Two for Fantasy, Two for Science Fiction

It's been a long time, and I been busy, ya dig? Also, I wrote original entries for each of these, but my connection died and Blogger lost it early on so -- I'm not rewriting it. Just grabbing the descriptions for now.

But they are of note!

So -- two RPG releases for Fantasy, and another two releases for Science Fiction:

Fantasy RPG Releases

Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of

Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of takes you into the world of Conan the Barbarian, where heroes raise blood-spattered swords against dire sorcery, exotic lands beckon to the daring, danger and treasure lurks in forgotten ruins, and where loathsome creatures haunt the spaces beneath the earth… as well as in the throne-rooms of mighty kingdoms!

Seek your fortune in forbidden tombs or upon blood-soaked battlefields. Cast dark and terrible spells of unimaginable power, at the price of your soul. Sail upon untamed seas to lands where no human in living memory has walked. Fight for the fate of civilization — or barbarism — on a savage frontier!

Adventures in Middle-earth Loremaster's Guide

In Adventures in Middle-earth™ the greatest fantasy setting of all time comes to the world's favourite roleplaying game rules! Take your gaming group to Middle-earth with this thematic and atmospheric, OGL-compatible setting guide.

Science Fiction RPG Releases

Doctor Who Roleplaying Game: The Black Archive

The Tower of London: home to ravens, Beefeaters and one of the most extensive collections of esoteric alien artefacts on Earth.

Under the stewardship of UNIT, The Black Archive is charged with finding, storing and understanding the weirdest and most powerful alien Gadgets that come to our planet. Just as this unbelievably valuable and dangerous collection has expanded, so has UNIT itself evolved. No longer solely a military organisation, in the 21st Century UNIT agents are as likely to be diplomats and investigators as they are soldiers.

The Black Archive details the 21st Century organisation that collects, catalogues and protects some of the most incredible artefacts the Earth has ever known, and the collection itself.

Coriolis - The Third Horizon

Coriolis – The Third Horizon is a science fiction role-playing game from the makers of critically acclaimed Mutant: Year Zero (six-time nominee and winner of a Silver Ennie for Best Rules 2015).

Features:

• Create your unique player character – including skills, talents, gear and relationships – in mere minutes.
• Fight fast and furious battles, praying to the Icons to overcome your enemies.
• Build and crew your own spaceship, to explore the many star systems of the Third Horizon.
• Experience thrilling spaceship duels, using a game system that puts all player characters at the heart of the action.
• Take part in the intrigue between powerful factions on the majestic space station Coriolis.
• Uncover the mysteries of the Third Horizon, a rich tapestry of cultures that have settled the stars.

Check any of these out, if they tickle your fancy.

On The Radar: Equinox

The Equinox RPG (www.equinox-rpg.com) by Vagrant Workshop is out. But wait -- it was already out in 2012, right? And then out again at the end of 2014 (right when I started my new job, which is probably why I missed it)?

A bit confused, but will figure it out later, because there are several books for it:

• the Equinox Setting Guide
• the Equinox Match System Guide
• the Equinox Storygame Guide

Based on naming conventions, some of the write-ups, and the bundles in RPGNow (see below), there are at least two different rulesets (Match System or Storygame) for the setting:

• Match System bundle
• Storygame bundle

Also, according to the Setting Guide, you're free to approach the setting (if you didn't already know that you're allowed to used whatever ruleset you want) with you whatever ruleset you want:

"You should be able to play in the equinox setting with any generic game system available. Cortex, D20 Future, Fate, HERO, GURPS, Savage Worlds, Open D6, TriStat, Unisystem, etc—all of these feature all the mechanics needed for this and come with guidelines for adapting futuristic settings. Just add a shot of magic!
In case you seek to make your adaption 'official:' we’re open for submissions. Contact us and we’ll find a way to get your rules adaption out in the open."

Sounds like a plan. Time to add these to the read pile! Setting first, of course.

Lazy Post: Females in the Fantasy Genre

Update: Okay, here's Xena!

There was a request for Xena, so here she is. Non-traditional Xena garb, but the attitude is awesome.

from XenaCentral.net

A Collection of Aspects

Here's my collection of aspects from the Echoes campaign so far.

My original aspects start with the middle row:

Anima: Emotion -- somehow tied to the sense of emotion, or perhaps control over it; has been successfully used to make someone flee from me in fear.

Anima: Thought -- my birth aspect, and therefor cannot be taken from me; seems to be tied to refinement of thought, but I may be able to push it into the realm of telepathy or even mental control. Not sure yet, though it has been used successfully on certain elemental creatures with that particular effect.

Metal: Blade -- no successful use at this time.

Wood: Tree -- was used in combat defensively, when facing down a lightning elemental; in conjunction with other attributes, was able to absorb lightning attacks and channel them into the ground like a tree.

The bottom aspect is also thought, but in an unfamiliar world and an unfamiliar element structure.

The top aspect is an 'angelic aspect' whose provenance is still unknown; it has, however, driven (in concert with three other angelic aspects) what seemed to be a demonic aspect from reality.

Echoes S01E01: introduction of Mikael, Almira, Vassily, and Nikolai (part 01)

as recorded by archivist Nikki

This is done in script format, as were the latter documents for the The Court Adamantine game sessions.

PC Speakers in Bold
NPC Speakers in Bold + Italics

CITY OF VESPER, WESTERN GANYM

THE FOUNDRY

MAGANOV
Some of the seniors-- including myself-- have been observing your work, and as a result of our evaluation, I am prepared to offer you a full fellowship. You would be a junior; you would have tenure. Is this something that would interest you?

MIKAEL
Of-- course, Senior. I would be honored. But I have not yet presented my--

MAGANOV
The prince of Vesper spoke to me a fortnight ago, and he brought up the need of Vesper's military to improve its steam weaponry-- so I thought of you. Once you are a junior under my guidance, you see, we can turn you away from these little dynamos to improve wheat production and the plight of the poor and whatnot, toward creating turbines that will make steam shots faster and more fatal...
Senior Maganov continues rattling on about the military technology they will develop.

MAGANOV
... Vesper, rising to be the city among cities, with the Foundry in prominent--

MIKAEL
But also-- if you will allow me, Senior-- the efficiencies I am proposing on the civilian side would uplift the entire city. A well-fed army is, of course--

MAGANOV
That may be, but that is not at all what the prince is requesting. In fact, in one month, he requires a demonstration, to which I agreed. Your mind is brilliant.

MIKAEL
I-- I would not really-- It is not really--

MAGANOV
Your mind is brilliant, like mine. And with my guidance, our brilliance will shine, and the prince will look upon this brilliance and give the Foundry its due, and it will be because of you and because of me. Hmm? All you have to do is sign here.

MIKAEL
This is such an honor, Senior. May I have an evening to consider it?

MAGANOV
(laughing)
What is there to consider? This is a fellowship, with me as your mentor. The last junior I mentored went on to win the Zenith award... You will be grateful as well.

MIKAEL
(seeing no way out of it)
Where do I sign, Senior?

Everything goes black.

THE OPERA

ANYA
Just what did you think you were doing?!

ALMIRA
I was singing... because you forgot the line.

ANYA
I did not forget! And even if I did, a simple cue would have sufficed. You sang. The entire. Fucking. Aria!

ALMIRA
Did we not get a standing ovation?

ANYA
That was my part! And if you want to stay in the company, you will remember that your part is in the chorus, Chorus Girl!

ALMIRA
Excuse me, but when was the last time you had a standing ovation?

ANYA
We had standing ovations in all the last three cities!

ALMIRA
Excuse me, but those were never for this aria, always after a chorale.

ANYA
Are you actually so delusional as to think that everything-- that you-- that--?
(shouting)
Get out!
The Hallway Outside Anya's Dressing Room - immediately

CHORUS LEADER
Don't worry, I'll defend you, but I hope the lesson has been learned, all right?

ALMIRA
Oh, I'm sure she did.

In the very next performance, The Incident recurs, only more stunningly than before. Anya, glaring at the chorus girl, is so incensed that she forgets the very same line. Almira graciously allows her a chance to recover before singing the line, the aria, the lead in the succeeding counterpoint, the alto role in the next verse, and, finally, the mezzo-soprano crescendo, since Anya, utterly discombobulated, flounders off-key. Anya stops singing-- and physically attacks!

ANYA
(shrieking)
Stop iiiiittt!

Everything goes black.

THE HOUSE OF IRINOVITCH

After receiving most alarming news from her brother Vassily, Vassily has run to get support from their brothers Vassily, Vassily, Vassily, and Vassily. Drama, naturally, follows.

ENTREMETIER VASSILY
She is not worth it! Kalvada is not even among the Five Houses; they are only after you for your skills. What makes you imagine this girl loves you?

ROTISSEUR VASSILY
She gave herself to me! You would have to kill me to keep me from her side.

POISSONIER VASSILY
Fine, then!

FOUR VASSILYS
(separating the two and wresting knives out of hands)
Vassily!

PATISSIER VASSILY
You see, she commits one of the worst of sins, turning brother against brother!

GARD-MANGER VASSILY
And that Sonja has a face like spilled paprika!

SAUCIER VASSILY
And they are going to make you work with third-grade beef!

Despite these dire imprecations, Vassily is not to be swayed, and soon makes his regretful but determined last goodbyes. The remaining siblings curse, grumble, and/or sulk, UNTIL:

ENTREMETIER VASSILY
Enough. We are cooking for the second prince tomorrow night. We need to plan, and decide who is going to take over the meat station. I propose myself.

Patissier Vassily appears to redouble the fervor of his constant praying.

ENTREMETIER VASSILY
Nothing less than the best for the prince, and it is known that he prefers meat.

POISSONIER VASSILY
Yes, so perhaps we might prepare a cold meat course! I'm sure Vassily could--

GARD-MANGER VASSILY
I certainly could, or Vassily could do a braise, or a stew, maybe a borscht--

ENTREMETIER VASSILY
No. Listen to me-- stop that praying!-- this is a prince of the land, and so we are going to prepare the roast that all know is his preference, and I will do it, and no one is going to mention the name of Vassily again! Are we clear? This is our--

SAUCIER VASSILY
You cannot make a roast!
(into the dead silence that follows)
I am sorry, Vassily, but you cannot make a roast, not to the standards you, yourself, have set for our house... None of us can, not in just one day.

ENTREMETIER VASSILY
I. Can do. A roast. Can I not, Vassily? Vassily? Vassily?

SAUCIER VASSILY
(after another silence)
Am I the only one with balls in this kitchen?!

PATISSIER VASSILY
She's right.

Vassily stomps off, but later comes back. Non-apologies are exchanged, harmony is restored, and the menu is revised. All seems to proceed swimmingly, even when it is discovered that the prince's dinner is in fact a sort of contest-- against, of course, the House of Kalvada.
 
Things become even more fraught when the eldest Vassily is revealed to have been poisoned, and his course-- the soup-- happens to be the one requested for tasting by the prince. Vassily takes over the soup, bitterly informs the estranged Vassily what she believes his new family has done, and flounces off to present the soup for comparison with that of their rivals.
 
Everything goes black.

THE ROYAL RESIDENCE

ROYAL NIECE
If one applies the critique of reason, on a point-per-point basis, the differences in philosophy are not so extreme as to merit such a response. This entire war-- Perhaps it was an error of the Patriarch to declare the other Church heretic.

NIKOLAI
You must bear in mind that not all-- sadly, in fact, not many-- are often governed by reason. Some differences, however minor, may never be resolved.

ROYAL NIECE
Then it would seem our Church must go.

NIKOLAI
(after a brief pause)
I would not stifle the questions of youth-- and intellect-- and these are questions I struggle with myself. But I would not repeat such a statement, outside this room.

ROYAL NIECE
Is it a wrong path of thinking, Tutor?

NIKOLAI
Is there such a thing as a wrong path of thinking? But it is a dangerous path.
Nikolai's discussion with the smarter of his two pupils is interrupted by Vesper's elder prince, her uncle. The niece respectfully excuses herself, giving the men privacy to converse.

ELDER PRINCE
I think-- this is between us-- that even if my impending marital arrangements push through, I will beget no issue. And my brother Anatole-- well, let us just say that his interests lie elsewhere, which makes my niece our heir. Your responsibility is thus magnified, and to that end-- though my niece and nephew's progress has been more than satisfactory-- I have retained a second tutor.

NIKOLAI
That is wise. I would welcome such support.

The new tutor is summoned and introduced, and the prince departs, leaving them to become acquainted. The woman closes the doors and windows-- following which, they kiss!

MAGDA

Congratulate me; it took a year to secure your position; it took me three weeks.

NIKOLAI
I see your competitive spirit is as fiery as ever.

MAGDA
I've instructions: the younger prince is to be the lone prince-- in two nights' time.

NIKOLAI
She is friendly to our cause. This may change things.

MAGDA
Out of deference, I concede the lead.

AT NIGHT, the tutors make their way to the girl's chamber, easily avoiding the already-known guard patrols. While Magda stands watch, Nikolai approaches the sleeping target.

Everything goes black.

THE FOUNDRY

MIKAEL finds himself-- literally, he does not recall how he came to this position-- in front of an audience, delivering a lecture on a new steam-powered rifle, which he finds brilliantly innovative, notwithstanding the fact that he apparently designed it himself.
 
Everything goes black.

THE OPERA

Almira finds herself in a locked room, brandishing a knife over a bound, gagged, and wounded Anya. Horrified, she drops the knife and backs away. There is a pounding at the door.

ALMIRA
This is not what I would do. I don't-- I don't need to-- I am bigger than this!

Everything goes black.

A ROAD

Vassily finds herself on horseback, riding madly through the night.

VASSILY
Where is the prince? Why am I here? Hello? Hello!

Nikolai rides toward her, bleeding. Almira and MIKAEL also ride up. Everything goes black.

A HOVEL

Almira finds herself gently touching Nikolai's bandaged arm, while Vassily makes soup, and MIKAEL checks on the four horses tethered outside. There is a table with some notes on it. Nikolai picks up a paper, which reads: 1) Find Idhira, 2) accounting of acquired Components.

MIKAEL
Excuse me, do you know how we got here?

NIKOLAI
Do I know you?

MIKAEL
No, I don't recall meeting any of you. Have any of you had--?

Everything goes black.

Crests in the Multiverse of Echoes

Our Echoes campaign is shaping up to be unusual, with our characters only really revealed at the end of the 3rd session, and the players learning a lot more about the three echoes (worlds in the multiverse) that we'll find ourselves jumping to :

Ganym -- the Easter European-inspired steampunk setting;
Gaoshu -- the China-inspired steampunk setting;
Amitava -- the Persia/India-inspired steampunk setting.

And we'll be learning a lot about Crests, those things that allow us to bend the rules of reality and do astounding things!

But here's what we know so far about them:

On Crests, Their Acquisition, and Their Expression

definition of Aspects

In the various Milieus of Echoes, everyone is born under the Aspect of a certain Element, which grants them certain gifts. For the common run of people, these are simple things, such as being born under the Rain Aspect of Water, and thus not getting sick from being caught in the rain, or perhaps feeling particularly happy when it rains.

It’s important to note that no one is born under the Element of, say, Water, but only under an Aspect thereof—Rain or Dew or Frost, like that. In a sense, it may be said that the Elements do not exist in and of themselves, but only as collective terms for their Aspects, in the same way that the word ‘rice’ does not really exist in Filipino, but can be perceived as a collective term for its concrete aspects of palay (plants that the rice comes from), bigas (uncooked rice), kanin (cooked rice), and so on.

It seems that people can only be born under Aspects of Elements which are considered ‘common’ to their place of birth. More elevated Aspects—as well as Attributes, which will be covered shortly—are typically acquired in the course of study as a Crest-wielder.

universal versus local

There are universal rules governing Crests; these, recorded herein, are some of them. Some Echoes also have local rules, including but far from limited to which Aspects are considered common in a given locale. Whenever there is a conflict between universal and local rules, local rules take precedence; otherwise, universal rules are in play.

definition of Crests and their Components

All that an Aspect does by itself is to allow an involuntary expression of magic, as mentioned previously. In order to actively cause a desired effect, one needs a Crest.

Think of Aspects as nouns, and Crests as sentences. You may possess the noun ‘Rain’, but you need a whole sentence to tell the universe you want to ‘Deluge my enemies in Rain!’ So Crests are composed of both Aspects and Attributes, which are modifiers we can equate to verbs, adjectives, etc., which define things like range and area of effect.

A Crest, therefore, is a linkage of at least one Aspect and a flexible number of Attributes—we call these Aspects and Attributes, collectively, Crest Components—the effect of which depends on (among other variables) what Aspects are incorporated, how they are structured, the intent of the Crest-wielder, and the manner of deployment.

Crest deployment

There are two types, one of which has two subtypes.

1. Empowering – The Crest-wielder channels the power of Crest Components to fuel physical combat. There is no associated cost, other than time spent.
2. Expressed – The Crest-wielder assembles Crest Components to achieve a magical effect, in one of two ways:
1. Invoked – A Crest is drawn on the spot, typically manifested as an intricate, branching halo surrounding the Crest-wielder’s upraised index and middle fingers. This is costly in terms of both Mana and Hit Points.
2. Inscribed – A Crest is inscribed beforehand on some surface, and activated when needed, for either single or multiple use. Inscribing a Crest costs Mana and materials, but activating an Inscribed Crest costs only 1 Mana.

Echoes: More Attributes from the RPG

Echoes S01E00: A Setting Overview

recorded and written by archivist Nikki

then
The world Ganym is named for its eponymous largest continent, which, in the distant past, was unified from scattered fiefdoms into one realm under the Faith. (Ethnographically, consider it European in derivation, excluding the British Isles.)

While each state in the continent Ganym is functionally run by a prince or similar secular potentate, these ‘heads’ are all answerable to Archbishops—collectively known as the Wise—who are themselves answerable to the Patriarch. (So the princes are like CEOS of various companies, who are answerable to the directors of an encompassing holding company, who are answerable to the chairman of that board of directors.)

Some seventy years ago, there was a great schism, in which a certain young woman asserted her arguably-justifiable claim to the already-occupied Patriarchal throne. She was supported by four vassal states of eastern Ganym, which were promptly pronounced heretical along with her, and war was declared.

The Patriarchy, however, possesses no troops of its own, instead levying the forces required from its vassal states. Thus what actually came to pass was a sort of non-war, since, for reasons of their own, the states occupying the border between Ganym proper and the seceded easternmost states declined to attack, and their geographical position rendered it impracticable for other Ganym states to attack.

Therefore—although skirmishes and assassination attempts abounded for some time—no outright war truly occurred, and this situation persisted for some seventy years.

now
Recently, the former Patriarch expired and was replaced by the first elected male Patriarch after a succession of six females—a circumstance which some may perceive, along with a vague ‘seniority’, as adding legitimacy to the so-called ‘anti-Patriarch’.

Currently, the continent is divided into three:

1. Ganym proper, in the west
2. the Greylands—the border states, still technically part of Ganym despite their perhaps-questionable loyalties. A small city of scholars has also become Grey in the last few years, due to their having raised the question of whether the late Patriarch’s edicts—regarding heresy in particular—might not have died with her.
3. the seceded states, as well as their own vassal states acquired in the interim, principally from neighboring islands. This eastern Patriarchy (which is never to be referred to as such) is called Ogaru [sp?], and its capital is the Cathedral of the Rock, a massive edifice built into the cliffside of one of Ogaru’s islands.

During the decades that have passed, East and West have evolved in very different ways.

Ogaru is the leading edge of technological development—while the West does still have airships and clockwork and the technicians to operate and maintain such, they are decades behind, and have proven unable to even reverse-engineer Eastern technology.

Ganym proper, however, remains the bastion of art and, importantly, religious thought.

the Faith

My character's first batch of crests. Only
Aspects are pictured; Attributes coming soon.

Magic is Faith and Faith is magic—no other form of magic exists. (In other words, as we players understand it, the Faith has pretty much successfully crushed everything else.)

The universe is composed of a discrete number of Elements. The exact number is known only to the Almighty, but what is known is that the more Faith you have, the more Elements—or rather, Aspects of Elements—you have access to, and the more you can do.

Each of the Faithful is born under the Aspect of a certain Element, which grants them certain gifts. For the common run of people, these are simple things, such as being born under the Rain Aspect of Water, and thus not getting sick from being caught in the rain.

In Ganym philosophy, there are seven common Elements, which have myriad Aspects.

1. Fire
2. Water
3. Earth
4. Air
5. Wood
6. Metal
7. Anima

The Anti-Patriarchy, however, has declared that there are five more common Elements!

1. Mineral
2. Ink
3. Sea
4. Star
5. Smoke

These, of course, are not officially recognized by Ganym, although at least three of them are secretly known to the West as very high-level magic.

It’s important to note that no one is born under the Element of, say, Water, but only under an Aspect thereof— Rain or Dew or Frost, like that. In a sense, it may be said that the Elements do not exist in and of themselves, but only as collective terms for their Aspects, in the same way that the word ‘rice’ does not really exist in Filipino, but may be perceived as a collective term for its concrete aspects of palay, bigas, kanin, and so on.

There are levels and levels of Elements above the common, but accessing them requires training, which —whether West or East — is the nigh-exclusive province of the clergy. This is not to say that only the clergy has recourse to actual, usable magic — secular people from princes to guardsmen possess Crests, but only through clerical approval.

Crests?
All that an Aspect does by itself is to allow an involuntary expression of magic, as mentioned previously. In order to actively cause a desired effect, one needs a Crest.

(Think of Aspects as nouns, and Crests as sentences. You may have the noun ‘Rain’, but you need a whole sentence to tell the universe you want to ‘Deluge my enemies in Rain!’ So Crests are composed of both Aspects and Attributes, which are modifiers we can equate to verbs, adjectives, etc., which define things like duration, size, and targeting.)

A Crest is typically deployed by holding together and raising the index and middle fingers, around which will form a small halo depicting the constructed Crest, either:

• physical—inscribed on something tangible, which is then activated by the wielder’s Faith; the wielder must have sufficient knowledge of all Aspects and Attributes relevant to the Crest—or
• manifested—formed of pure Faith and knowledge.

The latter is much trickier than one might think, since Attributes and Aspects—with the sole exception of the one you were born with—tend to fade from the mind in time, and there are only three known ways to acquire new ones.

1. Realization—epiphany achieved through fasting and contemplation of the involved Aspect or Attribute; can be reinforced with successive contemplation
2. Education—being taught a successfully-recorded Aspect or Attribute
3. Recovery—discovering lost Aspects or Attributes, but attempting to comprehend such unidentified powers can be and has been fatal
4. (and I know I said there were only three, but Kate discovered this one, so I think our characters would not know it)
5. Combination—causing multiple Aspects to ‘birth’ new ones

It is also possible to trade—there must be an actual one-to-one exchange, or no trade occurs. This practice is much frowned upon by the Faith, but is nevertheless rampant.

Echoes: The New RPG Campaign

Well, the old RPG campaign I was in (Isle: Imperium and The Court Adamantine) wrapped up several months back. I have tons of unpublished write-ups from those, but I wanted to start up with the new campaign we're into -- partially because I need to keep track of all the new magic rules in this pseudo-cyberpunk setting.

But first, a teaser pic of my four starting Aspects (from three elements - Anima, Wood, and Metal).

I've only been able to try Thought, Emotion, and Tree with their related Attributes. Only Thought has been successfully used against a rain elemental trying to kill me.

Inspiration: Diwanis of the Enchanted Garden

Here are some pics from a new Philippine Fantaserye titled Enchanted Garden. Don't know too much about it, aside from the fact that they've signed up some of the sexiest women in Philippine Showbiz (and one of the funniest -- I love Ruffa Mae Quinto's comedy work). Pictured below are the Diwani (a play on diwata, commonly translated as being a faery or nymph, but closer in local myth to being a local goddess of nature).

Here they are while I figure out what the show's about.

Diwani Alvera played by Alice Dixon

Diwani Valerianna portrayed by Ruffa Gutierrez

Diwani Quassia portrayed by Ruffa Mae Quinto

Fantasy Philippines: Nosfecatu & Hari Ragat posts

One of the GSL release of Nosfecatu.

This post is mostly for my own reference, but I do follow two blogs on fantasy games set in the Philippine milieu:

• Nosfecatu Publishing's blog; and
• Dariel Quiogue's Hari Ragat blog.

I also visit various jungle-related posts on Fire in the Jungle.

Here are several posts that have caught my eye:

• Buan: The Kadatohan
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits I
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits II
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits III
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits IV
• FitJ: Hunting in the Jungle

Enjoy!

Modern Era Classes -- Having Weird Adventures

Not as clumsy or random
as a pistol or a barrel-fed
tommy gun.

I've been thinking about this for a while -- what kind of classes or character templates does the Weird Adventures setting call for?

As a mash-up of traditional fantasy RPGs and a more modern pulpy feel, it makes sense that the classes would have a little of both. So I racked my brain for the very basic types of classes or templates on both sides.

For fantasy, it would seem that you'd have the basic fighter, mage, cleric, thief contingent along with their respective variants. For pulp, it's a little bit less defined; the modern world is rife with strange backgrounds and combinations of talents and skills and professions.

Since I decided to use the Hero System anyway for this exercise, the wide variety of possible classes isn't a problem. It's finding those sets of archetypes that are appropriate for the genre. And that starts with the basic campaign frame or the types of adventures you're looking at having. Let's start with the classic types of D&D adventures and see what Weird mash-ups we can inject into them.

Dungeon Adventures

For dungeons set in the wilderness, these could be your basic criminal overlord lairs, your strange tribes of creatures preying on nearby settlements, your awakening evil stirring, your portal to a strange underground world, your journey to the center of the earth (or hollow world)!

This was an awesome series of Tintin meets Cthulhu
Mythos faux covers. Maybe hecan do Tintin in
classic D&D modules as well?

For dungeons set in the cities, sewers and subways immediately come to mind. In addition to any of the options above, you can have underground communities that run by different rules from the surface world, and perhaps some strange remnants of a wondrous, long-forgotten era in the city's past that has found new uses by less than scrupulous inheritors.

Wilderness Adventures

Weird Adventures has a lot of interesting options for these. Monster hunting springs to mind, as does extending the reach of civilization into wild areas. Investigating strange rumors for wealth, power, knowledge or science are more than sufficient motivators for expeditions -- and expeditions to other lands or lost civilizations are a staple of both FRPGs and Pulp RPGs!

City Adventures

There's no shortage of story hooks for this (you've read Weird Adventures, right?), but the types of non-dungeon adventures I'd run would include the monster-loose-in-the-city trope, the city-predators-in-disguise trope, the series-of-strange-crimes trope, the find-the-macguffin trope, the murder-mystery trope, the break-the-curse trope, the race-to-get-all-the-pieces trope, the stranger-dies-and-passes-on-the-mystery trope, the dude/damsel-in-distress trope, it just goes on.

Okay, I think I've got a better handle on it. Next step is to come up with a campaign frame or two and start listing classes / templates.

Beyond Taverns and Mysterious Strangers

Then again, taverns have some allure --
such as information on where the best
eyeshadow may be purchased in town.
(Thanks to Xhuul for the pic)

"You all meet in a bar."

A trite-and-true (ahem) method of getting the party together, particularly if you don't really want to waste any time and just get on with the adventure. However, if you want to change things just a bit, here are some alternatives to the campaign beginning.

In Medias Res

Many organic campaigns started this way, because we didn't know what a campaign -- complete with backstory and metaplot -- were. We started at the entrance of the dungeon, with everyone knowing why they were there, what they were after, and what stuff they'd brought with them to get the job done.

Nothing wrong with going back to this. It gets the players focused on the adventure, rather than planning or preparation or discussions on how to get to the damn dungeon.

If you really want to get fancy, you can insert some judicious flashbacks to a tavern mission briefing to tackle things like rumors, foreshadowing, and reminders about things that may have been missed by the players in all the excitement.

Caravan Capers

I actually used this in a 3rd Edition campaign for the Forgotten Realms setting, though it was based on the annual Gnome Caravan of Karameikos from the mountains down to Specularum.

In essence, it's regular trade caravan -- many traders big and small travel together for protection and consolidated costs. PCs can be hired muscle, or perhaps relatives of the merchants, or even paying 'merchants' themselves hoping to take advantage of the relatively safe journey through the wilds.

Adventures will tend toward wilderness encounters, the occasional ambush, and perhaps an interesting location that intrigues the PCs enough to peel away from the caravan to investigate.

Adventures can also accommodate some city adventures, as the caravan cast will shift as they pass through different cities.

Expeditions

And then there's the expedition. Some faction of considerable power and wealth has decided that an evil must be vanquished, a great treasure must be found, a lost artifact must be recovered. The expedition is formed, filled with numerous PCs and NPCs who must undertake various labors to achieve the overarching quest.

There may be rivals and traitors mixed in with the pool of colorful characters and back-up PCs waiting in the wings -- but all will be revealed once the adventures play out.

Inspiration: Furies of Calderon

I'm deep into Jim Butcher's first book of the Codex Alera pentalogy: The Furies of Calderon.

Now, I'm a fan of Jim Butcher's other series work involving Harry Dresden, and there are certainly echoes of the strengths of those books as well: interesting primary and secondary characters, clever interpretations in the nuances of magic, interesting dialogue exchanges, and multi-sided confrontations of individuals with their own agendas. Actually, that latter one seems to be ratcheted up a bit more here, given that the POV is in 3rd person omniscient manner, unlike the Dresden 1st person POV.

However, there are also echoes of another aspect of Butcher's writing -- the long, let's-speculate-all-the-possible-plans-of-the-various-factions explorations either in mindscape (the thoughts of one of the characters) or in dialogue. At the right length, these are fine, but sometimes they ramble on quite a bit and I find myself skipping over them.

Gaming Uses

Of course, Butcher himself is a gamer (though I can't recall the exact gaming history in those articles) so for this series more than other fantasy novels, I try to look for applications in FRPGs.

First thing that comes to mind is -- of course -- the magic system: crafting. Crafting seems to be a take on element-based spellcraft but with wood added to the traditional water-earth-fire-air grouping. Also, this is achieved by bonding with spirits of those elements and essentially commanding them to effect those abilities.

Second thing that comes to mind is the light use of the Roman culture (an empire of humanity against the barbaric hordes, legionnaires, slaves, and a pseudo-senate) merged with the more traditional feudal system we're familiar with. A little bit of flavoring to change the pace just a smidge.

Lastly, the first book has two ways it starts the action where it has traditionally begun in these multi-book series: in the wilds. One is a mission into the woods to find out what mischief a rumored ghost legion is up to; another is the classic farming / borderlands community with the young boy who turns out to be not-so-ordinary after all.

Enigmundia: Underworld Elements -- Sleep, Dream, Fantasy, and Nightmares

As part of some research I did for a short story, I happened upon some interesting stuff that got me thinking.

First was a small collection of Gods and Daemons that belong in the Underworld but do not deal directly with some variant of death or hell: Hypnos, Morpheus, Phantasos, and Phobetor.

Gods of Demos Oneiroi

Fantastic depiction of Neil Gaiman's Morpheus
that evokes that feeling of a daemon. Art is by
Scott Hepburn and appears here.

Hypnos is the God of Sleep, and is usually portrayed as father or brother to the other three gods. My take would be to make him a distant parent, as his realm and purview seems to dwarf theirs. However, the argument for brother could be made with Hypnos as the eldest if you follow the parthenogenesis argument for the creation of these gods -- the only three named Oneiroi of supposed thousands. In fact, this latter argument seems to echo the origins of the kami from Japanese myth. Hypnos is sometimes portrayed as being asleep, with the Oneiroi in attendance around him. This is interesting, as it would seem that he would be more powerful asleep than awake. And if there is such a thing as sleepwalking in the real world, you'd better believe that the God of Sleep can do some serious sleepfighting.

By the way, does anyone remember the Brotherhood of Sleep from the movie The Prince of Darkness?

Morpheus, outside of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, tends to get better publicity these days due to Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book series (an excellent read for most of the storylines and one-shot stories). He is the God of Dreams, and is, like his brothers, sometimes described as a black-winged daemon -- which is not a demon, but a winged representative or herald (or messenger?) of the gods. Morpheus is also apparently the leader of the named trio and excels at creating dream imagery involving humanity.

Phobetor is a lesser known brother who is the God of Nightmares, and excels at creating and portraying imagery dealing with living things (birds, beasts, serpents and monsters).

Phantasos is another lesser known brother who is the God of Fantastic Dreams, and excels at creating and portraying imagery of inanimate objects (earth, rock, water, wood, and -- it is assumed -- other things crafted by humans).

The Oneiroi reside in Demos Oneiroi, which is considered part of the Underworld, the realm of Hades. So somewhere amongst the various rivers (Acheron, Cocytus, Phelegethon, Lethe, and Styx), someplace away from both Tartarus and Elysium, you can find the realm of slumber and dreams.

I'm thinking it would be placed near the river Lethe, which probably feeds into the very different pool of Lethe. In fact, perhaps both the pool of Lethe (forgetfulness) and the pool of Mnemosyne (memory) can be found in their realm.

Magical Item: Dreamcoins

Dreamcoins are a pair of coins made from a mysterious black metal that is always warm to the touch. Rumor has it that it was mined from in the depths of Tartarus and cooled in the burning waters of the River Phlegethon.

When placed on one's eyes prior to falling asleep, a person will find himself at the edge of a river with the ferryman Charon approaching. If paid with the dreamcoins, the dreamer will be ferried to Demos Oneiroi to enjoy an audience with Morpheus, Phobetor, and/or Phantasos. They will answer three questions with dreams of reality, nightmare, and fantasy and will ask favors in exchange.

If the supplicant is particularly favored, he will receive a ring carved from the horns of one of Phobetor's dream beasts. It will allow parley with chimerical creatures of the waking world.

If the supplicant is particularly reviled, he will receive a cursed ring of ivory from one of Phobetor's dream beasts. It will attract the wrath of chimerical creatures in the waking world.

Rockstars. Wizards. Scientists.

Guitars. Wands. Pencils.
Songs. Spells. Equations.

It came to me when I saw and listened to clips of "It Might Get Loud" and saw some of the comments about it. High-level wizards could be like viewed as rockstars and scientists in the fantasy milieu by their peers.

When they're old, I suppose you could look on them like the aged caricatures of white-haired wizards. But they do have a past -- possibly a boring one, possibly a wild one -- filled with obstacles and achievements and a long history of enemies and friends and contacts.

A first level character though? In love with the music. Fascinated by the science. Awed by the various rising stars and all-out living gods in the field.

Banes and Weaknesses in Fantasy RPGs

This is pretty much common sense, except common sense isn't that common.

To survive against the dangers of the dungeon, do research and ready some commonly available (and not so commonly available) combat options for creatures that you're likely to encounter.

In haunted tombs, for example, holy water, magical weapons, and the like are pretty much standard. If you can't afford the full-on magical sword, spend on a dagger or smaller backup weapon. Daggers are great because the mage can use 'em if all other party members have dropped.

Here's a quick checklist for weaknesses and banes:

• Holy symbol -- only if the GM is feeling generous
• Holy water -- does damage to most undead
• Silvered weapons -- affects various undead and the werecreatures as well
• Magic weapons (primary if possible, check the pluses) -- always good to have anyway
• Fire -- great with webs, cubes, spores, and - in conjunction with oil - folks in the other room whose only door you've spiked shut
• Electricity -- good stuff for metallic things or things in water
• Slings -- useful for distanced bane use
• Water -- not always that useful, but you have some already anyway, right? Find out if it'll save your life against something, especially in conjunction with electricity
• Herbs and Vegetables -- they say wolfsbane helps, and garlic, and seeds (your GM mileage may vary) but there's no sense in carrying this stuff unless you know you're gonna need it 

Now, while you may not have the money to buy everything, it pays to pick up and hold onto these things as treasure in the dungeons. They can save your life in surprising ways.

Case in point...

Arduin, Wraiths, and Coins

True story. In one of the Arduin dungeons, we encountered a wraith. We were a party of six, but let me read to you the description of the Common Wraith in Arduin:

Only weaponry of silver of magik may harm them, silver doing but half damage...They cannot be mesmerized or mentally controlled, but the priestly Glory Glow will bum them at the rate of 4 HP each melee round they are inside it. These beings, because they are non-corporeal, can drift through solid walls with no difficulty or reduction in speed.

Well, being a relatively low-level party we didn't have a single magic weapon to our name. Silver weapons? Nope.

So when we encountered this nasty thing in a room, only magical spells had effect and that resulted in our mage being targeted and using up his valuable memorized combat spells! So what to do?

We realized that we did have silver weapons: our silver coins, in the purses tied to our belts. So we had a thief with a sling hurl his coins at range while the rest of us descended upon it like mad hooligans, swinging our coinpurses through it (the pouches went through it, but the coins did not) until we beat it back into the afterlife.

Most of us survived, as opposed to none of us.

Moral of the story: never underestimate your more mundane gear. A bane is a bane is a bane.

High Level Fantasy and Super-heroic RPGs

There's a tendency to associate much old school gaming with low level adventuring.

And, truth be told, there are very good reasons for that -- two that come to mind (though I'm sure the more senior OSR folks could posit far more):

1. the game has you start off at 1st level and if you die, you created another 1st level character and continued play. Until everyone had a whole bunch of characters beyond 1st to 3rd, much of the gaming tended to stay at that level.
2. the ceiling was still low -- 10th level was considered frickin' monstrously high-powered. 12th level? What kinda Monty Haul campaign are you playing in, fool?

However, part of my experience in D&D was looking longingly at those high-level tournament modules -- the ones with tricks, traps, and monsters aplenty -- and wondering when the player PCs would reach that level and I could finally run them through those killer dungeons.

Furthermore, I was also a fan of the Arduin series of supplements and modules and not only were you always scared at higher levels of play, you tended to die a lot too. (Stay in the back till you're of some use, new guy).

But I think that when I began alternating play between superhero RPGs and AD&D, I finally got a good grasp of GMing high level play. Well, at least from the point of view of creating challenges for PCs, and for surviving things that nasty DMs throw at you.

So this week's attempted series will tackle several approaches that deal with superhero RPGs and high-level gaming (primarily in the Arduin vein). Topics will include:

• Teamwork
• Variety
• Well-rounded characters (attack, defense, movement, and factor X)
• Science and the rubber it's made from
• Generalization, Specialization, and the trap of the Swiss Army Knife

Flag-Waving: Of course, you know this means war.

We're at peace.

I always assume people know this, but then I run into people who don't: when you fly the Philippine Flag upside-down (with the red above the blue, rather than the blue above the red), you're indicating that the Philippines is in a state of war.

Do you know something I don't?

It was something taught to me as a child, along with learning how to hold it, how to fold it, how to present it when hanging from a house, etc. when I was in the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (as a mere cub scout).

And I never realized how alarming it is until someone makes the mistake.

I remember that some people flew the Philippine Flag upside down at some event during my college years in the U.S. and it irked me -- not because someone hadn't done the research on handling a flag of state properly -- but because it seemed like a bad omen. Or maybe someone had declared war an I'd missed it in the newspaper.

I later found out I wasn't the only one; a lot of other folks who knew were antsy and remained so until the error was rectified.

Also, in times of revolution, rebel soldiers identified themselves to one another with patches of the flag shown vertically.

Usage in Fantasy RPGs

Create a similar flag or device that represents a state or a movement. Make sure it looks the same upside-down and rightside-up, except for colors. One is for peace; the other for war.

Create tensions within the state and around the state. Always show the flag at different times (half-mast when someone of importance dies), or at independence / founding day rites. Play up the importance of treating the flag with respect.

And then, when it's time for a campaign shift -- display the flag upside-down. Wait for a while for the players to get it, then if they don't have an NPC point it out. Is it a revolution? A war with a neighboring state? What's going on?

Then have the PCs find out what the rumor mill has and what they should do next.

Remixed Archetypes: Astro City's Crossbreed

The approach of remixing archetypes is a useful one, since it injects new life into a well-worn archetype as I've tackled in greater detail before.

I often look to Astro City for inspiration on this approach, because it's done such a great job with so many super-hero archetypes -- making them recognizable, yet retaining their own character in the course of the story rather than being another clone.

My topic for today example would not be another of the more iconic characters (Samaritan, Winged Victory, Jack-in-the-Box, etc.) but rather a misunderstood group of super-powereed beings: The Crossbreed.

Perhaps not that obvious when you first encounter them, but after thinking on it for a while you realize that they're the "misunderstood team of freaks or outcasts" exemplified in popular comic culture by the X-men and the Doom Patrol. Here's the official spiel from the Astro City website:

The Crossbreed — known derogatorily as "The Jesus Freaks," the Crossbreed believe their powers come from God, and are to be used in his service. Led by the enigmatic storm-casting Noah, the Crossbreed include the leonine Daniel, the rock-shaping Peter, the winged, angelic Mary, the giant David and the sonic-powered Joshua.

I'm particularly impressed by the selection of the "Jesus Freak" angle, because it allows a lot of X-menish riffs:

• the cross paralleled with the ubiquitous "X" naming of the X-teams;
• the symbol of the cross on their costumes again paralleled with the stylized "X" costumes;
• the religious dress used as the costume template, similar to the early x-costumes;
• the label "Jesus Freaks" as a way to rationalize their outcast nature (without necessarily pushing them to the 'hunted and feared' extreme of our favorite bunch of mutants)

Another thing that I liked was the way they tackled superpowers and codenames: none of them have the direct abilities of their namesakes, but rather from other abilities associated with their namesakes' stories. For example, Noah has storm-based abilities rather the ability to build boats or perhaps gather animals of different types together; likewise, David isn't necessarily skilled with the sling, but can grow to goliath size; and so on.

And much like their predecessors in the comics world, they show that they're much more that the caricatures they're made out to be by popular sentiment and the press.

Usage in superhero campaigns

Instead of the somewhat confusing fear of mutants in a world where aliens and other meta-humans are capable of just as much damage, the shift to a given religious, cultural, or political stance as a rationale for the 'hunted and feared' team is very useful. However, there must be ample reason to fear these ideological differences in a modern day and age -- or at least some reason for hostility from some quarters of the general populace. Perhaps they espouse controversial stances (for or against) the government or the major religions of your chosen setting?

If the team is a team of PCs, they're of course misunderstood -- they must strive against the stereotype to be recognized (or not) as true heroes. If they're NPCs, then keeping the PCs guessing the true intentions is key to retaining tension in the game.

Usage in Fantasy RPGs

It's not so much a stretch to borrow from this in Fantasy settings either. Perhaps the clerics of a given religion espouse controversial views on key issues (genocide, the treatment of men/women/children in society, other races, imperialism, etc.) but at the same time wield great power (clerical spells) and as such aren't seen so much as your friendly neighborhood priest or pastor, but rather a strange and aloof master of mysterious arts.

In a stunning reversal, the mad mages and alchemists of the genre could actually be the preferred and more approachable go-to groups for supra-human intervention and healing, rather than the clerics because of this distrust of the clergy.