Had this marinating in drafts for forever and finally had the energy to finish it. I’ve been thinking about mechanics that are grounded as much as possible in the consensus and intuition of the play group and encoded as little as possible in the written rules themselves (related the FKR principles that have been bouncing around lately). These are magic rules for a game in the vein of Runequest or Earthsea I’ve been thinking about running lately.
They really only work in a pretty technologically limited setting (the game is Bronze Age-ish), since they’re keyed off of “things within human capacity” which gets really thorny when you have much past that.
Sorcery
Sorcery is an art that provides supernatural means to mundane ends–with their magic, a sorcerer can perform any feat within human capacity, but nothing more. Raising the dead, inspiring true love, lifting castles into the sky, and other ancient acts of magic are entirely beyond latter-day sorcerers. Within this limitation, however, sorcerers can still achieve much–forging a blade without a hammer or fire, transporting themselves great distances without a cart or mount, persuading people without speaking a word, performing dangerous labor from great distances, auguring long-lost secrets without cracking open a book.
Sorcerers are not equally learned in all forms of sorcery, however. The practice is divided into Lores, each a domain of sorcery that focuses on a single field of human endeavor. The Lore of Stone allows a sorcerer to cleave and shape rock like a mason; the Lore of the Forge allows them to stoke small flames into roaring fires and shape raw metal into smithed goods like a blacksmith. Lores are still constrained by the limits of sorcery; a Stone-sorcerer could raise a tower from living rock, but not create one from thin air; a Forge-sorcerer could turn iron ingots into a sword but could not magic up a blade from nothing.
Although sorcery can wholly replace the time, equipment, and labor necessary to achieve something, the more a sorcerer leans on their own power, the more difficult and dangerous the magic is. To safely, effectively, and reliably cast a spell, a sorcerer needs occult equipment, components, and time roughly equal to what would be needed to perform the act though mundane means. A dearth of resources can be overcome with talent and experience, but always brings some level of risk.
Lores
Stone: magic of masons. Cleave rocks, raise stone structures, etc.
Yoke: magic of animal husbandry. Train, soothe, command, care for animals, etc.
Path: magic of travelers. Travel great distances, move at great speeds, scale walls and mountains, etc
Bough: magic of hunters. Camouflage, track, kill at a distance, etc.
Forge: magic of blacksmiths. Stoke flames, shape metal, smith objects, etc
Bone: magic of doctors. Augur diagnoses, clean and treat wounds, etc.
Examples:
A Stone-sorcerer destroying a boulder might bring a staff to shape their magic the way that someone else might use a sledgehammer to direct their strength. In a pinch, they could try to crush the boulder with no gear, but this could exhaust them, injure them, or end in a botched or incomplete job.
A Yoke-sorcerer ensorcelling a dog to obey their commands might prepare a series of ritually treated meals for the dog to take the place of the food someone else would use to reward it during training. They could try to fall back on their own power and will, but this could sicken or injure them or the dog, or lead to the dog becoming aggressive and feral instead.
A Path-sorcerer could construct a ritual palanquin to carry them to a neighboring town the way someone else would use a cart. Carrying themselves with their own sorcery could injure them or lead them to the wrong place.
Procedure:
The player declares what they are trying to achieve with the spell and how it is going to happen. It must be within human capacity and it must pertain to their Lore.
If their PC has the time and resources equivalent to what the task would take normally, it just works.
If they do not have or are not willing to dedicate the time and resources, the Referee tells them how many dice to roll. If they are well-equipped, they roll 3d6. If they are moderately prepared, they roll 2d6. If they are unprepared, they roll 1d6. Sorcerers who go through brutal training, bathe in moonlight on auspicious nights, complete pilgrimages to locations of great power, wield relics of great power, etc, roll an extra regardless of level of preparation.
If the player’s highest die is 5+, the spell works. If the highest die is 3-4, the spell simply fails. If the highest die is 1-2, the spell fails and there is some backlash: the sorcerer is exhausted or injured, the spell causes an undesirable effect, etc.
Taboo Sorcery
Wisdom of the Beasts
Greedy sorcerers may reach for powers beyond what has been allotted to humans by consuming the lifeblood of an animal. This is a grave taboo–to be one thing and not another is the lot of all mortal life, and the mingling of kinds recalls the dark and formless Chaos that preceded the world as it is known today. A sorcerer who has attained the Wisdom of a beast may achieve anything that it could, just as a Lore affords the powers of human effort. A beast, more than anything, is capable of being itself, and so Wisdom-stealing sorcerers may also assume the form of animals they have consumed.
The Wisdom of the Bear allows a sorcerer to exert immense force, tear apart obstacles and enemies, and scale trees and walls.
The Wisdom of the Crow allows a sorcerer to fly, to stand on slender tree branches, and communicate with flocks of other crows.
The Wisdom of the Eel allows a sorcerer to breathe underwater and swim at great speed.
The Wisdom of the Asp allows a sorcerer to inflict venomous wounds and travel through the narrowest of spaces.
The most terrible heights a sorcerer may ascend are by consuming the lifeblood of a divine beast: dragons, sea-serpents, great-wolves, corpse-eagles.
Forbidden Knowledge
There are Lores that are persecuted at every opportunity by right-thinking people: The Lore of the Rack, perfected by torturers, the Lore of Belladonna, devised by poisoners, and the Lore of the Throne, invented by tyrants. The books that contain them have been burned, the people who learned them have been ground into dust and buried in secret places. The smallest hint that someone has recovered even a part of these Lores will bring down terrible reprisal from regular people, town governments, empires.
There are also Lores that are treated with suspicion or banned in some jurisdictions, but do not necessarily carry a universal taboo. Anything that impinges on the mind of another, allows secrets of others to be augured, or inflicts grievous injury causes too much trouble to be trusted, even if they can only induce a person to do something within the boundaries of their nature and morals.
Heart: magic of courtesans. Persuade, mislead, and seduce.
Jaw: magic of gossips. Divine rumors, start whisper campaigns, stir up mobs.
Tome: magic of scholars. Augur any information that has been written or remembered.
Scale: magic of merchants. Augur the value of objects, divine what people want, reveal the composition of coins, ingots, and other things.
Blade: magic of warriors, Cut, gouge, crush, pierce, but also ward off blows.
In March, I ran a brief Player vs Player play-by-post game on Discord based on Fate and inspired my Patrick’s play by mail game (I’m Ysbryda Holyworm and didn’t actually do very much). It’s not a bad socially distant way to have low-impact but steady social interaction.
Aside – Fate is a part of a sprawling intellectual property that includes visual novels, several anime series, multiple video games, a small empire of backstory wikis, and more fan fiction any single mind can comprehend. Fate itself is about people teaming up with the ghosts of historical figures in an extremely dangerous competition to win a powerful and morally ambiguous MacGuffin. Think Pokemon by way of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen played out in White Wolf Mage: the Ascension with high budget animation and Alexander the Great is trying to cut Gilles de Rais in half and everyone has soap opera tangled backstories and some guy got his hands on the Platonic Ideal of Swords and half the cast is trying to punch a hole through reality to talk to and/or replace God.
from the exceedingly titled Fate/stay night
Anyway, it was a PbP PvP battle royale where everyone was a Level 0 B/X character with a medium-loyalty level 10 retainer and they got dropped into a big city with a general idea of what they needed to do. It went well! There were murder attempts, hypnotized detectives, faked deaths, and tenuous alliances. It fell apart because out out-of-game stuff, but I found myself wanting to revisit the concept.
The main issue is that B/X has a lot of dungeon crawling cruft. I only picked it because I was lazy and thought it would be funny. This is a vastly simplified set of rules designed to cut down on the sort of back-and-forth that’s onerous in a PbP game and elevate the Rube Goldberg hijinks.
There are plenty of rough edges, but I want to get things going and fix things as we go.
It is affectedly unbalanced–a common theme in the source material and also sets up players for clever play and surprising reversals.
A lot of abilities are basically nascent doomsday scenarios, which is also common in Fate and also allows for interesting all-or-nothing plays
It’s pretty open to interpretation. There’s too much stuff going on to make a system to adjudicate the way everything is going to interact, so I tried to write enough to communicate the players the kinds of things they can do and then trust myself and them to figure out what happens when things get weird.
I tried to pick a lot of medium-obscurity figures from history and mythology and solicited my players for ones they really wanted to see. I have a to-add list including Lu Bu, Marco Polo, Semiramis, Olympe de Gouges, Simon de Bolivar, Bendigeidfran, Branwen, Leda, Daedalus, Atalanta, Orlando (as in Woolf), Orlando (as in Furioso), Arianrhod, Prosperina, Ptolemy, Hypatia, Atlantes, Melisse, Oberon, Titania, Tam Lin
There’s a central Discord channel where I let everyone know when the next round is happening and provide in-setting news reports about what’s going on that is publicly known. All of the players have a channel that’s just them and me where we adjudicate their turns. If they come into conflict or communicate with another player, we adjudicate it through group DMs. (Communication between players isn’t as important but it’s useful for me to be able to see or look up what’s happening across the board).
Everyone has 1 turn per 24 hour period, and I resolve all turns by 9 pm.
Resolution
When a PC or a spirit attempts something difficult or high stakes, the Referee tells them how many d6s to roll based on the difficulty. If they are opposed by another player, they succeed if they get higher than their opponent’s roll. If they are opposed by the environment or an NPC, they succeed if they get 6 or higher.
The number of d6s depends on how well-suited they are for the task, factoring in their talents, traits, the situation, and the effectiveness of their tactics.
Excellent: 3d6
Risky: 2d6
Poor: 1d6
Combat
In combat, characters deal damage equal to their ATK and reduce all incoming damage by their DEF. To determine turn order, make a check to see which side goes first. PCs and spirits on a side can go in any order, but a spirit attacking an enemy PC is always reported to the other side and pushes you to the end of initiative. When you attack someone, you each roll, and whoever loses takes damage according to their attributes.
All PCs and Spirits have a pool of Stamina and a pool of Health. Stamina represents dodging, reducing direct blows to glancing ones, blocking attacks. Health represents suffering direct blows, wounds, etc. When a character suffers Harm, they reduce their Stamina by an equal amount; if they don’t have any Stamina left, they begin deducting from their Health. Stamina is much easier to recover than Health.
Turns / Rounds / Doing Stuff
You can make 1 action per day. An action might be:
Investigating or tracking the competition (You can always ask: Was a competitor active in a [named district] within the last turn?
Buying or stealing something useful
Resting, which restores all powers and spells, as well as 1 Health OR all Stamina. You can’t recover Stamina unless you are at full Health.
Anything else that is generally time-consuming and advantageous
Asking for clarifications about what your PC knows, sending communications to other PCs, and talking to your hero does not take a turn.
Actions count as resolved simultaneously. If you come into conflict with another player’s team, the conflict will be resolved after all other players have gone that round.
Things to Remember
This game is way more fun when you are bold, ambitious, decisive, and make decisions based on role-playing as much as strategy. If you’re timid or slow, you will probably lose and may end up bored. If you don’t feel like your team is suited for combat, try surveillance, sabotage, bribing local authorities, making alliances with other players–stir the pot. Running away and regrouping is usually an option.
You are in a city full of dangerous and eccentric people trying to kill you. Many spirits have the ability to restrain, grievously injure, or even kill unprepared enemies. Doing things that draw public attention, such as law enforcement or news broadcasts, could very well get you killed if you don’t do it thoughtfully. Every conflict could lead to you dying.
Your spirit is not necessarily loyal to you, and may find ways to sideline you without killing you and banishing themselves.
The Setting
Modern setting. Sator is an island nation. Its capital, New Madruga, is big enough to have at least one of everything and almost certainly more. It’s threaded through with canals and bridges, famous for its jacaranda trees and beaches, has a significant amount of organized crime
Quatresain Cathedral, an ancient hilltop cathedral where the Philosopher’s Stone allegedly appeared 1000 years ago.
Gran Burguesa, best burger joint in town
Plaza del Mar, lined with restaurants and cafes, the Times Square of Sator City
City Hall
Byzantium Hospital
The Royal Palace
The King’s Park, a huge wooded, walled park, that winds through the city.
The Business District
Character Creation
Player Characters
PCs are regular people drawn into the Grand Alkahest Royale by cosmic whim and the dictates of fate. They are the only characters players have direct control over–they work closely with PC’s spirits, but they don’t have complete say over what they do. To generate your PC
Give your PC one trait: strong, tough, quick, clever, perceptive, rich, or charismatic
Give your PC a career, like cashier or office worker or security guard
Write down that they have 4 Stamina and 4 Health
Also, answer these leading questions for your character
What will you wish for if you win?
What’s one thing you admire and one thing you resent about your spirit?
What do you stand to lose in this contest other than your life?
Spirits
Spirits are figures drawn from myth and legend by the rules of the Grand Alkahest Royale. Participants never choose the spirit they fight with–it’s always random. To generate your PC
Write down that they have 8 Stamina and 6 Health
Roll randomly on the table of spirits below
Record their attributes, talents, abilities, and weaknesses
Spirits come in one of four classes: Banner, Crown, Mantle, and Scepter, each of which have different advantages and disadvantages. Remember to capitalize them when you formulate your plan.
Spirit List
Bonnie and Clyde
Ching Shih
Don Quixote
Echo
El Cid
Ferdiad
Hammurabi
Ishtar
Joshua
Judah Macabee
King Midas
Kublai Khan
La Voisin
Lilith
Lord Ruthven
Lucifer
Morgan le Fay
Napoleon
Paracelsus
Queen Medb
Spirit Classes
All classes know when they are within a one-block radius of another spirit unless there’s something concealing them.
Mantle class spirits are legendary tricksters, thieves, and tempters. They are powerful, if frail combatants, and tend to have deceitful or confusing abilities. A Mantle class hero is much stronger than a regular person–if an Olympic athlete can do it, so can a Mantle class hero without much trouble.
Crown-class spirits are monarchs and generals of legend. They are resistant to physical harm and the effects of magic, and their abilities tend to revolve around charisma and resources. A Crown class hero is much stronger than a regular person–if an Olympic athlete can do it, so can a Crown class hero without much trouble.
Banner-class spirits are warriors and heroes exceptionally suited to combat and feats of strength. They are supernaturally coordinated and athletic–they can do things outside of normal human physical ability (like jumping from rooftop to rooftop or lifting a four door sedan) without a check.
Scepter-class spirits are talented magicians of legend, but generally unsuited for combat or physical feats. They aren’t much different from a normal person–around the range of a dedicated hobbyist athlete.
Spirit Attributes and Statistics
If you’re playing in my game, don’t read below this line.
Bonnie and Clyde
Mantle-class, a twinned spirit of love and transgression
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 1
Talents: Driving, Shooting, Larceny, Speed
Weapon: Revolver and Shotgun
Weakness: Requires Loyalty checks to not help or rescue their partner when they are in pain or danger
Only Lovers Left Alive: Bonnie cannot be reduced below 1 HP while Clyde is still alive, and Clyde cannot be reduced below 1 HP while Bonnie is alive. They can only be killed simultaneously. They each have 8 Stamina, but only 3 Health.
Bullet Model Getaway: If they are together, Bonnie and Clyde can conjure a spacious, tough, and high-speed getaway car.
Ching Shih
Mantle-class, a tyrannical spirit of theft and subversion
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 1
Talents: Combat, Command, Larceny, Speed
Weapon: Cutlass and pistol
Law of the Sea: Just as she did in life, Ching Shih can subvert legitimate authority with her own. Any law enforcement official or politician she encounters treats her as a superior and will accept her instructions as long as they would follow similar ones from their actual superior. Once she gives an order, she must rest before she can use this ability again.
Legion of the Lady: Ching Shih can spend a turn to raise her massive personal ship from any body of water large enough to contain it (lakes, rivers, seas, maybe a very large pond if you don’t need it to move around too much). It’s fast, as tough as modern construction, and can make four ATK 4 cannon attacks on a turn, and is crewed by the spirits of her most loyal and competent pirates.
Don Quixote
Mantle-class, an ephemeral spirit of delusion and invention
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 1
Talents: None
Weapon: Sword and shield
Chivalric Adventure: Don Quixote is exceeded by everything and defeated by nothing. He makes risky rolls regardless of the situation–never excellent and never poor.
Friends in Low Places. Don Quixote can summon Rocinante, a knock-kneed and mangy plough-horse and Sancho Panza, his clever but ineffectual squire, at will.
Cide Hamete Benengeli: Don Quixote is a dream within a dream, a legend created by a myth. The true hero summoned is Cide Hamete Benengeli, the un-hero and fictional author of Don Quixote. Cide is completely nondescript and cannot be detected or identified as a hero unless he chooses to reveal himself. If Don Quixote dies, Hamete can spend a turn rewriting Don Quixote’s story so that he implausibly survives. His attributes are ATK 1 DEF 1 and his talents are Stealth, Disguise, and Persuasion. Rewriting Don Quixote’s story is a powerful magical act that can be perceived by any fellow spirit.
Echo
Banner-class, a divine spirit of mountain and stone
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 2
Talents: Combat, Athletics, Lore
Weapon: Martial arts
Oread, Princess of the Mount: Echo can manipulate concrete, stone, and earth to take whichever shape she wishes within shouting distance. This allows her to make ranged attacks with piercing spires or crushing pillars of earth, propel herself on waves of stone, or damage or destabilize buildings.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to harm a man she thinks is pretty. She can only repeat the last sentence that was said in her presence, though she is not compelled to speak.
El Cid
Banner-class, a fearsome warrior spirit of steel and fire
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 2
Talents: Combat, Athletics, Riding, Command
Weapon: Sword
La Tizona: El Cid’s fiery sword. El Cid can raise great waves of flames when he swings it, allowing him to start fires and make ranged attacks. He can also quench all nearby fires by sheathing it. El Cid can only fight with one of his swords drawn at a time.
La Colada: El Cid’s fearsome sword. When he draws it for the first time in combat, he has an excellent chance of paralyzing all humans in line of sight for as long as he remains in their presence and a poor chance of paralyzing fellow heroic spirits for a turn. He can remove this effects by sheathing La Colada sword. El Cid can only fight with one of his swords drawn at a time.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to retreat or pursue a retreating enemy.
Ferdiad
Banner-class, an tragic spirit of warfare and friendship betrayed
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 2
Talents: Combat, Athletics, Command
Weapon: Spear
Flesh of Horn: Ferdiad cannot suffer harm from an attack he sees coming. He can still be restrained, drowned, dropped from a high place, struck by a surprise attack, etc.
Broken Bonds of Brotherhood: Ferdiad enjoys a +1d6 bonus to rolls when operating alone.
Weakness: Requires a loyalty check to break a promise or allow his summoner to break a promise.
Hammurabi
Crown-class, a kingly spirit of law and justice
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 1
Talents: Command, Persuasion, Resisting Magic
Weapon: Mace
Tupsimati, the Whole of the Law: Normal humans obey Hammurabi’s commands, as long as they are legal and non-suicidal. He has a risky chance of making non-monarch fellow spirits obey his commands, though they can only be one word. If he fails the roll to use this ability on a fellow spirit, they are immune to it permanently.
Eye for an Eye: When someone harms Hammurabi, they suffer 1 harm, unreduced by DEF.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to flagrantly violate the law in a way that does not pertain to the Royale (robbing a bank, jaywalking).
The Bull of Heaven: Spend a turn to summon a colossal winged bull with 4 ATK, 4 DEF, 10 Stamina and 10 HP, and recovers 1 Health or Stamina per turn. Gugulanna cannot be dismissed and cannot be summoned again if it dies.
Love and War: If Ishtar spends more than a few minutes speaking with someone, she has an excellent chance of making them infatuated with her. She deals +1 damage against those infatuated with her.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to work with or not exact revenge upon someone who has wronged her in any way.
Joshua
Banner-class, a holy spirit of war and piety
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 2
Talents: Command, Combat, Athletics
Weapon: Spear
Jericho’s Tribulation: By blowing on his horn, Joshua can attack all creatures in a 50’ cone in front of him. This deals +1 damage to unholy creatures and causes catastrophic structural damage if he so chooses.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to perform impious or dishonorable acts
Judah Macabee
Banner-class, a divine spirit of rebellion and purity
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 2
Talents: Command, Combat, Athletics
Weapon: Spear
Iconoclast: Judah rolls an extra die when making opposed rolls against pagan or unholy gods and spirits, and deals +1 damage when attacking them.
Divine Revolt: When Judah takes damage, he can make a risky roll to instantly retreat with his summoner to a location within a 1 block radius. He must rest before he can use this ability again.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to perform impious acts
Resplendent Kingdom of Desolation: King Midas can turn anything he touches into gold. This ability transfers through objects and surfaces he has transformed, so if he turns the floor into gold, he can also transform the people standing on it. Transformation of living things count as attacks (so transformation is partial, recoverable, and cosmetic before it reduces a creature to 0 Health). King Midas has an 6-clock called Golden Ruin. It counts down a tick every time he uses his ability and counts up a tick every turn. If it counts all the way down, he turns into a lifeless statue of gold that uses this ability until everything in the world is gold or the statue is destroyed.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to not act on his immense greed and ambition.
Khan’s Holy Ground: Kublai Khan has a 12-clock called Xanadu. He can transform the interior of any building he is inside into the interior of his Xanadu palace, which confers him +1 ATK, +1 DEF, and access to his weak but limitless troops. Each turn spent in Xanadu costs 1 tick. Once it counts down, he can’t use this ability until it counts up again. Resting restores 2 ticks of the clock.
La Voisin
Mantle-class, an unholy spirit of poison and deceit
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 1
Talents: Stealth, Larceny
Weapon: Knife
L’affaire des poisons. La Voisin can poison any food or drink she has seen, regardless of distance, as long as it has not already been consumed. The poison deals 10 damage on consumption, though a check can be made to halve it. Regular humans have a poor chance, while the check is only risky for fellow spirits.
La mauvais voisin. La Voisin can possess any regular human whose face and name she knows. They do not remember what they do while under her control. She cannot be identified or sensed as a heroic spirit while doing so.
Weakness: Divine beings have an excellent chance of withstanding any of La Voisin’s magic or poisons, and can identify her poison as being supernatural.
Lilith
Scepter-class, an unholy spirit of disease and monstrosity
Attributes: ATK 3, DEF 0
Talents: Sorcery, Lore
Weapon: Beastly familiars
First Mother of the Garden. Lilith can cast any spell from the Vivimancy list five times. When she rests, she recovers all uses of her spells.
Abyssal Parade of Unsightly Beasts. With a cumulative three turns of effort, Lilith can conjure forth her innumerable monstrous children from the forgotten places of the world. They do not harm Lilith or her summoner, and are individually of little danger to a heroic spirit, but otherwise rampage indiscriminately in ever-growing numbers until the gate from which they issue is destroyed.
Weakness: When she makes a roll opposed by a child or someone whose mother she knows, her odds are always poor.
Lord Ruthven
Scepter-class, an unholy spirit of death and darkness
Attributes: ATK 3, DEF 0
Talents: Sorcery, Stealth, Lore
Weapon: claws and spears of darkness
Lord of the Dead. Lord Ruthven can cast any spell from the Necromancy list five times. When he rests, he recovers all uses of his spells. Anyone who makes a promise to Lord Ruthven cannot break the word of it, though they may violate its intent.
Immortal. While attacks can reduce Lord Ruthven’s Stamina normally, only attacks from divine beings, stakes through the heart, or attacks while he is in direct sunlight can reduce his Health.
Weakness: Lord Ruthven must follow the word of every promise he makes. He cannot tread on holy ground or enter holy buildings.
Lucifer, the Morningstar
Mantle-class, an angelic spirit of light and evil
Attributes: ATK 4, DEF 1
Talents: Combat, Persuasion, Athletics, Command
Weapon: Blades and javelins of light
Felix Culpa. Lucifer has a 6-clock called Temptation, which he can count down to grant a wish to anyone other than his summoner. The means are supernatural, but the ends must be within normal human capacity (true love and raising the dead are out, for example). A single tick would be something like a fancy car or getting a coworker to become infatuated, while six ticks would be fabulous wealth for a lifetime or the death of a major world leader. In return, the beneficiary is bound to fulfill a single request from Lucifer to the letter at any time. He can rest to recover 2 ticks. When Temptation counts down to zero, word of Lucifer’s escapades reaches High Heaven and an archangel descends to purify the city.
Divine Provenance. Lucifer counts as both a divine and unholy being when determining the effects of abilities.
Weakness: Requires a loyalty check to take direct commands or orders (rather than suggestions or requests).
Morgan Le Fey
Scepter-class, a wicked fairy spirit of guile and subjugation
Attributes: ATK 3, DEF 0
Talents: Sorcery, Seduction, Lore
Weapon: Windborne clouds of razor-sharp flower petals
Fairy Queen. Morgan Le Fey can cast any spell from the Psychomancy list five times. When she rests, she recovers all uses of her spells.
Road to Broceliande. When Morgan Le Fey rests, she and any willing or subdued creatures with her may retreat to her hidden grove-world, Broceliande. No one may leave without her permission or powerful magic.
Weakness: If her roll is opposed by someone acting out of kindness, charity, or some other virtue, her odds are poor.
Napoleon
Crown-class, an ingenious spirit of ambition and war
Vive L’Empereur. Napoleon has an 8-clock called Conquest. She can count it down to call on the help of her army, who manifest as contemporary, fiercely loyal, moderately competent, and extremely French soldiers. The more she counts down the clock, the more followers she can call on. She can clear 2 wedges of the clock by resting. Each wedge calls in more people based on this scale (1-2-5-10-20-50-100-200)
Weakness: Requires a Loyalty check to act on plans that hedge her bets or bide her time in any way.
Paracelsus
Scepter-class, a sagacious spirit of transformation and transcendence
Attributes: ATK 3, DEF 0
Talents: Sorcery, Lore
Weapon: Swarms of conjured elementals
Fairy Queen. Paracelsus can cast any spell from the Elementalism list five times. When he rests, he recovers all uses of his spells.
Hermetic Rite. If Paracelsus spends a turn performing a ritual in four auspicious locations at each of the cardinal directions of the city, he can touch the Pleroma and become immensely powerful (4 ATK, 4 DEF, cast spells at will)
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to take the humble, patient, or simple route.
Queen Medb
Crown-class, a warrior spirit of excellence and greed
Ostentation of the High Court. Queen Medb has infinite money, can spend a turn to acquire any single good or service up to $100,00 in value or make a batch purchase of up to $1,000,000 that prevents this ability from being used again until the Queen rests.
Weakness: Requires a risky loyalty check to retreat or back down.
Been thinking about starting locations after rereading the excellent Fishtown, particularly ways it could change or grow with time, so here’s a die-drop starting area in the style of Majula or the Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls. I have the itch to mess with rules, so it uses Into the Odd for no particular reason. Been bouncing between that and Troika for my next game.
screenshot from Dark Souls 2
How to Use it
Regenerate the starting area periodically to see who’s left and who has returned
Regenerate whenever there’s a TPK to represent time passing / things changing
Make your own — all it requires is 15-20 NPCs. Each has
A name and profession
An appearance and (usually portable) shelter
A line of dialogue that generally indicates what they want
Maybe a secret
screenshot from Breath of the Wild
Die Drop
Roll a d4, a d6, a d8, a d10, and a d12 on a sheet of paper.
The die’s size represents the profession of the vendor
The die’s value indicates which merchant of the given profession is present
The die’s location indicates where the vendor is in camp.
1d4 – Merchant
Sells tools and rations for 1s each
Kikiriki
Cosette
Junero
Rochambeau
1d6 Smith
Sells hand and field weapons for 5s each
Sinfarrier
Godsmith Rosario
Royal Smith Soleil
Gravesmith Sartana
or greater – Nobody
1d8 Doctor
Sells antitoxin, vermifuges, bandages, and antiseptic for 5s each. Their sickrooms costs 5s a day, and allow players to recover from wounds without risk of infection.
Lamplady Yuma
Goodly Doctor Vire
Relict Iuste
Lonely Vedra
or greater – Nobody
1d10 Magician
Hexwright Jupitere
Hidden Lunaire
The Orminger
or greater – Nobody
1d12 Stranger
You have to meet additional strangers out in the world before they start visiting camp.
Beasty Saith
or greater – Nobody
Friends
Beastly Saith
Oh, how this collar itches…they tell of a blade in the woods to the west that could cut off such a thing…I’d give you quite the toothsome reward. Ahahaha!
A colossal leopard in a golden chain collar, sprawled out on silk cushions and blankets beneath the shelter of a red pavilion, illuminated by fuming braziers.
A stranger. Accompanies clients as a hireling for 10 gp per expedition. +1d6 HP and +1 to STR and DEX for every 10 gp paid. Even if she seems to die, she can be found back in camp as if nothing had happened. Demands utter respect.
5 HP, 14 STR, 12 DEX, 11 WIL, 1 Armor, d8 damage
Cosette
I heard the deacon buried treasure in the old church’s graveyard before the hunters burned everything down. Bet there are some real nice shinies in that dirt.
A woman in a black silk coat and a tricorn hat pulled low, slouched against a hound-drawn wagon.
Sells gear. also, if players lose something that isn’t actively being sought by somebody else, it will likely end up in Cosette’s inventory in a session or two.
Godsmith Rosario
The fire, the fire, the forge’s flame…nobody remembers anymore…get me one branch of holy cedar, and I’ll smith you something like I did in the old days…hmmhmmhmm.
A toweringly tall and beautiful woman working before a forge that burns with with pearly fire.
A smith. Her refined weapons will not break or lose their edge from any mundane force or power.
Junero
Have you seen my husband? He left for the quarry to trap rabbits yesterday, but hasn’t come back.
Salt-and-pepper stubble, wears a bandana to keep his hair out of his eyes, drinking something pungent out of a gourd on his belt, sells his wares from a creaking rickshaw.
Sells gear. If assured of the party’s good intentions, he will sell charms for 5 gp each. Charms provide a +1 bonus to a stat until the first time a check with that stat is failed. Characters can only carry one charm at a time or none of them work. Possession of a charm is punishable by death by the law of the Carillon.
Goodly Doctor Vire
The denizens of yon belltower brew medicines beyond compare. A recipe, an ingredient, a shred of their flesh…oh, the ills I might cure with just a taste!
Blindfolded with linen embroidered in gold with a single eye, wears a doctor’s white coat oddly trimmed with gold damask, works out of a lean-to of pine planks and oilcloth.
A doctor. Brews one dose of red oil a week, which can be used to revive a mostly whole corpse to 1 HP and at least 1 in each stat if it has died in the last hour.
Gravesmith Sartana
The temper’s the thing, my friend…the best metal and the hottest flame do nothing without the right quench…would you have some blood?
A stooped and wiry man who stares into the sickly flame of his forage with pale eyes, surrounded by barrels sealed shut with paper talismans.
A smith. If furnished a fresh corpse, he will forge a weapon that deals damage equal to the damage the creature could deal with an unarmed melee attack.
Hexwright Jupitere
Fetch me the heart of a hunter, still fresh…heehee…I’ll bring those pompous belltenders right down to their knees…
Wears black robes trimmed with fur, conceal their face with a fine black veil weighed with silver coins.
A magician.
Blank and Rotted Tome: read to learn unbecoming
Tarnished Silver Grimoire: read to learn darksome song
Hidden Lunaire
Oh, hello there.
An immaculate white tent, the brilliant lamp inside projecting its occupant’s silhouette against the side. The tent’s entrance is crudely stitched shut with rawhide. Entering the tent reveals there is nobody inside.
A magician.
Blue Sticky Lump: consume to learn eye
Warm and Knotted Coil: consume to learn hands
Twisted Tooth: consume to learn maw
Pale Blue Cerata: consume to learn bloom
Kikiriki
Dubious and questionable, the lot of them. Listen to me, and I’ll tell you what’s what. Keeheehee!
A wicked little fellow in a crow mask who hawks his wares from beneath a ragged awning.
Sells gear, as well as random rumors for 3 gp a piece.
Kikiriki’s Rumors
The priests of the old church buried their treasures in the graveyard before they all burned. Stupid! Stupid! The dead want for nothing!
‘Ware the hunters of yon belltower. I hear one is stalking prey as we speak. Don’t let them get you! Keeheeheehee!
Some blundering trapper got himself caught by the thing that lurks in the quarry. What fool! There won’t be enough to bury!
They say the light of a new moon reveals the unseen. Doesn’t make any sense to me.
Oh the foundry on the lip of yon quarry, that hateful place, where my w–well, where I lost something I need. They say the metals they smelted there are useful and wicked beyond compare…
There grows a lone tree of holy cedar in the deepest part of the western forest. I once knew a lady of the old court who said a flame stoked with such wood is blessed for as long as it burns.
A noble of the distant Leopardy was exiled here many years ago. He’ll fight at your side for a fee and the chance to spill some blood.
A spring flows to the west, on the top of yon mountain. Deep waters flowing on high…truly auspicious, no? Keeheheehee!
I hear them tell of a goodly doctor who brews spurious concoctions from the flesh of yon belltower’s denizens. Not that I would ever drink such a thing.
A passing magician remarked that a bellhunter’s heart must be filled with spite and ire, unsurpassed kindling for a terrible curse.
In Tarrow Town, right beneath yon belltower, there is a boarded up workshop sealed with the mark of the Carillon…I wonder what misfortunes and curiosities could hide within?
Long ago, before even the fall of the old courts, a cursed king’s cursed crown was cast into the pits to the east. Who would want such a thing, I wonder?
Lamplady Yuma
The night of the new moon…truly a revelatory time…hehehe!
Long black hair, pale brown eyes that almost seem tinged with pink or red, wears voluminous vestments and a cassock. Her clinic is a collapsible A-frame tent with smoky braziers burning by the entrance.
Provides services as a doctor. Sells up to one bottle of blue oil a week, which restores 1d12 HP.
Suffers from a painful and wasting disease, is keeping it in check under the tutelage of Kith BYS, whose crypt lies hidden beneath her clinic. The treatments are slowly transforming her into something sinuous and many-eyed. If the hunters of the Carillon find out they will kill her and everyone in her clinic.
Lonely Vedra
In the shadow of yon belltower lies a town of useful fools, sheep for the dogs of the Carillon. Find the casket that lies in the well of my old workshop there, return it to me unopened, and you shall be richly rewarded.
A woman with an enormous quantity of graying hair, stirring a seething cauldron in a cottage with a tarp roof.
A doctor. Once a week, sells a Slippery Blue Mass that gives the user +1 Armor when swallowed. The user must make a WIL check every 10 minutes or the effect ends.
The Orminger
Ah…I’ve come so far, but not far enough, I’m afraid…my crown, my old crown, it lies lost in the caverns to the east…I’ve all but forgotten so much, but it still calls to me…please…
A beautiful and impassive giant, easily twice as tall as a human, sprawled out on the ground, cheek flat against the dirt, only their face visible, their strange proportions and unfamiliar limbs both concealed and suggested by their voluminous robes.
A magician. Reaches out gently with a huge and elegant hand and touches your brow with an elegant forefinger, bestowing a roll on the warlock table.
Relict Iuste
There is a mountaintop spring, past even the western woods, where water from the most profound depths flows…I should like a taste of it, someday.
A potbellied old man swathed in tattoos in an unfamiliar script, wearing nothing but an open vest and breeches, smoking a rich-smelling pipe beneath an oversized umbrella.
A doctor. Once a week, sells a huge and foul-tasting pill that gives advantage on STR checks and disadvantage on DEX checks. The user must make a WIL check every 10 minutes or the effect ends.
Rochambeau
Customers, on this night of all nights? Take care…I hear a visitor from yon belltower is on the hunt…
Wears an oversized canvas coat and drawstring pants, sells her wares out from under a tattered awning illuminated by humming phosphor globes.
Sells gear, as well as boxes of myrrh cigarillos for 10 gp each. Smoking a myrrh cigarillo keeps you from aging one day, and monsters hate the taste of a myrrh-smoker’s flesh.
Royal Smith Soleil
Oh, don’t look at me like that, I know already. Fetch me a bottle of the deep waters from the western mountaintop if you’re so bothered.
A baboon in a leather apron accompanied by a swarm of macaque assistants with serious faces in a cyclopean stone workshop.
A smith. Sells medium and heavy armor.
Sinfarrier
There’s a foundry on the far side of the quarry…bring me the ingots you find there… I’ll make you something you won’t soon forget…hahahaha!
A lanky man in a heavy ceramic mask and a thick leather apron hammering on a curious porcelain anvil. Ram horns curl from his head, perhaps part of his headgear?
A smith. His vicious weapons, made from black iron and flanged with silvery edges, deal +1 Critical Damage
The Carillon is the tallest building you’ve ever seen. You’ve never seen the people who live in it, though, except for the hunters they send down to root out anathema and heresy.
The Vespers hunters emerge in the earliest hours of the evening, when the hunt of the Carillon is youngest and most uncertain.
What might mark a Vespers hunter
A respectable white collar and a knotted kerchief around their neck
A sensible broad-brimmed hat and a long coat to keep off dirt and rain
A fearsomely knotted bell rope hanging from their belt
A thin black chapelhound on a ribbon leash
You might see them
Asking locals if they have seen anything or anyone unusual
Peering through a spyglass on a hill crest or rooftop
Stooped in the underbrush, examining track and spoor
Running faster than a human should with their chapelhound on the chase, bell rope at the ready to thrash their prey
Matins
The Matins hunters emerge in the late hours of the evening, when the hunt grows long and the darkness is at its thickest.
What might mark a Matins hunter
A silvered visor that conceals the eyes
A breastplate and shoulder cape, respectively filgreed and embroidered with prayers
A mirror-bladed rapier, thin enough to fit between ribs or through an eye
A tarnished lantern that burns sunset red
You might see them
Sitting quietly on a neighbor’s stoop, wiping blood off of their blade
Opening the town gates in the dead of night
Flit past your window, almost too fast to notice
Sitting in a circle of salt with their burning lantern, all shadows drawn in towards them
Lauds
The Lauds hunters emerge in the final hours before morning, when the hunt must be completed above all else.
What might mark a Lauds hunter
A heavy helmet with a cagelike grill
Half plate embossed with the sign of the Carillon
A bell hammer than chimes like a tuning fork with every impact
A bandolier of bombs that stink of myrrh
You might see them
Sprinting down the street splattered in blood, their bell hammer making all the iron nearby shiver in sympathy
Smashing down the door of a church
Throwing a bomb through the window of a local business
Smashing down a house’s walls with hideous strength
Compline
Compline hunters emerge upon the completion of a hunt, to lay to rest the innocents who died and dispose of those who witnessed what they ought not.
What might mark a Compline hunter
A stranger arriving in town the morning after a hunt
A rosary wrapped around the palm of the hand
A black-bound psalter written in an unfamiliar script
A long awl made from chipped bone
You might see them
Discreetly attend a funeral
Digging a grave where nobody will find it
Gently pushing their bone awl through someone’s throat
Tending those injured by a hunt
Catalina of the bells
They say there is a saint who lives in a garden terrace high up in the Carillon, impossibly beautiful and kind, who observes everything that happens in the heavens and the earth with her golden telescope. According to the stories, she cries every time she tells the hunters who must die.
I’ve been reading some Laird Barron (he’s okay), playing some Bloodborne (it’s good), thinking about Lovecraft (ehhhh). It has me chewing over the way the Weird is situated in games — i.e. outside of you and dangerous when it gets in or near. What if the dangerous part of the Weird was about the way people perceived it? Uh, anyway, here’s something I wrote.
Imagine being feared just for knowing the truth. Imagine being hated for what you are and yet more despised for what you might be. Imagine transforming into something grander than anything you could have ever imagined, and your friends and family and neighbors driving themselves further to violence and terror the closer you get.
Imagine the wonderful tragedy of shedding humanity like you shed childhood, even as everyone around you tried to drag you back.
Wouldn’t that be scary? Wouldn’t that be so sad?
What I’m saying is, Cthulhu is GAY.
Things you do in the sissy horror cosmos:
Exist in a world that is not for you.
Be careful.
Hurt things so that they cannot hurt you, and face the consequences of doing that.
Grow stronger, and therefore estranged from your old life.
You know this secret: bodies are not for being, but becoming.
You can feel your hidden self, perfectly impossible, beyond sight or knowledge, revealed fractionally like a showman cracking open the shutter of his magic lantern, burning in your belly, shining out your face, curling like savory smoke on your tongue, refracted transiently but gorgeously through your flesh.
All form is a lie.
All shape is a gift.
Become horrendously beautiful in pursuit of your truest holy body.
what can you do?
Roll once, for now.
Your back slits open lengthwise, right along the spine, revealing the delicate pink and white of your interior, blossoming into a profusion of rilled and fronded wings that let you swim through the air.
Your body unfurls into manifold limbs: for holding close or pushing away or gouging deep or carrying far. You can do anything six or so determined and cooperative people could do while remaining in arms length of each other.
Open your mouth all the way, then wider still, then deeper yet, until the joints of your jaw and body reconfigure like a solved puzzle box into a magnificent maw, an endless throat down into the cosmos. You can swallow any dead or inanimate thing smaller than yourself and it is gone. If it alive you do d10 damage, and swallow it if you reduce it to 0 HP.
Open the rest of our eyes. You can see clearly out in the horizon in daylight, and twice as far as your could before in darkness. If you turn your myriad gazes upon a single creature, they must make a save or flee in fear.
what might you want?
To survive the hunters who come down from the Carillon. To swim forever in the starlit depths and riotous voids of the Cosmos.
Laid low by a hilariously awful sinus infection, but it looks like Gawain and the Green Knight Kickstarter made it. Really appreciate everyone who backed it, and I look forward to getting copies out. There’s a limited number of hard copies available, but there still plenty left if you’re still thinking about it.
I’m still thinking about Arthurian stuff and also have been still reading through Troika so here’s another background.
Swordreeve
As King Arthur rises with centennial slowness from the waters of Avalon, the descendants of his subjects struggle to hide away his dreadful weapons–Rhongomyniad, Carnwennan, Wynebgwrthucher, but most of all Excalibur, the most unwelcome of the Lady’s gifts, sublimated into something stranger and more dangerous than even the most magical of swords by the telling of its tale through the ages. Swordreeves are responsible for this task, faced with both the willful power of the waking King’s weapons and the people who use them despite his return.
Possessions
A longsword. Ornamental and bound into its scabbard with red ribbons — might be magic and might be simply fancy, but nothing can seem to unsheathe it. Damage as club.
A samite mantle, marking your trade.
A spool of strong red silk ribbon.
Advanced Skills
3 Crafting – Bladesmithing
2 Scabbard Fighting
2 Spell – I CUT WITH THE BLADE OF A KING
1 Spell – I BALANCE THE WORLD ON THE EDGE OF MY SWORD
1 History
1 Etiquette
Special
When you sheathe a sword, no one will be able to draw it unless you give them permission. Particularly powerful occult beings may be able to force it open with a Skill check, but they only get one shot — if they fail, it means they cannot draw it under their own power. Analogous actions for other weapons (wrapping a spear, unstringing a bow, removing an axehead from its haft) work the same way.
Spells
What if spells deal damage to the caster like weapons, rather than static Stamina cost.
First Order Spells
Roll
1
2
3
4
5
6
7+
Damage
1
1
1
2
2
3
4
Second Order Spells
Roll
1
2
3
4
5
6
7+
Damage
2
2
3
3
5
7
9
Third Order Spells
These are disastrous spiritual weapons. Starting characters probably shouldn’t have them — spells are things you find in a lich’s vault, or quarantined in a secret day gouged out of history, or tumbling in the deepest, emptiest spaces among the million spheres.
Every time someone casts a given third order spell, they gain a permanent and cumulative +1 to damage rolls suffered when casting it.
Roll
1
2
3
4
5
6
7+
Damage
6
8
12
16
18
24
36
I CUT WITH THE BLADE OF A KING
First Order Spell
The sharpest sword is made of nothing and cuts everything. Evoke the edge of Excalibur by tracing a line with your finger. Small and precise movements cut or damage as a knife, medium ones cut or damage as a longsword, while broad slashes are destructive and difficult to control, cutting and damaging as a greatsword. Can make up to three cuts each time the spell is cast; the spell ends immediately if the caster stops extending their forefinger.
I BALANCE THE WORLD ON THE EDGE OF MY SWORD
Second Order Spell
Evoke the blade of Excalibur to perform a single act that could be completed with an incredibly sharp and strong longsword on a single object or creature in shouting distance — slice a rope, wound an enemy, hack through a wooden door.
I CLEAVE THEE AS GOD CLEAVED THE LAND FROM THE WATERS AND THE NIGHT FROM THE DAY
Third Order Spell
Manifest Excalibur to sever anything within line of sight — a chain, a bridge, a life, familial bonds, a line of succession. Particularly powerful occult beings, objects, or phenonena can make an opposed skill check to resist being severed, and the Referee should be thoughtful about whether or not it makes sense for this spell to apply if the use is particularly metaphorical, esoteric, or spectacular – you probably couldn’t sever a lake in a meaningful way for example, and cleaving the Moon wouldn’t do more than leave an impressive mark.
Patrick Stuart of False Machine has adapted Gawain and the Green Knight, and is kickstarting a hard copy with illustrations by Daniel Puerta. I did layout for it, and you can back it here. We’ve been working hard to make a nice book for a long time, so if you like chivalric poetry or lovely drawings, please check it out.
Anyway!
Thinking about Gawain has me thinking about broader Arthurian stuff and, naturally, Pernicious Albion. I also just grabbed Troika, so I wanted to try my hand at some backgrounds.
Horned Witch
You’ve learned from the best — the best being Myrddin Wyllt, whispering his secrets through the depleted uranium tombstone binding him forever beneath Brocéliande. Pressing your ear against a monolith deep in the woods to listen to the murmurings of a dead wizard is hardly the best way to study, however, so you’ve mostly picked up the skills of his wilder youth.
Possessions
A loyal wolf of modest size (henchman)
Claws
Horn crown (+1 to convincing royalty and nobility of the truth and accuracy of prophecies)
Advanced Skills
3 Beast Ken
2 Read Entrails (spell)
2 Keen Senses
1 Claw Fighting
1 Random Spell
1 Random Spell
Special
Myrddin Wyllt has seen this all before. You may test your Luck to remember him whispering to you what is going to happen within the next 10 minutes.
You know where Myrddin rests in Brocéliande. It’s a long and dangerous trip, but he is an effective tutor.
BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE DRIVER
YOU DRIVE A BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE. IT’S STRANGE AND MAGNIFICENT BODY IS YOURS TO COMMAND. YOU FIND THE SICK, YOU RETRIEVE THE INJURED, YOU PROCLAIM YOUR COMING AND GOING WITH THE WAILING OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE’S SIRENS.
Possessions
A BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE (large beast, only acts when being driven)
Advanced Skills
4 BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE Driving
2 Teratology (identifying monsters, recalling their behaviors, being a general expert in strange biologies)
2 Healing
1 Awareness
1 Navigating
Special
YOUR BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE SWELLS AND RIPPLES WITH THE LIKENESS OF EVERY LIVING THING.
You may test your Luck to reveal some new capability your BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE has. It lasts for the rest of the session, and must be identical to the capabilities of a mundane animal (venom, constricting coils, the ability to scale walls, wings, gills). If you fail your test of Luck, you lose 4 Stamina as the BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE’s harsh metabolic processes spill into the cab.
Neither player nor Referee can ever directly describe the BEAUTIFUL AMBULANCE, only talk about what it does with it’s miraculous and capacious body.
Played a session of Lancer playtest a while back, after getting really into the idea of building mecha and fighting in space and so on and so on. It was cool, but not quite to my taste. My group and I still wanted to play a mecha game though, so over a couple sessions of kludged-together S&W Whitebox and a bossa nova / acid jazz soundtrack, and a Very Anime session of Microscope, we ended up with these rules.
Major thanks to Alex, Jackson, and Andrew for the ideas and playtesting.
A quick overview of the setting:
The Twelve Noble Houses, led by their Space Generals, have rallied around the Galactic Empress in the wake of her defeating the APOCRYPHAL ENTITY that hounded humanity for so many centuries–despite the loss of the heir of House Bontemps and the Leaguelong Moonblade.
Cha Cha Feruz, duplicitous captain of the Judascariot, has been stirring up trouble as she looks for work for her motley mercenary gang (i.e. the players).
The miners of ultravaluable mineral Azoth rebel against their corporate overlords on the Remote Planet Hinterkrist, drawing in the vicious mercenary group Blackwood Corps.
MASTABA HOUSE, Habitation of the Dead, a moon-sized mechanism of unknown provenance, has appeared, along with a spacial and temporal anomaly, in orbit around the Gladiatorial Planet Einzkreiger.
PROTOZOAN ENTITIES: GEPETTO STRAIN, HILDEGAARD STRAIN, and ISAMBARD STRAIN pursue evolutionary agendas, deploy phagocytic weapons, coil and pulse in the darkness of space and the hidden ruins of the dead Golden Empire
Oriel, the ancient inventor-automaton, has begun unsealing their vaults to retrieve anti-FRAME weaponry in violation of a millennia-old treaty.
The esoteric melodies of MOON ORPHAN, mythic weapon and hated child of the Golden Empire, have been heard in the crackle of cosmic radiation, in the fluctuations of gravity wells of auspicious planets, in the static of the radio waves and the singing of children at their games.
Checks
When you attempt something difficult or risky that is not an attack, roll a die and try to get a 4 or higher. The base die size is d4.
For every unique and compelling reason to succeed, increase your die size by one, up to d20.
For every unique and compelling reason to fail, decrease your die size by 1. If your cumulative die size is less than d4, roll an additional d4, and take the lower result.
Tags
A tag is an easy way to describe a creature, object or situation. A relevant tag counts as a reason to succeed or a reason to fail. For example, a FRAME with the [tricky] tag can count it as a reason to succeed when hacking an enemy, while a pilot with the [shaken] tag would have to count it as a reason to fail when trying to steady their aim and make a difficult shot.
While any tag can be used as a reason to succeed or fail as long as there’s a strong case for it, some are going to have a largely negative effect on the person or object they belong to. These tags are called conditions and are indicated with a minus sign (e.g. [-on fire], [-broken limb])
Not all tags are equally important. Minor tags and conditions can only be used as a reason to succeed once per scene, and are indicated by lower case letters, like [-rattled] or [-bruised]. Major tags and conditions can be used any number of times per scene and are indicated by capital letters, such as [-TERRIFIED] or [INVISIBLE].
Some tags are ambiguous, and can be used as both a reason to succeed and a reason to fail. A FRAME with the [berserk] tag might use it as a reason to succeed feats of violence and strength, while face it as a reason to fail when shielding allies or searching rubble for survivors.
Reasons to succeed and reasons to fail still count even if they are not described by a tag — tags are a shorthand, but they’re not necessarily a perfect description of all fictionally and mechanically significant factors in a situation. A player or Referee can make use of any relevant tag — a player could use an enemy’s [haywire] tag as a reason to succeed when attacking them, or a field’s [misty] tag as a reason to succeed when hiding.
Combat Rolls
When you attack something or someone else, roll 1d20 plus your weapon’s attack bonus. If you have more reasons to succeed than to fail, you have advantage. If you have more reasons to fail than to succeed, you have disadvantage.
1: Enemy makes a move
2-9: No effect
10-15: deal 1 Harm
16-18: deal 1 Harm, inflict a [-minor condition]
19-20: deal 1 Harm, inflict a [-MAJOR CONDITION]
Major thanks to Brendan S of Necropraxis for this mechanic.
Whenever a FRAME takes Harm, it takes a special critical condition, representing its ability to function. If all critical conditions have been taken, and a FRAME suffers Harm, it is destroyed..
[-SCRATCHED UP]
[-DAMAGED]
[-DISABLED]
If a FRAME has Armor, it can absorb Harm, point-for-point, before taking critical conditions. Armor is restored at the beginning of each scene; conditions only go away by action taken by the player or changing circumstances — critical conditions require time and attention from a mechanic.
Character Creation
Pick a starting FRAME
Each FRAME starts with a beneficial major tag, as well as some gear already built in, which does not encumber.
FRAME Class
Specialty
Built-in Gear
Jackal-class
[FAST]
3 System Cores
Bastion-class
[STRONG]
3 enc of weapons
Strega-class
[TRICKY]
1 GRIMOIRE
Seraph-class
[TOUGH]
PLATE Field
Also pick a size: [SMALL], medium, or [LARGE]
Starting Gear
Pick 5 enc of gear. You can keep in storage, where it won’t encumber you and it’s safe, or in your loadout, where it encumbers you, but you can use it.
Melee Weapons
Weapon Type
ENC.
Attack Roll Bonus
Misericorde
1
+2
Gladius
2
+3
Brutale
3
+4
DOZER
2
+4, requires a running start
Ranged Weapons
Weapon Type
ENC.
Attack Roll Bonus
Procne
1
+1
Apollonian
2
+2
Balor
3
+3
DAEDALUS
2
+3, inflicts [-locked on] instead of Harm
Armor
Armor Type
ENC.
Protection
HIDE Field
1
1 Harm
CHAIN Field
2
2 Harm
PLATE Field
3
3 Harm
System Cores
All Cores are 1 enc.
System
Effect
Drive Core
[swift] movement and acceleration
Impulse Core
[precise] handling
Cloak Core
[stealthy] maneuvers and effective concealment
AI Core
[technical] boost to hacking and comms
Sensor Core
[perceptive] scanning for hidden and distant targets
Force Core
[powerful] feats of strength and violence
Drones
All drones require a 2 enc port / receiver on their FRAME.
GALATEA AutoDoll: a [fast] drone with built-in Sensors and a +1 ranged weapon. Can be damaged before it is destroyed.
ARIEL AutoDoll: a [tricky] drone with built-in Comms and a +1 ranged weapon. Can be damaged before it is destroyed.
CALIBAN AutoDoll: a [strong] drone with a built-in Drive and a +2 melee weapon. Can be grazed and damaged before it is destroyed.
GRIMOIREs
Esoteric mechanisms. A GRIMOIRE can be invoked as a reason to succeed at a relevant task within the FRAME’s normal capabilities any number of times per scene. Once per scene, a FRAME can use a GRIMOIRE to attempt a remarkable feat outside of its normal capabilities. All GRIMOIRES are 3 enc.
This one is a bit experimental, but people get out of their FRAMEs sometimes. For your pilot, pick
a one-word major tag that describes your pilot’s physical or intellectual aptitudes, like [CLEVER], [STRONG], [HOT], or [DEVIOUS].
a one-word major tag that describes your pilot’s personality, like [TEMPER], [PATIENT], or [EERIE]
a one-word minor condition that describes a flaw your pilot has, like [-forgetful], [-slovenly], or [-rude].
Why Are You Doing This
The idea is players can kit out their machines and pilots and be distinct and cool while fitting everything on some scratch paper, getting blown up is in the cards without needing to sit out a bunch of time and do character calculus, fights are tense but short, and you don’t need to know complicated rules to make your mecha concept work (pick the FAST mecha if you want to be fast — you don’t need to compare how many centimeters of grid one thruster moves you versus another).
Also, FRAMEs are short on built-in bonuses. The idea is that they’re chasing advantages in their situation, environment, relationships. This isn’t really a game about the fantasy of power — it’s about having means of survival and the ability to negotiate a place in a hostile world, rather than gouging one out with overwhelming force.
Things I want from a mecha game:
being able to kit out cool robots from session one
room for a lot of space opera drama
rules that support the fraught situations and hijinks of old school games.
being able to have people who aren’t neck deep in The Genre already jump in and have a good time
It is very hot and very humid, so here’s some cold stuff. Probably not bad to tack on to Servants of the Cinder Queen if you’ve run it and want some more Norse followup.
In the summer, their abandoned lowland settlement looks like a uselessly beautiful array of nautiloid spun-glass armatures. As autumn turns to winter and the snow-laden winds blow, these structures reveal their purpose as mediums for ice, growing inch by inch into palaces and walls and towers, until at last the city is ready for the vinteralfar to come down from the mountains and inhabit their winter capital.
elvingbeast
Those dreadfully transformed by the light of an elf-raised moon. Their beastly new shape recalls the old, but white-furred and fine-boned, walking as easily on four legs as two. Elvingbeasts are as ravenous as they are cunning, reining in their hunger only in service of the vinteralfar. They become larger and stranger with age: limbs, eyes, and jaws splitting and duplicating, fur growing long and filamentous like hyphae, body slowly losing symmetry.
elvercorpse
A vinteralf can raise the human dead to harrow their enemies. They impart corpses with a surrogate soul of moonlight, a wriggling maggot-thing of silvery cinder. It fills the contours of its old self, a new cast of an old mold, sharing mannerism and memory, but retaining its own hungry purpose. The fire that burns in the elfcurst dead is stoked only by blood, and human blood most of all.
Elvercorpses look as they did in life, but with the cyanotic pallor of a snowblown corpse, a certain silver light that flickers nearly imperceptibly in the back of their eyes, a roll to their shoulders and hips that suggests the stride of a wolf or hunting cat. They are impervious to cold, and even the heaviest of them can walk across thick snowfall or thin river-ice without breaking the surface or leaving behind even a footstep.
halflings
Lost Boys, Lost Girls, those who return from being taken into the wild by elves or worse things. They are small, a little malnourished, a little sharp of tooth, with the weird ageless look of a young person who has lived through terrible things, even through the passing of years and decades and centuries. All are marked: missing a ring finger, a notched ear, a deep-slit and scarred lip. These mean things to elves, but even halflings don’t know what.
Thirteen Pearl White Corpses
Thirteen Pearl White Corpses is a lord among the vinteralfar, an unfeeling creature of unseelie beauty. On winter nights of the full moon, they will approach frontier settlements with impossible goods: reams of corpse velvet, ingots of winter glass, sheafs of moly, fist-sized chunks of black myrrh, trading only in the currency of souls and dooms and firstborns.
They appear only atop their utterly ancient elvingbeast, Hati, an incomprehensible effusion of clawed limbs, snarling jaws, and watchful eyes. Thirteen Pearl White Corpses wear always the regalia of the vinteralfar: eyes concealed beneath white veils, lips painted blue, canines capped with silver fangs, wrists and throat wrapped with black jewels, body draped with gossamer shawls and robes embroidered with a spider’s delicacy and complexity. In their ivory-clawed hands they clutch a mirror that freezes everything it reflects.
Spells Written on the back of Thirteen Pearl’s mirror
Winterheart
just treat it like Charm Person in terms of spell level, duration, range, saves, etc
Target loses all human warmth and empathy, becoming unable to treat even their closest friends and family as odious strangers for the duration of the spell. They don’t lose their self interest, and so they can still retain relationships out of a sense of expediency, but are utterly unmotivated by connection and compassion.
Queensmirror
just treat like Phantasmal Force in terms of spell level, duration, range, saves, etc
Target’s sense of aesthetic becomes totally inverted: what was once ugly is beautiful, those who appeared honest seem untrustworthy, fragrance becomes stench, and so on, for the duration of the spell. Their sense of proprietary and memories do not change, but the spell can make everyday objects and experiences viscerally repulsive.
The Khagan of Soil was so slow that if he invited you over for supper, not only would you be done eating by the time he finished grace, but you would be hungry for breakfast by the time he swallowed the last bite of his meal. In his dotage, he became slower still, until his heart beat once an hour, like the chiming of a clock, and yet slower, until a whole year passed as a day for him, with spring as his morning and autumn as his dusk.
The slower he got, the wiser he became. At first he could listen closely for the ponderous language of the soil, then the centennial utterings of the stone beneath it, and then the slower and stranger liturgies of the things farthest below, until all of the secrets spoken by the earth were known to him: buried treasure, buried bodies, the coming of earthquakes, and the disposition of the dead.
He grew lonely in the quietude of his life, and spent sixty years making six children of clay and stone, three sons and three daughters, in hopes that they would keep him company. Even these beings of earth, however, were too impetuous to live with a man of such supreme slowness, and left him in his House to find their fortune in the world.
