tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61480510375810206762024-02-21T00:07:26.244-05:00Basic RedDaniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-81819352882192872902023-12-20T22:49:00.004-05:002023-12-21T11:09:28.899-05:00BREAK!!ing My Silence<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaX6NfgYP8066K3scUWrK5IUYGPd0bRrzE2tLZir8qswfeP3dW1Wla7kQySRU_E0EoJHcFr7_KD6N76LJZSyuDM8b5g7itn2ro70cXDR_AK9JAuKZeVFLPzV-4nrTMt70JlSgizOwUzX_NLQs-E8LJnlM4n-EfY9PACVA0GLEH_xVVQWU_cJKsG19VbWI/s751/Screenshot%202023-12-20%20215102.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="751" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDaX6NfgYP8066K3scUWrK5IUYGPd0bRrzE2tLZir8qswfeP3dW1Wla7kQySRU_E0EoJHcFr7_KD6N76LJZSyuDM8b5g7itn2ro70cXDR_AK9JAuKZeVFLPzV-4nrTMt70JlSgizOwUzX_NLQs-E8LJnlM4n-EfY9PACVA0GLEH_xVVQWU_cJKsG19VbWI/w400-h169/Screenshot%202023-12-20%20215102.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I
officially inform you in an official capacity that Tenebrate Sage Shijin Goodmorning
is my first <b>BREAK!!</b> character. Officially.</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After I died, they said: "Try doing something you used to do." Okay.</div><p></p><p>Vagal Syncope, apparently. Something that just happens. Perfect storm of exacerbating factors, probably never happen again, here's 14 specialist referrals just in case though. I'm fine now, I won't be fine for a long time, I may never be fine again, I'm fine just being able to walk around at all, I'm better than ever, F): All of the above.</p><p>I forget exactly how far back Reynaldo and I have "known" each other. It'd be the old Google+ days, right? What a blessed little blip. I flatter myself that we admired one another, but I was certainly an adherent of their old blog site. Over time, and as we were able to glimpse only the outlines of one another's ambitions, the shape of his bootprint grew ever-clearer, ever more defined, while my own creative efforts so often resembled sand. Sometimes a sandcastle, sometimes colorful sand art, sometimes a sandstorm, but permanent and impermanent in equal measure. Transient fugue was my only muse. As time passed so too passed much of a chance to become very close, or for me to mooch off of his creative output and his cool friends. You see, I went off the deep end a bit and Rey....well: Rey was busy.<br /><br />One Sunday in August I started to die. My final creative act in Roundworld would have been trying to put together a passable, parseable introductory scenario for <a href="https://breakrpg.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/521212"><b><i>BREAK!!</i></b></a> and that would have been entirely on brand.</p><p>Partly because it was composed in the same way I so often worked: bash it out, smooth it out, and release it into the wild at the exact point I stopped wanting to fiddle with it. I'm not impressed with myself and I'm not an idea hoarder, but I also don't feel I owe anyone anything with what I make. People who respond to other people's shared content, especially fucking blog posts, with "hey here's what I would have done instead" or "hm interesting but have you thought about not doing that?" are folks I'll never understand. I get it when it's my stuff but when I see people trying to sub-blog some truly great creators out there I just......you have a thing you can either use or not, and if not you have a thousand thousand other things to use instead. The entire worldwide web is not a workshop environment, right? So it was that this scenario was the labor of weeks (at that already more meticulous than I usually operated), not years.</p><p>Not a decade, not a decade plus.</p><p><i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> has been in development for almost the entire time I've played or run RPGs. People are always surprised at that. I didn't grow up with this stuff, I grew up in a very Jesusy environment with a crippling fear of getting in trouble that has never fully abated. But while I was messing with Gamma World clones, Rey was running <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i>....When I was building D&D 4th Edition characters at work, Rey was running <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i>....when I made up a new game, or wrote a quarter or so of a dungeon, or dipped in for a max of 3 sessions in some online campaign, or lost my house and had to ditch all my shit, or struggling with whether I could even enjoy the hobby any more or engage with it in the way that felt natural to me without doing some harm or amplifying bad actions and bad actors....while I was trying to figure out what I wanted and who I would be next, the whole time Rey was running <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i></p><p>I say running: I've known so many people who are totally working on this new game bro for ten years or more. I saw one of them recently, and another just now when I was shaving. The kind of person who has their own secret project they cling to that will never be finished (more specifically that they will never finish) that they can never reveal lest it be judged in its "not finished yet" state and shatter that person...This is self-indicting and from a place of love, because there's a lot of reasons someone might have need of a life raft even if it's never thought of like that. One of my favorite Marc Evan Jackson jokes: "I've really got to buckle down and win the lottery."</p><p><i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> is a game I've pined for much longer than I've played or worked on any single game, campaign, scenario, or DIY. I've perhaps spent as much time thinking about the game as Rey has spent running it.<br /></p><p>Again I say: running. <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> does not feel like a game that has been written for ten years in the same way you can spot the long development time in a modern video game or someone's long-suffering first novel. It doesn't feel like it has been constantly torn down and sent back to formula again and again, chasing some new discourse or trend, searching for some new audience or taking on some new message, an abiding concern with novelty expressed not through experimentation but through mimicry. <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> is pretty but it's not a pretty bird, pretty bird, hi there, pretty bird hi there. What <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> feels like is a game that someone's circle of friends has been running constantly and with wild variations for a decade plus, less designed than engineered with stress points shored up where required and room for heat, expansion, shuddering and tremulations, flexibility, and livability accommodated wherever else they had room to run. It both feels and reads like every great game I've been a player in has felt. It's the vibe that a deft DM and a giving table can create together where every roll and role-play serves the other and all the stipulations and edge cases that weren't worth carrying were dropped along the way or transformed through contact like some alien spore.</p><p>It feels like a game where the way people use it was more important than any one idea its creators had. It's dismissive to call it the ultimate house-rules document but it's also intended as one of the higher RPG compliments I can imagine. The game feels (and reads, <i>READS</i>) not like the game you played but the game you remembered playing.</p><p>This isn't a review, per se.</p><p>I use the word "review" because people hear the word critique and think that either I'm offering constructive complaint or that I think a whole lot of myself. I think a lot of reviews in general end up being a bit of a cudgel at worst, and product performance review at best. This ain't Consumer Reports and I ain't Gene Shalit, I don't have the hair for it. Certainly I think that when it comes to a whole game - a whole game system - then a review is only ever going to be describing the elephant as a rope. My recent months with this book have given me some insights but months have only on occasion been years, and I've yet to crack a decade of craft and mill it down to a nutrient-rich slurry. I've generally only "reviewed" things I both thought highly of and felt I had something to say, if only to say that the piece said something to me.</p><p>What <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> says to me more than anything is go play. Uninsistent in an almost unique way from the argle-bargle of a gaming scene I dipped on by and large some time ago, <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> doesn't tell me I've been doing it wrong, or that this is the new way to do things, or that things will never be the same. I read enough house ads from Marvel Comics to be inured to that kind of thing before I ever even got to RPGs. Yet from every corner of the scene at times one can see some paraphrasing of "Not that but this," and its evil-bearded cousin "Never that, only this." <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> isn't here to fix any part of gaming, the gaming hobby, the gaming public, the gaming industry, as either eclipse or in answer to some other publication or mechanic's perceived slight of mere existence. <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> is here, this is what it is, hope you like it, go and play: I don't like message-first dialectics but if this game had an over-arching spirit to convey it is the word "Sure!"</p><p>Details....</p><p><i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> is a game that understands that campaigns aren't forever. It's a game that understands that a character who roams the world for 50 levels getting more buff but making few connections cannot be said to have grown or advanced. It's a game where, if you're spinning too many plates or your d20 rolls under a wardrobe or you're on a bus you can just glance at the next page for your NPC's rolls. It's a game whose book is structured with what you do first, how you do it second, and where/why you do it last, my favorite way to most easily use a game book at the table. No part of its layout is really skimpy but there's always rooms for notes, references, exceptions, addendums, et al. </p><p>Shall I review <u>a system</u>, then? Shall I tell you what you can and can't do? Am I your dad? Am I your dad's boss? No, the only thing I'm boss of is a dog kind of. I can tell you that enemy customization is simple, that character creation is quick, that many of the game's systems are really just the base mechanic being talked about in a different way that alters how things work and how you want them to work. I can tell you that the line between forgiving and fatal fights is thinner than one might suppose, and that the most interesting abilities as always are those not geared toward just piling attack and damage bonuses. I can tell you that while there is an implicit extensive story of epochs and demiurges and Connecticut Yankees and Electric Sheep that it is conveyed not through a hundred pages of homework but by the sopping viscous pervasive theming throughout the book at every stage and every page.</p><p>Envy, pure triple distilled...</p><p>By now I've sat with this game and I've read this game and I've looked at this game and I've showed people this game and I've done my best to sell this game and I've written for this game and I've run this game and I've played this game and I've made plans for this game and now this game is coming, near published, check your local Food Lion, shoppers! There are a lot of things that strike me about it but the main thing most people will react to first is the artwork. Grey Wizard's layout and design are a highlight of the few books I've thumbed through recently to be sure. Their artwork is another matter. I am quite accustomed to ugly artwork if the storytelling in the artwork is good enough. In RPG circles good artwork is flattened and airbrushed into corporate-biting sameyness, and great artwork is considered a luxury. A lot of those games have been cooking for a lot less time than this one, though, and cast a wider net for whomever they could get on budget. The investment of time and effort GW has put into this book is probably steeper than even I'd guess but I think it's all on the page. I have seen so many elfs in games and generally a great drawing might stir me to imagine how they talk, imagine how she fights, imagine his cruelty, and in <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> I can look at any elf just standing around and <i>know</i> how they sit down, how they espy, how they loiter, how they catch themselves from falling.<br /><br />There's a lot of ways to talk about what is and isn't great artwork in games and beyond but as a DM when a player points to a character and says "I want to be them" that's always a plus. In this game, you can point to just about any person and not only might you want to be them, and have an easy guess as to how to do that with little effort, you might as likely also want to be these characters' parents or children.</p><p>Reynaldo can talk at length about this game's many influences but what matters is whether a reader/player/DM can see that stuff in the text and design outside of a fun factoid section under the heading My Influences. If it's not ingrained in every decision and option and line and color and smile and cross-reference and designer note then it's only glorified bibliography, a senior yearbook quote in content's clothing. That burden lies squarely on the shoulders of the visual artists in a project, who also have to convey tone (kids this is library talk for "vibe"), boundaries, life and living, fashion and style, character, performance, humor, and history. There are whole setting splatbooks out there that are worth less than a single image can be, in fact that's probably most of them. Herein I can track an adventuring party's progress through the book, and a wandering merchant, and a series of faction allegiances, and the Pokemon evolution of a skeleton. I can see which Famicom game might have informed this, or what Joe Dante picture influenced that, or which Ghibli picture X was drawn from, but this is not a game of parts whose clashing aesthetics are part of its identity and charm the way the multiverse-hopping Feng Shui might be able to claim, it's a vision as solitary as it is singular.<br /></p><p>People talk about this game like it's Rey's forehead baby and I'm as guilty of that as anyone but without Grey's surgical skills not only would this patient be unrecognizable they might not have survived the long road at all.</p><p>I'm going to eat this fucking book.<br /></p><p>I like the character options presented here. I like messing around with the Battlefield Areas and figuring out fun twists and new combos and ways to further gamify. I like finding opportunities to bolt things on without having to disrupt or ignore a big chunk of the base game. I like how the different subsystems are all treated like different minigames, different phases of play, that are designed to feel different more than they are designed to work differently, the main gripe of most subsystems. I like seeing so many variations on appearance and style from the lifeforms represented in this game. I like being able to look at one big timeline graphic, decide which generational conflict most inspires me, and just dropping my game there. I like that I can drop a fantasy character into the real world as easily as I can do the opposite. I like that the TOC and index are actually pretty good, a personal sticking point with many books not even just most game books.</p><p>I like that the game's magic is ubiquitous so it focuses less on obscure and unattainable spells or enchanted items and more on how magic is used as technology without just saying "yeah everyone has magic," because they don't. I like how many consequences there are to fucking around with ancient and immortal powers or just showing your whole ass and asshole to a NPC for no reason. I like how comprehensive the play guides included are. I like the character sheet being short, as I have grown to actively avoid games with huge character sheets. I like the way the various authorial asides are handled and signposted, representing a concrete idea of how things are intended as well as guidance on modifying things further. I love the emphasis on customization and alteration found throughout the options and advice overall. I love the emphasis on regions rather than general advice on climate and overly specific maps full of awful names from 1 tie-in novel 31 years ago. </p><p>I love that everyone has something interesting to do (or at minimum the option of picking up something interesting to do) no matter what kind of conflict is at play, so the question doesn't become "How can I fix this situation or fight to do the 1 thing I do really well" but, instead, "How do we approach this so that most of us have fun stuff to do?" I like the way fights are abstracted. I like how many abilities and options focus on fellow PCs and NPCs as individuals instead of devoting so much of that time and attention to broad categories or situational importance. I like how operating randomly in this game can give you an interesting outcome that isn't total bugshit gonzo. I like that the experience of running the game feels as much like a choice-making game as playing it does, as opposed to arbitrating other people's choices which I DO like and this DOES still require but the game allows more of a "hidden player" feel to DMing in a way that that even games with explicit DM characters like Ryuutama don't quite click for me. I like how hard it is to just die, and I like how easy it is to just die. I like that some people playing this don't know who the Thundercats are and it's still 100% made for them.</p><p>I'm so fucking old. I mean clearly. But I get to go again. <br /></p><p>I like that the last scenario I ran through had the smoothest moment of everyone acting and thinking together, not just simultaneously but WITH each other and FOR each other....everything flowed so easily and it all worked as both a showcase of about 8 different mechanics as well as showcasing multiple parts of everyone's personalities. It took basically no time to adjudicate and it felt like a magic trick, like all the lions forming Voltron. I have read and played and run so many games that try to engineer that by way of a big list of Things To Do And How To Do Them And Why and instead here is an amateur <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> campaign where everyone just fully knows who they are and fully knows what they can do and that's enough to let them do the rest. Not a fight or even entirely a victory yet weirdly one of my biggest gaming highlights in years. I like how everyone is coming at this from a different reference point - even if one said 'fantasy anime' that conjures up like a million different things without even taking generational divides into account - but people still are on the same page when you say something like "This is one of those times, right?" System alone can't promise any of this entirely on its own but I'll not deny it space on the winners' platform.</p><p>I also like the community that has come together in the Discord (even though Discord servers are a poor open forum and marketplace), with the game's creators good-naturedly rubber-stamping people wildest ambitions, a healthy mix of first-timers, recovering Grognards, dedicated makers, RPG expats, and people just here for The Pretty. Reynaldo and GW have been so forthcoming, giving, and helpful, and there's already enough free supplementary material to fill a couple of Dungeon magazines before the book has even shipped.</p><p>I didn't always have faith y'know. I think that's frankly fair after so many amazing flameouts. I can't believe I get to play it at all. I can't believe I get to play anything now. What a way to close a chapter, what a way to kick off a new game plus of life (I can now play as Luigi)....</p><p>Is this it? Is this the perfect game, the one where no one behaves badly, that repels bad actors, that fixes every little problem you had with your last game, that somehow fixes everything inside of you? That's not real, amigas. That's a fake thing you hurt yourself with. I can say that it's probably a game you wish you'd made? Certainly that's true for me.... But no, nothing's perfect, I just haven't found much that I feel like complaining about in this. Am I too close? Too starry-eyed, too nice and friendly, too romanced by this new toy? It could be the case. I've hardly been some manner of Polyanna in this life but I'm starting to see a way forward for me to even think about playing or running games and not twisting myself up about it and in my crystal ball I foresee this book being a large part in that. Maybe I'm just too happy for that or too happy for the things I can do now....and a little shocked at just how fucking close I came with some of my pastiche paeans over the years; anyone who ever followed along with my bullshit has to know that I'm an easy mark for so much that's here.</p><p>When I last made, when I last worked on The Game, the work I was doing resembled a lot of the work to be found here. That could be frustrating for some but it's...affirming. And it leads me to believe that I'd be quite comfortable moving my letter to <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i> more or less.<br /></p><p>The biggest problem you'll have with this game that I can think of right now is that there is a huge amount of intrinsically Getting It and a huge subsequent amount of buying in that is required to really vibe with this game on its own terms. That's been my biggest issue with a lot of games though, from Perdition to Mothership to Mork Borg to Ryuutama to Lasers & Feelings to Pearce Shea's Monsterparts to CoC to Aberrant to Og to my post-apocalypse DuckTales campaigns. That positions this less as a fun new toy to play with for most than as a gift that a comfortable, dedicated group can give themselves. Mind you, when I've run the grimmest stuff I can think of it still ran minute to minute rather like this. There's plenty of room to dirty this up or make it more conventional or tack on some awful D&D2E psionics so you can still have your fun. I think it'd be doing you and the work put into this book a big disservice but I</p><p>cannot imagine being bothered by whatever you're doing at this point.<br /></p><p>I've had procedures done and I'm on medicine now and I've got a monitoring thing in my home for now. I've got different stuff to do and different stuff to worry about. Closing a chapter and <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i>ing the mold...This website feels a lot emptier than it did, and it felt alone then. But I've done it. So what. So what now. So what's next. Maybe I'll do something I used to do. Maybe I'll do something different. Maybe I'll still do what I've been doing. I'll keep to myself and hope that's the right or better thing to do.<br /></p><p><img alt="" src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAPkAAACMCAYAAAC+oA/iAAAZmklEQVR4Xu1dC7RN1b/+/qT/pRM9MCRJbpy8ijzLI6888ryivBniIs88kkuI/CMnhEIdiuRxFfKoSN6ikkYhz+QRQyQJuTfp3vXN09zmWWftvfY++6yzz15+cwyjc86aa87f/Obv+73mbKx//J/VIE0QEAR8i8A/hOS+3VtZmCCgEBCSiyIIAj5HQEju8w2W5QkCQnLRAUHA5wgIyX2+wbI8QUBILjogCPgcASG5zzdYlicICMlFBwQBnyMgJPf5BsvyBAFfkHzhwoW4dOkSOnbsiBw5csiuCgKCgIFAzEk+fvx4zJw5E4ULF8aGDRtCbs7evXvRqFEj1WfVqlUoUaIE1q1bh65du6q/TZkyBY0bN45og2vWrIljx46he/fuGDJkSETvSmdBIB4QcCW5SSz7gnLmzInKlStj+PDhKFq0aLrWGy3Jz58/j9q1a+PixYtYtmyZIn4kzQ8kdzJ+GoPLly9jxIgR+PDDD8Gfs2fPrjBKSkpC8eLFI4FK+sYpAlGRXK+ZijNt2jTUr18/YhiiJXnEE9pe8DPJr1y5goYNG+Lw4cNpYOKeLVmyBGXKlIkWQnk/iyMQEcknTpyI5s2bB5a0Z88elQefO3cOuXLlwtdffx1xTiwkj15DgnnyuXPnYtSoUWqC2bNngwbt1KlTyhhfuHABtWrVwqxZs6IXQEbI0ghERXKubMuWLYrobDonDuYdnQht/m3w4MEYPXo0zpw5o4xF3bp1MXny5IDhcFLmUKHq4sWLMWnSJKXYbAUKFECfPn3Qpk2bwKaYst5+++2qP8NapiJcl1uebr7P4t+iRYtAD5qQkIDnn38erVq1SqMADJ3HjRuHH3/8Mahc+iW3Nej57ZOwZnHo0CEVpnPdI0eODHQZNmwYFixYEFYdJEtrrwgXFgJRk5wKnZiYqCbr1asXBg4cqDyGUzErFMkZPl69ejWN0KVKlcKKFSvU3yMhuZ6L791yyy34888/Vd7O9vjjj2PChAnqZy3rzTffrLybvdETaiPmhKh+P5j8Y8aMQbt27QKvmnLZxzPl4rNw1tCyZUsVjv/6669qOK6VssyfPx/FihVzVIK2bdti+/btqFixojJK0vyNQNQkp7JQadh0OJ8ekvP9Ll26KM9JLz5jxgy8/PLLatzp06erEDNcktPwlCxZUhkNeq2nnnpKjWOShhFIwYIFAyQnMd59911UqlRJeXLmsjRUppEJRXIaCXpdFrN+++03tGjRQpHPTGNMrLhWFiw1bqxpsCUnJ6tCYiRrCBXN2GVmcXLAgAGp5vK3isvqoiL5kSNH1PEVlZkk2bFjB/LkyZMuT37nnXdi8+bNqXZEG4umTZuqsD1ckp88eRLVqlVLZSD4CyvxH3/8sfp7gwYNUslqks40CLfddptaV7CmZbS/v3PnTtDLmsTt378/li9friKfjz76KNWQNCr79+8P5MmRrCFckpsElyPD64f8EZE8FCxmUS49ntzpnLxHjx5Ys2aNOp5bu3Zt2CSnnE2aNAELg/rIiAVD/iNpzeYmK/s6Vaf1GKGq8wyXGU2w1tCzZ8+A8bMbBNOomMYu3DWEQ3L2obGkPKxJjB079vrR8ut8pVGRnMUpHsGwWGaeuboRxyR0qOq6/Vm4npx7ypB70KBBykiYuX6RIkVUSKzP9d1kjYbk9rFDGQQzldBGJdw1hEPyUFHEdc4B3y8/IpLbj9DcQlh7SOhWXbffeNOKmR5PrmUjUbZu3YrVq1erUJm5LvPnTZs2hZVaREPy9Hhyp4jGbQ3hkJx1ifXr18vNPt9TOu0CPSW5PSwMRXKn3De9OTmr8Tw6yps3L1jd1o2FNI7JFu5xX7gkDycn1+lHODl5JGsIh+TXoW7Lkv9GwBOSa6+RP39+dcec588HDhxQZ8Y8pnIK1ykPjQKPrKKtrpv32Vmlr1evnlqueaav775nVLhuVtfpeZlP26vrply9e/cOVLl5IUXnyLq6HskaDh48GLhtGOzIjxeVeHrw9NNPp/sKsrAmPhHwhOSmgpqw6LNkJ5Jn9Dm5NjScX58dnz17Volj3vTKKJJr+WmgmBLoZk9xzNyb72TLli3Q335OHu4aOFeVKlVw+vTpwLzaiOk/VK9eHSdOnHA9EoxPNRapQyHgCck5Ic+MGSrzAoq+vcZjLZ5bO5GcFzN46YQejTfUMuLGG291TZ06NXDjjWTv3LmzqnTr/yU1o0jOcJ1HdDrvz5cvnyr8Od14IzaUK5wbb+GsgXjv2rVLHWfq24IrV65MdRmGF5V4bNevXz/1T9r1g4Arya8fKNK30lAV8/SNKG8JAhmLgJA8SjyF5FECKK97joCQPEqIheRRAiive46AkDxKiIXkUQIor3uOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOgJDcc4hlAkEgtggIyWOLv8wuCHiOQNQk51c6+Vlifn7XqfGTuWzlypXzbDH8lvfDDz+sPpHML4GyUR793W77Fz4zQhDOU7x4cQwZMsRxuKJFi0J/0ZSfMD5+/DgeeeQR16n5Xnrl1evlfE4tEjlcBZUOrgiE2ksvddMuWEiSL1u2LPANbacVUYn3798fkuT8mubJkyexdOlSV1DS2yExMVF9QbRbt25ZkuSvvvoqZs+ejW+++cZ1iZGQXO+PJrUbySORw1XQDOzAr9A0bNgwqMF0e56BomToUHFBcnPFwSyPmyfPUNTCGCwrevIwxA508ZLkkciRmX3dSOz2PDNljWQuX5H8u+++Q/78+UHPki1bNvTv3199A5zNJB1/X716NQYPHqy+W56QkICXXnoJjRo1SoUdPT+/ZW6GraVLl8azzz6rvmHO9uSTT+Lee+9V3zM3Q+NwSU7jRLn/+OMPfP755+p75fx2uh7fyXjZ52F6sGPHDhw5cgQ5c+ZU4Xn9+vWVfGZfjsVvg2/YsEE9C4UB3+OaJk+erL41XqRIEfWtd85lNq5z/fr1gT9xbkY0xJLfPidWly9fRuXKlTF37ly1Prsc/KZ59+7d1ffbKT9/7tu3bxo9dsOKL3CvRo8erWTmt9n5s8aCz7nn+tvtxYoVw5w5c3Du3LlUe29+t57vaMeiBdLPuS5GiJs3b1aPqlevjpkzZwa+Oa/76/ffe+89PPjgg+rP3OOdO3eq/XAbx05SEz89NuWYMWMGJkyYgObNm6fCju+TC5SNc5l76eQ0k5OTMWnSpEBfRl5lypQJjEkMNce6dOkC9nea176BYefkoTw5F0Hw2rZtCwI6cuRIbNmyBQULFkxFcpKXeSkVoE2bNliwYIF6j8rPDTQbrTcXQtJt375djV2rVq1A7k/ST5kyBbVr1043yQnS66+/rgzK/PnzFbm0QoRD8k2bNgXef+WVV5TikvR58uQJSnI3DKgY/PfWW2/hpptuQosWLVC2bFlFensLFq5XqVJFKd4vv/yCxo0bK0LQ6NpJ/sADD6BVq1YqTGbtpF27dpg2bVoqcnJOvhcKK+5Phw4dkJSUhGbNmgX2lZhSljfffFONu3LlSuTNmxe9e/dWKRyJxubmqe3PaeBpnIk3GzGiEVy0aFEajOzv8nf2pzFzGyccknN9L7zwAgoVKqQMpdnse/nEE08oZ0hc7HyiIaYOESvWr4g510dsubbp06fjtddewxtvvAHqPp+TP7ruk2bhxh8yhOS0jCbAXBwJSAVz8qxffvllwDPxvYceeigNyUn+s2fPKmXVhKPH3b17twKoadOmyhPTQ0XjybWiEBPmhbT4JHs4JL/nnnswfPjwAJwVKlRQ6yWhgnlyvbnBMOB7mhyaYJ988gnWrl0bNslJWBoaNspDjDSOZkTBuahcNHJsfHbXXXcpJTKb9uTBsOIcuXLlUhGEbn369MHvv/+ujDLf/+KLL/D++++rx8eOHcO2bdsUySIlucbPdAwcj+R1KlhSD5csWaIcie7Hny9duqSiiFDjhENyE2v7BvH9Dz74IOCNtbOiAzx//ryaX8tsGh89DvWRf6cRdjKEpo55TnJ7dT0Y6SgIPce3336riN2+fXvl2amE9rZu3ToVctIzNmnSBM8884yKAMaNG6cKfQRHG5b0ktwu94svvogffvghoJhu67JX1zt16oSSJUuqTQkVrofCIJRi2TEKp/BmGlm7Jx86dKiKXMqXL69CTXphuzfShiYUVmbUpWWk5+H+kEQkJvf6hhtuUFECyV2qVKnAciLx5Fwz94l6YTYaJv7dHjKbxKbOMGWgMQtnnHBIHuwkg7LZ379y5YpKqSgHm0lyu3Hnc4b6Fy5cUProROgsS3IKv2fPHhW60cJmz55dga49j944AkLCUFEYstOD07vnzp1bEZGhps77M4rkHJ/5qfY+XpE8FAaZSXLKwaM9KjxPPxg5LVy4ECVKlEhFIKeoxsTKieQMPXm0qesQ3M+NGzeqPf/0009VJMZ8MlJPHoyczPOD5af0iJyPslStWlWF6uGME2uS9+jRA8QtrkhOolKpCDobF8D8w8kC8zktPgsWLORwoQx3nnvuOVW0Y47HfEhbTJ2bRFJ4s5PYLOY5hah2Y5KecN0Ng8wiuT1kJo5meGiy3InkJlZu4bo9DWDhkQZae8FIPHmk4TrXwaiCHvzQoUPKwLD+E8449nDbqfDm5skzKlyvW7euMlRmYTRLenKG4KzgsrjAjWWe1rp1a7z99tuoUaNGKu/BXwgqi3qjRo0KVL11vkiy6JZeT66LSY8++migWKRzJFp6Xc1knmovdFCx01N4c8MgEpKzOs4Qe82aNaqgc+LECRUCmooXLFwnyevUqaOMJvto49uvXz9138BO8lBY6cIbi5jEkorN9ErXFhh2cr/mzZunajGseTBy0PcGmOYwpyfGjNTszf6cBoYRIOsMbCwY8n2nwhuf69Mae/XebRzq6P3336/k4n0QynHrrbcGUhA71na501N4I2ZMA1nfoHEyC29cL+siHNeuj4zAKlWqpJ7ZW4YU3tzCWk6qb8TxOGjMmDHKGzP/I5E6d+6cRjD+wSxUsFLPZj+Si8aT08jceOONgSM0RhTMl3WjbCwWsWZAK8qfzYjBfoRGg6SLWKFy8lAYREJyykl5v/rqK1VBf+yxx8ImOd9lAYh1D6YoXCOVnnUPe9OFs1BY0Tgyx+e+MvIaMWJE4HiMERuJzuIhf+ZRknk8RMNHz/7XX3/h4MGDaea3P2d0x5MXnZfzCI2VZ6d6gh7MKUpxG4dGlLrJo74CBQqAKcHRo0cjIrl5hMb0kySl3jidVrFIaB638bRCH/1xHfYjNPbV+sj0lZjQSKeb5I4sjOM/ZrVLPFkZynjHStd3GLLb6w1ZGXe7bFyHLlKzOs9UN5wr0GF78ngCIxxZ411xw1ljRvWJZ6yYwvDOwdatWwPn8hmFS2aOw8iHR8gM2Ul03jX4/vvvA4XNULIIyYP8jzWZuYFZfa54JjlDbOb5rPuYt8eyOuZOXtxMefStQaYRbu26JbkbMPJcEPALAkJyv+ykrEMQCIKAkFxUQxDwOQJCcp9vsCxPEBCSiw4IAj5HQEju8w2W5QkCQnLRAUHA5wgIyX2+wbI8QUBILjogCPgcASG5zzdYlicICMlFBwQBnyMgJPf5BsvyBAEhueiAIOBzBITkPt9gWZ4gICQXHRAEfI6AkNznGyzLEwSE5KIDgoDPERCS+3yDZXmCgJBcdEAQ8DkCQnKfb7AsTxAQkosOCAI+R0BI7vMNluUJAkJy0QFBwOcICMl9vsGyPEFASC46IAj4HAEhuc83WJYnCAjJRQcEAZ8jICT3+QbL8gQBIbnogCDgcwSE5D7fYFmeICAkFx0QBHyOgJDc5xssyxMEhOSiA4KAzxEQkvt8g2V5goCQXHRAEPA5AkJyn2+wLE8QEJKLDggCPkdASO7zDZblCQJCctEBQcDnCAjJs9gGX758Gb169cLWrVtx5coVJCQkYOjQoWjTpk0aSRs2bIj9+/djw4YNKFy4cOD53r170ahRI+TPnx+bN29Gjhw5As+KFi2KWrVqYdasWYG/JScnY8qUKbh48aLqW7duXSQlJSFnzpyqD99xat27d0fTpk3VXPx5yJAhsUHzf38HknoA+74ErvwB5EwAnhwINOh4TR72mfoM8M2m4H3+1Rn4djPQfijQuOu1d+eMAT56G/jXBxYYpYHW/+68zu4vAbWeSHl+f3Xgv6x3Du+2/tssdf9/WrjWfhJo9xxwg7U3evx/5gJm7Uz5m9lGWX337bg2ZoQoC8kjBMzL7iQ1iXv06FG0bdsWJUuWxJw5c7Bv3z5F/IEDLcX9u2ki81c7wcxnXbp0wfDhw4OSfPz48Zg5cybKly+Pli1bYseOHVi2bBnuvvturF27NkDyxMREdO5skcBopUqVQvbs2WNL8j+vAIMaAGeOAzVbAXeXANbMA348aBG1m0VYi0i6z6kjQPm6QOKDwIb3gZPfAw2tNXV6PmVVmuQk26vrgFvypfzdieSFigH12qdWh/urAQWKOJO81ENAZUtOtk1LgEPfAHVaA93GXhufz/pNAR5qdG3ci78CXcun/K4NR+pZXX8TkrtClHkdpk+fjgkTJmDUqFHo2PGaF6pSpYrysrt3W17h7zZy5EjMnz8fJUqUwOnTp7F9+/bAM5PkJOHy5ctVPzbTk588eRLVqlVDxYoVsWjRolRjv/POO6CHr127dqp37GjouWLmyd97FXjPIobd+/aoAly+ZBFoV4oXJlFb9rX+9bu2hGctMp2wjMHML4CEW66RnD3K1QKGJKf0dSJ5KMI5eXLTmHDMbhVSxn7T8tB6/JtvBe60ooBR1/YCC18Blr0O0PAkWmRndBBhE5JHCJiX3Tt16qTCa4bgZoj92Wef4fjx42jSpAly5bI222qlS5dWYXedOnUwYMCAACH5TBOPnnnp0qW47777sGLFijQkX7x4sQqx6c1btbK84N/t2LFj2LZtG8qWLQt6cKcQX/eNOcnHWN50zzZg3r7UYS7D8p+OAdX/A5jUKyUMT/4qhcy6rbRIPM8KsXWYrT35I48DGy1PP8AiV6X63pC8zyPAb7+kGCFN8oqPAjutCEIbHco5yJqfMp89Bdxxj5DcSwJmxtg1a9YECXb48OGQ061evRo9e/YEPT89bbly5RThp06dqt4ziZc7d+5U0YFJWB2qT5w4Ec2bNw86p1NOzhoAawExJznJcuZHYKEVegdrwfqs/2+LUFb+rb2sJjkNxn9WBG78N2CaZRzeHeeek+crZOX8G1MkcPPkH88F3n7hWvitSU6jMvFpoLn1r7WVmn33OTC6bYoRmv8ycI9VDxBPnhlU9G6OcEnOfP3AgQMqf2br378/Vq1apX7PkydPGuKxkHbq1Cls3LhRhea68BYJye05OY0H6we+JDkNxualwGuDrLy7A6zCQ1qS23Pym3IDVZsGJ7ldbe68F3jeqh0w7zfTgblWWsE8PGm1FcoPA7YsTynGtb9PcnLvqJd5I4cTrrM4V6FCBVy9ejWNYGPGjEG7du3SEG/Xrl1o1qwZ6tWrhzVr1gRIft2E60ndU0L6cMN1HRUwFdhn5eulHk4J983qeqQ5uS687bXG27YqdQ3BJPnR71Kii2FzLKL3BKpZhoPFOTM6iFAlJSePEDAvu+vCmz1Hpof/+eefVeGNR12TJ09WeXi+fH9Xfy2hWLC74447VO7t5F2HDRuGBQsWKPG1J9eFt+rVq6sqvm7aw8dV4e0pywM+aoW2upk5b6SFN03yX88AvarCsqgpo0ZDcp0SsNLf2zpe++N/gCkbUvJtk+SFE4GnrOr/rfkBngaMmA+UrCwk95J4mTk2vTQJ+NNPP6Fr164oUqRImiM0hshnzpwJhOpaPk1i5smXLl1Kc6ylI4ALFy6kOidnlZ6V9KpVq6Jx48bpPkKrUaOGCt/N1qBBA5U+eNpImr41gfMWIRlaszgV6gitahOrSm1VtnUfpyM0M7/X1fuMIjnH0bUAFvh6Wrm2vXo//dmUwl8hK6Rn2M4mntxTNcrUwc+ePYvBgwerKjtDcvMyzM6dO9VZNi/GjB1rhXBGW7dunTIMHTp0QOvWrR3PrleuXIm+ffumuQzD6IBn5byIk97LME4gsU6gj+48BZEe9zUWqqxjRHrdaC/D2It4/eukeNWM8OQaCH18RxLT4JiXbXTBzTzyE5J7qkIyuCAQ1whITh7X2yfCCwLuCAjJ3TGSHoJAXCMgJI/r7RPhBQF3BITk7hhJD0EgrhEQksf19onwgoA7AkJyd4ykhyAQ1wgIyeN6+0R4QcAdASG5O0bSQxCIawSE5HG9fSK8IOCOgJDcHSPpIQjENQJC8rjePhFeEHBHQEjujpH0EATiGgEheVxvnwgvCLgjICR3x0h6CAJxjYCQPK63T4QXBNwREJK7YyQ9BIG4RkBIHtfbJ8ILAu4ICMndMZIegkBcIyAkj+vtE+EFAXcEhOTuGEkPQSCuERCSx/X2ifCCgDsCQnJ3jKSHIBDXCPw/JpapiUTxQm8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=" /> </p><p>Fuck it. <br /></p><p>If I'm gonna carry that weight I may as well <a href="https://breakrpg.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/521212">have a <i><b>BREAK!!</b></i></a> now and then.<br /></p>Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-52860730668446889302021-12-03T21:33:00.000-05:002021-12-03T21:33:01.439-05:00<br /><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47syBCrXWoo/VBZgm6hMXVI/AAAAAAAABgI/5k4qkxgPE0ATFLJ02sgQH_LCOY3CmjvWQCPcBGAYYCw/s400/the_dark1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="400" height="170" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47syBCrXWoo/VBZgm6hMXVI/AAAAAAAABgI/5k4qkxgPE0ATFLJ02sgQH_LCOY3CmjvWQCPcBGAYYCw/w400-h170/the_dark1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-33936799129020182372020-10-09T22:27:00.001-04:002020-10-09T22:27:27.783-04:00Permissions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is the license for anyone wishing to use, reuse, rewrite, share, or publish anything on this site.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I retain full and exclusive possession of all Basic Red RPG, Adder Entertainment, and Dungeon Mix articles that are found on their respective pages to the right (in desktop mode; if you're not sure what's what in mobile mode maybe wait until you get to a laptop or console). I do not grant blanket permission to use these in any form other than linking the original articles. However, feel free to ask.<br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The remainder of the articles on this site are to be considered the Available Material. <br />
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Anyone wishing to include any of this Available Material or its derivatives in a pay-what-you-want or paid published product may do so with permission if they provide the following: credit, a link to this site, a copy, and compensation ($1 minimum for a PWYW product, $10 for zines/compilations, inclusion in larger or more expensive/expansive works must be negotiated case by case).</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Compensation can be paid using the PayPal button to the right (again, on desktop); just comment what it pertains to at the time you make the transaction, please. <br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">A "copy" here means either a PDF or a code for a free POD copy or something like that. If the only method of publication is physical then WEIRD but okay, please still send me a copy. I may also decide to take a physical copy in lieu of other compensation if we can work it out between us.... <br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If there is ever some confusion as to what constitutes the Available Material you must reach out beforehand, not plow ahead and ask forgiveness later.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I'm no lawyer so some changes may occur to this license from time to time, but I will honor good faith attempts to abide by it; screenshot this page when you use the Available Material if you want to be able to shut my ass up later.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Within the bounds outlined above, this stuff is yours now. Thanks. <br /></div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-69514562212521972522020-06-02T21:24:00.002-04:002020-06-02T21:24:58.354-04:00Sunsetting This Place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I started this as sort of an R&D space and ready source document for games I was running using Basic and Expert over Skype. In time I started reading more, writing more, playing and running more, and as I started sharing things on G+ I started kind of writing to a specific audience and voice. I was never as active on Hangouts as I wanted to be but being in those wild world-hopping games that grew out of Hangouts cross-play meant that I started to prioritize different things in what I designed. I think most of this was innocuous enough and I don't really regret the people I met and the opportunities the Work afforded me. But it's a pattern I'd fallen into before, where unconsciously I was holding myself to an impossible standard of a character. Holding my potential future against my present, and holding some perception of how I thought people thought of me against how I was actually feeling at any given time.<br />
<br />
When I had to quit my job and lose my house and move and lose my autonomy it caused a lot of pain and I handled it so badly that I damaged pretty much every relationship over it. Like when my grandfather died I suddenly had this unhealthy drive to make the time I spent making and enjoying my pastimes "count," "matter." This sucked a lot of the joy out of it and made it harder than ever to persevere to finish something, which meant I'd never really achieve a goal I didn't fully realize that I'd set for myself.<br />
<br />
In the, what, five or six years? since then I've tried to rally and get back to recapturing the feeling of the Work from before I let things sour. There have been times when I've rallied, maybe even made some decent stuff. But it's not coming from a place of heart, discipline, or inspiration. As I've played less, run less, read less, bought less, as the social webbing I took part in for this hobby disintegrated for one reason or another, I have gotten myself pretty thoroughly removed from everything.<br />
<br />
It's been rewarding to get into this hobby right before it was set to explode into a global phenomenon eclipsing even the early 80s, with more diverse creators, products, and viewpoints than ever. I can only imagine what it must be like for those of you who were into this shit since you were young. But I don't think my voice has value in this conversation. I won't claim a place in that transformation.<br />
<br />
You could argue that I "left" years ago, to be sure, so yes I do feel stupid writing this now. I'm not walking away entirely, or forever, and in fact I'm actively creating material and running a game on a consistent basis for the first time in about a century. But without wishing to annoy anyone reading this, this just doesn't entirely feel like me any more. I'll be taking the best of it with me - or at least, the stuff I care about most. The Adder Entertainment and Dungeon Mix articles may find a place if I start a new blog, probably on a different platform. A few articles might go away. Someone else will have to host the linklist I collected for the FRACAs, probably someone from the Discord. This place won't go anywhere, though. Not until Google takes it down. I'll put the rest of it under one of the CC licenses which I'll post here next, and finally. I'll also organize and streamline this site a little whenever I get drunk.<br />
<br />
Comments won't do much good but you can shoot me an email, my address to the right doesn't show up in mobile mode but that's....good. <a href="https://discord.gg/674BKfj">This</a> should be the place on Discord I hang out in. Questions, comments, concerns, requests, hit me up. And if I have a new place to show off I'll mention it here.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-61853553082136449802019-09-13T21:37:00.001-04:002019-09-13T21:37:18.356-04:00Tossers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!</b></i><br />
<br />
So Tossers are also called Hucksters, Fastballers, Throwmeos, and Motherchuckers. And they are in all respects FIGHTERS with one step better HD than normal in your game. In all other respects they are Fighters.<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
EXCEPT</h2>
<br />
They are proficient with no conventional weapons. They are proficient exclusively in found, hurled weapons, which they can hurl their Strength-plus-Level in feet. This includes enemies. This includes fellow PCs.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>When throwing an unattended object..... </b></span></span><br />
<br />
Treat it as a 1d3 item and use the higher of your Strength or Dex bonus to determine a hit. If it isn't something you could conceivably shove with your same Strength score, like a wall or an obelisk, you can't throw it.<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>When throwing an enemy....... </b></span></span><br />
<br />
You may attempt an unarmed attack roll plus your Strength bonus (if any) to grab an enemy on a hit. You can elect to keep the enemy grappled/held as per normal rules or you may throw them as part of the same action. At 1st level you may hurl any enemy with 1HD or less. At 2nd you may hurl any enemy 2HD or less, and so on, up to 9HD. Enemies of roughly humanoid/demihuman size and shape with more than 9HD may also be hurled as long as 1) their total HD is lower than your level and 2) they get a saving throw vs Paralyze/Petrify to land safely.<br />
<br />
Enemies who take fall damage this way are treated to have fallen an additional 20'. An enemy making contact with a solid object take 1d8 damage plus your Strength bonus (and if the solid object is like spikes or a trap or on fire they may suffer other effects).<br />
<br />
An enemy colliding with one or more enemies means you roll 1d10 damage plus your Strength bonus, and then the DM distributes the damage among the victims as she sees fit.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>When throwing a Party Member.......</b></span></span><br />
<br />
You may use the higher attack value between you and the thrown PC, and the higher damage between the two of you, and the PC gets a Death save to land safely. This effectively uses the thrown PC's turn in concert with yours so ask for consent and Throw Responsibly(tm). If the PC gets any bonus to a successful hit like Sneak Attack or a magic weapon effect it can go off thanks to your roll. This by definition moves the thrown PC. You cannot throw a PC with more HD than you.<br />
<br />
Summing up the main rules of this class are:<br />
No Weapons<br />
Throw anything you can move normally through Strength<br />
Throw any enemy or PC with HD equal to/less than yours<br />
Throw high level enemies if they are basically people of a lower level than you who fail their save<br />
Throwing distance is your Strength+Level in feet.<br />
<br />
Tossers may wield no magic weapons unless they are specifically meant to be thrown, like Thor's hammer, and may only wear magic rings and gloves that improve their throwing power or accuracy. Also potions and uh....capes. Magic capes.<br />
<br />
At level 9 they do not establish a kingdom or attract a bunch of acolytes but they become proficient in all weapons. They also become famous for throwing things, and can earn lots of money throwing things for people for fun and show, and signing autographs.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-30028036446866775522019-05-06T22:17:00.002-04:002021-04-19T21:35:13.834-04:00Request Line: Doomseer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="comment-header">
<cite class="user"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/17254693753623240219" rel="nofollow">M-and-D</a></cite><i><span class="icon user "></span><span class="datetime secondary-text"><a href="http://basicredrpg.blogspot.com/p/reader-prompts-page.html?showComment=1555947198749#c1219953201378964924" rel="nofollow">April 22, 2019 at 11:33 AM</a></span></i></div>
<i>Doom Slayer class. Rip and Tear the forces of hell </i></blockquote>
So am I right that this is just the space marine from Doom? Because that's what Google thinks. That's just a Fighter or maybe a Paladin with a different equipment list though, I think. It's hard to extrapolate when we get less about this cat than we got about Master Chief. How about<br />
<br />
So an early Dying Earth story concerns this woman created in a pod by a science wizard but he makes her wrong. She thinks beautiful and good things are vile and monstrous and responds to everything with hate and violence. Her perceptions aren't inverted, it's more like the scale just shifted drastically: the truly abominable still registers as horrible, but in fact seems EXTRA horrible. By the end of her initial story she has come to understand that the world is not as she experiences it, what she has believed from birth is a lie, and she sets herself a path to strive for goodness and beauty and hope in a world where she experiences none of these. She just has to follow an inner compass that knows these things exists but there's no North, no needle, so she has to spin wildly and try to rely on trial and error and degree of revulsion and...<br />
<br />
actually she shows up again immediately and gets fixed. By a guy who turns pretty and then they love each other. My. How interesting, Jack. Good write job.<br />
<br />
How about this:<br />
<br />
You can choose to level as a dwarf instead of a fighter. If you do, then you're in hell. Everywhere you look, everyone you see, carries the taint of the infernal wrack. The DM has to describe anything you ask them to in diabolical terms. This puts you on high alert: you are only surprised on a 1/6, and never surprised by demons or devils. Moreover, a true devil/demon can never hide itself from you, because they stand out as truly grotesque things. Illusions, charms, invisibility, polymorph, whatever would hide a hellish influence from another person falls away for you. These creatures shine out like a beacon. And when you see them, they KNOW you see them, magically, and make a Morale check.<br />
<br />
It's a pretty simple mod that can add a lot of flavor and be played a few different ways, while giving you some mechanical advantages that will mostly play off later in the game when your crew goes a-horror-hunting.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-38353879964691301942019-04-08T18:14:00.001-04:002019-04-08T18:14:29.106-04:00Evolutionists- I'll Make A Man Out Of You<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If you have clerics then use those numbers. If you have druids even better, use those numbers and use these guys instead. You can't use weapons and armor. <br />
<br />
You have three abilities.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>I Choose You</b></span></span><br />
<br />
You can transform any animal with less than 1HD into a humanoid who acts/saves as a Fighter of half your level (min 1) with 10HP, whose unarmed strikes deal 1d8 damage. You can only have one such effect active at a time and the transformation only lasts until they defeat the enemy you summoned them to fight - not "the guards" but "Greg the guard" - or until they are reduced to 0HP or you revert them to their animal form at will. There's no limit to how many times you can use this per day. At level 6 you can do this with creatures who have 1HD and all creatures retain any special abilities that it would make sense for them to have, like echolocation for bats or heat detection for snakes.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Rock, Paper, Scissors</b></span></span><br />
<br />
You have a number of Primal Forces equal to your level, choosing which new ability you gain each level. These may be taken multiple times. On your action you may invest one of these Primal Forces in an animal or animal-humanoid you have created. These are refreshed after a night of snoring and farting. You can also regain one Primal Force through the expenditure of Amber.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<b>Healthy</b>- Target gains 1d8 to their HP even if this takes them above their starting HP.<br />
<b>Ferocious</b>- Target's unarmed attacks deal +1 damage and are considered magical.<br />
<b>Gentle</b>- Target's unarmed damage uses 1d12 but only does non-lethal/stunning damage.<br />
<b>Arms</b>- They already have arms but now they can have either a big fuckoff melee weapon that reaches 15' away or a powerful shortbow with unlimited ammo; all weapons and ammo vanish when the animal reverts.<br />
<b>Surprise</b>- An animal's target suffers from the effects of Confusion until it is reverted.<br />
Cautious- This can be activated when the Evolutionist or one of their animals would be hit, even from surprise: the animal transforms and becomes the target of the attack.<br />
<b>Will</b>- The animal gains a mind of its own, along with the capacity for speech. It is totally obedient.<br />
<b>Move It</b>- The humanoid gains any special movement the animal possessed, like burrowing or flight<br />
<b>Feast</b>- The humanoid kills itself but stays at its big size, providing delicious rations for a whole party.<br />
<b>Defense</b>- NOTE: ONLY WORKS WITH TURTLES. The humanoid's head and arms collapse into its chest. It gains +4AC, blindsight, and its kicks become magic.</blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Power of Nature</b></span></span><br />
<br />
You can carry up to your Dexterity score in small animals on your person. If you would take damage from a weapon attack you can say that one of your animals stunted the blow, subtracting the dead thing's HP from the damage you would take. In addition, you can use any animal as a weapon. Snakes become nunchuks, hedgehogs become shuriken, alligators become greatclubs. They deal damage according to the weapon they are emulating but they suffer the same amount of damage. Once they're dead they no longer function as a weapon. You can invest a Primal Force in these animals in order to heal them and send them on their way.<br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: #990000;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: #990000;"><b>Toad Style</b></span></span><br />
<br />
At level 9 you gain the ability to turn a willing or terrified humanoid into an animal of 1HD or less and carry them with you. If they take damage from any source they instead revert to their pre-animal state.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-85281461108333011152019-03-26T18:33:00.000-04:002020-07-21T15:05:08.866-04:00Choose-Your-Own-Houserule Fighters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hAdpUoY_r38/XJqoe49j-rI/AAAAAAAAEAI/iJy_f_vbCJ0J7RUsKYtAkBD14qFwdqP8ACLcBGAs/s1600/Compo.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1049" data-original-width="761" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hAdpUoY_r38/XJqoe49j-rI/AAAAAAAAEAI/iJy_f_vbCJ0J7RUsKYtAkBD14qFwdqP8ACLcBGAs/s400/Compo.webp" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Balance is for playground equipment</td></tr>
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Some of these rules are from other games, some are from other bloggers....I'd like to credit these but I don't usually keep track, frankly. Please tag yourself or the original author if I miss a citation. Fighters can use any armor, any weapons, and they usually have the highest HD in the game; I'd give them d8s. Additionally:<br />
<br />
1) Fighters have 10% chance each level of attracting a Great Companion, a once-in-a-lifetime partner. There is a 25% chance this is a monstrous mount like an owlbear, 25% chance this is a normal mount of unusual intelligence skill and heartiness, 25% chance it's some sort of like-hearted fellow warrior, and 25% chance it's something buckwild like a monstrous warrior or the ghost of their ancestor or an intelligent sword. Once this Companion is destroyed you don't get another one so handle with care. (Encounter Critical/No Signal! clued me into this)<br />
<br />
2) Fighters add their level +1 for to-hit rolls for attacks, grapples, etc. (This may be a lot of things but I namecheck LotFP)<br />
<br />
3) They gain +1 Saves whenever they defeat a warrior with higher HD in single combat. It doesn't even have to be lethal combat, it can be an organized sporting match. (All me, and should be easier to manage and faster to boot opposed to just remembering to add +2 every three levels or so; easier to modify, too).<br />
<br />
Finally, Fighters also get to choose three of the following at first level. Choose or be metal and roll. (An idea stolen from Telecanter)<br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Veteran Edges</b>- Every level they gain a <a href="https://basicredrpg.blogspot.com/2013/06/veteran-edges-fighter-leveling-options.html">Veteran Edge</a>, which automatically improves five levels later. (Me)</li>
<li><b>Swords AND Shields Shall Be Splintered</b>- A Fighter can sacrifice their shield to avoid damage when hit, or can sacrifice their own weapon to inflict damage when they've missed. (Trollsmyth, modified)</li>
<li><b>Changing Stances</b>- A Fighter can Press (+2 to hit/-4 AC) or Fight Defensively (+2 AC/-4 to hit) (modeled from LotFP)</li>
<li><b>Three Strikes</b>- A Fighter dropping to 0HP can save each round against death. 3 failed saves and they're down forever. Further or ongoing injury automatically counts as a strike. A Fighter can elect to keep fighting at 0HP but incurs an immediate strike. (5e style, modified)</li>
<li><b>Fireballers</b>- At level 5+ you roll 1d20 for any weapon's damage die. (I know who I first saw mention this but I associate this more as a common FLAILSNAILS hack)</li>
<li><b>Deed Die</b>- At level 1 it's a d4, and it increases every odd level until you're rolling a d20 at level 11; when you want to describe some daring combat maneuver or do something not-smitey in combat then you can roll that Deed Die and on a 4+ you're successful; for every multiple of 4 you succeed by you get an added situational bonus. (DCC, modified)</li>
<li><b>Two Weapon Fighting</b>- Make one attack roll with no offhand penalties. On a hit you roll each weapon's damage and the highest damage before applying bonuses takes effect, if both weapons do the same damage then both weapon's damage is applied. On a crit both weapons' damage is doubled. (Of Dice And Djinn)</li>
<li><b>Title</b>- You gain lands, a title, and a small castle immediately, conferred by some lord you currently serve or have aided, and can engage in domain-level activities. (I mean they can do all this anyway whenever they have the money, this just skips a step)</li>
<li><b>Die With Your Boots On</b>- A Fighter is never encumbered by nor do they suffer penalties to sneaking or rest for armor they wear or weapons they carry. (Me? I can't be the only guy for this one.)</li>
<li><b>Field Commander</b>- A Fighter can, once per fight, use their action to allow another character to make an additional action. They gain additional uses per-fight equal to their HD. (This was inspired by Warlord classes and builds)</li>
<li><b>Critical Shift</b>- For any roll a Fighter may declare they are shifting their critical range. They can alter their range for a critical hit up to their # of HD, but their range for critical miss increases by the same range. (Too many to name I think)</li>
<li><b>Horde</b>- At level 9 a Fighter attracts a horde of warriors to their side numbering 10,000. (I think the Barbarian from Unearthed Arcana could do this)</li>
</ol>
</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-66460115246298389852019-03-20T21:55:00.004-04:002019-03-20T21:56:43.192-04:00Surf Rockers - Why Stop At Bards?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f-koQ14R130/XJLuwM4qxtI/AAAAAAAAD_c/qLHBRwtG-1UB3P6BMbppZFZA-SBEqlSOACLcBGAs/s1600/ventures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="768" height="318" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f-koQ14R130/XJLuwM4qxtI/AAAAAAAAD_c/qLHBRwtG-1UB3P6BMbppZFZA-SBEqlSOACLcBGAs/s400/ventures.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think Mel Taylor's the one who looks like he's from Lazy Town.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
HD, Advance, Saves, Attack, etc as a Cleric. No spells, no turn undead. No weapons or armor but your instruments can double as clubs. You can wear any cosmetic magic item or play magic instruments.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Shoot The Curl</b></span></span><br />
<br />
If you are rolling simple/phase initiative then the Surf Rockers roll a separate initiative. If you are running individual initiative then the Surf Rockers can instead Save vs. Spells, with a success meaning you go first and a failure just being your unmodifiable initiative roll. The name of the game is trying to go first, as you'll see below.<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>One Two Three Four</b></span></span><br />
<br />
Surf Rockers number at minimum a drummer, a guitarist, a bassist, and can include horns, keyboards, or 1-7 additional guitars. For simplicity's sake you are a four-person combo. You make decisions and investigate a mystery as a group, and if you are attacked then what hurts one of you hurts the band. Metaphorically. But I mean your hit points reduce. You almost never attack during normal combat but you can Waylay outside of combat if you have surprise on an enemy.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Tempo Tantrum</b></span></span><br />
<br />
During a fight you can Rock A Gig to play gnarly surf music. This doesn't require spell components or slots or anything. It's just A) all you can do, and B) it requires the PLAYER to make surf music sounds with their mouth the entire time. Bowwdirdridwowdow gowwwgagiggabow bow duffe dududanan maaa ba gigga din dow.<br />
<br />
While doing this and distracting all the other players, the Surf Rockers' player must pay close attention.<br />
<br />
Write down everything that happens in a round that occurs AFTER/CONCURRENT TO the Surf Rocker's position in initiative. Every attack, movement, damage, spell, save, etc that other players and NPCs and monsters and shit make. KEEP MOUTH ROCKING or the effect wears off.<br />
<br />
Once a round is finished, Surf Rockers can shut the hell up. They can now dictate the rhythm of the combat itself, determining what order everything happened/the order everything is resolved. Doing fuck all and being a hugggge target and BOWW GIGGA DOW DOW the whole time lets you, effectively, role play a character whose class is "Initiative."<br />
<br />
Surf Rockers can Rock a Gig a number of times per day equal to their level.<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Let's Split Up Gang</b></span></span><br />
<br />
Surf Rockers who have Rocked a Gig are vulnerable and decidedly the center of attention. They double their movement and gain a Charisma bonus to hiding (their actual +1 or whatever from Charisma for d6, or their full Charisma score for d100) for the rest of combat.<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Show Must Go On</b></span></span><br />
<br />
Surf Rockers add their level to all saving throws during a combat.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-54532632102182781472019-03-18T22:40:00.001-04:002019-03-18T22:40:08.824-04:00The Old Tailor Is Dead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Photo" class="JZUAbb" height="396" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5uhKxw3KNOg/WZMEbP9_BLI/AAAAAAAAPRk/cnQwbpScDm8HNLm_XvyeVpAPR8I4uJ35ACJoC/w530-h525-p/FB_IMG_1502804446794.jpg" width="400" /> </div>
<br />
<br />
I did <a href="https://basicredrpg.blogspot.com/2017/08/brave-little-tailors-another-subclass.html">this subclass</a> a while back and it never sat quite well with me. It's too much without feeling like anything distinct. After the <a href="https://basicredrpg.blogspot.com/2019/03/power-ups.html">Amber article</a>, though, I think I cracked them. I think they must even be a full class now, so let's have them work like Thieves without any thief stuff. Correction, they can get Sneak Attack damage but only with bit-ass knitting needles.<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Suitmation</b></span></span><br />
<br />
A BLT has the power to infuse all the magic of Amber into a particular pattern, instead of activating its normal abilities. There are 6 such magical patterns known only to the tailor elite and there may exist more. A BLT's Suits are obviously bespoke and only fit the individual they were tailored for, usually the BLT herself although they can work for anyone. Making one of these Suits costs 1000g/level but all BLTs begin play with 1 Suit that fits only them. Suits cannot be re-tailored, but must be built from scratch. Suits found in the world as treasure will only fit BLTs. Each level the advance a BLT will learn a new Pattern until they know them all. At level 7 they can work with the DM to create a new magical Pattern using what they've learned, and at level 8 (as high as they can advance) they can open a Shop, take on an Apprentice (level 1 BLT), and can make Suits for half price.<br />
<br />
Awakening a Suit with Amber activates one of the Suit's magic powers until the suit takes damage. Even 1HP of damage or catching a thread on a nail undoes the magic. Suits that are damaged can be repaired without interrupting normal reprieve benefits during a ten minute rest. Raw Amber can activate 1 power at a time, Polished Amber can activate 2 at a time, Pure Amber can activate all 3. Which abilities are activated is determined by the BLT at time of activation. Suits can't benefit from more than 1 piece of Amber at a time.<br />
<br />
Normal Amber abilities are not activated when Amber is expended BUT you should always roll the appropriate dice anyway to see if you get a Summon. In the event of a Summon the Prismystic instead appears dressed in their own version of the Suit in question with all its attendant abilities.<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Patterns</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Beetle</b><br />
<i>Throw</i>- A successful attack throws the enemy your Strength in feet unless they are a larger size than you.<br />
<i>Thick Shell</i>- 3 pt AC Bonus<br />
<i>Mandibles</i>- Attacks as a magic axe, can clear brush for 5' per round. <br />
<br />
<b>Cat</b><br />
<i>On Your Feet</i>- Immune to fall damage<br />
<i>Purr</i>- Pacify/mesmerize one intelligent enemy for as long as you keep it up<br />
<i>Bad Luck</i>- Enemies take a penalty equal to your Level for all saving throws if they can see you<br />
<br />
<b>Frog</b><br />
<i>Hop</i>- Leap your Dexterity in feet per round<br />
<i>Climb</i>- Adhere to sheer surfaces, climbing without a check until your Suit wears out.<br />
<i>Amphibious</i>- Hold your breath for up to 10 minutes, full speed while swimming <br />
<br />
<b>Hare</b><br />
<i>Burrow</i>- Spend 1 round to hide in earth, can tunnel an additional 7' each round.<br />
<i>Outrun</i>- You gain free movement while running, able to swoop around the battlefield without worrying about positioning or attacks of opportunity or whatever, +10' to your encounter movement speed.<br />
<i>Snowbunny</i>- Immune to cold, invisible in arctic climates/white background<br />
<br />
<b>Mouse</b><br />
<i>Hickory Dickory</i>- Allow an ally to rewind their entire turn (movement and spell or attack or whatever Melissa did when it was her turn) and do it differently. Spell slots are not regained.<br />
<i>Churchmouse</i>- Move Silently 6/6<br />
<i>"Blind"</i>- Has darkvision, immune to Illusions and Charms.<br />
<br />
<b>Raven</b><br />
<i>Flight</i>- As the Amber power.<br />
<i>Sneak</i>- Hide in Shadows 6/6<br />
<i>Nevermore</i>- Enemies who miss you cannot target you with an attack again until your Suit wears out.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-63773878818569864902019-03-15T21:13:00.001-04:002019-03-15T21:13:37.733-04:00Journalist, an add-on class<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KExBuhTU4Nk/XIxMAuhhXHI/AAAAAAAAD7o/daEjmr9CeugyzWb_7k4__uoeu0XEyI-SwCLcBGAs/s1600/danadelany.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="580" height="222" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KExBuhTU4Nk/XIxMAuhhXHI/AAAAAAAAD7o/daEjmr9CeugyzWb_7k4__uoeu0XEyI-SwCLcBGAs/s400/danadelany.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animaney, Totally Insaney</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My add-on classes are, again, inspired by the work of Josie X from <a href="http://metalvsskin.blogspot.com/">Metal vs Skin</a>, one of the best of bloggers of my crop and a classy DM if you're ever so lucky. Let me play an army deer. Hope they publish again. Speaking of publishing...<br />
<br />
Any class can be a Journalist. You can call this a Chronicler or put all your notes in a magical flying diary, Historian, whatever flavor you need. A Journalist does not come with any special requirements but if you elect to receive a Journalist's benefits you must perform the work of a Journalist, otherwise you <i>cease to advance as normal</i> in your main class until you rectify the situation.<br />
<br />
Journalists change the normal rules of the game in three ways.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>NO SUBSTITUTE FOR EXPERIENCE </b></span></span><br />
<br />
Journalists gain +5% xp for keeping copious notes and sharing them with the group. They can gain an additional +5%xp for writing up a full session report in the style of an in depth profile, thrilling expose, or frontline correspondence, and sharing said article somewhere public like Reddit or Twitter. They can elect to instead donate this “bonus xp” to one other PC who features prominently in their report. Journalists “carousing” can elect to gain +1 to reaction rolls in a settlement instead of any xp bonus, better for gathering rumors, establishing contacts, and hiring retainers. No xp is awarded for the cost of distributing your literature; the solace that you’re speaking truth to power (and 5 silver a pop) are reward enough.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>WHO'S GOT YOU?! </b></span></span><br />
<br />
Any named character in an adventuring party may reroll a saving throw failed by a Journalist with their own values if they are within 10’ of the Journalist and the save would allow them to avoid a trap, hazard, or direct-damage spell effect. Said character acts swiftly and boldly to protect the Journalist, sometimes putting their own life in danger. The Journalist can benefit from this feature once a level for each named character in their party.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>NOSE FOR NEWS </b></span></span><br />
<br />
A Journalist begins with a special saving throw against Bull Shit. Whenever the DM has some NPC deliberately attempt to outright mislead the party or tell a flat out lie, the Journalist gets a saving throw rolled for them in secret by the DM. A Journalist’s DM should get used to throwing the occasional die just to throw players off the scent of when they’re being lied to, but you’re doing that anyway right? This Bull Save starts at 18 and improves by 1pt per level gained (17 at level 2, 16 at level 3, etc). Other players cannot reroll <i>this</i> save on a Journalist’s behalf as outlined above, although a fellow Journalist may get their own save.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-17843796885460652002019-03-11T23:44:00.001-04:002019-03-12T16:01:15.479-04:00DUNGEON MIX: Slaves of Meteor Fortress<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
The slavers of Coulche have become weak and can be driven from polite society with a well-placed dagger. A small team has been instructed by a neighboring ruler to do just that.<br />
<br />
or<br />
<br />
You are abolitionists feared across the Coulche's borders for the force of your zeal. You have hopes to liberate more people than ever before. The orders you intercepted leave no time to lose.<br />
<br />
or<br />
<br />
An acquaintance of your group stands accused as a kidnapper. After her arrest you pore over her possessions looking for some clue to her guilt or innocence. You find a note from her "victim" pleading for their help, begging them to come for them in Coulche. The note is old, weeks old.<br />
<br />
or<br />
<br />
You are slaves. You have not dared know freedom. However, emanations from the great houses have chilled all peoples of Coulche. If you don't break free now, there may never be another chance.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
--------------------- </div>
<br />
The men of Coulche routinely raid the forest towns, waylay pilgrims
on their way to mission in Ghadabahg, and maintain a constant supply
trail through the Sandy Reaches coastward. These are all in service of
catching, breeding, training, and selling slaves, Coulche's chief
export. All their neighbors, the true kingdoms and the great nations,
abhor slavery as a practice on paper. There are some degenerates still
who trade with Coulche in secret. There are, of course, envoys from
beyond the more civilized nations, blood machines which require grist
for their mills of conquest. They would snake their tendrils through the
great kingdoms and draw power from the cancer within them. Coulche has
remained unlanced by the body politic until now for three reasons.
First, the Coulche buy a lot of grains, clay, and lumber to better
corral their possessions. Second, treaties from before the civilized
kingdoms turned their back on Coulche and slavery make intervention
awkward and dangerous, lest many old poisons find purchase in a new
wound. Third, it has long been rumored that the Coulche have discovered
the body of Lilies In Autumn, feared as a priestess of hellish
temperament and diabolical power; her return even as an inanimate fetish
of worship would propel the cult left in her wake to new heights of
savagery.<br />
<br />
What the Coulche have possessed for half a generation now is the <i>sarcophagus of</i>
Lilies In Autumn, which acts as a sort of life battery slowly absorbing
and amplifying vitality until it can imbue it within its contents.
Lilies In Autumn's body was chucked in a ditch to crumble before this
had enough effect to raise her. However, the Coulche have come to
understand this dread power and even reverse-engineered it. This is the
source of the Molds.<br />
<br />
It's an elemental question,
providing the value of labor without the investment. There's usually
nowhere further down to go beyond being a filthy fucking slavedriver,
but the Coulche know better now. They know how simple it is to make
monsters. Admittedly none of these have proven themselves all that
useful for labor but hope springs eternal. They have gathered their
resources at Fort Meteor, where these creatures can be easily contained.
After all, worst case scenario their efforts prove fruitless and they
simply corral them down the pass and into neighboring Argento...<br />
<br />
The
unfortunate fact is that this is a monstrous act of mercy. Even the
lives they're sacrificing to this experiment are deemed a necessary
evil. See, the heart of Coulche has turned. They want to be good, to be
better. They seek now to abolish their rich slave trade, following the
growing will of a new generation of Coulche as well as increasing
external pressures. They just need replacements, first. The people of
Coulche are the good guys here, and these colossi are as much victims as
anything. It's only the twisted upper castes who are so bent they do
darker deeds in the name of virtue. The more slaves who are liberated
the more the Coulche leaders will turn to these grim arts, the bolder
they will behave, the more likely they are to risk a mistake, a breach.
Other freed slaves on the run have to weigh their own hope of escape
against the welfare of those they travel with, for any who lag behind
may become victim or monsters themselves.<br />
<br />
The Coulche's
sins have long been visited on their neighbors. Now they plan to
germinate hells around their sporing new homemade gods.<br />
<br />
The map is something of concentric circles radiating from Fort Meteor. This is not a large campaign. Good starting points are marked with a @.<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>WANDERING ENCOUNTERS</b></span></span><br />
<br />
Each section has its own wandering encounter table. Roll 1d6+1d6. I like to use one white and one black. If the black die is equal or higher than your white die then you encounter whatever the value on the black die indicates. If both dice show the same value you still encounter whatever the black die tells you to but you or your enemies are surprised. An odd number means you're surprised, an even number means you're both surprised. You never get the drop on people in their domain from just wandering around, you have to deliberately set an ambush. Anyway, in the event of surprise any Damage dealt to the surprised party is doubled.<br />
<br />
There is a separate table included for explicitly noncombat encounters where fighting is never the outcome unless the party chooses to force it, included at the end. One of these will occur in any region where a normal wandering encounter does not occur. This includes wildlife encounters, for hunting/Summoning purposes.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: #990000;"><b>SCENIC COULCHE PASS</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<b>C0</b> @ Fort Meteor is where so many of the great houses have moved the bulk of their slaves. The official explanation for the people of Coulche is that these will be preparing the fort for expansion and modernization, a test case to see if this great force can revolutionize Coulche that they might compete once again with the great kingdoms of the Delt. There are other things here, and they grow in scale and number by the week. Points of interest in Fort Meteor include:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>The Hall of Heaven - This is where the heads of the high houses spend all their time drinking and eating and otherwise debauching until they pass out wake up and start again. A huge manse in castle's clothes, there's room for a few hundred honored leaders and their coterie of guests and achem "servants." Light the banners. Bar the doors.</li>
<li>The Barracks are enough to hold two hundred or so grunts not granted quarters in the keep. They keep a small armory here, a smith, and the fortress' stables. There is also a mess full of unexpectedly fine confectioneries. </li>
<li>The Keep is home to the fortress' commander, Hullum Brunse, and his inferior officers. It's largely composed of the titular meteor, and therefore requires a Constitution roll to advance or attack when in metal armor or armed with metal weapons. There are ancient siege weapons here but they are not readied and are impossible to ready in secret.</li>
<li>The Hollow beneath Fort Meteor was once a literal dungeon but now is sort of a...god zoo. This has required excavating additional room, causing great sinkholes to collapse into the enclosure. Glimpses of gods can be seen from above. There are 5d20 Mudmen here along with the new gods of the high houses. Consider anyone in this space completely deafened, no save.</li>
<li>The Altar is a ziggurat style dais crudely erected from already-eroding concrete near the Gap Gate, in case an emergency eject has to be pulled; there is a little ramp/slide to the back. Here stands the sarcophagus of Lilies in Autumn, which is fitted in like a filament when powering the magics for the Molds. The gods are conceived here but gestate and hatch in the Hollow. Many don't even realize what they've made, not REALLY, not YET.</li>
<li>The Corral takes up fully half the inside of the fortress and stretches between buildings. While it is fenced off with biting wires there are guarded gates at five points along it. This is where the assembled slaves stand in the sun and the rain, creating little shanties from refuse and piling up on each other and each other's filths. Some have died already but the dead body pile is in the Corral so...</li>
<li>There is one great godstone here. It is all that is keeping the new gods imprisoned beneath the Hollow. If it leaves or is damaged then all hell (heaven?) breaks loose. </li>
</ul>
<u><i>ENCOUNTERS</i></u><br />
<br />
1. Drunken Lord (use the values of Peasant listed below because fuck 'em)<br />
2. Escaping Slaves (if they are allowed to get away it will raise an alarm)<br />
3. 1d6 Meteor Soldiers<br />
4. Hullum Brunse +2 Meteor Soldiers<br />
5. Tigonlie Soldiers<br />
6. Mold Attendants<br />
<br />
<b>B1</b> Tremont Village lies between Fort Meteor and the Quicksilver Gate; indeed, if one climbs the poplars in the center square, one can just glimpse the tops of each. Tremont is unremarkable apart from being the end of the treeline in western Coulche, right before it disappears into the mountain valleys of Argento. Many of the villagers here have relatives or business interests in the neighboring kingdom. There are fewer slaves in Tremont, they being more progressive, and the ones who remain to work the mill seem to come and go as they like so long as they stay within Tremont and continue to work the mill. There is a Douala here named Non Nooly who can administer basic first aid, and you can usually find a horse to buy.<br />
<br />
<b>B2</b> Humble Gap splits and falls away from Fort Meteor, filled with questing poplars and reaching spear-like pines. A gate in Fort Meteor opens over Humble Gap, and prisoners are often marched off the cliff edge. There really was a meteor once, you know, which extended the gouge of Humble Gap, and part of it is still down there. This is a dead star fragment drawn down by the godstones, and its strange heat has animated the broken dead at the floor of the drop into magnetic husks hell bent on non-euclidean construction. There's...there's so many of these things down here you guys.<br />
<br />
<b>B3</b> @ Ribelline City lies on the other side of Humble Gap from Tremont Village. There's a doctor here, a rudimentary apothecary, and a Magician named Hoy who knows 4 normal spells along with a secret spell called Snakeskin (see below). Ribelline has its own guard as an adjunct force to Fort Meteor but they are not spectacular. You can buy basic supplies and typical gear as found on the equipment table. A blacksmith. Accommodations and drink, enough to carouse. What it also has in abundance are slaves...and ex-slaves. Ribelline is the show city Coulche presents to its critics in the wider world, a city of freed persons, many given slaves of their own along with their liberty. Some freed their slaves, many didn't. <br />
<br />
<b>B4</b> The Temple of Glasses has a veneer of Anglican reverie but it hides a two-faced friar named Bolgefuchs who likes to sometimes help free slaves, sometimes help catch slaves, depending who's paying him the most today. He has also conspired with several neighboring kingdoms, inclusing Argento, to overthrow Coulche. He's your contact, if that's what you're here for, and he may or may not be setting you up the whole time depending on how much money you brought with you. Some healing and quartering is possible here but you tarry at your peril.<br />
<br />
<b>B5</b> Poplar Copse is home to an abandoned grove, once sacred and source of the sparse poplar population here in high western Coulche. If near death Wood Ghost will always retreat here. There is a destroyed camp of assassins here from a previous expedition to "strike the heart of Coulche." Exotic weapons and poisons might be found here, along with a jar containing a spirit who knows Envision.<br />
<br />
<b>B6</b> A lone godstone stands here, waiting. During the day a mighty man of Coulche comes and tries to lift it for most of the day. At night he will disappear into the shadows. He is impossibly strong but will reject all threat or entreaty. He is one of Coulche's own mysteries. Call him the Stoneman. When the godstones move he will be there.<br />
<br />
<b>B7</b> The Sun Tor is an old watchtower situated high above the fortress, attended by a few caved-in shacks. There is a small circle of stones here, as in primordial calendars. Its staircases give way on a 7-8/d8 but its balcony looks out over Argento for first sign of attack. A signal might easily be sent here to alert the fortress, alert the kingdom of Argento, alert your confederates, etc. There are marks of a ritual having taken place here but it's hard to describe what kind unless you're a slave. If you're a slave then it's clear this "ritual" is basically hobo-sign, and "summons" a map of safe havens in Coulche along with the seasonally-appropriate pass phrases to each. The tor has been neglected for a long time since Coulche has feared no true invasion for generations. If the party has yet to encounter Wood Ghost they will face it first here.<br />
<br />
<b>B8</b> The Red Spring has a powerful bacterial colony living within that accounts for its color and its toxic properties. A sample of this water could be valuable to the right apothecary. Roll 1d100: on a result of 1, you witness the "pool" around the spring....blink.<br />
<u><i><br /></i></u>
<u><i>ENCOUNTERS</i></u><br />
<br />
1. Startled Peasants<br />
2. Hayacinth's Mercies<br />
3. Brafan Muscle<br />
4. 1d8 Ribelline Guards<br />
5. 10 Meteor Soldiers<br />
6. Wood Ghost<br />
<br />
<b>A1</b> @ The Quicksilver Gate to Argento, guarded by a detached but friendly column of soldiers. There are accommodations for many more, and there are mechanisms by which the gate can be stoppered against any Coulche penetration, including rigged rockslides and oil spouts. The captain here is Mawney, a fat man who screams. The Quicksilver Gate is proof against an invasion that never came, more than a match for a single god. 2 or more, however, and the gate will fall and leave Argento unprepared and vulnerable. You can get rations and water here and in an emergency you may be deputized and granted access to the armory. Mawney and the guards use the information for the Ribelline Guard listed below, but Mawney gets +2 Damage and +2 Control. Only roll for wandering encounters to determine whether to use the noncombat table instead: otherwise, any force encountered in this area is made up of Argentoes.<br />
<br />
<b>A2</b> There is a small cave here, the air wet and heavy like breath. It doesn't go back very far. Its surfaces are slick with slime mold. If you're being pursued nearby this is the first place your pursuers will think to look, but it certainly seems like a good place to hide. There is an abandoned pack here with climbing gear and a journal filled with a shorthand account of a journey from the other side of Coulche. There is a potion here which, if drank, gives you a glimpse of the distant past: primitive persons worshiping a massive standing stone. You may recognize its shape and markings as the godstone at the heart of Fort Meteor, but how did it get from the mouth of the cave all the way over there?<br />
<br />
<b>A3</b> The rice farms cascading down the stepping slopes here help to supply Ribelline. A mix of slave and free persons work these fields, depending on who the fields belong to. Contraband and secret messages smuggled over the border with Argento are often secreted here, only in certain fields, beneath the water. The Ribelline guard knows this and will do regular checks of random households. The party has a 1/4 chance of running into such an inspection here, and an even chance this inspection will turn ugly. If the farmers are innocent they will have nothing to offer the players except meager local information and food, but if they are in fact complicit in the smuggling they may have some cool stuff.<br />
<br />
<b>A4</b> The Ruined Rise features buildings set into the mountainsides, in some cases carved from them. Many structures here are destroyed, echoes of a long-ago invasion. This is a ghost town, completely abandoned, which of course means it is occupied. Some slaves live here but for the most part this is a place for criminals. Thieves, fugitive killers...The Brafa from the northeast will be surely hiding out here, and there's a chance another rival party may be using a distant part. You might even run into the Stoneman or Wood Ghost here. If you haven't run into any of the major factions here yet you'll meet one in the Ruined Rise, basically. There's nothing intact of value except what its new population brings with it, the rest being looted long ago.<br />
<br />
<b>A5</b> Humble Gap continues stretching and spreading to the east, its sides becoming less sheer as it does so. There is a Woodcutter's Family here, each of them wearing wooden "shells" and masks like the one Wood Ghost wears. This blocks their bioelectric signals to the magnet men and allows them to move about unmolested. They will be naturally suspicious of you, and have four dice to Hide in this valley when so adorned. This "armor" has no value and protects like Ring and looks very creepy. If you attack and injure one of them thinking them to be Wood Ghost the rest of the family, children included, will set on you.<br />
<br />
<b>A6</b> Brass Boughs on your map represents a particularly gorgeous mix of forest and meadow, a popular hunting ground in the old days, now exclusive reserve for the Overcount of Coulche. There are no signs of civilization here and the animals have become bold for being ignored. 3/6 chance of wildlife encounters here, 5/6 at night.<br />
<br />
<b>A7</b> There is an old caved-in mineshaft here, overgrown with brambles. Dexterity to avoid falling in. There is one Meteor Soldier trapped here, nearly dead from thirst. He can be plied with drink for information, but setting his shattered legs and hauling him out is a daunting prospect. He does carry a letter to his kids that he swears the party will be rewarded for delivering. Some simple tools for breaking through rock and stone can be found here, picks and hammers and such.<br />
<br />
<b>A8</b> High Lake waits still and sour. A big-ass murky lake like this demands a monster. There is a fish here very much like an alligator gar who locals refer to as Fancy Fred. Bigger than a man, Fred doesn't go in for worms. He'll take your bait on a 1/10 chance, +1 for every day you've let your bait decay. Catching Fancy Fred is hard but Summoning him is possible. Landing him as a trophy will be worth 1000c and an audience with most local people of import outside of Fort Meteor, at the very least earning you some ale and lodgings. If you use Fred for food, consider all Rations checks to have +2 while you remain in Coulche. If you gain him as an ally he will ride in the body of a retainer, appearing as a tattoo on their face and conferring +5 to ST, IN, and KN.<br />
<br />
<b>A9</b> The Pines take over here: this is their rightful domain, not a place for poplars. They have a seductive shade and are home to a few cabins of simple Coulche peasants who know little of the political games they're caught in. They will offer rest and safety to those who ask, mostly in fear of night lions. If troops from Fort Meteor or the Ribelline Guard, for example, happened by looking for outsiders, however, you would be turned out quickly. The only factor is whether they make you leave or hand you over.<br />
<br />
<b>A10</b> There is a cave here chockablock full of bats, home to a mother mountain lion and her children. Investigating will cause....tension, but if the cave mouth is emptied it can be followed further down to a great heaving chamber filled with what looks like some sort of wizardly apparatus. It's a still, abandoned so long ago that it's becoming part of the cave. The hooch to be found here could be worth a fortune as spirits or could carry more punch than gasoline. Consider the items in these creatures' Packages to be items strewn about the lair in disrepair, evidence of some previous tenant.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<u><b>Lion</b></u><br />
<b>Basic Animal</b> (1d6+1HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Extras</b>- Graceful (<span style="font-size: small;">Half normal Save to avoid hazards, +1 Die Fitness)</span>, Fury (<span style="font-size: small;">+1 damage each time this enemy is hit in co</span>mbat), Bloodline (Beastly Locomotion, Natural Weaponry, +1 Mana)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Lama (3 Unarmed*1 canteen*1 empty book*1 staff*1 bedroll) </div>
<br />
<u><b>Bats </b></u><br />
<b>Mundane Animal</b> (1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, 1 Damage Maximum)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Extras</b>- Small (<span style="font-size: small;">+3AR at range, +1 Die Hide)</span></div>
<b>Packages</b>- Lookout (+1 Die Detect*+1 Die Fitness*1 sling*1 cloak)</blockquote>
<br />
<b>A11</b> A Crucified Slaver hangs here with an Argento flag stuffed in their mouth and the sentence hanging around her waist. She looks long dead but lives, barely. Let your conscience be your guide.<br />
<br />
<b>A12 </b>@ The Crossing actually represents an undefended part of Argento territory. Both sides of a long rope bridge are technically on Argento land. However, it requires only one small shack full of robbers on probation to man it, since the whole thing can be taken down so easily in the event of invaders from Coulche. This is a peasant bridge, a peddler's bridge, a simple trade route which the party can use to come and go more or less freely. If the party is being pursued a rider will be dispatched to the Crossing to block escape. The robbers on the other side are friendly enough and there's a 1/d20 chance that one of them is a distant family member to one of the party. They use the values for Coulche Peasants, listed below.<br />
<br />
<b>A13 </b>A Peasant Cemetery rests here, old and overgrown. It once belonged to the Argentoes beyond the Crossing and is not used by the Coulche for a mix of superstitious and cultural reasons. It has not been minded or cleared in some time, and likely receives no visitors. There is the sound of sweeping when you're not looking, like someone walking through a pile of leaves. At night a voice from behind you will ask for passage to the valley. This area is protected against the intrusion of the new gods.<br />
<br />
<b>A14 </b>Ham Deegle is a small village of subsistence farmers living around an old dried-up mine. There's only about eight families here including a quartet of dwarfs. They know the Rite of Fancy Fred here and the dwarfs know the Rite of the Sentinels, being late converts and final worshipers of the old godstones. They will resent you for inquiring after these but if you pull off invoking these then all 50-or-so people of Ham Deegle will join your quest.<br />
<br />
<b>A15</b> Cloud Lodge is a bath house and bordello found here. Anyone traveling to or from Fort Meteor on official business makes an unofficial stop here. Sister Vondu runs a fairly straight-laced place, considering, with nothing too kinky going on. She can fill out your map quickly and knows one fact about everyone mentioned by name in this article. She also knows anything at all about the Stoneman and Wood Ghost which makes her somewhat unique. Treat your experiences in this bordello as a Summoning with attendant benefits that your Control efforts for those in your employ are increased by 3.<br />
<br />
<u><i>ENCOUNTERS</i></u><br />
<br />
1. Forceful Peasant<br />
2. Desperate Runaway Slaves<br />
3. Wood Ghost<br />
4. 1d4 Meteor Soldiers<br />
5. Uver's Bounty Hunters<br />
6. 1d12 Crude Bandits (as Peasants; only half will be encountered initially, the rest gain a surprise bonus to Damage when entering the fray)<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<u><i>Other Encounters</i></u><br />
1. Squirrel or gopher<br />
2. Hare or mockingbird<br />
3. Fox or hawk<br />
4. Wolf or vulture<br />
5. Bear or ape<br />
6. Fugitive or Hermit<br />
7. Mapmaker or Lost Traveler<br />
8. Peddler or Artisan<br />
9. Lame Horse or Broken Wagon<br />
10. Strange noises or lights<br />
11. Remains from robbers<br />
12. A ruined tent<br />
13. Friendly musician<br />
14. Tax collector<br />
15. Prankish locals<br />
16. Shrine<br />
17. Wandering educator<br />
18. Runaway horse or livestock<br />
19. Ghadabahg pilgrims<br />
20. The Stoneman, glimpsed then gone</blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>THE COULCHE PEOPLE</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<u><b>Hullum Brunse</b></u><br />
<b>Feature Officer</b> (7x2d6HP, Guile 20, Save 4, Attack +10, 1d6x2 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Wealthy (access to 10,000c in funds), Station (This enemy has all the benefits conferred by a title), Magic Item (Meteor Armor), Extra Attack (Twice each Combat turn), Magic Item (The Oversword)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Rider (1 horse*1 saddle*1 spear*1 sabre*1 shield (AR), Knight (1 Shell (AR)*1 sword *1 horn*1 canteen*500c), Captain (+10 Control*1 sabre*1 scabbard*+5 troops)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
[*Unchallenged Control, Troops 25, and AR 30 Package bonuses] </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<br />
<u><b>Meteor Soldiers</b></u><br />
<b>Advanced Warriors</b> (24HP, Guile 15, Save 8, Attack +4, 1d6+2 Damage)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Extras</b>- Fearsome (<span style="font-size: small;">Penalty equal to Type bonus to players' Control rolls</span>), Extra Move (move twice in a round), <span style="font-size: small;">Magic Item (Meteor Armor)</span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Rider (1 horse*1 saddle*1 spear*1 sabre*1 shield (AR), Archer (1 Soldier's Bow*60 ammunition*1 quiver*10' rope)</div>
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- +1 Die Detection, +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity, +1 Willpower<br />
<br />
<u><b>Ribelline Guard</b></u><br />
<b>Basic Warrior</b> (1d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +3, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Extra Move (move twice in combat), Fortunate (roll Skills using 1d12)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Point (1 Splint (AR)*1 hook*1 lockpick*1 flint*1 oil flask) <br />
[AR 17 Package bonus]<br />
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- +1 Constitution, +1 Dexterity<br />
<br />
<u><b>Hoy</b></u><br />
<b>Basic Magus</b> (1d6+2HP, Guile 13, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage with weapon)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Magic Item (Hoy's Ring), Venom (possesses one poison HR3, one HR4, one HR5, may apply in Combat)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Sorcerer (4 artifacts*1 grimoire*5 spells*1 face paints)<br />
<b>Spells</b>- Snakeskin, Fade, Reprieve, Prophesy, Sustain<br />
<br />
<u><b>Woodsman and Family</b></u><br />
<b>Basic Hermits</b> (1d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 11, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage with weapon)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Bloodline (Elf Sight, Elf Majesty, +1 Mana), Extra Move (twice each round)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Sniper (+2 Die Hide*1 hunter's bow*40 ammunition*1 dagger)<br />
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- +1 Die Dodge <br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
<u><b>Bolgefuchs</b></u><br />
<b>Mundane Cleric</b> (1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, Attack +0, 1 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Wealthy (access to 8888c)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Prophet (2 artifacts*1 cuirass *1 staff*1 icon* 2 books)<br />
<br />
<u><b>Tinter Mindus</b></u><br />
<b>Basic Healer</b> (1d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 11, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Stranger (Half'un), Fortunate (make Skill rolls with 1d12)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Attendant (1 boat pole*1 hanging lantern*1 backpack)</div>
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- +1 Die Heal, Mastery of Craft<br />
<br />
<u><b>Non Nooly</b></u><br />
<b>Mundane Healer</b> (1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, Attack +0, 1 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Unique (can heal up to 20HP total per day with a successful Craft roll)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Wastrel (1 dagger*1 staff*1c*10' rope*1 candle*1 ritual)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Rituals</b>- Rite of the Hearth </div>
<br />
<u><b>Sister Vondu</b></u><br />
<b>Mundane Madame</b> (1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, Attack +0, 1 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Wisdom (3/8 chance to predict Orders (treat as intercepted))<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Courtier (+10 Experience *+5 Control*1 ritual*1000c)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Rituals</b>- Rite of the Hearth<br />
<br />
<b><u>The Builders</u></b></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Mundane Husks</b> (1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, Attack +0, 1 Damage)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Extras</b>- Undead (can't be dispatched by the lack of anything; get a Save against Spells)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Wastrel (1 dagger*1 staff*1c* 10' rope*1 candle*1 ritual)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Ritual</b>- Instead of a true ritual, considered and extended study can lead one to learn how to perform a "Summoning" to break the meteor's hold on the dead; they will wander away and eventually collapse. </div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<u><b>Slavers</b></u><br />
<b>Mundane Assholes</b> (1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, Attack +0, 1 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Backup (one enemy in group (often Mundane) gains surprise damage the first time this enemy is targeted)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Trapster (1 crossbow*1 cloak* 40 ammunition*+2 Die Craft)<br />
<br />
<u><b>Peasants and Slaves</b></u><br />
<b>Mundane Victims </b>(1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, Attack +0, 1 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras- </b>Last Gasp (always gets dying words, which can cast a Spell)<br />
<b>Packages-</b>Wastrel (1 dagger*1 staff*1c* 10' rope*1 candle*1 ritual)<br />
<b>Rituals</b>- Rite of the Wode <br />
<br />
<b><span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">FIENDS ARE VISITING FROM THE COUNTRY</span></span></b><br />
<br />
Outsiders from the Brafan plains north of the Delt are here to recommit to Coulche, offering their services as personal security for the slave trade in Brafa. They have a black road cutting through the borders of the Delt kingdoms and they keep it running smoothly. They're here to run interference for the Coulche during this large scale enterprise. They have sent only their bastards.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Brafan Muscle</b></u><br />
<b>Basic Bruisers</b> (1d6+2 HP, Guile 13, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage with weapon)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Unique (Attack bonus actually equals the number of Brafans in a group), Fury (+1 Damage each time they are hit in Combat)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Berserker (1 axe*1 Furs (AR) *Unarmed 2*1 helmet*1 stein)</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
[AR 15 from Package Bonuses)</div>
Tigonlies on the other hand are eager to see its slave stock liberated of this mad experiment and down the eastern Delt to its waiting cigarettes. Tigonle makes a lot of money distributing Coulche's slaves and it saves them the trouble of sacking slaves themselves. They are petulant and quick, and prefer a mix of whips and pikes.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Tigonle Soldiers</b></u><br />
<b>Basic Mariners </b>(1d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage with weapon)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Bloodline (Silver Tongue, Beguiling, +1 Mana), Last Stab (get one free attack when you Fall)<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="background: #ffffff; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Packages</b>- Pillager (1 horse*1 flint*1 net* 3 torches*3 satchels*1 map), Executioner (20' rope*1 axe*1 mask*1 bottle*200c*1 book)</div>
<br />
<b><span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;">THE RETURNERS</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b>Uver Stamble</b> is a bounty hunter feared even beyond Coulche. Wanted in two kingdoms he has less respect for the law than even his fellows. He makes it clear and obvious to everyone he meets that he plays the flute because he wants the slaves he hunts to know it's HIM coming when they hear they piping, so they lose their nerve and give themselves away.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Bastard</b> (1d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Extra Move, Fury<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Point, Musician<br />
<br />
<b>Eli</b> is tired of telling people that it can be a girl's name too. She is stronger than Uver and likes throwing spears for fun. She doesn't prioritize protecting her face.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Bounty Hunter</b> (1d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Last Stab<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Rider<br />
[AR 15 from Package Bonuses and Type Bonus] <br />
<br />
Cheen the Mystic has heard of modesty of appearance and doesn't hold with it. In the city he stays cloaked and robed, away from society he usually hunts in the painted nude.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Magician</b> (1d6+2 HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Magic<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Sorcerer<br />
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- Mana Die <br />
<b>Magic Shortcut</b>- Wizard (may replace any one spell requirement with a Relic) <br />
<b>Spells</b>- Boarman, Mana Control, Mana Block, Mana Strike, Stranger Gift, Whispers, Listen, Trace, Darkness, Disguise<br />
<br />
<b>Wetherbee </b>is a dwarf of flexible moral fibre, like a bamboo reed. He believes in justice, law, and peace, and he also believes that any attempt at dissolving Coulche's slave trade begins with these things being done properly, and returning runaways to their owners is the first step. We can't just have chaos! Soooo tired of Uver and Cheen, and come to that Eli...<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Bounty Hunte</b>r (1d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +4, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Stranger (Dwarf), Station (has a high title in Dwarf society)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Knight<br />
[AR 21 with Package bonuses] <br />
<br />
They just call the big mean orc <b>Rusty</b>. He sleeps in his armor and so is always poorly rested and never properly polished.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Murderer</b> (2d6+2 HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +3, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Hideous, Extra Attack<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Goon (1 mallet*1 Chain (AR)* 1 prybar*3 satchels*1 pipe)<br />
[AR 18 from Package bonuses]<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: #990000;"><b>THE SIDE OF ANGELS </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Hyacinth</b> is a fiercely abolitionist Halfl'un Hunter with her own gods on her side: she knows Mouthpiece, and has been touched by Glaswulf Bowin, an angelic ancestor spirit sort of deal. Very locally-sourced farm-to-table godding is Glaswulf Bowin. She is something of a holy terror, known as the Widow Deacon due to her habit (alllmost a joke there) of dressing in a friar's frock. She is skilled with hatchets and is easily identifiable from her ears, which have been clipped to a point. She is accompanied by her three Mercies.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Advanced Abolitionist</b> (32 HP, Guile 15, Save 8, Attack +4, 1d6+2 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Stranger (Half'un), Enchanting (Players must succeed in a Willpower roll x2 to overcome this enemy's beguiling words), Wisdom (3/8 chance of anticipating Orders)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Warlord, Pillager<br />
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- +1 Die Detection, +70 Experience<br />
<br />
<b>Tanny</b> is Hyacinth's right-hand woman and protector, sure with the bows and arrows of her fallen enemies. She is slightly too tall and has a long chin. She is too distant to be friendly and she wishes she could help that.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Bodyguard</b> (1d6+2 HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Fortunate, Venom<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Archer, Pillager<br />
<br />
Felor and Goughtri are twins who use their appearance to aid in subterfuge. They rely on each other utterly and trust each other utterly and hate each other utterly.<br />
<br />
<b>Mundane Spies</b> (1HP, Guile 10, Save 16, Attack +0, 1 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Backup<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Musician (1 drum*1 flute*1 horn*3 outfits*1 ritual*1 spell)<br />
<b>Spells</b>- Felor knows Double, Goughtri knows Reverse<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>WOOD GHOST</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Wood Ghost</b> is a kind of spirit soldier who lives where forest and mountain meet, a mediator of sorts whose cloak and mask are always dusted with a powdery snow, even now in July. They reek of sweat and honeysuckle. She can fling her hand-carved wooden shafts like arrows from a Hunter's Bow. She cannot speak your languages but the language of "oh shit a monster we're going to die" is universal, and she can intuit intent. The people of Coulche are familiar with her taboos - where to leave offerings, trails which are forbidden - but do not tell the slave population as a means of security and control. As a result Wood Ghost's actions seem random to the Coulche slaves, affording them an ominous legend. In reality Wood Ghost is an un-alive vessel for dead slaves, rooted in the brittle further-rotted husk of Lilies In Autumn. She delights in killing cruel masters and slavers who wander into her domain, and protects places of sanctuary or egress for escaping slaves. It doesn't know what to make of the party at first, and will stalk and/or attack as it deems necessary until they make their intentions clear.<br />
<br />
Lilies In Autumn does not want to rise again to wreak havoc, she just wants her sarcophagus back to rest. Turns out death sucks. However, if reunited, she brings her hundred ghostly passengers along for the ride, and now these new gods filled with primordial confusion and anger and fear and running rampant? Now they're filled with pain and hate of decades, centuries, and all the people of Coulche will be scorched from the world without regard to virtue or vice. THEN maybe they turn to face the world which allowed Coulche to endure.... This is a win condition that stands as worst case scenario.<br />
<br />
<b>Star Revenant</b> (80HP, Guile 18, Save 4, Attack +6, 1d6x2 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Extra Attack, Last Gasp, Last Stab, Undead, Magic Item (Wood Ghost's Mask), Graceful, Hideous, Ancient (+30 Experience, 3 Rituals)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Attendant, Sniper, Lookout, Wastrel<br />
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- +1 Die to every Skill<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>THE THINGS WHICH AREN'T PEOPLE</b></span></span><br />
<br />
Okay so I'm giving these things HP but to be clear, we're treating the gods like....a storm, or an avalanche. They're something you can survive. A Hazard to save against. You can pick away at them over time if you're lucky and clever but the idea of going "how many HP do you have left" after a god hits you - even a small god such as these - is anathema. <b>You dead</b>.<br />
<br />
<b>The gods</b> haven't been alive long enough to stop screaming (that's one thing that must be absolutely clear when encountering one, the noise, the way the air completely boils around them with the sound of their skin sliding, joints grinding) so they haven't been given names, and the high families call them by house. That information will have no real bearing here so we'll just go largest to smallest, starting with....<br />
<br />
<i>G1</i>The Mold for G1 was a bunch of sewn together still-living slaves. These still live but are catatonic with shock and fear and hate, and are worn like a living crown on a face with far too many mouths. Its fingers bend the other way and its skin flickers like charcoal just starting to catch. Things it touches keep sparking to life for a single round. This includes the skeletons inside people's own bodies, who rip themselves right free.<br />
<br />
200 HP, HR 10 <br />
<br />
<i>G2</i> This god blinds all who look at it for a round, and if you keep looking at it you'll stay blinded - maybe even go blind permanently! Its eyes and mouth constantly pour a frothing sunshine and its skin and extremities are blackened and cracking.<br />
<br />
200 HP, HR 9 <br />
<br />
<i>G3</i> can't decide whether it wants to be one million snakes or not, so its body is constantly shifting in waves like a broken CRT monitor. The snakes it sheds fall to the ground and become sticks.<br />
<br />
150 HP, HR 9 <br />
<br />
<i>G4</i> seems to be made of solid gold and burns to the touch like lava. Storm clouds burst open in its footfalls.<br />
<br />
150 HP, HR 8 <br />
<br />
<i>G5</i> crawls about everywhere bent over backwards, all its joints facing the wrong way. Things in its wake age away like they chose the wrong grail. This god seems most prepossessed with crossing over into Argento.<br />
<br />
100 HP, HR 8<br />
<br />
<i>G6</i> can reasonably pass for the biggest, hairiest man or orc you've ever seen at a distance. Up close he's clearly 14' tall and covered in tiny cillia-like arms with babyish fingers all over them. He grows bigger and more dinosaur-like as you watch.<br />
<br />
80 HP, HR 8<br />
<br />
<i>G7</i> is the size of a child because <b><i>oh no</i></b>. They exude death beams in an arcing plane.<br />
<br />
50 HP, HR 10 <br />
<br />
<b>Mudmen</b> were the early god experiments. There are a lot of Mudmen. They have the same sort of divine consciousness but it's spread too thinly. They mostly mill about in large groups to beat on things. Now these are more like your standard enemies, but they're still a lot to deal with.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Gods</b> (3d6+2HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +3, 6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Extra Arms (<span style="font-size: small;">+1 trivial act a round, climb or swim without Fitness
roll), </span>Giant (-2AR, +2 Die Fitness, 6 Unarmed, Ignore Weight as a Dwarf)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- 1 Random Package's worth of stuff is stuck to/inside of them, largely ruined<br />
<br />
The Molds themselves crackle with a power from beyond the bounds of light and shapes. It grounds itself in peculiar ways, giving each a dangerous aura. These can be colored in any way you see fit but amount to raw damage taken the closer you come to the Mold once it's been activated. They turned the dial up too far and now all your me-juice is getting sucked out to create yet another of these...things.<br />
<br />
50 HP, HR 5 <br />
<br />
<b>Attendants</b> are little more than living zombies now, their head all filled with god notions and set to their holy tasks. It's possible the Coulche haven't realized yet that they'll never be able to fully switch off. They busy themselves about the dais and it's not entirely clear how much they're accomplishing. If you get aggressive and they don't just stove your head in with one of the hooked poles they use to manipulate the Molds and their components they may simply make a Mold of you, or try to. This is not a spell that can be learned but, well, you'll become a vampire battery, slowly leaching life away from everyone within 5' of you at 1HP/round.<br />
<br />
<b>Basic Zombies</b> (1d6 HP, Guile 12, Save 12, Attack +2, 1d6 Damage)<br />
<b>Extras</b>- Undead, Magic (pick a Magic Shortcut and gain its spells and abilities)<br />
<b>Packages</b>- Attendant<br />
<b>Level Bonuses</b>- Mana Die, 3 Spells<br />
<b>Magic Shortcut</b>- Cultist (may layer Artifact benefits from Aesthetics)<br />
<b>Spells</b>- Forbid, Ward, Distract, Bleed, Chill, Prophesy<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>THE GODS OF OLD </b></span></span><br />
<br />
The western mountains of Coulche near the duskfall pass were considered sacred in olden days. This was before Coulche became a dire nation, even before they rose to be a great nation. The reverend standing stones, great granite obelisks which can't have originated from the local rock strata, still figure in many of the tales and superstitions of the Coulche. The most exalted ones have the most rings carved into them. There are some 114 of these, 9 of which are considered of paramount importance. One resides within Fort Meteor, another just to the west... These godstones can move under their own power if they have a mind to, and they're growing more and more restless as the first among them struggles to contain the blasphemies (gods from stone but disgusting half shapes and fleshes?) beneath the young fortress. These are a vessel for the divinity of the mountains themselves, which have become crowded with gods of late and grown impatient. Don't touch them.<br />
<br />
50 HP, HR 5 <br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>ARE YOU MAD?</b></span></span><br />
<br />
Confronting a Mold or any god or being ensorcelled by a Coulche mystic has a negative effect on your whole brain. Like the Crazy Boys of old, consider yourself +1 to Damage and -1 to Saves and Control/Morale from mounting Horror. Once your Horror overcomes your current level you have to make a Willpower/Wisdom save with each new nightmare. Failure means your actions are not your own: on each turn you may only choose Fight or Flight, and the DM takes care of the rest, controlling your pawn in your stead. Once they decide you've had a chance to collect yourself your actions return to you but your Horror never diminishes. The spell Forget, cast in a timely fashion by another pawn, can remove a point of Horror along with your memory of the horrible thing that caused it; this is not always feasible or pragmatic. Your Horror may be reduced at any time by 1d4 by Jibbering, which makes everyone who hears you make a Willpower save or take 1 pt of Horror.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>WATCHING CAMP</b></span></span><br />
<br />
A watch must be set to protect against, well, everything in this adventure. Watches involve each player trading off in the night. A normal wandering enemy check will occur for each leg of the watch unless the parties involved in the handoff do 2 minutes of in-character RP. This doesn't have to be an involved conversation and can even just be about how each approaches their shift differently, or what their mind drifts to in the dark. Successful monster checks always indicate the player responsible has drifted off and the party receives no warning of any intruder. <br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>EXOTIC RECIPES</b></span></span><br />
<br />
There are four types of god you can make.<br />
<br />
The first is a god of humors. This requires a Mold, liquid gold, as well as blood, tears, sweat, piss, ejaculate, fresh spring water, bile/vomit, and the juice of 1 pomegranate. It also requires a different person to contribute each of these. These are the simplest gods, stupid but ferocious.<br />
<br />
The second is a god of life. This requires a Mold, as well as cooking an ox's heart in an underground fire, at the center of a clay figure sown with barleycorns. This is one of the hardest gods to make, in order to keep the heart cooking without being consumed and maintain the underground fire in the first place. These also make the biggest gods who are hardest to control.<br />
<br />
The third is a god of storms, which requires thirteen skeletons crammed into a Mold and soaked in pickle brine. If lightning can be coaxed to strike the mold its body accretes, pushing out and bending the walls of the Mold until it is a thin adamantine flesh the god wears out into the world.<br />
<br />
The fourth is a god of gods, created with a viridian anointing of one who has emptied themselves of soul. Their body will enlarge and expand far past its limits, held together with new and undulating hamburger. These gods know regret, and so can be cruelest. This represents the bulk of the Coulche gods.<br />
<br />
The recipes for these gods are closely guarded by the great houses of Coulche and their manuals are made deliberately hard to carry around in order to prevent them from being carried off. Go ahead, try and just transcribe them. You probably got everything you needed. Good luck with that. Anyhow, the formulae themselves can be traded for 66000c each, the manuals can fetch 100000c, and a working and infused Mold can fetch 500000c. A new and awful god, somehow taken alive, would be worth a kingdom, and the creation of a bespoke god would let one name their own price.<br />
<br />
Because of this there is a kind of god language, walking words which dance away from all magical attempts at interpretation, impenetrable to any intuition or cipher. The current god makers gave up most of their minds to understand it. Be prepared to do the same.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>MAGICS AND REWARDS</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<u><i>SPELLS</i></u><br />
<br />
<b>Snakeskin</b> - Takes 10 minutes to cast and requires Faith, Postures, and Conduits. Your old skin sloughs away revealing a body free from any scars, tattoos, mutations, conditions, and grants you up to 1HP/level in a healing renewal.<br />
<br />
<b>Envision</b> - Can be learned from a potion, requires Signs and Drugs, only works conditionally: there must be something worth watching to have occurred in the place you're casting back in the distant past. You can see a scene with perfect clarity and understanding. If nothing of note is available to Envision you do not cast this spell or take Strain from this spell.<br />
<br />
<b>Home</b> - Requires a Relic or object infused with magic power like a potion or grimoire. If you are separated from this item it will return to you by magical means by the full moon.<br />
<br />
<b>Boarman</b> - Transforms the target into a boarlike peoploid for 10 rounds. Boarmen will fight to the death and deal +3 damage. Boarmen are not able to distinguish non-Boarmen as friend or foe and attack everyone. Humans, Dwarfs, and Half'uns do not get to use their skill bonuses or Mana Powers. Orcs get to add their level to MD rolls as a Boarman. +1 Strain.<br />
<br />
<b>Empty</b> - This spell requires Blood, Aesthetics, Signs, and Words. The higher mind of a being is cast out of it for a round, reducing it to a doglike intelligence. If a spirit wishes to take hold of this vessel while it is available the original mind will just sort of wait at its metaphorical shoulder, taking root again once its body is again vacant, and with no memory of any time passing. -3 to MD rolls to cast.<br />
<br />
<b>Walk Away</b> - This spell requires Aesthetics and Relics. So long as you look sufficiently magic when you cast this spell you can cause everyone around you to ignore you, conditionally: you are free to walk at a normal pace calmly away without speaking to or engaging anyone or taking any other actions. This stays in effect for 10 rounds, only after which anyone will notice you or notice you've left. You must rest after using Walk Away or be penalized 2 to all rolls.<br />
<br />
<b>Mouthpiece</b> - You may cast this on any mortal or spirit, or even invoking the name of a god. For the rest of the day the target you selected can speak through your mouth whenever they wish, saying whatever they like, even speaking languages you don't understand. The communication is not two-way, and people around you cannot talk to the party on the other end of the line.<br />
<br />
<u><i>ITEMS</i></u><br />
<br />
<b>Nut Liquor</b>- Temporarily raise your HP to max, reducing by 1 every 10 rounds until this boon is depleted. This is a temporary HP situation and when it runs out you revert to whatever your actual HP is, even if that's 0. You can keep drinking doses and topping yourself off but consider yourself -10 EXP and -1 Instinct (purely for the purpose of positioning, Dexterity is unaffected) for each dose you take until all the Nut Liquor is out of your system. One more thing, there is a specific requirement to imbibing: it only works if you say "I want a nut liquor" and another player says "Who doesn't?"<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Wood Ghost's Mask</b>- Enemies are -1 Control in combat while you wear this mask. While wearing it you can enter and exit a tree at will. You don't transport between the trees but you can move through them as if they weren't there and get +2 Dice Hide to secret yourself within one when being pursued or planning an ambush.<br />
<br />
<b>Oversword</b>- The wielder of the Oversword gains a bonus equal to their HD to both Troops and Control, as well as all Willpower saves during a Summoning. +1 to hit.<br />
<br />
<b>Meteor Armor</b>- Enemies attacking you with metal weapons or advancing on you in any armor better than Splint must make a Constitution Save before attacking you, otherwise they are repelled. This also applies to any allies trying to come to your aid or climbing a metal ladder or something.<br />
<br />
<b>Hoy's Ring</b>- +2 Mana <br />
<br />
<u><i>RITES</i></u><br />
<br />
Rites are intentionally ill-defined, intended to be sort of a system for bartering with the spirits of things and beings and places, a bargain struck with the person running the game; whatever they think flies at a specific tier of Summoning can fly. That said, if you need some off the shelf options, try these reward rites on for size along with some specific repercussions<br />
<br />
<b>The Rite of Fancy Fred</b><br />
1. Invoke Fred's evasiveness for +1 Die Dodge<br />
2. Creates a big ass fish made of water like that part in Ponyo<br />
3. Fred hisself sort of puts spirit to use for you on the condition that he is free to leave whenever he wishes and his vessel may never be caught or impeded in any way<br />
4. Fred's vessel gains all the mythic properties Fred once enjoyed in his watery home.<br />
<br />
<b>The Rite of the Sentinels</b><br />
1. Know instantly the location of each godstone, sense them at distance<br />
2. The godstones vibrate as if in song, and are capable of independent movement<br />
3. The godstones speak to you, telling you every secret thing they know about this pass and the abominations growing in it; Willpower save to descramble as they each tell you everything all at once. You must act as their agent and guardian in the fight to come.<br />
4. Spinning forward, the godstones become little blenders capable of breaking down nearly any barrier; you may consider any godstone near you to be Troops.<br />
<br />
<b>The Rite of Hearth </b><br />
1. Invoke warmth enough to stave off cold from climate or magic.<br />
2. The spirit takes root in a normal fire, granting it resistance to rain and wind, and control over brightness<br />
3. Agreeing to share your meal with the spirit convinces them to add succor to your savor; that is, you'll recover your full HP when you dine with the spirits.<br />
4. The spirit can appear when bidden and offered any flammable thing, and will listen for you through distant fires.<br />
<br />
<u><i>BOONS</i></u><br />
<br />
Boons are little video game achievements you unlock by doing cool things and they can be used with a Mana Die (and all normal bonuses), or can be invoked by those without a Mana Die 3/day. <br />
<br />
<b>Godbotherer</b>- If you encounter anything that is worshiped it must pay attention to you. Unlocked by having an encounter with a true god, an awakened godstone, or physically injuring the Stoneman or Wood Ghost.<br />
<br />
<b>Emancipation</b>- Gain additional +2 Dice to Craft rolls for escaping bonds or breaking the bonds of others. Unlocked by freeing/aiding the escape of 100 slaves (yourself included, if applicable).<br />
<br />
<b>Knife of the Mountain</b>- You may count a combat where you stood alone as a successful Travel roll. Unlocked by holding the Crossing or the Quicksilver Gate against enemy forces.<br />
<br />
<b>Detect Evil</b>- As the Goblin ability, this allows you to sense the specific sins another has committed or crudely rank everyone around you in order of corruption. This is a sign of corruption. Unlocked if you learn the true name of a godstone.<br />
<br />
<b>Immortal Wound</b>- Roll to avoid all injury from weapons, even magical ones. Unlocked immediately by attacking a god and surviving.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-70974267091024175312019-03-04T23:54:00.002-05:002019-03-04T23:54:54.941-05:00Clerics of Sinistar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There is a whole planet that hates you, made of flesh and metal. He is hungry. He is coming. A planet with a meany face. You have no other powers. Who'd need 'em?<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>BEWARE</b> - Sinistrines can cast Cause Fear at will.<br />
<br />
<b>RUN COWARD</b> - Any creature fleeing a Sinistrine does so at double their normal movement and is -4AC.<br />
<br />
<b>I LIVE</b> - Sinistrines get 2 health bars, or only die when reduced to 0HP twice.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>I HUNGER</b> - Sinistrines can eat anything like Matter Eater Lad and put away their body weight per day. It takes just as long as it takes a normal person to eat stuff. Every body they devour in this way gives them 100 bonus XP.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>AUUURRRAAAAAGGGHHHH</b> - 3/day a Sinistrine can scream as a zero action and gain a to-hit and damage bonus equal to its target if it is greater than their own for the same round. A natural 20 rolled on this round's attack instantly kills anything with HD equal or less than the party combined. No one treasure/xp-from-gold for this kill because Sinistar ate your quarters.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>I AM SINISTAR</b> - On reaching 9th level a Sinistrine is remade in his terrible image. He can float 50'/round in combat, has 360 degree vision, a bite attack equal to their previous armed to-hit and damage bonus, is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming magical resistance, gain resistance to nonmagical weapons themselves, and can survive in a vacuum. His HP doubles and then never again improves, even from magic.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-22811432230085475842019-02-28T21:24:00.002-05:002019-02-28T21:24:56.189-05:00The Financier (A Class?)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
The Financier cannot have any Ability Score higher than 15. They begin the game with 1000 gold to spend and can requisition up to 14,000 more from home in installments of 200g before they are cut off. They receive no XP from treasure but instead multiply it: any gold or valuables deposited with their estate doubles.<br />
<br />
The Financier can use no armor and only does damage equal to their HD with any weapon. If they become capable of casting spells they may know at most 1 spell; after casting they always faint. They may use any magic items that aren't weapons or armor without concern or limit to charges but any magic item they pass off to anyone else will have jussssst this second emptied of its charge. They always lose any magic items they've been entrusted with in less than three days.<br />
<br />
The Financier can buy a normal reaction roll or morale check, getting +1 to the roll's result for every 50g they spend. The Financier may never spend money on themselves except for luxuries or accommodations in civilization. All of their money must be invested in the convenience, arming, protecting, and otherwise equipping of other members of their company.<br />
<br />
The Financier has access to deep pockets and vast resources. They may request of their estate one favor, connection, item, or bit of obscure information. They receive this on a roll of 20 on 1d20, a roll which can only be modified by their level. Financiers can level at the same rate as Thieves provided they have mounted a successful expedition that level. For each level they gain one Attache. They may choose to begin play with either a Valet or a Teacher. A Financier's hit/save/hd progression is also as a Thief, while all retainers are considered Normal Persons.<br />
<br />
A Financier always carries a small dirk or (period appropriate) pistol on their person. They are not, repeat not, able to use this effectively in normal combat, but may do so once per day during a surprise round. They roll at -5 to hit and if they succeed the target always dies.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Attaches</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Valet</b>- Valets secretly run the Financier's lives, keeping the company in good clean order, ensuring nothing gets left out or left behind. A good Valet defaults retainer morale to no less than 10 and is skilled at the cleaning, mending, fabrication of all garments, in addition to managing schedules and payments and accounts. Basically this means the DM will do your fucking bookkeeping and shopping and fetching for you god damn it. Also, keeping to the valet's schedule reduced the chance of wandering enemy encounters by 1.<br />
<br />
<b>Translator</b>- Roll 1d10+ your Financier's level. On a 4+ your Translator can convert a text over a period of time determined by the DM, on a 7+ your Translator can speak a language enough to communicate basic ideas (proficiency), on a 10+ your Translator is fluent in this language and can teach your Financier to read this language, along with a childlike vocabulary.<br />
<br />
<b>Biographer</b>- They keep meticulous records and are a good DM mouthpiece for going "actually you know this person, you know where this is, you've seen that sigil before." For mechanical benefit any PC who submits themselves to an in-character interview gains their Level x50 XP.<br />
<br />
<b>Teacher</b>- Teachers make naturalist notations in their journals, capable of Identifying creatures and key abilities after being exposed to them. They are quite good at riddles and puzzles, with a chance in 10 equal to the Financier's level of knowing the solution. They are always properly apprised of regional courtly procedures.<br />
<br />
<b>Doctor</b>- A doctor can roll 1d6 at any time, diagnosing a disease on a 6. They can roll 10/1d10 to stabilize or repair someone at 0HP and/or with massive physical trauma. They can roll 20/1d20 and yell LIVE DAMN IT LIVE once per Financier's level in order to bring a "dead" character back from the brink. Doctors can heal HP per day equal to the Financier's level x10, spread out across the entire company.<br />
<br />
<b>Artist</b>- Artists have an eye for beauty and can see value where others don't; where there is a chance of precious statuary, tapestries, paintings, jewelry, etc. an Artist can force one reroll per loot check. They also record impressions of their journeys which can be sold back in civilization for a sum determined by the DM (but the more horrible the things they survive, the more profitable their works).<br />
<br />
<b>Guide</b>- Guides know 1d6 rumors about any dungeon or temple your party enters, and on a 20/1d20 they have been here once before and can point out three (3) traps, if traps there be. Overland they have access to a number of friendly groups or safehouses in the area equal to the Financier's level. They provide crude but powerful mapping.<br />
<br />
<b>Relative</b>- Relatives are either panicky, drunken, or eccentric. They all have 5 family secrets, which the DM can reveal at any time. Sometimes they are pertinent to the matter at hand, sometimes they are a matter unto themselves. They have their own purse which can only be spent on souvenir shopping, gambling, or investments. 1/12 of the time these pay off with access to some magic item or other, as the situation warrants.<br />
<br />
<b>Bodyguard</b>- They can take any amount of damage intended for the Financier and stay standing, so long as the Financier is conscious, never gets a save vs. spell effects but can suffer a spell or magic effect instead of Financier.<br />
<br />
<b>Chef</b>- Chefs can purify food or water for consumption, as the spell, and so long as rations hold out can prepare this stock in such a way as to restore 1 lost Ability Score point/day.<br />
<br />
<b>Steward</b>- Catalogues and guards the company stores and purse as a level 10 Fighter, otherwise ineffective in combat; company stores always includes alcohol rations and private reserves.<br />
<br />
<b>Maid</b>- Prevents the Financier and their company from being tracked except by magical means, can prepare a camp so comfortably that a full night's rest is achieved in 5hrs, freeing everyone for a little bit of, achem, "feather dusting."<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
------</div>
<br />
Consider this a bit of BREAK!! methadone, and a good companion to the Extras class (found on the FRACAS, link to the right!)</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-82474278135566146032019-01-29T15:30:00.001-05:002019-02-24T00:06:16.653-05:00XXR Micro Edition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strike>Dwarf </strike>Pioneer<br />
<strike>Thief/Specialist</strike> Scout<br />
<strike>Halfling</strike> Hunter<br />
<br />
You can gain the benefits of a laborer (+1 to Strength or Constitution), a
scholar (+1 to Intelligence or Wisdom), or a rascal (+1 to Charisma or
Dexterity). You can pick a job and gain the social benefits and pay from that job for as long as you show up to it. You retain any knowledge from your previous jobs if you've done them for more than a level. If you are a normal person you can get a good mount and saddle for free, and if you come from within the world you start with an extra 100g or 100s or whatever the standard. <br />
<br />
Spells are granted randomly from any level. Everyone can ignore their background bonus (above) and begin knowing 1 spell. Everyone can share spells. When you level up you can choose to gain normal benefits or gain a "free spell" and learn a new spell. Otherwise casting a spell costs half your HP or a sacrifice with HD equal to or greater than your character level. Spells may be discovered as reward.<br />
<br />
Guns include single-barrel shotguns, revolvers, and single shot rifles, by order of effective range. They all do 1d8 damage, shotguns do damage in a cone, and revolvers are easier to conceal. Rolling a 1 means your gun jams and it takes a Medium Save to unjam it. Failing that save means it needs repair.<br />
<br />
Saves are Easy 13, Medium 15, Hard 17. Pioneers and Hunters get +2 to saves, everyone gets their Charisma bonus to all saves. There's no AC, someone need only meet or exceed your Constitution. Initiative is resolved in order of Dexterity but remember everything happens in a round simultaneously. HD are serial rather than cumulative; whenever you're reduced to 0HP you must make a Medium Save or bleed out, and if you succeed you can roll one of your accumulated HD to get your wind again. Failure means bleeding away your Strength to 0, at which point you die: Strength is lost at 1pt/round, regained at 1pt/day.<br />
<br />
Every time you eat human flesh you gain +1 to melee damage and -1 to saves. Whenever you cast a spell, eat human flesh, or roll a saving throw against a spell (whatever the outcome) you roll a save immediately after any penalties have been applied. On a failed save your sanity slips and it lets something in, into your mind or the world.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-84493083403375165742019-01-24T21:29:00.001-05:002019-01-24T21:29:11.602-05:00REVIEW: Optogram, by Ramona Romano<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7tZfbH33WM/W0LClklIwsI/AAAAAAAADwo/HlA1tb1xnDU5sgnAcVkdSmmX0u_HaG0ggCLcBGAs/s1600/peekaboo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Venenum" border="0" data-original-height="1417" data-original-width="1417" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7tZfbH33WM/W0LClklIwsI/AAAAAAAADwo/HlA1tb1xnDU5sgnAcVkdSmmX0u_HaG0ggCLcBGAs/s400/peekaboo.jpg" title="Venenum" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
In my own experiments with the multi-phasic multi-table adventure I come inexorably back to the definitive Jade series cam-pak release and the definitive release for this particular genre, <b><i>Optogram</i> by Ramona Romano</b>. Ramona's constipated oils and Hidetora flourishes lend an overtly oppressive air to what is a quintessential table-top experience shared by thousands of middle schoolers, the kind of things that Adder Entertainment's forebears and antecedents fair specialized in at a certain point: monster bad, go kill monster, killing good, drink wenches fortress proficiency 10 charges per day belt of ham insert coin to continue. I know that I've said before that all gods are monsters but it can't be stressed enough, especially when some gods are In The Bowl and some gods are books that make you too crazy for meat and some gods are just some assholes with ambition and a glass eye. Many monsters, then, are gods, and can be gods, and it's difficult to tell which denizen of some forgotten still-consecrated crypt have a spark of worship still to fire. The mummy's curse isn't in a door or an inscription or a box, it's in Too Near Mummy. Scooby-Doo knew this. Even D&D knew this <br />
<br />
Were it not for the atmospheric oxygen-high art decco thule that Ramona posits the tale of the earthquake which exposed the final resting place of a dread black mass replete with horned snail feet ululating exaltation to nightmare schemas would be almost rote. Mind the cave ins, dodge the traps, beware the temple guardians something something Shrine of the Silver Monkey, big Mega Man empty boss room, magic weapon, outrun explosion, hero's welcome. <b><i>Optagram</i></b> begins and ends conventionally, albeit with a few twists along the way such as the grasshopper's ghosts, the faces you must break, reliefs screaming for exactly that, and Masaf's Crime. From there, it's a waiting game.<br />
<br />
Aside 1: I have been a part of a gaming rota before. I never got my turn to run because I wanted to go last, and things petered out by then. That's how you know it was a real gaming group. I think I turned in a few nice turns in other people's games, though. I have at this point forgotten all the characters I've played but I can still recall most of them, many of them fondly. Though I feel like my Xanadu is some weirdly old school shape, a promontory made for bodies to throw themselves upon from the lofty heights of ambition, I have too much theatre dork and film school prick in me not to have a good time with the more performative (read: "disruptive") role-playing styles. This is why I'm an easy mark for new school fantasy games and idealistic story gaming even though I've only ever gotten blue balls from these.<br />
<br />
Ramona Romano: Freelance, AE's own genius haranguer Boomer Kuwanger on the payroll to monster after a whole Lampoon's worth of Gamma Personalities, didn't get her start in game design. Bounty hunter to the rich and famous and drug czar to all your favorite cartoons, Ramona sponsored 2/3 of AE's staff over her tenure as they turned from one vice or another. Often to one vice or another. She was a smoke visualist and ambush bodypainter when Bloom Rose met her at a My Choice demonstration. It's been said in the intervening decades that there was never actually much evidence for people having burned bras as a major movement. Ramona Romano was, oh<br />
<br />
an outlier.<br />
<br />
In any experiment controls either succeed or fail. It depends how far they are pushed.<br />
<br />
It is six months later. A year later. Maybe the same people are here, maybe only some are. Maybe it's a whole new group new town new decade. There are three to six pawn records but they did not come in the pak. They were generated by other hands in another time. You start to play. There is an earthquake, there is a sucking dark movement, there is Masaf's Crime. This is not the same tunnel. This is not the same quest. You are not the same persons. This is an echo off the walls of a deep, bottomless crypt made of oozing flesh. The gods experience time differently. Your pawns are the last thing the Decacus glimpsed before its death. Now you are fated to play out the moments leading up to its death forever. Not repeatedly, just forever. A conveyor belt of contrivances draws you inexorably toward either eternal suffering or eternal murdering. This is no longer about winning or getting it right. This is about escape. You've trained for this day your whole life: complete this adventure by breaking the railroad and jumping track to some trivial bullshit that will allow you to escape. The bars of your prison were forged in the blood of the players who came before you and set the incidents. Defy them and go into the empty spaces where the Vindicator must quickly draw the tygers before they run out of mappe. That's your only salvation.<br />
<br />
Aside 2: I think when you are first getting into rpgs there is a resistance against pre-generated characters that is a little childish. It's that i-don't-need-training-wheels-i'm-a-big-kid instinct I guess? But pregens were never about saving you work. They were about saving you time. I've taught a lot of people to play games and if I took the time to teach every one of them everything they needed to know to build a character and then all the ins and outs of that process before we could jump in the line rock your body on time then I'd still be hand holding through the Caves of Chaos like an asshole and nobody would have been able to escape the star crashing ape face or raced against the invisible creeper or slipped barely through the whispery fingers of a grassy horror. You learn the game by playing the game, you can build your Hellboy knockoff with +97 Perception or whatever another time, it's your turn to whomp the bullfrog Dillon. <br />
<br />
There's always a ticking clock. There'd better always be a ticking clock. It's a cute stunt, one I've obviously borrowed from before, but as a play experience it can get a little too gonzo too fast. The aesthetics are 40K but the gameplay runs Itchy and Scratchy. Once the players know they can do anything and should do anything the center stops holding. This has ruined many a night even when not specifically begged by the material, so getting permission to run wild kind of takes all the fun out of it. The perfect dead baby joke may (MAY) have merit but the perfect dead baby joke in Cards Against Humanity means fuck and all.<br />
<br />
There's a line toward the end of <i>The Hobbit</i> that says something like "And so Bilbo and Gandalf traveled with Beorn back to the shire, fighting off the forces of the Necromancer along the way" or something like that. That one sentence contains promise cooler than almost anything else Tolkein ever wrote and cooler than most RPG module setups. There's a line toward the end of <b><i>Optogram</i></b> that says, "You are freed now with the spoils of your strange journey. You are the ghosts of women and men who still live. You are a god's epitaph writ thirty feet high. There is not room in the world for anything less than you. There is not room in the world for anything more than you." Kill your double. Become the monster. You're gods now, start acting like it. To me that means the only true victory over this cam-pak is to bring Masaf's Crime to the wider world of the campaign, return to your friends at the table, and lay waste to whatever progress they've achieved in the mean time. Wreck the whole damn campaign world and eat the normal progression of events like Cronos.<br />
<br />
Apart from all the cues I've taken from Ramona's ouevre it seems like the rest of the folk at Adder Entertainment were big fans, even if the book's success is now largely synonymous with its ignominy. Both the <i>Hall of the Deads</i> and <i>Lightning Rainbow Song</i> contained allusions to this book, with Decacus appearing in the latter and "Optograms" (no formatting) appeared in the former. That entry in particular wasn't super useful, amounting to "here are some ways to think about numbers but maybe just go spend $9.31.73 on a different book." It became a tradition in the Second Age to dare the blood mirror of <i>Bask in Hell</i> in order to unleash one's own "Optogram" for the group to defeat, a kind of "my distended self image can beat up your dad" kind of schoolyard jockeying. The back half of the cam-pak was highly rewritten by Hark Gibraltar and re-released during the Second Age as part of the <i>Jade Scriptures</i>. It's a popular mod for <i>Entombed!</i> and allegedly the inspiration for a Residents album.<br />
<br />
All gods are monsters if you do it right. All rules are there for you to dare to break them, even/especially if you never succeed. Ramona's other biggest contribution to the AE lexicon was <i>Hooks</i>, from <i>A Tunnel</i> #16, which has a Senate subcommittee's worth of Werthamic violations. If anyone can help me get a full scan of this one I'll do a review but since almost everyone tore out the "Centerfold Pinup" I'm pretty much satellite of love over here.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-3440186977654033002019-01-19T22:19:00.024-05:002023-03-17T19:35:09.070-04:00You Know Why I Can't Wait For BREAK!!?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Because it represents a beautiful, hopeful world that doesn't care about you.<br />
<br />
We are all saturated with cold cruel worlds enormous beyond space old beyond time indifferent to mortal concerns and scornful of immortal conceits. Hell that might be close to my ideal genre of play. But you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a wall of space marines, rot-infected henchmen with 10'poles scared of the fucking curtains, human unkindness, eldritch shapes from without our understanding. and even a modern superhero genre devoted mostly to evidencing there are no heroes and super powers are bad too. We get it. By all means keep it coming as long as you don't shit yourself in the telling but we get it.<br />
<br />
And as a panacea to this we are offered games and worlds where we all have a shared history, we're all resolving each others' traumas and conflicts, we can dictate huge swaths of the world and even about other characters, we got books full of rules to mechanize our cool backstory we wrote in study hall, showy fart goof podcasts, traditional fantasy narratives with nontraditional gender roles, games where we even get a huge say over who lives and who dies with no randomization, strategy, or play element beyond regurgitating half-remembered Robert McKee. AND BY ALL MEANS more of that, too, or at least more of most of that. Everything can be rosy and wonderful if we work together and to a figurative, literal, mechanical degree the world ultimately does revolve around us...<br />
<br />
...and here's G/Rey, the team behind BREAK!!....<br />
<br />
...and maybe they aren't trying to make any grand statement about anything or trying to subvert your genre expectations. Maybe they go to sleep on a pillow stuffed with printouts from TV Tropes and all their years years y e a r s of effort has been to produce a run of the mill shelf-filler. Maybe that's the case, but I feel like it's not.<br />
<br />
Because I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth or press their game FOR them or insert myself into their success any more than I've already tried. I just want the game to succeed. Because many players in the world are brilliant people and many DMs are creative juggernauts and everyone I've met at a table contains multitudes. BUT.<br />
<br />
A lot of gamers are fairly ah....well, if not literal, then uncomplicated. They don't want to work and build and create, necessarily. This doesn't represent most gamers but it represents a lot of them: they want the book to do the work. Whether we're talking an adventure or a whole system they are counting on the buy-in being provided. Less driven by discovery, they crave a thing known. I was very nearly something like this once so I don't judge, I just don't relate still. I get the instinct to do most of your creating and building and exploring in-game at-the-table but the idea of the game text as operating system and player characters as executables... That doesn't feel alive to me.<br />
<br />
BREAK!! feels alive to me in a way that will defy scholars since it's been incubating since Moses struck the stone. The FIRST time.<br />
<br />
I think that's good because what BREAK!! represents to me is an opportunity to hand the people of the world for whom campaign planning and house rules are fairly alien one big ass book and go "Here: no hacking or modding, no third party content, no cooperation required, just a big aesthetic playground sown with old Capcom games, card battle anime, Shonen Knife, TSR, Kamen Rider, and that cartoon all star VHS where George C Scott was drugs."<br />
<br />
Because this isn't an anime, because this isn't a video game, because this isn't a MIDI playlist, there is no central arc. There are no nine assholes the world revolves around, unless you set out to become those assholes. And if you choose to do that you're choosing to do so in a gorgeous and well realized world that is ALSO not here for you to be comfortable in. It will be cold and bad things will continue happening in most of the world no matter what you do. There won't be a bliss event. It's....<br />
<br />
I don't think of rock and roll as a genre, I think of it as a vanishing point. It's an achievement. You know when something is rock and roll, even if it's only in part. That's why when people talk about rock and roll the amount of material that covers is a sprawling mess and it seems to encompass a lot of things that are, well, other things. Johnny Cash is undeniably rock and roll and provably not rock and roll. I think of D&D the same way. There are people who are allowed to put the word Dragons on a book cover after the word Dungeons but that's a fucking fragment of what D&D is and so much of what D&D is is so strange in so many different directions that it's hard to keep track. Now it would be a disservice to a lot of G/Rey's work to imply that in the end it's <b>just</b> D&D but it's D&D *too* because it's that good.<br />
<br />
A lot of beautiful games are not D&D. They never get to be D&D, I mean. And a lot of D&D is never bright and beautiful, promising, welcome. BREAK!! is an inviting world of rolling pastorals and Ghibli alphabet soup and feudal towers and the power of our dreams and emotions that will still break your shit in the way the best D&D can. Please excuse me for calling every video game I see a Nintendo but that's just how it is.<br />
<br />
And so I'm excited for BREAK!!<br />
<br />
Because a ton of people who wouldn't quite "get it" under other circumstances will "get it" from BREAK!!, and then they'll get it. The book, I mean, they'll get <i>BREAK!!</i><br />
<br />
And run it<br />
<br />
And then I'LL <b>get to fu<span style="font-size: large;">cking</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">play it.</span></i></span></b></div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-73487428098082744342018-07-19T21:43:00.000-04:002018-07-22T22:52:05.444-04:00Nick Whelan Wrote A Book Called Faux-Pas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/246649/Faux-Pas"><img border="0" data-original-height="1241" data-original-width="875" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EThzS_rQej0/W1E8MU6ZRWI/AAAAAAAADz8/l3NmItyDGIsj-p_2y_4mmsH4kybI1QIjwCLcBGAs/s400/fauxpas.jpg" width="281" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/246649/Faux-Pas">Buy <i><b>Faux-Pas</b></i> Here.</a></td></tr>
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I have to remind myself of this fact. Quick aside, please reacquaint yourself with my disclaimer to the right before reading forward.<br />
<br />
If you took all those not-quite-adventure scenarios I've posted here (which I will not link directly right now) and boiled them down to their essence, along with a half dozen things in progress in my folder, or even <i>Better Than Any Man</i> or<i> In the Woods</i> or <i>Deep Carbon Observatory</i> (three books I'm on record as being a big fan of) into their purest essence you would end up with<br />
<br />
A human society small in the face of the larger world and longer time<br />
Confronted with moral dilemmas and tough choices<br />
While endangered by forces much bigger than their borders<br />
Often additionally facing some other supernatural ticking clock that may or may not be immediately evident<br />
For reasons that have fuck all to do with anything the people have actually done, often without malice.<br />
<br />
The apocalypse is incidental.<br />
Anybody with any power does not consider you whatsoever.<br />
Your fellow men usually don't either.<br />
You hope the Player Characters MIGHT care enough to go kick the ass of something bigger than all of you.<br />
It might not matter.<br />
Many of the things name-checked above are, if not truly system neutral, system flexible. However I would say that all run pretty definitively in any iteration on an Indifference Engine. If we call this a genre in our little neck of the woods then we have a new cupbearer in the pantheon.<br />
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<i><b><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/246649/Faux-Pas">Faux-Pas</a></b></i> by Nick LS Whelan and the rest of Team Hocus - a coterie of familiar faces and names associated with producing solid work - has a weird cover. The art throughout the book makes interesting use of collage to great and inspiring effect but I don't want to end this write-up on a down note so let me get this out now. Putting one of the most iconic images from the last two decades of horror movies just right iiiiin there threw me, I gotta say, as sure as if the ghost kid from <i>the Ring</i> had been in the background. It's not enough to put me off of Anxy's work here - or elsewhere - that would be quite a task. It's not enough to put me off the book, or else you wouldn't be hearing from me right now. Bryan Singer has expressed regret before in his one big pop culture reference in <i>the Usual Suspects</i>, to the <i>Incredible Hulk</i> <span style="background-color: white;">TV</span> show. Funny that THAT'S what he seems to regret most about that film.....It did take hermetically sealed world and uncork it for a moment to let the outside world in, and it was jarring. Unintentional pun but I stand by it. This isn't a <i>Family Guy</i> moment but probably my biggest reservation about this little book.<br />
<br />
Which should be an indication.<br />
<br />
This is so in my wheelhouse that I doubt Nick Whelan's existence. This is clearly some form of tulpa who produces exactly what I always wanted: the kind of thing I'd write, but that I didn't write and so is a complete surprise to me. I would use this to kick off a campaign. I could see this very efficiently ending a campaign. I would use this in a hex crawl or I would use this as a complication for something a player wants to accomplish. In a goat, with a boat. This is why I love location based ventures and the proverbial dungeon so much, you can pop 'em in anywhere. A super-villain campaign or an intended plot arc has to be set out in a specific paradigm. Something like this? I can keep it in the car or on my phone, run it in a Del Taco with minimum prep. The enemies and NPCs are human except where they're not. The environs are familiar until they aren't. There is a shape and a guiding principle to the threat but a ton of flexibility.<br />
<br />
You can make this weirder in the margins. You can make this bigger with minimal effort. But this is a beautifully popped kernel drizzled in glow-stick butter. The faith in Opeth is my favorite kind, familiarly alien and most importantly distant. The only effective authority in Opeth is moral but THAT is crumbling, faltering, poisoned from within. And from my very first D&D session I ever ran to my favorite One Page Dungeons to my favorite HPL story it's got my favorite go-to axle to spin a plot on. Seriously I spent a lot of work on a screenplay that I wish read as promising as this.<br />
<br />
This world is inhabited, and by more than it appears. Allusion is made to a selection process to which we're not privy, political structures we only glimpse fearsome shadow of, threats we can barely conceive which are only obliquely referenced. Apart from their scale, the most important thing about these. Glimpses like these are important to leave as Tygers ot Dragyns in the blank space of your map so that they can be filled in or ignored as needed. This isn't a game about a not-god or an inquisition, it merely touches those like the points of a pentacle. That's LIFE. People do things in this book not because they are PC schemes or because they are under specific direction or programming. If anything this book is about the scrambling of the human signal. Instead people behave in this book as humans would, weak and desperate humans. They may even know their efforts will be in vain. The musical sting they used in the trailer for the original <i>Wicker Man</i>? There's about a dozen moments in these 30 pages that evoke that sound, that weight, that moment when the long Tetris brick slots into place.<br />
<br />
If I sounded like I was picking on the art in here let me disabuse you of that notion: what's here is very effective, especially the grace note insets, but the full-page collages are just arresting. Nobody that I'm aware of is doing anything like it in self publishing, which means it's the best thing to do. This release coincides with a new edition of <i>Over The Edge</i> that I don't quite understand but just so you know, Atlas, this is what the art in OTE should have been last time. Think about it for this current release. Also these are good maps. I am...not great at appreciating cartography but I am growing increasingly fond of clean space in a game text and effective mapping. I'm not good at it, and I appreciate most things I am not good at.<br />
<br />
I'm not good at talking about something without having to insert myself into the subject to steal some life force for my own atrophied importance but I stress again - I am so glad of this book because I'm bothered I didn't do any of these ideas first, think of them at all!.... One of my definitions of a great work, not a good or useful work which are superior to 'greatness' (and this is also good and useful), but a GREAT work inspires you to work. Immediately. I'm mostly annoyed at this book right now because instead of running off and working on something RIGHT NOW I had to spend that time instead telling you how much I enjoyed it.<br />
<br />
This isn't going to cost you much more than the latest Deadpool and it's something you're going to be happier with in a month's time.<br />
<br />
I make the things I make because I can't help it. To have something that scratches that itch without me having to tire myself out is a huge fucking balm.<br />
<br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/246649/Faux-Pas">Faux-Pas</a></b></i> from Hocus Team is $4USD and you can buy it here.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-61227578582187340332018-07-10T21:39:00.002-04:002018-07-10T21:39:38.793-04:00Warduke Class<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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HD, Saves, Attacks, Advance, Requisites as a Cleric.<br />
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You are -2 to saves against Wands/Devices, or against spells contained in an item or triggered by a trap.</div>
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You always detect as Chaotic.</div>
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You have a set of armor (or shield, if you like) and a weapon chosen from the standard list. These are always considered magic items for you while you possess them. They only work for you, and you can never use other magic items, including potions and scrolls.</div>
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You may have as many Enemies as you have HD and when one Enemy is dispatched you may choose another. Enemies are not creature types but specific individuals. Enemy spells not designed to deplete Hit Points always automatically succeed on you. However, you always automatically do critical hit damage on an Enemy.</div>
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Whenever you slay an Enemy or have defeated them to the DM's satisfaction your weapon or armor gains an investure of power, keepsake of your victory. You may have a number of powers equal to your magic item bonus for your weapon and armor, but your DM determines both the effect and which item it must be infused into. You always have the choice of keeping your existing powers instead of taking the DM's new offer. You can use your powers a number of times per day equal to your level.</div>
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You cannot be surprised by your Enemies directly, and you can never surprise your Enemies. Your Enemy's minions can still surprise you, and you can still surprise/force a Morale check among your Enemy's minions.</div>
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When you are reduced to 0HP or less you may instead roll one or more of your Bonus HD. You gain that many HP from 0 and are back in the saddle. You can't use these to heal in any other manner but any spell effects that depend on your number of HD do take these into account.<br />
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At level 9 you may swear yourself to the service of a lord, kingdom, goddess, or demon. You never get to build your own domain but you get the full run of this one, with authority second only to your liege.<br />
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You can raise an army of followers at any time; in fact, you only gain XP from treasure spent on building and maintaining your army.</div>
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Level 1: +1 Weapon and Armor</div>
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Level 2: 1 Bonus HD</div>
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Level 3: +2 Armor</div>
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Level 4: +2 Weapon</div>
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Level 5: 2 Bonus HD</div>
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Level 6: +3 Armor</div>
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Level 7: +3 Weapon</div>
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Level 8: 3 Bonus HD</div>
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Level 9: +4 Armor</div>
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Level 10: +4 Weapon</div>
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Level 11: 4 Bonus HD</div>
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Level 12: +5 Armor</div>
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Level 13: +5 Weapon</div>
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Level 14: 5 Bonus HD</div>
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Level 15: +6 Armor</div>
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Level 16: +6 Weapon</div>
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Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-11302778200366155962017-11-27T15:15:00.001-05:002018-07-08T21:25:30.681-04:00Moon Slave VDND World Tour- Corruptor (a Rogue Path)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Ichor Within</span></b><div>
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At level 3 you gain proficiency with a Poisoner's Kit. You do not have to have the physical kit on you in order to benefit from this as long as you deal 1 damage per level to yourself, using your blood as the physical components of your concoctions. You may only have a number of poison doses prepared equal to your proficiency bonus and you must save against each of these when you take Bludgeoning/Crushing/Falling damage to avoid breaking their containers and exposing yourself. You are only adept at creating contact poisons, which take effect on the target's next turn.</div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;"><b>Crow Touch</b></span></div>
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At level 3 you may use your Cunning Action to perform a Sleight of Hand check in order to safely expose a target within 5' to a contact poison. You may also attempt to "splash" this on more than one target within range but you must yourself make a Constitution save with Disadvantage in order to escape the effects yourself.</div>
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<b><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">Toad Touch</span></b></div>
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At level 9 you gain proficiency with an Alchemist's Kit and gain the ability during a short or long rest to convert a magic potion to take effect on skin contact.</div>
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<b><span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;">Moth Touch</span></b></div>
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At level 13 you may create alchemical poisons that cause the target to be affected as if they were a different category of creature, such as Undead or Infernal or Elemental. The target will be affected as if they were the type of thing in question.</div>
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<span style="background-color: #990000; color: white;"><b>Collector Mentality</b></span></div>
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At level 17 successful check of both your alchemical and poison use and access to the corpse, willing essence, or unconscious access to a monster will allow you to distill a monster ability such as mummy rot or petrification into one of your contact poisons.</div>
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Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-80821332381277728562017-11-26T23:15:00.000-05:002018-07-08T21:22:56.608-04:00REVIEW: Bastards on Horseback, by Dex Logun and Lady Croose<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the Second Age dawned on a gray kind of sand and a copper manner of ash there turned out to be a much reduced emphasis on the classic cam-pak, or adventure or anything resembling the modules of other companies. Certain of Adder Entertainment's releases began to feel more like some kind of madman got hold of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and thought that was prescriptive. The kind of dense lore exposition and world building infodump involved would make even a viral YouTube simplification shit bees with confusion. Perhaps the worst offender of these would be our old friend Nathan Goodwrench Hosea, late of <i>Cyclopean Romanse</i> and then-most-recently of the now infamous Stigma Systics. Easily the true champion of this sort of funhouse-mirror-version-of-a-historical-fantasy-novel approach was Japanese-Indian metal guitarist and pog doper Fear Star, alias Jane Mahuri, whose epic exploration of the un-trilogy we will ruminate on later since the story of <i>Time Colossus Go Fuck</i> and its strange transformations is a column unto itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What if that box text and crowbarred-in Mary Sue shit didn't just make you go "kill me now?" What if a story could actually talk you to death? The establishment-challenging mixed race marriage of a traditional <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Æ</span> apocalypse romp and the new hotness of "anthropology textbooks that ain't happened" was put together by one of <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Æ</span>'s unsung giants: The Black Knight. Trapmaster Cosmodamus - founder emeritus Dex Logun, the woman who could trick you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Bastards on Horseback</b></i> ride from the horizon in a very literal sense intent on sacking a city. Again, very literal: they are going to break every person, creature, and thing into a smaller more manageable form and then bag up the whole enterprise to schlep back to a between space to be reassembled into a new kingdom and people of their liking. In this way potential always grows, until the tipping point where potential must needs become necessarily kinetic. You could call this a fight with heaven if you like, except we all know <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Æ</span> actually published that one. This is a pillaging from the Frankenverse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lore is a punishment when time is of the essence. Stopping the wildfires takes priority over finding out which fucking teenager carelessly started them. Should the riders breach the defenses erected by the party over the course of their preparations then they are treated to more information about their enemy. There is a hard ticking clock here, though - sunup to sundown - and your enemies have the benefit of paralyzing tiny mortals with the enormity of themselves. The more you know the better you can fight but you lose your greatest weapon: chrono-ammunition. You could always elect to investigate your foe ahead of time but that gives you less opportunity to prepare defenses, even though those defenses would be more elaborate. <i><b>Bastards on Horseback</b></i> is a book about making you ask to be told how you lose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Appendix abuse is rarely so egregious as this publication's Appendix Gray, a brief outline for rules regarding combat, locomotion, magic, and death elocution in the strange horizon would should you choose a pre-emptive strike or actually roust the invading cavalry and chase them back to their homefield advantage. While there is enough here to play a session, a whole campaign even, (we've all made do with less) it is a criminal sin unforgivable from anyone else but from Dex...I like to consider this part of a meta-trap, a grander snare she has set for us all. Some have argued this might be a backdoor cosmology for a company who always deliberately resisted anything approaching continuity. When I first came to this hobby I assumed it was basically a resume' since the writing was by far on the wall in a big fucking God Is Dead And The War's Begun font and AE's second age was already on the precipice of Sickboy territory, not nearly dead but preparing for a long period of glowing embers before their comparatively recent snuffing. They would withdraw and remain Galadriel, Dex Logun as much as any.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have since approached a new scheme: Appendix Gray is two traps. The first is a way of convincing you to get your whole party killed by trying to warhammer the unknown to death. "You can fight the devil" only means you can beat the devil if you can beat the devil. The option raises the question but does not beg it. The more insidious trap is convincing multiple generations that the story within and the rules within were the same thing. Here's how you don't play the game, it says, which means the rest of the book is how you play the game, and that Gray are special edge rules which must be similarly strictly adhered to. Remember, this was a glacial epoch shift for the company and they needed them a ferryman well versed in punishing players who thought they were smarter (and therefore morally better) than the designers. Here was a candleflame that decoding the epistle was always the aim and invited these brainteasers to a new Gordian challenge. In actuality this was simply Solomon Kane methadone designed to instill some new addiction you wouldn't know you'd acquired until the shakes began.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dex Logun's ghost work on the Fire, Ice, and Steel era releases from <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Æ</span> went largely uncredited and since record keeping is an art form even when some nutless fuck isn't setting buildings and people on god damned fire we have a hard time pinning down the scope of her contributions. Memories differ and blame is ping-ponged around and all we come away with is a looming miasma continent-like in drift. It is possible she designed deaths and devices for almost any notable <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Æ</span> release except for their earliest efforts right through to the end of the Second Age. Her personal life is less the enigma, subject of the Oscar nominated short documentary <i>Row on Row</i>. Their name was in the papers a few years ago for her continued efforts to sue the British government to release Thatcher's body for "reverse-autopsy," a campaign which lost a lot of supporters when she started mailing major news outlets frozen blood phalluses. All the stranger behavior since Dex Logun is from Colorado. Lady Croose for his part was an underground comic book artist who took a for-hire gig in between painfully confessional zine appearances. Their dalliance in the gaming world left them screaming for the mildewed hotel conference centers of home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You twist yourself into strange postures when you're trying to pleasure a partner seemingly incapable of direct communication. Anything to elicit a response. It's enough to just do something, just to see if it works. Remember with charity that it was a strange time, and gaming was changing faster than many in a faster world. There are treasures to be found in what I call the "histories" of the Second Age but they are largely buried in the very heap which defines them as works. They are sapphires in compost, and like that loam they would give fertile root to better trends in time. They were a kind of trap that <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Æ</span> had to walk itself out of after building its own cage on all sides. But that, I think is where Dex Logun's <b><i>Bastards on Horseback</i></b> really shines. See, puzzles that aren't designed to be solved aren't good puzzles any more than a painting of a door on the wall is a great door for anyone not in a Bob Clampett joint. No, riddles are meant to be answered. Maybe not all devils can be beaten but you also don't have to try to fight the devil, or THAT devil, or on the devil's terms.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The greatest gift <i><b>Bastards on Horseback</b></i> has to bestow is splitting the veil and showing you the pharisees are just doing puppets back there. It is a work that invites (fair dares) the player to go "Actually fuck this" and run what they like out of the book and only that, using what rules they choose and agree upon amongst themselves. Game companies are not often in the habit of reminding their consumers that they are not required. It takes a confident creator to make that statement even in between the lines. True a thousand wrong lessons were learned from this in the same way that Dylan led a parade across decades of imitators with voices like cicadas murdering table saws but those were not Dylan's sins. As Faberge egg <i><b>Bastards on Horseback</b></i> is a rewardingly intricate museum piece. Shame it's nards as an evening.</span></div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-25502119580223495692017-10-23T15:23:00.001-04:002019-03-14T21:37:11.675-04:00Time and Tech for CaBH + Forte and the Rust Belt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Generally, unless specified, the nations of this world as a whole have a tech level roughly analogous to what we have now, with different countries or regions corresponding more to say an impoverished state (so the tech levels in the definitely-not-ghettos-why-would-you-ask in Johannesburg) to an ultramodern upper class one (Akihabara or Silicon Valley). Broadly speaking most people have access to a phone, of not a cell phone, though exact tech will vary.<br />
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Chevalle, for example, has a kind of high-tech-60s-to-70s, Archer-the-tv-show aesthetic of outdated Soviet style machines made to work for the modern world through great effort. While there is not a Japan or USA in this world per se the kind of culture we enjoy with our technology would be a step or two beyond what we have now, about the advancement level we'd be if everyone's Alexa was instead Deep Blue and that's about it. There are, as detailed below, exceptions.<br />
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Where Feng Shui is concerned when it comes to technology the key things it's concerned about is time period or Juncture, and even this is 90% concerned with what kinds of guns you have access to. The remaining 10% is focused on whether you are stuck with a horse or can have a hoverbike. For our purposes we'll need to flip those numbers. First things: as FS assumes a default swath of proficiencies implied by your Type, CaBH assumes any racer proficient with their own Vehicle no matter the tech level of their background or the vehicle involved. Since the appearance and description of these will vary pretty wildly that's...good.<br />
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Apart from that there's nothing especially preventing a character from 1350s Mongolia from picking up an AK47 and figuring it out. It'll just take different rolls until enough practice is under their belt to imply proficiency, and this is using action movie definitions of "enough practice" where random dishwasher Jackie Chan can effectively use a bazooka when he needs to.<br />
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An exception to this is what the game dubs Scroungetech, weapons and body-modifications designed using machines from the far future designed to warp reality to the same extent as magic. The default setting's Scroungetech stuff is in flux due to plot shit, like the future blowing up and being run by monkeys. For us, though, Scroungetech simply represents a technology that is beyond. Perhaps it comes from a pocket of AI-assisted potential, or was designed with help from the future in some kind of Contact-cum-Looper situation. It might be the result of some kind of unique Holtzman-Spengler genius, or the kind of strange Tesla machines Lovecraft had in mind when he first wrote Nyarlahotep, technology created with understanding outside our world which allows for impossible things...<br />
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Very few Types make use of Scroungetech as a core component. If you're one of these Types you are either from one of the following places or your transformation was rooted there. Just finding such devices in the world, however, may not carry any geographical significance. It could have come from anywhere and, with some trial and error, is anyone's to use. People from high-tech nations will just have an edge, is all.<br />
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Forte is a kingdom with one foot in tomorrow. The seat of all technical advancement and medical breakthrough is one where every man is just a bit machine and every machine is just a bit man. AI capable of a level of independence, bio-assisted computing, smart prostheses, and other advances mean every person you speak to in Forte may be several "people" with their own identities and ideas. Forte is a futuristic paradise in many respects but at the cost of uniform participation as a requirement of citizenship - those who wish to abstain from any form of Communion or who see Derived Beings as inherently lesser are not punished except by forced emigration, before which any Fortean 'assistances' are removed. They share much of their gifts freely with other nations but require both a share-back guarantee for other advances and representation within that local government - an ambassador who is themselves a whole embassy. Tracking their leader is nearly impossible for someone unconnected to their framework so dealing with any sort of department head or group spokesperson should be dealt with as if dealing with Queen Victoria herself.<br />
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Dumesk was once a nation rich in all manner of natural resources. Many of those were stripped in preparation for a secret war which never ended up happening anyway, the Thrilight Krieg, for which neutral Dumesk was a seat of production for many nations. Abandoned factory and housing complexes nearly cover Dumesk now and she has little left to sustain her people, bartering with the leverage of incalculable debts racked up by other nations. Its head woman, affectionately known as "Babushka Brunn," has turned the processing power and monolithic thinking engines which fueled her nation's drive to its current state to a new task: developing infinitely within. Other nations can tap into the richer "metaverse" Dumeski peoples enjoy with some great expense or effort but here even the least citizen is able to neuromance with the best of them, creating marvels impossible in physical space into which the wind-snapped citizenry escapes. These are projected onto physical space in changing tides so that no visitor ever sees the same Dumesk from one visit to another....or from one street to another. They call it the Square, a nation increased by its own power, but everyone else on the planet calls this anti-apocalypse world "Dumesday."<br />
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To the distant west of Dumesk's capital it borders an old rival, Erlin. Erlin's progress has come largely through its mastery of the atom. They are chief when it comes to finding new and strange sources for the world's energies, though they don't always get things quite right. The consequences of this, lamentable though they are, also are inevitable. That's fine: Erlin excels at containment, making them powerful allies for SEDAN. Their society and politics can be a bit old fashioned and Chairman Holland, their effervescent elder statesman and executive leader, can be severe in the finality of his pronouncements. Nevertheless, Erlin is a place rich in transformation, discovery, and growth, not all of it planned.<br />
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South of Dumesk is what once was the Temple Sea, now something of a ruined heap of oxidizing scrap. When Thrilight Krieg was averted every nation began quickly looking for somewhere to offload its killdroids and death machines. Whoever dumped first is hotly debated but under the logic of "who will notice one more load" thousands of loads of advanced weapons and silver warriors were abandoned in the now-filled salt sea. It was actually a decade or more before the no-man's-land was noticed to be active - alive. Someone forgot to switch something off and a robo-nation made out of itself developed like a slime mold unattended. Since this was something of a no-man's-land already when the machines declared themselves the independent state of Ping their new neighbors decided to, well, roll with it...after all, they certainly didn't have the resources to fight Ping since Ping WAS their resources. The Clients of Ping modify themselves constantly, some serving as edifice one week and individual another. Peer, their representative to the rest of the world, has long reigned over an order of mandatory peace, these fearsome but gentle machines utterly lost without a manmade drive for death.<br />
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Finally, the tiny mountain nation of XXXThrill0 is little more than a series of volcanoes bound to endothermic industry. Constantly belching tons of black smoke into the world the small population here which hangs off the mountain faces in its black metal coffins are almost entirely concerned with maintaining mother nature's own imperfect boilers. Theirs is not an aspirational or forward thinking population but when it comes to Making The Thing Do The Thing few can surpass them. Their leader is the long-bedridden Count Dude, his advisor and voice in all matters of state the fearsome and canny Desdemona Troyer, and their most famous citizen....well, no one will officially say he hails from XXXThrill0 but we all know who we're talking about, don't we?</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-58428542103309417482017-10-01T18:36:00.000-04:002018-07-08T21:22:56.475-04:00REVIEW: ABANDONED ABADDON ABANDON by Illison Ozco and Monster<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Stripped of their blood and limbs by the enemy, stripped of their arms and mail by the common scum, stripped of their reward eternal by victorious but strange gods, the dead inherit only loam. Murder, misadventure, disease, happenstance, age, these all find homes under consecrated circumstances. Not so the battle people. They are Carted, claimed and carried, to one apocryphal blind box canyon where they are planted like ragged roses line in line awaiting a torpor and flourish that time and rebirth can bring only. The damned have been sown for centuries in gravel and clay made redder than God by unceasing hours of bony-fingered determination. They have been lain up a store, like pickles of apocalypse. Apickleypse.<br />
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Poorest imagination will reveal the purpose for this charnel pantry - it will comes easily to lips if you attempt to describe it - but the when: when is this hellcrop due for a mortal harvest? At what hour comes the Reaping Which Stands? Well here is a fear long heeded by the cleverer nations: The Deaths Will Come For You When You Come Looking For It.<br />
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The city state of Nuydeqag did not get the magical memo. Young and starving they have set themselves as a kingdom upon the goal of the tallowed valley. A bid for power or an ill-conceived attempt at smiting a known and stationed evil in the name of a boring sky-dad, that much is unclear: Nuydeqagites (hey real quick piss off with these names Ozco) are merely carrot and stick to justify spiriting your cast to the brink of high stakes disaster in a strange race where nobody wins unless no party reaches their destination.<br />
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Other forces are...well, not on your side, but opposed to the Nuydeqagites, and you'll have to deal with those as well. There are also the mundane mad and the wild people of the hills, disciples of pacifist war gods in search of a cause worth blaspheming for, a veil breached only by watching dispassion and the strange deer-faced insects who linger past the fringes all waking perception. Die and become the danger. Fight and feed what's coming. Follow....but steer clear the Carter and his nine forms of finality.<br />
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Illison Ozco writes, Monster does the illustrations.<br />
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A word about ghouls -<br />
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Ghouls are not undead, they are simply of-dead. They are perhaps most traditionally, most respectfully, a type of being, or perhaps a shade which an uncareful man might pass through, becoming something not themselves but also not just Send More Paramedics. Closer to a Wendigo, but for once not a <a href="http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix7/wendigo-baptiste-mainimage.jpg">WENN-DIII-GOOOO</a>.<br />
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A Ghoul is compelling when they are not just another thing that wants to eat you, or another thing which is dead and naked aggression, or another thing which is some kind of faerie or some shit. A Ghoul is compelling when they <i>need</i> to eat you. More specifically, primarily, they need to eat the dead, and not the recently dead either. The buried and moldering bone case where your snout gets all pinochled up. They have been pushed to this by desperation because even the fallen and ripening have been long cannibalized due to circumstance, or else set on by wild animals whose lives are relatively comfortable compared to a Ghoul's own. You must eat the dust, low thing. You must dig for poison, cursed shape. That is all that is left. A Ghoul is a one who in their need has become so base that in all aspects they are diminished but in a strange way hidden to the sight of the gods they have become...if not more, exactly, no, not more, then only ah... deeper. Leatherface was not a Ghoul, Gollum was. A Ghoul is not one who likes a nice long pig now and again, a Ghoul is that one guy from Lovecraft whose house was so old and shitty and he ate so many people that he went so crazy his house exploded.<br />
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They need to eat you because they see it in you, a glimmer of everything that was lost, and you are a map to them back to love and light. They will grin and laugh and seemingly delight in the hunt as they paw at you down corridors dark enough for their grayed eyes to tolerate. Giggling scratchers, theirs is instead a damned jog after the last lifeboat on the Titanic. They are sinking. They do not know you cannot save them.<br />
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Illison Ozco missed her chance to go insane on dat good-good radioactive cocaine thanks to growing up without a communist shadow looming overhead but she didn't let a little thing like that stop her. Naval hero and one of the only historical uses of the phrase "Polish Invasion" that isn't immediately followed with "OH SHIT," Illison came to the second generation of Adder Entertainment with something to prove. In word this was that Eastern Bloc mysticism and a century of light bulb jokes could still produce a new generation's <b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Ivanov</span></span></b> but, in practice, it was positing the entire Eurasian clash-up as a spiraling gravity bigger than nations and bad ideas, a weighty ink like the aforementioned HP's bottomless Massachusetts. This is most evidenced in <b><i>Abandoned Abaddon Abandon</i></b>, her third of five projects for the company, in the web of Ultimately Assured Destruction woven between the local state-nations. Also, the Carter himself serves as a sort of Uncle Creepy koriphyos-cum-Guy-Who-Pretends-To-Kill-The-Shark-On-The-Jaws-Ride. Trusting him is not foolish because he will betray you. Trusting him is foolish because evil always wins out the prisoner's dilemma of entropy and expecting anyone to have any effect on the grinding of galaxy wheels is like counting on a maggot to stop a volcano.<br />
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If your cast elects to follow the Nuydeqagites' trail on the road then you get to see a series of nations braced for murder-by-suicide and the opportunity to patch things up along the way as their communities fall to shit while the Big People pretend at plans. If your path takes you over the mountain then looping, interconnected concentric trails must be carefully navigated or you join the Snow, one of my favorite examples of ghost-as-geography in gaming history. Go through the mountains and you have a harder time than Gandalf's slowest-pitch adult league softball team, coming face to face with home-grown parasite purgatories who looked at the attempt to build a physical world hell and went "hey, let me on that titty." There's a good generator for these but they end up way gonzo and that's <u>me</u> saying that: I let people play a bag. The three off-the-shelf options are much better.<br />
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Actually, speaking of the Gore Chief, let's talk about Monster, the prog botanist whose art adorns these pages. It's minimal. It's spare. It's affecting. It's completely wrong. Monster's art for <b><i>Abandoned Abaddon Abandon</i></b> was famously mixed up at the printer with the art it had completed for the licensed <a href="https://youtu.be/cuos9YvAcsY"><i>Tazmania</i></a> RPG that Warner Bros. planned to put out. That means that while Monster's strange interpretations of John Astin's forgotten resume are captivating they are entirely alien to the text, which gives them their own weird horror vibe. The proofs that escaped into the wild from the quickly-scrapped <i>Tazmania</i> book show something like a true Coleridge experience while also serving to underline the hubris in flying too low to the common denominator with this particular pitch. (I'll try a Spinning ability score, that's a neat trick!)<br />
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There's your meme history for the week: this is why the Gore Chief lovvvves pepperoni pizza.<br />
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Ozco did not actually collaborate with Monster again although its artwork graced three of her four efforts for Æ. Monster would go on to heights of its own with a little cam-pak we'll discuss next time. As for Ozco, her jet accident left her with limited manual dexterity and cataracts in her focus but she still serves as advisor and ambassador for the <i><a href="https://www.peginc.com/product-category/red-raj/">Red Raj</a></i> series of books over at Pinnacle.<br />
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Final note: the doomed Æ miniatures line was never reborn to see Carter cast in pewter but a 3D printer file for a pitched Reaper commemorative protoype made its way online last year thanks to an enterprising Tattoo Society member (among whom, unsurprisingly, a figure like Carter has proved popular). You can download it <a href="https://wordpress.com/babysnakes">here</a> for free but any donations you make over on the right go to efforts helping to free Skinny Tim, still in prison from 2015's GenCon Gridlock event at the Marriott.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-14304821594993793632017-09-18T14:46:00.001-04:002019-03-26T17:04:23.014-04:00Different Thieves<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is sort of based on the T&T Rogue and that "good at/bad at" system someone put together (I forget who?) and Telecanter's famous rogue but adapted for a FLAILSNAILS style experience and with an eye on this setting I've been creeping toward. Normal Thief proficiencies/restrictions/XP thresholds/saves/HD.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #990000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Robbers </b></span></span><br />
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Each level choose 1 thing you are Skilled at. Whenever you would roll to do that thing, you roll an extra die of whatever kind you're rolling (usually a d20 or d6). You may always elect to take the higher roll or not, for the rare situations you might want to roll lower. If more than one roll is successful then the DM may either improve or multiply your success effect or grant you some additional boon, at their discretion.<br />
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At first level and at every even-numbered level you may either choose two Skills or one Expertise, which is a Skill that grants you two extra dice.<br />
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At third level and at every odd-numbered level you become capable of using a different kind of magic item. First comes scrolls/potions, then rings/clothing, then weapons, then armor/shields. <br />
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At first level whenever a Robber employs a non-combat skill while engaged in combat their allies EACH gain a damage bonus for that round equal to the Robber's level. If the Robber is off opening a safe during the gnoll fight then this doesn't apply.<br />
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Thieves who reach level 9 do not choose a normal Skill that level but instead gain either an Expertise in an existing skill or Supremacy in an existing Expertise. Supremacy grants an additional die as well.<br />
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At level 9 a Robber decides whether to become a Fighter or Magic-User and levels up from there using the Robber XP chart, gaining any abilities by-level as if they were the new class and the capability of using any magic items they can't use already. She no longer gains Skills, Expertise, or Supremacy. You do, however, gain a new ability score: Fortune. Once per day per level of Fighter or Magic-User the Robber possesses, they may take their Fortune roll in place of an attack, damage, or saving roll.<br />
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So what are Skills? They're something any character may attempt but they get only one die per shot, while Robbers get up to 4. This includes metagame concepts like the wandering monster check (which you can chalk up to the Robber's evasiveness) , initiative, surprise, navigation through wilderness with a map, etc. It includes pure combat elements like to-hit rolls, maintaining a grab, two-handed fighting. It includes old skills like Rope Use, things like LotFP's Architecture, 4e's Endurance, 5e's Persuasion, and Cooking and Herbology and Mapmaking and Tattooing and Seduction and Camouflage and Smithing and Disguise and Impressions and Handling Your Ale.<br />
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If you ask for something weird for a Skill it's up to the DM, who always gets to define when your Skills are appropriate. Don't go thinking you can just take Skills in Fighting and Stealing and call that lunch.</div>
Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148051037581020676.post-31515200998371516622017-09-11T13:37:00.000-04:002018-07-17T14:29:50.181-04:00Strange Monks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: #cc0000;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Boxer</b></span></span><br />
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<b>HD:</b> as Dwarf<br />
<b>Save:</b> as Dwarf<br />
<b>Attack:</b> as Dwarf<br />
<b>Advance:</b> as Dwarf<br />
<b>Requirements:</b> No ability score lower than 9 (or qualifying for the class with a Requirement Roll)<br />
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<li>Boxers may use any armor and may use any weapon. They may not use a shield but gain a shield bonus if holding a two-handed weapon.</li>
<li>A Boxer's stances and techniques are limited by any armor, however. When a Boxer is the subject of an attack, hazard, or effect targeting their AC the Boxer rolls 1d20 plus their Wisdom bonus. If their result is higher than their own AC, the attack fails or is mitigated. If the Boxer's result is higher than both their own AC and the aggressor's to-hit result, the Boxer may make an unarmed attack as a free action. In this way an unarmored Boxer is always a safer, more fluid fighter.</li>
<li>A Boxer may also fight unarmed, doing less damage overall but gaining an added benefit. A Boxer's unarmed damage is equal to 1d3+Level. This unarmed damage is considered to be whatever type of damage the Boxer's target is most vulnerable against, including elemental damage or silver or holy water. Enemies who can only be harmed by magical attacks will be harmed by the Boxer's unarmed strikes.</li>
<li>At each level from 1 to 9 you may choose to make an additional unarmed attack per round or elect to learn a Special Move. Special Moves can be performed on your initiative and may duplicate the effects of a single piece from the Equipment List for a round. There is no limit to how weird you can get with this but a movement technique will always take place during a movement phase, an attack effect will always take place during attack phase, etc. This extends to armor and weapons; while armor bonus gained this way will not count against you for your evasion/counter rolls, the higher damage potential from unarmed damage duplicating weapon effects will NOT benefit from your normal unarmed damage's ability to bypass resistances and exploit weaknesses.</li>
<li>At level 9 Boxers become Masters. They may elevate level 0 characters to level 1 Boxers with only a day's instruction. Additionally they must choose to walk the path of perfect body, perfect mind, or perfect spirit.</li>
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<li>Mind- At each level starting now you may pick one Skill or Language from your game and consider yourself 95% proficient in it, only failing in your attempt on a 1/d20.</li>
<li>Body- At each level starting now you reduce all physical damage, including from poison or elements or falling or other hazards, by half your level.</li>
<li>Spirit- At each level starting now you may choose one spell of any level from the list of your campaign. You may cast this spell once, and you are forever immune to its effects from other casters.</li>
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<li>Boxers may advance to level 16. At level 16 you WILL be killed and one of your pupils will gain +5 levels in order to seek their revenge.</li>
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Daniel Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427676807959516142noreply@blogger.com