucklish monkey livers. There are sweets, but they are seen as an innately childish food, and an adult eating sweets more than once in a while will be seen as immature. Instead the favored vice is liquor. Beers and Wines are everywhere, with hard liquors being a recent introduction that are quickly gaining popularity. Uldish Fashion is all about ostentation. Bright colors, complex design, and accessories everywhere. Fringes, feathers, tassles, slashed and puffed, fur lined, fur edged, elaborate buttons, braids, beads, bells, buckles, and anything else they can think of. This is because to the Ulds success is tied to moral rightness: Being good, honest, hard working, intelligent, and loyal, will lead to success and wealth. The rich are seen as more respectable than the poor, so even the poorest Uld keeps a set of fancy clothes for special occasions. Two things the Uld specialize in is jewelry and embroidery. The Uld make and spend more on jewelry than any other people, and their textile arts are the best in the world with elaborate tapestries being a popular home decoration. One oddity of Uld fashion is their love of going barefoot. Even the riches Uld will gladly go about without shoes if the weather permits, though this is rare abroad as most cities aren’t nearly as clean as Uldish ones. Summer wear is made up of trousers and skirts with pull over shirts and a broad hat to keep off the sun, with winter clothing being supplemented by thick quilted coats and long thick scarves worn wrapped around the head like a turban. The Politics of Uldholm The government of Uldholm is made up of members of the fifteen Guilds, composing the Senate and the Council, which act as the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government. The government works almost exclusively for the benefit of the guilds, even though more than half of Uldholm’s population are not members. To be a member of one of the guilds has three requirements. First, the prospective member must be a native-born Uld, barring any immigrants and minority races living in Uldholm. Secondly, you have to pay an entry fee, the fee varies based on guild but it’s enough that the poor or lower working class couldn’t afford it. Thirdly, you have to be a member of whatever profession the guild represents, and be in good standing. Guild membership is lifelong, and qualifies you for guild-taxes. New members are known as Apprentices. They cannot vote, but can attend meetings and propose measures, as well as petition to be tried by the guild in legal proceedings instead of civil authorities. Technically apprentices can serve on the Council or Senate, but it’s very rare. Only four apprentices have ever served on the Senate, and never on the Council. After a while, an Apprentice can take a competence test, and sometimes pay an advancement fee, to become a Journeyman which entitles them to vote in Guild and Government matters. This is the rank occupied by the majority of guild members. The next level up is Master status. After passing another test and paying another fee, Masters are given two votes for representation, and are allowed to petition to be tried by the Council in criminal cases, though this is very rare as it tends to backfire. The Senate is the main legislative body of the Uld government, and currently has 222 members. It does the normal Senate duties of proposing, debating, and passing legislation, while also acting as judges in capital manners by creating 4 Senator juries to decide cases. The formula to determine how many Senators there are is constantly revised, but at current time each master equals twenty apprentices and five journeymen. This works out very favorably for guilds with high numbers of masters, but poorly for those without. In fact the Cultivators guild, by far the largest, has been lobbying for a revision to the rule but oddly even though they are almost unanimously for it they just can’t get it to pass. The Council of Fifteen is the executive branch of the Uldish government, made up of one representative from each guild. Certain councilors have been given extra power to perform certain governmental acts like appoint tax assessors or manage tariffs, but these powers can be revoked by the Senate at any time and so Councillors with these powers generally use them to their full extent as quickly as possible. Generally the Council has broad powers to interpret and enforce the laws of Uldholm, if they can act together enough to exercise those powers. Local mayors or governors are appointed by the Senate generally, though the Council does appoint the mayors of major cities. During their tenure, they are required to renounce their guild membership while they serve to maintain impartiality. These positions are held to have little actual power or tenure, mostly being seen as positions for lackeys or as a stepping-stone to joining the Senate. Governors can request aid from the Soldiers guild at their discretion, though generally they prefer to hire their own mercenary troops. Longevity in most local government is dependent on being either dishonest, a guild lapdog, or both. The Guilds
Uldholm at War Uldish military power relies almost totally on their technological inventiveness and their powerful sorcery. Home to both the Stormtongue and Flame Dancer schools of Sorcery, the main strength of the Uldish military is in its powerful war-sorcerers, which act as the main projection of power and the Uldish special forces. Otherwise the military is mainly staffed by bulk troops of typically armed spearmen and crossbowmen, but their forces lack the training or combative instincts of their neighbors. The Uld tendency to self-interest makes poor footsoldiers.The Uld’s biggest weakness is a dire lack of higher class warriors. There is a definite shortage of irregular troops, saboteurs, scouts, and heavy infantry. The two biggest military threats to the Uld is Dindavara to the North and the Empire to the East. Against Dindavara, the premier military power of Heluso, the Uld rely on layers of fortresses packed with the most advanced weapons and devices the Uld can think up. This may actually work, as the border between Dindavara and Uldholm is hilly, mountainous, and the few large passes are easily guarded. Sadly, this is not going to work against the Empire. On the Imperial border there is nothing but rolling fields, and the Empire are masters of siege warfare. The Ulds only home that their sorcery and merit-based military will be able to stand against the Empire, if they ever invade again. Seeking to expand their territories the Uld have started a slow colonization of the Truil Wastes, seeing the nomadic tribes as easy pickings. Which is both true, and false. The much smaller bands of the Truil cannot stand up to an organized Uld army, but an organized Uld army doesn’t have a hope of actually catching Truils in an open batte. Instead the general strategy is for their armies to march into an area, build some fortified homesteads, and then be completely ineffective at actually holding the border as Truil bands wander freeling in “conquered” territory.  Next time: The Player’s Chapter
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Apr 26, 2016 01:24
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Uldholm fills an important place as the "normal" place in the setting, a safe fantasy kingdom that would be familiar to players without involving too much work. If you're introducing people to the game for the first time, Uldholm is where you would probably start. It's also the first area detailed to let you ease into the game a bit. There's plenty of fun adventure ideas: Dealing with Truil geurillas, military conspiracies from the Empire and Dindavara, Guild politicking, etc. just it doesn't go as out there as some later regions.
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Apr 26, 2016 03:03
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The Uldholm Commentaries I feel I haven't been doing this game justice, partly that's because we haven't gotten to the really neat and fun mechanics, but I feel like I've shortsheeted the lore. So, consider this an addendum to the last post about Uldholm where I share more of my thoughts and feelings about that bit of the setting. One thing I love is how they book will throw terms at you and they won't explain them yet, or never explain them. The world is explicitly built with large holes in the lore for GMs to fill in as they please, and what is there is just to spark some inspiration. First off, look at that loving map! Now, as a navigational aid it is barely adequate, but as a map to give your party, it's loving amazing. Just in this map we have the concepts of:
Plus all those little other notes that hint at bandit strongholds, greedy merchant cities, a place of proposals you cannot refuse and other such fun events. Every setting bit will get a map like this, and they're great. Now as to Uldholm itself: This really does feel like the PC Starting Area, which is actually very nice. It's set up to be the perfect place for a good Rags to Riches story, the Guilds give neat definite character concepts, an easy-to-understand political system ripe for player manipulation and interferance. Want a war story? Uldholm borders two expansionist military powers and has a lack of dedicated top-flight soldierguys. Or, you could be in charge of one of the frontier towns out in the Truil Wastes. Uld has a definite police-system in the Soldier's Guild so it fits right in for playing a Night's Watch-esque fantasy Police Procedural. Uldholm is also home to two schools of magic that are actual... schools. Most magic in this game is... very unusual, but both the Stormtongues and Flame Dancers run actual dedicated academies of magic, and all the fun that comes from having two possibly rival magical tradeschools in your nation. Uldholm is essentially built to be a nice fairly easy to understand place for PC's to start out in which is literally designed to reward and allow the sort of independent daredevil actions PCs love to do, and while the lands themselves are not crazy, Uldholm is essentially climatewise central European, temperate and never hitting serious extremes at any particular time of the year, it is next to some very interested and fun places. That Lightless Jungle will be explained later, but it's exactly the sort of hideous death-trap place full of potential riches beyond belief that PCs loving flock to like moths to a golden spike encrusted light. Oh, and a note about Uldholm: The Uld are explicitly black. Like, African-featured, very dark skinned, with tones describes as "earth colored". Just changing that, making the Uld black can suddenly change completely what images go through your head, yeah?
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Apr 26, 2016 22:28
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Beast is Otherkin Freddie Krueger the Game.
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Jul 20, 2016 01:45
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Since someone started Hellas, that’s a perfect cue for me to revisit an old F&F that I half-assed back a few threads ago to make it not-poo poo. See, Khepera’s games are based on an engine that started waaay back in 1987, for a game that people flat out don’t remember at all. Seriously, I’ve found more conversations online about Fantasy Wargaming than this game! A game whose 4th edition is one of the finest designed and best put together RPGs I’ve ever seen. I think that’s a shame, a real honest to god shame. As I said, I talked about this game AGES ago, but I didn’t do a good job at all. And, I’m going to run a game of it soon, so y’know what? Doing this is a good way to renew my knowledge of this wonderful game.  Created back in 1987 by Stephan Micheal Sechi, Talislanta was designed to be a direct response to the hegemony of TSR and D&D clones that dominated the market in the 80’s. The main sell-motto of the game was:  This isn’t really correct, the setting is quite different from your standard D&D/Tolkienesque milieu, but it’s not completely out there weird like say Tekumel or Jorune can be. Which is fine. There are a lot of races and nations that are well known concepts just with a minor twist or mixing of two traits, but that’s good. It’s strange enough to feel exotic and alien and… just interesting to explore, but not so much that you need to read and memorize the setting book to know what the deal with something is. I really like the setting, and it has this wonderful mix of breadth without excessive depth. It gives you this big massive varied world, and just enough detail that you won't’ be overwhelmed and GM’s can feel free to twist and create without worrying about changing the “Canon Setting”, if you’re one of those GM’s who care about that. But anyway, back to the history lesson: Talislanta has gone through 5 different editions each being put out by a different publishing company in different formats with a different staff every single time, making the game a mess for collectors to gather. In fact just finding a decent copy of every book is very difficult, to the degree that the creator himself, Sechi, just did it in 2015, after five years. So, to keep things nice and neat, I’ll be covering the 4th edition, which was created under the now defunct Shootingiron Design, by John Harper. Yes that John Harper as the Game Designer, and Stephen Micheal Sechi as Creative Director. Of special note will be the art, almost all of which is done by P.D. Breeding-Black, who is basically just known for Talislanta which is a real shame. Her art, while not technically amazing, is beautifully evocative and really sells the mood of the game. Other art shown will be by Ron Spencer, who favors a darker shading-heavy style, Adam Black who does some very nice pencils, and Eric Patrick who does a lovely rugh sketch-style. This edition is considered to be the “Authoritative” version by Sechi, as the existent 5th edition changes a lot about the mechanics and setting. It’s also important to note: This game is totally free on the Talislanta Website. Sechi owns the rights to the game, and has put literally every book released under the Talislanta name up as free PDF’s. So, please do feel free to check it out. So without further ado: Chapter One: The Rules Yes, this is a game that actually just flat gives you all the rules in the first chapter. The resolution mechanic, what the attributes and skills are and how they work, how to make rolls, how to gain and spend xp, how to create a character, how combat and magic works. All in the first chapter. Oh, there are chapters for Magic and Combat and Skills yes, telling you in more detail how they function, special rules relating to them, skill and spell lists, etc. But if you are playing, just the first chapter tells you everything you need to know to sit down and play the game. Which is amazing after having seen so many games which scatter their mechanics and rules across half the drat book! Oh, but you probably think that sounds complex yes? Like we’re frontloading the rules, dumping a big fat steaming load of mechanics up-front? It’s 15 pages. The entire mechanical portion of the game, is 15 pages of large print two-column text with minimal art. Nobody who wants to play will ever have to look at more than 15 pages of content once you’re done with character creation. That, is efficiency like a motherfucker. But now, to the rules themselves! After a short one and a bit page introduction which is your standard “What is and RPG” thing, y’know explain what a GM is, that you need some funny dice, etc. we get the primary, IE ONLY resolution mechanic in the entire game.  All rolls in Talislanta work like this: You take the character’s Skill or Attribute rating, which are explained later but we have to start somewhere, yeah? Take that rating, whichever will apply to this specific roll, and compare it to the Degree of Difficulty. This is the final result of combining all the modifiers to a roll into one number. Then you take the difference, add it to the roll of a d20, the only die in the entire game, and then take your result and look on that chart up there. That’s the Action Chart, it’s on the default character sheet so every player has one, and it tells you what happens with your roll.
Right, that’s the central resolution mechanic done. Now obviously Combat and Magic chapters’ll expand and define the levels of success to a degree, removing more of the fuzzy GM-fiatness from those aspects of the game. But for your run of the mill Attribute or Skill roll? That’s all you do. But now let's move on to how you get the modifiers for your roll. Yep, they just go right into how you get numbers and what they mean. Attributes These are as expected your natural physical abilities, inherent and generally unchanging. They are based at 0, and can be either negative or positive numbers, such as +3 or -2. An attribute’s Rating, that is what you use to determine the modifier to your roll, is double the level. This means that if you are rolling a pure attribute, you double the level and there’s your modifier. Note, this applies to both positive and negative. So a +3 attribute is a +6 bonus, while a -1 turns into a -2. Skill Ratings Skills are skills, they represent learned and trained abilities and talents that your character has acquired during their life. Though there are some inborn special abilities, racial traits if you will, that also act as skills. There are two numbers you need for skills, the Level and Rating. Level is just how good you are at the skill. The base is 0, and they go up from there. Skills are never negative. Rating is the combination of the Skill Level with the skill’s associated attribute. For example, Deception is a Charisma skill, so if you have a Deception of +3, and a Charisma of +2, then your Skill Rating for Deception is +5, which you would compare with the Degree of Difficulty to get the modifier for your roll to use Deception. But, if instead it was a Deception +3 and a Charisma of -3, then the resulting rating would be a 0, as the negative Charisma actually subtracts from the Skill’s level. Intent Gets an entire paragraph. Any action stated should include what the player’s intended result for that action is, so that the GM can both apply the results of the action table in a fair and understandable way, as well as to help determine the Degree of Difficulty of the roll. Degree of Difficulty This comes from how difficult the GM thinks whatever act the player wants to do would be to someone with a 0 in the relevant attribute or skill, per the rulebook. They also recommend that the modifier stays within a range of -10 to +10. This is a handy shorthand but, think about it: this game has a static target number. That means the GM always knows what the probability of any roll will be, always, and quickly and easily. That action chart means a GM can just know exactly what Degree of Difficulty will appropriately challenge the player to the desired extent, so that they can avoid both pointlessly easy rolls and punishingly hard ones due to mad math because of overcomplicated modifier algebra. It’s nice, and I’m guessing a few D20 DM’s know what I’m talking about. Opposed Actions An action directly opposed by something else, creature, person, whatever, uses the opposer’s ability rating or Skill/Attribute Rating for an appropriate opposing skill as the Degree of Difficulty. Here have a gameplay example: The Rulebook posted:Sherra the thief wants to use her Stealth skill to sneak past a watchman. Because this is an Opposed Action, the Degree of Difficulty is the watchman’s ability to detect the thief. The watchman has the Guard skill at rating 7. Sherra’s Stealth skill rating is 9. Sherra’s player rolls a d20 and adds +2 (the difference between Stealth 9 and Guard 7) to the roll. If the watchman had a Guard skill of +11, Sherra’s player would roll a d20 with a -2 modifier to the roll, instead. Multiple Actions By default you get one action per round, but you can take additional actions at a cumulative -5 penalty for each additional action. If you ever roll a Mishap, then you cannot take any additional actions that round. An action is pretty much anything that takes effort or time. Speaking a short sentence, looking around a room, dropping a held item, etc. would not count as actions but attacking, defending, moving around, longer speeches such as attempts at diplomacy, etc. would. The Rulebook posted:Thena the Danuvian Virago wants to throw her empty mug at a rude male across the table, then stand up and punch him in the face. First,Thena’s player makes an attack roll to hit withthe mug. This is a normal attack roll since it is Thena’s first action during the round. Next Thena’s player rolls to see if she punches the male. This attack roll suffers a -5 penalty (in addition to any other modifiers) since Thena has already acted once during this round. If Thena wanted to then take a third action, her player would roll with a penalty of -10. Other Modifiers Some skills, Combat, and Magic all can add other situational modifiers to rolls in special cases, but we’ll get to that when it comes time. Next up is Experience Points! XP is spent to level up your characters skills, not accumulated in levels. How you spend them is explained in the Skills chapter, but this bit tells the player how they will receive them and why.
Okay, now we get to the next big session after the basic rules, Character Creation, which fits on one and ½ pages.
That’s it, you’re done! Hooray for Character Creation! Okay, this post is getting on, so I’ll leave you here, but next up… More the Rules! Attributes, Skills, Combat, and Magic!
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Jul 29, 2016 22:37
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 The Rules: Part 2 This post will finish up the Rules chapter, and I should be able to keep it short, as a lot of the rules are pretty intuitive and familiar to most RPG players. I’ll mostly focus on the things unique to Talislanta. So, lets start with: Attributes Most of these attributes act exactly like they do in every other fantasy or non-fantasy RPG ever, so I’ll mainly go over the more interesting attributes or ones that have unexpected uses. Intelligence, Charisma, Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution are all act exactly like you’d think, same as in D&D, all D20 games, and a tons of other things. No surprises. The traditional Wisdom attribute is essentially split into two, Perception and Will. Will handles the mental strength aspects, determination, clear thinking in stressful situations, resistance to torture, social manipulation, and magical mind-control. Perception covers the character’s sensory awareness, including all mundane senses and any supernatural ones. Use to notice ambushes, find hidden objects, notice details, etc. I honestly like this change, as Wisdom always felt crowded and didn’t make much sense as was. Speed is… speed. It affects initiative, movement speed, and is used in chases, races, pursuit, etc. It’s explicitly movement speed, dodging and quick reactions fall under Dexterity. Combat and Magic are separate stats not tied to any others! Representing your natural aptitude for either Combat or Magic, not learned abilities, they are used exactly how you think. This decoupling of Combat and Magic doesn’t change the game massively, but it keeps the Caster/Magicless imbalance down, as now Magic doesn’t just put absolutely everything on intelligence, and allows melee fighters to actually have decent stats in non-physical attributes without crippling their combat abilities. Next up is the derived attributes, Movement, Encumbrance, Hit Points and Healing. Movement is based on your speed, 100 feet per round plus 20 feet per +1 Speed and minus 10 feet per -1 Speed, assuming ideal movement conditions. The game explicitly says though that you shouldn’t care about movement rates outside of combat, and directs you to the combat chapter for more details about combat movement, so I’ll cover that later. Encumbrance is how much weight you can carry. Default is your own bodyweight, plus 25 lbs per +1 Strength, or minus 10 lbs for every -1 Strength. You can’t have negative encumbrance, you can always carry at least one pound. If you exceed your encumbrance you take a -5 on all rolls involving any physical activity. If calculating the encumbrance of quadrupeds such as mounts you quadruple all the numbers involved. Your Hit Points act like basically any game, hit 0 to die, you know the drill. HP is based on your Archetype, such as the Cymrillian Magician last time starting with 19 HP, which is then modified by your Constitution. You add your Constitution to your HP at character creation to get your final HP. So that Magician with an unmodified Constitution will actually have 18 HP, 19+(-1)= 18. Of note, that this is legit your final HP. Except for magic spells or enchanted items, your HP will stay the same forever and will never permanently change. Characters in Talislanta don’t get tougher by getting more HP, they just get better and not being hit at all. Healing is based on Constitution. Default is 5 HP per day, plus 1 per +1 Constitution and minus 1 HP for every -1 Constitution, to a minimum of 1 HP a day. This is assuming natural unaided healing with just regular rest, actual medical treatment massively speeds this up. Of course now that we have HP the game takes a second to tell us about DEATH. Death rules have hints of d20 and will be familiar with D&D players out there. Hit 0 or less HP (You can have negatives), and you are unconscious and dying. You are out of the fight for a while no matter what, but when this happens you make a roll modified by adding your Constitution to your current HP, which means getting negative HP is really bad. Depending on what result you get, the following happens:
The game also notes that these rules should be saved for PCs and very important NPCs, anybody else should just be dead at 0HP to save time and effort. Skills isn’t an interesting section. Most of the actual skills information is in the Skills chapter, this section is just some rules for how to use skills. I’ll just cliffnotes this part for brevity:
 Okay, that does it for skills, so let's move on to Combat! OKay, Combat’s split into round and turns and it works exactly how you it does in every other RPG. One round is how long it takes for everyone involved to do a thing, each character’s time to act is called a turn, you get the idea. Damage Rating (DR) and Protection Rating (PR) are the numbers for weapons and armor. Weapons do a fixed amount of damage, though generally Strength will be added in for melee weapons, while armor’s PR negates that much damage. More information in the Combat chapter, along with what sort of special maneuvers and tactics one can utilize. Next is a step-by-step of combat procedure, which is actually interesting!
And that’s the primer on combat! Next up Magic! Yeahhhh I love the magic in this game! It’s so gooooood. The best I can compare it to is sorta Ars Magica-y, in how freeform it is. Essentially, Magic is not made up of distinct spells, but instead special skills called Modes that are tied to Orders. Orders are “schools” or “flavors” of magic. They describe what your magic looks like, what it’s good at, what limitations it has, etc. Examples are Pyromancy, Natural Magic, Witchcraft, Shamanism, etc. Modes are tied to an Order, and act as the skills you actually roll. They determine what the actual effects of the magic are, such as Attack, Heal, Illusion, Move, Reveal, Summon, etc. Which mode you use is based on what you intend the magic action to accomplish. So how do you cast spells and use magic? Well, there’s two ways: Casting from Memory and Casting from Written Works. Casting from Memory is what you would be using in Combat and during action scenes, and is most similar to standard D&D Vancian casting. The procedure is as follows:
What’s Spell Penalty? Well, casting spells from memory is mentally exhausting, and repeatedly doing it quickly wears down a magician. Every time you cast a spell from memory and don’t get a Critical Success, you get an accumulative -1 on any further spell casting rolls until you get seven hours to rest and recuperate. This doesn’t just mean sleep, but any relaxing activity. The Rules posted:Torren the Wizard wants to cast “Arkon’s Bolt of Destruction.” He has already cast three spells in the last few hours, so Torren suffers a minus 3 Spell Penalty ( in addition to any other Action Table modifiers). After the spell is cast,Torren’s player notes on his character sheet thatTorren’s new Spell Penalty is -4. The next time he casts a spell, he will take an additional -4 penalty to his casting roll. This is a much less obnoxious way to implement Vancian spellcasting in a free-form system than burning through a predetermined number of spells a day, and I honestly really like the Spell Penalty idea, especially as it naturally leads to powerful spellcasters being able to throw out infinite low-level spells while also packing a goodly number of high-power stuff for when things get nasty without the complex picking and choosing of fixed spell lists. The second way to cast spells is from written works, such as spellbooks or scrolls. The benefit of doing this is that they don’t accrue Spell Penalty, and gets a fixed +5 to the casting roll. The downside is that it takes 1 minute, or 10 Rounds, per spell level to cast any spell from writing making it useless for combat or any sort of time-limit. These are better suited for when using magic isn’t an urgent thing, and for casting powerful ritual spells and the like. Of note that scrolls are light, portable, and infinite in use but can only hold one fixed spell determined at the time of the scroll’s creation. Spellbooks and the like can hold hundreds of spells, but are generally big, clunky, and not suited for carrying around willy-nillly. Next are the rules for Counterspells. This isn’t used to defend against a spell, as that can be done with regular skills or another Mode that can counter the effects of the spell, such as using Defend against Attack, or Reveal against Illusion. Instead Counterspelling is used to completely negate a spell as though it failed. To counterspell you must use the same Mode as the spell you’re countering, with a -5 penalty to the roll if you’re using a different Order from the spell being countered. You cast per normal spellcasting, then if you succeed you compare the level of the Counterspell to the level of the Target spell. Use the difference on a roll of the action table to determine the effects of the Counterspell. Full or Critical Success completely negates the target spell, Partial Success reduces the spell’s Level and all effects by half rounded up, Failure has no effect, and Mishap can actually increase the power of the target spell. The Rules posted:For example, Alanar casts a Level 9 spell that creates a Wall of Winds between him and his rival, Cyrila the Aeromancer. However, Cyrilais proficient in this Mode (Defend), and is ofthe same Order as Alanar. She successfully casts a counterspell at Level 8, hoping that this will be sufficient to dispel her opponent’s magic. After her spellcasting roll, Cyrila’s player rolls again at a penalty of -1 (her level 8 counterspell minus Alanar’s level 9 spell = -1). She rolls a 17, for a result of Full Success. Alanar’s barrier sputters and dissolves before his eyes. And that’s it for the Rules! Next time we go into Combat and check out all the special rules for beating things to death with warhammers!
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Jul 31, 2016 00:33
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This is 4th edition, which came out in 2001. 1st Edition Talislanta was similar, though had some clunkier elements, dice rolls for damage instead of fixed numbers for example. The rules were mostly the same though, just 4th has a few decades of polish and got rid of a lot of the more complicated elements of the game. And yeah, the rules are not mindboggling or original. But they are a really nice, super easy to learn ruleset for a fantasy RPG. This whole chapter was 15 pages and would be the only part of the book you'd really need to look at after character creation.
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Jul 31, 2016 03:03
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Chapter 2: Combat The combat chapter is less about the mechanics of combat, which was covered in Chapter 1, but more edge-cases, special rules, and how to adjudicate certain actions that can come up in combat. The first section is just an elaboration on Damage and Protection and how equipment modifies it. All weapons have a Damage Rating or DR, which is a fixed amount of damage that is caused by that weapon on a hit. Melee and some ranged weapons have their damage modified by the character's Strength modifier as well, or have special rules attached to them. Magic weapons can also just have an increase to DR via the standard +# notation scheme. A +1 Longsword does DR9 damage instead of the DR8 of a mundane sword. They also include a table of damage ratings for various non-weapon damage sources such as punches and kicks, environmental damage such as burning and drowning, and special tactics like shield-bashing and choking.  I honestly do like just rolling environmental effects into damage over time instead of creating an entire useless subsystem that overcomplicates the game and will be hand waved out of existence by GM’s every time. Also, incorporation of terminal velocity into falling damage instead of falling bodies accelerating infinitely until they explode by touching something. Protection Rating or PR works as the opposite of DR and is used for armor and other protective things. Armor absorbs it’s PR in damage from every attack, so if you attack something with a higher PR than you have DR, they straight take no damage from a normal attack. Enchanted armor adds to its PR the same as weapons get enchanted addition to DR. Shields do not provide PR, but instead improve your defense and ability to avoid damage. They provide a bonus to your ability to Parry attacks based on the Shield skill, in addition to a blanket -2 to the attack die roll of any enemy. They do have a disadvantage of creating a -2 to any rolls by the player based on Dexterity, to represent the awkwardness of doing stuff with a big metal thing strapped to your arm. If you don’t have the Shield Skill you use Combat Rating as the attribute, and enemies get a -1 to their rolls and you get a -4 to dexterity to represent the lack of training you have at using a shield. Otherwise you treat them like doing any unskilled action. The majority of the chapter is about the various combat tactics and how to resolve any edge-cases or apply any special rules to these situations. First up is: Attack This covers… attacking. Any attempt to do physical harm to an opponent in Combat. Talislanta 4th Edition categorizes attacks into four varieties: Close, Ranged, Grappling, and Subdual. Close attacks cover melee, hand-to-hand, close range attacks meant to do damage. It’s treated as an Opposed Action unless the enemy is completely unaware of your attack, or actively makes no attempt to protect themselves. The only special rule associated with this type of attack is that if the attacker uses multiple actions to attack a single enemy, are treated by the defender as though they are a single attack. This means the defender only has to “defend” once, instead of for each individual attack. Ranged attacks are ranged, projectile weapons, thrown items, and attacks using siege weapons like catapults and ballistae. If the target is unaware of the attack, or is stationary, the difficulty is based on the range to the target, how big the target is, and if they are in any form of concealment or cover. If the target is actively trying to dodge or block the attack, then you also add their opposition to the other factors. Helpfully, they just give you straight guidelines for calculating modifiers so you don’t have to pull numbers out of your rear end: Range Attack Modifiers posted:
The range, firing rate (how many times you can fire per round with multiple actions and how many rounds it takes to “reload”) and such of each weapon is in the Equipment chapter. The exception is thrown weapons, which are always 50 feet plus 10 feet per +1 STR, or minus 10 feet per -1. Both Close and Ranged attacks use pre-defined results on the action table as follows: Attack Action Table Results posted:
And yes, a critical hit can straight kill you with a bad roll. Combat in this game is kinda loving deadly, if I didn’t tell you already. Grappling Attacks aren’t a giant pain in the rear end! Yes, a loving grappling system that isn’t overcomplicated trash. When you want to grapple someone, which means to grab, restrain, or throw them, or use the grappling attacks of some special weapons the attacker just rolls like a normal Close attack. Grappling has it’s own results on the action chart separate from the normal attack results: Attacking Grappling Action Table Results posted:
When the target is Grappled they can take no actions except to attempt to escape from the grapple by making a successful Escape roll: Escaping Grappling Action Table Results posted:
This roll is made either with a Strength attribute roll, or if they are trained in the Brawling skill, or one of the Martial Arts skills they use those at a -3 to the roll. If the defender cannot escape, then the attacker can either Throw, Body Slam, or Choke the grappled opponent. Throwing is at a distance of 5 feet plus one foot per +1 of STR, Body Slam damage is on the chart I posted earlier and does DR3+STR damage, and choking is probably the best option: It does DR 4 and ignores armor. The average HP for most humanoid enemies will be around 20, so 5 rounds of a guy in a chokehold can end the fight there, assuming your friends aren’t all stabbing the guy you’ve just completely immobilized to death. Yeah, not that great in 1 on 1, but completely immobilizing an enemy for a round can be a death-sentence in this game. The last kind of attack are Subdual, which is your standard non-lethal knockout attacks. These attacks need to be made with a blunt attack, so no knocking someone out by stabbing them in the face. This works the same as any other attack, but if someone is reduced to 0 HP or lower by a subdual attack they are just knocked out for a minimum of one round. The rules say 1-20, but give no indication as to how to determine this, which is honestly the first time I’ve seen an arbitrary number in this game. I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be based on a roll of a d20, so 1d20 rounds, though you could also tie it to HP, with a minimum of 1 and another round unconscious per -HP caused by the subdual attack to a maximum of 20. As I said though, this is basically a houserule, but I think this was just caused by poor editing instead of an intentional hole in the rules. When the target awakens, they will heal from all subdual damage done either within 1-10 minutes, or with a successful CON roll against Difficulty 10. Once again, this might by a 1d20 /2 roll for the minutes, or tied to the amount of HP lost in the subdual attack to a maximum of 10 minutes. Either one works perfectly well though, so apologies for my minor houseruling.  Defense Defense in Talislanta is split into two actions: Dodge and Parry. The player has to declare if they are defending against an attack before the attacker rolls for their attack. The defender rolls first, as a Full or Critical success means they dodged the attack, so the attacker doesn’t need to waste time rolling. Dodge is the simplest, and is about just not getting hit at all. It’s performed with either the Evade or Mandaquan (A form of martial arts) skills, the Acrobatics skill at a -5 penalty, or a Dexterity or Combat Rating roll. That’s all. Parry is a bit more complicated. It’s used to deflect or block the attack by actively intercepting or redirecting the attack. If someone with the Shield Skill uses a shield to Parry they get a +3 to their roll, while people without the Shield skill still get a +1. A shield’s enchantment level applies to Parry attempts with the Shield, so a +1 shield would provide a +4 bonus to a trained wielder. You can use your chosed Weapon Skill, the Guard or Shield Skill, or a Martial Art skill to parry. You can also use Brawling to parry unarmed attacks, though it will be with a -5 penalty to parry weapon attacks. Parrying uses Combat Rating if you are untrained in any applicable skills. Movement In combat movement is a bit more complicated that general movement, which is abstracted in most situations. Movement in combat is broken into three types: Retreat, Flee, and Advance. Retreat is when you attempt to escape from a fight, but in an intentional and orderly manner. You can only move up to half your Movement per round, but can continue to fight and defend as usual. Flee is when you want to get away ASAP and don’t give a poo poo what happens. You can move your full movement rate every round, but cannot attack or defend. If you try and flee from an opponent you were engaged in Close Combat with, your opponent gets one free unopposed attack against you. This applies to every enemy that was in Close range with you when you ran away, so it can get very nasty against multiple opponents. Your enemy can’t do this though, if on previous round you successfully dodged or parried an attack from that enemy. To see if you can safely get away after fleeing, you and any pursuing opponents must make a Speed Attribute roll every round of the chase: Flee Results posted:
Advance is used to close with an opponent. You can move up to half your movement rate without penalty. If you advance at full Movement then it is called a Charge. While Charging, you cannot Defend, but can make attacks at a penalty of -3 for Close attacks or -5 for Ranged. If you hit someone while Charging with a close attack though, you add your Speed to the DR of the attack. Stunt This is a final catch-all category for any sort of action in a fight that doesn’t fit the above. There are no actual rules for stunts, this section is more advice for adjudicating them for GM’s. Of note is the recommendation that if a stunt-like action would naturally flow into another action, such as leaping over a table to stab a guy on the other side, the stunt-action shouldn’t be rolled for or accrue a multiple-action penalty. Stunt actions should be discrete and separate things, not just part of an Attack or Defense. The final part of the Combat chapter is actually super important: Aimed Shots Aimed shots are super freaking important. An aimed shot falls into two categories: An action intended to do a very specific thing, such as aiming for a particular body-part, parrying an attack to a specific direction, dodging in an exact way, etc. These actions may have some additional penalty, but the main rule is that to succeed with an Aimed Shot, you have to roll at minimum a Full Success, as a Partial Success is treated the same as a Failure. The other use for Aimed shots is a much bigger deal: It lets you ignore an enemy's PR. To do this, you add the target’s PR to the Difficulty of the attack in addition to the other modifiers. If the attack is a success, then it ignores enemy PR completely doing full damage. This is meant to represent aiming for chinks in the armor such as eye slits on helmets, unarmored armpits, gaps in a monster’s chitin, etc. And that’s it! Combat is finished! This whole chapter was 7 pages long. But next time we start getting into the really interesting stuff: MAGIC
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Aug 3, 2016 20:28
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Chapter 3: Magic Magic in Talislanta is built off of a variation of the game's standard skill system, with some additional rules already covered. This chapter is meant to cover specifics of Orders, Modes, and creating Enchanted Items. In short: Modes are essentially magic Skills, they’re what you roll and define the mechanical aspect of your spells. Orders are the narrative category of Magic, what flavor or style you practice. This does have mechanical effects, generally in the form of bonuses to certain modes or some modes not being available at all, but it is mostly for narrative effect. I’ll also be incorporating some additional information and rules from Codex Magicus, which is a 4th Edition supplement about magic, the Talislantan Multiverse, etc. These rules are optional, and I don’t like some of them, and some of them are actually useless because they didn’t think the book through very well, but it does add some very useful new mechanics and fluff. This Chapter I’ll split into four posts, Covering Modes first, then Orders, then Enchanted Items, and finally the Codex Magicus stuff. So let's get started! Before we actually get to the Modes though, first some general rules of magic:
Modes First up is just a quick overview of the mechanical parts of the mode, and what a spellcaster can modify to customize their spells.
Okay, now for the MODES! Alter This mode is what you use to buff and debuff things. It’s about altering the abilities and stats of a target. Basically, if it’s a number you can change it up, though each type of number has some special rules. Each alteration is classified as a Specific or Broad alteration with different effects. Specific Alterations increase the Spell Level by 3 for level of that stat you change, while Broad increases it to 5 Spell levels per point of change. In short these are:
Now, if you want to Alter something that isn’t represented in mechanics, like making someone more attractive or how much others respect them the GM just assigns a value of 1 to 10 based on what they think the target’s “rank” in that quality is, and treat it as a Specific or Broad alteration from there. This is specifically allowed to mess with abstract qualities not just physical ones. Now for other limitations and rules: For every extra person you want to affect with the spell, you get a -1 to the casting roll. The base duration for any Alter spell is 1 minute, with a -1 penalty per additional minute. And all Alter spells are Touch range. You can’t cripple a guy from the next county over, you gotta slap skin to do it. So if you want to affect a bunch of people, they all have to be touching in a giant magical conga-line. Last thing, Alter spells don’t stack, only the highest level spell affection a specific quality applies, any lower level spells don’t work and higher level spells overwrite the weaker. This is so you can’t just cast +1 Combat Rating ten times to become a combat monster with an easy spell. Depending on your Order there may be additional limitations to this mode. Attack This is your kill dudes Mode. You use this to reduce something’s HP, and it does nothing else. This one’s a lot simpler than Alter. You do 1 HP more damage per spell level, the default range is 50 feet with a -1 to the roll for each additional 10 feet of range. Ranged Attack spells don’t have a duration, so no persistent damage effects. If instead you want to do something like make a fire-sword for melee combat, then the melee spell lasts for 1 round per Spell Level and uses an appropriate Weapon skill to hit with instead of the Mode which is just used to make the weapon or start the effect. By default they have no area, but you can increase the area of effect for a -1 to the roll per foot of radius. You can’t specifically target multiple things, just use area attacks. Conjure This mode allows the spellcaster to create material objects from magical energy. Each Spell Level can increase the mass by 10 pounds and amount by 1 cubic foot. Default range is 50 feet, with -1 for each additional 10 feet, duration 1 minute with -1 per extra minute. As you can see a lot of the modifiers are standardized between modes, for easy memorization. You cannot conure living stuff, just inanimate objects or substances. The caster has to be familiar with the substance or object, at the least knowing what it looks like. Creating an exact or convincing replica of an existing object may be subject to an additional penalty at GM’s discretion. When the spell duration ends, the object vanishes, returning back into magical energy. The exception is magical consumables, as their effects still persist. Conjured water still holds off dehydration, magic food satisfies hunger, etc. Defend Defend is used to protect against attacks. Specifically, it is used to absorb damage from an attack. A Defend spell absorbs twice its Spell Level in HP before being dissipated. Defend spells last 5 rounds at minimum, unless they are destroyed first. Each additional round of duration is a -1 to the casting roll. There are two kinds of Defense spells, Auras and Barriers, with different modifiers for each. Aura’s are your classic magic shield. They affect a single target and surround them with magical protection. Unless hidden by an Illusion spell, aura’s are always visible to the naked eye, though what it actually looks like depends on the Order. They are always air and light permeable, so the target can see and breath through them, and they do not protect against blinding light, poison gas, drowning, etc. You cannot have multiple auras on a target at one time, if a new one is cast then the one with the highest HP remains. While in an aura, the target is immune to Critical Wounds. Barriers are your magical wall or whatever. They can be any simple shape the caster desires, namely a flat surface, cylinder, cone, and dome or sphere. This is where you get your walls of fire and such. Barriers are a lot tougher than Auras, and have a Protection Rating equal to the Spell Level. In exchange, they are immobile, and must be fixed or supported, and cannot just float in the air disconnected from a solid surface. They can prevent the all physical intrusion though, including light and if desired air depending on the nature of the barrier. They cannot stop non-offensive magic though such as Illusions. Heal/Harm It’s healing. Recover HP, cure diseases, repair objects. 1 HP recovered per Spell Level, and you can cure diseases as long as the Spell Level is higher than the level of the Disease. There are several pre-made diseases in the GM chapter, and of course you can make up your own.. Heal spells are all Touch range. Spellcasters can actually use Heal to harm people by causing wounds and disease at 1 HP of damage per level of the spell or by inflicting a disease at the level of the cast Spell. The reason this is worse than attack is that all Heal spells can only affect a single target at Touch range, and have no area of effect.  Illusion Magic Illusions, pretty simple. Base modifier stuff is: 50 Foot range, _1 to roll per 10 Foot of range, duration of 5 rounds -1 to casting roll for each additional round., you get the idea. Now, for fancy Illusion specific stuff! The basic Level 1 Illusion creates an illusion that affects a single sense, of low magnitude, and does not move, and lacks any specific details. For 3 additional Spell Levels you can add one feature:
Illusion’s can be broken either by casting a Reveal spell, or with a successful Perception Attribute roll both against the level of the Illusion as the Difficulty. Success means that you know the illusion is suspect or unnatural, though it generally does not dispel the illusion completely. If you want to blind someone with illusory light or something similar, it’s considered to be a ranged attack roll separate from creating the illusion itself. This is specifically for blinding with illusory light, though I see no reason it couldn’t be used to deafen someone with a booming noise, nauseate them with disgusting smell or taste, etc. Per the rules it’s a -7 penalty to the ranged attack, and the effects last for 3 rounds with an additional +1 round for each magnitude feature added to the spell. This… seems poorly thought out. I’d use the duration of the effects, as there’s nothing wrong with that, but just use modifiers as normal for a ranged attack. To make something invisible is a starting level 10 spell, level 13 if you want to be invisible and move as well. Illusion’s can be cast while Scrying, giving them effectively infinite range in combination with the Reveal mode. That’s the one what does scrying you know. Influence Charms and mind control magic. Influence spells have a maximum range of 5 feet, and last 1 round by default. When affected by an influence spell, the target obeys a single simple instruction from the caster transmitted directly into the subject's mind. The command should fit in a sentence of less than 5 words it looks like. The subject can’t do anything that it can’t naturally do or that it doesn’t know how to do, and won’t do anything that involved directly harming itself IE: no commanding people to slit their own throats. Increasing the spell level makes it harder to resist the spell. When someone is the target of an Influence spell, they can make a Willpower roll, with every 2 Spell Levels amounting to a -1 to the Willpower roll. The subject will remember everything that happened during the spell, but if the casting roll is a critical success then the subject thinks everything was their own idea. Move Spells involving… moving things. This involves things like Telekinesis, levitation, that sort of thing. Move spells basically act the same as a Strength roll, with a base Move spell affecting up to 100lbs, and increasing as +1 Strength per 3 Spell Levels. You can also boost the speed of moved objects from a base of 10 foot per round, make it area of effect, and increase the duration above the base 5 rounds. Range is the standard 50 feet. You cannot move an object while performing multiple actions, though you can leave it levitating or similar while you do other things. Move can both hold and lift things, and can even attack as a Grapple, though they cannot be restrained or moved in addition to the attack. Magician’s can also use move to perform mundane tasks at a range, such as fighting with a floating sword, or writing with a pen from another room. This is done with whatever applicable skill fits the action, the spell merely allowing the object to move. Reveal/Conceal This is for supernatural senses, detecting spells, scrying, that sort of thing. See through walls, detect lies, find hidden doors, you get the idea. Base conceal spells are effective up to 50 feet, and last for 1 minute. More powerful spells are used to defeat both mundane and magical attempts to conceal the desired information. Scrying is given special note: When scrying you have a range of 1 Mile per spell level, it requires the caster to look into a reflective surface, and can’t automatically “go to” a specific spot unless the caster knows the location. Magical senses do not work when scrying, only sight and sound. Conceal is the Reverse of Reveal, similar to Heal and Harm. Conceal spells are used to hide things from normal or supernatural senses. The protection is specific, making a single lie harder to spot, protecting from scrying, blocking magical senses, etc. It cannot be used to make something invisible though, that’s Illusion, but it can make something more difficult to see than otherwise. Summon/Banish Calling up things from another dimensions! What exactly depends on the Order, but Elementals, Ghosts, Demons, etc. are all possibilities. The level just determines how powerful the summon is, giving them an ability level equal to the Spell Level. Summoning requires a number of rounds equal to the Spell Level, and the summoned being sticks around for a base of 1 minute. If cast correctly, the summoned being appears and will either answer any 3 questions it knows the answer to, or to perform a single specific service for the summoner. A failure still summons the creature, but it is unrestrained and can just do whatever it wants. A mishap straight rips a hole in spacetime, letting things from another realm into the material plane uncontrolled. It lasts for one minute per Spell Level, and the book specifically asks the GM to make it very very nasty. The reverse of Summon is Banish, and is used to send extradimensional things back home. The Degree of Difficulty is the target’s Ability Level, and takes 1 round per Spell Level to cast. Transform Transmutation, transmogrification, animation. Spells that change the nature and form of something. The level of the spell required is based on how different the starting form and the end result are.
Transformation affects a single subject at a time. Subjects retain their mental abilities regardless of the form. The new form just gets an Ability Level based on the Spell Level of the Transform spell cast. To turn into a specific creature the spell has to be equal to that creature’s Ability Level, and cannot increase the creatures Ability Level beyond it’s normal maximum. Ward/Hex Ward allows you to place specific defenses on a target you can touch. Wards are cast at minimum Spell Level 10, and cannot be cast any lower. A ward will make the target completely immune to that specific effect. You can have multiple wards active that protect against different types of effects, though you can’t have more than one ward that effects the same type of effect. The things you can protect against with ward are:
Wards last a base of 10 minutes, and are always visible as a sigil or sign that can be read by those who know magical scripts. Warded items are considered to be enchanted items. You can also reverse a Ward to make a Hex, which causes the target to take double damage from the specified source. If the source is also an attack, the attack is harder to defend against, the defender getting a -1 penalty to defense per 3 Spell Levels for the Hex. Woof! That’s all the Modes finished! Next time we get into the more fun and fluffy part of magic! Orders!
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Aug 12, 2016 02:52
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There actually is a big bunch of spells for every Order, but that's also more for players to start with before going into gonzo spell customization. You aren't really intended to customize and fiddle with every spell you cast, instead you should create a few "base" spells for each Mode to use, and modify from there. Also, no character starts knowing every Mode, and many Orders have banned Modes, so it's really easy to keep track of what rules you care about. By the way, how is my coverage of the book so far? I'm trying to really sell this sucker, but don't want to bore everyone to death before we ever get to the setting. Which is 2/3 of the book.
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Aug 12, 2016 20:55
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Halloween Jack posted:I always liked the way Talislanta's D20 mechanic worked as opposed to D&D's. Looking forward to all the archetypes and all the crazy races. The 5th Edition completely changes how Magic works to be way less free-form and more of a structured spell list, and character creation is completely different, being more of a skill-package system instead of premades. The differences are really massive, they are mechanically two different games, with only a few similarities. Basically the same sort of difference between 3.5 and 4th Ed. D&D, they're recognizably related, but still very distinct. The book is blatantly a Jack Vance RPG. The original concept was to be the Jack Vance alternative to D&D's Tolkien inspired fantasy, though there are obvious connections between the two due to the shared influences, Talislanta is 100% Dying Earth. It takes place in basically a post-apocalyptic Dark-Age, and like 50% of problems are because of some ancient wizard hosed something up. Also, at least one race is explicitly from another world and came to Talislanta when their spaceship crash landed.
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Aug 15, 2016 02:29
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Magic Part 2: Orders Orders are the second half of the magic system. While Orders are mostly flavor, tied to the setting, they also have a variety of mechanical effects, as well as narrative limitations that make each Order unique. I’ll be going over the basic flavor of each order, what makes them unique, and a few of the cooler sample spells for each. Cartomancy It means “Card Magic”. This is an Order which casts spells using an enchanted deck of “Zodar” cards, the Talislantan equivalent of Tarot, made of twenty cards each with a unique meaning and use. The most common use of the Zodar is in fortune telling and prophecy, which are generally difficult to understand if always correct. More traditional spellcasting is done by shuffling the cards, arranging them in specific orders and combinations that shape the magic, with each card having a specific function and use in spells. Cartomancers keep the actual spellcasting part secret, using it rarely. It isn’t an art learned in schools, and is self-taught. Anybody who uses the Zodar long enough slowly becomes attuned to the magic, slowly developing Cartomancy. The Zodar Deck posted:The twenty cards of the Zodar are: Physical Components: Cartomancers cast spells by shuffing and manipulating the Zodar. A Cartomancer must have at least one hand free to manipulate the cards to cast spells. No need for magic words or other gestures, just the cards. Advantages: Basically, Cartomancy is stealthy. Most people don’t know it even exists as a form of magic, just considering Zodar to be playing cards or fortune telling toys, and Cartomancy have no magical effects like magic lights or noises. A Cartomancer can cast spells in a crowded room, and just look like he’s playing solitaire. Limitations You need your Zodar deck to cast spells. If you don’t have it, you can’t cast magic. If you lose your Zodar, or it’s destroyed, you can’t just pick up a new one. The Zodar are inherently magic, and you need to spend one week attuning yourself to the new deck before you can cast spells again. Modes Cartomancy cannot use the Transform or Summon Modes. Alter spells can affect anything relating to one of the cards of the Zodar, such as The Warrior improving Combat Rating, or The Wanderer increasing Speed. Enchantment Cartomancers can only Enchant new Zodar cards, and are unable to make other magical items. Sample Spells posted:Hand of Destiny (Reveal) Cryptomancy Cryptomancy is the magic of writing. It uses mystic sigils, runes, and inscriptions to cast spells. Once created, these sigils can maintain their magic indefinitely, until activated. Cryptomancy is taught, generally by memorizing the various magical symbols from Cryptographic manuals. These books are always encrypted in a secret alphabet only known to other Cryptomancers. Physical Components Cryptomancers must have one hand free to at least trace the mystic patterns needed to cast magic. Most spells actually require the cryptomancer to make a physical mark of some kind, so many cryptomancers carry papers, ink, charcoal, brushes, pens, knives, and chisels to write with. Advantages When a Cryptomantic spell is cast, the magician may define a “trigger”, a condition that activates the spell. The spell will last until that condition is met and the magic is activated. Spells in this stasis condition can be detected and countered like any other spell. Setting a trigger on a spell adds a -5 to the difficulty, and the sigil must be clearly inscribed. These spells only activate once, for runes and such that work multiple times you’d use the enchanting rules to make a magic item. Limitations Because a Cryptomancer has to accurately duplicate complex magic symbols, casting a spell can take a while. The default casting time for all Cryptomantic spells is 2 rounds minimum. Modes Cryptomancy cannot use the Transform Mode. Cryptomancy gets a +3 bonus to Ward and Reveal, but a -2 penalty to Illusion and Influence. Cryptomancers use magical runes to communicate with extradimensional beings for the purpose of summoning. Cryptomancers use Alter by inscribing or drawing runes upon the target of the alteration. Enchantment This Order is very useful for enchantment, and it’s honestly one of the main uses for Cryptomancy. Some example uses are making magical traps and alarms, magical tattoos, inscribing on magic jewelry, and enchanted cages, manacles, and chains meant to hold extra-dimensional or super-powerful beings. It’s magic runes, it’s really really suited for enchanting things. Sample Spells posted:Symbol of Clarity (Reveal) Crystalomancy Crystalomancy is both a form of magic and a holy art, seen as a gift from Terra, the Earth Mother the chief god of the Gnomekin. Crystalomancy is therefore protected as a holy order, and practitioners are considered to be priests as well as magicians. It is passed down orally from one magician to another, and has no known written works. It is almost impossible to be allowed to learn if one is not a Gnomekin. This order casts spells using magical specially grown crystals. Physical Components All spells require a specially grown crystal of the appropriate type for the mode to cast: MODE CRYSTAL Color Alter Topazine Rich yellow Attack Rubiate Fiery crimson Conjure Albinite Milky white Defend Amberite Warm orange Heal Emeralite Deep green Illusion Prismatite Clear/refractive Influence Amethyte Vivid purple Move Azurite Bright blue Reveal Glassine Perfectly clear Summon Ebonite Glossy black Transform Variagate Multicolored Ward Umberate Dark brown Advantages A Crystalomancer can store a spell inside of the proper crystal for later use. This adds 10 rounds to the casting time per level of the spell, but once stored the spell can be used at any time. Even non-Crystalomancers can activate the crystal to cast the spell. Once a crystal’s spell is cast, the crystal is now useless and cannot be used to cast magic again. When a crystal has a spell stored, it counts against the limit for enchanted items. Affinity Crystalomancers get a +1 to spell-casting when using crystals they grew themselves. Limitations A Crystalomancer cannot perform magic without their crystals. Crystals also have a carat level, which limits what level of spells can be cast with that crystal. Modes Crystalomancer’s cannot use the Conjure or Transform modes. They get a +3 bonus to Defend and Heal spells, and a -3 to Attack and Summon. Alter spells can only affect stone, earth, and crystal, not living beings or abstract qualities. Summoning can only be used to call up Earth elementals. Enchantment Crystalomancers can create permanently enchanted crystals, which can be used on their own, such as crystals that heal the holder when activated, or worked into other objects, such as a supernaturally sharp sword with the crystal set into the pommel. Crystal Growing A Crystalomancer can create their own crystals! It’s covered by the Agriculture (Crystals) skill. Crystals grow at 1 carat per week. A Grower can maintain one growing crystal per skill level. Crystals stop growing once harvested. There are also wild crystals, which work for spellcasting, but at a -5 penalty to use. Crystalomancers still seek them out though, in the hopes of finding a new kind of crystal, or one that allows new uses for their magic. Sample Spells posted:Rubiate Beam (Attack) Okay, I’ve realized that these are going to be giant posts at this rate, so I’ll be splitting Orders up into about… 3 posts I’d say. So next time, more orders!
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Aug 18, 2016 00:23
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BirdsUponBirds posted:Hang on-- The Order rules that modify or ban Modes are optional. Those are included in case your GM doesn't want to limit Modes, so that they can still use the whole crystal flavor aspect. 90% of the Order rules are to differentiate and let casters feel different while still mostly using identical mechanics, so a lot of the hard rules modifications are explicitly optional and are free to throw out.
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Aug 18, 2016 21:45
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Magic Part 3: Orders Continued Elemental Magic This Order is technically four in one. Elemental Magic obviously covers magic that controls the elements! When you get an Elementalism Order though, you have to pick one of the four elements, Fire, Water, Earth or Air. If you want to learn a second element it’s a whole new Order. Physical Components Elementalism requires no external components, but to cast spells a magician must have both hands free to perform the necessary gestures. Advantages Elemental Magic doesn’t get any special bonuses until you get a +10 or more in a Mode under the Order, but when you do depending on the element you get immunity from that element.
Limitations Elemental spells are not subtle. You cannot hide that you’re casting them, and their effects are big, loud, and obviously unnatural. This makes it basically useless for any sort of stealth. Modes Elemental Magic cannot cast spells of Alter, Heal, Illusion, or Influence modes. They get a +3 bonus to Conjure though, and an additional +3 in another Mode based on the element: Attack+3 for Fire, Move+3 for Air, Defend +3 for Earth, and Transform +3 for Water. Elemental magicians can use Transform to change their chosen element into any related form: Fire into smoke, water into ice, air can turn normal air into clouds of toxic gas, water can turn into ice or steam, Earth from stone to sand to mud and back, you get the idea. Elementals can only use Summon to summon Elementals of the appropriate kind for their chosen Order. Pyromancer’s get Fire Elementals, Aeromancer’s get Air, etc. Enchantment No limits to elemental enchantments really, though the most popular uses are to create elemental warded items (Ring of Water Breathing), objects that produce an element for offensive purposes (Flaming Sword), and items that can produce an element (Infinite Waterskin). Sample Spells posted:
Invocation Invocation is magic drawn from higher powers, usually in the form of religious worship, though it also covers pacts with Demons and Devils. The main variations in the game are Aamanian Orthodoxy your vaguely catholic Monothiestic faith, Mirin worship of Borean, God of the North Winds, Rasmiran Death-Worship, and Demonology and Diabolism. Physical Components Invokers obviously are fond of various holy symbols and icons, but the only requirement is that they must be free to speak and gesture in order to properly call upon their patron. Advantages When using magic in line with the goals and wishes of their patron, Invokers can get a variable bonus of +1 all the way to +20 on their casting, based upon how much the patron cares about the act. LimitationsThe same thing in reverse: If you work against your patrons desires and goals your spells get penalized. Modes Invocation has no banned modes. They get a +2 to two modes, and a -2 to two others based upon what patron they have. Aamanian’s get +2 to Influence and Reveal -2 to Illusion and Summon, Mirin +2 to Defend and Move and -2 to Illusion and Influence, Rajan get +2 to Attack and Summon -2 to Defend and Heal. Other possible patron bonuses are left to the player and GM to work out. Otherwise, no real rules as the flavor of the spells is heavily based upon what entity the magician invokes. Enchantment Ditto, pretty much anything goes based upon your patron diety or being. Sample Spells posted:Conversion (Influence) Mysticism Mysticism is basically D&D Psionic powers, as well as covering magic involving spirits and mediumship. Physical Components None. Mysticism is an art of the mind, not the body. Advantages Mysticism is completely undetectable. Spells make no sound or visual effects unless desired, and are not detectable by other magical means. Only another Mystic can detect the use of Mysticism. Mysticism requires no gestures, words, foci, or rituals to cast. Limitations What it does require is a clear and focused mind. Loud noises, bright lights, mental stress, etc. can effect a Mystics casting and cause penalties to the casting roll. A Mystic can remove this penalty, but must first make a successful Meditation skill roll to calm down. Modes Mysticism cannot use the Transform and Conjure modes. They get a +3 bonus to Influence and Reveal, and a -5 to Attack. A mystic can alter any quality of the Mind, Body, or Spirit of a living sapient being. They cannot alter animals, abstract concepts, or inanimate objects. Mystics can use Summon both to summon astral beings and spiritforms, as well as to Astral Project into the Spirit World. Enchantment Mysticism doesn’t really do enchantment, but what few items they make are generally meant to either reveal hidden or astral presences, or to protect against mental or spiritual attack. Sample Spells posted:
Next Time: The last few Orders!
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Aug 21, 2016 01:20
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Actually the sleeve is accurate. Samurai arm armor actually were individual sleeves called Kote that were either tied around the body or attacked to the chest armor.  So that's accurate. Her chest armor is not though, and would quickly chafe her nips right off like a cheese grater.
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Aug 26, 2016 03:15
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The whole Victoriana thing just makes me want to mail them a copy of Castle Falkenstein with a rude note attached. See, Falkenstein actually does some smart things to make the whole Victorian world tolerable in a steampunk fantasy way: In the alternate universe of the game the world is explicitly better than the real world. The opression of industrialism, racism, colonialism, etc. just didn't happen or didn't happen as badly. And more importantly, it puts those societal ills as a negative! PC's in Falkenstein are explicity in opposition to Empire-building, war-mongering, industrialization, racism, classicism, etc. It also avoids most of the alternate history weirdness by making steampunk/magic be a relatively new thing, in the setting. Like, it's only within the last few decades that supernatural poo poo has started being relevant on the world stage so most politics and power-structures are unchanged, and what changes there are are to make the world less of a shitshow, like making Manifest Destiny a failed ideology with everything between the Mississippi and the Rockies being Native American land controlled by a loose tribal confederacy. Falkenstein also just integrates supernatural races into the world without any issue, cause they're just treated as people. Like, supernatural races are just a few extra abilities instead of being treated completely different socially. The only real excepts I can remember is that Dragons are pretty much de-facto nobility anywhere just on principle, and Faeries don't join Navies cause being near massive amounts of uncovered iron for long periods of time give them headaches. Also all the magical races are legit taken from ACTUAL FOLKLORE, and a Leprechaun, Pooka, Kobold, or White Lady are all character choices. Leprechauns can magically force people to dance by playing music! It's not just D&D but with COGS! They also don't have any different religions! Muslims are Muslims, Jews are Jews, the Catholic Church exists and actually has an order of Monks dedicated to practicing healing magic to act as doctors in hospitals! Also the historical fiction is both more solid and less loving boring! Why is Racism basically not a thing? Because Abraham Lincoln survived assassination thanks to magical catholic doctor, and he basically forced Reconstruction through proper so poo poo like Jim Crow laws and the Klan never got a foothold! Otto Von Bismarck is the big villain of Europe because he's a warmonger who builds legions of war-zeppelins and steam-tanks! He has a clockwork hand that's also a gun because he's a Bond villain! Ugh, and when Falkenstein includes actual cultural information it's generally useful and interesting. The book has sidebars for poo poo like Victorian slang, proper dating etiquette, how to address the various ranks of nobility, what different nation's military uniforms look like, what everyday items people owned back then, that sort of thing! Ugh this game is so loving lame, when there's a better one that does THE SAME THING that came out back in the 1980s! Also, one of the neatest thing Falkenstein does is make all Victorian fiction actually real, so Sherlock Holmes is solving crimes in London, Captain Nemo sails around fighting pirates, the Time Traveller is bopping around like a steampunk Doctor Who, The Invisible Man is an infamous burglar and thief wanted across the continent, etc. That makes the whole thing feel just that bit more fantastical and fun. Ugh, gently caress Victoriana.
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Oct 17, 2016 04:51
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Green Ronin also has a D20 Thieves World game.
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Nov 30, 2016 17:28
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Say Hello to Glorantha: Arachne Solara
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Dec 3, 2016 03:30
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The ST is a Brit thing. Consoles were mostly an American thing, in the UK Microcomputers were the main method of playing vidjagams.
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Dec 14, 2016 16:25
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wiegieman posted:Consider that even 7th sea, yes, Wick 7th sea, has now switched to a narrative mechanic implementation which explicitly tells you to only require rolls if there's actual dramatic risk. That's not surprising. Wick has never really been bad about rules or being a grog, his issues are more he's kind of an egotistical dick. He makes really solid games that are ruined because he writes like an rear end in a top hat. Also it's hilarious seeing this thread's reaction to Kevin Crawford. Stars Without Numbers and Other Dust are rock solid, then when he wanted to make a non-western fantasy game he converted them into Spears of the Dawn, Silent Legions is basically OSR Delta Green, Scarlet Heroes is D&D but designed around super-fast solo gameplay with 2 people or a GM Oracle if you want. Then he made Godbound extrapolated from Scarlet Heroes rules. He's not some nobody, he's got a solid track record of really good games with lots of support (Stars Without Numbers has TONS of supplements) and a rock solid release and work ethic. The OSR label doesn't apply to mechanics so much as it's a compatibility layer (Just take any D&D dungeon and find-replace SWORD with LASER) and is familiar to most people who play RPG's. Wapole Languray fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Dec 16, 2016 |
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Dec 16, 2016 04:39
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Night10194 posted:Have you played L5R or the old 7th Sea? Yeah, but lets be fair: drat near every game back then was poo poo and had hosed up rules because we were still in the post AD&D Wild West of game design that spawned poo poo like TORG and Palladium. It was contemporary with OG Deadlands and Feng Shui and in the heart of the oWoD supremacy and D20 glut.
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Dec 16, 2016 12:42
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Falkenstein actually has a crap default resolution system as the card based mechanics are incentivizes playing every card in your hand every roll. They do have alternate resolution in the supplements though, so it's a minor issue.
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Dec 17, 2016 01:13
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unseenlibrarian posted:The best part of Six Guns and Sorcery is that it's an alternate 19th century with a balkanized US and NO CONFEDERACY. The US Balkanized because the Native American tribes in Falkenstien all banded together to resist US Expansionism. With the populace unwilling to go int ANOTHER war after the Civil War, westward expansion kinda stopped at the Mississippi, and so the nation (peacefully) split up and the United States couldn't really effectively govern the west coast or southwest anymore with another nation cutting the continent in two.
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Dec 19, 2016 01:54
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Atomic Highway is literally an unlicensed Mad Max RPG complete with Road Warrior class. It's legit a really well put together indie game, is free, and has car build rules which are just simple point buy stuff.
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Jan 20, 2017 04:36
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 Tianxia: Blood Silk and Jade is a Wuxia/Kung Fu supplement and setting expansion for Evil Hat’s Fate Core rule system by Vigilance Press, written and created by Jack Norris, with art by url=http://denisesjones.deviantart.com/]Denise Jones[/url]. Created properly after a successful kickstarter campaign back in 2013, and officially released in 2014, Tianxia is one of the best drat Wuxia games I’ve seen. See, most games of this sort, like Qin: Warring States, Weapons of the Gods, Wulin, Heroes of Ogre Gate, etc. have an issue I don’t like. They focus way too much crunch on simulating the nitty gritty of kung-fu combat, there really isn’t a lighter game in the genre I’ve ever seen besides Tianxia that isn’t like Wushu, so light the genre is basically just flavor, or just cramming kung-fu into an existing fantasy setting. Also, the game is pretty as hell, and I’ll be posting as much art as I can for you guys to ogle at. Now, I love Fate, it’s probably my favorite system ever, and Tianxia is a wonderful combination of setting and really solid mechanics that hit all the right spots. You do require the Fate Core rulebook to play, but it’s Pay What You Want so that’s no excuse. Anyway, Tianxia is great, I wanna show it off. It’s an obvious labor of love from someone who really really loves wuxia as a genre, so I’ll also be expanding on some of the concepts and setting elements with Real Life History Stuff as we go, because I’m a nerd for it too. So, with that out of the way, let's get started with Chapter 1! Welcome to Tianxia  The Occurrence at Peach Blossom Bridge posted:“The right ground can turn a man into an army, and an army into a collection of fools.” Ma Wei Sheng’s father had told him this when he was eight. So, this is the introduction chapter, but as this is a supplement to an existing corebook, this game doesn’t have to bother with explaining what an RPG is, and we can instead get right into the interesting stuff. This chapter is dedicated to giving some essential background info about the game, elaborating on the genre, and just explaining what the hell this game is. So, first is a Glossary of Terms. Thankfully, there are neither dry mechanical terms, or nonsensical White-Wolfisms here, instead it exists to explain concepts that your typical person might not understand, especially terminology borrowed from Chinese. So, I’ll recreate in in a condensed form here so we can all benefit!
Chi Also spelled Qi, literally “Breath”, is the concept of an internal energy, life force, etc. While it has many varied meanings in medicine, philosophy, and religion, in the context of wuxia stories it’s what lets you do crazy physics breaking kung-fu stuff just by working out real hard. The Force from Star Wars is basically qi, for these purposes. Da Jiang “Great River”, a very large and important river that flows through southern Shenzhou. While it’s not part of the setting detailed in this book, it’s considered important enough to Shenzhou as a hole to mention. Emperor The ruler of Shenzhou. Also known as Huangdi, “Yellow Emperor”, or Tianzi, “Son of Heaven”, he or she is believed to be ordained by heaven to rule all the lands of the world. The Emperor governs through a complex bureaucracy of ministers, governors, and officials. Eunuchs Someone who has had their sex organs removed. In Shenzhou this is not surgical, but is done by mystic ritual that makes the subject sexless. They serve as important ministers and imperial officials, and are often portrayed as villains in Chinese media. The closes western concept would be the idea of the “Evil Vizier”. Historically Eunuchs were prominent in certain dynasties as important functionaries, especially in the Imperial Court. This was both because, as they could not have children, corruption, nepotism, and treasonous ambition was less prominent and because they couldn’t get up to anything freaky with the Emperor’s wives. Followers of Bodhisattva Also known as Bodhists, they are the Tianxia equivalent of Buddhists. The philosophy is all about seeking enlightenment, peace, and the alleviation of suffering by rejecting material attachments and cultivating an awakened mind. Gong Artisans and Craftsmen, part of the middle class of Shenzhou. Jade Road An important trade route, named for the mining and production of jade goods, which it serves as a major trade route for. It stretches from the western border all the way to the eastern cities. Jianghu Literally “Rivers and Lakes” the term refers to many concepts in chinese culture. At its broadest, it simply means the culture and community of those whose way of life is not part of traditional society. In modern contexts it’s essentially the same as the english term “Underworld”, representing the culture of criminals and those who live outside the law. In Wuxia, Jianghu refers to the sub-culture of vagabonds, adventurers, and martial artists, those who live on the fringe or outside of traditional society. Another term for the same concept is Wulin “Martial Forest”. Jiangzhou “Border Land”, the province of Shenzhou detailed in this book. It’s the far western frontier of the Empire, and is largely lawless. Kung Fu A generic term for all styles of Chinese martial arts. Legalism The official religion of the Empire of Shenzhou, and the Tianxia equivalent of Confucianism. Essentially, a philosophical school of thought and religion that emphasized unity with Heaven by moral living according to a divine order or hierarchy. As concerned with how proper governments and societies function, as it is with personal ethics and morality. Nong Peasants and farmers, the lowest traditional social class in Shenzhou. Security Companies Businesses that hire out mercenaries and bodyguards, specifically for protection of people or property. Often clash with government authorities, they range from heroic protectors, to bandits with pretensions. Shang Merchants and traders, part of the middle class, but the wealthiest can have as much power as the elite. Sifu “Skilled Person”, an honorific for teachers. Common translation would be “Master” or “Teacher”. While it can apply to any sort of teacher, in wuxia it’s primarily applied to Kung Fu masters. Shen The collective name for the people of Shenzhou, though most people don’t call themselves that. Identifying instead by village, province, or family. People and objects from Shenzhou are called Shenese. Shenzhou “Divine Realm”, the proper name for the Empire and primary setting of Tianxia. The name was an archaic term for China. ShiNobles, Scholars, and high officials. The elite and powerful upper class. Silk River A major river in Shenzhou, which passes through Jiangzhou before flowing east to the sea. Tianxia “Under Heaven”, a concept in Chinese political philosophy referring to the Chinese Empire, the entire world, or the idea of cultural unification. Closes western concept would be, it’s the Chinese equivalent of “Manifest Destiny”. Wuxia Literally “Martial Hero”, sometimes translated as Knight Errant or Wandering Warrior/Swordsman. This is both a genre, and a type of character or profession found in said genre. Essentially, Wuxia are highly skilled warriors who operate outside of traditional society. Wu Xing A five part concept of connected elements, colors, directions, seasons, animals, etc. A framework of thought and theme found throughout chinese culture. It has been slightly modified to make it easier to remember and work with in the game. Yang Positive forces. Proaction, heat, light, and masculinity are represented by Yang. Yin Negative forces. Reaction, cold, darkness, and femininity are represented by Yin. Yi “Outsider” or “Barbarian”, a term for those not from Shenzhou, or who are not seen as part of Shenese society at all. The term Hu is also used, primarily when referring to tribes that live near the borders. Zhongshou “Center Land”, the Imperial Province, where the capital and Emperor’s Palace are. Often used as a term to refer to anywhere with strong Imperial presence, not just the province itself. It’s located on the eastern shore of Shenzhou, but is considered to be the center of the empire. Whoo! Now that’s out of the way, and we can continue! Next is the actual introduction, which gives an overview of each chapter’s contents, and explains the design philosophy of the game. There’s no need to go over this though, so I won’t. Next is actually something useful! The Cardinal Rules of Campaign Customization. See, Fate is a toolbox game, it’s a bunch of mechanics and parts that you are encouraged to mix and match and customize to your taste. Tianxia just adds some new mechanics to support wuxia genre games, so they include some guidelines about how to work out customizing and making things in game in a pretty useful four stage process:
Step Two: Figure it Out Work out exactly how the changes or modifications you want to make should work, and clear it with everyone so everybody knows how the changes work and is okay with it. Step Three: Now Go Forth Basically, once you got a general idea, implement it and don’t get hung up too much on the ganges. You can change it again if things don’t work out, it’s more important to keep playing and having fun instead of getting obsessed about the setting or mechanics and killing the game’s momentum. Step Four: ...and Kick rear end Basically, if things aren’t going how you like, just make the changes on the fly and keep up the momentum, demonstrating what you want to happen instead of stopping the game to go over everything every time an issue comes up. Keep it dynamic and generally things will work out, and you can stop to discuss if there are problems. Who are the PCs? And What do you Need to Play? I’m rolling these two sections into one, just because they’re short. THe default assumption of Tianxia is that the PCs are playing wuxia, wandering martial arts warriors embroiled in the struggles of the hidden world of the Jianghu, with players growing in prominence, power, and importance over the course of the game. Equally valid though is playing characters more part of traditional society, in fixed locations or tied into important elements of the setting. As for what you need to play, is just helpful advice for necessary stuff to get. You need a copy of Fate Core to play, a set of Fate/Fudge Die, though the game does support others, a character sheet for each player, a way of keeping track of Fate Points, a pack of Index Cards, and some way of tracking initiative. They suggest players just sitting in initiative order to make it super simple. Wuxia, Kung Fu, and Genre This is a genre game, so it’s kinda important to define the genre’s we’re working with. Now, Tianxia is, by default, a blend of two related genres: Wuxia and Kung Fu. These two genres are related but distinct, and if you’ve seen enough martial arts movies you should be able to know the difference even if you’ve never been able to articulate them. While both are focused on the idea of martial artists, and solve their problems via acrobatic violence, the scale and existence of the fantastical are the primary ways to tell the two apart. Wuxia stories are big. The characters can often do superhuman feats of athleticism and combat, fantastical or magical elements are much more common. Kung-Fu stories on the other hand are generally much smaller scale. There are generally set in grounded historical settings, the stories are small scale and focused on personal issues, and the martial arts are purely practical and what actual humans can do. The way the game supports a mix is simple: The feats of the characters are very wuxia, with superhuman feats being common once you get some of your skills up there, while the setting favors more down-to-earth grounded and small-scale stories. To change the focus, simply dial up or down descriptions of character actions as desired, and focus on different aspects of the setting. What’s in a Name Chinese naming can be complex, especially with how varying translation conventions render names. Some use straight chinese names in the appropriate format, others reverse the family and given names, others fully translate the names into ones that sound more like poetic titles, and others still mix the two getting names like Silken Wei and Iron Tsang. Tianxia uses all three, but favors the part-english part-chinese names as it stays evocative of the setting, but it’s a lot easier to create memorable names for English speaking players. The Wu Xing  Essentially, the Wu Xing is a major part of chinese culture, and is a motif repeated constantly throughout affecting everything from art and music, to medicine, interior decorating, martial arts, military strategy, religion, philosophy, fashion, etc. etc. etc. It’s important. Tianxia recommends using the Wu Xing as a source of inspiration, a handy way to create themes and concepts that ring true with the setting. By using the colors, animals, elements, seasons, etc. as inspiration for settings, characters, and events. Basically, don’t get obsessive about it, but injecting a bit into your game can add some fun flavor, and help people brainstorm ideas and give flavor to the setting. So, that’s it for the intro! Next time Shenzhou and Jiangzhou: The Setting Part 1!’ 
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Feb 12, 2017 21:22
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Goddamn none of you guys have actually read the books I guess? That's... all really not accurate in any way shape or form. Jovians: Yes, fascists, but not all straight Nazi's. They're an isolationist and paranoid, but a strong motivation is that by rejecting newer technology, the military goverment can more easily stay in power and control the populace. Think Starship Troopers government where information is all propaganda. A lot of Jovian scientists, as well as the population that knows what the outside world is like, generally don't like the goverment. They do have a shared feeling that yeah, the rest of the solar system is going nuts with the AI's and genetic engineering, that poo poo caused an apocalypse like 10 years ago and lots of you aren't even vaguely human anymore and we don't want none of it because it's just asking for bad poo poo. Consortium: Actually a pretty decent democratic/capatalist system that's ran by immortal oligarchs and super-corporations. Cyberpunk future with a decent HDI. They basically mix traditional capitalism with the whole reputation post-scarcity economy thing. They explicitly try and keep corruption and evil poo poo down, but still megacorps gonna megacorp. Morningstar: Venus used to be in the Consortium, but they actually managed to break away into their own government, but the Consortium isn't happy. So you've got legit Venus-independents clashing with Consortium influence trying to find a path for the planet. Big contention is exactly how to go about terraforming Venus. Extropians: Yep libertarians, but they actually kinda figured out how to make it work. Extropia, the asteroid where they're based, is supposed to serve as the Mos Eisley giant space crossroads where anything goes. Singularity Seekers: People who pursue technological advancement at any cost, but this leads to some doing really ethically questionable poo poo, like trying to make advanced AI's like the Skynet types that killed Earth because they see them as the perfect lifeform. Exhumans: People who just don't want to be human anymore. Most are harmless, there's one group that basically upload their minds into virtual reality constructs in long-term space probes and shoot off to explore the universe at sublight speed, but some go crazy into it and do poo poo like turn themselves into Xenomorphs and start hunting people for fun. Ultimates: Wierd spartan/buddhist euginicist war-cult. All about perfecting humanity, mentally, spiritually, physically. Take the Futurist Manifesto and mix it with some Buddhism and you get the Ultimates. Autonomist Alliance: Just a grouping of all the tiny polities and entities scattered about the outer edge of the solar system. There's just tons of different groups so there's no real single defining trait. Scum aren't Space Gypsies. Really, they're more bohemian artist punk types. Think Space Burning Man and you got it. Love body modification, hedonism, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Also run black markets and have amazing parties. The add-on setting books Rimward and Sunward did a good job expanding on and giving some nuance to the different cultures, but 90% of talking about RPGs on the internet are people repeating things they think they remember pieced together from forum posts and sorta-skimming the PDF one time. Also, yeah Firewall agents don't get along swimmingly, but they work together to prevent the potential extinction of mankind. The idea that people of varying political opinions must kill each other on sight is not a thing.
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Mar 16, 2017 05:37
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Yeah, but literally nothing in their description or nature is Gypsy-ish, like they're called that for some reason but then absolutely no part of the Gypsy stereotype fits except that they're sorta nomadic? Like they used that as a descriptor but nothing about the faction actually fits it.
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Mar 16, 2017 11:55
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Fine, conceded, Eclipse Phase is lovely liberal fantasy Shadowrun.
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Mar 16, 2017 14:31
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The earliest prototype guided missiles and bombs were pigeon-powered.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon posted:During World War II, Project Pigeon (later Project Orcon, for "organic control") was American behaviorist B.F. Skinner's attempt to develop a pigeon-controlled guided bomb.[1]
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Apr 12, 2017 20:19
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Halloween Jack posted:I read the free edition of Talislanta that was released (4th I think?) and it was pretty accessible. IIRC it does have a kinda Vance-like vibe where it just jumps into telling you things about the various character types, and you just surmise things about their culture based on what it's telling you. But that's very very much in the spirit of early RPGs, when there was no such thing as a setting chapter and the setting was just implied by everything else. You didn't read 4th then, as that has a literally 300 page long gazetteer of every nation and culture on the continent. Also, every version of Talislanta is free online: http://talislanta.com/?page_id=5
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Apr 26, 2017 16:04
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 The gently caress Is This Thing? Say Hello! To Atlantis: The Second Age! Created by Kephera Publishing the same company behind Hellas: Of Sun and Stone, the Sci-Fi meet Greek Mythology game previously covered here. Atlantis is basically a reimagining of Bard Game’s “Atlantis Trilogy”, a pretty much forgotten game from back in the 1980’s. The Original Atlantis trilogy isn’t really important, and actually barely has anything to do with the newest version, so don’t worry about it. What is notable is that this Atlantis uses the Omegasystem, which is basically the newest iteration of the system for Bard Game’s actually notable RPG: Talislanta! Timely! So, in short: Atlantis is a Sword and Sorcery game set in a fictionalized and mythical ancient past at the dawn of mankind, where ancient and powerful inhuman race’s great empires crumble, and monsters and demons run wild. The players are Heroes, larger than life figures of myth and legend who stride forth to shape the world to their will. Or, in a more succinct terms, as given by the Kickstarter for this game:  Oh, but in case you’re worried about the shady history of being really loving offensive that permeates the entire S&S Genre, especially those that bank on the influence of old paperback writers, here’s a picture of the main creator Jerry D. Grayson:  Oh, and if you like what you see, please buy the books. A portion of all proceeds go to Givewell, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the efficiency of other nonprofits and research into them, and the Against Malaria Foundation which purchases and distributes insect nets to impoverished communities in Africa. Now to Properly Explain: What Is Atlantis? Now, most games first chapter is your typical “What is Roleplaying?” section, along with a rough guide to the basic mechanics, and is skippable in 90% of games. Atlantis does something else. It tells you what kind of game IT is, by answering a series of 12 questions, basically detailing the premise, themes, and design philosophy behind the game. If you like the answers to these questions, that’s exactly what you need to know if you’d like the game as a whole. In summary:
 A Brief History of the World The next section of the introduction is, well, a brief history of the world. Presented narratively, as a teacher giving a history lesson to a group of Atlantean children, it’s a rough outline of the mythic past and history of the world, from an Atlantean perspective. The first age of the world was called the Age of Unreasoned Sleep, a timeless period where existence first… existed. It’s called that because the in the beginning, the world was formless and mercurian, the stuff of creation the product of the Elder Gods. The Elder Gods are older than existence, mysterious and unknown beings who literally dreamed the universe into existence. This is also when the first of the Root Races came into being, the Jinn, shapeshifting beings of living magic born from the dreams of the Elder Gods. The Age of Unreasoned Sleep lasted an unknown time, because time really wasn’t a known thing yet, until the coming of the Demiurge, Olódùmarè (One of the names for the supreme god of the Yoruba people, of modern day Nigeria and Benin). Olódùmarè’s origin is unknown: He may be an Elder God who woke up, a creation of the Elder Gods to give the world form, or maybe the embodiment of the collective wills of the Elder Gods made manifest. In any case, Olódùmarè set forth to catalogue everything dreamed by the Elder Gods, giving order to the Universe and purpose to all things. The next age of the world was the Age of Screams and Fire. See, Olódùmarè going around making order out of the primal chaos of existence had the side effect of waking some of the Elder Gods, who didn’t appreciate his meddling, and wished to return the world back to its primeval state by scourging it with fire and death. Olódùmarè was not very happy with this, but he couldn’t do much about it. He did manage to warn the Jinn in time, and they sealed themselves in jars of amberglass and orichalcum, hiding beneath the earth until the Elder Gods had spent their rage. It’s thought that some Jinn-jars containing these primordial beings are still lost, hidden within the earth, waiting to be found. Once the Elder Gods had destroyed the world, reducing it to stone and ash, Olódùmarè took action, singing a great song that lured the Elder Gods back into their eternal slumber. But, the Elder Gods had left one thing behind after their sleep, the embodiment of their wrath, named Nemesis. Whenever Olódùmarè sought to repair the damage to the world, Nemesis worked against him, undoing what he did. But, Olódùmarè was clever: He found the last tree in the world, and from its scorched wood he made a box, which he trapped Nemesis within. He kept this box under his tongue, as he went about reshaping the world. Over time, Olódùmarès voice seeped into the box, changning Nemesis into something else: One day he awoke from sleep and found two small beings crawling from his mouth. He named these two Set (Egyptian god of the Desert, Storms, Disorder, Violence, and Foreigners) and Ba’al (An ancient Northwest Semitic world meaning “Lord” or “Master” a title put before the names of dieties, alternately a name for Hadad, a storm god in the ancient Levant). Together these three worked to remake the world. During this time Olódùmarè also worked to recover the Jinn, freeing them from their hiding places within the earth. Inspired by this, Set sought to create life of his own. He crafted the race known as the Ophidians, a race of humanoid serpents and the second of the Root Races, who quickly spread across the Earth, forming many great kingdoms and empires. Unfortunately, Set, thinking it a blessing, gifted the Ophidians with limitless ambition which lead to them conquering everyone they met, enslaving all others, and fighting among themselves to weed out perceived weakness. Ba’al saw Set’s creation, and growing jealous, sought to make his own life, but he could not create something from nothing. Instead, he took many of the Jinn and warped them into shapes and natures he found attractive. These beings became known as the Sons of Ba’al, though in common parlance they are just called Demons. They terrorized the world, corrupting nature, and feeding upon Ophidians and Jinn alike. Olódùmarè grew angry at this, seeing the corrupt children they had spawned he sought to destroy them, banishing them from the world. But, Set and Ba’al joined forces, and with their armies, attacked Olódùmarè when he was sleeping upon the Moon. The great battle scoured the moon of all life and cost the lives of countless minions, but eventually the siblings were able to overpower Olódùmarè. They shattered him into a thousand pieces, and threw them to Earth. This was not the end though, as the eldest of the Jinn gathered the thousand shards of Olódùmarè, and sealing them into the same jars that saved them from the Elder Gods. From within these jars the shards of Olódùmarè grew into new beings of their own right, the Orixa (the name for the Gods or Spirits of the Yoruba). The Orixa rose up against Set and Ba’al, defeating them. For Ba’al and his Demons they forged a great prison of Brass deep beneath the earth, and sealed them within it. The touch of brass is anathema to Ba’al and his children, and so they live in eternal torment within the buried City of Brass. Set, they tore limb from limb, throwing his serpentine body into the deepest pit. His thrashings are the source of earthquakes and tsunamis to this day. But, from the blood of set spilled from his torn limbs came the Dragons, embodiments of Set’s rage and fury bent on destruction and evil. While the Orixa set out to repair the damage done by Ba’al and Set, the Ophidians, now uncontested, ruled the world without challenge. Next came the Age of Water and Reason. This age began with the third Root Race. Upon the island of Lemuria, born from Earth and Water, there was a great amber egg. From that egg hatched the Lawgiver (An obvious parallel to Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of Chinese folklore) the first of the Lemurians and father of their race. The Lawgiver was at first immortal, but he gave his power to the Apes of the island, blessing them with great intellect and and deep understanding of the natural world. Before the Lawgiver passed, he wrote down for his people all his knowledge in a single great tome, said to contain the answers to every question in that will ever be asked. Copies are, obviously, rare and heavily guarded by the Lemurians, and few have ever seen one. The Lemurian ape-men were possessed of an insatiable drive for knowledge, and the spread out into the world seeking to learn ever more, building great cities in harmony with nature across the world in peace and prosperity, until they encountered the Ophidians. The two races were, almost instinctually, enemies and quickly launched into a titanic war for dominance of the world. The Lemurians developed mighty science and advanced weaponry, while the Ophidians used their dark magics to spawn the Ahl-At-Rab, a race of fierce warrior-slaves. This war lasted for centuries, decimating both empires until they literally could not fight any more, settling down into a protracted cold war. Meanwhile, on the continent of Gondwana, the final two Root Races arose: The Atlanteans and Humans. The Atlanteans are said to have appeared, fully formed, up on a river bank in western Gondwana. Their exact origins are unknown, though the Atlanteans of course insist they were divinely created to rule the world. Humanity as well has mysterious origins, and it is said they were created by Olódùmarè himself. In any case, while the Ophidians and Lemurians fought, the Atlanteans built a mighty empire in Gondwana, incorporating Humanity into their empire. While the Atlanteans insist this was beneficent patronage, most human peoples remember the Atlanteans as dominating slavers. As the Atlanteans spread across Gondwana, the Ophidians began to raid the human settlements on the coasts, seeking slaves and resources to fuel their war with the Lemurians but unaware of their Atlantean masters. The Atlanteans struck back with a fury, crushing the war-weary Ophidians and driving them back to Mu, never to return to Gondwana. At the same time, the Lemurians were being devastated by a great plague, killing most of their population. Weakened by constant warfare, and now broken by plague the Lemurians abandoned most of their outposts and colonies, retreating back to Lemuria. With the Ophidians in retreat and the Lemurians withdrawn back to their homeland, the Atlanteans were free to spread across the world. In time they found a new continent, vast and fertile to the west of Gondwana. They migrated their population to this land, building a new capital for their empire, naming both the city and continent Atlantis. As the Atlanteans conquered the world though, the Ophidians worked to rebuild their armies. They created new forms of dark magic, bred massive slave armies, and even called for the Sons of Ba’al for aid recruiting demons into their armies. Finally ready, the Ophidians began a great war to reclaim their empire, slaughtering their way through the Atlanteans forces to the very walls of Atlantis itself. This war though led to the Atlantean Sorcerer-Scientists to uncover the twin powers of Alchemy and Vril (Harnessing ley-lines and raw magic). Using these powers, they created the Nethermen, a race of savage monster-men to repel the Ophidians. While they were a success at first, they bred so quickly and were so uncontrollable that eventually they had to be slaughtered and exiled to prevent mass rebellion. Not discouraged the sorcerer-scientists tried again, this time breeding the Andaman, a hybrid of human and animal. Adaptable to nearly any environment, designed to hold the Atlanteans in nearly religious respect, and much more intelligent than the Nethermen they, alongside Vril weaponry and alchemy, turned the course of the war. Eventually the Ophidians were completely smashed, the Ophidian Empire broken and destroyed before the Atlantean armies. Then came the Golden Age, five centuries of expansion and harmony as Atlantis civilized the world, and build great cities on every continent. But, as many empires go, Atlantis began to slowly slide into decadence. The final century of Atlantis’s domination was marked by corruption and madness. The Sorcerer-scientists began to openly experiment on any non-Atlantean life spawning horrors and abominations. Non-atlanteans were treated like slaves and animals, and the rulers sank into the depths of depravity and perversion. The princes grew paranoid, assassinations and border-wars were constant, and eventually the empire began to crumble in waves of civil war and rebellion. Finally, Atlantis was all but destroyed by The Cataclysm. The Gods turned upon Atlantis, smiting them for their wickedness and hubris. The island of Autochthea sank beneath the waves, Vril turned wild and ravaged the land, sorcery turned unstable and wild, and all the world was wracked by earthquakes, tsunami’s, volcanoes, and hurricanes. Now Atlantis is a shadow of its former self, with only the continent and city still remaining under Atlantean control, with the rest of their colonies and cities rebelling and being conquered. Now humanity, and human kingdoms, are the dominant culture in the world. Atlantis Time Line Finally, there’s a timeline of the world, giving the dates of important events in the world, based on the Atlantean Calendar. I’m not recreating the whole thing, but there’s some neat world-building information contained, so I’m going to highlight some of the neater parts. For reference: All dates are based off either the founding of the Atlantean Empire, notated by the abbreviation A.E. after a date, or from the Cataclysm, notated as M.K. (Meta Kataklysmos). To give an idea of scale, the earliest event is -7,000 A.E. with the birth of the Lawgiver, the Atlantean Empire lasted until 3997 AE (Which is also 1 M.K.), and the current year is 509 M.K. 957 A. E. King Atlas Amanhene dies on the morning of what should have been the first day of his thousandth year. Lightning splits the sky in a single bolt, big enough to be seen anywhere on the continent. Violet rain falls for seventeen hours and every bird in the empire coos the same mournful notes. He is the longest-lived Atlantean. 1,862 A.E. The Golem War: The Great Sorcerer Mal’Sorkumar investigates the weird properties of fallen metals. Infusing the metals with his own power, he is able to capture the souls of the dead. Creating golems to hold the souls, he uses them as his slaves. Shut away for years at a time, furthering his alchemical and necromantic research, Mal’Sorkumar draws the suspicion of the Atlantean council. He is accused of black sorcery and a great battle takes place between the golems and the Atlanteans. The war lasts three weeks before Mal’Sorkumar escapes to what is now the Black Forest. The golems, not so easily driven off, are put to sleep and buried in a vault, deep in the mountains of a nameless and deserted island. 2,950 A.E The Vril Gates of Atlantis Atlantean sorcerers create the first Vril Gates, allowing travel between any two of the massive, orichalcum structures. Trade and travel between the colonies increases, allowing even the least of their race to experience the outer reaches of the empire. Atlantean sorcerer-merchants control the Vril Gates; their wealth grows. Lesser merchants and humans still conduct trade over land and sea. The gates are soon dismantled when scholars discover that the space traveled between gates is actually the dreamstuff of the Elder Gods. Most of those who traveled through the gates manifest deformities of the mind and body. Though the council apprehends and slays most of these abominations, some escape into the wilds. 505 M.K. The Golden Box Twelve boxes are delivered to twelve kings across the known world. The King of Atlantis receives a box followed by the Queen of Sheba, the Pharaoh of Khemit, The Erlking of the Black Forest, the Queen of Hesperia, then the kings of Ophir, Tarshesh, Khitai, Veda, Nazca, Quechua, and Aztlan. The boxes feel warm to the touch. Gilded and encrusted with precious gems, they draw praise from all who behold them. Inscribed on the side of each box, written in Ænochian, shine the words “and so his time shall pass”. Atop the box sits a small mechanical time piece, assumed to open the box at the appointed time. No known form of scrying can penetrate the box and, if forced open before the time runs out, as in Tarshesh, fire burns the contents. Several kings have called for the best thieves in their realm to open the box but none have yet been successful. 506 M.K. The Boy Usurper Zal, an albino boy from Turan, claiming to be a born of true Atlantean blood and raised by wild animals, emerges from the desert wastes. The boy is always in the company of an Owl-woman called Simurgh the Watcher and her coven of Owl-women disciples. Zal commands an army of varied Andamen. He makes himself known by seizing the Tarshesh outpost of Tarsharon, outside of Joppa in Zin. The boy-general is possessed of almost godlike power and arcane magics beyond his apparent 11 years of age. Every Beast-man he encounters falls to his knees and swears and oath of allegiance. The boy and his army travel in a large and ancient barge that moves across both land and sea with ease. 506 M.K. The Black Circle Conflict In Awalawa, rumors of a powerful sect of black magicians called the Black Circle surfaces and a horde of Nethermen seethe from the interior of the jungle, infused with demonic power. Te king of Ophir mobilizes his army and calls upon Hesperia for help. The Nubian mercenaries, known as the Lions of Kandake, move to stand against the Black Horde and their Diabolist masters. A call goes out to the heroes of every nation to help stop the threat. In a shining moment of unity, many answer. Quick and bloody, the war culminates with the destruction of the demonic master’s Black Bone Tower. Before the world can catch its breath, the demonic menace that controlled the Black Circle rises from the rubble of the former tower, devouring the souls of the unlucky few too near the desolation. Sorcerers and shaman work countless spells, binding the demon into a large tree, and impale it with bronze spikes. The Nubian mercenaries pledge to watch over the tree, allowing none to pass their wall of thorn and stone. 508 M.K. The Last Beast War Zal and his army land on the northern coast of Atlantis and the last Great Beast war begins. His large feral army, bolstered with Formorian mercenaries, clashes with the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans do not send their own Andamen for fear that they will turn and fight with The Usurper. The battle lasts for five months as Zal pushes towards the capital. The city of Atlantis prepares for a siege, but Zal and his forces suddenly board their great barge and leave the field of battle traveling east. The Formorian mercenaries are left to fend for themselves. Most are captured or killed. Zal’s current location is unknown. Next Time: Chapter Two: Character Creation
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Apr 30, 2017 04:25
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 Before we get to going through the steps of character creation, we have to go over the attributes first, as that’s a big thing many of your choices will affect. Now, there are 10 attributes in Atlantis, and they work basically like any other game. They provide the baseline performance for your character, represent their inborn and natural abilities, and such. The biggest difference is that attributes in Atlantis can go into the negatives, 0 being the average “starting” rating, and are based on an objective scale not a relative one.
There, now that’s covered, let’s get into the first decision point: Races Yep, if you’ve played a fantasy RPG before you know how this works, basically it’s picking your species. Race in this case determines your base attributes, HP, and gives several special abilities. It’s important to note though: These stats and abilities are based on the base for a Player Character Hero, not NPC’s of the same race. You do not have to account for every racial ability for every NPC you might interact with. NPC’s can have none, some, or all of their racial abilities on the GM’s discretion. Ahl-At-Rab Sand Devils, Lizard Men, Snake Men, Saurians  The Ahl-At-Rab are an artificial race, created by the Ophidians as a warrior-slave race, though with the collapse of the Ophidian’s empire many now live independently. Ahl-At-Rab traditionally live in deserts, wastelands, and other hot and arid lands across the world in nomadic tribes of a few hundred individuals. While they do not construct buildings or permanent settlements, they are skilled craftsmen and often make fine arms and armor out of copper, obsidian, and the hides of “Sand Dragons”. The Sand Dragons are a species of large desert-dwelling reptile used as a mount and best of burden by the Ahl-At-Rab, and are often trained to fight alongside their riders in battle. They prefer spears and clubs, both designed for throwing as well as close combat, along with war whips made of sand-dragon hide. Their armor is generally Sand Dragon hide with copper plating. Most of the culture of the Ahl-At-Rab is based around their creation as a warrior race, and they live for the thrill of combat. Tribes will often attack even large groups of armed men without hesitation, and will fight to the death unless the situation is obviously hopeless. One reason for this is that the Ahl-At-Rab are highly carnivorous, and have no qualms about eating the bodies of the deceased after battle, or taking slaves from the defeated. While the slaves of the Ahl-At-Rab are generally treated quite well, they live under the knowledge that they are emergency rations for their masters in times of hunger. Strangely, the Ahl-At-Rab passion for violence also extends to their arts. The Ahl-At-Rab often perform elaborate plays during ceremonies and religious gatherings which are considered to be elaborate and beautiful, often with themes of unrequited love, betrayal, and tragedy. It’s believed that many popular plays by other peoples are adaptations and reimaginings of Ahl-At-Rab dramas. The Ahl-At-Rab are humanoid reptilian beings, standing an average of 2 meters in height (approx. 6’ 5’’). They have scaly hides, which can be any shade of green, brown, tan, and even black. They have a crest along the top of the head, believed to help in thermoregulation, and females of the race have two crest of brightly colored feathers running from their temples to the base of their necks. Most Ahl-At-Rab are stoic and serious, concerned foremost with survival. They categorize everything foremost as packmate, threat, or food. They do not fear death, especially death in combat, and will fight to the bitter end if they believe the battle has any merit or point at all. Attributes The Ahl-At-Rab’s highest attributes are in STR, PER, CR, and CON, and they have the highest base CON of any race. Their greatest weaknesses are in SPD, and MR, but both are only -1, suboptimal but not crippling. This means they are best suited to build as a physical combatant focused on durability over agility. Racial Abilities
Andamen Beastmen, Werebeasts, Chimeras Not so much a single race, but a category of several related beings. Andamen are an alchemical fusion of human and animal, created by the Atlanteans to fight in the Beast Wars against the Ophidians. Each was formed for a certain task within the Atlantean war-machine, and were used as soldier-slaves by their Atlantean masters. When the war was over, they were mostly abandoned, and many have become totally independent since the Cataclysm. They are equally at home both in civilization and in the wilderness, and are often found in small enclaves among other races. Racial Abilities These abilities are shared among all Andamen regardless of type.
Anumbim Jackal-Men  The Anubim were created to be guards, enforcers, and aids for Atlantean generals and sorcerors during the Beast Wars. They stand about 1.5 meters (Approx. 5’) tall, and have lean, wiry builds. They have the heads of jackals, and short fine fur which is generally jet black or dusky gold. They are serious and even-tempered, and known for their loyalty and faithfulness. Anubim never break their word, will gladly die for the sake of a loved one, and will follow their chosen companions to the ends of the earth. Anubim are the most clever and intellectual of the Andamen, and due to their servitude among the Atlantean sorcerers have carried down a secretive tradition of magic among themselves. Attributes Anubim’s highest skills are in INT, PER, SPD, and CR, with no negatives in any stat. They have no real weaknesses, and are the best fit for an Andaman magic-user by default. Racial Abilities
Asena Wolfmen  Asena are powerful trackers and warriors. They stand an average of 1.8m (Approx. 6’) tall, and weigh over 115kg (Approx. 250 lbs). They share hair colors with the animal they are based on, blac, grey, browns, and rarely white. Asena are relentless, and known for baring fierce grudges. They are imminently practical, favoring strength and cunning above all else. Leaders are whoever is the largest, strongest, and cleverest among them, and they have no respect for weakness. Attributes Asena are highest rated in SPD and CR, less so in WIL, STR, and CON. Their only weakness is in MR at a -2. Racial Abilities
Balam Jaguar Men  Balam are large and powerfully built, standing 1.8m (Approx. 6’) and weighing around 85kg (Approx. 200 lbs). They are clever and crafty, with an individualistic streak. Most Balam focus on their own personal well-being first and foremost. They are quick to anger and prefer to solve most problems with physical force. Most Balam have a reverence for their ancestors, and many wear jewelry made from the teeth and bones of notable ancestors. Attributes Balam have high STR, SPD, CR, DEX, and CON, but are weak in CR and average in all others. Very much focused on emphasizing the physical over the mental. Racial Abilities
Uluka Owlmen, Birdmen, Flyers  The Uluka were created as aerial forces for the Atlantean military, and originally just looked like normal humans only with large bird wings on their backs, but over time they developed into their current forms. Uluka are lithe and wiry, standing about 1.5 to 1.75 meters (Approx. 5’) tall but only weighing about 50kg (Approx 110lbs). The majority of Uluka live in a small flying city created by lashing together many ancient Atlantean sky-fortresses together with chains and bridges. The city's magic is slowly failing though, and the resident Uluka are seeking a place high in the mountains to settle the city. Most Uluka are quiet and introspective, and unfortunately very plain spoken. An Uluka will always tell you exactly how they feel and what they think as honestly and straightforwardly as possible. Attributes Uluka are highest in SPD, INT, PER, and WIL, and have no real weaknesses, making them excellent all-arounders and generalists. Racial Abilities
Nemeans Lion Men, Kings of Beasts, Feral Lords  Nemeans were created to be commanders and generals of the Andamen during the Beast Wars. They are mostly golden furred, though rarely a black haired Nemean is born. Both males and females are equally fierce warriors and commanders. Most Nemeans stand at around 2 meters ( 6’5’’) and weigh between 90 and 130 kgs (Approx. 200 to 300 lbs). Nemeans possess an innate sense of entitlement and superiority. They assume the deference of other Andamen to them. While this attitude is off putting to most, Nemeans are loyal to the end to those they consider friends and companions. Attributes Nemeans have high CHA and CR, with lower bonuses in WIL, STR, and CON, and a heavy penalty to MR. Nemeans are best suited to physical builds, but also favor social skills. Racial Abilities
Taurans Minotaurs  Taurans are massive, standing a towering 2.25 to 2.5m (7’5’’ to 8’) tall, and weighing between 136 and 181 kgs (300 to 400lbs). They have a reputation as bullies and blowhards. They live life to the fullest and eat, drink, fight, and love to excess. THey have a fondness for jewelry, and often wear many golden rings on their horns, nose, ears, and neck. Attributes Taurans have the highest base STR of any race, as well has high CON and CR, but face penalties in their INT and MR. Racial Abilities
Tritons Gillmen, Mermen  Developed for naval, undersea, and marine combat. Tritons were originally more human, and amphibious, but now are almost totally aquatic. They stand between 1.5 and 1.8 meters (5 to 6 foot) and weigh between 68 and 90kgs (150 to 200 pounds). They have green or blue skin, with red and gold accents, with large solid black eyes. Tritons are known for being clear and even tempered thinkers who place the best interests of society above their own. They are highly sought after as tacticians and diplomats. Attributes Tritons have high INT and SPD, with lower bonuses in WIL and DEX, and a minor penalty to MR. They are well rounded, with a slight bent towards intellectual skills. Racial Abilities
Atlanteans Little Gods, God-Kings, Noble Creators, Lords of the Earth, Man Shapers  Atlanteans hold themselves to be the greatest of all races upon the Earth. Born, fully formed as a race, without physical, social , or mental evolution, they believe themselves to be the destined masters of the world. A confident, arrogant race that seeks to rule over all others. Atlanteans act without any sense of humility, shame, or fear of failure. Any setbacks or defeats are recontextualized as “all part of the plan”. When their empire fell, it wasn’t a collapse, but a tactical retreat in line with Atlantean interest. Even now when they hold nowhere near the position of they once did, they argue that the future is theirs to grasp, and seem to be scheming some new way to re-establish their dominion of the world. Atlanteans look very similarly to humans. They stand at least 1.8m (6 feet) tall and weigh between 68 and 90kgs ( 150 to 200lbs). Where they differ is in the details. They have skin the color of polished mahogany or deep bronze, with long kinky black hair that they wear in oiled locks. Their eyes are gold or emerald-green, or a mix of both, and their lips are black as pitch. Atlanteans are also, every one, perfectly formed and beautiful. Non-Atlanteans see them as cold, arrogant, and condescending, Atlanteans would agree as to them most other races seem like children to them, lost and needing guidance. They believe they have a divine right to rule over the world, and that their acts are divinely correct. Most races also see the Atlanteans as depraved and hedonistic, but to the Atlanteans the world is theirs to experience and master. Sex is casual and common, drugs are seen as a route to enlightenment, and food is to be consumed and enjoyed. The world is their paradise, and they will experience every bit of it they can. Attributes Atlanteans have minor bonuses in their INT and PER, and a minor weakness in their -1 to STR, but the main defining feature for them is the +4 they have to MR, the highest base among the races, making them by far the best choice by default for a dedicated magic character. Racial Abilities
Now for the Mythology Corner! Where I explain some of the real mythological references in the game! Now, the Ahl-At-Rab I’m not sure about. From what my research can tell me I think it’s supposed to be Arabic meaning something like “People of the Masters” or similar, but I’m not sure. Any ideas? Now for the others, it goes a lot easier. Andaman is a completely made up term as far as I can tell. The closes is it’s a name for a chain of islands in the south Pacific with an unknown etymology, so that’s not much help. Anubim are obviously based on Anubis the ancient Egyptian Jackal-Headed god of funerary rituals and mummification. Asena is the name of a mythical she-wolf from shamanic Turkic mythology. Balam is simply the Mayan word for jaguar. Uluka is the mythical owl companion of Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of Wealth and Prosperity. Nemean is a reference to the Nemean Lion, one of the monsters killed by Heracles in Greek mythology. Taurans are from Taurus, latin for bull, and Triton is the herald and son of Poseidon, the greek god of the Sea. Atlantis is obviously based on the metaphorical and fictional city from the works of Plato, combined with popular pseudo-science and New Age nonsense. Vril is an energy from the 1871 science fiction novel The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. And I think that’ll do for one update! Next time I’ll include the rest of the races in Character Creation Continued: More Races! Wapole Languray fucked around with this message at 04:43 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 03:49
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God, when you cover the origins of the aliens, poo poo. That killed my interest in Conspiracy X as soon as I learned them. Also, speaking of Atlanteans... Wapole Languray fucked around with this message at 02:52 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 02:49
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 Character Creation Continued: The Rest of the Races Yep, let’s finish up the rest of the races, this post shouldn’t be quite as massive as the last. Humans Men, The Earth Children, Children of Edom  Humans are human. Currently the dominant and most populous race, though they are not united by any single nation or polity. What can I say, they’re human. There are great human civilizations, and humans living in primitive stone-age tribes, their hallmark is diversity and flexibility. Racial Attributes Don’t apply. Yes, that’s right. Technically, it’s all 0’s across the board, as appropriate for a typical human, but it doesn’t matter. Racial Abilities
Jinn The Elders, The Children of Fire, Chaos Folk, The Others, Moon Children, The People Under the Mound  The Jinn were the first race born into the world, spawned from the dreams of the Elder Gods made of the raw material of creation. They are, by nature, unlike any other living thing. The Jinn have never built empires or nations, and see such aspirations as strange, the ruling of land and people an inherently amusing and curious concept to the Jinn. Likewise, they do not engage in warfare. While individuals may be fierce warriors as ag group they have no interest in conquest or using violence as anything but a last resort. The Jinn are also, in general, a disappearing race. Though no one knows the exact reason why, most can go their entire lives without seeing a Jinn even once, and there may be only one million left active in the world. The reason this is mysterious is because Jinn are not born, and do not die, like any other being. Instead Jinn live through ever repeating cycles of reincarnation. In a single form they have finite lifespans, though the exact length varies from Jinn to Jinn, sometimes as long as a human, sometimes hundreds of years. Upon their death, their essence returns to their Jar, which is hidden somewhere in the world where they are reincarnated some unknown time afterwards as a new being. Reincarnated jinn lack much of their memories, but retain some bits of knowledge and an innate wisdom. Jinn are physically distinct: Their skin is the color of old parchment, or dark of cold, with hair of any imaginable color or many colors together. The skin of a Jinn appears to be covered in tattoos, resembling flowing script in a mysterious language. These are the written form of the murmurings of the Elder Gods that give each Jinn form. It is said that if all the writings could be collected from every Jinn and organized, you would read a complete history of the world from creation to the modern day. All Jin have a single horn upon their head, growing from a random location. No two Jinn have the same horn in the same spot on their head. These horns can be any shape or form. When Jinn speak black smoke issues from their mouths, and a small perpetual flame burns above their heads. THis flame, and the Jinn’s eyes, change color based upon their moods. Blue for happiness, black for hate, red for rage, and green for any other emotions. A Jinn’s shadow is only visible in moonlight, and moves independently of the Jinn themselves. Jinn have no set height or weight, and vary massively from individual to individual. Jinn act very oddly to most beings: They start sentences seemingly in the middle, or trail off in the middle of speech. They are prone to seemingly spontaneous emotional outbursts, communicate through strange gestures and cryptic phrasing. This is due to the different way the Jinni see the world, and while many try to be more coherent to the younger races, others don’t see why they should bother. Jinn are fascinated by any form of creation or art or performance that involves emotional or spiritual expression, regardless of the quality or morality of the performance. Jinn will listen to a virtuoso singer with the same pleasure as a wailing child, or watch an execution as attentively as a play. Attributes By default Jinn have high ratings in MR, WIL and PER, with a -1 to STR, but similar to humans, the default attributes don’t matter much. Racial Abilities
Lemurian Ape-men, the Tree Folk, The Lawgiver’s Children, Lemures  Once rulers of a great empire of their own in another epoch, modern Lemurians have lost all interest in conquest or temporal power. Instead they prefer to seek personal fulfillment over a grand racial destiny. They do not bemoan their current situation, and are more than happy in their current lot. Overall Lemurians are known as emotionally reserved and peaceful, but have several questionable or distasteful cultural practices largely based upon the fact that the Lemurians are by nature selfish and unconcerned about others. The opinions and beliefs of other beings are of no consequence to a Lemurian. This has led to most of the population of the great Ape-men living on their home continent in isolated tree-cities, uncaring of the affairs of the outer world. Not just… uninterested but actively apathetic, violently so. Lemuria is a fortress island, defended by the most advanced technology in the world, and only those that interest the Lemurians are allowed access. Many a group of refugees or exiles have appealed to the Lemurians for asylum only to be turned away without care. The Lemurians blame the other races for the ruination of the world, and they can deal with the consequences themselves. Lemurians are roughtly the same size as a human, standing 1.8m (Approx. 6’) tall and weighing 90-136kg (Approx. 200-300 lbs). Most have brown or black fur, though rarely they are born with golden or white hides. Attributes Lemurians have a massive +3 in both INT and STR, an respectable +1 in dex as well, making them very well suited to a wide range of skills. Their only real weakness is a -2 MR, as the Lemurians are very much not meant to be using magic and prefer technological solutions to their problems. Racial Abilities
Nethermen Brutes, Throwback, the Misshapen  Nethermen are another slave-soldier race created by the Atlanteans, the precursors to the more successful Andaman. They intended to change human soldiers into a race that is strong, hardy, and easy to manipulate. Instead what they got was an entire race of bloodthirsty, violent, psychopaths who were super-resistant to magic and impossible to control. The Nethermen “problem” was solved by loading as many as they could onto a literal Ark and shoving it out to sea to hopefully never be seen again. It didn’t really work, and Nethermen are now found around the world, though in dwindling numbers. This because they have short lifespans, 50-60 years on average if they aren’t killed, which most are. About half the population are also born sterile, and so the race is on a slow decline to extinction. Most nethermen live in primitive nomadic tribes or small fortified villages in the harshest wildernesses of the world, but some do integrate into human society, often as mercenaries, guards, and general “muscle”. Nethermen are basically neanderthals in appearance, looking like bigger, beefier, and slower humans with mottled brown skin. They do have one notable trait: Their eyes are white, with black sclera, looking “reversed” from other races. Now, personality wise Nethermen are possibly the most alien of the various races. They are, to a man, total psychopaths. They lack the ability to feel fear of any sort, and cannot form emotional attachments with others. Nethermen see everything through the lense of their personal interest. All that matters to a Netherman is their own personal needs and desires. This does not mean they are evil though, Nethermen can operate in “normal” society perfectly well and are able to intellectually understand and even imitate the thoughts and emotions they can’t feel. Just… don’t put too much trust in them unless you’re sure that you’ve giving one the best possible offer. Attributes -1 INT, -1 DEX, -2 MR, they are not very bright, a bit sluggish, and terrible and spellcasting, but christ, +3 STR and +2 CON make them wonderfully suited for a big beefy bruiser. Racial Abilities
And that’s it for the races! Next time: Cultural Packages and Professions!
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May 5, 2017 02:50
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