[Charnel Gods] The Irthan Epoch

[Bret Gillan]

I've moved to a new city, into a new apartment, paid for with money from my new job. College is over, and I feel like I'm stepping into life as a grown-up. So running my first roleplaying game campaign in my new place has a ceremonial, inaugural feel to it. While I don't want to crush it under the weight of expectations, I would like to be able to sit back at the end of it and say, "That was a good game."

My last Sorcerer campaign based on the Flesh Market one-sheet I wrote up a while back was mediocre. While the players had a good time it lacked the sizzle of previous campaigns I've run. I think the big problem was that put the screws to the PCs enough, and instead of pressuring them and hammering them left them to jerk around.

So for this game I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row, and have fired my ideas out there for feedback.  I want to run a good game.

The real people:

Me - I've lately been enamored with shared GM-power games such as Capes and Polaris, and this might have been the reason my last game was mediocre. GMing Sorcerer requires some thought and preparation that I'm not used to as a seat-of-the-pants GM.

Bob - My co-worker and flatmate, Bob enjoys narratavist games, though he wants someting different out of them than what I do. I haven't quite put my finger on what that is yet. Oh, and he posts here as ubergeek2012 and has played in one Sorcerer game I ran, and has run a two games of his own (Dictionary of Mu and his own Heartless Void setting).

Jeff - Jeff is another co-worker and was a friend of ours all through college. Jeff is hard for me to pin down in terms of what he wants out of a game, but he's a big fan of Legend of the Five Rings and the old D6 Star Wars. I don't think he's ever been in a game I've run, but I'm pretty confident he'll do fine. Jeff was the one who chose Charnel Gods as the game/setting because Bob and I could play any of the stack of books I own, and it was important that Jeff, unfamiliar with a lot of the games Bob and I are interested in, buy into the game.

The epoch:

Jeff was fired up about the idea of a post peak oil setting, on the backslide. We hammered up a game on a large isthmus. To the south is Irth, a nation that sits on a pool of oil and can still fuel a lot of "modern" technology - jeeps and tanks, industrial machinery. Led by a military dictatorship, they use this power to exert control over a large area.

On the fringes of the Irthan nation are villages that live hard lives. Ignored by the Irthan government and scorned by the Ocla tribes, they try to scrape by while suffering raids from bandits that roam the Fringe, and harsh taxes levied by the Irthan government.

The Ocla live in the jungles to the north. They were a third world nation when peak oil struck, and lost very little in their slide back into traditional tribal societies. The different tribes feud with one another somewhat, but their primary source of conflict is with the Irthans, who attempt to taxt them of the food they grow and gather. They reject Irthan sovereignty, which occasionally has violent aftermaths.

In order to give it a pulp fantasy feel, which I wanted to maintain in spite of it being a near-future kind of setting, we added some carnivorous jungle plants, and a substance called ambrosia that has medicinal, life-preserving qualities that grow in the jungle. We also added "bearadillos" which are, well, bear-sized armadillos that wander the Fringe.

The sorcerers:

Bob's character, Guerro was born to one of the fringe towns, scorned by the Ocla and ignored by the Irthan elite. A raider by trade, intuition and dumb luck brought him to Xixtan, a massive red gauntlet that gives him the power to tear a man's arm off. Guerro roams the Fringe with a band of raiders, taking what they want by force and living by violence. The price he paid for sorcery is Brutality, giving him a negative modifier to Humanity rolls.

Jeff's character, Iuuma is a shaman of one of the Ocla tribes. His study of his people's stories and legends led him to the subterranean tunnels of a crumbling temple built to the Spirit-God of Thunder and Lightning. Deep within the earth he found a staff with a winged snake carved into the head - the glyphs carved into the wall name it Juiqix, the Master of Storms. Iuuma looks after his tribe and tries to guide them towards the old ways, rejecting the technology that has brought the world so low. The price he paid for Juiqix is a crippling Conscience, giving him a negative modifier to rolls that would harm people.

The demons:

Xixtan is an enormous, reddish gauntlet that covers its wielders entire arm up to the shoulder. Need: To caress a living thing. Desire: Carnage.

Juiqix is a staff with a snake carved into the head that occasionally seems to move. Need: To be fed a small mammal. Desire: Power

The kickers:

Guerro returns to the bandit camp after binding Xixtan to find smoke and fire, corpses, and tire tracks heading to the south. His 14-year-old sister, as well as a number of others, are among the missing.

Iuuma's brother comes to the village with a truck full of food and some old, salvageable technology, despite Iuuma's forbidding such things. And he knows where he can find more.

The Kickers were a little weak at first. Bob's had a "you killed everything I care about, now I'm out for REVENGE" feel to it which is always a bit limp, but then we added that some were captured including a sister. Jeff's still feels a bit weak, but Jeff has already communicated that his character will try and destroy the truck, the food, and the source of both, so I'm going to spike it with some active resistance on the part of his brother, as well as a political rival in the tribe that will try to use the situation to his advantage.

So, now that's all out there:

What do you guys think about the Epoch? We're obviously juiced but do you think there's anything it's lacking? Anything that might cause a problem in terms of Sorcerer/Charnel Gods?

How do the Kickers feel? I'm willing to run with them, but I think they might be weak. Any suggestions or comments?

Bangs! I always love to hear other people's ideas for Bangs. I haven't even written up a bandolier yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll be hard to come up with Bangs for Bob's character. Jeff's will be a little easier as there's dissent in the tribe, political maneuvering, and rival tribes getting involved, but I'd still like to hear if you guys have any suggestions.

And of course, if you have any overall comments/suggestions/warnings/questions those would be welcomed as well.

[Valamir]

So Guerro's a bandit chieftain right...bandits steal stuff right...like maybe food and some old salvageable technology...that maybe they kept in a truck...which is now missing...because its currently in Iummo's village...where Iummo's brother brought it.

Imagine the bang when Iummo discovers a bunch of prisoners held in his brother's lodge...

I'm thinking maybe dear brother has his own power base and followers and is out to make a name for himself.  Now he has some exotic food and cool new gear and enough clout to tell big brother to go fly a kite.  And into the mix as brother and brother start tearing the village apart comes Guerro...wanting his sister back...

Heck maybe the sister isn't a prisoner at all...maybe she went with the brother willingly...


Lots of possibilities there.

[Judd]

Heck maybe the sister isn't a prisoner at all...maybe she went with the brother willingly...

I love that.  That really rocks.

The game looks set and the kickers look solid to me, Bret.

Let me ponder a bit on some ideas for bangs.  What kind of bangs are you thinking about? 

[Bret Gillan]

Yeah, the idea of the sister having gone with whoever captured her willingly is totally hot.

I can't tie the Kickers together as directly as Ralph suggests though. I should have said specifically that the tracks headed to the South (implying that they were vehicles of the Irth, rather than tribal people who live to the North). I suppose I should hammer out a relationship map tying the Kickers together, right?

In terms of what I'm looking for as Bangs - Bangs that light a fire under the PCs asses and really make them sweat, and hammer their Humanity.

Guerro
- This one's hard, since he seems to have a straightforward "track down bad guys, get vengeance" plot established. The sister having gone willingly (perhaps even having betrayed the bandits) adds a twist, but I don't want to just throw "random encounters" at him.

Iuuma
- The brother acts with what he feels is the best interests of the village in mind, and expresses his intention to continue going to his source and bringing back food and medicine for the village for as long as he's able.
- Village elder attempts to turn the village on the shaman, and maybe murder him.
- Village food stores become in some way inedible. Perhaps the elder could have done this to turn the tide against Iuuma even more.
- A nearby village is destroyed by the Irthans, bringing refugees to Iuuma's village, but there's not enough food to go around.

Just some ideas.

[Valamir]

Yeah, the idea of the sister having gone with whoever captured her willingly is totally hot.

I can't tie the Kickers together as directly as Ralph suggests though. I should have said specifically that the tracks headed to the South (implying that they were vehicles of the Irth, rather than tribal people who live to the North). I suppose I should hammer out a relationship map tying the Kickers together, right?

Not that you HAVE to tie them together at all (often its best not to) but just to demonstrate how easy as pie it is should you want to here's some 30 second ideas.

1) of course the tracks went south into Irth, tribal people know all about misleading pursuit by planting false trails and doubling back.

2) of course the tracks went south into Irth, where else would Iummo's brother and his cronies have gotten the weapons to take on a bandit camp...and learn to drive.  Iummos got his demon staff...his brother's got contacts with the Irth (shades of Orlanthi and Lunars).

3) of course the tracks went south into Irth.  It was after all the Irthans who destroyed the bandit camp...and then themselves were taken out by Iummo's brother and his war party.  Now his prisoners not only include Guerro's sister (who loves him for rescueing her) but also a mixed bag of bandits and Irth soldiers.


From my perspective having so many equally interesting possibilities demonstrates that you've got a good setting and solid protagonists with decent kickers.  You haven't narrowed things down too much by playing before you play and you're not just floating out there in space with nothing to hook on to. 

If I can rattle off ideas like this based on your sketch above, so can your players...and that's a good thing.  Now alls you need to do is rattle off a few ideas of your own that are potential bangs (with every expectation of only using 1/3 of them or so) and you're ready to go. 

Most of the "decisions" as to which of the many possibilities to go, can all be written up in the form of bangs. 

Frex here's some bangs

Tieing into #2 above:  Iummo goes to confront his brother and -bang- finds him engaged in commerce with an Irthan agent negotiating Ambrosian trade rights for weapons.

Tieing into #3 above:  Guerro releases the prisoners from captivity and -bang- finds that he's set free (or is about to) a number of Irthan soldiers as well.

[Eric J-D]

Wow, this sounds like a cool game.  If I could jump in for just a minute though, I would have the players look carefully at the description of how they came to summon and bind their respective demons.  From the description you've provided it sounds a bit too passive or, at least, the motivation behind the summoning/binding seems a bit obscured.

Now this might not be accurate at all and may simply be due to a certain economy in your description, but at present the demon's origins give me the sense that the sorcerers stumbled upon the demons rather than actively calling them from Not Here to Here.

If that's the case, then you want to get the players to rethink the demon's origins a bit.  Remind them that *they* summoned these demons.  Why?  What is it that they want that the demons can help them obtain?

Cheers,

Eric

[Bret Gillan]

Eric,

Well, in Charnel Gods the demons aren't summoned from Not Here to Here. They're Immanents, and so are able to be stumbled upon. Though I should note that Iuuma tracked his Fell Weapon down through studying the legends and mythologies of his people, and has taken it up to protect his people - he was afraid of the Irthan nation, of technology, and of his people dying out. His demon-binding and motivations seem solid.

Now that you mention it, though, Guerro could stand to have his motivations and demon-discovery fleshed out a bit more. I know he bound the Fell Weapon in order to better fight against the Irthan nation, but his Lore descriptor is Intuition which means he found the weapon through gut instinct and luck. But yeah - more information needed. I think Iuuma's good at the moment, though.

Thanks!

[Eric J-D]

Brett,

Thanks for your very gracious correction.  I had forgotten that this was the case in the Charnel Gods setting (by way of lame excuse, I admit I haven't looked at the setting in some time despite my great fondness for it).

I sort of had that sense from the description of luuma (i.e. that he had taken up with the demon in order to protect his people) and should have said so in my original post.  It was Guerro that I was more concerned about.  However, given that demons in this setting are all Immanents I think you can safely ignore my previous comments.

Cheers,

Eric