Rocket-Propelled Game

Into the Far West

2012-01-29T22:00:00.002+11:00

Damn, the Far West map has to be one of the most inspirational pieces of fantasy cartography I've seen. Just looking at that vista makes me want to pull on my kung-fu cowboy boots and ride off into the sunset.

They ran a Kickstarter earlier this year to release the roleplaying game, but I wasn't able to contribute as Amazon Payments isn't easily available to me as an Australian without a credit card. I wish that either Kickstarter would start supporting PayPal, or more RPG businesses would switch to using IndieGoGo (and other PayPal supporting websites) for their crowdfunding needs.

Lawful What? An Alternative Alignment System

2012-01-29T14:52:00.003+11:00

I have always been vaguely fascinated with the alignment system in Dungeons & Dragons; somehow, its unsatisfactory codification of ethical complexities into a simple nine-point grid holds a certain charm. You know what your Lawful Good paladin stands for, and why he has issues with the Chaotic Good bard, even though they're both on the side of the angels. The merits of the scheme are probably best expressed in Planescape, where it forms an expressive backdrop for the Great Wheel's unique cosmology and the interplay of belief and ideas.

In that vein of thought, let me present a somewhat whimsical alternative to the standard system of ethical and moral alignment, in which character's personal values and codes are presented in the form of Colours, Pieces, and Suits. It could be easily used in place of any system of codifying characters' moral or ethical alignments. A honour-bound steel-hearted paladin might be a White Knight of Diamonds, while passionately faithful paladin might be a Red Bishop of Hearts.

Colours
The Colour of one's character represents their moral perspective on the world. In a phrase, you might say it colours their definition of good and evil.

White
The colour White stands for strict benevolence, for the greater good over all other concerns and emotions. To be aligned with White is to reject the concerns of the self and focus only on the betterment of the world. White is the most moral of all the Colours because it rejects selfishness and destructive emotions.

Red
Passion and romantic idealism are embodied by Red. Red characters are lovers and warriors, fighting boldly for their ideals even in the face of reason. Red is the most moral of all the Colours because it holds love to be the most important force in the universe.

Grey
Grey is a rejection of extremes. The Greys stand for balance between competing forces; a neutral stance in a complex universe that cannot truly be understood. Grey is the most moral of all the Colours because it rejects extremes and holds to neutrality.

Yellow
In the spectrum of Colours, Yellow represents greed and self-interest, but also ambition and the seizing of opportunities. Yellow characters can be greedy mercenaries or gluttonous merchants, but they can also be ambitious artists who hold their work above all. Yellow is the most moral of all the colours because one can only be true to one's self.

Black
Black is the colour of the void and of oblivion. It is the colour of nihilists who hold that the universe is flawed and the destruction, and deserves to be corrupted or destroyed. They may not take any pleasure in suffering or destruction, but Black characters fundamentally believe in the wrongness of creation. Black is the most moral of colours because the universe deserves to be destroyed.

Pieces
Pieces refer to the relationship with power and authority; how one reacts to rules and laws, and where one believes ultimate responsibility lies.

Bishop
A Bishop places their faith solidly in the otherworldly and the divine. They hold that moral order stems from some force greater than themselves, rather than from any human ideals. Morality may come in the form of a divine text, or in the answers they hear in their personal prayers, but it is something unmistakably unworldly and immaterial.

Knight
Knights hold true to a personal code of honour and conduct, unalterable by external forces.

Rook
To be a Rook is to respect temporal authority and to hold true to one's station in society. They hold laws and traditions in high regard, and will not easily be moved to break them. Rooks make implacable servants and loyal officers, and can often be found serving in bureaucracies, or as guardians of civic order and virtue.

Jack
"No lords, no masters!" is the dying creed of the Jack. Mercurial and changeable, they cannot be pinned down to any code of conduct. Jacks are anarchists and radicals, scoundrels and renegades; found only on the edges of a society they fundamentally reject.

Queen
Some believe that authority stems fundamentally from themselves. These Queens are the ambitious and the powerful, those who believe themselves the rightful makers of law. While they may hold to some moral code, they believe themselves best placed to implement it in society.

Suits
A character's Suit represents the virtues that they value most strongly, and the means by which they seek to achieve their goals.

Diamonds
Diamonds respect excellence in all areas of life, and disdain the mediocre. No Diamond will settle for good enough; they will always push to achieve greater heights of skill or quality. The greatest gift you can give a Diamond is an exquisitely crafted tool or weapon.

Hearts
A character in the suit of Hearts will hold creativity as the greatest of virtues. To create is to be close to the divine spark, to touch the gods. They strive for innovation, beauty, and clever solutions to difficult problems. The greatest gift you can give a Heart is an expressive work of art.

Spades
Spades value diligence and simplicity; the virtue of a hard day's work. The greatest gift you can give a Spade is to satisfy simple pleasures with a hearty meal and a refreshing beverage.

Clubs
Clubs thrive on competition and in contests of skill. They seek to prove themselves superior through victory over their foes and rivals. The greatest gift you can give a Club is to challenge them to a game that tests their strengths against yours.

Jokers
The unpredictable and the unexpected are the domain of the Joker. Nothing is sacred; they push for change at every opportunity. The greatest gift you can give a Joker is something unique and surprising.

The World is a Savvyhead's Workspace

2012-01-18T12:20:00.001+11:00

Gregor Vuga's thoughts on how exploration-based advancement could work are definitely close to what I'd like to see from a sandbox game.

[To Coin a World] Languille

2012-01-17T17:28:00.001+11:00

Languille

The Croissant City

The city oozes around the mouth of the Voire like an architectural soup, rich in flavours and scents. Cramped streets suddenly give way to muddy canals, the buildings straining against the banks like looming beasts, predatory and storied. Decadent palaces and craven abodes alike hide behind crumbling facades and vine-covered walls, havens of privacy in a city where vice and virtue share the same body.

Languille's unique culture is the product of a centuries-long dance between the sun kingdom of Soleille and the great continent of Zwuyala. Decades ago, the city was ruled by the Solaise nobility, who formed an elegant and graceful cream on top of an underclass of oppressed Zwuyalan slaves and poor Reman laborers. But that was before Big Tuesday, and the Mort Reveille; the day the dead walked out of the river.

Dancing to the tune of the masked man called Baron Tuesday, the zombis took the ruling class out of the picture and turned the social pyramid upside down. Ancient Zwuyalan death magick mixed with the rich and fertile river magick of the Voire to throw the Solaise bourgeoise unceremoniously into the Cagé Quartier, and installed Baron Tuesday and his Zwuyalan allies in the House of the Rising Sun.

To escape the rage of the Sun King at the loss of one of his most prized cities, Baron Tuesday sort the protection of the Waldorf Ceasar, Emperor Otto von Karlswick, and in an unusual fit of competence and unity, the Reunited Imperium's armies found it in themselves to stop fighting against one another and smash the Sun King's armies at the Battle of Dunniewadér. And so it was that Languille passed from Soleille to the Remanschreik, and the dead went back to sleep on the river floor... for the most part.

Decades have passed, and the city has settled languidly into its new form. It may be true that Baron Tuesday is technically a lich, or a vampire, or a werewolf, or a black-hearted necromancer, or the Lord of Hell himself; but he is undoubtedly a popular ruler, at least outside of the Caged Ones or "Cajuns".

Perhaps no-one is surprised that, as the tables have turned, the newly-powerful black bourgeoise have begun to emulate their former oppressors, and the lily-white Cajun underclass have adopted several Zwuyalan traditions. The court of the Baron Tuesday seeps with all the elegance and opulence of a stately Lumiéran ball, from the overwrought corsetry to the elaborate masquerie, while the gutters and sewers of the Cagé Quartier, Cajun rootworkers delve into ancient Zwuyalana soul magick.

Theme and Mood

Theme: Life amongst Death

For a city steeped in necromancy and respect for the dead, Languille has a surprising zest and liveliness. Much like the fetid swamps that both nourish and suffocate it, the city thrives and grows with the cycle of life and death. That which is hidden beneath shuttered doors and darkened veils in other lands is celebrated out in the open in Languille. It is common to see a dying man feted by his family, or dead bodies openly lying in the streets waiting for collection, or a terminally diseased trumpeter playing in a jazz band.

Mood: Decaying Grandeur

Despite its commanding position at the mouth of the river Vieux, Languille has the feel of a city living off the wealth of better days. Since losing access to the enviable agricultural prosperity of Soleille, it has declined in economic importance compared to other ports on the Friendly Sea. Its aristocrats live decadent lives in immense decaying mansions, and its grand avenues become canals as they slowly sink into the fetid waters of the Vieux.

The Sights

The House of the Rising Sun

As the seat of an Elector of the Grand Reman League, the palace of the Baron Tuesday does not disappoint. The rambling gothic architecture of the House of the Rising Sun stands commandingly over the heart of the city on its highest hill, catching the morning light as the sun rises over the Rim. Surrounded by thorn-filled hedges maintained by an army of zombigardeners, the mansion plays host to the sometimes rambunctous intrigues of the Languillian aristocracy.

The Cagé Quartier

Once home to oversized slave markets, the Cagé Quartier now hosts the wretched hovels and slum dwellings of the descendants of the Solaise aristocracy; the Cajuns. It is well-known that places of great suffering hold a kind of memory of their own; the Cagé Quartier remembers the suffering of the Zwuyalan slaves who once passed through its gates. Through the whispers of ghosts, the Cajun underclass have learned much of the strange voodoo magicks of the jungle continent. As their overlords forget their roots and learn more of the civilised sorcery of Spindlewick, it becomes more and more likely that the Cajun rootworkers have become the true masters of Voodoun.

The Lurid Quartier

No other city on the Coin can match Languille for debauchery and decadence; its grand carnivals and street parties are notorious for their scale and sinfulness. At the heart of the Croissant City's depravity is the Lurid Quartier, a thriving riverside district filled with taverns, clubs, brothels, dancehouses, and music halls. Every building is painted in garish colours, every balcony holds its painted ladies, every street a riot of noise and sensation. For sailors, mercenaries, adventurers, traders, and merchants, it is a paradise made flesh. For those who are bound to work within it, it is perhaps a less glamorous experience.

The Red Windmill

At the heart of the Lurid Quartier stands an immense crimson windmill, slowly turning in the breeze; home of the Coin's most infamous bordello and music-hall. Run by the mysterious Madame Butterfly, the Red Windmill is the most lurid and decadent house in a lurid and decadent city. Each night, its dancing girls and zombi musicians thrill and entertain dozens of luminaries from across the Coin, none of whom would admit to their presence. Their anonymity is maintained by the enchanted masks that every customer dons upon entry, disguising their faces and voices.

Cemetery Hill

Just outside the city, on a hill that rises above the swamps, is the only remaining cemetery in the city. Most of the city's dead are buried in the river, or reanimated as zombis; few are given to the traditional Solaise funerary ways. However, some in the city still mark death with marble tombs and gravestones, even if the bodies are still mobile, and the city's necromancers need somewhere to store the vital ingredients of their art. Cemetary Hill is a place for quiet reflection in a city that prides itself on fearing silence more than death, and thus it is valued by many for more than just its original purpose as a place for bones to rest. Smugglers and criminals make furtive use of its many empty graves, and meet in quiet places under the grey branches of the shade-trees.

Personnages of Note

Baron Tuesday

The city's enigmatic ruler is a living embodiment of its nature; a master necromancer who revels in all things living, and an astute politician who knows when to demand, when to request, and when to throw a party. No-one knows of his past before the Mort Reveille, when he charmed the dead from their watery graves and lead the city's oppressed to victory over their oppressors. An imposingly tall figure, he is never seen without an ebony and bone mask that hides his face from view, immaculate white gloves, and a beautiful but decaying set of tails and top hat. In personality, he is somewhat fickle and changeable; at one moment, his deep voice is soothing and wise, in the next, graven and wrathful. All that is constant is his love of the Croissant City and his desire to keep its long carnival of life and death in motion, whatever that may take.

Lady Aschelle

Once a favoured consort to the Baron Tuesday, the aged but elegant Lady Aschelle is the most prominent figure in the court of the Rising Sun after Tuesday himself. A powerful necromancer and voodou sorceress in her own right, Lady Aschelle is known both for her compassion for the poor, and her utter ruthlessness in political and business dealings. She owns many of the least malodorous poorhouses in the Cagé Quartier, and maintains a series of trading interests across the League in the potion ingredients market, using cheap zombi labour to outmanuever the competition. Her compassion is attributed to her past as a poor cellar maid, trapped in servitude by the two sisters who now accompany her every crystal-covered step as zombi bodyguards. Lady Aschelle is an ear to the downtrodden in a world that has few such ears in high places, and as such she is sure to be a friend to any who fight oppression and a ruthless opponent when crossed.

Monsieur Brique

Bearing the black runic tatoos of an exiled dwarf upon his face, Languille's most prominent crime lord is a terrifying sight. Although he attempts to conceal his shameful past behind elegantly tailored suits and a tenuous grasp on Languillian high society, he will never escape it. Once the right-hand dwarf to the mysterious Madame Butterfly, he has thrived since leaving her employ in less than happy circumstances. Nothing moves through the river docks without his men knowing, and no-one demand protection money in the Cagé Quartier without paying their tithes to Monsieur Brique. In person, he tries to portray himself almost as a Solaise aristocrat, but his harsh accent, lowbrow sense of humour, and barely-controlled seething rage confirm his true nature as a brute.

Doc Delamour

There are many clever Cajun rootworkers in the Cagé Quartier, creating an elegant syncretic blend of Zwuyalan spirit magick and Spindle hedge wizardry. Most are incredibly secretive and deeply suspicious of outsiders; few will spin so much as a minor hex for those from outside the old Cajun families of the Quartier. They hide their work in the swamps and bayous. Doc Delamour is less discreet. As a Cajun rootworker with a surplus of ambition, greed, and gusto, he is more than happy to sling his services to the highest bidder. All sorts of potions and hexes are available for sale from his makeshift ambulating carriage, a common sight in the Lurid Quartier. When the good Doc is not selling love charms and poison chimes (effectiveness not guaranteed), he can be found enjoying the atmosphere of the Lurid Quartier's less expensive bordellos while trying desperately to climb the social ladder.

Random Encounter Chart

Gang of wandering sailors, fresh off the boat, looking for thrills in the Lurid Quartier
Zombi labourers clumsily unloading a merchant's cart
Huge jazz funeral parade winding its way to Cemetery Hill
Exquisitely beautiful painted ladies from the Red Windmill, dragging what looks to be a corpse
Doc Delamour and his ambulatory carriage, selling his wares
Tattooed Cajun heavies in leather jackets, enforcing a protection racket for Monsieur Brique
Cajun rootworker disguised as a beggar
Fetid swarm of swamp rats spilling out onto the streets
Ancient gothic tenement collapsing into the swamp
Sedan chair bearing the arms of the Baron Tuesday

[To Coin a World] Selected Gods

2012-01-06T13:41:00.006+11:00

Below are briefly described some of the gods of the Coin. It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list, as there are hundreds, if not thousands of deities of varying power and prevalence worshipped on the Coin. This is just a semi-representative sample.

Particular thanks to Jeff Rients, from whom I pilfered Omnia and the Frog gods.

The "Good":

Lord Aon

Chief god, general grumpy sky dad and master of lightning, Aon (or another suspiciously similar deity) is worshiped in almost every human culture on the Coin, although they vary as to which goddess is his wife and queen (leading to some interesting and very heated arguments). He is typically shown with two animal companions, although what these are varies - in the Hublands, he is shown with an owl (representing cunning) and a bear (representing badassery), while in the League heartlands he’s more often shown with an eagle and a lion. Combinations of these creatures might be considered holy gifts (griffons) or profane abominations (owlbears).

Hippatara

The primary goddess of rivers and fertility around the Friendly sea, and often depicted as the wife of Aon. Hippopotami are considered holy animals by her faith, and ancient depictions of her often show her as a ponderously-proportioned anthropomorphized hippo, although the modern church frowns on this. They also frown on the worship of Khadahan (see below).

Areena

A martial goddess, Areena’s creed promotes physical and moral purity, as well as crusades against evil-doers (or, if there aren’t any evil-doers around, foreign faiths), and the justice of trial by combat. There are several orders of warriors devoted to her, in the League and in a few other countries. Invariably, they are single-gender groups. Unicorns are considered holy to her faith (whereas everybody else thinks they’re crazy and dangerous). Her followers heartily dislike the followers of Frikk.

Khadahan

Another god of rivers, as well as sunbathing and long baths, the Crocodile-headed Khadahan was mostly only worshiped in Aratha until a recent miracle at the temple in Al-Harraj unified the splintered factions of his faith, and expanded his portfolio into the realm of fertility. His faithful are now trying to spread his worship around the Friendly sea, setting up bathhouse-shrines in several major cities. As a result, they’re in direct competition with the church of Hippatara.

Frikk

Goddess of war, alcohol, and carousing in general, Frikk’s faith is main popular in the Hublands, where the locals really appreciate those things. Where Areena’s warrior-clerics promote purity and honour, Frikk’s worshippers are encouraged to brawl, drink, sing loudly, and do whatever they want so long as it doesn’t hurt anybody (unless those people are your enemies, in which case, go right ahead). Areena’s faithful are generally considered to be too uptight, and should be mocked and needled wherever possible. Chainmail is considered a gift from her to mortals, and holy folk almost always wear it (often in far smaller quantities than would be considered sensible or proper, to show their faith in the goddess).

The Bad:

The Solar Dragon

The Solar Dragon is sort of a borderline Dark God. On the one hand, his Sollais faithful abhor all other dark gods. On the other, they abhor ALL other gods, claiming them false and demonic, while periodically sacrificing virgins and enemies of the state to him (by guillotine). The Sun Prince of Solielle is considered to be his chosen leader on the mortal plane. Images of a more feathery version of the Solar Dragon have also been found on some old temples in Zwuyala.

Iggujugglyoo

Another strange and unpleasant god from the jungles of Zwuyala, Iggujugglyoo, also known as He of the Thousand Teeth is a bloodthirsty god of carnivorous dinosaurs, particularly velociraptors. Little else is known about him, except that his worshippers tend to utterly crazed.

Rzngl the Unvoweled

Depicted as an elf with the heads of two deer, each able to shoot burning rays from their eyes, this demon prince (or princess, it seems to vary) enjoys blood sacrifices in a pleasantly woodland setting.

Tormentara

A goddess of temptation and corruption, Tormentara offers mortals their wildest desire, but always finds a way to take that desire to such an extreme as to be horrifying for the unfortunate that caught her attention. Her worship is both open and prevalent amongst the Dark Elves, who hope to placate her evil whims.

Gi’Am

A demon god of earth, stone, monsters and deathtraps, Gi’Am’s dungeon-temples are a favourite target for adventuring parties. Which seems to be just the way he likes it...

The Frog Gods of Chaos

Not a single god, but a multitude of extra-dimensional amphibious horrors devoted to corrupting or destroying the universe as a whole. Thankfully, they’re so chaotic that they often work at cross-purposes.

The Peculiar:

Urinor

God of sewers and plumbing, Urinor is among the youngest gods on the Coin, his faith only having existed for a few decades, at most, since his slightly unhinged prophet, a dwarven adventurer, began spreading his word. He mostly receives prayers in the form “Oh God, I really need a privy”.

Roadael

Different cultures differ as to whether Roadael is a demigod, a saint, or an archangel, but whatever the case, he is the patron of porters, hirelings, and servants, and is said to aid the other gods in preparing for manifestation on the mortal plane.

Omnia

Goddess of Everything Not Covered By Other Gods. As a result, the things Omnia is responsible for are strange, eclectic, and generally only come up in very unusual and specific situations. Her followers are rare and a bit weird, but are mostly quite nice, except for an shadowy (and insane) cult that wishes to destroy all the other gods so as to expand her power.

Kwaaak

The Bird God of Birds, Kwaaak’s faith dwindled to almost non-existance a thousand years ago, after he went insane over wizards developing flying brooms. His church was resurrected recently by an elvish princess, and is making headway promoting him as the (much more sane and reasonable) god of airborne travel in general.

[To Coin a World] Magic Weapons of the Friendly Sea

2011-12-23T13:08:00.002+11:00

What follows are descriptions of the ten magic weapons known to be in use by various adventurers, both active and retired, around the Friendly sea.

Magebiter
Believed to be one of the many malfuctioning magic items left over from the Mage Wars, this sword seems to possess a rudimentary, animalistic personality, and a burning hatred of wizards of all stripes, seeking their deaths above all other things.

The Revenant Dirk
The origins of the Dirk are unclear, but the work of a Necromancer would not be far-fetched as an assumption. So long as the blade remains lodged in a dead body, that body will be animated and attempt to kill all living beings nearby.

Bitter Frost
Forged by the frost giants as a peace offering to the dwarven king in ages past, Bitter Frost bears the numbing cold of the wastes where it was forged, freezing any water that it contacts. It is also said to speak, and lament its own existence as a weapon of war.

The Twin Flails of Chastity
Quenched in the blood of a rabid unicorn, these two light flails are specially effective against those who could be considered loose with their affections.

Mindshiv
Found in the dungeons under the ruins of Xylarthen's Tower, this greenish hilt-less sword is said to be able to speak directly to the mind of the wielder, and sense the hostile intent of those nearby. It seeks new experiences, and if bored, may sabotage the current wielder so that it may be looted by somebody more interesting.

The Four Orcish Pirate Axes:
given as a gift by some dark and unpleasant god to the (now deceased) mutant leader of the orcish pirates known as the Bloody Axes of Powerful Killing, they appear similar in design, but each bears a different power.

The Axe of Power
This axe is able to strike with incredible force, quite out of proportion to the strength of the wielder, but is draining to use.

The Axe of Blood
Victims of this axe find their wounds bleed more freely than would be expected, and are difficult to heal.

The Axe of Killing
This axe can sense when a being is near death, and unerringly seeks to deal the final blow.

The Axe of Axes
When swung, this axe creates duplicates of itself, allowing it to be tossed at enemies as many times as the wielder wishes. The duplicates vanish after a short time.

[To Coin a World] Our Dragons are... diffferent?

2011-12-09T01:21:00.003+11:00

Inspired by the wonderful series over at Lurking Rythmically, I thought I'd type out a few words about dragons on the Coin. They're not hugely different from "standard" D&D style dragons, except where they are...

Dragons breath fire.
Of course, there's quite a bit of variation as to how they do it. Some create a high-pressure gout of flame a hundred meters long, some spit fireballs that explode, some squirt flaming liquid, and some exhale clouds of smog that they then ignite with an electrical discharge. So, while fireproof armour will be invaluable against any dragon, the fire delivery method it has can change other tactical decisions.

Occasionally something will go wrong with the internal furnace of a dragon, usually while it's growing up, causing it to exhale toxic sludge or blasts of lightning. Other dragons consider such creatures hideous degenerates and try to kill them wherever possible.

Dragons are NOT immune to fire.
Dragonhide is very tough, turning aside most weapons, and it is also magic-resistant, turning away a fair number of spells. But, while it is quite resistant to heat, it is not totally fireproof, so a dragon can wade through a burning building, but will still be hurt by the breath of a fellow dragon. Or a large pile of explosives.

Most Dragons LOATH water.
Possibly this might have something to do with the fact they're creatures of fire. Or possibly they just don't like getting water under their scales. Either way, they avoid getting wet whenever they can. This is, in fact, why most dragons have their lairs in caves or dungeons rather than places open to the sky - while being able to fly straight up would be a huge tactical advantage, no dragon is going to sleep somewhere he might get rained on.

Having said that, they're not allergic to it or anything. In fact, if a dragon can overcome it's dislike of the substance, their sleek shape, huge lungs, and vast strength make them excellent swimmers.

Their life-cycle is very uneven.
It takes a dragon only a month or two to grow from a two-foot-long hatchling to a small-house-sized monstrosity, a period during which they are constantly hungry, and will eat literally anything in their immediate vicinity that they can chew (which, considering how hard their teeth are, is basically anything at all). However, once they reach that size, they grow very slowly. As they age, they get bigger, smarter, and lazier. Thankfully for the people of the Coin, once they reach a certain size, the dragon's internal systems seem to become self-sustaining, and they refuse to actually wake up for anything less than a direct attack on their person.

They're Magical, but can't do magic
Dragons are very magical. That's why they can fly despite their weight, can breath fire, can grow scales as hard as steel, and so on. It's also why they have such a huge variation in physical construction within the one species. But, like most inherently magical species, they can't actually cast spells like a human wizard (in fact, it might actually be humanity's lack of inherent magic that lets them do that, but that's a theory for another day). They certainly cannot change shape at will.

Arrows of Dragonslaying

2011-12-07T23:17:00.003+11:00

Dragons are hard to kill. This really shouldn't surprise anybody. I mean, they're giant armoured flying lizards. Clearly any prospective dragon-slayer, or for that matter, any king with a large treasury and a smidgeon of healthy paranoia, will want something to use as an equalizer in a prospective battle.

Setting aside converted siege weapons, asbestos-coated armour and the rare wizard both powerful enough to battle a dragon and crazy enough to try, the best equalizer are magically prepared arrows of dragonslaying.

Admittedly, the name is a bit of a misnomer, as they can't actually kill a dragon except by a truly lucky shot, but unlike normal arrows they entirely ignore the dragon's ridiculously tough hide, and cause debilitating pain quite out of proportion to the amount of damage they inflict. These features are what they're sought for. Being able to hit a dragon's armour and still cause it to fall out of the sky from sheer shock is a big help.

Perhaps ironically, they're quite rare due to the fact they're made out of dragon parts.

Before the magic spell that imbues the arrows with their power can be cast, the heads of the arrows have to be made from dragon claws (in case you were wondering, a given dragon has from six to twenty-two claws, depending on its physical layout).

The next stage, once the heads have been made and affixed to a suitable shaft is to soak the arrows in the still-warm blood of a recently killed dragon.

Because the claws are even harder than the dragon's hide and filing them down to the proper shape can take days, and the blood cannot be more than half an hour old, for every quiver of arrows, two dragons have to slain.

Which explains why they're so amazingly expensive.

Blackpowder on the Coin

2011-11-27T15:46:00.002+11:00

Gunpowder, more commonly known as blackpowder, does exist on the Coin, although it's use is as yet not widespread. It gets used for all the various things it got used for in our own history, such as guns, cannons, bombs, fireworks, and the Xingian Flamethrower.... but it is also used by trolls as a hard drug, typically inhaled through the nose. The rocky consistency of the trollish metabolism can occasionally cause sparks, which is turn means that troll blackpowder addicts run the risk of spontaneous cranial explosion. This explains why they are often referred to as "crackheads".

Other food and drink of the Coin

2011-11-18T14:17:00.003+11:00

in our previous post the dwarven taste for rat was mentioned. A few other items of food and drink are noteworthy as well...

Gruznuk, or Orcish Death Spirit
Orcs are horrible cannibalistic creatures, and love alcohol, so it's probably no surprise that their most famous beverage is actually made from fermented internal organs, usually the livers of the brewer's enemies. The stuff is horrific, almost undrinkable to any non-orc, and even for orcs it can occasionally be lethal. The orcs see this as a plus, though. If a drinker is slain by a bottle of gruznuk, his internal organs are removed, fermented, and then poured back into the bottle, and the defeated orc's name is added to the label. Besting a bottle that has defeated all prior drinkers is considered a heroic feat by the murderous greenskins.

Dematerialized Food
An attempt by wizards to make light and easily portable rations for long journeys, this was once normal food that has had its very physical existence removed, making it a good deal lighter. In fact, it typically appears to be a completely empty paper bag. It is made edible by adding any kind of solid material to the bag, which turns into the specified kind of food.

...Usually. Live frogs are still technically food, right?

[To Coin a World] Giant Rats

2011-11-07T01:36:00.002+11:00

In dwarven cuisine the staple meat is rat.

The giant rats that can be found infesting anywhere liable to be explored by low-level adventurers are the result of a dwarven attempt to breed something big enough to supply a decent steak...

The Icebone Wand of Arng-Duvool

2011-11-06T00:32:00.003+11:00

(this item came about thanks to my ruminating on One-Ring-Like artefacts in D&D-like campaigns, and how one has to make sure they're more dangerous in the hands of the bad guy than they are useful in the hands of the PCs, otherwise the whole dynamic shifts a heap, and you're dealing with a different kind of scenario)

Believed to have been crafted from the thighbone of a god or demigod, killed to free the world from the last ice age, the Icebone Wand of Arng-Duvool holds vast magical power, far beyond that of most mortal mages, and can be wielded by any being who possesses the will to do so, even if they are not themselves a mage or wizard. It would be the ultimate weapon, did it not possess a severe flaw: when its power is used, it saps heat from the user. Even a small manifestation of its magic can leave a wielder shivering and in desperate need of a warm fire, and any serious spellwork will cause frostbite and hypothermia, or even death by flash-freezing.

But for a lich, an undead abomination composed of only a skeleton, unable to feel winter's chill, the wand would be the ultimate prize...

To Coin a World: Genie Servants

2011-10-25T17:23:00.005+11:00

Most adventurers know of Genies, how they are magical beings from another plane, and that they can be bound to serve mortals, even granting wishes.

Fact is, most adventurers outside Aratha have no idea how the nitty-gritty of all that works. They assume that genies are just like demons.

They're not. While a demon can be bound by magical circles, and compelled to perform services, either for free or in exchange for sacrificies, depending on the power of the binding wizard, genies cannot be bound by wizards at all. They can be summoned, but are under no compulsion to obey the summoner.

However, genies have rituals known only to themselves that can bind other genies, forcing them to serve whoever possesses a specified binding object, usually a lamp, amulet or ring. Genie lords often trade these indentured slaves to wealthy Sultans or powerful sorcerers on the mortal plane, in exchange for goods or magic that can't be found on the genie's home dimension.

Occasionally a noble genie will be bound to grant wishes. This is reserved for only the most hated enemies of those doing the binding. Wishes can only be granted on the mortal plane, and each wish granted tears away a third of the genie's very essence, with the third wish either killing the genie, or leaving it a withered husk. Understandably, these genies are bitter, and will twist the wording of wishes to cause as much pain and sorrow on the wisher as they can.

[To Coin a World] The Brotherhood of Sin Eaters

2011-10-21T21:31:00.000+11:00

yet another order of mountain-dwelling holy men, the Brotherhood of Sin Eaters believe it is there holy mission to cleanse supplicants of sin, by taking the sin onto themselves an digesting it, using gluttony to fight its sibling sins. To have one's sins eaten, a supplicant must journey to their monastery, convince them of both the unique flavour of his sins and his willingness to have them expunged, and then be anointed in holy sauces and walk across hot coals, a process overseen by the order's Head Friar. Once this is complete, the Brothers will set to work with their Soul Knives, Forks and Spoons. The supplicant will leave cleansed of his darkest inclinations, and feeling strangely peckish.

Due to their diet, the Brothers are universally gluttonous, and after a meal, will often suffer the dark urges the latest supplicant. At least until they partake of a holy digestive wafer.

A thought about local linguistics

2011-10-18T18:13:00.003+11:00

Recently I've been studying the Late Middle Ages/Renaissance, in particular in Italy. It's become increasingly apparent that 1: it's a great time and place for gaming, and 2: I already knew that, sort of, because how I've always imagined Pyresburg and various other bits of the coastal area near the Friendly Sea sort of matches up with what I'm learning.

Except for the names. The few locations I've actually given names that my players are aware of (the few-ness being a problem I need to fix...) sound like what they are: compound words, or purely made-up stuff. In both cases, chosen by somebody who can only speak English, and horrifically anglicizes any foreign words he comes across. What they don't sound like is Italian.

But maybe there's a (hastily ass-pulled) reason for this: they're "translated" to make them sound like they originated in the player's native tongue, much like in the game-world they originated in the character's native tongue and don't sound like they're "foreign".

Would you buy this explanation as a player? Have you used similar explanations before? Have I adequately explained my thoughts?

Tooth fairies

2011-10-02T23:21:00.003+11:00

They collect teeth because they have none of their own. Their mouths expand to incorporate new teeth as they find them. The older ones have grins that even sharks would find unnerving.

My Return to Minis: Part 3 - Fluffy Captains and Big Dwarfs

2011-09-01T18:12:00.008+10:00

Today, I cover a few things: the continuing search for a captain model for my "human" mercenary warband, and further ruminations on putting together a dwarf warband from the models I already own.

Fluff
I love fluff in games. In fact, I've always been more interested in the fluff of warhammer than the playing of it. So as I was browsing through the miniatures looking for warriors, I was already entertaining some vague ideas about background for my group. Half the warband is half-orcs or other half-breeds, so that would suggest a group of outcasts, the dregs of society forced into mercenary work through a combination of an aptitude for violence, and a lack of other options. They'd probably be lead by a human, if I can find one (see below), as he'd be the one who would talk to employers.

Some warhammer nuts in the audience (assuming we have any) might point out that warhammer doesn't have half-orcs. Of course, those pointing that out obviously weren't around for 1st-edition Warhammer Fantasy Role-play, which did. Along with Gods of Law, the one-eyed-mist-exuding Fimir, Khorne being shown to be a god of valour, Halfling Wizards, and all kinds of other stuff I find quite entertaining, and miss. So nyah.

Oh Captain, My Captain...

The Mordheim rulebook makes a bit of a point about the captain of your warband being, in a way, a representation of the warband's player. So really, you have to pick a model you really like. Which is making that selection a bit hard for me. I like all the models I've outlined for my warband so far, but none of them really look like leader material. Sure, most of the half-orcs look big and imposing, but this isn't an orc group, the leader isn't the guy who can beat everybody else into submission. He's the guy who has a plan. Being able to wallop those who aren't cooperative is helpful, but the plan is the main thing, so the model has to look somewhat imposing, and possibly a bit older than everybody else, to show he's a cunning old veteran.

Finding a model to those sort of specs isn't easy. Most of Reaper's range is either individual adventuring heroes, grunts, or grand generals. Or wizards. If I were allowed to have a wizard as my warband leader, I'd be set. But no such luck.

In the end, I've got a short list of models:

First, this guy is a "northern hero". On the plus side, he'd big and imposing, and seriously-looking. On the con side, he looks like the Arnie rendition of Conan, except with some actual clothing on. Cool, but more a crusher-of-empires than a leader-of-men. Looks a bit too young and in his prime, too. But I could model on some facial hair, maybe a cloak.

This chap is a bandit, according to reaper. That's a big pro to start with. He looks suitably rugged and bulky for the part. And check out that mustache. Cons: hair looks a bit... meh. but that can be fixed, made more wild with green stuff. Also, he's got a shield, which isn't the best investment in mordheim. Not a deal-breaker, but something to keep in mind.

A Pathfinder model, a fighter. He's not as bulky as either of the other selections, but he's far better equipped. Again, he looks a bit young, but some added facial hair can easily fix that.

I had a look at some other miniature producers, but nothing jumped out at me as a serious option.

But this guy (from Hassle-Free miniatures) makes for a great non-serious option. Maybe I should get a scrawny wizard to go with him and the carnivorous treasure chest, to amuse my inner Discworld fan.

These two (from Privateer Press) would make nice henchmen to match the sword-and-crossbow weilding half-orcs.

And a blunderbuss-wielding marksman (again from Hassle-free miniatures) wouldn't go astray, either...

Making Do with Tall Dwarfs
I also had a serious look at the models I have which I could use to make other warbands with as few additional purchases as possible. Turns out I have so many plastic warhammer orcs, I could probably make three whole warbands without breaking a sweat. So long as I like my orcs wielding swords, bows abd more swords, that is. But I do, so that's fine.

On the dwarf front, again, I have a passable number of models. Only problem is, they're from three different ranges, and as a result, are wildly different in their style and proportioning. For all that all dwarves act pretty much alike, they sure do manage to vary a lot.

The models I have are from three different sources:

First, a single reaper dwarf hero I got at a convention. He's got a "viking" style horned helmet and a shield with a complex squiggly celt-y type pattern on it. His eye-level is about up to the shoulder of most human models.

Second, four dwarves from WotC's attempt to revamp the Chainmail miniatures battle game. They've got Gimli-from-the-LotR-Movie style helmets, mostly, and their eye-level is about the upper chest of the human models, but they're noticably smaller in stature than the reaper model. They also have terrible posture.

Third, six dwarves from game's warshop's Marauder line.... so, quite some time ago, relatively speaking. Their eye-level is belt-level for a human, and they're the most disproportionate of the lot. In fact, they seem to match the shape and size of a current warhammer halfling to a tee, including the bulbous noses, even if the hair is in different places. They're also wearing Renaissance-style garb, exactly like warhammer Empire models do.

Now I could make a warband out of those models. But it would look ridiculous. Each of the dwarves looks just fine among its fellows and among human models, but when mixed together they just look weird. I can't convert them to match... it would be too much work. And if I'm going to buy models to make up the warband.... that presents problems. It's easy to get matching size/style models for the reaper dwarf, but that would mean I'd only have one model to start with, making the expense bigger. The chainmail dwarves got discontinued ages ago, and anyway, they don't look very nice. While the Marauder dwarves also got discontinued, I found one man on the internet who sells compatibly sized and styles dwarf models, at a fairly reasonably price, too. But while they're wonderfully characterful and distinctive, they're not wonderfully characterful of my personal image of dwarves...

Maybe I'm being too picky.

My Return to Minis: part 2

2011-08-26T13:44:00.005+10:00

So I find myself making a Mordhiem warband. Hopefully without having to spend and arm and a leg to get it.

First priority is reviewing what models I have from when I gave up years ago: a pretty fair collection, as it turns out. Enough to make an orc and goblin warband out of plastic models (backed up by some squigs), and a dwarf treasure-hunter warband out of a few chainmail dwarves, some really old warhammer dwarves, and a reaper dwarf I picked up at a convention a few years ago. Plus an ogre and a Halfling hired sword.

Problem is, I don’t actually like any of those models very much. I don’t really like most of GW’s stuff, except their plastic gnoblars and river trolls, both of which are sold in minimum quantities far larger than I could ever need, and so are off the table. I’m still going to build and paint those orcs and dwarves, but just so my non-collecting friends can have something to use on occasion.

This leads me to decide that I’ll make a warband out of minis from other companies. A quick trip to the local gaming store reminded me that Reaper Miniatures makes the official Pathfinder minis, and I’ve always loved the character illustrations in Pathfinder. So the Reaper online store is my first stop.

Wow. They sure have a big range, don’t they?

After several hours of trawling through the catalog, I worked out the models I could get for a mercenary warband, or for a dwarf warband that I actually like the look of. I spent some time trying to decide which to go for, but in the end I picked the human mercenaries. I’ll only really be playing one warband, and I’m not sure I’d like how slow dwarves are.

Actually, calling my theoretical warband “human” might be a bit of a misnomer. Reaper’s copious catalog includes a fair number of half-orcs, and I love half-orcs, so they’ll be forming the backbone of my warband. They’ll count as a Middenheimer group, for the increased strength scores on the champions and captain.

A quick run-through of the models I’m planning on buying:

Henchmen with two-handed weapons. Some of the models have bows, so I’ll probably add bows to the rest as well. It might not be the best combination of weapons, tactically... I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes.

Henchmen with swords, daggers and crossbows. At least once I give the second one a crossbow. I’m thinking of having them as Swordsmen, for the extra bonus in combat... but again, swordsmen with crossbows might be a bit of a waste.

Two youngbloods. I was originally going to have one of the youngbloods be human, but I just love how gangly and weird that half-elf model looks.

One of the champions. I’m still tossing up whether that weird-looking sword should be a sword, or a two-handed weapon, rules-wise.

The other champion. Obviously some kind of mutant, I mean, just look at those huge great... horns. She’s going to be the one and only model in the warband with any kind of armour save, thanks to that shield. Seriously, armour in Mordheim is just uneconomical.

Annoyingly, I couldn’t find any models I liked for a captain. I’ll have to look further afield.

I picked out some hired swords, too: A warlock (who is excellent, but really needs a pointy hat if you ask me), Halfling, elf, and ogre.

And two different options for a dwarf trollslayer. One the one hand, the lady looked suitably angry to be a trollslayer, but on the other, the guy is really rocking the Tolkein dwarf-wearing-a-hooded-cloak look. Either way, I’ve have to convert them to be holding two axes, even the guy. What is that, a can-opener?

And lastly, I just love this thing, so I might buy it and use it as a wardog.

Due to reaper’s (comparatively) cheap prices, all the above models should only cost me about $160, approximately. Possibly plus postage, depending on how much it would cost to order them through my local gaming store, as opposed to ordering them directly from Reaper.

Next: searching for a captain.

My Return to Minis (Part 1)

2011-08-25T14:46:00.002+10:00

many years ago, I was into Warhammer 40,000. While I still find the works of games workshop interesting, and their settings ripe for darkly humourous role-play, I haven't bought anything of theirs in a long time, nor played either of their two big games.

My reasons for quitting were several-fold:

Games Workshop miniatures became too damned expensive.
I grew to hate painting dozens of models.
I sucked at strategy, which was exacerbated by the fact that 40k strategy seems to mostly be army list selection - and I could only field the small selection of models I had.
the friend I would play with lost interest, and while I could probably have found people to game against, I like to have a circle of friends, some of whom I game with, not a circle of gamers, some of whom are my friends. Hmm, this sounds liek a topic for a future blog post...

Then last year, The Lone Amigo dragged me into playing battlefleet Gothic with him. It was excellent. While the official GW BFG models are even more stupidly expensive than the rest of their range, we used lego or meeples blu-tacked together for our ships. Movement and prioritizing of actions is a very important part of the strategy, not just getting the right models to counter the other army. I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't going to cause me to actually go out and buy any models. The meeples worked far too well.

Then, in the last few months I've made friends with a fellow nerd named Matt in my liberal arts classes who is really into miniatures. I went around to his house and we played a game of malafaux using stuff from his copious minis collection. I, again, enjoyed it. It's a good game, and I recommend it to anybody reading this. Skirmish games involve rather different strategy than huge 40k slug-fests, and that's strategy I can actually handle. I find myself momentarily feeling the urge to rush out and buy some minis for the game, which are quite reasonably priced. But I don't. Matt is pretty much the only guy I would play against, and he owns a copy of essentially every Malafaux model ever made, so there is no need. Besides, the models are cool, but they don't appeal as much as some other stuff I've seen out there. I vaguely consider buying other models and having them "count as" but that seems a bit pointless when I can just use the "normal" models that Matt has, particularly as steampunk minis are a little harder to find than some other genres.

Then Matt mentions that his gaming group is really into Mordhiem.

I tried to get into Mordhiem back in the day. Heck, it solved my issue about heaps of minis. But the problem was, I didn't actually LIKE any of the minis they released for Mordhiem. I got some Orc and Goblin minis to use for it, but I never actually acquired the rulebook, and so never actually played.

So suddenly I realize all the barriers to me collecting tiny metal and plastic men have been lifted. There are so many competitors to Games Workshop that sell miniatures I like more for far cheaper prices that getting together a dozen or so models won't be hard. I have glasses now, so painting won't be an issue. I have access to people to game with. And the rulebook for the game is free.

Looks like I'm back into miniatures.

[Troubles & Treasures] Class Acts: The Archer

2011-07-23T16:22:00.005+10:00

Archer

Prime Requisite: Dexterity

Key Skill: Physical, Subterfuge

At a moment's notice, the arrow is loosed from its string, flying true into the heart of its target. Another follows soon after, decorating the monster with protruding shafts. Before the beast has even had a chance to realise what's happening, it collapses like an overblown pincushion. The bowman moves swiftly through the clearing, vanishing back into the shadows.

This is the way of the archer. To strike swiftly from a distance, to blend with the shadows, to be on the enemy before they can even respond.

Play an archer if you want to...

Be one with your bow, not this namby-pamby nature shit.
Strike from the shadows, hit where it hurts, and pepper your foes with arrows.
Keep your distance from the enemy.

Class Features:

Sniper's Aim

When you spend a round aiming, roll a Dexterity attack against your target. If you hit, either they must move away from you, or your next attack against them is automatically a critical.

Rapid Volley

When you draw on your inner reserves of strength, you can fire a truly ridiculous amount of arrows. You can spend a healing surge to make an attack against every target in a 10ft radius.

Quick Draw

If your bow is nearby, you can have it in your hands with an arrow notched at a moment's notice.

Archer's Alarcity

Take +3 to Subterfuge or Physical, your choice.

Class Feats

Mounted Archer

When you fire arrows from horseback, take +1 to your attack roll if your mount is moving at full speed.

Two Birds

When you fire two arrows at one target, it counts as one attack at a -2 penalty, but you do double damage on a hit.

Weighty Pull

Add your Strength bonus to your bow's damage.

Shoot the Horizon

When you have a bow, you can shoot anything you can see with no range penalty.

[Troubles & Treasures] Class Acts: The Hoplite

2011-07-22T11:52:00.000+10:00

Hoplite

Prime Requisite: Strength

Key Skill: Physical

Armed with spear, javelin, and sword, the hoplites of the Mynacean city-states contribute some of the most feared armies in the civilised world. With their heavy armor and shields, they can shrug off nearly any barrage, and be ready to strike back in force with javelins. Hoplites traditionally fight together, in a phalanx of free men, but some use their freedom to take up the life of a travelling adventurer, battling madness and hubris wherever it may arise.

Play a hoplite if you want to...

Defend your allies and your city with shield and spear.
Live as a free and honorable citizen-soldier of the Mynacean city-states.
Be equally dangerous in hand-to-hand and ranged combat.

Class Features

Phalanx Protector

When wielding a shield, you and any adjacent allies gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Javelin Hurler

When you hurl a javelin or spear, add both your Strength and Dexterity bonus to the attack and damage rolls.

Arete

You are not just a solider; you are a hero of Mynacea; perhaps an athlete, a philosopher, or an orator. Add +3 to one of Physical, Knowledge, or Communication, and +1 to the others.

Class Feats

We Will Fight In The Shade

When wielding a shield, you add an additional +1 to AC against ranged attacks, on top of your Phalanx Protector bonus.

Defenders of the Polis

When you stand in solemn defense of a city, town, or village, you will not die or collapse until you have suffered damage equal to twice your hit points.

Agon and Tragordia

When you challenge a foe to single combat and lose, you get experience points as if you had defeated them.

[To Coin a World] The Tax Monks

2011-07-21T12:41:00.000+10:00

One of the many orders of holy men that inhabit monasteries throughout the mountains of spindlewick, "The Tax Monks" is the name used by the populace to describe the Holy Order of the Civil Servants of the Universal Bureaucracy, a group dating back to when the Xing Empire ruled Spindlewick thousands of years ago. Civil service is a holy work to these high-trained monks, and they go on pilgrimages, pledging themselves to aid in maintaining some aspect of high civilization, often the delivery of letters, or the collection of taxes. Their Aetheric Auditor fighting style and iron sense of duty make them rightly feared by bandits and corrupt taxmen alike.

[To Coin a World] Orgosh Khal

2011-07-21T11:55:00.000+10:00

Orgosh Khal

The very name strikes fear into the hearts of many a soldier or mercenary who has tried to scale its terrible walls. It strikes considerably less fear into the hearts of a considerably larger number of soldiers, who, having died trying to scale its walls, have considerably less to fear.

Great Orghosh Pass, in the Blackstone Mountains, is the only true gateway from the Worse Lands into Cisrhania and the wider Neuremanshreik. For centuries, it has been held shut against every army the Caesars of Waldorf have sent against it, guarded by the terrible black fortress of Orghosh Khal. It has ever been the weeping sore on the Imperium's fringe, leaking raiders, barbarians, and bandits into hubwards Cisrhania like pus.

The fortress itself is without equal in the near Spindlewick, with its black stone walls rising a hundred feet above the barren soil, guarded by spiked crenelations and a thousand murder holes. An immense wrought-iron gate holds the pass shut against men and beasts alike, only opening to disgorge horrors. From the outside, it betrays no weakness, no easy vulnerabilities. And yet it would have fallen a thousand times over were it not for the steeled might of its black-armored commander.

In the ancient Blackstone tongue, he called by the name Rekh Ardor Kin, the Man Without God. The men of the Empire know of him as the Antipaladin, he whom no god may touch. Beneath his gaze, no divine spark flutters; clerics call helplessly on their gods for aid as they are slaughtered by the dark armies at his command. Where some heinous villains are called soulless, the Antipaladin is something even worse. He transcends the demonic and the celestial; where the gods are the Alpha, he is the Omega.

It is not known from which dark void he sprang, or what terrible horrors lie in his past. All that is known is that a man clad in deep-black armour commands the gutterspawned legion of cursed mercenaries, black-hearted bandits, and manlike beasts that hold Orghosh Pass shut. For a century they have merely held open the pass at Orghosh Khal, allowing raiders and hordes from the Worse Lands to pour into civilized country while holding the pass tight against the Imperial Army when they seek retribution.

And yet now they are gathering strength for some unknown purpose. Beneath the steely gaze of the Antipaladin, a war-host is gathering on the Accursed Fields. From across the Worse Lands they come, gnolls and ogres and ratlings and rhinokin and a thousand other kinds of beast. The Imperial Reman League seems impossibly unprepared for an assault, as their princes and barons play at the game of crowns. If the Antipaladin's forces surge forth from Orgosh Path, all Spindlewick can hope for is a few brave heroes.

Sucker Punched: Violence is Boring

2011-07-19T21:04:00.005+10:00

The other day I finally got around to watching Sucker Punch, Zack Snyder's latest theatrical action extravaganza, and it was awful. This might not come as a shock to you, but it somewhat surprised me. Certainly, it was full of turgid dialogue, made for questionable gender politics, and had a paper-thin plot, but all these qualities were expected going in. It fails on a much more important level: it fails as an action movie, because it forgets that action isn't about violence, it's about adversity and conflict.

The explosive, genre-tastic, mook-filled action sequences at the heart of Sucker Punch left me bored shitless. It's not that I can't appreciate a good fight on screen; I'm a devoted fan of action and genre movies. To my eyes, a well-choreographed action sequence or battle scene can have all the expressiveness of a classical ballet. If a movie trailer is laced with giant robots battling dragons and explosions followed by cars crashing through plate glass, it's almost guaranteed to get my attention. Despite a budget sufficient to refloat the economy of a small Mediterranean nation, Sucker Punch entirely failed to win me over.

Fundamentally, the phantasmagorical action of the film fails because it is filled with violence while being utterly devoid of adversity. Over the course of four epic scenes, we see the female heroines battling an assortment of random mooks from the Hollywood genre archives, slicing into robots, orks, and clockwork zombies with equal enthusiasm. Yet we never once feel like they are threatened or in any real danger until they return to the grimy real world. There is no John McClane pulling glass shards out of his feet, or Biggs Darklighter getting blown out of the sky in the Death Star trench run, just wave after wave of easily dispatched enemies.

Not only do they fail to show any sort of danger, the action sequences also seem completely inconsequential to the film's main plot. One could strip them from the film and leave a no less coherent narrative. All stories are built from conflicts, internal or external, and each scene should contribute to the contextualisation, escalation or resolution of these conflicts. The turgid computer-generated battles don't serve any of these purposes; they merely serve to exhibit the skill of the cinematographers. You can't fault Snyder's CGI work or his choreography to explain why the scenes fall flat, because they fail on a much deeper level: they fail as scenes in a narrative. The director forgets that violence is boring; conflict and adversity drive stories.

To bring this back to gaming, I think this issue explains why many combat sequences in roleplaying games like D&D can seem lackluster. When there's no serious adversity or danger in the scene, it's hard for any sort of engagement to arise, even from a tactical level. Worse yet, scenes can fall flat when they don't serve to escalate or resolve conflicts. If the characters have nothing to win by defeating their opponents other than mechanical rewards like XP, the game becomes nothing more than a tactical murder simulator. This works only when the game's tactical situation is sufficiently interesting. If instead the characters have a real stake in the fight, if they must overcome adversity to achieve their goals, then the combat can become a real conflict.

[To Coin a World] The Disenchanted Forest

2011-07-18T17:37:00.000+10:00

Spindlewick, the major hub-continent of the Coin, is covered in forests. Most of them are enchanted, and are positively lousy with fairies, unicorns, and other obnoxious and highly-magical beings. Against this magical backdrop, one region stands out - The Disenchanted Forest. The area is completely devoid of magic. Spells do not work under its eves, enchanted items are useless, and magical beings lose any magical powers and properties until they leave the wood.

Encounters in the Disenchanted Forest:

A completely normal, non-talking, non-mutated animal.
A rather confused lycanthrope that has become a completely normal man, at least temporarily. Probably looking for some clothes.
A group of wizards doing research on the area. Their spells don't work, so they're carying ridiculous amounts of armour and weaponry to compensate. They're very jumpy, because they can hear off in the distance...
A tyrannosaurus rex. It used to be a dragon. Now it's very stupid, and very angry.

[To Coin a World] A Brief History of the Grand Reman League

2011-07-17T22:22:00.000+10:00

The Fall of the Reman Empire

Reme at its height, 1559AUC

A thousand years ago, the known world, from Aratha to Soleille to Zwuyala, was ruled from the great city of Reme. From humble beginning as a city founded by twin orphans, Reme grew to become the largest city on the coin, its streets thronging with the press of a million citizens. Its legions and tribunes enforced a long era of peace and prosperity. Elven princes paid tribute to the Reman emperors, the first human rulers to be acknowledged on a more-or-less equal basis, and fought together with them in the War of the Lunar Frog and other great conflicts against evil. It seemed that, within the reach of Reme, the Coin's centennial cycle of great kingdoms rising only to be smashed by barbarians and black-hearted sorcerers had come to an end.

It was instead perhaps an interregnum. As peace reigned across Spindlewick, the Reman elites grew decadent and perverse, delving into the pursuit of obscene luxury. Taxes raised from the provinces that once paid the salary of the legionnaires now went straight to the banquet tables of senators and patricians. Border forts crumbled, the provinces went undefended, and the famous Reman roads fell into disrepair. Over the years, the Palace of the Ceasars was given over to a series of terrible Emperors, who alternated between mad, bad, and merely extremely corrupt. In 1889AUC, the Imperial family gave up on the whole game and decided to sell the entire Empire at open auction to the highest bidder.

This turned out to be not a very good idea.

The Not Very Light Ages

It was a bit shit all around, to be honest

In the chaos following the Leveraged Sell-Out, the remnants of the Empire collapsed as waves of barbarian invaders swarmed across the frontiers. Amongst them were the Bellagoths, a clan of female vampire-worshippers who would go on to establish the Republic of Orzovia, and the Ostremos, whose chieftain famously stopped at the gates of ruined Reme itself and declared it wasn't worth the effort of conquering. The elves retreated into their forests, the dwarves into their mountain halls. Spindlewick was plunged into an age of terror, decay, and barbarity.

In most of the former empire, this lead to several hundred years of petty kings, bandit chieftain, feudal squabbles, and general abuse of the peasantry. One remote province of the Empire, Cisrhania, was particularly devastated after the fall. As the Reman rule over the monstrous tribes of the Worse Lands collapsed, the dark sorcerer Morevac the Merciless gathered them together into an immense horde. In 1939AUC, his dark forces surged across the Rhâne river, and set the province alight from end to end. From his black tower of Rhâner Khal, Morevac consolidated his rule, condemning the province to oppression and darkness.

And thus it was, for more than five hundred years; enough time for the people of Spindlewick to forget the glories of the Reman Empire, and become accustomed to poverty, deprivation, and a general lack of joy. It would only be in the late 2400s, when a humble merchant from the tiny village of Waldorf-on-the-Rhâne fought off a tribe of goblin bandits in the Disenchanted Forest. Examining the corpses, the merchant, Astrid Kratzburg, was startled to discover that the straggly goblin bandits carried an immense amount of Reman jewelry, much marked with the paisley wreath of the Ceasars. When she followed the trail back to their makeshift camp, she was startled to discover that the original bearer bond granting dominion over the Reman Empire had been held within the hands of goblin bandits for the past three hundred years.

The Merchant Empress Rises

Astrid von Kratzburg, first Kaiserina of the Reunited Imperium

The young merchant had been a minor participant for some time in the underground resistance to Morevac's rule, and with this document, she saw the key to defeating him. With perhaps dubious legal grounding, but the best of intentions, she declared herself Empress of the Reman Empire, and set to gathering together a base of support. Her allies within the Cisrhanian underground were easy to convince; with the sale of much of the Reman crown jewels, she was even able to hire a reasonable number of mercenaries. A small army began to gather under her auspices on the outskirts of the Disenchanted Forest, but it would never be enough to defeat Morevac with his sorcerous supremacy and his monstrous allies. For that, she would need allies.

A plan was hatched. Years as a only somewhat honest merchant had given Astrid a keen eye for the credulous, and when Prince Relathio of the Dawnwind Elves came to her attention, she was ready for him. Relathio was a fine specimen of Elvish nobility; graceful, gallant, and about as gullible as a guppy. Using her newfound imperiousness, she convinced Relathio of the existence of an ancient treaty between the Reman Emperors and the Dawnwind Elves, promising martial assistance in times of need. Relathio and the Dawnwind Elves, who had in any case not particularly noticed the fall of the Reman Empire in the first place, gracefully acceded to assist.

With the support of the Dawnwind Elves guaranteed, nearby baronies flocked quickly to Astrid's banner. Haggling over the price of salted eels and spoiled eggs had given the new Empress better training in diplomacy than most noble academies, and she easily won the petty barons to her side with promises of autonomy within a new Imperial League. Even the burghers of Pyresburg were won to her side with trading concessions and fiery oratory. With her hard-won allies, the Empress was ready to free Cisrhania from the rule of Morevac.

A bickering collection of mercenaries, elven nobles, and petty militia would have been no match for the orcs, ogres, goblins, and monsters that made up Morevac's guards, let alone his mystic power. However, a Reman legion, led personally into battle by its Empress, turned out to be more than a match for the Shadow Over Cisrhania. In pitched battle upon the grassy fields before Waldorf-on-the-Rhâne, the League's forces shattered the armies of Morevac. Auxiliaries stormed his fortress of Rhâner Khal, freeing his tormented captives and destroying his obscene experiments. As he fled Cisrhania for Orghosh Pass and the Blackstone Mountains, Morevac himself was hunted down and captured by elven windrunners.

As Morevac hung from his noose in Waldorf's town square, Astrid Kratzburg, proclaimed the rebirth of the glorious Reman Empire; or to be more accurate, the birth of a new Imperium, more league than empire, more Cisrhanian than Reman, built not to service the needs of a single city but to protect the freedom of the many. And Waldorf-on-the-Rhâne, her home, the village held so long under the shadow of sorcerous rule, would be its new capital.

An Imperial Renaissance

The Rhânebridge at Waldorf

Under the rule of Empress Astrid, Waldorf would grow from a tiny thorp to a bustling burg, and her reborn Imperium would expand at a similar pace. Astrid established a framework that made it simple for baronies and petty kingdoms to join the league, without sacrificing any of their power. Kingdoms would become grand duchies within the league, with the right to send Electors to the Imperial College in Waldorf and choose the new Kaiser upon the death of the old. In return, they would gain trade concessions, open their borders to the elves, and membership in a pact of mutual protection. It was an appealing recipe, and it brought kingdoms into the new empire like seagulls to a picnic.

A new age of prosperity dawned in central Spindlewick. Merchants and pilgrims could freely travel the breadth of the Empire without concern for borders and tariffs. The elven forests were opened once more, and the dwarven holds reestablished their trade missions missions in the lowlands. Imperial levies held the dark tribes of the Worse Lands at bay, and even the raiders and pirates of the Friendly Sea kept to their hidden ports. A brief period of uncertainty reigned upon the death of Empress Astrid, but the confirmation as Kaiser of her son, Ulrich Remulus von Kratzburg, stilled any movements of discontent.

Ulrich proved just as capable a leader as his mother. In his reign, the wizarding academy of Phagemorts would be established to give the Imperium a sound source of sorcerous talent, and the first of many wars against against the Kingdom of Soleille would be fought and won. Later successors would establish a network of Imperial roads and canals, extend the reach of the Reman league to colonies in Zwuyala, Yonda, and further afield, and fight glorious wars against the enemies of the Grand Reman League.

Modernity and the Grand Reman League

A street-level view of modern Waldorf

Four hundred years after the death of the Empress Astrid, the empire she founded has lost none of its diversity and vibrancy, but perhaps it has lost most of the unity it once had. According to a commonly held saying, the Grand Reman League "is neither particularly grand, nor does it include the city of Reme within its borders, and is only a league in the sense of a grudgeball league, in that it is an excuse for its members to dress up in funny colours and beat the stuffing out of one another".

Its last real exhibition of unity was during the war against Soleille a hundred years ago, fought over the absorption of the crescent city of Languille as an Imperial electorate. The only wars that have been fought lately have been between duchies, not beyond the Empire's borders, and the current Emperor, Otto Herbert Kratzburg Franz von Sumpfkastell, also known as Otto the Useless, owes his election as much to the mutual hatred of the other candidates as it does to his delicate political marriage. Within the borders of the league, bandit chieftains and goblin tribes are becoming bolder than even before, attacking larger caravans and even small villages and baronies.

Still, the Grand Reman League is still the dynamic heart of Spindlewick; its workshops export manufactured goods to the entire continent, its finest sorcerers could match spells with any the Coin have to offer, its trading companies reach across oceans, and its distant colonies still pay heed and tribute to the motherland. As the Coin flips into a new age, it remains to be seen whether the future lies with the Ceasars of Waldorf, but it is almost certain that the pieces that make up the Reman League have important parts to play.

[To Coin a World] The Elves of Yonda and the Downunderdark

2011-07-17T18:27:00.002+10:00

As mentioned in my previous post, wizards are a repressed minority in elvish society. But as John asked in the comments, why didn't they just rise up and overthrow their magically-powerless subjugators and declare the elf kingdoms and magocracy?

Well, a few generations ago (which, considering the elvish lifespan, means quite a long time by most standards) that's exactly what the wizards tried. At the time, there were even more elvish wizards than there are now... but they still failed. Elves are actually rather bad at wizardry, taking decades to master arcane arts that the rarer human wizard can master in a few years.

While the elf wizards could do a whole slew of things that the warriors they battled could not, they in turn could not do a few things that the warriors could. Like wear armour. Or fight with a sword when they ran out of power. Or jog up some steps without getting winded. Ultimately, the wizards lost.

The survivors of the attempted rebellion were rounded up, and banished to the mainland of Yonda. While Yendys is a tropical paradise, Yonda is a sun-blasted, high-background-magic wasteland, infested with spiders and snakes and all manner of other poisonous monsters. Many of the exiles died, and those that didn't were warped and twisted. Their pasty complexions, the result of years spent studying indoors were burnt, their hair bleached, their eyes constantly irradiated by the arid climate and harsh sunlight. The magic of the land coupled with the peculiar biology of the elvish people meant that their descendants have obsidian-black skin, white hair, and sinister red eyes to this day. The survivors, after the first few years, got so sick of their prison continent that they took the desperate measure of burrowing and escape tunnel. Under the ocean. While this utterly insane idea was probably the result of extended sunstroke, it actually worked. The crust of the Coin is shot through with vast carven networks stretching from the Hublands all the way out to the Rim, and the "Dark" elf rebels took to these caverns, and mostly haven't returned to the surface since, so strong is their loathing of sunlight. They now have vast underground kingdoms, ruled by the best wizards among them, and have a long-standing hatred of their surface kin.

So, in short... the dark elves of the Coin are Australian Convict Wizards.

[To Coin a World] Wizards in Elvish Society

2011-07-14T22:01:00.004+10:00

The Elves of the Coin have a peculiarly lopsided society. Most elves live in settlements hidden deep in the woods, or in the elvish city of Yendys, on its idyllic island off the coast of the hellish continent of Yonda. Apart from a few who act as scouts and rangers, patrolling the elvish borders and promising a swift and arrow-studded death to intruders, the vast majority of elves live relaxed lives that most human nobles would be envious of.

Which is a bit strange, considering that these elvish nobles have no peasant class to support this lifestyle. There are no farmers, goat-herds, bakers, plumbers, or carpenters among the elves (excepting certain individuals who take up such lives as hobbies or artforms). So how does elvish civilization function?

A wizard did it.

Or more accurately, a whole bunch of wizards do it every day with a host of spells designed to do away with the underclass workforce. As a result elvish wizards are in fact treated as an underclass themselves. In a society comprised of beautiful socialites and athletes, the bookish magi are shunned and ignored, unless some spell has failed and needs replacing.

Understandably, some elf wizards are less than happy about this, and leave. Many elvish adventurers are wizards primarily because of this. They might be considered ugly and "common" by elf standards, but to a human, any elf is beautiful, and wizards are people to be given respect (if you don't want to end up as some type of amphibian). To a lowly elf plumber-mage, the adventuring life is like a dream come true.

[OuterZone] Krazon Traditions & Superstitions

2011-07-14T18:21:00.005+10:00

Spiritual Traditions

Muragh osh ku muragh dakh.

To strike first is to strike last.

A number of spiritual and philosophical traditions have arisen upon the Krazon homeworld of Nokhan in its five thousand years of civilised history, but only a few continue to capture adherence within the modern Empire. Perhaps most prominent are the spiritual teachings of Oblakh, the Sixfold Path. This was the faith of the Emperors who unified Nokhan, and continues to be the dominate spiritual tradition even now during the Korugh Regency.

The Sixfold Heart

Kraz kor ku durab, maz kraz hekh ku madish.

A brave heart is a strong one, but a sixfold heart is invulnerable

The name Krazon comes not from their word for people, or for world, or from the name of some ancient dynasty. It comes from the word krazonku, meaning one of the heart. In the Oblakh tradition, to be Krazon is to listen to the six spirits that dwell within the heart's ventricles.

Bokh, the spirit of duty and honour. Associations: Dirt, the colour red, the number one.
Kora, the spirit of bravery and strength. Associations: Stone, the colour orange, the number two.
Pazh, the spirit of ingenuity and wisdom. Associations: Wind, the colour yellow, the number three.
Mozha, the spirit of kindness and mercy. Associations: Water, the colour green, the number four.
Hoba, the spirit of friendship and humour. Associations: Ice, the colour cyan, the number five.
Mabh, the spirit of trickery and selfishness. Associations: Lightning, the colour blue, the number six.

It is common, although theologically incorrect, for Krazon to speak of the spirits as if they were personified individuals. "By Bokh's beard!" and "By Mabh's mace!" are colloquial expressions that express surprise or anger, invoking the names of the spirits or krazald.

The Sixfold Heart is also reflected in the six castes of ancient Krazon society:

The Bokhan, the farmers and workers.
The Koroz, the warriors and nobles.
The Pazhan, the priests and holy men.
The Mozhon, the healers and servants.
The Hoban, the merchants and innkeepers.
The Mabhan, the unclean and criminals. Foreigners, non-followers of Oblakh, and non-Krazon are traditionally included in this caste.

In modern Krazon society, caste is more a cultural marker than one of occupation. Indeed, nowadays the majority of Krazon merchants and industrialists belong to the Pazhan caste. Since the abolition of the Warrior's Privilege under the current Regency, caste is officially meaningless, but still carries vast weight in society. Impoverished Mabhan can still expect oppression and disdain from high-caste Krazon.

Blood Quest

Lokh tar ogar, kraz muragha durgad.

Through blood and storm, a warrior's heart is forged.

Where other societies might see fit to challenge their youth with a dangerous ritual at the transition to adulthood, Krazon culture demands sacrifice at every turn. It is traditional for any Krazon who achieves a major milestone to undertake a lokh saba, or blood quest; one equal in difficulty to the challenges they are expected to face in their new life.

A blood quest may take many forms, depending on the milestone to be achieved. All, however, involve blood, violence, and suffering. A few examples:

To prove their worthiness for motherhood, pregnant Krazon females must hunt and kill a mother kroggar by hand before their child is born. If they fail, both they and the child will be declared Mabhan.
In preparation for marriage, a Krazon groom must first defend himself against the sequential murder attempts of his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, and finally his bride-to-be, before embarking on a vision quest into the deep desert to seek wisdom and patience.
To join the Imperial admiralty, a Krazon war-captain is expected to wrestle a sea monster known as the Orxan; a fierce, many-tentacled creature that lurks in the deep crevasses of Nokhan.
A Krazon male is not considered of age until he can best his oldest male relative in single combat.

Since the installation of the Korugh Regency, many of these traditional blood quests have been abolished or even banned. Positions in the Imperial bureaucracy no longer demand ritual combat; instead, a simple competitive examination suffices to prove one's competence. Still, cultural change is slow, and the Krazon military continues to unofficially maintain its traditions.

Common Superstitions

Muragha morvad tar glash.

A warrior dies with his blade.

Kroggar hekh ku kraz, zed darvad mudh.

Six kroggar make a heart, seven destroy a world.

Dobru kara taron lronad lokh ku aksar darv.

To cross water without spilling blood is to invite disaster.

Ruad murkurad ku zalt Mabh, ruad daklarad glash Bokh.

A whispered promise is Mabh's mace, a bellowed oath is Bokh's blade.

[Apocalypse World] Honeytown and the Space Wasps

2011-06-22T13:11:00.001+10:00

So, despite having run and designed a bunch of Apocalypse World hacks up to this point, I'd never actually busted out the original eleven herbs and spices up to today, when my friends and I ventured into the psychic maelstrom for the first time.

Taking a leaf out of Fabricated Realities' book, I made sure the play space was as apocalyptic as possible, scattering images of the apocalypse all over the table and the walls and keeping light to a minimum, with a message of despair scrawled across the whiteboard. This is the first time we'd really done anything like this, and I think it helped build a better play experience, creating a discontinuity between the game play and the outside world.

We settled on an island-based Apocalypse World; I printed out a Russian-language map of the Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal to serve as the baseline map. Foreign-language maps work great for creating distance between the location and the players. The one piece of knowledge about the apocalypse that we established early in play was that all the bees - all insects in fact - were dead, and Honeytown was (as a result of the Savvyhead's work) the only place known to grow fruit rather than scavenge tinned fruit from the remains of the Golden Age.

The players arrived slowly and snapped up playbooks somewhat haphazardly; one player (Colonel) arrived about twenty minutes into character creation. We had:

Truth the Hocus was a Greek-style philosopher-teacher who preached an almost Nietzchean dogma of extreme self-reliance. From his traditional pulpit in the town square of Honeytown, he declaimed that the apocalypse had been a liberating event, freeing the Human Will to Power from the shackles of societal strength.

Josie the Quarantine washed up on the shipwreck beaches east of Honeytown a few weeks ago in a strange lifepod, where she was rescued by Truth. She had sort of settled into his little entourage for the time being, despite her strong dislike of his philosophy; it reminded her of the Nietzchean philosophies of her superiors.

Whitmont the Savvyhead had been a child when the apocalypse had struck, fascinated with insects. He remembered fleeing devastation on a plane with his mother, but little about the contents of the apocalypse - the psychic maelstrom had evidently erected a strong barrier around people's memories from the Before. His childhood fascination with insects would become Honeytown's salvation when he used his weird technical skills and a shipload of dead Africanised bees to create a hive of cyber-zombie bees that pollinated the orchards around Honeytown.

Colonel the Hardholder was a soldier from the Before who remembered Josie's face from a youth spent in uniform. Using his military equipment and knowledge, he ruled Honeytown with a gentle fist, turning it into the market centre for the island chain. He held to some extent with Truth's philosophy, though in an apparent paradox, also supported an infirmary for those who suffered the cancerous wrath of the angry sun.

The 1st Session

We start the game with the lights going out all over Honeytown.

Okay, we actually start the game with the start-of-session moves; Colonel misses his wealth roll and thus Honeytown is set on the verge of starvation; the last fruit harvest failed with disease running rampant amongst the fruit-pickers and his gang gorging themselves on the remaining supplies in the Tiki Bar.

Then we see the lights go out, from the Ferris wheel look-out to Whitmont's apiary-lab, and it's not a good sign. The power's supplied by overland cable from Vasiligrad on the other side of the island, where an old Soviet nuclear submarine is beached in a bay. Cannibal tribes that run the interior jungle tend not to fuck with it since Colonel and Captain Vasili joined forces to burn out their villages last time they did. If they're fucking with the cable, it's a sign they're losing respect for the strength of Honeytown.

The sudden power cut freaks out the loiterers in the Tiki Bar, which lounges beneath the Ferris wheel in the old fairground that serves as Honeytown's market. The loiterers include Truth and Josie, who are watching idly by as Colonel's number-two, Parson, has the shit kicked out of him by another gang member over a woman. Colonel comes out of his hut and isn't having any of this shit; he threatens Pierre, the gang member, with dismemberment if he doesn't let the fuck go of Parson (go aggro, 7-9). Pierre backs off slowly, hands in the open, and drags the woman, Chazza, away with him. Parson, who's completely wasted, blearily turns to Colonel and then collapses to puke his guts up.

Whitmont's working in his lab, trying to get to the bottom of this bee shit, when the power cuts out. He swears, and kicks the backup generator into gear. It splutters and halts - out of fuel. He swears again. Trying to work out what's going on, he taps into the psychic maelstrom (augury, 7-9) using his psychic antenna - his zombie bee hives. Reaching out to look at the power cable, he sees it's been severed deep in the jungle, in a place surrounded by anger, engines, and trees.

Driving into town in his customised Humvee, he relays this information to Colonel, who tries to scare up his gang; they are, however, too busy listening to Truth, who's speaking the truth (7-9) about how the cable represents reliance, and how the cannibal gangs have struck a blow in a war against Honeytown, and how they must be destroyed. After the mob disperses off to seek vengeance (orgy of violence), Truth and Josie decide to join Colonel and Whitmont on their drive into the deep jungles of the island.

Cue generate badness, and the gang runs into an old bridge over a ravine, covered in corpses. As Whitmont and Colonel move in to investigate, they recognise the facial tattoos of some of the more intact corpses - they're from the cannibal tribes of the interior. It's at this point they start to realise there's more to this situation than just a couple of savages severing the cable. Colonel steps out onto the bridge to test its strength and see if it will hold the Humvee. It won't - as soon as he gets to the centre of the bridge, it explodes, showering everyone nearby in pieces of concrete and fleshy chunks of Colonel.

(Colonel's player, at this point, had to leave to another appointment. We didn't necessarily know whether he'd be able to join us for another session, so he suggested that Colonel die explosively. Why not?)

A small gang of quad bikes come roaring out of the jungle at this point, accompanied by the chatter of gunfire. We have no idea who these pasty tattooed fuckers in brown jumpsuits are, so Truth reads the situation (10+), identifying the leader of the bikers as being a small guy driving a giant ATV with a mounted .50cal. He goes aggro (7-9) with a hunting rifle, trying to get the leader to scatter or flee; they choose instead to bunker down behind cover.

Whitmont, his ears ringing from the explosion, leaps back behind the wheel of the Humvee and throws it in reverse as Josie provides covering fire with her assault rifle from the top hatch. Unfortunately, he reverses at high speed into a tree, tearing off the side of the Humvee, throwing Truth to the ground, and knocking himself out on the steering wheel. Thinking fast, Josie grabs the wheel, hits the gas, and speeds out of the ambush towards Honeytown, leaving Truth behind for dead.

Driving through the jungle near Honeytown, Josie can't help but notice that it's on fire. Truth's followers have seemingly run riot (in an orgy of violence), setting fire to the nearby jungle, Honeytown's precious orchards, and the old resort building. It's evident some kind of pitched battle is taking place near the Ferris wheel; someone is firing a sniper rifle from the top perch. Josie flashes back to the Before; remembering a rioting crowd in Hong Kong surging against the barricades her unit was guarding, the whole city on fire. She chooses to bypass Honeytown's emerging unrest, and speeds straight to Whitmont's lab to apply some emergency first aid.

Remembering her training, she realises that the bruising to Whitmont's head probably indicates some sort of swelling in the brain. She'll have to drill a hole in his skull to relieve the pressure, and there's no time to waste. Acting under pressure (10+), she coolly and smoothly uses Whitmont's power drill to stabilise Whitmont. We decide this counts as opening your brain, and further more, suffering psi-harm. Whitmont nails the roll to open your brain; the ghosts of dead bees show him a vision of wasps descending from space to ransack the islands, destroying everything he has built. On the other hand, he also hits psi-harm with a 10+, meaning I seize control of his character and have him unleash the swarm of cyber-bees on Honeytown.

Meanwhile, Truth wakes up in a clean, white chamber with a medical-looking type babbling at him in Ukrainian. He's strapped to a surgical table, with his wounds stitched up. Realising that Truth doesn't speak a word of Ukrainian, the doctor calls over the short old guy who lead the ATV bikers, Orlaf. He reveals that his men have captured Vasiligrad and besieged K-19, the nuclear submarine that powers most of the island. For some reason, he keeps referring to the islands as "weak humans", despite his apparent appearance as 100% human. Orlaf demands that Truth help them capture K-19 intact; in exchange, he will grant Truth a quick and painless death as opposed to a long and torturous existence.

Truth manipulates (7-9) Orlaf into agreeing instead to set him free if he can help them take out K-19. To provide concrete assurance, he calls up Captain Vasili on the radio and gets agreement that he will be let on board, and then allows Orlaf to fit him with a remote explosives vest. He discovers that the Ukrainians are aboard some sort of huge plane that has landed on the west side of the island, and that they're all dressed in brown space suits with red flag patches on the side. They lead him to the beach between their lines and K-19, and he walks out, hands in the air.

That's where we end the first session, with a nuclear-armed submarine on the verge of launching its cargo, Ukrainians from space on a rampaging warpath, and Honeytown tearing itself apart.

Post-game wrap

What worked well:

Basically, the session was great, and all the players enjoyed it immensely. The playbooks and character generation phase worked brilliantly to generate an initial situation, full of weirdness and apocalyptica. At all times, the rules helped drive play forward, giving PCs something to do at all times. Go aggro and act under fire worked really well to create an exciting action scene with the Motherfucking Space Ukrainians; we didn't use seize by force throughout the whole session.

The players, especially, were great, leaping forward with named NPCs and setting details, barfing forth apocalyptica as good as they got. Every time I asked a question, I got a useful answer that helped make apocalypse world seem real. Truth's player brought an apocalypse playlist filled with moody, dark, and pounding music that matched the mood to a T. Whitmont's player really helped set the tone of the apocalypse by defining various facets of the psychic maelstrom, and by having his crazy swarm of cyber-zombie bees. Josie's player contributed a whole lot of kicking ass, and brought to light some interesting aspects of the Before. Colonel's player, during his brief appearance, really ran the session, taking charge, kicking his gang into gear, and pushing the other players forwards; I can't imagine Honeytown will do too well without Colonel's gentle fist guiding it.

What could have been better:

I can't fault anything about Apocalypse World, or any of the players, and the game overall was a success. Still, I do feel like my MCing wasn't necessarily up to scratch; I feel like missed a couple of notes that would have turned the game from a success into a dramatic success:

Look at NPCs through crosshairs: Reviewing the session, it seems more like I was looking at NPCs through a bombsight rather than crosshairs. They were blown away like there's no tomorrow, leaving only a few established NPCs alive at the end of the session.
Leaping forward with named, human NPCs: I'm not sure I brought forth enough named, human NPCs this session; the sheet only has a couple of names on it, and half of them or more were dead by the end of the session.
Make Apocalypse World seem real: Mainly this happened, but I think I fell short of the ideal. For example, on the read a situation moves, where I just delivered the information straight to the player rather than filtering it through the character's senses - "Your best escape route is the ravine." vs. "They've got you and Josie surrounded from the north, but the ravine lies open and gaping like a gash in the earth. If you jumped down there, you could follow the flow of the river back to Honeytown faster than they can get there on the ATVs."
Springboard off character creation: The main threat that arose in the course of the session - the motherfucking space Ukrainians - basically came out of nowhere, when I was pushed to come up with a reason for why they were under attack. The threats from Truth's followers, Colonel's holding, Whitmont's lab, Josie's superiors back in Stasis - all of these became secondary to the space wasps. I feel it could have been a more powerful game if I'd spent more time building more localised threats that arose more from the world as established at the start of the game.
Going too big, too early: At the end of the first session, the player's home holding is in ruins, crazy tattooed spacemen are invading, and the islands are on the verge of vanishing in atomic fire. At this point, it's impossible to follow Vincent's advice for crafting your first front on a small, human scale; the threats that face the PCs are nothing less than the total destruction of their entire local universe. I imagine it's going to be more difficult to bring things back to that smaller scale in the future.

Roll 2dHB!

2011-06-20T11:15:00.003+10:00

[OuterZone] A Frellig's Guide to the Outer Zone

2011-06-02T15:36:00.005+10:00

Noaqha valik! Dorik alarqha, mukhazno - what, you don't speak Qharidian? In the Black Reaches? Frell me. Where the drek did you spin up from?

Earth? As in dirt? As in a planet? Never heard of it.

Qhara, this frellig's grazhom primitive. Spin me up another Draneerian brandy while I tell her - him? it? them? - how it is.

So you managed to scramble off your perfectly nice, if exceptionally primitive, dirtball, and make your way into the Great Expanse?

I've got news for you, frellig. You should have stayed home.

You Are Here

Alright, so you're here, in the outer reaches of the western spiral arm of the galaxy - you are from this galaxy, right? You're not sure? Drek, it doesn't matter. Basically, you're in the Outer Zone, friend, and that means you're outside what the Engineers call civilisation: the Web of Worlds...

...but not for long. This waystation - this whole system - is next on the slate for the Web, and that means the party's over soon. With the Web comes trade, tourism, industry, and the Enforcement Directorate. Those Engineer dreks love their Enforcement Directorate, and they're going to stamp their boot all over this part of space. No more free traders. No more psionicists. No more Salaacian spice and no more bad jokes about how many Engineers it takes to change a sparktube.

You see that family of Quineric grubs slobbering over all their worldly possessions over there? They know which side their ticket is punched on. A while ago, the Quineric states decided to stand up to the Engineers and keep the Tunneling Directorate away from their worlds. Engineers didn't like that. They infected the Quineric homeworld with artificial tubeworms that literally ate the planet, then they brought in an interdiction field that prevented the refugees from spinning out. Let them all starve in orbit around Quineria Prime, then trucked off the remains to use as construction material.

That's why people like me don't want to get caught up in the Web. We like flying free in the Great Black, even if it means the occasional pirate attack or Vagyr raid. We like planets that haven't been stamped out of the same Engineer mould, we like xenosex and psyborgasms and blowing our minds out on Salaacian spice, and we like not owing our livelihoods to a transstellar Directorate that might suddenly decide our whole planet is redundant and have it broken down for component minerals. We are the Unbound, and if we ever end up in the Web you might as well slice us in half with a Krazon sword.

Engineers

Who are the Engineers? There's three things to know about Engineers: first, they're ugly as frell. No-one's even worn the basic bipedal frame as poorly as they have. Fat, scaly, ridged, and ill-tempered, they're the last thing you want dancing on your tabletop. More than that, they're constantly sick with one ailment or another - at least when they're outside their precious immuno-controlled Web. Physically, they're a half-evolved race who should never have climbed out of the swamp - no match for a Krazon with a quick sword-arm or a Quineric warrior-wyrm.

Secondly, they hate chaos. Unpredictability and disorder are like thorns on scraping their thorax - they can't tolerate it. You want to upset an Engineer, challenge them to a game of chance-cubes. This is why the Enforcement Directorate stamps out freedom so conclusively - it's not within their psyche. You can't excrete drek in the Web without having your activities triple-checked against the Excretement Directorate's internal drones.

Thirdly, and most importantly, though they may be smart drekkers, they're completely psi-null as a species. They can't pilot spin-ships or master psionic arts, and they'll never bend a spoon - they need to hire other species to do it for them. Of course, it also means that mindwitches can't get inside their head, offer suggestions or twiddle with their thoughts. This is why they built the Web - a network of spin-gates completely independent of any sapient control that any idiot could use.

Psionics

You want to know more about psionics? Drek, I'm a mercenary, frellig, not a wizard. I'm not crazy enough nor focused enough to get into that stuff. Here's what I know: there's a world beyond our own. Maybe more than one. It's not like ours - it's more like, I don't know, some kind of negative space where all is one and one is all. You ask ten Dynock monks and they'll give you ten different answers. Let me pour myself another drink.

Basically, all sapients exert some kind of force on this... negative dimension. Psionicists learn to tap into it, to connect through it, to bend it to their will. Some of them can read your mind. Some of them can send thoughts across half a galaxy. Some of them could life up this table without moving and tear it half, or do the same to your internal organs. I once saw a Dynock monk stop a raging Krazon warrior without lifting a finger. Wasn't pretty.

The most common use is piloting spin-ships. Somehow, with the right technology and the right design, you can spin a whole vessel through a negative into the psychic maelstrom, and fly it between stars in the time it takes most species to spit. In fact, small, well-designed spin-ships can even be piloted by people who haven't taken the full-on crazy pill it takes to become a serious psi-wizard.

The crazy pill? Oh, you have to be a special kind of crazy to be a psionicist - the obsessive, focused kind that becomes a monk or a genius scientist. You have to give up the things in your life that tie you to this world to become more immersed in the other, or something along those lines. I really couldn't tell you why, but only the truly intense become psionicists, whether through faith or philosophy or sheer self-control.

Thing is, though, the Web's changing all that. The spin-gates exert such enormous force on the psychic maelstrom that they lock it down - not just for psionicists, but for the rest of us. Living in the Web is like living in place where all your sensory organs have been dulled. Lights are dimmer. Pleasure is less pleasurable, and pain is less painful. You smell that Draneerian brandy? Wouldn't have half the scent on a Web-world. It takes a drekked powerful psionicist to drive a spinship through a Web system, and they don't come around every day. Mind you, that's the way the Engineers like it. Psionics is like a cancer to them - a challenge to their well-ordered universe.

I hear they're building a spin-ship that flies itself, though, but rumours float like kretch-flies in this hole. My ship's leaving in five centrons. I suggest you take the next spin-ship out of here too.

[To Coin a World] Facts about Wizards

2011-05-22T00:40:00.002+10:00

Wizardry is Not Hereditary
The prime reason there are no dynasties of magic-users on the Coin is that the Talent for spellcraft, which is a rare gift to be born with, is an order of magnitude rarer in children born of parents who are magic-users, or who hang around magic-users on a regular basis (such as most royalty and their court magi). Areas of high background magic also seem to reduce the likelyhood that their inhabitants will be born with the Talent (while increasing the likelyhood of freakish mutations...).

Wizards Love Hats
universally across the Coin, those with the power to bend reality to their will like wearing some form of headgear, be is a traditional pointed hat, a horned helmet, a hood, a jeweled circlet, or a fez (fezzes are cool), even to the point of feeling quite uncomfortable when deprived of said accoutrement.

Wizards Can Fly
In addition to being able to cast spells that allow them to fulfill mankind's most ancient dream, the very process of learning magic makes a wizard exceptionally adept at thinking and navigating in a three-dimensional environment, whether it be on a broom, or at the helm of a skyship. Sadly, many of them are still utterly useless at navigating in two dimensions.

The Poisoner's Art

2011-05-16T01:16:00.002+10:00

two ideas for poisons that would be interesting to see used in combat.

Heartshredder
Victim gets +2 on ALL rolls for 30 seconds (however many rounds that would be in your particular edition), after which must make a save. On a success, the victim loses half his HP and Strength points. On a failure, his heart explodes and he dies.

Excrusiator
Lasts 1d6 hours. During that time, the victim takes damage from horrendous pain equal to half the "natural" result of any dice rolled. A successful initial save will halve all damage taken.

[To Coin a World] Locations around Pyresburg

2011-05-15T13:05:00.000+10:00

The Dead Rat Tavern
The original owner of the Dead Rat Tavern, a seedy joint down by the docks, was not the wisest of men, and stiffing a sorcerer half his fee for brewing a dozen barrels of illegal Liquid Fire is a classic example something only an idiot would do. Nobody was surprised when a string of bad luck ended with the tavern burning down, and the owner being arrested less than a week later. What has surprised many is the original owner's nephew re-opening the tavern in various locations around the city. The word various is used since the sorcerer's curse seems to still have plenty of juice in it, causing the tavern to be spectacularly destroyed on a regular basis. Why the new owner doesn't just walk away from the establishment is a mystery.

The Adventurer's Guild
The previous PyresBaron founded the official Adventurer's Guild in an attempt to rest taxes from the heavily-armed vagabonds that frequent the city. The project was a complete failure, as the city's adventuring population, while small and usually quite fractious, banded together in their utter refusal to band together. Now the small but rather grandiose building sits and molders, its windows boarded up and doors locked.

The Pyresburg Zoo.
The zoo has a long history in Pyresburg. It started out as a facility to house creatures used for fighting in the Arena, but was later expanded to house the private menagerie of one of the Pyresbarons. When the Arena was burnt down in the great fire, the Zoo miraculously survived, and shifted its focus to showing its exotic animal collection to the public.

Pyresburg Academy of Magic
Originally the Academy was one of the best on the Coin, famous the world over for producing wizards of the highest caliber, especially in the field of fire magic. Sadly, about 20 years ago, the Academy buildings exploded in a fireball of horrendous proportions, causing the great fire. When the fire was put out, the only surviving wizards were the handful of students and staff who had been elsewhere at the time. This handful were tasked with rebuilding the institution, no easy task after the loss of hundreds of years of accumulated magical works. Now the Academy has a more reasonably sized staff and a sizable student body, but they're desperate for additions to their library. PCs with looted books, or a new spell they've found or developed could do well visiting the new Academy.

The Catacombs
The ground under Pyresburg has more air in it than an Orzorvian Cheese. Basements (including those of the destroyed university), sewers, crypts, smugglers' tunnels, dwarf squats all jumble together under the streets. Many valuable things are lost, or appear, in the undercity, but many unpleasant things frequent the darkness down there as well...

The Pyre
A 25-foot-wide, 120-foot tall solid tower topped with a great fire, the Pyre for which the city is named has stood on its small rocky spit, serving as a lighthouse for as long as recorded history. In times of danger it is also used as a signal to the surrounding countryside by the simple expedient of adding an alchemical agent to change the colour of the flame.

Fighters of Pyresburg

2011-05-10T14:04:00.004+10:00

Pyresburg, jewel of the Grand Reman League, is a city renowned for many things. It's arena is not one of them. A dilapidated ruin, it hasn't seen use in over a century. Yet the populace still have the bloodlust of the old Reman Empire. So how do they get their fix of stylized public violence? Two different groups, near antitheses of each other...

The Barfighters' League.
The rich folk of Pyresburg have a strange relationship with the poor. On the one hand, they hold themselves aloof, but on the other, they find many of their "quaint" traditions fascinating. Combine this with dilettantish boredom and a surfeit of money to gamble and the end result is nobles ensconced in private booths of seedy bars, watching professional barfighters duke it out, and gambling on the outcome. The fights are staged, but for all that various crime bosses try to rig them, the fighters are usually too drunk, stupid, or dedicated to their violent art to be relied upon to follow orders in the heat of a brawl. They will, however, usually follow the rules: no weapons (except for bar fittings), no spells, no bothering the rich folk.

The Duellists' Association
Conversely, the poor are always interested in how the high-flyers act. Even how they fight. Many nobles train as swordsmen, and will challenge each other to public duels over the most minor slight. These duels are almost never (intentionally) to the death, and are mostly about showing off and gaining the adulation of the crowd. Official Association Rulekeepers watch such fights and will declare a winner on points, based on style, technique, flourishes and sportsmanship.

Members of both groups despise the other, although their fighting styles share a great deal of theatricality. Adventurers could combine them to great effect in combat, although they would be jeered at mercilessly by any "pure" fighter

Idwinmor's Items of Interesting Inchantment

2011-01-20T03:07:00.010+11:00

1. Nym's Wandering Hands: a bag containing 2d4 animated severed hands which will follow verbal commands of whoever holds the bag.
2. Shield of Sliding: a +2 large shield that, when stood one, will slide across any surface almost frictionlessly.
3. Brassiere of Fire Elemental Control (aka The Burning Brassiere): allows the summoning and control of a fire elemental while worn. If the user is male, the elemental will commend him on his open-mindedness and willingness to ignore conformist notions of gender-specific clothing.
4. Bottled Ocean: when uncorked, water pours forth from the bottle. The ornate silver stopper comes loose at the slightest provocation.
5. Amulet Collection of Protection: a huge number of minor protective amulets all tangled together. Collectively they count as a +1 protective item, but they weight nearly a stone, and if disentangled from one-another they lose their powers (which may not actually be magic so much as the sheer mass of amulets will absorb attacks...).
6. Wizard's Hat of Disorganized Storing: comes in a variety of styles, and weightlessly store any item that will fit through the head opening. When reaching inside, a random item from those stored is retrieved.
7. Mask of Disguise: a simple domino mask. Unless a person actually sees the user don or remove the mask, they will never realize the identity of the mask-wearer, no matter how distinctive the rest of their appearance is.
8. Scroll of Tavern Portal: user and up to seven companions are instantly transported to the nearest location with a sizable quantity of alcohol on hand. The user may activate the scroll a second time to return all those effected by it to their original locations.
9. Cursed Chainmail: this +2 chainmail works like normal, so long as it is given to a new user every week. If not passed on within that time, the wearer takes double damage from all attacks until the armour leaves his possession.
10. Boots of Exhausting Speed: when activated, the wearer moves at twice his normal speed. Afterward the wearer must rest, and cannot take any action (aside from gasping and wheezing) for a period of time equal to the time spent running.
11. Silent Ring: the wearer cannot make noise of any kind while the ring is worn.
12. Errol's Rope: this rope with attached grappling hook can be hung from a point in thin air.
13. Winged Boot: would allow the wearer to fly with perfect maneuverability and great speed if found in a pair. This singular boot instead allows the wearer to fly at their normal movement speed, with all the grace of a drunken cow.
14. Loadstone Pauldron: a hefty shoulder guard that can be attached to any metal armour, giving it a +3 magic bonus. However, all attacks from metal or metal-headed weapons that miss somebody adjacent to the wearer will be re-rolled and applied to the wearer.
15. Eon Brandy: this bottle of alcohol is older than recorded history, and is so strong that if uncorked the mere fumes will render everybody nearby drunk. Actually drinking it would probably be lethal to most mortal beings.
16. Nevermiss Sword: a +3 sword that, on a miss, makes another attack against a random target within reach (this can include the original target, the wielder's allies, and even the wielder himself). New randomly-targeted attacks are made until the sword actually hits somebody.
17. Tiara of Timeliness: the wearer does not age in any way, and is immune to all damage, attacks, and anything that would change the wearer. However, when the tiara is removed, all such effects catch up.
18. Shoe Souls: These rune-stitched shoes can each bind the soul of a being that dies in the presence of the wearer. The shoes may be questioned by the wearer (but are under no compulsion to answer him). Smell faintly of ectoplasm.
19. Butterfly Sword: a +5 sword that deals no damage on a hit, but instead explodes into a cloud of butterflies, distracting the target. The sword reforms in the owner's possession at the next dawn.
20. Eric's Excellent Knife: will cut through ANY non-living thing, given a few minutes, or hours, depending on the material in question. In combat, works as a normal knife, but will reduce the target's armour bonus by 1 with each hit, due to bits being cut off.

[To Coin a World] Port Katerinettaburg

2010-12-22T17:36:00.004+11:00

Port Katerinettaburg

Gateway to Zwuyala

The life of cities tends to follow a natural cycle, over the course of centuries: first, a golden era of glory and greatness, followed by decadence, vice, and corruption, which leads the city into an age of ruin and destruction. Port Katerinettaburg, on the other hand, is a city ambitiously pursuing all three phases simultaneously - glory, decadence, and ruin. From its position at the head of the Tugrezi River, it commands trade between the Dark Continent and the ravenous markets of Spindlewick across the Vriendelike Zee. Brave explorers set forth from the city in grand expeditions to discover the secrets of Zwuyala, from the lost canyons of the Rim Valleys to the hidden cities of the Rau Jungle. And yet, despite its youth and wealth, its stone walls are crumbling, its taverns are dens of corruption and vice, and it shudders with death and horrid tropical diseases beneath the shadow of Grootklipsnoep Mountain.

Theme and Mood

Theme: Civilisation and Barbarity

The Empress Katerinetta, for whom the city is named, was famed for her courteous manners, her outrageous beauty, and her fondness for the Soleillaise style of wearing leather boots made from human skin. Port Katerinettaburg considers itself to be an outpost of civilisation on a dark continent filled with savagery and barbarians, but within its walls people as cruel as any orc can be found. Is the 'civilisation' they claim to bring truly an improvement?

Mood: Gateway to Adventure

Stationed as it is on the edge of the Dark Continent, there is a sense in Porkatzburg of being on the verge of something amazing; the way the plant life springs up in every nook and cranny, the glint of a pterodactyl soaring in the breeze, the constant tension between the city and the surrounding countryside. The local newsheet, the Items of Note, is often filled with vivid imagery and reports brought back by expeditions into the heart of Zwuyala. Rumours are constantly flying about lost cities of gold, forgotten gods, and glorious opportunities to find fame and fortune.

The Sights

Hafentown

The wealth of a continent flows through the docks of Port Katerinettaburg, but you wouldn't know it from a quick glance. Dark and crowded, the port district of Porkatburg is the heart of its economy, and of its corruption. Where the murky waters of the Tugrezi flow into the Friendly Sea, native dockworkers scurry to and fro loading fast clippers and enormous galleons with coffee, gold, spices, and other treasures, and drunken sailors stumble from tavern to brothel to sewer, only occasionally pausing to vomit between stops.

The Poisonous Frog

Every city has one. It's the tavern where mysterious strangers in dark cloaks go to seek assistance from unstable mercenaries in unusual quests for gold and experience. In Port Katerinettaburg, that tavern was the Poisonous Frog, up until the point at which it was acquired by Jasmyne Spellman, a young woman with an entirely different idea of what a tavern should be. Murky dank corners have been replaced by al fresco dining under brightly coloured parasols, tankards of ale have been replaced by frilly drinks with pieces of fruit on the side, and the regular clientele have become entirely confused.

Katerinetta University

Founded thirteen years ago by an alcoholic wizard and his imaginary friend, Katerinetta University has since bloomed into a formidable learning institution, in the same way a fungal growth grows into a formidable festering cyst. The University, which currently has a faculty of two and a student body mainly consisting of voodoo dolls, would barely merit a mention were it not for its extremely large and useful library, available to members of the public who are willing to brave a campus that serves mainly as a battlefield between the two archchancellors.

PrinzAlbert Marktplatz

It is said that anything in Zwuyala can be bought at PrinzAlbert, for the right price. An enormous market sprawls across the platz, selling everything from rare spices and exotic perfumes to bizarre curses and oppressed slaves. Colorful tents, exotic scents, and herds of slaves and beass are the dominant sensations within the market. The Governor turns a blind eye to the activities at the PrinzAlbert; as long as it brings wealth to the city he cares little for the sordid details.

Grootklipsnoep Mountain

Though it lies beyond the city walls, th mighty Grootklipsnoep dominates the city. It rises above the city like a god above the Coin, casting it in shadow when the season is right and shining like a brilliant emerald thumb with the evening light. Buried within the mountain lie enormous deposits of rock treacle and stalag toffee, mined by goblin slave labour and shipped off to the confectioneers of Spindlewick.

Johannz Haus

Nestled at the foot of Grootklipsnoep is Johannz Haus, the governor's mansion. Decorated in the Classical Revival style, its majestic white columns and balustrades glisten in the morning sun. From here, the Imperial Governor, Sir Frederick Willhelm de Botha oversees His Imperial Majesty's domain; at least, he does in theory. In practice, he tends to throw the sort of decadent parties that would make old Reman emperors frown, and leaves the practical administration of the colony to merchants and crime lords.

Personages of Note

Sir Frederick Wilhelm de Botha II

A forgotten cousin of the previous Emperor, packaged off to Zwuyala to avoid causing trouble in more important lands, Governor de Botha is a large, fat man with a broad smile and a fondness for exotic women. Despite his fondness for depravity, he makes an effort to present himself a kind and just man to visitors and Imperial agents. If confronted with an uncomfortable situation, he will sincerely promise to do something about it, palm it off to one of the clerks, and then forget about it at the next opportunity.

Colonel D. Jonne Mosterd, 3rd Neuhumbrien Foot

When D. Jonne Mosterd surveys Port Katerinettaburg from his vantage point in Fort Voetreut, he sees a thriving city carving out civilisation from savage wilderness, peaceful and content. His lieutenant, Meester Bodie, strives to maintain this delusion, as he and the rest of the garrison profit quite nicely on the bribes of bandits, criminals, and pirates. Occasionally, they mount a minor punitive expedition against one of the local tribes to given Colonel Mosterd an excuse to "show Johnny Savage the taste of Imperial steel", or simply to distract him from some more serious events in the city.

Xi - The Savage

The city's most powerful crime boss was once a tribesman in the deep Yalahadu Desert, living in the simplest conditions imaginable... but he was happy. That was before the gods saw fit to crash an ornithopter into his village. Within the ornithopter was a magic flask - an alchemist's flask, filled with a potion of invulnerability. The tribe's shaman deemed that the potion was the work of demons, and bid Xi to carry the flask to the edge of the world and hurl it into the void.

He never made it to the edge of the world. Instead, he fell victim to a deeply peculiar institution of civilisation: slavery. Captured by raiders from another tribe, he was sold in Port Katerinettaburg as a sewer cleaner. After several months of abuse, he succumbed to temptation and drank from the flask. When they found the overseer's body, it was not a pleasant sight.

The potion changed Xi. Though its physical effects faded quickly, Xi had tasted power and cruelty, and he couldn't give it up. He became an enforcer for a dockyard gang, and swiftly climbed the ranks of the criminal underground.

Today, Xi rules the city's lowlife with an iron hand. He enjoys the comforts of civilisation, and maintains a beautiful townhouse in the city's wealthy quarter, but enjoys torture and cruelty even more. To cross him is to be marked for a fate worse than death.

Lady Rozelda Rozenheim

One of the most famous adventuresses of the age, Lady Rozelda Rozenheim, the Delving Duchess, makes her permanent home in the fashionable end (i.e., the part without black people) of Port Katerinettaburg. Despite her reputation for adventure, while in town between expeditions, she appears every part the perfect socialite, with the kind of refined beauty that takes a team of trained professionals hours to achieve. The Annual Adventurers' Widows and Children Ball is the event of the social season in Port Katerinettaburg.

[To Coin A World] The Republic of Orzovia

2010-12-14T12:39:00.002+11:00

Vampires on The Coin used to be an endangered metaspecies. Plagued with bursts of anger and bloodrage, multiple weaknesses, and great powers which can be leveled against mortal and vampire alike, the vampires of old nearly wiped each other out. For when two vampires fight, the explosive mix of powers and weaknesses nigh-invariably favours the vampire who initiates the attack, whether simply in sneaking up on the other vampire, or seeking out knowledge and plotting an attack for years in advance. The result of this is that 99.9% of vampires encountered in the wilderness will the twitchy, paranoid, insane murderous bastards.

But not all vampires are loners.

The Republic of Orzorvia was founded by a clan of vampires in the unique position of rulership over a populace of humans, whom they planned to subjugate and feed on in a month-long orgy of blood. Yet when they were attacked by a rival gang of vampires that coveted their prize, the humans rose up to defend their masters, preferring a bloodsucking fiend they knew to one they didn't, and exploited common vampire weaknesses to destroy the newcomers.
The clan of vampires was both grateful and cunning, and realised that by ruling fairly over the populace and establishing a relationship based on trust with their subjects they would have a defence against the predations of other vampires and a constant source of blood, providing they took care not to overfeed.
To ensure the trust of their mortal citizens, they founded the first democracy, laying down a fair constitution which protected the rights of citizens of all kinds (but with preference to vampires), and in a masterstroke of political genius, installed a system in which every 13 years, when vampire Parliament runs its elections, one citizen, rewarded by other citizens for his/her bravery and service to the city-state would, through a complex voting process, ascend to vampirehood and be inducted into the heady world of Vampire Parliament.

There is a three stage process to Ascension:
Firstly, a petitioner must secure enough votes through a frenzy of campaigning from the mortal voting body to be one of the 13 Candidates for Ascension.
Secondly, a petitioner must be voted into ascension by the Vampire Parliament, and must campaign to the 13 different vampire clans for such an honour.
Thirdly, the 13 vampires clans must now each, in turn, plead their case to the petitioner, who will eventually choose one to be inducted into. This choice is important, as different clans have different weaknesses, and different levels of control over their new spawn...

Like many numbered groups throughout The Coin, the 13 Vampire Clans of Orzorvia comprise much more than 13 individual sub-metaspecies and voting bodies of vampire, as vampires are as commonly divided by bloodline characteristics as they are by seemingly inconsequential political factional allegiances. The 13 clans are really just 13 more-or-less united coalitions of fractious vampire clans.

Every vampire has a vote, and every vote counts, thus every vampire has the title of Count, even the lady vampires. The lower house of Vampire Parliament is known as the Hung Parliament, as every meeting is conducted with the vampires hanging upside-down from the rafters, in an homage to the bats from which most vampires are descended. The downside to this system is that it does make note-taking rather difficult, providing employment to a host of scribe-shadows which flit about the room and transcribe the proceedings.

Due to the diverse nature of vampire weaknesses, all holy symbols, garlic cloves, and silver items must be kept within the Metics Quarter of the City-State of Orzorvia, and are strictly regulated even therein.

Given the presence of such a utopian system of government in a mostly brutal and uncivilised area of The Coin, it is a wonder that the Orzorvians do not have problems with immigration. The answer lies in both the superstitions and fears of many inhabitants of The Coin concerning the undead, and also the Blightlands, an untamed strip of ghoul-infesting necromantically-blasted sunless badlands which surrounds Orzorvia proper. The various towers dotted around the Blightlands are nominally supposed to offer succour to hapless travellers, but in truth most of the vampires delegated to tower-duty are so bored that watching an occasional wanderer flee from ghouls is too entertaining to intervene in.

[Rogue Trader] An Unwarranted Warrant, or, The Blancheviperre Goes Forth: Part the First

2010-11-28T23:15:00.007+11:00

The archaic vidcaster rattles to life, illuminating the room with its unearthly light.

On the monochromatic screen, a distinguished figure sits enthroned upon the bridge of a mighty ship. Daltian Timoth, renowned on a thousand worlds as the face of Janus Roark, Secret Inquisitor, is dressed in the gaudy heraldry of a successful Rogue Trader. He turns to the camera.

"Ave, citizen," he intones, in a voice poured like molten silver. "and glory to the God-Emperor. I invite you to sit, and give praise, for tonight I welcome you to the first volume of the videographic chronicle of the life and times of one of the Imperium's greatest heroes: Lord-Captain Wilberforce Macharius veBarro."

The image of Daltian on the bridge fades as his voice continues, adopting the measured lilt of a Calixian noble.

"To receive a Warrant of Trade is the greatest honour any servant of the Emperor can provide. It was on the trade-moon of Quaddeus Minor that I was first awarded the warrant, having spent the previous six months in glorious battle against the Pirates of Barasphine-"

Bollocks.

Utter bollocks.

That's about all you can say about the authorised videography of Lord-Captain Wilberforce Macharius veBarro. Barasphine doesn't even have pirates, and it's nowhere near Quaddeus Minor.

Wilberforce certainly did not spend his youth battling pirates and orks in the Quaddean Main. He was born a minor scion of the veBarro trade dynasty, fully nineteen steps from the dynasty's mantle. His father, Cornelius Demarii veBarro, died a regrettable death from an embarrassing plague before the boy turned one, and his mother Anophelia was a distant socialite who cared more for hive-spire soirees than for her children. As a result, he was turned out to the best and furthest-away scholariums money could buy.

On the playing fields and in the doctrinaries of Groxford, Wilbeforce mastered the art of being passable at everything and excelling at nothing. Unmemorable, unambitious, and utterly unconcerned with anything besides the maintenance of a comfortable existence, he was packed off upon graduation to Quaddeus Minor. As a minor dynastic factor, he enjoyed an untaxing life overseeing the tea plantations that covered most of the agro-world.

And he would have stayed there, if it wasn't for the improbable rediscovery of the Blancheviperre*, the long-lost frigate of the veBarro dynasty, which tumbled out of the warp near Port Wander sometime in the late August of M41.957. The rediscovery of the Blancheviperre put the veBarro dynasty in somewhat of a dilemma: while they could not afford to let such a valuable relic of the dynasty be commanded by someone not of its blood, nor did any of the prominent candidates particularly want the honour of commanding the ship. The current Warrant-Holder, Lord-Captain Jonarion Dracobane veBarro, had no direct heirs; his brothers and sisters served in profitable positions aboard the Patriach of Tanis†or its attendant fleet, and the remaining members of the family were either too old, too mad, or engaged in vital activities on the other side of the galaxy.

It was the family's aging matriarch, Lady Jezmerelda diCaprio Sandlock veBarro, who first raised the possibility of appointing Wilberforce as Captain of the Blancheviperre. Given that the women held an intense hatred for Wilberforce and his parents, it's my belief that she thought the position would be the death of him.

And so, on an reasonably warm afternoon in late spring, Lady Jezmerelda descended upon Wilberforce, who was dozing in a comfortable chair. It was at this point - not in the governor's mansion, surrounded by the skulls of his enemies, but half asleep, borne down upon by his immensely fat aunt, and surrounded by seas of entirely harmless tea trees - that Wilberforce Macharius veBarro was awarded the position of Lord-Captain and received his (delegated) Warrant of Trade‡.

-----

*On the subject of the Blancheviperre, I quote from the Annals of the Astronavis Vigilum Congregatio, Callixus Chapter, Volume XXVI:

"The Blancheviperre was comissioned late in the 38th millenium by the legendary Rogue Trader, Lord-Captain Macharius Semolina veBarro. It was conceived as a deep-void exploration vessel, an adjunct to the dynasty's main vessel, the Patriarch of Tanis that could scout far and wide for trading opportunities in the Calyx Expanse. After several profitable missions into the expanse under the direct command of Lord-Captain Macharius, the Blancheviperre was placed under the command of his daughter and to-be heir, Sarina Calvacade veBarro.

Its first voyage under the command of its new captain, however, was interrupted by the declaration of the Angevin Crusade by the Praetor Golgenna Angevin. With the sector thrown into chaos and the call to war sanctioned by the High Lords of Terra themselves, Lady-Captain Sarina saw fit to attach her vessel to the war-fleet of the young general Drusus - one day to be known as St. Drusus of the Calixis Sector.

The Blancheviperre accompanied the Saint on many of his most famous campaigns across the sector, scourging and liberating dozens of worlds. It is said that the Saint himself consulted with Lady Sarina on many a campaign, often spending several nights aboard the Blancheviperre in her personal quarters to plan the extensive campaigns of conquest across the sector.

In the closing years of the Crusade, the Saint received the assistance of the Rage Thirsters space marines chapter. The main battle-barge of the Rage Thirsters was destroyed by enemy fire at the Battle of Warlax, leaving the chapter without a monastery and without the records of its own gene-seed. It was deteremined that the chapter would be declared Nullius Anxietas and the remainder of the Rage Thirsters would be charged with throwing themselves against an implaccable foe to end their chapter's history in glorious battle.

Without a vessel of their own, the Rage Thirsters asked for the assistance of Lady-Captain Sarina to deliver them to the Halo Stars, where they could end their chapter's story in battle with the foulest of xenos who lurked amongst the stars. Despite the misgivings of Saint Drusus and the express command of her father, Lady-Captain Sarina accepted the chapter's request.

The Blancheviperre charted a course through the roiling warp-storms of the Halo Stars and vanished into the void - never to be seen again."

† The Patriarch of Tanis was the main vessel of the veBarro dynasty, an immense Ramses-pattern star freighter with an attendant fleet of dozens of smaller ships.

‡ Text repeated in full:

This document (hereby known as the DELEGATED WARRANT of TRADE), by dint of dynastic pedigree, grants the bearer (hereby known as the LORD-CAPTAIN) the right and responsibility to travel beyond the borders of the GLORIOUS IMPERIUM OF MAN, to spread the LIGHT OF THE HOLY GOD-EMPEROR, to trade with XENOS MOST FOUL and to acquire profit in the SERVICE OF THE IMPERIUM.

The bearer is further enjoined to maintain and venerate a shrine to the SAINT DRUSUS aboard the vessel BLANCHEVIPERRE, to chronicle and honor all records and artifacts of the RAGE THIRSTERS (Nullus Anxietas) Astartes chapter, and to grant all possible succor and aid to the agents of HIS EXCELLENCY'S MOST HOLY INQUISTION in the defense of the Imperium.

It is to be made hereby known that in this 957th year of the 41st millenium of Man, that the Lord-Captain WILBERFORCE MACHARIUS VEBARRO is to be granted all the rights and priveleges of a ROGUE TRADER.

-P Squiggle, Esq.-

[AW-style move]Recall a Cure

2010-11-07T13:31:00.002+11:00

Recall a Cure (d20+Knowledge+Mind)
Roll when a party member is afflicted by some horrible condition (such as a curse, disease, or whatnot), and you need to remember how to cure it.

14-: the GM picks one option from the following list.
15-19: as above, but the player picks instead.
20+: the players gets to pick three.

The cure is nearby, and won't take a long journey to reach.
Acquiring the cure will not require spending much money.
The process of getting the cure will not be overly dangerous.
The party won't owe anybody any favors in exchange for the cure.
The process of getting the cure will give the party some other benefit in addition to its restorative properties.

[The Coin] Ornithopters

2010-11-03T16:49:00.007+11:00

image source

Some travel aloft on sky-ships, held aloft by arcane sigils and enchanted luftwood. Others prefer the more portable broomstick, or the well-crafted magic carpet. Other even transform themselves into birds, or entice wyverns into their service. On the Coin, means of subverting the ancient divine edict against mortal flight are as many and varied as the peoples who practice them. For the discerning traveler, however, one flying vehicle stands above them all - the Mynacean ornithopter.

Drawing on the mechanical ingenuity of Mynacean philosophers, the ornithopter lifts itself aloft on wooden wings. While some draw on arcane power or bottled lightning to power their wings, others simply rely on slaves or conscripts to provide their motive energy, commanded by the beat of a drum. It is this reliance on mortal drive, rather than mystical energies, that makes the ornithopter a truly remarkable aether-craft.

A well-built and fully crewed ornithopter can achieve speeds of up to 20 leagues an hour, making distances between the city-states vanish. However, they cannot fly for long before their crews tire, meaning over-ocean trips are strictly limited. Capacity for cargo is relatively limited, but they still carry messages and small cargoes of valuable or perishable goods between city-states.

The expense of ornithopter construction means few city-states can maintain large standing fleets, but the three great cities each have their own air-militias. The Liberans arm theirs with polished mirrors that reflect and focus the rays of the sun upon their enemies, while the Vulcanites prefer enchanted flame-gouts. The Maraphonians reject these weapons, and instead arm their ornithopters with enormous claws and jagged beaks, hoping to tear enemies apart from close quarters. (The Thanatoi do not use ornithopters, instead relying on undead wyverns and flying ghosts)

A small ornithopter capable of carrying five humans (at least two must have a Str of 14 or more) will set you back about fifty thousand gold drachma, while anything much larger will need to be commissioned from an ornithos at enormous expense.

[The Coin] Mynacea

2010-10-31T09:59:00.011+11:00

Map

Famed for its philosophers, its galleys, and its theatres, Mynacea is a rugged and mountainous realm of squabbling city-states. The region was long oppressed by the grip of the dark Taurian Empire, whose enormous, labyrinthine ruins speckle the land, but now the Mynaceans rule themselves, bowing to no kings and no emperors. Since the overthrow of the minotaur king, they have built great cities like Vulcanopolis, Liberos, and Maraphon, wonderous temples and oracles, and spread colonies across half a continent.

For mercenaries and adventurers alike, Mynacea is an land of opportunity. Little love is lost between the city-states, who compete in nearly every respect, from trade to colonies to sorcery. There is a constant threat of piracy, raiding, or even petty but brutal wars. And with the monsterous remnants of the Taurian Empire lurking in dark labyrinths, or the craggy badlands of the Korhos, it is a fertile land for monster hunters.

Yet it is also a land of great wealth and achievement. Philosophers and inventors thrive on the patronage of the city-states. Thanks to a relative lack of taxation and tariffs, merchants thrive on the Mynacean trade routes, bringing amphoras of olive oil and wine to distant markets, returning with hulls laden down by gold and grain.

AW style movies - Roguish Edition

2010-10-29T14:57:00.007+11:00

Pick a Pocket (d20+Subterfuge+Dex)
14-: major failure, pick two results (see below)
15-19: minor failure, pick one result (see below)
20+: success!

Results:

You fail to pick the target's pocket
Somebody (50% chance it's the target, otherwise somebody nearby) notices you. If this result is picked twice, everybody nearby is aware of what you did.

Pick a Lock Under Pressure (d20+Subterfuge+Mind)
Performing this move requires a set of thieves' tools.
14-: pick one
15-19: pick two
20+: pick three

You open the lock
You don't break any of your tools
You aren't noisy in the process
You don't take very long

Sneak Past Some Guards (d20+Subterfuge+Dex or Mind)
In some cases, the GM may require a distraction before you have a chance to use this move.
14-: pick one
15-19: pick two
20+: pick three

You get where you want to go.
You don't spend much timing waiting for an opportunity/to realize it's not going to work.
The guards don't notice you.

Trade on the Black Market (d20+Subterfuge+Mind)
14-: pick three
15-19: pick two
20+: pick one

The price involved is unreasonable (and not in your favor).
Getting the deal done takes a heap more time than you intended.
You get mixed up in trouble in the local underworld.
The suspicions of the local law enforcement are aroused.

Microlite20/Troubles and Treasures House Rules

2010-10-24T14:57:00.002+11:00

I was recently lamenting the fact that, due to all the changes I and my group have made to MicroLite20, I can't just point to a single document and say that that's our rulebook. So, I decided to list the main rules changes we've made as succinctly as possible. Unless otherwise stated, everybody conforms to the original m20 rules available here, or here, by Greywulf.

Races:
In addition to Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings (Gnomes), there are also Half-Orcs (+1 Str, +1 Phys and Sub), Planetouched (+1 Mind, +1 Know and Com), and Constructs (+5 on saves against poison, disease and suffocation/drowning).

Feats:
every odd numbered level opens up a feat slot. What feats you can take are determined by race and class, but you don't get a feat automatically. Sometimes a feat needs to be learned from a teacher, sometimes you pick it up to replicate, long-term, something the GM let you do on a special occasion. A compilation of feats will be forthcoming at some point. Until then, this is an optional rule.

Rogues:
sneak attacks deal an additional 3+level damage (this is not connected to the Rogue's Subterfuge bonus).

Fighters:
no change.

Wizards:
Wizards can use books, wands and staffs as focuses for magical energy, working like ranged weapons (light crossbow, shortbow and longbow, respectively). They get no favoured/signature spells (but spells are cheaper, and they have more hp, see below).

Performers (Bards):
Get 2 + level + Mind bonus uses of their music per day. By default they can use music to charm individuals, hypnotize crowds, and counter other sound-based effects, and can do other things with the right feats. They can wear light armour, and get +2 Subterfuge, Knowledge, and Communication.

Invokers (Clerics):
Get no spells or turn undead uses, but get to pray without any penalties, and with an optional re-roll. They can also tend to another character, allowing them to make a new save against an on-going non-permanent effect, or to spend a healing surge with a re-roll.

Combat Actions:
Use the normal D&D 3.5 system of 1 move action, 1 standard action, or 2 move actions, or one full-round action.

PC Hit Points:
Are rolled using a d8. Every character gets 4 healing surges plus their Strength bonus, per day. They may spend a healing surge as a standard action to heal 1d8 lost hp. Any healing effect will require the usage of a healing surge.

NPC Hit Points:
Are either 5 per level for "mooks", or 10 per level for "boss" monsters/characters encountered on their own. NPCs have healing surges, but most can't use them unless they have some outside effect working on them (such as a cleric). The GM will say when an NPC gets down to half it's hit points (is "bloodied").

Skills:
Skills are equal to the character's racial and/or class bonuses, plus half their level, rounded up.

Attacks and Damage:
Attacks are divided into Strength attack (non-light melee weapons), Dexterity attack (light melee and thrown weapons), and Mind attack (bows, crossbows, firearms and spells). Each is the relevant ability modifier plus the character's level. There are no iterative attacks, although dual-wielding works as in the M20 books. Additionally, characters add half their level (rounded down) to their damage rolls.

Spells:
Adventuring wizards know all the spells in the Adventurer's Spellbook, and can learn/create more, although the highest level of spells that is possible is level 7. Spells cost 2 hp per spell level, minimum of 1 hp. This damage is normal damage, and can be healed by anything that normally restores lost hp. If a spells is experimental, or of a spell level too high for the wizard (greater than character level+1, halved), there is a 50% chance the spell will backfire and do something weird and random. Otherwise that only happens when the wizard rolls a natural 1. Spells cast through prayer work the same way.

Carrying Capacity:
Objects are weighed in Stone (14 pounds, or 6 kilograms), rounding off, with 1000 coins weighing a stone. A character can carry half their Strength score in stone, rounding up, without any trouble. More than that can only be carried for short periods.

XP and levelling:
XP is handed out for fights, carousing, and eXPloration. Characters have to achieve something to go up a level (defeat a worthy foe in a new way, commit a new crime, learn a new spell, spread fandom/religion to new people, or something along those lines).

New Cleric Mechanic/AW-Style Move

2010-10-24T14:05:00.004+11:00

Balance issues are yet to be tested...

Pray (1d20+Communication+Mind-10)
A character may only try to do this once per day.

14-: nothing happens
15-19: receive one miracle
20+: receive three miracles

Clerics ignore the penalty, and may re-roll the check, although they must take the second result, even if it’s worse.

Miracles:

1d6 damage, + 1d6 per two character levels, damage to all unholy creatures in 30 ft. (save for half). Said unholy creatures may halve the damage they take, but if so they must flee from the praying individual.
Cast a level 2+ spell as if you were a wizard. (GM may veto spell if it doesn’t seem to match your god of choice, or alternately say that some other power supplied the spell...).
Ignore the fact you're wearing armour for spellcasting purposes.
All allies within 30ft. may spend a healing surge as a free action, and may re-roll the result.
All allies within 30ft. may roll a new save against any negative ongoing non-permanent effect they’re experiencing.
Be given another chance to pray for a miracle today.

Colony Five

2010-10-22T19:05:00.004+11:00

Inspired by this post on RPGnet, but taken as an excuse to approach scifi with the sort of trope-filling gonzo-ness I like in my fantasy worlds.

The Elevator Pitch:
"Stargate Atlantis meets Farscape meets Red Dwarf meets Firefly. With just a hint of Star Wars and Indiana Jones"

The Full Details:
In the last years of the 21st century, Earth took its first steps into the galaxy, by sending out several sleeper ships to set up new colonies on habitable exoplanets. Some were sent by national governments, some were privately funded by eccentric trillionairs. The fifth ship was a cooperative effort by several nations working in tandem. Sadly, Sleeper Five ceased sending back telemetry a few years after it departed, and was presumed lost. History moved on.

Over the centuries that followed, humanity discovered faster than light travel, and the galaxy ws fully unlocked. The sleeper ships were actually overtaken by FTL vessels, although Sleeper Five was never found. Earth's nations explored the stars, exporting their hostilities to a grander scale, and roping in the technologically primitive aliens they found. Wars between opposing empires caused untold damage, but in the wake of these atrocities, in the new peace that followed, humanity found the utopia they'd sought for so long.

The Earth Empire, the first truly unified nation encompassing all humanity (and, to a lesser extent, the aliens) was set up, aided by the Great AI, a computer intelligence that encompassed the Empire's communication network, and was a part of every device in the Empire. A golden age flowered, with humanity wanting for less and less as the Great AI took over more and more responsibilities. Eventually, humanity as a whole was sitting in the lap of luxury, the Great AI tending to their every whim, responsible for all production and innovation, creating technological marvels that seem almost magical by today's standards.

Which was brilliant, up till the day the AI just... stopped. Nobody knows why. But little of the Empire's technology would run without it, and almost nobody remained who knew how to repair or operate anything. Within a year, 90% of humanity was dead, primarily from starvation.

Five hundred years later, the galaxy is just starting to rebuild, in places. The New Earth Empire, founded by a few worlds that were not hit as hard in the great crash, aims to bring back the glory days, although their methods are far from peaceful, and their technology, while on average better than that of most worlds, is nowhere near the heights of the Old Empire. The Fringe Worlds, sandwiched between the N.E.E. and an assortment of other stellar nations of varying viciousness, and the Wastelands that used to be the core of the Old Empire, are potentially in for a rough time.

And then Sleeper Five comes back, appearing out of an inexplicable aurora of light and peculiar sensor readings above a backwater fringe world. The inhabitants, a simple farming community, a couple of rogue archaeologists, and the independent trading ship that occasionally drops in to buy vegetables, are quite surprised, but not half as surprised as the crew of Sleeper Five.

The campaign revolves around the adventures of the Sleeper Five colonists, their farming friends, and the random interstellar hangers-on who've twigged that these people are the Next Big Thing, as they set up their colony, explore the ruins of the Old Empire, salvage bits of malfunctioning post-singularity technology, and fend off the depredations of various unpleasant people, aliens, robots, and other, stranger things.

[Lady Blackbird] For Noobs

2010-08-30T11:24:00.003+10:00

I ran Lady Blackbird at my college tonight, on a whim. The players were four absolute newcomers to role-playing, none of whom I knew particularly well nor had played anything like it.

It went brilliantly. I've run and played Lady Blackbird half a dozen times before, but never with an entire group of complete newbies... and they took to it like ducks to water. Steph, who played the titular Lady Blackbird, particularly got into her character. The only issue was that some of the players were not native speakers of English, and thus description did not flow quickly or naturally for them... but they still enjoyed the game thoroughly. Music was vital.

They brutally slaughtered the brig guards bypassed the ship's corridors by simply blowing a hole in the deck straight through to the Owl's hangar, and quickly escaped off into the wild blue yonder in under an hour. Along the way, there was a flashback to Lady Blackbird's meeting with a young Captain Cyrus Vance, where we established a long-standing attraction between the two, and Kale got herself into some pretty severe strife. In fact, she ended the session with the "Dead?" condition tagged after some failed ministration from Naomi.

John Harper, you are an amazing man.

Apocalypse Dungeon Style Moves (part II)

2010-08-20T16:17:00.006+10:00

Fly (1d20+Knowledge+Dex - Stone carried):
Roll if you want to do anything other than cruise around at more than half speed and/or turn gently.

Miss (14-): lose control and drop 1d4x10 ft.
Hit (15+): pick 1
Good hit (20+): pick 3

Move less than half speed
Hover (need to be moving less than half speed)
Tight turn
Fly Straight up
Regain control (after you lose control, you'll need to do this before you try anything else)

Leap (1d20+Physical+Str or Dex - Stone carried):
Roll when actively leaping across a chasm or down from a ledge.

Miss (14-): pick 1, take 1d6 damage
Hit (15+): pick 2
Good Hit (20+): pick 3

Reduce damage by 1 dice
Move 5 ft. laterally (counts as 2 picks if you didn’t have a run-up)
Move 10ft. laterally and take 1d6 damage (counts as 2 picks if you didn’t have a run-up). You may only take this option once.

Carouse (1d20+Physical+Str)
Get 1d6 xp, spend 100 times that in gp. Double in a major city.

Miss (14-): GM picks Mishap.
Hit (15+): Player picks Mishap.
Good Hit (20+): No Mishap.

(optionally, the player can decide that any result under 20 will result in a random mishap)

The Ultimate Game

2010-08-10T15:52:00.002+10:00

Mormon cowboys granted unquestionable power by the Unconquered Sun enter a twisted netherworld of dreams resembling Soviet-occupied Miami in the mid-to-late '80s.

[transExalted] Ways to Actually Play Exalted

2010-08-09T22:34:00.003+10:00

Radiant by Shreyas Sampat; a very lite implementation of Exalted with a focus on glory in a world of faded ruins.
Unconquered by Jonathon Walton. Very very Narrativist Exalted ruleset. Will strain some people's understanding of roleplaying games. Was also known as Anathema.
Wuxalted Redux, by various. A crunchier, settingful hack of Wushu that preserves the basic mechanic of Wushu but adds quite a bit more Exalted crust. Unfortunately, also shares the same flaws of Wushu (detail overload / description fatigue).
Exalted Quickstart. The original ruleset released by White Wolf as a preview of their upcoming game back in 2001. Light and fast for a trad game, and very Exalted in flavour.
Make up your own rules.

[Exalted] Municipal Charms

2010-08-09T13:37:00.010+10:00

A range of Charms for the discerning Alchemical city-being, some collected from around the internet and some created by myself.

Avatar-Launching Silo

Contained within great steel and brass tubes, the Avatar-Launching Silos prepare and spin out facsimiles of the metropolis' ancient human-scale body. The avatars hold much of the power of the metropolis, but they are not drone-like creations nor mere limbs of the great metropolis. Each avatar has its own personality, its own identity, forged from a shard of the metropolis' expansive consciousness.

Champion Heart Efficiency Matrix: These submodules refine and expand the starmetal essence reservoirs within each avatar.

Titan Shard Reservoir: This submodule adds an enormous jade sarcophagus, stored in the depths of the Avatar-Launching Silo. Within this immense submodule rests a colossus-sized avatar of the metropolis.

Rapid Drone Operations System: Each avatar's sacrophagi is retrofitted with a jade-alloy casing, filled with safety webbing and Essence-injecting conduits. The silo itself is retrofitted with steam catapults and moonsilver rails that allow the launching of sarcophagi at distant locales at short notice. On impact, the sarcophagi shatters open to reveal the avatar within, showering all those surrounding with jade shrapnel.

Apogee-Shattering Hammer Deployment: This submodule replicates the effect of Rapid Drone Operations System for the Titan Shard Reservoir, allowing the immense colossi to be launched through the air and impact onto hostile positions.

Integrated Observation Network
With this charm, the patropolis is outfitted with sensor-posts linked by a network of glistening silver cables, extending throughout the city. At a moment's notice, any sensor-post can be reflexively activated by the patropolis' governing Alchemical, extending their awareness and allowing them to perceive all that transpires in the area. The system does not grant the patropolis omniscience, as the number of sensor-posts that can be activated is strictly limited by the Alchemical's ability to focus, and individual nodes are still vulnerable to attack and destruction.

Motile Surveillance Platforms: With this submodule installed, the individual sensor-posts become flittering mobile platforms the size of a small bird. They still cannot move beyond the city limits.

Visual Remembrance Matrix: Crystalline memory devices are installed into each sensor-post, allowing the visual memory of any post in the city to be downloaded into the Alchemical's memory. Auditory records cannot be stored within the crystals, and thus sound is absent from these recordings.
Discreet Vigilance Design: The sensor-posts are integrated into the patropolis' architecture in a way that makes them invisible to the casual observer, even while in use.
Sapient Scrutiny Spirit: A simple artificial spirit is downloaded into the observation network. It can be pre-programmed to alert the Alchemical guiding mind of any particular suspicious activity, bringing their awareness to that particular node.

Oneirological Monitoring System

Prerequisites: Integrated Observation Network

Unique moonsilver pentagrams are installed in the sleeping quarters of the city. Shadowy shards of the patropolis' consciousness are dispatched into the dreamscapes of the populat allowing them to monitor for dissent and other unhealthy impulses.

Cloud-of-Dreams Cortex

On installing this Charm, the metropolis extends sensitive starmetal antennae throughout her body. When activated, it draws on the unused processing power of the unconscious citizenry, improving the Alchemical's ability to conduct calculations and projections.

Catatonic Calculus Cognitor: When this submodule is installed, themettropolis gains the ability to directly seize control of the conscious minds of the city, temporarily turning them into catatonic outgrowths of her cognition systems. This act vastly increases the computational power of the patropolis, but at a terrible cost.

Shadow Government Dream

Prerequisites: Oneirological Monitoring System, Cloud-of-Dreams Cortex

Using complex metaphysical symbology and oneirological protocols, the central core and governing body of the patropolis are removed bodily from the realm of existence. Instead, it lives in a dream world held within the minds of populace, issuing orders and planning operations from a position of unparalleled security. This charm does not guarantee the compliance of the Populat, but it provides immunity for the government and the patropolis' core from most forms of physical and societal attack.

Subconscious Punishment Methodology: This submodule allows for punishments to be directed at members of the populat during their sleep, inflicting terrible tortures and nightmares on the maladjusted and the criminal.

Nocturnal Propaganda Inception: This submodule allows the patropolis to adjust the dreams of the populat, showing visions of industrial heroism and tales of nationalistic pride. It subtly adjusts mindsets, creating a populat more devoted to the patropolis and more vigorous in their labours.

Dreams-Within-Dreams Architecture: For the truly paranoid patropolis, this submodule constructs a secondary dreamscape within the first to house the Shadow Government Dream, placing it at even further remove from the physical world. This prevents foes with oneirological manipulation powers from easily penetrating the apparatus of the patropolis.

[Microlite20] The Alucard School of Serious Swordplay

2010-08-09T11:10:00.008+10:00

Most fencing academies on the Coin focus on pure swordplay - that is, dueling against opponents armed themselves with swords. The École d'Alucard in Languille, in contrast, is a far less traditional school. Recognising the more complex dangers of the modern world, the École d'Alucard arms its students with the techniques and talents necessary to brandish their blades in battle against a wide range of opponents - axe-wielding orkish barbarians, duergar musketeers or even in the more advanced classes, tentacled monstrosities of death.

Fencing Feats for Fighters

Fencer's Fancy Footwork

Prerequisite: Nimble Sworsdman

When wielding a one-handed blade, you may move one square whenever an enemy misses an melee attack against you. (immediate action)

Unconventional Parrying Technique

Prerequisite: Fencer's Footwork

Once per turn, you may choose to parry any melee attack against you. Roll an attack roll. On a 15+, you parry the attack but may not make any attacks in the next turn. On a 21+, you parry the attack and can attack in the next turn.

Alucard's Anti-Archery Adaptation

Prerequisite: Unconventional Parrying Technique

You can use Unconventional Parry Technique against ranged non-magical attacks.

Tentacle Slashing Slayer

Prerequisite: Unconventional Parrying Technique

You can try to remove a creature's arms and tentacles as a standard attack. Roll an attack roll. On a 15+, you only slightly wound the creature, forcing it to recoil somewhat. It cannot use its limb next round. On a 21+, you severe the relevant limb and deal damage as normal.

Stealing from Apocalypse D&D

2010-08-03T18:03:00.004+10:00

Apocalypse D&D, by Tony Dowler, is awesome. While I'm not planning on using it myself, there are certain aspects that I full intend to use in my own D&D campaign. Below, mostly for my own use, are two Moves, almost direct quotes from Apocalypse D&D, with a little jiggery-pokery to make it use a MicroLite20 stats and system.

Spout Lore (Knowledge)
Spouting lore means taking some time to examine or observe the thing and demonstrate your great intelligence. To spout lore regarding a device or magical artifact requires that you handle the thing experimentally, like tasting a potion, or pointing a wand.

Roll (1d20+knowledge+Mind)
1-14: you have no clue.
15-19: ask one question.
20+: ask three questions.

Questions about anything:

Is it dangerous to me?
What’s its name and history?

Questions about a thing:

Who is its previous or current owner?
How does it work?
What does it do?
What’s it worth?
Is it magical?

Questions about a monster:

What type of monster is it?
How could I prevent it from attacking me?
How effective is (particular plan or method of attack) likely to be?

Hold a Parlay (Communication)
To Hold a Parley you need to be in a position to spend some time talking and making your wishes known. Do this when you have an opportunity to interact with potentially hostile parties, monsters, or individuals.

Roll (1d20+communication+Mind)
1-14: you don't get much out of it
15-19: Hold 1, spend to ask.
20+: Hold 3, spend to ask.

What’s your real name and identity?
Is your character telling the truth?
What’s your character really thinking?
What does your character intend to do?
What does your character wish to do?
How could I get your character to do __________?

One-on-One Combats, and getting spectators involved

2010-07-31T16:10:00.003+10:00

Today I got to thinking about having battles (in D&D, but the same general principles should apply to other games) between two PCs, or a single PC and a single bad guy, while the rest of the party look on.

Such things are really boring. I've seen a few myself, and they've never really been satisfying. Where a multi-person combat gets all the players involved, and means that teamwork is an important and fun part of the fight, duels tend to be lacking in such elements, and tactics tend to go out on the window in favour of "let's see who can roll higher".

My thoughts on solutions for the lack of tactics/prevalence of "who can roll higher?":

Everybody has to move at least one square (or whatever) every round, and the terrain on which the duel takes place should be at the very least, varied in elevation, if not studded with things that can be used for cover. Sword fights in movies are never static
Raising the stakes should be used.

And now getting the other players involved:

Each player, at the start of every turn, gets to assign a small bonus to his favoured fighter. If you like an in-game explanation for this, it could represent cheering him on. Pick one of the following:

+1 damage on all attacks
+2 AC
+3 temporary HP

Obviously, this works best if either the non-combatant PCs are divided in their allegiance, or they're all cheering on a single heavily out-matched fighter. If, however, you want a more fair fight, even with all the player spectators backing the one warrior, then have each boost picked for one warrior apply the next boost down the list to the other (eg. giving Sir Applegate +1 damage gives Blargwin the Black +2 AC, while giving Sir Applegate +3 HP gives Blargwin the Black +1 damage).

I suspect the list above could do with expanding, but I think it's a good start.

Campaign Promises

2010-07-25T14:46:00.000+10:00

If re-elected to position of DM, in the coming games I promise to...

Put statues in every dungeon. With sufficient mundane statuary, the players will cease to think about animating or trapped statues... until it's too late.
Relatedly, all traps will either be visible before they're activated, or will give the players time to react before they complete their process, allowing people to actually interact and disarm them without them becoming a boring series of search/disable device/damage rolls.
Use an absolute minimum of magic items that give a passive bonus to something the PCs do. Items will primarily be there to do something that nobody else can (for example - a Frost sword doesn't deal extra damage, but it can freeze water into ice...), and those that DO just give a bonus will have a distinct decision-making process attached (for example, an item that takes a month to recharge, or which will give a boost to your armour but destroy it in the process).
I will say Yes more often (although I'm still saying there are NO cacti on my campaign world, thank you very much).
I will do my utmost to avoid boring combats. If you get ambushed by bandits, they will be interesting bandits (possibly mutant cyborg interesting bandits).

[Trouble Caster] Agenda, Principles, and Moves

2010-07-18T22:55:00.006+10:00

TC Agenda

Let the players shine.
Breathe life into the world.
Watch mayhem ensue.

TC Principles

Gush forth gonzo fantasy. It's not just a temple, it's the Jeweled Temple of Jazarduan the Jaguar Goddess. He's not just a pirate captain, he's a half-djinn sky pirate lord. Cultivate the craziness and throw in plenty of fantastic imagery.
Showcase the sights. Be the player's eyes and ears. They can't see the world, so you have to sell it to them. Be descriptive and flowery, and give them the clues and cues they need to build the world inside their own heads.
Things happen offscreen. Don't freeze the unobserved world. Things keep moving once put in motion.
Respect the rights of NPCs. Just because they're not personified by another human being sitting at the table doesn't mean they don't have agency. NPCs have plans, motivations, and agendas too. Push for your NPCs, and make them real threats to the characters.
Welcome wanderings. Give the players the power to move off the beaten track, and suddenly fly north instead of east. Don't push one course of action over another. Let them digress and dig themselves into holes.
Make maps like crazy. Nothing beats physical artifacts for conveying relationships of space and time. Make maps of dungeons, maps of cities, maps of castles, maps of relationships and maps of time. Show the players where their characters stand.

TC Moves

Open a dungeon.
Drop wandering monsters.
Roll on a random table.
Terrify with traps and trouble.
Call for the guards.
Pray for divine intervention.
Set forth a journey.
Offer an opportunity, with a cost.
Make your monsters act.
Demand payment in gold or blood.
Surround them.
Capture them.
Feed them rumours of treasure and trouble.
Terrorise the villagers.
Bar fight!
The Kraken wakes!

New Spell: Old Spice

2010-07-16T21:33:00.001+10:00

Old Spice
Level: Wizard 5
Duration: 1 round/level
Range: 10 feet/level

Look at me. Now look at your hand. Now look at the oyster in your hand. Now look at me. Now look at the oyster. The oyster is now diamonds.

[Coin] Peculiar Player-Made Spells

2010-07-16T13:57:00.005+10:00

I require that all wizards must learn a new spell before they can advance a level. While they could just buy a scroll of a spell they don't know off somebody, I actively encourage them to make up entire new spells. Here are a few that have appeared in my game.

Summon Angry Psychedelic Cat
Level: Wizard 1
Duration: 1 round/level
Range: 10 feet/level

A strangely-coloured cat appears above the head of a single target within range and immediately attacks it. The cat will continue to maul the target until forcibly removed, at which point it will attack the closest living being. If killed, the cat vanishes in a puff of smoke.

Handful of Bees
Level: Wizard 1
Range: 25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels
Duration: 1 round/level

A small mass of bees flies from the caster's hand to attack one target within range. Each round, the target takes 1d3 damage, and must make a fortitude save or take a -2 penalty on all attacks rolls, skill checks and AC for 1 round. Creatures with damage reduction are immune to the bees.

Summon Slightly Annoyed Baby Crocodile
Level: Wizard 1
Duration: 1 round/level
Range: 10 feet/level

A small crocodile (HD 1d8+2; AC 14; Bite +1 [1d4+1 damage]) appears within range and attacks a target of the caster's choice. Once the target or the crocodile is dead, it vanishes in a puff of smoke.

Summon Angry Normal-Sized Crocodile
Level: Wizard 3
Duration: 1 round/level
Range: 10 feet/level

A crocodile appears within range and attacks a target or targets of the caster's choice. Once the targets or the crocodile is dead, it vanishes in a puff of smoke.

The following spell has been theorized, but not yet developed:

Summon Berserk Giant Crocodile
Level: Wizard 5
Duration: 1 round/level
Range: 10 feet/level

A giant crocodile appears within range and attacks a target or targets of the caster's choice, with a +2 bonus because of how angry it is. Once the targets or the crocodile is dead, it vanishes in a puff of smoke.

Fertile Channels
Level: Wizard 2
Duration: instantaneous

When cast on a nearby pool or stream of water, this spell imbues it a little positive energy and a whole heap of fertilizer, and in an arid environment, will actually call up more water. The water is not drinkable (see aforementioned fertilizer), but is great for growing plants, and affects undead as if it was holy water.

Setting Riffs: The Best of RPG.net

2010-07-08T18:30:00.003+10:00

Transhumanist Kung-Fu: Punch Me With The Future

FTL Y'all: Rednecks in Space

FTL Y'all 2: Jump-Punk Diaspora

Counting to Infinity: Very human transhumans in a future without a future

The Long Stair: Reality, meet Gygaxia

Flamepunk: The *punk's new clothes

Twin Cities of Glass: Fantasy gets weird in a world of glass.

[To Coin a World] Ecology: The Tiger Bear

2010-07-03T10:19:00.003+10:00

Zwuyalan tiger bear, ready to pounce

Zwuyalan tiger bear in captivity

[The Corpse Star] Characters

2010-07-02T17:58:00.005+10:00

The Elf, Wandering

She forsakes the tomb her sisters take.

She has the chance to follow still.

And yet she cannot walk away.

The Wizard, Dying

He will not live to see the end.

He has power still, might to spare.

And yet he cannot save himself.

The Sword, Unsheathed

She solves it all with blood and steel.

She fights demons, orcs, and creatures unknown.

And yet her might is no match for the darkness.

The Wheel, Turning

He deals in chance, a difficult dance.

He hopes that he can buy off his final breath.

And yet he has a final fate.

The Dragon, Grieving
She knows the end will come too soon.
She longs for life, for love without strife.
And yet her wings have fallen still.

The Dwarf, Smiling

He happily ignores the sky.
He quests and fights and drinks.
And yet he knows it all is true.

The Seer, Blinded
She once saw light and futures bright.
She now sees nothing, not even shadows.
And yet she knows that there is a chance.

The Baron, Wearied

He has served his people for so long.

He is tired - so tired it's hard to stand.

And yet he cannot rest - not yet.

[To Coin a World] Ecology: The Narheti Plains

2010-07-02T12:29:00.017+10:00

Zebras

Known for its distinctive black-and-white stripes, herds of zebras are one of the most common sights on the Narheti Plains. Highly adaptable grazers with a powerful digestive system, they can subsist on almost any vegetation. As hardly plains dwellers with numerous predators, most zebra breeds are deeply ill-tempered and easily panicked. However, the Darkmane Zebra of the spinmost Narheti is a calmer breed, and is used as a beast of burden and mount by the nomadic people of that region.

A common plains zebra

Raboons

The scattered scrubs and uplands of the Narheti often are home to family-based tribes of raboons. These dangerous and aggressive omnivores generally subsist on scavenged kills from larger predators, but they will opportunistically take down wounded prey themselves and feast. A number of different species inhabit the plains - most common is the Vulgar Raboon, but the Grand Raboon, Mountain Raboon, Hopping Raboon and tiny Piper Raboons are all found in wide-ranging areas of the Narheti.

Raboons and their close baboon relatives

Elands and other antelopes

The various breeds of antelope make up the largest family of grazers to be found on the Narheti, from the gracile gazelle to the enormous eland, the intrepid impala and the razor-quick reebok. Common to all species are the impressive horns of both genders, slender yet powerful legs that propel them at high speed when escaping predators, and extremely acute senses that serve them well in the open plains.

The eland - the largest breed of antelope

Rabbucks

The enormous size and diversity of the Narheti means that it is home to a vast variety of grazing animals, from antelopes to zebras to rabbucks. There are two main families of rabbucks - the hopping rabbucks, more closely related to their lagomorph ancestors, and the running rabbucks who dominate the open plains. Hopping rabbucks are most often found in the more forested regions of Zwuyala, where their ability to rise up on their haunches opens up a wide variety of food sources.

The beatrix - a common hopping rabbuck breed, found not only in Zwuyala but parts of Spindlwick

The strank - typical of the running rabbucks of the Narheti

Lanks

One of the more curious inhabitants of the Narheti is the lank - a flightless grazer descended from the pterosaurs that soar above Zwuyala's jungles. With their elongated necks, lanks are able to subsist on both the tallest leaves of trees and the lowest grasses of the Narheti. Their eyes, placed high on the head, are adept at detecting movement from a distance, allowing the flock to flee at a moment's notice when a predator is spotted.

Two lanks grazing - note the vestigal claws on the upper front legs

With thanks to: Dougal Dixon's New Dinosaurs and After Man, Wikipedia

Other Weapons in the Goblin Arsenal

2010-06-29T19:18:00.003+10:00

As you might have noticed from my post here and my follow-up here, I like using goblins. Particularly Warhammer/Magic the Gathering-esque ones that use crazy techniques to attack the PCs. Apparently, some other people like them that way too, as I've found three nifty links to new ways for goblins to be deadly, silly, and annoying all at the same time:

BZZZZZ - nothing more annoying than a goblin with a Vuvuzela. Here's a video, showing how this works wonderfully with even the most serious campaign.
Whether you agree with the pro-goblin propaganda or not, giant siege slugs would be a fearsome thing to face.
Scroll to the end of this post for... goblin pig balloonists!

[TranStellar RPG] Weird moves

2010-06-27T11:42:00.006+10:00

Basic Moves

To break the fourth wall, roll + weird. On a 10+, you receive a genre-aware insight about the current situation and take +1 forward. On a 7-9, you receive an insight but expose yourself to writer anger.

Advanced Moves

To scan minds and influence people, roll + weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. Spend one to ask a question from the read person list or compel one person to follow your instructions. If they're a leading character, they can choose not to follow but they mark experience if they do. If you read another psychic's mind, you experience psychic feedback. You take -1 ongoing and can't roll + weird until you shake it off.

To predict the future, roll + weird. On a 10+, you get a good insight into a future event. On a 7-9, you get an incorrect insight into a future event, but take +1 ongoing until you figure out you're wrong or cause it to become true.

To create haute cuisine, roll + weird. On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose one.

It isn't flammable or explosive.
It actually tastes good.
It isn't actively poisonous.
It doesn't require special ingredients.

Rogue Trader Apocalypse

2010-06-18T16:52:00.005+10:00

You are Bold, Adroit, Charming, Vigorous and possibly even Twisted.

Rogue Trader: Apocalypse

Star Trader

2010-05-31T11:17:00.003+10:00

Captain's Log, Stardate 42015.31

Our destination is the planet Deneb IV, beyond which lies the great unexplored mass of the galaxy. Our intention is to dock at the Farpoint orbital for one last resupply, while investigating the potential trade opportunities available with the Denebian government. Meanwhile, I'm becoming better acquainted with my new command - this Galaxy-class starship. I'm still in awe of the bargain we managed to secure at the Starfleet auction. As for my crew, I am still short in several key positions, most notably an executive officer, but my contacts tell me that a highly experienced ex-Starfleet officer, William T. Riker, is willing to join our team at Farpoint.

Our five-year mission is to explore the galactic fringe, and to seek out new civilizations and new potential trade routes, to boldly go where no trader has gone before.

I expect this to be a profitable Enterprise.

The Prime Commission

The Confederation of Free Planets has awarded you a Prime Commission - the right to travel beyond the fringes of the Federation, explore the unexplored, spread the light of capitalism and democracy, and seek your fortune in the wider galaxy. Vast fortunes await those willing to boldly go where no-one else will - into the unexplored fringes of the galaxy, beyond Farpoint and the Denebian Gulf. If you can muster the courage, the luck, and the sheer force of will to face death and the deep unknown, you can become a legend. One day, perhaps you will outshine the great Kirk.

Daunting dangers and untold opportunities await you in the fringe. Growing civilizations, bizarre beings, stellar phenomena and Romulan raiders all lurk within the galactic depths. At times, you will have nothing but hope as your weapon against the darkness. At others, you will rely on force of arms, wit and words, or superior technology to win the day. You must be both a capitalist and a missionary, a diplomat and a warrior; an agent of both the Confederation and of your investors...

Sneaky Sorceror Spells

2010-05-29T16:17:00.003+10:00

Whitefire's Unseen Archer
Level: 2
Duration: 10 minutes/level or until discharged
Range: 10 feet/level
Target: one bow or crossbow, and 1 bolt or arrow per level.

This spell allows the caster to use a bow or crossbow from a distance, albeit at a -1 penalty for every 10 feet away the weapon is. The weapon can be moved up to 20 feet per round, and can be fired once per round, until the duration has expired, or the weapon has fired all its enspelled ammunition. Both the weapon and the target of the weapon must be in line of sight of the caster.

Mask Under the Mask
Level: 5
Duration: 1 hour/level

Much like the spell Disguise Self, this changes the caster's visual appearance. However, unlike that spell, if the disguise is pierced (through feeling the target, True Seeing, or Dispel Magic), there is a second disguise underneath, which includes tactile, olfactory, thermal and auditory disguising on the caster, and which cannot be detected by True Seeing unless the caster loses an opposed Magic Attack roll.

Doodle Dungeons

2010-05-27T21:34:00.003+10:00

Made during boring moments at work.

I've since been informed by John that I should make them smaller, as he prefers microdungeons. Good thing for him I've got work next week.

Grudgeball

2010-05-19T14:38:00.003+10:00

The continent of Spindlewick has seen a lot of wars over the eons. Just about everybody has had a go at everybody else at some point. You almost can't fire a ballista without hitting an old battlefield.

Obviously, at some point, the High Druids decided that all this probably wasn't so good for the bits of landscape playing host to the battles. After some petitioning, and possibly a few battles of their own, involving magically animated trees, they managed to get most of the sides involved to agree to only start wars over "proper" things, like territory, farmland, kidnapped royalty, and suchlike, rather than any time a king felt the national ego could do with a boost.

For times like that, there is now Grudgeball.

Grudgeball is usually played on a large oval or square field. Two teams of of players try to hit the ball (actually a goblin skull alchemically treated to give it bounce) through the opposing team's goal hoop using hefty wooden mallets. A Druid referees, and makes a vain attempt to enforce the "no intentionally hitting other players with your mallet" rule. The ball may be handled with the mallet, or the head or body of a player, but not the feet or hands.

A Grudgeball team is made up of 11 players, 8 of whom may be on the field at any one time. Up to two of these players may be "heavies" (defined as anything that's more than 10 feet tall when it stands up straight, or that weighs more than 25 stone), with the special limitation that if both heavies are deployed on the field at once, if one is incapacitated or sent off, their "slot" must be left open, and not filled with a normal player from the bench.

Arcane magic is usually banned on the field, but divine magic is permitted (on the grounds that nobody is willing to tell a god he's not allowed to get involved), although smiting of players is generally considered bad form. Intentionally enchanted mallets and other items are likewise banned, although some relic mallets that have picked up a sort of ambient enchantment from the belief of the fans do see use (and get stolen a lot by rival teams), and golems and reanimated dead are permitted (on the condition that they can say "I am a player" to the Druid referee).

Games usually last an hour, or until a riot breaks out.

Doctor Who Now?

2010-05-17T00:44:00.001+10:00

Microlite: Feats of Power III - this time it's Clerical.

2010-05-12T18:34:00.006+10:00

Rogue Feats (Continued)

Lucky Bastard
Once per session you can either re-roll a dice you just rolled, or force the DM to re-roll a dice he just rolled, on the condition that the outcome of that roll effects you. The second roll stands, even if it's worse (for you) than the first one.

Cheating Bastard
You get +2 on the Knowledge skill, and can cast all 0-level mage or illusionist spells, as well as arcane spells from scrolls.

Cleric Feats
(just as a reminder, in m20, Clerics get a number of turning attempts per day equal to their level + mind bonus + 2)

Wrathful God
When an enemy attacks you in melee, you can expend a Turn Undead attempt to deal that enemy the same amount of damage as you take.

Loving God
When you cast a healing spell, you can expend a Turn Undead attempt to roll d10s instead of d8s to see how many hp you heal.

God of Storms
You can throw small bolts of lightning as a ranged attack. Essentially, they work like a thrown spear (including your Strength bonus to damage), except their use your magic attack bonus to hit. Additionally, if you expend a Turn undead attempt, the bolt deals double damage.

Civilized God

Any time you would normally grant an ally a bonus on a roll (through aid another, flanking, a spell, etc.) they get an additional +2 on that roll. You can expend a Turn undead attempt to grant an ally a +3 bonus (including the extra bonus from this feat) on any one roll they are about to take.

God of Light

you can provide illumination sufficient to see by at any time you like. Additionally, if you expend a Turn Undead attempt, all allies within 60 feet of you get +1 on all rolls for 1 round.

God of Shadows

You get a +3 bonus to Subterfuge, and can expend a Turn Undead attempt to make a sneak attack like a Rogue.

[Tablanomicon of Jahibnfil] Assorted Alchemy

2010-05-12T15:19:00.006+10:00

Roll

1

Quiescent Quicksilver: A vile of near-inert quicksilver that absorbs all sounds for 10 minutes on release.

2

Think-Man’s Pumice: Transforms gold into lead. Useful in certain limited situations.

3

Liquid Lunch: A liquefied luncheon, feeds four. Delicious and nutritious.

4

Geas Grease: The first person to slip over in a pool of geas grease owes its creator one major favour.

5

Sovereign Glue: Two things joined by this substance cannot be unjoined except by magical means or universal solvent.

6

Merchant Paste: Rub on silver or copper coins to make them appear gold for three days. Enough for 500 “gold” pieces.

7

Alchemic Armour: Apply to add +3 to the armour value of a particular suit of armour. The effect dissipates after five hours. Unfortunately, so does the armour.

7a

Illusionist's Fire: target appears to catch fire, but suffers no harm.

9

Mouldy Bread: Either cures any disease or gives you terrible food poisioning.

10

Tracer Dust: Once you sprinkle this on someone, a specialised lodestone compass will point to them for five days.

11

Universal Solvent: One dose dissolves any kind of physical bond between two objects or creature.

12

Mass Opiate: Specially treated holy water that causes everyone in a 20-foot radius to forget their struggles.

13

Dragonfire Tar: Clings to target, dealing 1d8 damage per round until they jump into the water.

14

Rock Oil Solution: Add to water to create up to 10 oil flasks.

15

Cleansing Agent: Add to any body of water to cleanse it of all imperfections. Do not pour into ocean unless you like global ecocide.

16

Sleeping Draught: Stopper says “Sleeping Draught, Do Not Disturb”. It doesn’t like being disturbed.

17

Ghoststrike Oil: When applied to weapon, it becomes semi-insubstantial and ignores armour. It also attracts ghosts.

18

Elixir of Life: Heals the drinker completely of all wounds and adds +1d6 years to their lifespan. Positive effect is somewhat offset by cocktail of water-borne parasites and diseases.

19

Philosopher Stone: Contains the voice of one noisy dead philosopher.

20

Metaversal Solvent: As universal solvent, but can dissolve metaphysical and metaphorical bonds. Use with extreme care.

Microlite: More Feats of Power!

2010-05-12T13:58:00.008+10:00

These were actually penned by TheLoneAmigo, but as he's not around today, I'm presenting them. Part 1 here.

Fighter Feats (Continued)

Tangling Chains

On a successful attack roll with a flail, spiked chain, or whip, you can move your target up to your Strength modifier x 5 feet towards you.

Ready Polearm

Once per round, if an enemy moves before attacking you (and is within melee range) , you may make a free attack on them.

Lightning Reload
You may reload a crossbow as a free action.

Mighty Bowman

You may add your Strength modifier to damage rolls with bows.

Nimble Throwing

You may add your Dexterity modifier to damage rolls with thrown weapons, rather than your strength modifier.

Wizard Feats (Continued)

Tome of Knowledge

At the start of each day, you may prepare one spell you know and can normally cast, ready to be read from your tome. Once during that day, you can cast that spell for free while wielding a tome.

And now some for the Illusionists...

Cloak of Distraction

At the cost of 1 hp you can replace your AC with a Subterfuge + Dexterity roll against 1 attack when wearing a (suitably flashy) cloak.

Orb of Mystery

When wielding an Orb and casting an illusion or enchantment spell, at the cost of 1 hp, you can re-roll your magic attack, and add your Mind bonus to the result (in addition to the fact it's already added to your magic attack anyway).

Rogue Feats

Charming Bastard

You get a +3 bonus to the Communication skill.

Sneaky Bastard

You get a +1 bonus to the Subterfuge skill, and can always hide, even in the middle of combat, with a Subterfuge + Dex roll.

Athletic Bastard

You get a +2 bonus to the Physical skill.

[m20 magic item] Bottled Lightning

2010-05-08T11:58:00.007+10:00

A post inspired by the above picture, the awesome lightning pirates in Stardust, and the fact that "mana potions" are boring.

Lightning is power. In a magic-rich environment, this is true in more ways than one (that one otherwise being "the power to fry anything stupid enough to be standing out in the open"). The wizards of the Coin long ago worked out that properly captured and processed, lightning could be used as a power source for their spell-workings. Most wizard towers have a lightning-rod and processing equipment installed, although unless the resident feels like messing with the local weather patterns or annoying a god, there's always the problem of getting a regular supply (compounded by the fact it goes flat after a while). Many wizards prefer to just buy it from the few skyship crews who specialize in lightning collection.

A bottle of reasonably fresh, refined, lightning costs about 350-400gp. It can be used in one of two ways:

Firstly, a wizard (or cleric) can drink it as a standard action. If he then casts a spell on his next turn, that spell's HP cost is reduced by 1d6. If the caster doesn't cast a spell on his text turn, however, the build-up of power discharges, dealing him 1d6 damage.

Second, it can be shaken and thrown, causing it to explosively discharge. This deals 3d6 damage to the target, and 1d6 damage to anybody standing next to him (Reflex save for half. DC = thrower's attack roll).

Stale, old, bottled lighting would use a d4 or d3 instead of a d6.

The Coin

2010-05-05T00:59:00.005+10:00

The world is flat. Any fool can tell you that. Of course, long ago, the fools of a past age thought it was flat like a shining coin, soaring through the void with its three luminous moons like some mad god's lost change.

The discovery of a bunch of elephants and a planet-sized turtle adhered to the other side of the "Coin" kind of upset this theory, but sadly, by then, the name had stuck.

So, this is my campaign world. A little Discworld*, a little D&D kitchen sink, far more planning than is healthy, and far less planning than it seems to warrant. The map above was originally created by TheLoneAmigo, then got tweaked by me (you can blame me for the horrible shade of orange on the deserts, him for the place names).

*which is to say, a lot Discworld.

Microlite: Feats of Power!

2010-05-03T19:34:00.011+10:00

One of the main issues I have with Microlite20, at least in the form Jarrah uses, is that it provides relatively little room for character differentiation - the only ways in which characters of the same class/race combo differ from each other is in their stats (rolled at random) and their equipment (so now we're back to characters being defined by their items... a particularly odious 3.5ism that I never enjoyed).

Thus, I've proposed a system that draws in some of the elements I love about D&D4e and the feat system from 3.5e. I'll be the first to admit that t's not particularly "balanced"... but balance isn't really our core emphasis in this version of D&D so much as ensuring everyone has an interesting time. Since it's all a mess of houserules anyway, anything too odious can be easily reigned in.

Feats of Power

At 1st level, a character selects one of their Class Feats. These serve to further define the character. At every odd level thereafter, an additional feat slot is opened up. Characters may fill these feat slots with techniques and clever stratagems they learn from wizened masters, combat teachers, or come up with in their own path.

Fighter

Nimble Swordsman
You may add your Dexterity bonus to attack rolls (in addition to your strength score) in any round where you move at least once.

Cleaving Axe

Whenever you hit with an axe, you may deal damage equal to your Strength bonus to any other adjacent enemies.

Hammer Smash
Even if you miss, you still do damage equal to your Strength Bonus to the creature you were attacking.

Defensive Counterstrike

Whenever an adjacent enemy attacks one of your allies, you may make an immediate attack against them as a free action. You can only do this once per round.

Wizard

Wand of Accuracy
At the cost of 1hp, you may re-roll a magic attack roll and add your Dexterity bonus if wielding a wand.

Staff of Defense

When wielding a staff, add +2 to your AC.

more to come...

Flight spells on the Coin

2010-04-26T22:53:00.003+10:00

A long time ago the gods made it pretty clear that if the mortal races were supposed to be able to fly they would have been issued wings up front. After some lightning bolts were thrown around, the wizarding community got the hint and gave up on spells that allow humans to soar like birds.

Of course, wizards are smartasses. They've since worked out a myriad of spells that do similar things without breaking the "no flying mortals" rule. Feather Fall will slow your decent, Levitate will allow some vertical movement without actually counting as flight, and finally, the coin version of the spell Fly actually imbues aerial mobility on a broom* which a mortal spellcaster might just happen to sit on...

*or carpet, or staff, or cauldron. Different cultures have different versions with different degrees of speed and stability.

eXPloration: the pictorial guide (part 2)

2010-04-20T21:23:00.011+10:00

I'd just like to thank every artist who's fantastic work I've ripped off for this.

You also get 2 xp for visiting each of these locations...

The Pyrsburg, realm of mages and merchants, hub of trade (if you can read French, just ignore the text)

Al-Harraj, city of a thousand genies
Spinotaur City, center of learning in Zwuyala
The great city of the drow that nobody can pronounce the name of.
Cannon Valley, the ancient stronghold of the dwarves
Broken Glade, the elven retreat on Spindlewick
The very Edge of the World (although you have to look over it to get the XP)

I couldn't find a picture of Yendys, as nobody has ever felt inclined to draw Sydney as a fantasy city. I guess I'll just have to do it myself...

Also, Xp will be given for...

Getting ship-wrecked (unless you did it intentionally) - 1 xp
Watching a city burn (once per city) - 2 xp
Watching a dragon fly - 1xp
Flying on a dragon - 5xp (less for later dragon flights and other forms of aerial transport)

And that, for the moment, concludes the pictorial guide to eXPloration in Jarrah's campaign.

eXPloration: the pictorial guide (part 1)

2010-04-20T13:45:00.007+10:00

really, as an artist, I should be doing these drawings myself, but instead I've just stolen them wholesale from around the internet. So, without further ado, some inspirational artwork to represent the various things you can earn exploration XP for in my campaign:

Gazing upon the Coin from one of it's three moons - 20xp

Climbing the Spindle, the mountain at the center of the world, home to the gods - 15xp
Visiting the secret grove of the high druids, or the hidden monastery of the Tax monks - 8xp

Cross the Spindlewick mountains, or the Great Howling Desert of Aratha - 5xp

To be continued...

Roll
1	Quiescent Quicksilver: A vile of near-inert quicksilver that absorbs all sounds for 10 minutes on release.
2	Think-Man’s Pumice: Transforms gold into lead. Useful in certain limited situations.
3	Liquid Lunch: A liquefied luncheon, feeds four. Delicious and nutritious.
4	Geas Grease: The first person to slip over in a pool of geas grease owes its creator one major favour.
5	Sovereign Glue: Two things joined by this substance cannot be unjoined except by magical means or universal solvent.
6	Merchant Paste: Rub on silver or copper coins to make them appear gold for three days. Enough for 500 “gold” pieces.
7	Alchemic Armour: Apply to add +3 to the armour value of a particular suit of armour. The effect dissipates after five hours. Unfortunately, so does the armour.
7a	Illusionist's Fire: target appears to catch fire, but suffers no harm.
9	Mouldy Bread: Either cures any disease or gives you terrible food poisioning.
10	Tracer Dust: Once you sprinkle this on someone, a specialised lodestone compass will point to them for five days.
11	Universal Solvent: One dose dissolves any kind of physical bond between two objects or creature.
12	Mass Opiate: Specially treated holy water that causes everyone in a 20-foot radius to forget their struggles.
13	Dragonfire Tar: Clings to target, dealing 1d8 damage per round until they jump into the water.
14	Rock Oil Solution: Add to water to create up to 10 oil flasks.
15	Cleansing Agent: Add to any body of water to cleanse it of all imperfections. Do not pour into ocean unless you like global ecocide.
16	Sleeping Draught: Stopper says “Sleeping Draught, Do Not Disturb”. It doesn’t like being disturbed.
17	Ghoststrike Oil: When applied to weapon, it becomes semi-insubstantial and ignores armour. It also attracts ghosts.
18	Elixir of Life: Heals the drinker completely of all wounds and adds +1d6 years to their lifespan. Positive effect is somewhat offset by cocktail of water-borne parasites and diseases.
19	Philosopher Stone: Contains the voice of one noisy dead philosopher.
20	Metaversal Solvent: As universal solvent, but can dissolve metaphysical and metaphorical bonds. Use with extreme care.