Passages of Time

[AV]

I have grown fond of a number of games over the years, Call of Cthulu, All of the WoD, aspects of D&D (I'm too young and too broke to have ever gotten into it hardcore), and some other stuff, my friends and I have played over the years. So upon reading this through this site, I decided to make a game of my own. I call it Passages of Time. I am very fond of fantasy epics like D&D and LotR, but I have so much fun with modern day things like guns and cars and whatnot. So I started there. Eventually the story comes down to this Technology v. Magic. Who really would win between an experienced Wizard and a Swat team? You can't really know, because they are in different worlds. What if those worlds were linked with portals that can't be easily traversed, but it is possible? It would make for an interesting game right? I can probably say that I am not the first one to think of this, but I haven't played enough games to know. Technocracy is not exactly like this but kinda close.

To give you an idea of the feel of the game it opens like this (in 2 installments):

The Creation:
In the outer realm of Kunrac, the Sewers began to sew a new world which they called Shindol. This land was to be their land of development and love. The Sewers wanted those that they sewed into it to be free people and develop the world and its technologies as they saw fit. They sewed into the world two master races; Animalia and Humanoids. The Animalia included dragons, insects, bears, unicorns, griffons, and chickens as well as anything else that the Sewers could think of. The Humanoids in Shindol consisted of three unique classes; Man, Elf, and Dwarf.

Life:
The dwarves normally stayed in the mountains, using tools and mining day and night to learn the secrets of the deep ground. Elves stayed mostly in the forest areas and near rivers. They loved nature and never grew very advanced in their physical ways. Man however was always looking for ways to improve. They started a study and development of mental fortitude, physical constitution, and raw intelligence, which they called najik. These najik followers eventually split from the class of man because they were becoming too different. They sometimes became obsessed. They wanted to be known as magicians. Some of those men that were not interested in the study of Najik looked to be adventurous and explore the lands of the other classes. This eventually brought about the procreation between man and elf. Their children gained good and bad qualities of each class. When they came of age they usually felt that they were different form those that they were with and often left them. They called themselves rangers and so was the development of the fifth class on shindol. The Sewers rejoiced in their apparent success and started sewing a different world and left Shindol to develop as it would.

Life without the Sewers:
Problems quickly arose without the order that the Sewers brought to the world. Flaws in the characters of the classes began to show. Dwarves became ruthless in their pursuit of currency and glittery things. Elves and rangers developed martial arts to stop the attacks of the dwarves, because arrows could only hold for so long. Magicians developed a number of Cefs that they would cast to damage or heal something. Their najik nature had become strong and they wanted more. Basic cefs were no longer powerful enough. The magicians wanted to have influence over all things in Shindol. This led to the development of id-snil-git. Different id-snil-git combined with the cefs produced extraordinary things. They learned to control everything from life, mind, death, and chance. Turmoil began inside the magician class. There was disagreement about which id-snil-git should be written down. Some wanted helpful things like life and mind to be the only ones written down and they called themselves the wizards. The Sorcerers wanted to let al know how to control death. Thinking that the way to go was controlling chance, those that wanted to be called mages took their stance for chance. The world of men seemed the sanest until they decided that conquering the lands around them no matter what foe they might encounter was a good idea. This caused unrest for everybody, including the Animalia. Griffons were the first to fight back. They could do nothing really but make a quick attack and then flee to the sky. Rarely was there much bloodshed when it came to the griffons. All that they wanted was to scare those that were invading. When this was achieved they would return to their nests. The class of man succeeded in gaining only a small area of land. These small struggles lasted for many years until the hordes of evil came into the world. Goblins and other creatures began to ravage the mountains first. This is why elves accused the dwarves of letting evil into the world. Dwarves blamed the elves but have yet to come up with a real reason for the blame. Wizards and Mages began to blame the sorcerers for the evil, while the sorcerers said that it was men that were to blame, because of there constant struggle for conquest. Men say that it was a perversion in the Animalia race, but it has never been discovered what the real cause was.

[AV]

Humanoid war against evil:
After the bickering between the classes ceased a number of councils were formed. The wizards' council was a gathering of the 8 most powerful wizards in the land. The council of the High elves agreed with the wizards that there must be an alliance of all classes to defeat evil. The mountain dwarves with their homes ruined wanted only revenge and would make an alliance if only for the sake of killing those that took their home. Men and rangers thought that stopping evil for the sake of keeping their way of life was their only option. Mages being on the side of the wizards for most of their existence thought it best to stay on their course. Sorcerers were the only reluctant fighters. They also happened to be the most powerful with their death id-snil-git najik. For years wars raged on with the evil that came into the world. The humanoids had just suffered a horrible defeat when in their plight they asked the sorcerers for help again. Their council responded by saying that when the Animalia join the fight, so will we. Correspondents were sent immediately to the leaders of the animalia leaders. Only the dragons, bears, and griffons agreed to fight.
Hearing this news though the sorcerers agreed.

The alliance of the master races:
The master races being aligned did not turn the tide of the war, but caused massive destruction in shindol. The dragons scorched the lands high and low, which hurt the humanoids more than the evils that ran across it. The scorched land now spit fire up unexpectedly killing thousands. A sorcerer by the name of windel Bronx thought that the only option was to flee. This war was not going to end happily for the master races. With the power of the sewers they could escape to a new land and have the wizards' council hold a magical barrier keeping out the evil. And so it was that, the councils banded together to plead with the sewers to help them in their time of need.

The return of the sewers:
Heeding to the call of their favored world, the sewers quickly gave them a new land. It was filled with mountains too tall to climb or fly over, a gorge to deep to fly out of, and surrounded by mountains on all sides except the one sewed to shindol. The sewers call this new joined world sirth.
The flight from shindol: The wizards' council made for kal plateau, where they are today. They set up the najik barrier and continue to hold it. Sorcerers stayed close to the border so as not to have to move to far to continue study, or so they say. The mages moved to the farthest spot from the barrier. Griffons did the same, because they don't like to be near war. Elves moved to the trees and rivers around the plains and the savannah. All of the animals spilled over as quickly as possible, except the dragons. Some of the dragons came to live in the new land, while others stayed back because they did not fear what might be coming. The class of man flowed to a large area around the gorge which they called craid. Rangers settled in the many areas, but mostly in the savannah, because it was in the middle of everything and yet isolated. A new council was called that ended all alliances.

The "destructive" council:
This second council was called for the purpose of settling debts and such things. One of the topics that were discussed was the Gorge. There were already people there that were not in shindol. They looked humanoid and called themselves smites. A few of these smites were captured from the gorge and they were brought to the council. They were informed that a number of the classes were coming to settle in the gorge. It was decreed that they would form a new language for the gorge and it would be called "common" language. This is the language, because of its ease, that man eventually adopted as its main language. They were also informed that a barrier of najik would shroud the gorge not letting evil in there should they slip through to the new world. This shroud would allow you to live in a somewhat peaceful oblivion of the outside world. So it was done. They were then sent out to live in their gorge. Another topic was brought up. It was a discussion of who let the evil into the world. They decided to call the old world the forgotten lands. This was about the last thing that was agreed upon. Accusations flew round and round. The bonds of the alliance were torn apart. The council quickly dispersed with minimal grudges. Times have passed and much water has flowed under the bridges. It became a generally peaceful world until, all things having their weaknesses, evil eventually, slowly slipped through the barriers into both the new land and the gorge, but not to the same dramatic effect as before...

My story for the group that I am GMing for starts here (the Gorge) and this is the flavor of this first part of the game. All the classes know this except the magicians because this history has never been written down, because most in the Gorge thought it was crazy. They lived in a peaceful oblivian. Next will come the system.

[AV]

**note** I have not decided whether or not to publish this game. If I was to publish it I would need to make some changes to not infringe on copyrights.

The system is loosly based on the d100 system of CoC. All Skills/Abilities are based on %. How it works is that you roll a d100 for everything but damage. The number on the dice shows the percentage that you add to your ability % (CoC is roll under your %). 100% being the target for regular success. 170% being a critical success. You roll the dice and look up the success on the simple chart (chart was made for damage but allows for interpretation the non-damaging rolls)

01 - Critical Failure
02-03 - Nothing Happens
(now comes the chart aspect)
4-20 Under 100:1 damage total     100:Reg Damage - 2  101-169 3/4 Reg Damage
21-50 U100: 1/2 Reg Damage     100: Reg Damage -1 101-169: Regular Damage
51-80 U100: 3/4 Reg Damage     100: Reg Damage   101-169: Reg Damge +2 170 and up: Critical Damage + Injury
81-98 U100:Reg Damage + Bruise  100:Reg Damage + 1 101-169: Reg dam +3 + Hurt   170 Up:Critical + Wound
99   U100 Full Dam Possible + Bruise 100 Full Dam Possible + Bruise     101-169: FDP + Hurt           170 UP: Full Ciritical Dam Possible + Cripple
100  100: FDP + Cripple 101-169: FDP + Incapacitate  170 UP: Full Critical Damage Possible + Incapacitate

In chart form it is much easier to read. In the end it is all up to the GM to give an Idea of what happens.

The WoD-esque Bruise, hurt, cripple, and such detract from the percentage of your ability.

In play it has worked out very well. Really, it has worked out better than I had expected. I hope you enjoy.

[Mike Holmes]

Holy cats. Recently it was pointed out to me that it's possibly off-putting to give newcomers lists of games they should look at.

Are you really interested at all in the question of how original this game is in terms of how many other games have tackled this idea?

Because to answer your other question, undeniably this is a premise that people can really sink their teeth into. There's really no question about it.

Mike

[Tar Markvar]

To be honest, I'm not sure how helpful this is, but you might want to look at the title for the creators, the "Sewers." I realize that they're called that because they sew, but I kept thinking that all life on your world sprung from sewage-filled metaphysical catacombs beneath it. Which, to be honest, lent an unintended innovativeness to your creation myth, I think.

Maybe call them "Tailors" or "Weavers"?

I like your backstory and creation myth, and I think your system looks okay (though I couldn't interpret your chart, my apologies), but honestly your races and classes seem cut-n-pasted from D&D, down to the half-elf ranger. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I like the concept of "najik" a lot, but give some thought as to why you're using dwarves and elves and half-elves as opposed to different races of men or something.

Thanks,

Jay