December 11, 2022December 11, 2022 hex culture clerics, is this gonna work, magic, spell

offerings

Watching Chainsaw Man, thinking about Alex’s discussion of designing adventures around spells (and the vagueness of OSE’s phantasmal force) and well as Deeper in the Game’s magic items and philosophy behind them.

These are two abilities PCs can pick up; I would consider putting them at the end of their own adventures, seeding them in as treasure, or making them the result of magic research. I would think they’d fit most into what characters can do around level 5 (the Snake can do 5d6 damage in a very similar manner to lightning bolt, plus a bunch of other mean bullshit, but only a very limited number of times). They also require the DM to commit to particular kinds of games (not being too wishy-washy about how much time has passed for the Snake, making sure that a looming threat of social violence eventually gets acted on). The Snake also assumed that enemies have 1d8-sized HD; it becomes too strong if HD are 1d6 (so just bump its damage die size down to d4, I guess)

I would also think about making these count against follower limits imposed by Charisma, since someone cutting creepy deals is offputting and it categorizes them as a social relationship mechanically.

You could also drop these in at level 1 as a DM if you were comfortable to running the kind of game where the consequences of how PCs solve problems really matters. If anything goes in the dungeon, then these are just strong and creepy (which is fine); if a bunch of scrubs punching a hole through the local dragon subjects them to all kinds of troublesome scrutiny, then these are much more interesting.

I don’t imagine the Snake or the Foxes as having much explanation in the world; they are cruel and unfamiliar things that have an unknowable interest in a particular PC.

The Snake

Congratulations. You have formed a contract with the Snake. You may sacrifice one of your fingernails to give it a single command. You do not know why the Snake wants your fingernails. It probably just enjoys hurting you.

Photograph of a snake skeleton arranged in a spiral — Year of the Snake by Shenhung Lin CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Any time the Snake’s damage is mentioned, use 5d6. For each fingernail you give it, add +1 to the roll. For each creature it devours with more HD than it has damage dice, add 1d6 to the roll. For example, if you have given it 3 fingernails, its damage is 5d6+3. If it successfully devours a 7 HD wereboar, its damage increases to 6d6+3.

The Snake can only materialize in places within your line of sight and within earshot of your voice. The Snake materializes without fanfare or sound for the briefest moment to perform the acts you command before vanishing.

On your turn, you can command the Snake to do any of the following.

Snake, strike. You can simply tell the Snake to attack. It can attack a single target, or all creatures in a 100’ by 5‘ line. The line can originate from any point in range and has the orientation of your choice. The attack deals the Snake’s damage, Save (vs Magic) to take half damage. If this attack deals more damage than ½ their maximum HP, they must Save (vs Magic) again or the attack will kill them instantly as the Snake carves a hole through their body.
Snake, devour. You can tell the Snake to devour a single creature. This deals the Snake’s damage, Save (vs Magic) to take half damage. If this damage exceeds their maximum HP, the Snake successfully devours them, and can vomit them up as a separate favor. If this does not reduce the enemy to 0 HP, they stick in the Snake’s craw for a moment before it dematerializes. This annoys the Snake, and the next favor you ask of it requires an additional fingernail. It will tell you if it thinks it will not be able to devour a creature before it takes the fingernail.
Snake, release. You can tell the Snake to vomit up an enemy it has devoured for you. This enemy has ½ their normal HP and 10 AC, but retains all other abilities and statistics and acts as your perfectly loyal follower. It dissolves into oily smoke when reduced to 0 HP or the fingernail you sacrificed for it finishes growing back.
Snake, destroy. You can tell the Snake to obliterate a tube of solid, non-magical matter up to 100 ft in length and 5 ft in diameter. The tube can be in any shape or configuration (a cylinder, a spiral, a torus). The Snake obliterates this material by traveling through it; if it encounters a creature, it will deal its damage to them as if it had attacked and then immediately vanish (leaving the job of destroying the object or volume incomplete).

At any time you or an ally in range are about to take damage (after the attack is declared but before any dice are rolled)

Snake, protect. You can tell the Snake to block the attack. Roll its damage, then deduct incoming damage by that amount. If it does not negate all damage, its physical body is destroyed, which it will spend many mortal lifetimes regenerating. It is in your best interest to be dead by then.

Fingernails

Trace your hands (or at least your fingers) on the back of your character sheet and draw on fingernails. Whenever you offer one to the Serpent, right the in-game date you used it, so it’s easy to remember you’re missing it (and also to make it easier to remember when it grows back)

Though it always hurts more than you expect when the Snake claims a fingernail, no matter how many times it happens, you find your reaction oddly muted: no desire to flinch or cringe or clutch your hand. The Snake is particular and precise, and so the wound is nearly nonexistent; there is minimal bleeding and no trauma to the tissue. The Snake simply makes you unwhole. This is also what it does when it attacks your enemies.

The Snake always leaves your nail matrix perfectly intact, so that you can grow more fingernails for it to claim. It takes six months in-game months for a fingernail to grow back. If your game has downtime turns where there is a change of a random event, six of those will do.

If you need to call the Snake and have no fingernails left, there is no cause for concern. Perhaps there is something else you could offer instead?

The Foxes

Oh dear. You have formed a contract with the Foxes. Decide how many out of the five of them you have made a contract with, here and now. For each one, someone in your future will tell you a disastrous and believable lie, even if it contradicts their own nature and they believe they have no reason to deceive you. Everyone has a reason now, and it is the Foxes.

You can now command any number of Foxes to create illusions. Assigning more Foxes to an illusion increases the number of people it can deceive and the number of senses it can manipulate. Targets of an illusion may make a Save (vs Magic) to avoid being deceived, with a penalty equal to the number of Foxes assigned to the illusion. On a successful Save, they realize something is pushing and pulling at their mind.

No. of Foxes	No. of Targets
1	1
2	2
3	~5
4	~10
5	~20

Foxes are fickle and lazy. When you create an illusion, roll 1d6 for each Fox you assign to its creation. For each die that comes up a 1-3, one of your Foxes loses interest in helping you until your next downtime, preventing you from commanding them until then.

The Foxes do not accompany you on your adventures. However, your shadow, reflection, and appearance to other in dreams sometimes seem to have yellow eyes, sharp teeth, or perhaps a bushy and poorly concealed tail.

Illusions

Illusions can deceive senses in any way you please. You can make a target perceive something that does not exist at all, like a person or a wall. Illusions can move and act, such as an illusory wave fluttering in the breeze or an illusory person conversing and moving around (though it’s just the Foxes acting behind the scenes, of course).

You can also alter perception: wholly occlude someone’s vision, make an ally in their sight look like someone else, or prevent them from perceiving a particular person or object. You can also do something like make someone’s voice sound higher or lower, or make it sound like everything they say is an insult.

Illusions exist purely in the perception of their targets, but are shared amongst targets; an illusion brings a single, attenuated reality into being for those its deceives. For example, if one illusion affects two enemies, they must both perceive the same event unfolding. You could not make one enemy see an illusory dragon and the other see an illusory tree. You could create an illusion that depicts both or either, however. You could also set two groups of Foxes on two different illusions, though this would take more rounds if you are in combat and the individual illusions would not be able to deceive as many senses.

You can give false solidity to an illusion with the sense of touch. This does not allow illusions to support weight. For example, the victim of an illusion can’t walk through an illusory wall if the illusion deceives their sense of touch, but they would fall through illusory stairs. An illusory gale that includes the sense of touch would make its victim stumble and fall, but it could never lift them off the ground or propel them.

If an illusion ends up depicting something impossible (someone falls through solid-feeling illusory stairs, for example, or an illusory dragon picks them up with painful and powerful claws and then they are not actually lifted off the ground), the victim who witnesses the paradox may make a Save (vs Magic) to see overcome the illusion, thus losing all perception of it but experiencing stark reality once again. If they fail, they will confabulate the paradox away.

You can perceive your illusions and underlying reality simultaneously and without confusion. Illusions last until they wholly leave your perception.

Example

You have a contract with four of the Foxes, having decided five grievous lies in your life would be too many. You encounter a party of six goblins who seem like they might attack you. You command three of your foxes to deceive them with an illusion; you decide the illusion should impact sight, sound, and touch and affect five of the goblins. You tell three of your foxes to make it appear in the sight of five of the goblins that the sixth has drawn his weapon and attacked his fellow. The five deceived goblins see the sixth raise his club and strike; they feel the splatter of blood. The false target feels the impact of the club and the sound of it crunching his bones. The goblins gang up on the false attacker, and then begin brawling amongst themselves.

May 11, 2022 hex culture Uncategorized

laughing through a mouthful of blood

OSE Advanced Genre Rules Illusionist spells are great, but the class itself leaves me a little cold; while I can conceptually wrap my head around the difference between a crunchy Cleric and a Druid, there’s not a lot of daylight between a tricksy MU and an Illusionist–what’s the in-setting difference between what they’re learning and doing?

I also often try to work in classes that are explicitly about dealing with other NPCs, so this was another opportunity; having patrons and followers from the start is a good way to ground players in the setting and drive them into fun situations.

I started reading The Hidden World of Foxes and have been thinking about the animal a lot. They scream and laugh unnervingly like humans, they thrive in environments where we have destroyed most other living things, they can develop almost doglike relationships with people (though I really don’t like the idea of taming wild animals). Reynard’s Maleperduis is an ideal megadungeon: a fox’s castle-labyrinth in which he hides from the consequences of his actions; the Teumessian fox is an divinely uncapturable monster. Most also have associated rival-victims; Renard has Ysengrim (along with a bunch of other characters including Hirsent the she-wolf), the fox Kuma Lisa has Kumcho Volcho, Laelaps the hound hunts the Teumessian fox. There is of course the kitsune and Tamamo-no-Mae, but I am much less famiilar.

So, foxes are: scream-laughing in the dark; offering you a cursed spear of holly if you kill the noble hunting them for sport; sitting in a ring around a bloodslicked meadow with something you’d rather not see in the center; batting at your window begging for help because the Wolf is coming for them; disguising themselves as a reclusive noble family to eat up whatever traveler takes up their hospitality; telling a joke that will knock history off its axis; Lord Renarte laughing from the highest tower of his hidden castle; Vulpecula in the sky singing lies to the stars; helping and hurting and hunting and begging forever and ever.

Fox Royalty

Requirements: None, but being Lawful may put you at odds with your familiars
XP to level 1: 2,500 (as MU overall)
Prime Requisite: We don’t really do that here. Charisma if you gotta
Hit Dice: 1d4
Saves: as MU
Armor: None, no shields
Weapons: any one-handed melee
Language: Alignment, Common, the Nameless Language of Foxes

“Yum!” by Peter Trimming, available here and distributed under CC BY 2.0

Court of Foxes

Once in a great while, a human is born beloved, for whatever reason, to foxes–not just the beasts in the woods, but their gods and ghosts and demons. With this dubious blessing and certain burden, they are often cut loose by superstitious families and neighbors, left to their own (capacious) devices.

Phantom Fox Familiar

As Fox Royalty grow in power and precedence, they are attended by increasingly powerful fox Familiars. These Familiars are venerated criminals, divine tricksters, and related demons. They spend most of their time lurking invisibly or at least insubstantially about the person of the Fox Royalty they are pledged to, unless commanded.

At level 1, and every odd level thereafter until level 11, Fox Royalty gain an additional Familiar. The Familiar’s Rank is equal to ½ the Fox Royalty’s level (rounded up) at the time they acquire it; the first Familiar a member of Fox Royalty acquires is always Rank 1, no matter how many character levels they gain. For example, Fox Royalty at level 3 have a single Rank 1 Familiar and a single Rank 2 Familiar.

Spellcasting

Fox Royalty can draw on their Familiars’ power to cast Illusionist spells. A Fox Familiar can be used to cast any Illusionist spell known it its Royalty and equal to or less than its rank once per day. Thus, level 5 Fox Royalty can cast three Illusionist spells per day–one at Level 1, one at Level 2 or lower, and one at Level 3 or lower.

Fox Royalty start knowing three Level 1 Illusionist spells. Every time they level up, they learn one spell of each level of their choice from all Illusionist spells they can cast.

Optional Rule: If a Familiar eats a druid, their Royalty can add spells they had prepared or cast for that day to their spell list.

Familiars in Combat

Fox Royalty can also implore their Familiars to manifest and fight for them. This can be done at the top of the round using phased initiative, and requires an Applicant Reaction check and negotiation / payment every time it is done–foxes, even loyal familiars, are lazy and fickle. If they refuse an offer, they cannot be entreated to manifest for the rest of the day, and if the Reaction table turns up “ill will”, they run off to make mischief for the rest of the day and cannot be used to cast spells. If Fox Royalty has a standing debt to a particular Familiar, it will not appear for their Royalty or allow them to cast its spells.

Summoned Familiars

Fox familiars have stats according to their rank, listed below. They typically serve their Royalty for a number of Turns equal to the Royalty’s level. A manifested Familiar can cast Illusionist spells of their Rank or lower, but this counts against their Fox Royalty’s spells per day. A Familiar that is reduced to 0 HP vanishes for a time, and cannot communicate or give the Royalty spells until the day has passed.

Class Level	Rank/Max Spell Level	Statistics
1	1	HD 2 AC 13 MV 150’ (50’) SV +2 ML 7 AL C
3	2	HD 4 AC 14 MV 150’ (50’) SV +4 ML 6 AL C
5	3	HD 6 AC 14 MV 150’ (50’) SV +6 ML 5 AL C
7	4	HD 8 AC 15 MV 150’ (50’) SV +8 ML 4 AL C
9	5	HD 10 AC 16 MV 150’ (50’) SV +10 ML 3 AL C
11	6	HD 12 AC 18 MV 150’ (50’) SV +12 ML 2 AL C

I ues d20+HD >= 16 for saving throws, but you can just use their HD and the Monster Save chart in the system of your choice to figure out their saves.

Special Cases

If Fox Royalty want to summon their Familiars en masse or set them to a long-term or complex task pertaining to espionage, mischief, or nature, they may do so, but this is treated as “Other Magical Research” in terms of time and cost.

Dealing With Familiars

Familiars appear increasingly impressive or frightening with Rank.

A Rank 1 Familiar might appear as a scrawny juvenile fox.
A Rank 3 Familiar might appear as a wolf-sized fox barded in gold and silk
A Rank 6 Familiar might appear as a seething apparition of shadow and red-gold fire.

While unmanifested, foxes might possess their Royalty’s shadow to speak or appear as clots of foxfire.

All fox familiars are arrogant, cruel, and mischievous, with a soft spot for underdogs and fellow tricksters. Low rank familiars are younger, cruder in their malice, and more beholden to their animal temperament. Higher ranked familiars are older, more circumspect and patient, but also more creative in their cruelty and elaborate in their plots. The highest ranked familiars are demigods in their own right.

Fox familiars obey orders to the letter and spirit that don’t offend their sensibilities, even if they have low Morale/Loyalty. They don’t make Morale checks out of fear–they are unbothered by danger, but require checks when subject to indignity, disrespect, or significant pain, or when asked to pass up the opportunity to do something cruel, funny, or both. In terms of payment, they don’t care for treasure or gold, but do enjoy shrines being constructed in their name, incense, offerings of live chickens (and larger, bloodier animals).

“Fox with meat, again…” by Tambako the Jaguar, available here and distributed by CC BY-ND 2.0

Restrictions and Diplomacy

Foxes and foxlike beings are at worst Talkative with Fox Royalty, though they may not be so well disposed towards their traveling companions. Fox Royalty must never directly harm a fox (fortunately, foxes will never willingly harm them, unless it’s very funny), lest their familiars abandon them until they perform some task of great mischief to make it up to foxdom. Tricking a fox, even to the point of harm, is a whole other story, though–all cruelties are allowable to a fox if they’re amusing enough.

Strongholds

At level 11, Fox Royalty are demidivinities in their own right and may raise a bower or construct wilderness shrine. They will attract 2d4 Clerics of levels 1-3 and can bestow Illusionist spells on them, and all foxes in the region will accord them great, if grudging, respect.

Fox Familiar Statistics Formula

HD: Rank x 2
AC: 12 + Rank
MV: 150’ (50’)
SV: +HD (or as HD)
ML: 8 – Rank
AL: Chaotic

July 9, 2019 hex culture Uncategorized

SPACE WAVE BOSSA NOVA

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.

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.

Critical Conditions

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.

GRIMOIRE	Domain
Pluto	gravity
Jupiter	electromagnetism
Luna	light and darkness
Oranos	space
Venus	biological matter
Psyche	the mind, perception

Encumbrance

ENC.	Effect
1-3	no penalty
4-6	[-BURDENED]
7-9	[-BURDENED] and [-BULKY]
10+	[-BURDENED], [-BULKY], [-UNBALANCED]

FRAME Name

It should be something cool. Past names include

Legs For Days
Les Fleurs du Mal
Chevalier Groovy
Master of Puppets
Struggle Theory
Amuse Bouche
Beast of Burden
Glory Be
Messiah Complex
Traje de Luces

Pilot

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

Tag: old school