Son of Iron Game Chef!

[JamesSterrett]

Well, in view of the injunction to abuse electrons and post early, post often, here goes.....

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Terminator Line
Role-playing at 1700 kph
James Sterrett

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke (Report on Planet Three, 1972)

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Wake up!  You have to go.

What’s this?  The Spirits speak to you all the time, but usually it’s at your behest - make the sacrifice and they’ll tell you where the best fishing is, or what the weather will be, or help you heal that nasty cut on your leg.  

Wake up!  You must travel west, beyond the sunset!

   Quite insistent, really, but your sleeping mat is warm and it must be only a short time until dawn.  Perhaps you’ve been chosen to go on a Spirit Quest - even to fetch Ice from the fabled Far Seas!  But why would you have to be told in the middle of the night?  Surely it can wait until morning.

In response, the Spirits grant you a vision.  You rise above your village, and soon can see your entire island sleeping under starlight, and then all the neighboring islands.  Higher still, you can see further islands in the sea, stretching on and on, so vast that your own island turns into a speck, and then disappears.  Higher still, and you see that, just as the spirits always claim, the world is a pebble island of light floating in a sea of darkness, a droplet of water speckled with islands.  Far to the east, you see the light of dawn spilling across the world.

   Where the dawn falls, the seas boil and the islands burn; then the vision fades to white as if it, too, had been burnt by the sun.

The sun is angry, and we cannot appease her.  If the dawn catches us, we will die - people and spirits alike.  A refuge awaits halfway around the sea.

   How could you move so far before the dawn?

We can help you move very quickly, but we cannot go far enough all at once.  After each swift move, you must sacrifice to us to replenish our strength.

   Your child is already awake, eyes full of fear from the same vision.  When you step out of your hut, you find that the rest of your village has been awakened as well.  You gather up your few possessions, asking the Spirits how to best begin your quest to evade the dawn’s assault.  They request unprecedented sacrifices.  Then you dream of flying forward at terrible speed, past sleeping islands and slumbering seas whose leaves and waves do not move while you pass.  You awaken just as you arrive at another island apparently similar to your own.

We have gained half an hour on the sun.  To move again, you must each sacrifice thirty fish.  You don’t have time to go fishing.  The local village has a hut with many dried fish in it.

What will you do to survive?  You’re about to find out.

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Setting

In Terminator Line, you are a member of a Stone Age island village, racing westwards across the archipelagos of your world towards a promised salvation from the terrible fury of the Sun.

In its default setting, Terminator Line is transhuman science fantasy (several potential variants will be discussed farther down).  Unknown ages ago, your space-faring ancestors decided to provide themselves with an idyllic stone age fishing life.  They chose a planet, settled it, and erased all traces of their previous life from the planet and from their minds.  All they kept were the Spirits, incredibly advanced technology that ensures the Stone Age life is idyllic: fish and fresh water are easily found, disease and injury are not life-threatening.  The Spirits’ programming causes them to keep life moderately challenging, without becoming tedious or life-threatening.  For normal everyday life, the Spirits can get by on solar energy plus small sacrifices they disintegrate safely into component parts for energy and materials.  Unusual situations require larger sacrifices of various items, and emergencies can even require sacrifices after the rescue!

With the Sun’s sudden increase in output, you must beat the Terminator Line (the boundary between night and day) to a shuttlecraft that will carry you to a ship from your original civilization (whose starships can survive the solar event, but whose best efforts have failed to prevent the event from occurring.)  At the equator of an Earth-sized planet with no axial tilt, the Terminator Line moves at just under 1,700 kilometers per hour (multiply this figure by the cosine of the latitude if you’d rather play at a latitude other than the equator.)

The Spirits’ most efficient travel mode can move you at speeds of around 3,400 kph, for about half an hour.  You experience this as a dream of moving across islands and seas that do not move.  This fast travel capability has not been directly revealed to your people before, though the Spirits use it in small doses to keep you out of troubles such as falling trees and marauding sharks: “Everything slowed down, like a dream, and I got out of the way just in time!”

Thus the Spirits carry you to another island several thousand kilometers away from the Terminator Line - but then they need more power, and materials with which to prevent you from being harmed by the Mach 3 transit speed.  The Spirits know what they need and have told you.  Unfortunately, the locals may also need what you need, and regardless, they think the stuff on their island is theirs, not yours.

What do you find on the next island?  Some of the locals have Spirits and know why you want the materials.  Some do not.  Some may be from a different technological level than yours, their ancestors having chosen a less radical change in lifestyle.  None appreciate theft, and if you choose the path of assault, they will resist.

The relentless ballet of celestial mechanics brings the apocalyptic assault of the Terminator Line closer to you with every second.  You have 30 minutes to find the necessary materials and sacrifice them.

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System

All dice are presumed to be d10, with 0 as 10.  Using other sizes of dice will work perfectly well.  Smaller dice will increase the number of tied rolls, while larger dice will reduce them.

Character Creation:

People:

   Brawn and Brains:  Spirits don’t have these!  Each player of a character that is a person should divide 5 dice between their character’s pools of Brawn and Brains.  When Brawn reaches zero, the character is critically injured and will die unless healed.  When Brains reaches zero, the character becomes severely delusional until healed.  The delusion should reflect the event causing the damage.

   Brawn provides the base pool of dice for all physical contests.  Brains provides the base pool of dice for all mental contests.

   Roles and Skills:  Role is the character’s Role in the village - such as hunter, fisher, weaver, warrior, sailor, tool-maker, leader, or boat-builder.  Skills are the things a character is particularly good at inside that Role.  Roles are very general; Skills are fairly specific.  Examples include spear-fishing, bashing heads with a club, making nets, convincing people, maritime navigation, using a bow, curing hides, making clothing, or making stone axes.
   Each character may have only one Role.  Each character has 4 dice with which to buy skills.  Every die put into a Skill adds a die to the player’s pool for any action involving that Skill.  Not having a particular Skill does not preclude a character from attempting an action!

   Dependent:  Each character has a Dependent: an NPC in the tribe, somebody whom the character will risk much in order to keep alive, such as your child, spouse, lover, favorite relative, or best friend.  (Will you risk everything to keep them alive?  We’ll find out in the game.)  The Dependent gets 3 dice for Brawn and Brains, and 2 dice for Skills.  The Dependent also has a Spirit, which will need additional sacrifices (identical to the player’s Spirit’s requirements) in order to keep the Dependent moving away from the Terminator Line.

   “People” is an extremely malleable term.  While the game defaults to assuming humans, with two arms, two legs, one head, and so on, there’s no intrinsic reason for this to be true.  With enough sacrifices, the Spirits can provide players with gills, or complete reconfiguration to live as an octopus.  Players who wish to play something outside the default human shape and capabilities should negotiate the benefits and penalties of the new form with the GM.  (Gills might need to be kept wet, an octopus cannot leave salt water without lots of help....)  While all alterations are accepted in the player’s home village, that might not be true on other islands visited during play!)

Spirits:

   (Normally, Spirits are NPCs, but you could have Spirit players, and, indeed, there’s no reason you couldn’t have one player be another player’s Spirit.)

   Mana:  People don’t have this!  All Spirits begin with a pool of 9 mana dice, representing their available pool of materials and energy.  There is no limit to the size of the pool.  Mana is spent to perform miracles, and replenished through sacrifice.  When the Mana pool reaches zero, the Spirit goes dormant, and must be revived through sacrifices.  A dormant Spirit must be revived before the sacrifice for moving forward is made.

   Miracles:  To perform a miracle, the Spirit spends dice.  The number of dice spent becomes the number of dice rolled, but dice spent are gone from the pool, regardless of the outcome.  Success is automatic if the task is unopposed and the number of dice spent is sufficient (in the GM’s estimation; the necessary number of dice is not secret from the player).  Thus, if a character suffers a broken leg, the GM might assess the cost of healing as 3 Mana dice, but not require a die roll.  Players may ask their Spirit to help in tasks, spending the Spirit’s mana dice to increase the size of their pool for that action.

   Miracles take many forms, and the mana cost is set by the GM.  As a baseline on difficulty, Miracles can be used to directly increase a player’s Brawn or Brains at a cost of 3 mana dice for every Stat die gained, as do a few seconds of Fast Travel.  Such gains are not temporary - they remain until damaged or traded for Spirit mana dice.  Some very minor miracles do not require the expenditure of a die, but these are unlikely to come up in play - things such as “Where can I find fish”, when the player is fishing in home waters where the Spirit already knows everything about the local piscine habits.  In general, obtaining information is much easier for the Spirits than performing actions.

   Sacrifices:  The player can only sacrifice physical objects to the Spirit.  The emotional value of the object is irrelevant; its components are quite relevant.  The Spirits have been programmed to maintain the ambience of a Stone Age life, and thus may require special preparation of an object (carved wood, cooked fish) - until the Spirits begin to get desperate enough about survival that their survival programming overrides their ambience-maintenance programming.  Remember that while the Spirits are fully conversant in chemistry, the people are not.

   Sacrifices increase a Spirit’s mana pool.  As a baseline, one fish = one die.  Players may sacrifice one die of Brawn or Brains to give their Spirit one die of Mana.  (Keep in mind that the Spirit will need 3 dice of Mana to rebuild the damage thus sustained to the character’s Brawn or Brains.)  [By default, sacrifices take only a few seconds and don’t require any ritual action on the part of the character, though the character must be able to touch the objects.  The Spirit may choose to require such things or to slow the process, if it chooses; equally, a group may agree to require more time or ritual effort on the part of the character.]

The GM should be creative about the sacrifice requirements.  Sacrifice requirements should not be simple to obtain, even if the objects themselves are simple.  “We need thirty fish each....”

         I don’t have to carve the coconut into a fish?

No.  

          Didn’t I have to carve it into a fish before?

Look, stop worrying about that and just find enough coconuts and smear them with the warm yellow mud.  Oh - and then wash the yellow mud off your hands right away.

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Contest Resolution:

   Players can do what they want unless somehow opposed, either by NPCs, animals, monsters, or the sheer difficulty of the task.  When the opposition is not another player, the GM plays for the opposition, and assigns dice for the opposing pool commensurate with the difficulty of the opposition.

   All contests are resolved through rolling pools of dice and comparing the highest dice.  If the player’s die is highest, the player succeeds, and more dice higher than the opposition’s highest dice indicate a greater degree of success.  The die-roll winner succeeds.  The die-roll winner (player or GM) narrates the outcome through to the end of the contest - keeping in mind the degree of success.

               In the event of ties, set tied dice aside until the highest unmatched die is found.  That die determines the winner.

Extending Success:  Players may attempt to chain several different actions together, using successes in prior actions as extra dice in later actions.  Thus, a player with little Brawn but lots of Brains could roll against Brains for a clever plan, then use the successes on rolling the Plan as additional Brawn dice in trying to bash in an opponent’s skull.

   Combat is a special case: Every success in physical combat costs the loser one die of Brawn.  Every success in mental combat costs the loser one die of Brains.  (Mental combat is the use of Spirit powers to attempt to demolish or destroy another character’s mind.)  Players cannot refuse to inflict wounds they have rolled; if they wish to avoid killing an opponent they must roll fewer dice (perhaps as a combined action to “beat up the other guy, then convince him to let us into the cave” - a situation in which the wounds dealt would roll over as Extending Success dice for the attempted convincing, in addition to removing the target’s Brawn).

   Clever description awards:  The GM should award up to 3 dice to the player’s pool for a given action as a reward for clever description or role-playing, before the roll is made.

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Running the Game:

   The game proceeds in episodes, each of which is 30 minutes of game time.  Each episode begins with the player’s arrival on a new island, and the GM telling them, through their Spirits, what sacrifice is required to continue moving away from the Sun.  By default, the game has 12 episodes; with the end of the last episode, the Terminator Line moves over the shuttle and destroys it, trapping the players on a devastated planet with no hope of survival.  Obviously, your game group could choose to have more, or fewer, episodes.

   On arrival, the players must quickly decide on a course of action - assault the locals, stealthily rob them, or negotiate with them? - and get on with the business of ensuring their own, and their Dependent’s, survival.

   The last episode centers not on making a sacrifice to travel farther, but on getting aboard the shuttle, which unfortunately has fewer seats than there are potential passengers.

What will you do to survive?

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Variants and Considerations, with notes on the “default” that the rules text presumes:

   - Do the Spirits understand morality?  By default, they will not judge your actions.  Perhaps, though, they insist on your following a moral code - or an immoral one?

   - Are the Spirit’s minds an advanced expert system, a human-level A.I., or a transhuman A.I.?  Do the Spirits have an attitude about the use of their dice?  The default is human-level A.I. and no attitude, though a player playing a Spirit should have plenty of it!  

   - Are the Spirits telling the truth - or does the Sun’s assault actually only kill the spirits?  By default, they are truthful.

   - If desired, you can throw out the entire science side, declare the Spirits to be actual mystical spirits, and the goal to be a portal to Heaven or a magical ice realm that can withstand the Sun’s assault, or even reverse it.  (However, I believe that a Quest to Save The World is very different in feel from a Quest to Survive.  It’s easier to shovel dark deeds under the “end justifies the means” rug when you’re trying to save an entire planet than it is when you’re only trying to save your own skin (and that of your Dependent).)

   - Ideally, the game should be played as quickly as possible, to maintain maximum pressure on the players to make difficult moral decisions fast.  The mechanics are designed to be as streamlined as possible.  Turn up the pressure farther: set a timer for some span longer than 30 minutes, resetting it each time everyone has made the necessary sacrifices for Fast Travel.  If anyone hasn’t made the appropriate sacrifice when the bell rings, the Terminator Line catches up with them, and they become crispy critters.

   - By default, Spirits cannot affect objects much beyond the reach of a player’s limbs, nor can they create death rays or microwave an opponent’s brain.  What if the Spirits have greater range and power - at a commensurate increase in required Sacrifices?

   - Was the solar event caused by a hostile force, which seeks to prevent your escape through active interventions on the planet?  The default is “no”, but facing off against battle-ready members of a high-tech civilization should present an interesting challenge.

   - Faster Spirit travel allows more time at each island, but the Spirit will require more Sacrifices to be able to attain the higher speed and protect the character.

Acknowledgements:  Thanks to Ken Burnside for assistance with the math; to Ron Edwards, Clinton Nixon, and James West for mechanics inspirations in Sorceror, Elfs, Donjon, and The Pool, respectively; and to Jacob Ossar and Corinne Mahaffey for acting as sounding boards.  Especial thanks to Corinne, for kicking my ass to write this thing after watching an inspiration particle leave an impact crater in my brain.

[Jack Aidley]

Chanter

This chef has prepared a broadly traditional dish, hoping the Chairman will delight in the excellent preparation and presentation of a familiar dish while stranger and more exotic food while initially entrancing ultimately results in frequent and unpleasant trips to the boys' room. Chanter is played in traditional style with a standard GM-player distinction, and the players' main means of influence is through the actions of their character.

Chanters world is, the chef hopes, fresh and new, however, with inspiration drawn from many feudal sources as well the writings of Masterchef John Kim and Esteemed Writer Robert Silverberg. Its alien fantasy world will provoke awe and wonder while opening the door on many exciting challenges and adventures. Will you favour honour, or mercy? Will you betray your allies, or accept defeat? Is calling in others to help protect your peons worth the debt of gratitude due?

Contents

1. The World.
....1.1. Society.
....1.2. The Way of the Chanter
....1.3. Flora and Fauna
....1.4. Technology and Equipment
2. Rolling the Dice
3. The Four Attributes
....3.1. Island
....3.2. Ice
....3.3. Dawn
....3.4. Assault
4. Creating Your Character
5. Playing the Game
....5.1. Conflict Resolution
....5.2. The Order of Play
....5.3. Injuries and Healing
....5.4. Time, Adventures and Campaigns
6. Magic
....6.1. Using Powers
....6.2. The Powers
7. Character Advancement
8. Example Allies, Creatures, Monsters and Foes
A. Chef's Notes

1. The World

Each day the sun dies, and its ashes fall to earth. Every morning the Chanters chant for the new sun, and with the dawn it
is born anew.

All-that-is is not like our world - it is world rich in magic and teleology. Here things fall to earth not because they are drawn by Gravity, but because that is the place they are meant to be, the plants grow by their own magic, and the Sun hangs in the centre of the world because that is its place. All-that-is is shaped like the inside of an egg, its inhabitants can see the ground curve up and away from them. The year in All-that-is is defined by the procession of the sun - every 320 days it traces out a circle in a plane through the fattest part of the egg - and in its procession it brings seasons to the lands of the bulge, colder as the sun moves away, warmer as it returns. While the wide end of the world basks eternally in a continual and barely changing heat and the narrow end is unchanging in its cold and ice.

Direction in All-that-is is reckoned with four directions: Narrowward (towards the narrow end), Wideward (towards the wide end), Pro (round the egg in the direction of the sun's procession) and Counter (round the egg opposite to the direction of the sun's procession). There are no stars and no clouds and there is no moon, the darkness of night is impenetrable outside of artificial light and sometimes, in the dark, the rain comes falling to earth from who-knows-where.

The young Chanters sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the teacher for their first lesson, excitement was obvious in their faces but they already possessed the discipline to sit still and be quiet. The teacher was old now but he still wore the bone armour proudly - its intricate carvings badges of honour from past glories. In his hand he held a hard-boiled egg.

"All-that-is is shaped like this egg. We are here," he stabbed a gnarled finger at a point on the fattest part of the egg. "Although, of course, on the inside, not the out - for how could there be an outside to all-that-is?" Taking up a knife, he sliced the egg into two neat halves. "And like the yolk lies central in the egg, so the sun lies central in all-that-is. Every night the sun dies, and its ashes fall to earth, and before every dawn you will perform the chants that bring the new sun and by this ancient duty you will ensure the life and health of all-that-is."

One child dared raise a trembling hand. The teacher raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"We know of the sun, master, we see it everyday and we have heard the chants. Tell us of the rain, master? From whence does it come? What must we do to ensure its fall?"

"We know not of where the rain comes, child, for it falls only in the dark when the Sun is not. You must fill the sacred bowls and bless the waters so that they may call to their loved ones that they may fall as the rain by night. All these things will be known to you at the proper time."

The Chanters are the central characters in Chanter. They are part Knight, part Lord, part Mage and part Priest. Their greatest duty is to perform the chant that brings the new sun every day before dawn, but they are also warriors, judges and landlords as the only wielders of the Dawn magic.

1.1. Society

Chanter society is heavily stratified, with the Chanters possessing great power and land, while the common folk (peons) live in squalor and work hard tending their crops and animals for the Chanter's benefit. There is little religion in the Chanter's lands (Chanterdom), they believe in a creator who is now gone, or dead, and that it is they that bring the sun each day and through it all growth and life. It is this role that they believe gives the right, duty and responsibility to rule over the common folk. Chanters themselves are arranged in hierarchical, and feudal, bonds of power, listed here lowest to highest:

Gin Sat - Chanters who have passed the training but have no land remain in direct service to the Sazon of their house.
Sat - the lowest landed rank (and the one to which starting players belong), they will have a small holding of perhaps fifty subjects.
Ursat - they are owed the fealty of perhaps a half dozen Sats and directly hold perhaps two hundred subjects.
Freda - their holding is likely a small town, of perhaps five hundred subjects, they also command the loyalty of three or four Ursats.
Surgay - their seat of power is usually a fortified town, of maybe one to two thousand subjects, as well as a few small villages. They usually command a dozen or so Ursats and sometimes a couple of Freda.
Sazon - Sazons rule houses (see below). Although their direct holding are usually smaller than a Surgay they wield far greater influence.
Ursazon - the high Sazon - the head of the currently ruling house, the Ursazon is the most powerful man in the land.
King - the King, although he has the greatest holdings, has less influence than the Ursazon.

Chanters owe their primary loyalty to one of the many Houses of Chanterdom, and often to a faction within that house. These loyalties are changeable and it is common for a Chanter to rise in power by means of a well-timed betrayal. The loyalty to houses, and factions, runs parallel to the legal obligations of military and financial support owed through the feudal structure represented by Sats, Ursats, Freda and Surgays and ultimately to the King. Houses are frequently organised along family lines, but there is sufficient movement among them that this is not always so and it is not uncommon to find brothers in different houses.

Chanterdom is relatively secure, although constant border-skirmishing occurs with its neighbours the Chanters have the superior arms, armour, troops and magics on the side and thus win more often that they lose. This has resulted in a society that is almost entirely in-looking, with Chanters more interested in besting each other than in besting their supposed foes. Their life is preoccupied with currying favour and trying to impress one another with deeds or words and with their devotion to the way of the Chanter.

1.2. The Way of the Chanter

Chanters value discipline and bravery above all. They have a word 'ice' that is used to describe those that are unflinching before danger and unwavering in their resolve. Although martial duels are fought between Chanters, it is more common to have what are known as 'ice' contests. Each Chanter takes turns trying to make the other react in someway without touching them, while the other one stares, unblinkingly, straight ahead. This most frequently involves sudden strikes stopping just in front of the head, or complex and obscure insults delivered as a kind of rhythmic poem (see the Ice section below for mechanical rules for Ice contests).

Chanter society is full of tradition. From the daily Chant to bring the Sun, to various yearly festivals, to many complicated rituals performed when meeting friends, challenging enemies or just eating or drinking. Chanters are expected to never become intoxicated and to do so carries the penalty of death. Chanters have the right to hold judgement over their subjects, and can summarily execute them if it takes their fancy to do so, even for the slightest of perceived insults. Needless to say, the common folk are exceptional polite to Chanters.

Chanters follow common practices of Hospitality, and will not harm anyone they welcome into their home while they remain there. To do otherwise is a great dishonour. It also considered a great dishonour to use magic against another Chanter, or to use missile weapons of any sort against another Chanter. Marriages within Chanter society are nearly always for political gain rather than for love, and it is usual for a Chanter to maintain several mistresses taken from the common folk as well as their wife (who is always taken from Chanter society). Male children born to Chanters are usually trained up as Chanters themselves - however should they be born without magic they are given to a common family to adopt and struck from the family tree of their Chanter parents.

Chanters are taken from their families at the age of seven and spend the next fourteen years in training. They study the military arts, the traditions of the Chanters, the magics they will need as well as the gentle arts - the formal manners, polite rituals and correct etiquette for polite and noble company. Life in training is hard: the boys are frequently beaten, and given little in the way of luxuries or home comforts. When they complete the training, they are tested to see if they are ready to be a Chanter and any who fail are sent narrowward in exile. Those who pass are welcomed as Chanters in a lavish ceremony. Most are given lands and become Sats in their own right, inevitable there are more boys than open lands, however, and those whoa are left over go instead into the direct service of their Sazon as Gin Sats.

1.3. Flora and Fauna

All-that-is is an alien world - not merely a psuedo-european patchwork - the plants in the farmer's field are not corn, potatoes or turnips and the animals they farm are not pigs, cows or chickens. The grow edible fronds, the berries of the floating Macobo plant, the tubers of the carnivorous Atalak plant and the vast, red fruit of the wide-leafed Umjub tree while it the fields the almost squid-like floating Akachibor graze slowly on the moss pulling themselves along with their powerful tentacles, the same powerful tentacles that are used to pull ploughs and wagons, while the eggs of the Cratchis lizard make for fine omelettes and the milk of the small, slow and fat Bobos makes a change from drinking boiled water. The commoners brew fine ales from the roots and leaves of Havarda and make rough wines from the fruit of the parasitic strangler vine.

The great forests are filled with strange creatures: giant snakes, quick footed reptiles and giant flightless birds inhabit the floors while howler monkeys and bright plumaged birds cry from the treetops above. Most feared are perhaps packs of the six-foot Torva lizard, with its diseased bite, and the terrible claws and beaks of the massive flightless eight-foot Welta and Grunter birds.

Worse, however, than the common animals are the strange monsters that spring unwelcome on the land. Monsters in All-that-is are not races, nor kinds, nor species but singular creations. They are unique, created once and never to be made again. There have only ever been the four black-faced trolls and there will only ever be those four. The terrible winged Manticore is the only of its kind, and it sings lonely and haunting songs for a mate will never come. Monsters are not a common threat, but they are frequently dangerous and there is great glory and valour to be found in killing them.

1.4. Technology and Equipment

Metal is extremely rare in All-that-is, thus most technology is based around wood and stone. However, it would be a mistake to think that Chanterdom is a stone age civilisation. Their woodworking techniques are easily a match for late medieval europe, and what steel they do work is of fine quality. Commoners generally live in one-room wood framed houses that contain entire families, while Chanters generally live in structures built from a mixture of wood, brick and stone. Glass windows are reasonably common; although the glass is neither smooth nor entirely clear. The richer and more powerful Chanters live in mansions of up to three or four stories, often with crenalated battlements above. Seige warfare is uncommon however, and thus vast stone castles are rare with smaller forts with wooden walls and stone keeps are prefered.

Chanters usually dress in bone armour. Constructed from worked pieces of bone sewn over tanned lizard skin it is before hard and highly protective. Chanters carve patterns onto the bones to indicate the battles they have seen, and wear elaborate and colourful cloaks over the shoulders and back of their armour to indicate their allegiances. Their swords are straight, hand-and-a-half affairs with circular guards. There are only a few forges in all of Chanterdom capable of making these fine steel blades and only Chanters have the means to afford them.

To Contents

2. Rolling the Dice

Chanter uses d6s for its bones, and you'll need a fair handful - but you're roleplayers so I know you've got them, if not you can purchase blocks of thirty-six 6mm d6s from your local gaming store for a few quid. Conflicts are determined by rolling a bunch of d6s (see below for how many should be rolled), and looking for duplicates. Rolls are called by saying the largest number of matches in what number and how many other duplicates you got (extras).

Robin rolls ten dice and gets 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6 and announces that he got two 6s and three extras.
Ant rolls seven dice, getting 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, - he announces that he's got three 2s and one extra.
Gilli rolls four dice, getting 2, 4, 4, 5 - she announces that she's got two 4s.
Mike rolls eight dice, getting 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5 - he announces he got three 5s and two extras.
I roll five dice and get 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 - I announce I got nothing

All rolls in Chanter are opposed. Usually the GM rolls the opposition dice - rolling a number of dice according to how hard the task is. Whoever got the highest duplicate wins, or if they got the same duplicate (i.e. both got triples) then whoever got it in the highest number wins (thus three 5s beats three 3s, but four 2s beats both of them). Each extra on the player's side mean something extra good happened (bonus), each extra on the GM's side means something extra bad happened (penalty). The player can choose to cancel a penalty out with a bonus. Bonuses and penalties can either take the form of new elements added to the situation or world, or simply consequences of the action being taken. The GM decides and declares the results of both penalties and bonuses.

Should the roll be tied both on duplicity and number shown then it is a tie and no resolution to the action is achieved (if they're climbing a cliff, they got a little stuck for a while but can carry on; if they're picking a lock they haven't solved it yet but might be able to; if they're fighting someone, they've fought back and forth but neither side has yet gained a conclusive advantage) any extras, however, still take effect.

Some situations can give the player an advantage or disadvantage: for example they could be using better armour, or better weapons than their opponent, or they could be using top quality equipment to pick the lock, or they might be in a hurry, or injured. Each advantage gives the player an extra dice, while disadvantages take dice away (alternatively the GM can choose to raise the difficulty instead) - although the total bonus from advantages should typically never go above two extra dice.

Ant's character, Sat Morizas, is attempting to climb a cliff to sneak into the back of an enemy encampment. The cliff is pretty steep, so the GM calls a difficulty of 7 dice. Ant is throwing 8 dice, so he has a pretty good chance of success. He rolls three fours and one extra, while the GM rolls two fives and two extras. That leaves Sat Morizas with a success with one penalty. The GM decides that the penalty means that Morizas kicked a rock down the cliff as he was climbing. The noise from the rockfall will mostly likely alert his enemies to his presence.

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3. The Four Attributes

3.1. Island The island stands alone in the ocean, in its strength it resists the wind, the tide and the waves. It survives alone, and on its one merits. Similarly, a characters Island is their ability to look after themselves. Players roll island to hunt, to climb walls, to track prey, or enemies, to hide from foes and to sneak through the undergrowth without being scene.

Example difficulties:

  2 Walking against a strong wind, swimming in calm waters.
  3 Climbing an easy tree, running on rough ground. To track a large group of people who passed in the last day or two.
  4 Swimming against the current, climbing a rough cliff, building a simple shelter in good conditions. To sneak past an inattentive guard.
  5 Hunting and gathering enough food for one person in a forest, climbing a hard tree. To track one person who passed in the last day or two.
  6 Climbing a rough cliff in the rain, walking across a narrow ledge in a strong wind.
  7 Hunting and gathering enough food for one person in open planes, or gathering enough for a few people in the forest.
  8 To track one person who was trying to cover their tracks and passed in the last day or two. To climb a sheer cliff.
  9 To sneak past a well-trained and alert sentry.
  10 To climb a sheer cliff in the rain.

3.2. Ice Ice, as discussed above, is the measure of the perfection of ones embracing of the way of the Chanter. It represents will power, cool, rigidity of thought and mind and the ability to stand unflinching in danger. Contests of Ice are common and important in Chanter society, a contest of ice is a straight forward roll of the player's ice vs. their opponents ice. Ice also determines the order of action where it is important in a scene (see below).

Example difficulties:

  3 To keep ones cool when faced with a Torva lizard.
  5 To keep ones cool when face with a pack of Torva lizards.
  6 To avoid flinching when surprised by a sudden and loud noise. To avoid crying out when injured.
  8 To keep cool when faced by a terrifying monster, such as a Troll or Manticore.

3.3. Dawn The magics of All-that-is are intricately linked to the dawn, and the daily creation of the sun. It is the magic that runs in the blood of all Chanters that allows them to chant in the dawn and, indeed, makes them Chanters at all. Dawn is used primarily in the casting of spells, however it is also a measure of one's linkage with the world and thus it also covers rolls to notice, or spot, things as well as to identify plants and animals. See Magic And Spells for details.

3.4. Assault The fourth and final attribute is Assault. Battles, duels and other forms of combat are common in All-that-is. Monsters threaten villages, the conflicts between factions and houses frequently spill over into violence and there is the ever-present threat from other civilisations and from barbarian tribes. Assault is used in any combat situation.

In a combat situation, better armour (i.e. bone vs. anything, leather vs. none) and/or better weapons (Chanter steel vs. anything, flint axe vs. wooden clubs, wooden clubs vs. no weapon) count as advantages. Thus, players will commonly find themselves with a two dice advantage when fighting foes. Additionally during combat bonuses can be counted as injuries to the foe, and penalties as injuries to the characters (see injuries).

Sometimes multiple characters will be fighting one foe, or one foe will be fighting multiple characters. In this case those with the numerical upperhand get an extra dice for each one of them after the first. The single opponent must roll once for each foe and must win all the conflicts in order to put down a single foe. The multiple fighters need only win one of their conflicts to defeat the foe.

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4. Character Creation

Players in Chanter all play Chanters (big surprise!), and thus begin with land holdings, and all the status, trappings and responsibilities that go with that role. Players must assign each of the four attributes a priority starting from 'A' as the best, down to 'D' as the worst. They can choose either to either to assign one A, one B, one C and one D (ABCD) or two Bs and two Cs (BBCC) for a more generalist character.

Mike wants his character to be strong on magic, and deeply involved in the structure of Chanter society but not so capable of looking after himself - he decides that ABCD is the best option and assigns an A to Dawn, a B to Ice, a C to Assault and a D to Island.

Ant wants his character, San Morizas, to be independent and a capable all rounder - he decides that BBCC is his best option and assigns Bs to Island and Ice and Cs to Dawn and Assault.

The four attributes (Island, Ice, Dawn and Assault) are assigned a number of dice based on their priority: 10 dice for A, 8 dice for B, 6 dice for C and down to 4 dice for D. It should be noted that a typical commoner only rolls three or four dice for any action, thus the PCs have a substantial advantage before even considering their probable advantage in terms of equipment

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5. Playing the Game

Ok, so you know about the world. You know the good part of rules. Maybe you even like what you've read. But what now what do you actually do? And how do the rules relate to what you do?

5.1. Conflict Resolution

Chanter uses conflict rather than task resolution for all situations. Thus rather than rolling 'I hit, I do 5 pts of damage, they hit me they do 4 pts of damage, etc.' you roll 'I fight, I win' or 'I fight, I lose so now I try and run away'. After every conflict occurs the GM will announce the resolution, the players can either accept that resolution,  ask for a new and different conflict to change the resolution or, if they won, ask for a different resolution. Let's look at an example:

Ant's character, Sat Morizas, is fighting a bandit. Morizas has an Assault of 7 dice and is armed with a Chanter steel sword but unarmoured as he wasn't expecting a fight. The bandit rolls 5 dice, is wearing leather armour and carrying a flint axe. Morizas advantage in having a superior weapon is cancelled out by his lack of armour relative to the bandit.
Ant rolls three 4s and no extras, while the GM (rolling for the bandit) rolls two 3s and one extra.
Ant wins the fight, but suffers a small wound (from the bandits extra). The GM announces that Morizas has killed the bandit. But Ant objects, he wants only to pin the bandit and not kill him. This is a reasonable resolution to the situation so the GM agrees.

Now let's look at what might have happened if Morizas had lost the fight:

Ant rolls remarkably poorly getting only two 4s and one extra, the GM meanwhile rolls an impressive three 6s and no extras.

The GM announces that Ant has lost the fight, and the bandit has slit his throat. Obviously, Ant doesn't want his character to die, so instead he wants to run away. He asks that his extra mean that the bandit stumble when trying to follow him. The GM agrees, so play moves on to a second conflict - that of Morizas trying to escape - but with the bandit suffering a disadvantage for having stumbled. If Ant wins Morizas escapes, if the bandit wins then Morizas is now in deep trouble. Since the fight conflict has already been determined (and Morizas lost) he cannot now attempt to fight the bandit again, but must choose another course of action (perhaps offering his surrender, or attempting to bribe the bandit).

5.2. The Order of Play

The order in which players take their actions is not usually important in Chanter, however if it should become so then characters with higher Ice can choose whether they go before or after characters of lower Ice. If two characters have equal Ice their players can either choose arbitarily who goes first, or if they really care, they can have an Ice contest to see who gets to decide.

5.3. Injuries and healing

In the course of the violent and dramatic life of a Chanter it is quite likely that they will pick up a few injuries. Injuries are dealt with in an abstracted manner in Chanter. The first injury a Chanter takes has no effect, but each injury after that counts as a 1 dice disadvantage on all actions, thus a Chanter with three injuries is at -2 dice to all actions. When the reduction in dice reduces a Chanters effective Island to one they are no longer able to take any strenuous activity, but can still hobble about and (if their Dawn is still high enough) manage to cast magic. When their effective island is reduced to zero or below they are effectively bed-ridden, and usually rendered temporarily unconscious.

Healing an injury takes a number of weeks equal to the current injuries. Thus healing from four injuries down to three takes four weeks, and healing completely takes another six weeks for a total of ten weeks. Chanters do have healing magics available to them; however, they feel to deal so trivially with pain is cowardly and, thus, tend not to use it unless the need is pressing.</p>

5.4. Adventures, Campaigns and Time

Different adventures in Chanter should have months or even years of game time between them - this allows for a changing political and economic climate through across different adventures and allows players advancement through the power structure of Chanterdom to be measured rather than sudden and metioric. Campaigns are likely, therfore to follow whoel lifetimes for the PCs, and possible the lives of their children after them. Since character advancement is linked to their age, unless you follow this convention the PCs will not get a chance to improve.

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6. Magic

A Chanter's magic ebbs and flows with the passing of the dawn, the day, the dusk and the dark. Their greatest powers are only available in the three hours immediately after the birth of the new sun, their powers remain steady during the day but as the sun fades and dies they begin to dwindle before vanishing with the fall of ashes. Chanters cannot cast any magic during the hours of darkness. The below table shows which power are available when:

Dawn only

Fire
Healing

Dawn and Daytime

Animals
Plants

Dawn, Daytime and Dusk

Mindspeech

6.1. Using Powers

Using magic is simply a matter of willing it so. Some powers (see their descriptions) require an extended period of concentration to achieve results, others are instantaneous - either way there are no magical gestures, words of power or spell ingredients required. Using a power is a Dawn attribute roll against the a number of dice determined depending on the power (see their descriptions), failure is handled specially for powers - failure always results in a temporary loss of one dice from the character's Dawn attribute and a Backlash dependent on the power. The power does not take effect. The player may also choose to take a penalty as a reduction in their Dawn attribute instead of suffering the detrimental effect - but only if they have three or more dice of Dawn left. Characters who have lost points of Dawn recover one each day at the Chant.

Using powers in rapid succession is tiring. Characters who do so increase the difficulty of the later uses by one dice for each time a power is used. A five-minute rest is sufficient to recover and avoid any further penalty.

6.2. The Powers

Animals: Just as the sun guides and creates life, so do the Chanters than bring the sun have a strong link with life. The use of the animal power allows the caster to change the behaviour of animals towards him, to control animals and to talk to animals. These are detailed separately below. The Backlash in all cases is that the animals the caster is trying to effect will view him as a foe, and either flee, attack or threaten as appropriate for the kind of animal. Animals that have had their reaction changed by backlash cannot have it changed back by the caster. The animal's opinion of the caster will return to normal in about a day. All animal powers are affected in difficulty by the kind of animals: reptiles cost an extra dice; insects cost three extra dice; herbivores cost an extra dice; domestic animals cost one less dice and, finally, particularly small or stupid animals cost an extra dice.

The easiest power is simply to change the animals reaction towards him, animals can be considered hostile, neutral or friendly - each step the caster wants to achieve along that line is a two dice cost. Thus to change an animal from hostile to friendly is a two dice difficulty. Additional targets after the first cost an extra dice each.

Next is talking to animals. In the world of All-that-is all animals have languages that they talk to each other in. However they may, or may not, have the words (or thoughts) to express all human concepts. Herd animals tend to be obsessed with the herd, and with the plants they eat, while pack animals thoughts are constantly torn between loyalty to the pack and the desire to overthrow their leader and replace them, etc. Talking to an animal costs a base of 4 dice.

Commanding animals is harder, although the difficulty depends on how natural the action is. To command an animal to do something it might naturally do costs a base of 4 dice, to command an animal to do something that it wouldn't otherwise do but doesn't go against it's nature costs 6 dice and to command an animal to do something that goes against its nature costs 8 dice. What an animal can be commanded to do depends upon its intelligence.

Fire allows the caster to create, control, extinguish and direct fire. Controlling existing fire is easier than creating new fire. The total number of dice depends on: the amount of fire controlled (one dice for each torchworth of fire), the amount of fire created (one dice for a candlefire, or two dice for each torchworth) and what they wish to do to it (to shape fire costs one dice, to project it costs one dice per ten feet) and how many pieces they wish to break it into (one dice for each additional part). Extinguishing fire costs one dice for each two torch's worth of fire. A torchworth of fire if directed onto a living target deals one injury of damage, and will set fire to flammable targets.

Mike wants to project fire from the campfire onto the approaching pack of wolves. He has ten dice of Dawn at his disposal, so he decides to strike the first three wolves with fire, each for a torchworth. Three torch's worth of fire costs three dice, the wolves are 15' feet from the fire, so that's another two, and he needs to hit three targets so that's another two dice for a total of seven.

Playing with fire is dangerous however, as any backlash from using Fire will burn the caster. The caster suffers one injury for every two dice he was attempting to manipulate, to a minimum of one dice.

Healing of the injured is a rather mundane activity and Chanters rarely engage in it, however their powers are well capable of coming in useful. Healing can only be used on a given target once per day whether the healing is successful or not, and whether it is cast by the same Chanter or not. The difficulty of healing is equal to the number of injuries plus another four dice. Successful healing removes one injury from the target. Failure results in the injury worsening (the healing time is doubled). Bonuses and penalties may be ignore on healing rolls.

Mindspeech allows the caster to send mental communications to others. Mindspeech costs one dice for each word to be sent, plus another dice for each hundred feet after the first hundred feet the message is to be sent. The Backlash from Mindspeech is a sudden blinding headache for the caster that prevents them using any further powers for the next half hour. Penalties may result in the words being slightly altered or garbled, while Bonuses can manifest as images or inflection in the message helping to make it clearer.

Plants may seem to be simply a coloured backdrop to the altogether more active and exciting world of people and animals, but in reality they are like a great sponge soaking up an awareness of all that is about them. The Chanter can tap into this sense and use it to know what is around, and what has happened. Tuning in to the plants takes five minutes of quiet concentration. Once tuned in the caster can attempt to gain knowledge from the plants, the easiest is to know what is happening know in an area round the caster - this costs two dice per fifteen feet of radius around the caster. Knowing what has happened in the near past is also possible - this costs an extra dice for each hour back the caster wishes to go. Each 'sense' takes one minute to complete. The backlash on using plant sense is that all the plants being used die. Sensing through plants only works with a good concentration of living plants, and thus cannot be used in urban areas.

Sensing through the plants is not the only use of the Plants power however, Chanters can also shape wood with their minds. This power works equally well on living and dead wood and can be used on targets up to ten feet from the caster. The wood moves slowly as it shapes itself so this is rarely an effective attack. The difficulty of the casting is a base of two dice, plus one extra dice for each litre of wood to be affected, plus another three dice if the wooden object to be affected is being used held and used by someone (or something). There is no Backlash to using woodshape.

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7. Character Advancement

Characters in Chanter follow a predictable progression of improvement, apogee and decline. This progression is based on time in the game world. It is assumed that starting characters have just turned twenty-one, and thus just come into lordship of their first demesne (pronounced, surprisingly more-or-less as domain), when they reach twenty-two they gain a bonus die they can assign to any one attribute. At twenty-three the same happens, and so on until they reach thirty. At thirty, they receive a final bonus attribute die and then, for the next three years, remain level. Starting at thirty-three they lose a die each year. Characters are usually retired at forty-five to fifty. Thus players receive a maximum of nine extra dice (for a total of thirty-seven before declining indefinitely, usually falling below the level of a starting character before retirement). Removed dice cannot be used to lower a stat below 2 dice, and added dice cannot be used to raise a stat above 14 dice.

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8. Example Allies, Creatures and Foes

Non-chanters are generally given scores for three attributes: Island, Ice and Assault - Dawn is not usually relevant for non-Chanters. Even those who use magic typically have their own means of casting quite different from that of the Chanter. Use Ice, instead, for perception rolls. No example monsters are given; for fear that you might use them in your games as 'stock' monsters - each monster in Chanter should be a unique and special butterfly.

Bandits
Birds
Commoners
Militia
Snakes
Soldiers
Torva

Bandits

In any country as open in its lands and uneven in its society as Chanterdom there are malcontents that live by stealing and mugging. Some bandits are ex-soldiers, others are escaped criminals while others simply fell out with society. Bandits are typically poorly equiped compared to Chanters - protected by lizard skin armour, and armed with flint axes or hardened wooden spears.

Typical Bandit

Island: 4
Ice: 5
Assault: 5

Bandit Leader

Island: 5
Ice: 6
Assault: 7</p>

Birds

No, not the pretty, singing kind but the giant, flightless and dangerous kind. Two forms are particularly common: Weltas and Grunters. Weltas are slightly larger and stockier while Grunters are more lightly built and faster runners - able to reach around forty miles an hour. Both have grey, brown and yellow plumage which makes them difficult to spot in the forests in which they hunt. They are usually solitary, although a mother may be accompanied by young chicks.

Welta

Island: 8
Ice: 6
Assault: 7

Grunter

Island: 7
Ice: 7
Assault: 6

Commoners

The common folk will generally run, surrender or beg for mercy rather than fight. If they do fight it is likely that they will only be armed with farming implements, or axes designed for chopping wood.

Male Commoner

Island: 3
Ice: 2
Assault: 3

Female Commoner

Island: 3
Ice: 2
Assault: 2

Woodsman

Island: 7
Ice: 4
Assault: 3

Militia

Most towns and villages will have a few men who have been given basic training with weapons. They are typically unarmoured, but carry wooden shields, and spears or axes.

Island: 3
Ice: 4
Assault: 4

Snake

Snakes are a common threat on the forest floors. Ranging in size from about a foot in length, to maybe twelve or fifteen feet long, all are to avoided for a view are venomous. Anyone bitten by a poisonous snake must make an 8 dice Island roll, or collapse into unconsciousness and be bedridden for several weeks recovering from the venom (Chanter magic cannot heal poisons or diseases).

Small snake (<3 feet)

Island: 7
Ice: 4
Assault: 2

Medium snake (3-6 feet)

Island: 7
Ice: 5
Assault: 3

Large snake (6-10 feet)

Island: 7
Ice: 6
Assault: 4

Giant snake (10-15 feet)

Island: 7
Ice: 8
Assault: 6

Soldiers

Standing armies are relativaly rare and small in Chanterdom, the highly limited availability of metal weapons means that battles tend to centre on conflicts between well armed, and trained, 'heroes' rather than mass melees. Soldiers generally high quality lizard skin armour, or even bone armour, a few have metal blades but steel-tipped spears or steel-headed axes are more common.

Island: 5
Ice: 5
Assault: 6

Torva

Torva are carnivorous pack lizards, about six-feet long, and two to three foot tall. Although generally slow moving, they are capable of sprinting short distances at great speed. Their heads are rounded, with powerful jaws packed with long, sharp teeth and their toes are tipper with powerful, tearing claws. About as intelligent as dogs, Torvas are capable of decent organisation and have been known to ambush travellers. They live in packs of six to ten individuals, led by a single male who can be up to ten feet long and is distinguish by red markings on his head and neck. Solitary males are also occasionally encountered. Torvas mouths are usually festering with bacteria and disease, and so bites from them frequently become infected. Anyone bitten by a Torva must make a 6 dice Island roll or sucumb to infection. The infection will flare up about a day after the bite, and render the victim bed-ridden for up to four weeks - Chanter magic has no effect on poison or disease.

Torva female

Island: 6
Ice: 8
Assault: 5

Torva Male

Island: 5
Ice: 6
Assault: 7

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Appendix: Chef's Notes

This chef began by using the four ingredients as the four attributes. This was his central concept. However, as his game as progressed, two of the four have gained roles in the world outside of the attributes. This chef fears that the comparative difference in strength of concepts between different ingredients will count against him. An obvious solution would be to change the world to be organised as Islands, however this chef feels that to compromise the dish to prioritise the ingredients would be foolhardy.

The chef feels that it is apparent that his dish needs the sauce provided by mechanics for political intrigue among the houses, however the chef feels that preparing and refining such a sauce would take longer than he has and that providing a poorly construed sauce in such an area would be worse than providing no sauce at all.

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[Mark Johnson]

This chef must concede defeat.  He is not worthy of this esteemed competition.  The chef procedes to commit seppuku with his cheese grater.  A most painful death.

Seriously, if I had the time, I would complete my entry.  I have had last minute out of town guests arrive today.  Dawn of the Damned had a few ideas in it that I may mine out for future projects, so it was definitely worthwhile.  As it stands, there are already many far superior entries already posted or being teased.  I look forward to tasting the results.

Humbly,
Mark

[Palaskar]

Well, I just found out about this contest. Here's my entry. The core mechanics are from Signature, so I doubt I'll get many points for that. But hey, how many designers can make a game in a couple of hours?

Iron Chef Fantasy RPG:
Dilmun, the Islands of Dawn: Assault of the Black Ice

Once upon a time, the islands of Dilmun were a paradise. Lying at the uttermost East, they basked in the life-giving light of the Dawn.

Then the Black Ice came. No one knows where they came from. Mysterious, insectoid creatures, they spread unearthly, chilling Black Ice as they assualted the islands of Dilmun. Paradise turned to war as the human inhabitants of Dilmun fought back, rising from their peaceful ways and forming armies.

But it was no use. The armies of Dilmun were decimated by the Black Ice. Green verdure ran red with blood.

You are among the last of those armies. It is up to you and your companions to stop the Black Ice before the green paradise of Dilmun is turned forever into a blackened, icy waste.

Setting

Dilmun is loosely based on Sumerian-Babylonian myth. Records are kept on clay tablets by making triangular marks with a reed stylus. Dilmun is potically divided into city-states (most of which have been overrun by the Black Ice) each with a Trader-King who appeases the patron god of the city.

The gods are as follows:

Sky: The ruler of the gods.
Sun: The god of justice and friend to humanity. He is said to be just because the sun's rays fall on all people equally.
Storm: A vengeful god apt to punish humanity when they annoy him.
The Queen of Heaven: The goddes of beauty and war, she once threatened to break down the gates of the underworld to let the dead overrun the earth. Fickle, she goes from lover to lover.
The Queen of the Underworld: The goddess of death and the underworld. She once imprisoned the Queen of Heaven.
Sea: The god of wisdom, he advises the other gods on what they should do.

I have ommitted the names of the gods, because believers often regard the god and the natural object they represent as one. For example, one does not say "Utu (the name of the sun god) protects humanity," but "The Sun protects humanity."

Dilmun consists of a series of isle at the uttermost East of the known world. The people of Dilmun know little of the outside world, but to the people of that world, the name "Dilmun" is synonymous with "Paradise."

However, much of Dilmun is now frozen in black ice. Outsiders arriving to Dilmun will doubtless be in for a rude shock.

The Warriors of Dilmun

Champions all, some of you are skilled warriors. Others study the way of magic and the gods. Still others are outsiders, coming from the little-known lands to the west; wildmen raised by animals; sorcerors the gods have cursed; and finally trader-kings whose wealth is gone, but who still have the blessings of the gods.

Archetypes Traits

Warriors

Warriors are the physically strongest and toughest among the armies of Dilmun. Though not as strong as one of the Black Ice, warriors more than make up for their relative lack of strength by their skill with swords, axes, and bows and arrows. They are also skilled at wrestling.

Magician-Priest

Magician-Priests can invoke the gods to bless others, making them more skillful at skills they already posses, or curse them with sickness that eventually leads to death if not cured. They can invoke the Sun as well to bind  or hurt their opponents. They are usually not good fighters, however, be it with weapons or unarmed.

Outsiders

Outsiders were a rarity in Dilmun. But with the coming of the Black Ice, they are disproportionally represented among the surviors of the armies. Why? Because they are cunning and resourceful. They battled and traveled their way to the paradise of Dilmun, and are not about to give up their new home without a fight.

Wildmen

Wildmen are as strong as warriors, but lack their weapons skills, though they excellent wrestlers. Instead, they are at home with the animals and plants of the wilderness, able to survive with ease there. They can also track others through the wilderness effortlessly, and with great skill. They can tell how many pass, how fast they were going, wether or not they were carrying a heavy load, and so on. However, wildmen are unused to being around civilized humans, and tend to create a degree of mistrust by unconsciously violating customs.

Sorcerors

Sorcerors are cursed by the gods for attempting to alter the "Me," the rules of the universe. As such, all sorcerors have some sort of obvious identifying mark on them, usually just an uneraseable character on their forehead. Such a mark causes them to be almost universally feared and mistrusted. (The obvious exception are other sorceros.) In exchange, sorcerors have the limited ability to violate the laws of reality -- causing objects to float in the air that normally cannot; expanding campfires into bonfires; walking on water; and so on.

Trader-Kings

Trader-kings once ruled the city-states of Dilmun. Wise and skilled leaders, they negotiate with the outside world for trade goods, and ensured the prosperity of their city-states and people by appeasing the gods. Now the Black Ice have cut off interaction with the outside world, but the trader-kings are still excellent leaders who can bring the favor of the gods on their followers.

The Black Ice

The Black Ice resemble dung beetles standing about four cubits tall. They are covered in a protective hard insect shell that is impervious to ordinary weapons. Magic, and magical weapons, however, will penetrate the shell. They appear to have no leader, but they still act as an organized group.

The Black Ice each have the strength of several men, plus the magical ability to create and manipulate a magical, chilling black ice (hence their name.) The ice can chill a man so badly his flesh becomes blackened and useless, bind him in solid ice, or become a weapon like a knife.

Other Traits Examples

Attributes: Strong, Fast, Tough, Wise, Beautiful, Lucky
Skills: Sword, Axe, Bow and Arrows, Sorcery, Magic, Tracking, Stealth, Survival, Leadership
Disadvantages: Weak, Slow, Foolish, Deaf, Blind, Lame, Cursed by the Gods
Advantages: Well-Connected, Favor
Social Relationships: Friends, Enemies, Love Interest, Rival
Spiritual Attributes: Devotion to the Gods, Destiny

Traits

Each character has a number of Traits. Traits can be anything. They can be attributes, skills, disadvantages, advantages, social relations, spiritual attributes...anything. Note that there are no 'negative' Traits. A creative player can turn a disavantage into advantage. For example, try persuing a character who is deaf!

A special kind of Trait is the Archetype Trait. The Archetype Trait describes your character in a nutshell. Other Traits merely serve to 'flesh out' your character.

Beginning Play

Social Contract

The first thing gamers should do is assign social roles: who's going to host the game, who's going to bring food and drinking, who the GM is.

Next come character generation.

Character Generation

The character's player should pick an Archetype Trait and give it a rating of 4. Then he should pick 3 other Traits and give them a rating of 2.

That's it. You're done.

Resolution Mechanics

First, the player should describe the action being attempted.

The GM then takes the relavant Trait, and modifies it on how difficult the action being attempted is.  A +2 modifier is easy, a +1 is average, a 0 modifier is challenging, a -1 is hard, a -2 extremely hard, and -3 modifier is almost impossible. This is called a Check.

The GM adds to the check a bonus of 1 to 3 points for good player tactics. A bonus of +1 represents good tactics, +2 excellent tactics, and +3 amazing tactics.

If two or more Traits apply to a situation, the GM takes the highest Trait. For example, suppose that the character Lankmu has the Trait: Sword Skill (1), but also the Trait: Destiny - Fated to Kill the Black Ice Leader (3.) In sword combat with the Black Ice leader, Lankmu would not use his Sword Skill Trait, but rather his Destiny Trait.

Characters are assumed to have a minimum level of competence to get by in their daily lives.

The results work like this: a result of 0 is failure, 1 is minor success, 2 is major success, and 3 is complete and total success.

Modifying Resolution

There is a way to modify resolution.

Each character begins with 5 Me points. Me points can add to a Check up to 2 points on a one-for-one basis.
Me points are regained at the rate of 1 every session.

Developing a Character

If a player wants to add a Trait to his character, he must justify it first. For example, if he wishes to gain the Trait Tracking (1), then his character must have spent some time tracking things.

Once the justifying is done, the player makes a check against the GM's perceived difficulty of learning the Trait. The more Traits a character has, the greater the difficulty the GM should assign to the Check. Me points may not be spent on this Check.

[Palaskar]

Well, I seem to have the time to post a bit more on Dawn. Here goes:

Technology

Human technology in Dilmun is Bronze Age. Swords and axes are heavy and prone to blunting. Due to the tropical heat of Dilmun, armor is minimal; however, ordinary people do wear loose skirts or kilts.

Unlike most of the world, Dilmun is rich in trees and wood, which was one of the major trade items.

Assault

Combat in Dilmun consists of three options.

The first is Close the Gap. Here, the combatant cautiously approaches his enemy. Close the Gap has a difficulty of one. Success means a +1 success.

The second is Take the Measure. Here, the combatant engages his enemy, trying to wound him. Take the Measure has a difficulty of two. Success means a +2 success.

The third is Finish It! Here, the combatant tries to kill his oppenent with a single blow. Finish It! has a difficulty of three. Success means a +3 success.

Again, the results work like this: a result of 0 is failure, 1 is minor success, 2 is major success, and 3 is complete and total success.

Remember, although characters may progress from Close the Gap to Take the Measure to Finish It!, there is nothing stopping them from using the options out of order.

Dawn: Magic

Instead of having a fixed spell list, magicians, sorcerors and trader-kings are encouraged to make up their magics "on the fly." The more powerful the effect or the longer it lasts,.the greater the difficulty of the Check to see if the spell works. Also, if the magic isn't covered by the character's archetype, it should -not- be allowed.

For example:

Magician-Priests can invoke the gods to bless others, making them more skillful at skills they already posses, or curse them with sickness that eventually leads to death if not cured. They can invoke the Sun as well to bind or hurt their opponents.

So, Lankmu the Magician-Priest decides to invoke the blessings of the Sun on his companions. He decides on a +1 bonus to each of their Archetypes. Since this is covered by Lankmu's archetype, the GM allows it. Since it affects several people, the GM increases the difficulty from 1 (for the +1 bonus) to 2, and tell's Lankmu's player it will be a difficult spell to accomplish. Accordingly, Lankmu decides on a short duration for the spell. The GM decides there will be no additional penalty for the time, and leaves the difficulty of the spell at 2.

[Palaskar]

That last post should say "Dilmun" not "Dawn."

Sorry about that.

[hanschristianandersen]

The Complete
Snow Day! – or – Fort Joey Must Fall!
A Role Playing Game of Backyard Fantasy by Hans Christian Andersen
Dedicated to Bill Watterson.

- Introduction -

The freak summer blizzard that buried the Hawaiian islands under four feet of snow has passed, and the day has dawned on a sunny, if cool, morning. The palm trees are frozen stiff, every frond laden with icicles. Power's still out, but the weather report on Mom's battery-powered radio says that the weather will turn warm and sunny again by tomorrow morning.

The kids down the block have spent the entire night building a grandiose snow fort in Joey's front yard. They've got two towers, icicle spikes, and a dug-out ice cave stuffed to the gills with pre-made snowballs. Atop it all, they've made a flag by affixing an old t-shirt to a broom handle. Show-offs.

Eric is conscripting an army of faithful snow-musketeers to head up the assault, Jeffrey swears he knows of a secret underground passage under the Gilman family's patio, Johnny and Suzy are sculpting our secret weapon - an honest-to-goodness flying ice dragon - and best of all Alice's mom said she'd make hot cocoa for all of us. The kind with the little marshmallows.

Fort Joey must fall, and it must fall before dawn, or else the summer heat will beat us to it.


- Characters -

Your character is a Kid taking part in the assault on For Joey.  Kids are defined by one stat - their age. Age can be as low as 5, or as high as 15.

All rolls use 20-sided dice; you are encouraged to use a sparkly white d20, because they kind of look like snowballs. There are two types of rolls; Fantasy Checks (roll over your age), and Reality Checks (roll under your age). If you roll exactly your age, then that is a success for regardless of whether it was a Fantasy or Reality Check; plus, you get a Gold Star.

Fantasy Checks are used for: Discovering secret tunnels, Sculpting Ice Monsters to assist you, Figuring out what other peoples' Ice Monsters can do (and how to beat 'em), and Making Up True Stuff.

Reality Checks are used for: Throwing Snowballs, Running Real Fast, Avoiding Parents, Sneaking Out Of The House, and Knowing Lots Of True Stuff.

Because Kids have two hands, they can carry two things at a time, unless those things are really big, in which case it might take two hands to carry.

Every Kid starts play owning a thermos of Cocoa, though they can leave it behind inside or in the Secret Hideout.


- Hot Cocoa and Slush Points -

Kids, Ice Monsters, and Perils alike all have a rating, from 1 to 20; these are Age, Ice Monster Power, and Peril Rating, respectively.  Throwing snowballs at kids, exploiting an Ice Monster’s weakness, and attempting to overcome Perils all cause the target to accumulate Slush Points.  When the target has accumulated as many Slush Points as the value of its rating, then the target has been defeated.  This means that the Kid has been driven from the field, the Ice Monster has been reduced to a puddle, or the Peril has been overcome.  Any additional Slush Points beyond the target’s rating are discarded.

Perils and Ice Monsters never get to remove any Slush Points that they have accumulated, but Kids can remove them from themselves by drinking Hot Cocoa.  Drinking Hot Cocoa, whether freshly made or from a thermos, heals 6 Slush Points.


- Scene Structure -

General Principle: The players have sole-authority over what their Kids do next, from among the options described below.
 
General Principle Number Two: The GM has sole authority over the passage of time, with the caveat that time always moves forwards. The game starts at around 10:00 in the morning, and ends at Dawn, which is 6:00 the following morning. Thus multiple scenes may take fifteen minutes, or a single seemingly brief scene may span the whole afternoon between lunch and dinner.   Snow days are like that.

All scenes start with all the Kids convening at the Secret Base, namely the tool shed behind Jake's house.

From there, everyone needs to decide what to do next. The possible options are:

Hold A Secret War Council
Scout Out Enemy Territory
Make Ice Monsters
Go Inside For Cocoa
Go Lookin' for Trouble
Assault Fort Joey!

All of the kids must reach a consensus on which of the above happens next.

If no consensus can be reached, the matter is settled by stepping outside and holding a Snowball Fight. Once the only Kids left standing all want to go do the same thing, the matter is decided. This is a generalized mechanic - ANY time the rules call for Consensus, but no Consensus can be reached, the matter is settled by a Snowball Fight.

If a Kid wants to be a spoilsport and not attend the scene, the only alternative option is to Go Inside For Cocoa. Pouting is strictly optional, but encouraged.


- Making Ice Monsters -

Describe the Ice Monster you want to make. It can have as many abilities as you want it to, but you can never make the same Ice Monster twice.

Now, you (and any other kids who want to help you) need to go collect an appropriate Part for each ability that you want the Monster to have. For example, if you want to make an Icicle Dragon that can Breathe Fire, Fly, and is Impervious to Snowballs, you might first go swipe Uncle Mel's cigarette liter (for the Fire Breathing), then borrow the wings from your kid sister's old Halloween costume (for the Flying), and then grab a piece of corrugated tin from the workshed (for an armor plate that is Impervious to Snowballs).

Remember that you can only hold two things at a time; one in each hand. If something is particularly big and heavy (like the piece of corrugated tin), then it will occupy both of your hands. So if you have to get a lot of items to make your Ice Monster, you might want to stash them safely in the Secret Base; you can't carry them all at once. Watch out for Joey's Gang, as they might want to steal your unguarded Pieces to make their own Ice Monsters!

If you have an existing Ice Monster that has an ability that lets it Carry something, then it can hold on to a Piece for you, but if it ever melts, it immediately drops whatever it’s carrying.

Also, if you know exactly where to find a Part, you can send any existing Ice Monsters to go fetch it (assuming that the existing Ice Monster can Carry), but remember that Ice Monsters can't go indoors where it's warm; you have to do that yourself. And when you go inside, watch out for Mom & Dad, because they might catch you and make you clean your room or something.

Also remember that anywhere you go outside, you might be spotted by Joey's Gang, so keep a snowball handy at all times. And a snowball occupies one of your hands

Once you've assembled the various pieces, you can spend some time sculpting your Ice Monster. All of your Ice Monsters have Ice Monster Power equal to your Age, and all of the abilities that you were able to scrounge up Pieces for. Newly created Ice Monsters follow you around wherever you go until you tell them to do something else.

Actions performed by Ice Monsters *always* use Fantasy Checks, and never Reality Checks. Ice Monsters don't have Age, so these fantasy checks are made against the Ice Monster's Ice Monster Power instead.


- Snowball Fights -

In a Snowball Fight, everyone says what they and their Ice Monsters are doing, then everyone rolls either a Reality Check or Fantasy Check, and all successful actions take place. When two successful actions are mutually contradictory, Fantasy Checks trump Reality Checks; but otherwise, it goes to the character whose die roll was higher.  In case of a tie, both actions fail. While a Kid can do any action that a kid could reasonably do, an Ice Monster can *ONLY* do one of its abilities.

Throwing a snowball at someone requires a Reality Check. If you're hit, you accumulate 3 Slush Points. If you have as many Slush Points as you have age, your Ice Monsters melt, and you're driven from the field of battle. You can also throw snowballs at an Ice Monster; when an Ice Monster has accumulated more Slush Points than its Ice Monster Power, it melts.

If a Kid has a thermos full of cocoa, he can try to pour it on an unfriendly Ice Monster by making a Fantasy Check.  Success means that the Ice Monster receives 6 Slush Points; failure means that you just wasted your perfectly good cocoa.

When Ice Monsters attack, perhaps by Breathing Fire (for a Fire-Breathing Ice Dragon) or by Chasing Timmy With A Wiffle Bat (for a Big, Mean Frost Troll), the attack is handled through a Fantasy Check against the Ice Monster’s Ice Monster Power, with a success inflicting 3 Slush Points.

Since it takes two hands to form a proper snowball, you have to drop anything you're carrying. It takes a whole turn to scoop up a proper snowball, but if you have a stash of pre-made snowballs you can scoop one up and throw it in the same turn. Similarly, if someone crafts a snowball for you, they can hand it to you and you can launch it that turn.

If you want to spend a whole second turn after crafting a snowball, you can craft either a Slushball or an Ice-packed Snowball. Slushballs are particularly humiliating, and they inflict 5 slush points. Ice-packed snowballs hurt like heck, and if you use one with any adults around, you'll be in Big Trouble… Ice-packed snowballs don't inflict any Slush Points, but any kid hit by one must immediately make a Reality Check; failure means that their Ice Monsters melt immediately!

Finally, a Kid can Cry Uncle to admit defeat and bow out of the fight. No Kid will*ever* throw a snowball at someone who has cried Uncle, but since all actions during a round happen simultaneously, another kid can use that same round to get in a parting shot. If you cry Uncle, you're out for the rest of the Snowball Fight, and you can't join back in. All of your Ice Monsters are out of the fight too, but at least they don't melt. Feel free to cheer on your comrades from the sidelines.


- Neighborhood perils -

The neighborhood is a source of many Perils. There are Wandering Ice Monsters, Mean Dogs, Bottomless Chasms of Snow, and, of course, Parents.

All Perils are defined by their Peril Rating, which is a number from one to twenty. There are two types of Peril, Fantasy Perils and Reality Perils. Given enough determined effort, any Peril can be overcome! When a Peril stands between the Kids and their goal, the kids may attempt to overcome the peril by doing any number of actions that are deemed to be useful in opposing the peril. So, an Ice Chasm might be overcome by scrounging up pieces of plywood to use as a bridge, or a Mean Dog might be overcome by throwing snowballs at it.

A successful actions inflict Slush Points on the Peril; if the type of Check used for the action is the same type as the Peril (e.g. using a Reality Check against a Reality Peril) then the action inflicts three slush points; otherwise, the action inflicts only one slush point.

Friendly Ice Monsters can also perform actions to overcome a Peril. As always, Ice Monsters can only perform actions that they were explicitly created to be able to do, and Ice Monsters always use Fantasy Checks, and never Reality Checks.

An unsuccessful action means that the person acting has been Stymied by Peril, and can make no further rolls against that peril. If every Kid and every friendly Ice Monster has been stymied, then the Peril is too Perilous to be overcome, and the kids must fall back, defeated.


- Holding a Secret War Council -

Because of the Icicle Spikes, any assault on Fort Joey is doomed to failure unless you first Hold a Secret War Council to decide on a Cunning Plan. First things first: The Cunning Plan needs a Cool Code Name, and there needs to be Consensus on the code name before any further planning can happen.

Once a Cool Code Name is established, the assembled Kids must devise their Cunning Plan for getting past the Icicle Spikes. Any plan will do, so long as it is Cunning, and so long as the plan has Consensus.

And did I mention that Cunning Plans are one-use only? Just like you can't make the same Ice Monster twice, you can't use the same Cunning Plan twice. Though you can re-use Cool Code Names, with appropriate modifications: For example, "Operation Slippery Thunder" might get reborn as "Operation Super-Duper Slippery Thunder".


- Scouting Out Enemy Territory -

This involves sneaking over towards Fort Joey, to find out who is defending it, and what sort of Ice Monsters they have. Ice Monsters that can either Sneak or Fly are great for this. As with any excursion from the Secret Base, there's always the risk of encountering either one or more Neighborhood Hazards, or another group of Kids, so keep your snowballs handy.


- Goin’ Lookin' For Trouble -

This involves prowling around the neighborhood until you find some other kids, at which point you pelt those kids with snowballs. Why? Cuz Snowball Fights are fun, that's why.  This is also an excellent way of getting extra Thermoses for Cocoa; find some kids, drive them off, and take their thermoses.


- Going Inside For Cocoa -

Any time a Kid goes inside for Hot Cocoa, he immediately removes six Slush Points.  However, unlike going inside in search of Ice Monster Parts, going inside for Cocoa causes all of your Ice Monsters to melt.  He may also fill up any empty thermoses that he’s carrying.

The first time a kid goes inside for Hot Cocoa, he may fill a thermos full of cocoa and take it with him. At any time - EXCEPT during a Snowball Fight - a kid carrying a full thermos can drink it, removing six Slush Points. Only kids can drink cocoa; Ice Monsters can't. In fact, if you pour Hot Cocoa on an Ice Monster, it inflicts six Slush Points on the monster itself! (In a Snowball Fight situation, this requires a Fantasy Check to succeed; failure means that your just spilled some perfectly good hot cocoa all over the place.)

Any subsequent time that you go inside for Cocoa, you can fill up any empty thermoses that you're carrying.   And on the subject of thermoses:

Carrying a thermos occupies one hand. Because it takes two hands to scoop up a snowball, you have to drop a thermos that you're carrying first! Alternatively, hand it to another Kid, or to an Ice Monster that has the power to Carry Things. Or hold onto it yourself, and have someone else craft snowballs for you.

If you Cry Uncle or are Driven Off in a Snowball Fight in which you have previously dropped a Thermos, then you have to leave the Thermos behind, and hope your side wins the fight! Otherwise, the other side can scavenge the thermos.

If you lose your thermos, you can't get another one automatically; your parents would just scold you for losing it. Picking a snowball fight with another bunch of kids is the most expedient way of getting your hands on a new thermos.

You can safely stash your thermos indoors or in the Secret Base without fear that another kid might steal it, but if you leave it anywhere else, it's fair game.



- Assault Fort Joey! -

Assaulting Fort Joey is a daunting prospect.

The Towers - From the high vantage points of Fort Joey's two towers, a Kid gets to throw snowballs as If they're a year older than they are. Also, because of the high walls, a Kid throwing a snowball at a Kid in a tower throws as if they're a year younger than they are. Ice Monsters are unaffected by the towers.

The Snowball Stash - A single kid running back and forth can keep both towers stocked with snowballs, allowing the throwers in both towers to throw a snowball every single turn.

The Icicle Spikes - Because of the Icicle Spikes around the fort, you can't just rush up and attack the fort. Oh, no. You need a *cunning plan* first.  Without a Cunning Plan prepared beforehand, you can pelt the fort's defenders with snowballs, but you can't actually take the fort… no matter what sorts of Ice Monsters you have on your side.   Mechanically, the Icicle Spikes represent a Peril Rating 15 Fantasy Peril, with the special caveat that you can’t even attempt to overcome it unless you’re acting in accordance with a Cunning Plan.

At any given time, Fort Joey is manned by either Joey (age 15, and a mean shot with a snowball), or by his younger brother Jimmy (age 7, and a know-it-all brat.) Jimmy is almost always accompanied by a sneaky Slush Troll (Ice Monster Power 7, with the abilities Sneak Around, Slushy Claw Attack, Carry Slushball, and Mock Other Kids.). Additionally, 1-3 other kids will be present (ages vary wildly), and each of them has an Ice Monster with two powers. Note that Joey himself doesn't have an Ice Monster, because he's been too busy improving the fort itself to bother sculpting one.

If, with the aid of a suitably Cunning Plan, the characters and their Ice Monsters can drive off all of the fort's defenders, and somehow circumvent the Icicle Spikes, then they have successfully taken Fort Joey! Each Kid on the victorious side gets to do a Victory Dance, or a Victory Song. Plus, they each get a Gold Star! (I still haven't decided what Gold Stars do.) But be careful for reprisal raids, for now that you own the fort, Joey and Jimmy and the other kids will be sure to return just as soon as they've fortified themselves with Hot Cocoa… How long can you hold the fort?


- Bedtime -

Normally, it's completely up to the GM to decide what Perils, if any, are encountered by the Kids. However, there is one Peril in particular that deserves special mention: BEDTIME. Bedtime is 9:00. Any Kid who is outside at Bedtime will encounter Parents (Reality Peril, Peril Rating 15). If the Kids manage to drive off the Parents, their reprieve is only temporary - the Parents will return again, and soon.

If Parents prove too perilous, the Kids are dragged inside and off to bed, and while they're in bed, all their Ice Monsters melt. However, once you're in bed, you lose all of your slush points, and while you're having your bedtime snack, you can refill any thermoses that you're carrying.
Once the kids are in bed, they may try to sneak out of the house. Sneaking out of the house is a Reality Peril, Peril Rating 3, with the special caveat that it must be faced by each Kid alone. If a Kid fails to sneak out of the house, they may try again after an hour. (Remember that the GM has sole authority over the passage of time.)

The Icicle Spikes surrounding Fort Joey are another special hazard (Fantasy Peril, Peril Rating 15). In fact, the Icicle Spikes are *so* perilous that you can't even perform actions to overcome them unless you are operating within the guidelines of a Cunning Plan. (Cunning Plans were discussed in a previous post.)


- Midnight Moonlight Magic! -

Midnight is a strange and magical time, especially on the night of a full moon, like tonight. So far past bedtime, kids are sleepy and Ice Monsters loom larger and more terrifying. For kids who are up all night, the world seems to grow… or perhaps the kids are shrinking?

Either way, it's important to note when the clock chimes each hour past midnite. After 1AM, all Kids and Ice Monsters add 1 to all rolls, which aids Fantasy Checks and hinders Reality Checks. At 2AM, that bonus rises to 2; at 3AM it is 3; and so on until you reach 6AM.


- Dawn -   or   – The Fate of Fort Joey -

Dawn is 6AM. At the dawn of the new day, a warm summer breeze blows in from the coast, and Ice Monsters melt in a matter of moments. Within minutes, Fort Joey will nothing more than a big pile of slush, its proud flag lying in a widening puddle.


And finally…

- Gold Stars -

Several things in Snow Day will earn you Gold Stars.  Gold Stars are shiny and cool. You should be proud of any Gold Stars that you earn. Buy a bunch of self-adhesive gold stars, and prominently place them on your character sheets for all your other role-playing games, to show your fellow players how special you are.

[Shreyas Sampat]

More Schools
Additional Optional Rules for Snow From Korea

There are a few, rare combat schools which, rather than having an unusual take on a standard kamae, actually have secret kamae of their own. Generally, these are schools of the more esoteric, empty-handed martial arts that originated in Okinawa and China; it is slightly less honourable to be a member of one of these schools than one of the classical schools of sword combat. Using a secret School kamae is no different than using a normal kamae, though some School kamae have applicability restrictions. Some sample Schools and their kamae follow:

Eightfold Nest of Serpents School:
The Nest School, founded as a response to the Two Swords One Heart School, teaches that it is often more appropriate to approach a problem twice than tackle it once.
Orochi no kamae: The samurai takes on the aspect of the mythical eight-headed serpent who attacks from every direction. This confrontation is split into two identical confrontations, and each is resolved separately; the samurai recieves a -2 penalty to his Facet each time. Neither samurai may switch his kamae from one confrontation to the next. This kamae specifically breaks the rule that no samurai may be in two successive confrontations of the same type.
Win: Gain a point of the tested Facet.
Lose: Lose a point of the tested Facet.

Scarlet Cauldron School:
The "Akeonabe" School teaches that the best way to defeat one's opponent is to defeat oneself and sublimate the power of this destruction.
Ô-nabe no kamae: The samurai, taking the School's teaching to heart, burns away a piece of himself in the "cauldron" kamae to fuel his action. He recieves a +3 bonus to his Facet for this confrontation.
Win: Transfer two points from the source Facet to the target Facet, lose a point of Snow.
Lose: Lose two points of the tested Facet and one point of any Facet.

[Shreyas Sampat]

This is the final, assembled version of Snow From Korea, for the Chairman's enjoyment and convenience.

Snow From Korea
The summer of Nihon is long, and dry, and hot. Your lady love has asked you to bring her snow from Korea to cool her brow. Can you bring it back before it's too late? Will the dragons of the ocean stop you before you return? Will you survive the armies of Korea and the hengeyokai of your own province's outlands?

The characters in Snow From Korea are samurai men, the devoted lovers of samurai mistresses home in Nihon. They have been sent to Korea (or any of the other barbarian countries of the Sunset Kingdoms) to recover some rare and precious thing, which the samurai call the Snow, from a line in the popular story The Tale of the Heike where one of the court ladies says to her lover, "The summer is hot. Bring me snow from Korea to cool my brow."

It is your job as a player to make sure your samurai comes home with enough Snow to make his mistress happy, and to make sure that he isn't so terribly transformed by the journey that she'll recognize him when he gets there.

One player, the Holy Emperor of Korea, (or referee, for a less grandiose title), has the job of describing the samurais' travels to the players. She (I'll always refer to the HEK as "she" and the other players as "he") decides what they encounter on their way, and serves to narrate those things external to the players' characters. It's her job to make the journeys difficult.

How To Play:
Getting started:
First, decide how long the game will be, in terms of encounters the samurai have along their journeys. I suggest that you play at least ten encounters.

Then, each player (except the HEK) should describe his samurai; he should write a haiku giving some idea of his character. A classical Japanese haiku is an unrhymed poem three lines long; the first and third line are five syllables and the second seven. If you're not Japanese speakers, you may want to write English haiku; don't fret too much about their length. After writing a descriptive haiku, each player should name his samurai, and his samurai's mistress, and decide secretly what the Snow is that his mistress desires.

The next step is to assign numbers to your samurais' Facets. All the players should agree on a number and divide that amount of points among the Facets as they choose, putting at least 1 in each. Each Facet describes a skill that's important in samurai society; there are three, Awaré, Kenjutsu, and Tanka. Awaré is the samurai's sensitivity, his feeling of the sadness of impermanence. It describes any deep emotion evoked by an external object or person. Kenjutsu measures your samurai's steeliness of spirit and his skill with the blade. Tanka measures his spiritual discipline, skill at poetry, and so forth. If you are using the optional Fighting School, Inheritance, and Culture rules, here is when you should refer to them. Record these initial Facet scores.

For keeping track of characters in play, I suggest that you obtain a large pile of change, and use piles of coins to represent Facet and Snow scores. These fluctuate rapidly in play, so it's less complicated than writing numbers down.

Playing:
The HEK goes around in a circle, describing a scene with each player where the samurai leaves his mistress to go on his journey. In this scene, the names of those two characters and the identity of the Snow should be revealed. Once each samurai has been introduced in this way, the players take turns describing the adventures of their samurai, with the help of the HEK.

Order of a turn:

[*]Challenges: Describe and resolve all challenges that have been issued to the samurai, in the order they were issued. The challengers each decide which Facet to challenge with.
[*]Encounter: The HEK chooses a type of encounter for the samurai to face, and it is described and resolved. Just like a challenger, she may choose which Facet the encounter concerns.
[*]Issue a challenge: The samurai may choose to issue a challenge to any other samurai.
[*]Travel onward: The samurai's player describes the next segment of his ongoing travel plan.[/list:u]Finally, once all the encounters are played out, the players take turns playing out a scene with the HEK where the samurai returns to his mistress, with or without the Snow. Once all these have been played, you can determine who has won the game.[/list]Confrontations:
Encounters and challenges are collectively called confrontations. A samurai may never participate in two successive confrontations of the same type. This restricts the options that challenging samurai and the HEK have when opposing a samurai.
An encounter is a place in the samurai's journey where he comes across something unexpected which tests his abilities and affects his disposition. Any encounter has the potential to change the samurai's Facets. In every case, the Facet being tested is the one at risk; it may be increased or decreased by the encounter. In most cases, another Facet may be affected by the encounter as well, its force being transferred into the tested Facet. We call this Facet the "source." There are three types of engagement:

[*]Letter Writing! A good samurai lover will write often and eloquently to his mistress, and sometimes he needs to communicate with other loved ones as well, or simply record his thoughts. He tests his Awaré in doing so, and the satisfaction of writing a good letter brightens his heart but its strain tires his mind and critical faculties; its source Facet is Tanka.
[*]Oni Attack! There are many strange beasts, monsters, and ghosts wandering the countryside, and in all cases these creatures are hungry for manflesh or hot living blood. Oni Attacks test Kenjutsu. When a samurai wins an encounter with an oni, it hones his skill with the katana, but it hardens his heart; the source Facet is Awaré.
[*]Enlightenment! Taoist priests and Buddhist monks wander the wild lands of Nihon and Korea, teaching anyone who will listen with riddles, stories, and tests of martial discipline. Enlightenment improves (and tests) a samurai's Tanka, but it sways his heart toward peace; its source Facet is Kenjutsu.[/list:u]There are three modes of engagement with confrontations, which the Nihonjin call kamae:

[*]Ariake no kamae:In the ariake, or "dawn" kamae, the samurai is suffused with the ki of the world; while he risks little in this mode, being guided by the perfumed hands of fate, he recieves only a minor benefit.
Win: Transfer a point of the source Facet to the tested Facet.
Lose: Lose a point of the tested Facet.
[*]Kagai no kamae: In the kagai, or "assault" kamae, the samurai throws all his resources at a confrontation, laying himself bare to the consequences. He recieves a +2 bonus to the tested Facet when engaging in this kamae.
Win: Transfer two points of the source Facet to the tested Facet. Lose a point of any Facet of the player's choice.
Lose: Lose two points of the tested Facet.
[*]Mujintou no kamae: In the mujintou, or "uninhabited island" kamae, the samurai seals himself off from the rhythms of the universe. He can avoid feeling the negative repercussions of his action, in this way, but it is more difficult for him to act effectively. He recieves a -2 penalty to the tested Facet while engaging in this kamae.
Win: Gain 2 points of the tested Facet.
Lose: Nothing happens.[/list:u]To find the result of an encounter, you need a number of 6-sided dice. The samurai rolls as many as his tested Facet, modified by his kamae, while the HEK rolls as many dice as the Facet, unmodified. Count all 1s and 6s as successes for each side. If the samurai has at least as many successes as the HEK does, then he wins the encounter. Otherwise, he loses.

Challenges:
If a samurai has been challenged, that means that he meets one of the other samurai along his journey, and the two engage in a contest of skills. This occurs on the defender's turn, before he has any encounters. The challenger chooses a Facet to test; the source Facet is the same as when an encounter tests that Facet. Then each samurai chooses a mode of engagement and the dice are rolled as usual; the challenger wins if he has at least as many successes as the defender.

Example of a challenge:
Toyotomi Chihiro challenges Izumo no Ennosuke to a meditation contest. Each man will stand motionless on one foot, under the Joong Kyung waterfall. The man standing longest will be the winner. This is a challenge of Tanka.

Chihiro has a Tanka of 4; he is not confident in his spiritual prowess, so he chooses kagai no kamae to get a +2 bonus to his Facet. Ennosuke, having spent some time as a monk in his youth, has a Tanka of 9, and so he chooses mujintou no kamae; he does not want to strain himself unduly. This means he is less invested in his task, so he takes a -2 penalty to his Facet. Chihiro will roll 6 dice, Ennosuke 7.
Chihiro rolls 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, so he has two successes.
Ennosuke rolls 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, so he has 3 successes.
Ennosuke beats Chihiro handily; Chihiro loses two points from his already-low Tanka, making it 2, while Ennosuke adds a point; his Tanka becomes 10.

Finding the Snow:
After an encounter where a player rolls the maximum possible successes, he finds a cue that leads him to the Snow. During his next turn, instead of describing an encounter or challenge, he and the HEK should describe together the scene where the samurai obtains the Snow. The Snow when he finds it has as many points as his highest-rated Facet. Whenever a samurai would lose points of a Facet, the player may decide that the Snow is somehow diminished instead and transfer the whole point loss to the Snow.

Returning Home:
Once all the samurai have met all their encounters, find the total difference between their initial and current Facets and subtract this number from the score of their Snow. The higher this number is, the warmer the reception that they recieve upon arrival; the samurai with the highest score wins the game.

Optional Rules

Fighting Schools:
Obviously, not everyone in Nihon fights the same way. This is represented through the use of Fighting Schools. Each School has an unusual take on the kamae, a special method with a strength and a weakness. These apply to all types of encounters and challenges, not only those of Kenjutsu; each school teaches a philosophy harmonious with its battle techniques. When creating your samurai, choose one School. To use a School ability, roll a die. On a one or two, the Low effect takes place. On a five or six, the High effect does.

There are a few, rare combat schools which, rather than having an unusual take on a standard kamae, actually have secret kamae of their own. Generally, these are schools of the more esoteric, empty-handed martial arts that originated in Okinawa and China; it is slightly less honourable to be a member of one of these schools than one of the classical schools of sword combat. Using a secret School kamae is no different than using a normal kamae, though some School kamae have applicability restrictions.

Some sample Schools and their abilities follow:

Mirror and Tree School:
The practicioners of the Mirror and Tree School have trained themselves to respond to every situation in the same way, reflecting or standing still as the necessity demands. Any kamae, usable only in Challenges.
Low: Your Facet is set equal to your opponent's.
High: Your opponent's Facet is set equal to yours.

Two Swords One Heart School:
The Niten Isshin Ryu teaches that one can approach a problem from two angles at once. Unfortunately this can divide one's attention. Kagai or Ariake no kamae.
Low: Roll your Facet twice and take the lower number of successes.
High: Roll your Facet twice and take the higher number of successes.

Ocean Flower School:
The Ocean Flower School teaches that strength, like the moon and tide, waxes and wanes. Ariake no kamae.
Low: You do not count sixes as successes, but roll three extra dice.
High: You count threes as successes, but roll three fewer dice.

Eightfold Nest of Serpents School:
The Nest School, founded as a response to the Two Swords One Heart School, teaches that it is often more appropriate to approach a problem twice than tackle it once.
Orochi no kamae: The samurai takes on the aspect of the mythical eight-headed serpent who attacks from every direction. This confrontation is split into two identical confrontations, and each is resolved separately; the samurai recieves a -2 penalty to his Facet each time. Neither samurai may switch his kamae from one confrontation to the next. This kamae specifically breaks the rule that no samurai may be in two successive confrontations of the same type.
Win: Gain a point of the tested Facet.
Lose: Lose a point of the tested Facet.

Scarlet Cauldron School:
The "Akeonabe" School teaches that the best way to defeat one's opponent is to defeat oneself and sublimate the power of this destruction.
Ô-nabe no kamae: The samurai, taking the School's teaching to heart, burns away a piece of himself in the "cauldron" kamae to fuel his action. He recieves a +3 bonus to his Facet for this confrontation.
Win: Transfer two points from the source Facet to the target Facet, lose a point of Snow.
Lose: Lose two points of the tested Facet and one point of any Facet.

Culture and Inheritance:
Just like one's knowledge of poetry and strategy can come from many places, one's upbringing can affect one's skills as well. When creating your samurai, you may exchange one point of Facet for a Culture trait or an Inheritance trait. No Facet may be affected by more than one of each type of trait. Every possible Culture and three example Inheritances follow.

Inheritance:

[*]Dayforged Yari: You have a magical weapon - most often a spear - made with a little piece of the Sun herself. This weapon's radiance beats in time with your heart. Anytime you would raise your Kenjutsu, you may redirect the raise to Snow or Awaré instead.
[*]Lotus Sutra Armour: You can calm the hearts of beasts and men with a gesture and the words, "Buddha bless you." When challenged, you may flip a coin, and if it lands heads, you may change the challenge to one of Tanka. When an encounter would raise your Tanka, you may redirect the raise to Snow instead.
[*]Wind-Carried Sakura Heart: You have a deep, intuitive understanding of the beauty of falling blossoms and melting snow. You can reroll your School die once whenever testing your Awaré. When an encounter would raise your Awaré, you may redirect the raise to Snow instead.[/list:u]Culture: Any Culture Trait adds 1 to one Trait for encounters and to a different Trait for challenges.

[*]Earth and Sky Warrior: The kami of your home province have given you a deep respect for nature and its fragility. +1 challenge Awaré, +1 encounter Kenjutsu.
[*]Bureaucratic Prodigy: You were a star at your provincial college, and your family is at least slightly upset that you are gallivanting in the wilds instead of finding a proper job as a clerk or courtier. +1 challenge Awaré, +1 encounter Tanka.
[*]Ancestral Daishô: You carry an ancient weapon, which buoys your heart with honour and is legendarily sharp. +1 challenge Kenjutsu, +1 encounter Awaré.
[*]Iaijutsu Enthusiast: You have studied the methods of ceremonial duelling. +1 challenge Kenjutsu, +1 encounter Tanka.
[*]Buson's Haiku School: You know fashionable literature and are well-versed in the spontaneous composition of poetry. +1 challenge Tanka, +1 encounter Awaré.
[*]Temple Guardian Training: You have spent time as a sohei, one of the legendary holy berserker-monks of Buddhist temples. +1 challenge Tanka, +1 encounter Kenjutsu.[/list:u]Mahoutsukai: Recurring Antagonists

There are people in the world who dabble in the dark magic of blood, mahoutsukai. Not honourable samurai, of course! But the mad scholars of Qin, the man-eating savages of the southern islands, even the otherwise reasonable aristocrats of Korea have their own inauspicious powers. These rules allow the HEK to create and play recurring characters, in a deeper and more complex way than by simply describing successive encounters as having the same people in them. The HEK may create a mahoutsukai at the beginning of the game, at the same time as the players are creating samurai. This character is her Big Gun; he can be brought out when she feels the need to give a samurai a particularly hard time.

Creating the Mahoutsukai:
Creating the mahoutsukai is very similar to creating a samurai. First; the HEK should write a descriptive haiku for the sorceror, and then name him. She should secretly decide a nefarious plan that the mahoutsukai intends to implement. The next step is to assign numbers to his Facets. The HEK has as many points as the players to distribute, and obeys the same rules, with one exception: a mahoutsukai may have 0 in one Facet, but not two. As with samurai, mahoutsukai may also have School, Culture, and Inheritance, if you are using those optional rules. Record these initial Facet scores.

A mahoutsukai's Facets mean something slightly different than those of samurai, since he is twisted by darkness. His Awaré is his sensitivity to the fragility of things, and his fondness of breaking them. It is not empathy and consciousness of beauty. Similarly, his Kenjutsu is not his knowledge of the arts of combat; it is his bloodthirstiness and knowledge of inflicting injury. His Tanka represents his twisted, demonic lore. Finally, his Snow score represents his reserves of unholy energy. If you are using the optional Inheritance rules, the mahoutsukai does not benefit from the "finding the Snow" rule; he must redirect Facet gains to his Snow in order to empower himself.

Using the Mahoutsukai:
In the place of a normal encounter, the HEK may have the mahoutsukai challenge a samurai. The challenge is resolved according to the normal Challenge rules. The mahoutsukai, just like the samurai, cannot participate in two successive confrontations of the same type. In addition, the HEK may only use him once per turn cycle per three samurai, rounding up. (So she may use him once per turn cycle with three samurai, or twice per turn cycle if there are four.)

The first time the mahoutsukai appears, the HEK should reveal his nefarious plan to the players as part of the scene.

At the end of the game:
The mahoutsukai's points are scored at the end of the game in the same method as those of the samurai. If he ends the game with the highest score, then he has achieved his nefarious plan. The HEK should narrate a short scene where he gloats. Nonetheless, this cannot prevent the samurai from returning home safely, nor does it prevent the samurai with the highest score from winning the game.

[Shreyas Sampat]

A Snow From Korea character sheet is available here (copy-paste the link into your browser or Geocities will deny you your pleasures.)

Now that I'm done with my game, I have time to gush over all the others...which look simply stunning. Thanks, guys. You all rule.

[Palaskar]

Spoilers (GM's eyes only!)

The Origin and Nature of the Black Ice

The Black Ice come from another world, a world without a sun -- originally. They were dying in their own world as the Sun, entering from the world of Dilmun, unwittingly caused their icy ecology to thaw and slowly die in the heat.

But now they have found the world the Sun came from -- the world of Dilmun. And no prize in that world is so beloved by the Sun as Dilmun itself. Here, magic began with the Dawn, where the Sun ordained the first magician-priest. And here, the Black Ice will begin their war both of survival and revenge against the Sun.

Given these motives, the Black Ice are particularly aggressive towards magician-priests of the Sun, and more inclined to negotiate with Sorcerors than expected (i.e., some, as opposed to not at all.) They may also try to contact magician-priests of the Storm, in hopes of acquiring a godly ally against the Sun.

Black Ice Magic

The magic of the Black Ice lies in living, insectoid items.. Such items can have poison stingers, shoot webbing, suffuse the its owner with limited doses of strange drugs,  or  have claws or mandibles as weapons.

However, such items require extreme cold to work. Thus, they will rarely be encounter in Dilmun; only areas the Black Ice have occupied from the first time they appeared on Dilmun are cold enough to support these items.

Worldwalk

What neither the Black Ice or the people of Dilmun know is that they are both pawns of the gods, who are in turn both pawns of the Principles. As the gods travel from world to world, spreading their messages, acquiring allies and enemies, these gods in turn serve the purposes of the Principles, abstract conceptions of primal powers like Fire and Ice, who are the true sources of the gods' powers.

While the gods may play their own games, they are always aware, that, like mortals, their place is always uncertain. The many worlds lie like islands separated by roiling, primal energy, each a piece to won or lost. If the Black Ice win the world of Dilmun, the power of the Sun -- throughout the many worlds in which he is worshiped -- would start to wane from its current high point. If the Sun wins the world of the Black Ice, his power would continue to wax.

At the furthermost East and West of the world of Dilmun lies the dual mountain of Mashu. It is the same mountian that rises in both east and west, for it bends space itself and is the portal through which other worlds -- worlds like that of the Black Ice -- may be accessed from the world of Dilmun.

Such beings that travel the worlds are called Worldwalkers. They bring with them their magic and their gods, threat to some, friend to others. The Black Ice are only a taste of what may await the people of Dilmun, should the mountain of Mashu be opened.

Typically, Worldwalkers' magic does not work in new worlds (like the Black Ice) since it relies on the workings of a different world. For example, should a magician-priest of the Sun journey to the world of the Black Ice, he would find his powers greatly diminished, for the Sun has only recently entered that world. A sorceror in the world of the Black Ice would find no gods to limit his powers...but his powers would work differently, as the world of the Black Ice is strong with the Principle of Ice, and weaker with the Principle of Fire.

Known Principles include Fire, Ice, Air, Earth and Wood. Fire incorporates light and heat. Ice incorporates darkness and cold. Air incorporates wind, movement and change. Earth incorporates solidity, law, and strength. Wood incorporates all plant and animal life.

[ethan_greer]

The muse is fickle. I must bow out.

[JamesSterrett]

I might have too, but Cor wouldn't let me.  It's helpful, in some ways, when your muse has steel-toed boots.  :)

As several have noted, the quality of the competiion is a bit daunting.

[Lxndr]

A quickie that's still rough around the edges, and very sloppy, but still entered.  My third entry.  Ha!  I hope to find time to clean it up somewhat before tomorrow, but if not, please still consider my humble entry.

---------------------
Dawnstorm

   Imagine time as a river covered in ice, a rampaging current pushing everything from past to future, with no way out.  Now pretend that something had poked through the icy cover - something strong enough to crack the ice of time.  In certain times and certain places, there are holes in the ice - small islands where things don't work like they should, where the world itself seems not-quite-normal.  

   For centuries they've been considered mere curiosities and nuisances - places where magic is dead, and even the power of the gods won't tread.  Whole maths have been created by wizards to predict where these islands will arrive next, so they won't be taken unawares.  Scholars have debated their origins, and their meanings.  The gods themselves aren't talking - out of fear, or maybe just embarassment.  But that's all changed.

   A thousand years from now, the Magus Albraxas will use his talent to conquer the world.  He will teach himself how to use these as stepping stones to carry himself onto the ice, and skitter across to another hole in time, another island.  Moving from time to time, place to place, Albraxas has gathered thousands of soldiers with this same talent - his actions ensuring they would never be around to affect history.

   But some of those with the talent slipped through Albraxas's fingers, helped by the gods, escaping once they saw the sort of tyranny he possessed.  And they gathered their own soldiers across the ice - the ones Albraxas missed, the ones he never thought to look for.  The storm has been brewing for millennia - but the war will finally be waged in the largest island on the icy sheet of time - the dawn of the world.

-

   The war isn't coming - the war has started.  Your characters are the guerillas, the rebels fighting against Albraxas and his soldiers.  The island at the dawn of the world is the largest known dead zone - so this will be an old fashioned war, without the support wizards can provide, or the benefits of the charms, talismans, and enchanted swords that are the lifeblood of any experienced soldier.  It is also the most isolated island - if you fall on the field of battle, or if you forget to ice out in time, it'll be half a lifetime before you'll be able to walk on the ice again.

   And if you think a normal battlefield is chaotic, imagine a battlefield where people can traverse the length of the battle in an instant, both in space and in time - where the combatants can start at the end, go to the beginning, and end in the middle.

   The Battle of the Beginning is divided into a number of discrete phases, each of equal length, numbered from 1, at the beginning, to 100 at the end.  This length can be changed for shorter or longer games, but the assumed default is 100 phases - the alleged game record sheets are all built for 100 phases.  Each player can have their character visit each phase only once - when that phase is visited, mark off the appropriate number on your character sheet.

   Phases, in turn, are divided into junctures - points in the battle that are potentially crucial to the outcome.  The number of junctures varies by character - faster characters have more instances in which they can act, but generally have less of an impact on each instance.

   The first time a phase is visited by a player character, it is given a 'tidal' value, measuring how strong the tide of battle is - or more specifically, the strength of Albraxas in that phase.  Each action a player takes, then, can help turn the tide.  But the followers of Albraxas don't sit idly by - they resist any action taken by the rebels.  And whenever the tide is altered, it affects the tide of any later phase that's already been visited.

-
   One player takes on the role of Albraxas.  All the other players must create a character, one of the rebels fighting against the Mad Magus.

   These characters have three attributes - Backbone, Battle and Blitz.  Backbone indicates how well they can burden the attacks of the soldiers of Albraxas and recover; Battle determines the effectiveness of their offensive maneuvers; and Blitz tells us how quickly the character can act and react.  Players have 13 points to distribute between these 3 attributes.

   The most important part of any character, though, is their Dynamism.  Dynamism is the product of Battle and Backbone, and is spent to perform actions in each juncture of a phase.  After each phase, or whenever the character spends a juncture recovering, the character gets a number of points back equal to his Backbone, up to his maximum.  Without Dynamism, a character can perform only the most trivial of actions.

   The available actions, listed in order of Dynamism cost, are:

   * Recover - this is a free action, and restores a number of Dynamism points equal to the character's Backbone, though never over their starting value.  A player may also choose to sit out an entire PHASE - this heals one point of Backbone, and fills the Dynamism pool entirely.
   * Battle - this costs one Dynamism, and pits the character's Battle vs. the Tide.  If the Battle wins, Tide is reduced by one; if the Tide wins, it goes up by one; on a tie, nothing changes.
   * Backbone - this costs one Dynamism, and pits the Backbone vs. the Tide.  If the Backbone wins, Tide is reduced by one; if the Tide wins, the Backbone score of the character is reduced by one; on a tie, nothing changes.
   * Blitz - this also costs one Dynamism.  Roll Battle vs the Tide - if Battle wins, the Tide is reduced by the # of successes rolled; if the Tide wins, it is increased by the # of successes it rolled; on a tie, Backbone is reduced by one
   * Bonus - Dynamism points can be spent on a 1:1 basis to give bonus dice to any roll the player makes.  This must be done before the roll.

If a character allows his Backbone to be reduced to zero,

   * Travel - this may only be done between phases, before the free Dynamism recovery.  The cost is equal to the square root of the difference between the phase's numbers - always use the # of the phase you were just in, not the phase you left, and always round up.
   * Clone - a character may Clone, using time travel to create multiple instances of themselves in a Phase.  This costs 10 Dynamism per Clone, and Dynamism must also be spent separately for each instance.  Characters may not Recover in the same Phase that they Clone - if they do, all Clones immediately disappear.  A character can also use Clone to revisit a Phase they visited in a previous turn.

   This is a dice pool game, using dice of any kind, as long as they're all the same shape.  As in Sorcerer, the rolls are always opposed - the roll with the highest die winning, and the number of successes equal to the number of dice the winner has that are higher than the highest die of the loser.  The difference here is that, if the highest dice are equal, you don't look for the second highest - instead, the contest is considered a tie.  The smaller the dice you roll, the more likely a tie will be.

   The player taking on the role of Albraxas always rolls for the Tide.  He only has a Dynamism score - starting off with 11 for each player at the table, and each turn recovering a number of points equal to the Tide in Phase 100.  He has no maximum, and can spend these points on a 1:1 basis to give bonus dice to his Tide rolls.
-

   When the game starts, the Battle of the Beginning is already going the way Albraxas likes it.  The starting Tide in each Phase is equal to its tens digit, plus one.  Players may choose to start their characters in any Phase.  Whenever Tide changes in a Phase, that change propagates to all later Phases.  Remember, a player may never enter a phase twice.

   Dawnstorm happens in simultaneous turns.  All the players other than Albraxas declare and write down what they're doing for each of their junctures, and how much Dynamism they're spending.  Once that's declared and set in stone, everything is resolved simultaneously - with Albraxas getting to spend bonus dice to increase his rolls after seeing the player's declarations.  The Mad Magus is rather a bastard that way.

   The goal is for the players to get the Tide in Phase 100 to drop to 0 before they run out of Phases they can visit.  If they do, then Albraxas is defeated.  If not, he reigns forevermore.

[Darcy Burgess]

Chairman-san.  This unworthy Chef supplicates himself before your form, grown chubby on so many tasty dishes.

I apologize in advance for my less than satisfactory Code-Fu.  Text in "quote" boxes is flavourtext, not an actual quotation.  I couldn't find a way to make the "Quote:" disappear.

May I present "May this Icy-Dawn Infused Island Monkey no longer darken my doorstep with Gamist Goodness sauce."

Or,

ISOL
Can you reach the child within?

Children are natural mythologists: they beg to be told tales, and love not only to invent but to
enact falsehoods.
- George Santayana, Dialogues in Limbo

Children begin by loving their parents.  After a time they judge them.  Rarely, if ever, do they
forgive them.
- Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

Gentle Reader, a moment of your time?
ISOL is many things - a game, a creative framework, an introspective exercise.  When I set out to write ISOL, my goals were simple – to put together a little storytelling game that I could play with my group with as little prep work as possible.  We’re a lazy bunch, continually trying to dodge the extra work of being a GM, so that had to go, too.  Finally, I wanted to keep everyone involved in the game as much as possible.

This has been a fun ride.  Hopefully, ISOL will make you smile, or cry, or at least roll a lot of dice!  Have fun, and immerse yourself in childish flights of fancy!

A Rude Awakening

SHE awoke to a strange grinding noise.  Befuddled by the bright pink sunlight that dappled the rocky beach, she searched for the sound’s source.  Her sleep-stained eyes failed her, and her heart nearly bounced off her brain when the jack-in-the-box leapt up at her.

“Wakey, wakey sleepy head!
You’ve been bad, the children said.
You’d better run!  You’d better hide!
‘Fore dawn beats back night’s dark tide!”

Stumbling backwards, reeling from the tiny clockwork’s accusatory glare, she slipped on something (sticky?)  Tumbling down, down, down, she fell – until she landed in a huge fluffy mound of cotton candy strands that clutched and tickled her.

“This is disgusting!  Do you know how long it’s going to take to get this shirt clean now?”

She was so angry that she didn’t see the Sugar-Plum Spider sneaking up from behind...

You’re an adult.  You might be a grouchy old coot, or a workaholic mom.  Whoever you are, you’ve committed a crime against the children – now before you freak out, it’s not that kind of crime.  It’s more than likely that you’ve done something that every adult does at one time or another – you lost your temper, you didn’t buy your daughter that toy she really wants, or maybe it’s something as simple as you were tired after work and didn’t want to play.  Whatever it is, it was a huge deal to a child, and now, it’s payback time.  You find yourself trapped in a dreamworld where the children are the masters, and you have to escape.  The only way out is to thaw your frozen heart and appreciate the world as a child would.

In ISOL, each player takes on the persona of an adult trapped in the Eidolon (the children’s dream).  Through cooperative as well as competitive storytelling, your group will weave fantastic tales of the challenges faced, the monsters bested, and the traps avoided.  While playing the game, always try to remember that the Eidolon is a childish place – this is where the children fantasize and dream!  In ISOL, you cooperate to tell exciting stories, but you also compete against each other to escape the Eidolon – only one adult will make it out.  Will it be you?