The Chairman enters the arena once again. The light's come up. He's carrying a copy of Pendragon. What could it mean?

Iron Game Chef Contest!

I can wait no longer! We must know! Are there designers yet living who can accept the challenge to create a game in one week?!?! Is there one of comparable talent to Iron Game Chef - Gamist, John Laviolette!

This episode's challenge! Create an entire Simulationist RPG that incorporates three of the following four terms:

• Volcano
• Sphere
• Song
• Blood


Here are the rules:

• Submissions to this contest must be made no later than 11:59 PM CDT on May 16th, 2003. If you're not sure when that is, post early. In fact you may want to post early so that you don't get messed up by server death as all are posted at the last minute (not to mention being in early can be a good tactic).
• Post all submissions to this thread, and all work must be in the thread (though it can be in multiple posts). Graphics housed elsewhere and referred to in the code are excepted.
• Any submission edited after the deadline will be disqulaified.
• Submissions will be judged by myself on the following categories: Style, Estimated Effectiveness in Play, Creative and Effective Incorporation of the Above Terms, and Completeness.
• The winner and runners up will be announced on or before May 20th, 2003.
• RPG is defined intuitively. If you get too far from what may reasonably be constued an RPG you may be penalized! OTOH, you may get points for creativity. Do so at your own risk!


Direct any questions to myself, or this thread.

Now, Iron Game Chef Gamist Challengers! Get Ready to create!

GO!


See here for the last episode.
Per the moderators: Mike Holmes is the only person that's allowed to do this (prevents these from proliferating impossibly). If you have an issue with this contact the moderators.

You just HAD to pick exam week, didn't you Mike! The WORST week in the history of the world! And I TOTALLY have a game concept that would work for this too! ARGGHH! 7-FOLD VENGEANCE! DO YOU HEAR! SEVEN-FOLD!

Seriously, bad timing. Anybody who goes by the standard academic cycle is going to be out of commission this week. I mean, I'll do a game later, even though I'll be disqualified, just because I'm that kind of person, but I was hoping to take down John. Sigh. Better luck next time...

P.S. This is what you're missing: http://www.godmachine.org/argonauts.jpg

Jonathan Walton wrote: Seriously, bad timing. Anybody who goes by the standard academic cycle is going to be out of commission this week.

I should have realized that. My wife graduates this weekend (after only 17 short years of college).

But that said, I'm sure every week of the year has some problem with it.

Still, if I get more complaints than submissions in short order I may postpone. Let me know here if you're working on something, or need to wait.

But for the moment we're still on. :-)

Mike

Emily Care wrote:
Question: there's no set way that the terms need to be incorporated into the game, right? They don't have to be in the setting per se?

I was gonna try my hand too, but I'm closing on a house tomorrow...so I'm moving next week.

Emily Care wrote:
I finished my paper yesterday, so if the Muses are merciful, I'm in.

Mike Holmes wrote: See what I mean, Jonathan?

ok, I'll through my hat in the ring.

because one thing about all these competions/challenges I've found is: they spur me into action. I like that. when I have no deadline, I just keep twiddling things and it's much hard to complete the final product.

I was aiming to make this game less philosophical than Co9C and the (unnamed) Nag Hammadi/gnostic game, but so far the ideas I've come up with are leaning the same direction. oh well!

*walks in wearing nothing but a grass skirt and drinking a Corona*

I'm going to throw my coconuts into this competition also.

Prepare thyselves for the coming of the Tiki God

*chugs his beer and paddles out to catch a wave*

-Chris

Drains blood, sings songs, dances in circles aruond the great KaluaHua("Who ha?")..... Nah, too obvious, But I'm in.

JOE--

It appears that I'm in as well, despite the fact that Simulationism doesn't exist.

- J

Yeah, I guess I'm in as well.

The Chairman looks at the culinary rules masters arrayed for battle.

Chairman wrote: Oh, indeed this bodes to be a battle of colossi. We have the Iron Chef Gamist himself returning to the arena. And it looks like the runner-up may compete as well, perhaps to his own detriment! The artful Chris Edwards has decided to join the fray, shouting a Creative Agenda as a challenge to all! Tom honors the competition with his bellowed taunt! The newcomer Joe enters subtly, bringing an unknown challenge. Shreyas Sampat, the man of myth, sneaks in almost unnoticed.

And, what is this? The iconoclast, Memento-Mori himself, master of the gaming ginsu? Can it be? He will be attempting to win a competition that he does not believe exists? His zen ways are astonishing to all! Surely this will cause the mortal participants to tremble!

Who else will try their hand at challenging these maestros of gaming goodness? And who in the end will be - Iron Game Chef - Simulationist!

I'm in. Since I have much freetime at the moment...

-Matt

Yeah, alright. Sign me up.

Chairman wrote: Two more worthy contestants! But when will the cooking begin?!? Already half a day is gone! Surely we should have some hints by now of what's to come!

Let the cookery begin.

Te Anau wrote: My people are starving, and the island is angry. The fish are schooling outside Tuamotu, where we cannot hunt them - they rot before we can bring them to shore. We must have new lands, new foods, new gods. We must have WAR.

My ingredients are coming in by the truckload, the emporer shall surely enjoy this appetizer to a sumptuous feast.

An Introduction

"Welcome the the Celestial Institue of the Mentally Ill. Here at the Institute we find compassionate ways to cure the sick, the disturbed, the ill, and the depressed. At times extreme measures are necessary to restrain some of our more unruly guests, but the utmost care is taken in maintaining good health and proper hygiene. I'm sorry to hear that your relative must stay a time with us, but rest assured that they will be returned to you much like you remember them before this terrible illness infested them. Feel free to check back often to found out how they are progressing in their recovery."

The cinder block walls were painted white at one time, but the stains along them have all but eliminated the purity they once held. The stains, the stains, are messages, but what do they say, and more importantly what are the stains of.

You room has a matress in a metal frame, padded walls and a concrete floor. There is a hole in the floor for your bathroom, there is a hole in the door. (Scratched in the wood are the words "feedin' time".)

"This is your room, make yourself comfortable, You'll meet everyone in the morning."

So it's hints you want, judge-san? Sure, I'll throw you all a bone:

Prepare your palates, all, for a culinary masterpiece, entitled...

Blood Songs of the Volcanic Sphere

Do I get bonus points for having all four words in the title of the game?

ethan_greer wrote: Do I get bonus points for having all four words in the title of the game?

I did the majority of mine last night. It's called "Tooth & Claw."

Yup.

what Homer never wrote: Way, way back... back before the world took on it's present spherical shape, back when the world was really flat... there were heroes. Not the kind that wear spandex and capes, of course, but real heroes, those blessed with the blood of Gods flowing in their veins. Looking up at volcanic Olympus, they could not help but reach for the greatness that their divine parents and protectors demanded of them. They could not help but do great deeds.

So when Jason put out the call, they responded. Coming from every corner of the ancient world, they responded to the song of summons, joining together in a brotherhood that would be fabled throughout history. Not even the Trojan War, many years later, could rival the throng of heroes assembled aboard Jason's ship. They were unstoppable, relentless, and unmatched in their desire for women and good eatings. They were... the Argonauts.

Damn you, Mike Holmes! {hrm...that's starting to become my catch-phrase} I'm in, though I should be concentrating on Orx. Ah well, this might help the creative writing juices flow even more.

Here's the ingredients:
Ancient gods
Songs of power
Rites of blood

Think of the Finnish mythoi, where singing is magic, toss in some bloody Aztec rituals and all sorts of blood=power myths, divine patronage and ancient bloodlines, and top it off as a dish best served as Setting Exploration.

Will there be a volcano? Heck, who knows!

The chairman wrote: Two provocativly tasty teasers, and one new contestant who damns my name but enters the competition with fire! This is shaping up to be quite the fight! But, as last time, who will follow through, and who will burn up in the kitchen?

We shall see!

Ok after brooding like a sour puss for sometime I decided I needed to come back and do this... I am in...


Edit: Songs of Distant Spheres


Sean
ADGBoss

[img]http://deusexmachina.indie-rpgs.com/Vulcans%20Forge2.jpg[/img]

Every Age Gets The Heros It Deserves wrote:

We were not alone. They came from out of our Nightmares to conquer - to dominate. We engineered out triumph - but at what cost. The Children of Vulcan's Forge drove back the invaders and in the process laid waste to our planet. We fought against our saviors - fearful of their power - and they were driven back. We were driven underground - patiently waiting for the Ultimate Winter to end.

A thousand generations later, and the remnants of humanity are just clawing out of the rubble and building a new civilization upon the hardscrabble ruins of the old. We are not alone...

Vulcan's Forge - A Post Apocolyptic Game of Dark Heroism.

The chairman wrote: Two more entrants! One quiet and sullen, and the other with the boldest statement yet! The bar is set high already for this comeptition's gaming dishes both in terms of number of competing game chefs and the quality of the dishes being prepared!

Jared A. Sorensen wrote: I did the majority of mine last night. It's called "Tooth & Claw."

Yup.

You better watch it Jason-san. Two can play that game!

How would you like a draft of my character sheet? We keep it on tap, just for chefs like you! Ya!

(Exams? What exams? This is more fun!)

http://www.godmachine.org/argonauts2.jpg

Yes, that's right. Ponder the ramifications of this... Ponder a group-wide character sheet... Ponder the possibility for 1-on-1 play... Ponder traits that represent individual characters... Ponder the Sphere of the Journey and episodic/microfic play... And, worst of all, ponder what's going to go in that big empty box... Bwa ha ha...

Vulcan's Forge Splat Book Intro Fiction wrote:

HIGH VOID DRIFTERS

Trace scanned the Void horizon, watching the interplay of rising heat and swirling dust devils off in the distance. He reached back and upped the cooling intake on his piece-meal Estivator. The misfit compos-plates dug into his ribs and his shoulders. Course he knew that without the suit, he’d be dead.

Nobody braved daytime on the High Void. Trace knew that out there somewhere, just past the borders of the Void in the direction he was facing, sat the Newmerica Archology - A city-state teeming with thousands of BloodDrones mindlessly serving their Masters. He knew that none of the BloodDrones, or their Masters, or even the nefarious RipGangs that roamed Newmerica’s seamier streets would dare cross the Void.

Trance did, though. He and his buddies – Slammerkin, Voiders, Nomads, they did. Hoss Jake said they were just like the desert Nomads from Africa in the Before. Trace always wanted to ask Hoss Jake where Africa was – thinking it must be on the other side of Newmerica. Further than he’d ever gone.

Trace and most of his Tribe of Slammerkin hadn’t set foot off the Void in all their lives – except for the raids, course. Hoss Jake was different. Different than the other Slammerkin Hosses, for sure. He’d been around a lot – traveled the wide world to hear him tell it.

Hoss Jake said that he used to command a company of EarthForce Impacters – a company of SoloArmored Zero-G Marines in the Before. Course Trace didn’t believe him. The Before was a loooong time ago, maybe years before Trace himself was born.

Hoss Jake said the EarthForce Cruiser he’d been on was knocked out of orbit before the crew had come out of CryoSleep. Said that his Cruiser had returned to Earth after a tour of duty out near the outer-rim only to be met by a rouge squad of Pale Knights – Vulcans – who’d hijacked a shuttle out of Ramstein Orbital Space Port.

Hoss Jake sure did use a lot of funny words. Trace wanted to know, for instance, what a Cruiser or a Shuttle were – and why it was important for Hoss Jake to say that his EarthForce Impacters were Zero-G. Trace could spell – he knew there weren’t any “g’s” in there. Course, he knew what Vulcans were. He personally thought the Pales was the worst – cause they could trespass in your soul and cast everything that was you aside.

Sloppy Joe always told him the Wyld were worse, cause they’d walk through a barrage of Bolter fire and open you up stem to stern with a humming MonoBlade. Trace wasn’t sure. He thought he’d rather be cut, hung, dried and eaten by a Wild than trespassed by a Pale. He didn’t much like the idea of killing his other Slammerkin – we’ll exceptin’ maybe Sloppy Joe - and he'd heard the Pale could make you do that.

Anyway, Hoss Jake said that when his Cruiser Re-Entered, it automatically jettisoned the CryoSleep chambers – already built into the Escape Pods. They landed hard, he said, digging into the hardscrabble ground out here in the Void – and said thanks to the miracle of Nuclear Power Praise God – lived for a long time in CryoSleep.

Trace knew that Sloppy Joe could sleep for sixteen hours a day sometimes, especially when he was coming down of the Psycholodrine. But Trace thought about and realized Hoss Jake must’ve been asleep for a long time. Like since years before Trace was born.

Trace and Sloppy Joe had found the Escape Pods in a cavern below their Oasis. Most BloodDrones and Masters and RipGangs didn’t know that there was any life out on the Void. They all thought that the Slammerkin lived only on human flesh raided from outlying settlements. Which wasn’t strictly speaking true, cause they’d prefer to eat roaches when they could find enough to make a stew.

Anyway, Trace and Sloppy Joe had been down in the caverns filling canteens, when Sloppy Joe decided to go exploring. They’d gotten lost, and stumbled on these strange metallic cylinders. They felt hot to the touch, sort of, and they’d managed to get their fingers stuck to 'em. Hoss Jake said later that the cylinders were Frozen Cold – whatever that was.

They were dripping water, for sure. And they had Before Comps attached to them – with blinking lights and buttons and everything. Sloppy Joe had started pressing buttons. Trace couldn’t get him to stop cause Joe was way hyped up on ‘Drine.

First one cylinder opened, then another, then another. Guys flopped out of them screaming. One guy exploded from something that Hoss Jake called de-compression trauma.

It took Sloppy Joe thirteen tries to get it right. Lucky for us, thought Trace, that he’d figured it out in time to release Hoss Jake alive and relatively unharmed.

Hoss Jake had gone kinda crazy for the first few days – talking about thousands of years having passed and what had happened in the Before. Course, we didn’t know, thought Trace.

Hoss Jake had killed the Tribe’s old Hoss – Bran. Killed him bare handed. JiujutsuKungFuFighting was what Hoss Jake called it. Took Bran’s Bolter right out of his hand and broke his arm too.

They’d adopted Hoss Jake in the middle of the fight when he bit Bran’s ear off and smiled, blood trailing down his chin. He’d spit the ear out, which had just made Bran mad. Course, flatliner that he was, Bran walked right into a nice bit of KarateChopAction and Hoss Jake had said later that he’d broken the bridge of Bran’s nose.

All Trace could remember was the way Bran’s eyes had rolled into the back of his head and how Bran had just been stopped dead in his tracks, and how he’d stood there on his feet wobbling back and forth gurgling blood out his nose and mouth - shaking like a nervous willow in Dust Funnel. He’d never seen anything so cool before.

Hoss Jake had taken care of them after that. Taught them SmallUnitTactics – like how to set up an ambush. Course the Slammerkin knew that you always tried to Bolt the other guy in the back when he wasn’t looking – but man Hoss Jake had taught them how to be able to do that every time they got in a fight.

He’d never seen Hoss Jake scared – until yesterday. They’d ridden up north a few miles out of the Void to Hope – a small village that they’d not raided for a year or more. Hoss Jake said he’d heard they just got a new detachment of Newmerica’s Finest – which meant more Psychlodrine. The Tribe needed more – they were almost out.

Things had gotten a little ugly – cause Hoss Jake had let his Slammerkin go a little wild. They’d…done things to that room full of little girls and boys who’re going to school – whatever that was.

That one little girl, Suzie, had freaked Hoss Jake out though. She’d said that her uncle was gonna find us and gut us. That didn’t bother Hoss Jake much, tell she told him how her uncle had once filleted a whole RipGang once back in the Archology where she used to live. Killed them good and dead, the last one hitting the blacktop before the fastest of them could even clear his Bolter from its holster.

Hoss Jake had seen something in the little girls eyes as she told this story. Trace remembered that the rest of them were laughing at the little girl, but how Hoss Jake had gotten all spooky quiet and had eyed the little girl.

She’d said that her uncle wasn’t really her uncle, just some guy that liked her mommy a lot. But that he’d got all kinds of stuff tattooed on his face and how he was as big as a house, meaner than a cat on ‘Drine and twice as fast. She’d said how he’d sort of glow when he killed those RipGangers, singing this really haunting song. She’d tried to whistle it for us. Hoss Jake had blown her cute little head off right then and there – and he’d turned white as a ghost.

“We gotta get back the Void boys. Gather up all the ‘Drine you can find and mount up. We ride at sundown!”

Sloppy Joe was pissed. Course he didn’t do nor say nothin because he knew Hoss Jake didn’t like Insubordination, no SIR! Pissed cause Hoss Jake had promised them they could clean and cure the kids and bring ‘em back for the food stores.

They’d ridden all night, and then when they got back to their Oasis on the Void, Hoss Jake had told them that the little girl’s uncle was a Vulcan. Probably a Pale – and maybe he had friends. Hoss Jake had told them that in the Before, they’d always traveled in 3’s – one of each. A Pale, a Brood and a Wyld. Hoss Jake said he’d only ever seen the Knights, but that he knew that at least in the Before that others had been made.

He told them to set up an ambush, and to set a round-the-clock watch. Sloppy Joe had groaned, and Hoss Jake had knocked him cold with one punch, broken his nose and two of Sloppy’s four remaining teeth.

Trace and Leo and Vance had broken out the Estivators. Course Trace was the smallest of the three, and didn’t feel like fighting over one of the more complete suits, which was why he was starting to feel a little hot under the collar and to itch a little all over. He didn’t have enough water in him to sweat.

He was scanning the Void, and he saw this man walking toward the Oasis, holding his hat brim down to keep the wind out of his eyes. Trace couldn’t believe it. Nobody walked the Void. Maybe the guy’s mount had died out there in the Void, thought Trace.

The guy was walking casual, not like the Void’s heat was bothering him at all. Trace felt a little sweat trickle down his forehead. He rubbed his eyes and reached back to check the controls of his Estivator. Thought maybe the damn thing was fried and he was having a Void Vision.

He looked up and the guy was a lot closer now. Trace slid the safety back on his bolter and eyed the man. He was wearing all black leather – got to be a Void Vision – with silver buckles and a bunch of knives and bolters strapped all over his body underneath the wool poncho that was billowing in the wind. Trace saw the hilt of a sword poking out over this apparition’s left shoulder, and recognized the designs. It was a MonoBlade. Trace had seen one once near the outskirts of Newmerica in the portable stores of a group of wandering MallWalkers.

Still the guy kept his hat brim down over his eyes. Trace could see his mouth and the stubble on his chin. The guy was saying something – Trace could barely hear it – which come to think of it is pretty amazing given the wind and the distance…

And the guy just sort of flew – no jumped – up – all the way up the cliff face – thirty or forty feet above Trace. He had to strain his neck to follow the guy’s arc. Which was stupid because he’d looked nearly right into the Sun and was seeing spots when the guy landed…singing these really haunting words.

Trace felt like he was moving through quicksand – his reflexes faster than his brain though – as he brought up his Bolter. He heard the whistle-whine of the MonoBlade cutting through the air and didn’t feel a damn thing as it sliced his arm right off at the shoulder.

He looked down at the gory stump squirting blood out all over the rocks, and wondered how the guy had seen him in his Estivator, with the ChameleonCloak turned on.

He turned to look up into his killer’s face, and saw the half-moon tattooing that covered the man’s eyes. A Vulcan, thought Trace, as the MonoBlade cut clean through his neck. Funny how he still had a few stray thoughts left, like how he wanted to see if this guy could take Hoss Jake and maybe he’d be their new Hoss – and how he wished he could figure out how to sing like that…

[img]http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~ecboss/images/songbanner2.jpg[/img]

My dearest Devan,

If only I could show you the sun rising over the horizon of the Earth, my love. You might reconsider your decision--but I won't begin that again. They are treating me very well. Everyone told me about the disorientation you feel when you're first around them, but I couldn't understand it. Until I met my first Sxosian in the flesh. Maybe it's the smell...

And I wish I could share with you how different everything looks and feels now. Yes, I have the new blood already. I know I said I would wait until I had a chance to get an assignment, and see if I could establish a new life on Sxosia or may rrRexan. But--I just don't have the words to describe it. You've heard their Song on the vids, but it's like meeting the Sxosians in person--in, um, Being. The Song called to me from the moment I arrived on the Moon, perhaps before. Remember how I told you about that summer I spent on the beach? When the whales came in? The music they made under water has haunted me since I was six. And I heard some of what called to me then, in their Song. I think that's why I'm here....

Song of the blood moon. Discover the new universe confronting humanity after it's near extinction and, perhaps, final salvation.

A gmful simulationist roleplaying game encouraging world creation, through the participants spheres of influence.

Vulcan's Forge Has One Too...


[img]http://deusexmachina.indie-rpgs.com/VFCH.jpg[/img]

Heroes: Take a Walk on the Wyld Side

[img]http://deusexmachina.indie-rpgs.com/Swordsman2.jpg[/img]

*Looks around* I'm the only one still in the kitchen? Whatdaya mean the deadline isn't until next Friday?

*blink*
*blink*

Cheers,



Jason

*steps out of the refrigerator room*
No, Jason-san, we're all still cooking.

It's just that we put dividers up in Kitchen Stadium, to keep those crazy actor judges guessing. Remember, the best seasoning is surprise.

Shreyas Sampat-san:

True. But whetting their appetite can be an effective strategy too, no? And surprise isn't just about concealment - it can be about misdirection as well.

Cheers,



Jason

*Cuts up a lime while his bikini clad assistant rubs suntan oil on his shoulders*


[img]http://home.thegrid.net/~fisherwoman37/TikiGod2.jpg[/img]



What's it all about man?

Not only are you an all around cool Dude but you're also a trouble-shooter for your Tribe. When you're not Chugging, Grooving, Hanging-Ten, or chasing the islands seemingly endless supply of Virgins you're helping your Tribe iron out life's little kinks. Life on the island has gotten hotter than usual because Pele, goddess of the mighty volcano, is not well pleased with your people. Only by uniting the Tribe behind one righteous Dude can you gain Pele's notice and convince her to mellow out this most heinous situation. There's only one real problem. Your contemporaries, those other Dudes in the Tribe, are trying to unite the Tribe themselves. So get stoked and grab a tastey brew because battling these bogus posers is bound to make you thirsty. The winner becomes the Tiki God and keeps the volcano's wrath from putting a real downer on the permanent beach party you call 'life'.

*Disclaimer: The designer is not responsible for injury or property damage incurred as a result of play.

< John adds a pinch of spices from s container labeled "Volcano and Spheres" to a simmering pot of Setting. he then adds some secret ingredients to a pan of vegetables, mushrooms, and Resource mechanics sauteed in Blood. >

as usual, I think I'll be somewhat tight-lipped about my planned "dish". especially since I may make some setting modifications before the time is up. I've been watching several hours of "Beavis and Butt-head" videos, though, and I have to say: when Beavis started shouting "I'm bleeding!" I was briefly tempted to create a different RPG entirely... heh.

All right, you wickerbuckin' finnicks ...

That's enough pictures, K? Use links.

Best,
Ron

A sampling of Gear - delectibile with just the right hint of causal consistency seasoning. MMM-MMM.

Cheers,


Jason

This here needs some polish, but I think this is all the work I'm really going to put into it :P

Inspired by Hero Wars and FFX:

Songs of the Dead

God created the first men upon the earth. None know whether the earth was made by God, or if God came upon it later, but all men know God’s song breathed life into the world.

For a time, God lived with man, and the world was good.

But some men choose not to sing God’s song, so Death came into the world. To seal the hole Death had made in the world, God became a stone large enough to cover the hole. And God said before turning to stone, “I sleep now, so you must sing to me of the dead, so I may recognize my children and take them to me. If you do not, they shall wander lost. This you must do on the eve of the new year.”

And so man lived around the Godstone, praying and singing once a year so their ancestors would not be lost and walk this earth, neither dead nor living. But without God’s song, discord came to man, and men quickly realized one night was not enough for all to sing of their dead.

And so, blood was split, and once a year, the bloodlines gather to do battle, hoping to sing their ancestors to God, before they rise again and strike at their kin in anger.

The World

Songs of the Dead is a world of mythology and mysticism, where science gets tossed out the door and things just work that way because “they do”. In this world, men fight to have control of area of the Godstone to sing praises of their bloodline and send their ancestors peacefully to the afterlife.

In this world, song is magic. Without the song to send them along, the dead become impatient, restless, and sometimes rise in anger. And yes, they rise again even if you burn the body to ashes...somehow, someway, a rotting corpse crawls forth from the underworld and seeks its kin, venting anger and rage from this life and the afterlife.

Needless to say, not having this happen is a big motivator for the clans and bloodlines of this world.

Basic resolution:

Take D20’s equal to your trait, roll them all, keep the highest. You get to reroll and add again if you get a 10 or a 20. So if you roll a 10, you reroll that die, and add that on top of the 10, allowing you to get above 20.

The GM rolls D20’s equal to the difficulty(or opposing character’s trait) and keeps the highest, rerolling as above.

GM Difficulty Dice

1 Easy/Rountine
2 Tough
3 Very Hard
4 Near Impossible
5 Should be Impossible
6 Unfathomable

Highest wins. Subtract higher from lower for your Action Total.

1-5 Failed
6-10 Bare success, but at a cost(loser chooses)
11-15 Solid success
16-20 Great success, with a extra nice thing attached
21-30 Beyond human, think tall tale type stuff
31-40 Legendary, Hercules, etc.
41-50 Mythic, push over a mountain, etc.

Clans

Since Songs of the Dead revolves around clans, each clan has a history and a name. Each clan also gets its own set of stats, which are measured by points.

Resources- this is land, food, wealth, and people. When resources are 0, the clan is destroyed, perhaps with a few scattered survivors.

Unity- This is the strength of bonds and loyalty within the clan. When it hits 0, the clan splits into 2 or more factions. One way to look at it is that will divide into 1 faction per 10 Resources.

Ancestors- This is how “pleased” the ancestors are with the clan as a whole. When Ancestors hits 0, there is a major uprising of Risen, and the clan is attacked.

Sphere- this is the ideal or physical thing around which the clan centers itself. This could be an idea, such as “Bravery” or “Justice” or a physical place or thing, like “Holy Mountain” or “The Kingsword”. This isn’t scored, but rather provides focus for the Clan. If the clan ever divides, one or more factions will need a new Sphere.

In general, scores for the Clans range from 10-50. A poor Clan has probably about 50 points to spread, a moderate Clan has 80, and a well off Clan has 100 or more.

Characters

All characters in Songs of the Dead are clan warriors, dedicated towards protecting their bloodline from raiders, other clans, and the Risen Dead. Some are warriors through and through, others are masters of the Song, and others still lead men and keep the clan tight.

Traits

Blood- This is your willpower and leadership ability. It is how strong the bloodline shows up in you.
Song- This is all things magical and spiritual. It is your connection wth the Godsong.
Sword-This is all things physical. It is the strength of your ancestors in your arms and legs.

All traits are measured from 1 to 5 dice. You start with 6 dice to split between them all.

Heart

Heart is a measure of dedication and pushing oneself beyond our limits. Characters start with 3 Heart.

Heart can be used in two ways. It can be temporarily spent, in order to reroll all of your dice, at any time. It will restore at the beginning of a new session. It can be permanently spent in order to raise your Traits. It costs as many Heart points as the level to which you are raising a Trait.

Songs

Each clansman is able to sing 3 Songs(you pick), along with their Bloodsong. There is no “stacking” songs, either by the same person or by another person. The first one takes effect and holds until it wears off. There is no limit to how many times you can perform a song, aside from the stacking rule above. So if you used Discord on one enemy clan, you could go to another Clan and use it again, no problem.

Here is a list of what they are and what they do.

Bloodsong-
Everybody knows their family’s Bloodsong. It allows them to send their ancestors to the afterlife. This song must be sung at the Godstone on the eve of the new year to send the ancestors along. The degree of success determines how many ancestors get sent. A bare success sends only a handful, while a Mythic success sends ancestors from hundreds of years back all the way up to now. Add the action total to your Clan’s Ancestor score.

Growth-
This song gives good crops and abundance to the community. This song can be performed once a month to ensure good food for your clan. It must be performed over the crop fields. Divide your action total by 5(round down) and add the result to your Clan’s resources.

Famine-
This song is the opposite of Growth, you use it to strike down the other clan’s crops. It must be performed on their crop fields once a month. Divide your action total by 5(round down) and subtract the result from their Clan’s resources.

Serenity-
This song increases the Unity of your Clan. Must be performed in the middle of your village or town. Divide the action total by 5, add to Unity. It can be performed once a month.

Discord-
Opposite of Serenity, used on enemy clans. It must be performed in the middle of their village or town. Divide action total by 5, subtract from their Unity. It can be performed once a month.

Bravery-
Used in battle to aid your warriors. Can be performed once per battle. Divide your action total by 5, add the result to all action totals on your side for the entire battle.

Terror-
Opposite of Bravery, used on enemies in battle. Can be performed once per battle. Divide action total by 5, subtract the result from all action totals on your opponent’s side.

Healing-
Used as a mass healing song to heal warriors, plague victims, etc. Can be performed once per day. Divide action total by 5, add that many Life points to all people it is being performed on. They must be within eyesight of the performer.

Deadsong-
This song can sooth the Risen and calm them from their anger. It can be performed once a scene with the Risen. Divide action total by 5 and that’s how many weeks they stay calm. This must be performed within earshot of the Risen.

Hellraiser-
This song reminds the dead ancestors of your enemy of their suffering. This song may be performed once a month, and must be sung over your enemy’s graveyard. Divide the action total by 5 and subtract that from their Ancestor score...

Life and Death

Every player character has 10 Life Points per Die of Blood they have. Instead of representing raw physical damage, consider Life Points the will to live. When you hit 0, you are dead.

Violence

The Bloodlines are always in violence, ranging from small personal rivalries to the entire clans at war. The rules for combat are similar to the basic resolution, with a couple of extra strategic things added on.

Declare actions-
Everybody decides what they’re trying to do. Everybody can do a combat action and a non-combat action per turn. A combat action is trying to hurt somebody or not get hurt and a non-combat aciton can be anything else, like rallying troops, kicking over a gate, spilling a barrel of oil, singing the Bravery Song, etc. The GM can give an extra die to anyone who has a good description or some other advantage.

Roll those dice-
Everybody rolls Sword dice and highest action total goes first, and then down the line. Resolve in that order. If anyone wants to do a reroll with Heart, they need to declare it at this time.

Fighting-
In a normal fight the assumption is that your goal is to hurt your opponent and not get hurt in the process. Do not reroll those “initiative” dice you just rolled, they’re used for your action as well. The highest roller is assumed to have dominated that round of combat and hurt the other guy without getting hurt. Subtract higher from lower and what remains is the damage done to the loser. Some weapons add more damage, armor will subtract it. Taa-daa! Easy, right?

Non-combat actions-
These things happen during the player’s turn. Roll dice to resolve them at this point, although the players’ initiative is still based off of their combat score.

Support-
You can give Sword dice to another person if you are working in conjunction with them, like double teaming an opponent, or throwing an axe in their back.

Battle

For large scale battles, choose one person as the leader. This roll will be committed after every 5 rounds of combat. They roll Blood vs. Blood of the opposing leader. Highest wins. The winner may choose to do one of the following based on the nature of the battle.

-Lower the Unity of the opposing clan(lower morale)
Divide the action total by 5, and subtract from the opposing clan’s Unity.

-Lower the Resources of the opposing clan(killing men, destroying area)
Divide the action total by 5 and subtract from the opposing clan’s Resources.

-Take Resources from the opposing clan and add to your own(Raiding)
Divide the action total by 10 and subtract from the opposing clan’s resources and add it to your own.

The Tools of Slaughter

Weapons do damage ranging from +1 to +5, with +1 being a bitty knife and +5 being a grossly oversized maul or sword. Armor ranges from +1 to +5, with +1 being some leather stuff and +5 being something “state of the art” like scale mail with reinforced folds put in. If you want to know what the average warrior in a clan has, divide the Resources of the clan by 5, and that’s how many +’s they get between armor and weapons. So a Clan with Resources of 25 has their warriors equipped with a total of +5 stuff, probably +3 for a good sword and +2 for some form of boiled leather.

Gaining Heart-

Your character gains Heart(permanent points) for the following:

Harming an opposing clan through Song/Battle +1
Aiding your clan through Song/Battle +1
Fighting the Risen +1
Sending your Ancestors with the Bloodsong: Your action total divided by 5(this reward is given to anyone in the clan who fought to make it happen).
An excellent example of roleplaying, living up to, or defending your Clan’s sphere +1

Beasties and Nifties

This world is an amazing one, full of weird things, both natural and supernatural...

The Risen
The Risen seek out their kin in anger for failing to send them to God. The Risen have Sword ratings equal to when they were alive. In battle, they are disorganized, and difficulty should be determined solely by their numbers.

Ogres/Giants
Big nasty things that like to eat people. They get Sword ratings of 3 to 7 depending on size and general badassocity.

Hellhounds
Big wicked dogs, literally from the underworld. They can smell the Risen and eat them. They also eat living folks too!. Sword ratings are usually in the 4-5 range.

Underworld Snakes
Giant snakes that sometimes pop out when lots of Risen climb up. They are huge, can swallow people whole, and have corrosive poison. They generally suck. Sword ratings are always 6.

The Weird
Faerie like spirits, of nature and such. The Weird have their own sets of laws and rules, and get upset when other people unknowingly break them(by doing stuff like crossing a “forbidden” river, etc.). They don’t fight people head on, they usually just show up later, pronounce some serious ass curse, and screw the person or the Clan really bad. They can perform a Song by speaking or singing a short couplet and verse and know all Songs. They usually also give a means of getting out of the curse(“Bring me the cup that never empties”) and sometimes take bets(oh, yeah, don’t lose). If you somehow manage to do something they really like they can also bless you or your bloodline real good too. They have a Song rating of 9.

Chris

Bankuei said:

But some men choose not to sing God’s song, so Death came into the world. To seal the hole Death had made in the world, God became a stone large enough to cover the hole. And God said before turning to stone, “I sleep now, so you must sing to me of the dead, so I may recognize my children and take them to me. If you do not, they shall wander lost. This you must do on the eve of the new year.”

And so man lived around the Godstone, praying and singing once a year so their ancestors would not be lost and walk this earth, neither dead nor living. But without God’s song, discord came to man, and men quickly realized one night was not enough for all to sing of their dead.

Hi Gideon,

Since Mike said pick three, I went with the Blood, Song, Sphere combo, although Sphere is kinda kludged in there. No matter. I was inspired, I wrote it this morning, and I think it has a little merit to make it worth posting.

As far as the Sim factor, remember- Sim doesn't have to be "realism", you can Sim B-movies, you can Sim werewolves and vampires, you can Sim anything. There's some elements of Gamism in there, cause you have the bloodlines fighting, and there's room for Nar Drift if you want to take it there, but other than that, it's pretty Simmy. You're this warrior, you fight for your people. Your success, failure and actions have an effect on your clan.

As far as the Godstone idea, it simply came from the fact that I used to live in Washington State, and found out that Mt. Rainer was known as Tacoma, "the Mountain that is God", which I thought was cool.

Chris

Well, I reckon Volcano can squeeze in there too! Extra kudos to you!

I was thinking of having a go, but all my ideas have evaporated, looking at this lot.

Never know, I might come up with something but it may be a bit lame compared with what I have already seen.

Gideon

Vulcan's Forge General Introduction and Basic Rules Mechanics:

INTRODUCTION

Vulcan’s Forge is a roleplaying game set in our distant future. The world has been reshaped by two devastating wars – the first fought by Humanity against an invading alien race bent on enslaving us all – the second against the bio-engineered soldiers we created to fight for us.

The game is designed for two or more players – ideally 3 or 4. Each player will create a single character – a Vulcan in the vernacular of the game – except for one player. One person playing the game will take on the role of Game Master.

The Game Master’s job is to provide the setting and background – and to facilitate play and adjudicate the rules. As such, the Game Master’s interpretations of the rules during play should be considered correct. Should any player disagree with a GM’s ruling, they are encouraged to discuss the ruling after the game session has ended.

The players are generally responsible for creating the story, mostly through the Drives they choose for their Vulcan character. The players also get to control their character’s action up to a point. Whenever a player whishes his character to attempt a difficult or opposed task, the game requires that dice be employed to judge the outcome.

Just as in life, there are random elements that effect the outcomes of a character’s action. These random elements are represented by the dice. This means that characters can potentially fail. Players are encouraged to know their character’s limits, and accept their failures with grace when they happen.

Game Masters should refrain from fudging dice rolls or outcomes – either in favor of the characters or any non-player characters created by the Game Master.

Overall, Vulcan’s Forge is designed to be an episodic game about dark heroism. The point of the game is to explore the limits of what constitutes heroism against a backdrop at once familiar and uniquely colored through the lens of a near extinction level apocalypse.

The game strives for the feel of spaghetti westerns combined with gritty Anime and elements of science fantasy. Sort of High Plains Drifter meets Trigun meets Kung-Fu feel. The heroes wander into town at the beginning of the episode, form attachments to some group of relatively innocent locals, the Menace threatens, kills, or somehow attacks/violates the innocents, and the heroes are forced to act in order to stop/punish the Menace.

Players characters (the Vulcans) will typically be far superior in ability to the vast majority of non-player characters they meet. This imbalance of power is an intentional design element of the game. Game Masters are encouraged to challenge the players through a combination of using teams of human NPC’s, Vulcans gone bad, and Fallen remnants.

The players’ characters have taken on the role of humanity’s protectors. They are the US Marshals, bounty hunters and vigilantes of the near barren wasteland that was once our Earth. They roam the land, seeking out people to protect and Fallen remnants to destroy. Ultimately, every episode of Vulcan’s Forge will likely end in some type of conflict as the players’ characters confront the major villain and either foil his evil scheme or wreck vengeance upon him for his crimes.

With that in mind, the game probably doesn’t support long term campaigns very well, unless the players are constantly in the mood for over the top, gratuitous violence and double doses of conflict and combat.

PRODUCING THE EPISODE

The players and game master will need to discuss each upcoming episode prior to playing through it. The players should have the opportunity to select new Drives for their player character, and the Game Master should try and knit the Drives of each PC into a coherent story.

The Game Master needn’t come prepared with a specific plot in mind – and in fact shouldn’t do so. Instead, the Game Master should develop a conflict map that arises out of the PC’s drives. Such a map should state what the episodes conflict is going to be about, who the major factions and personalities involved in the conflict are, what settings and locations are involved in the conflict, and what the stakes are for the conflict.

The GM should write up the major and minor NPC’s prior to play, as well as bringing a list of names that he can call upon when inventing extras (minor NPC’s) on the spot. As the PC’s explore the situation at hand (this episode’s conflict) and the locales and settings involved, the Game Master should introduce the major factions and NPC’s at appropriate moments.

Determining the appropriate moment is left largely up to the interpretation of the Game Master. However, the GM should never let the action waver, and should thus not marry himself to any given scene or location where a given NPC can interact with the PC’s.

PLAYING THE GAME

The Game Master should provide the general setup for each episode up-front. Then each player should be given a few minutes to narrate how their character initially became aware of the conflict, or how they came to be in the locale where the conflict is going to be played out.

As the players explore the locales involved in the episode’s conflict, they will undoubtedly decide that they want their characters to attempt certain actions. Figuring out how well the players’ characters can accomplish any desired action is what the rules are designed to adjudicate.

Players can have their characters attempt three different types of actions:

Auto Actions are actions that anybody can reasonably do as long as no other character is opposing them. Things like walking, talking, eating, riding, and running are all auto actions.

Stressful Actions are actions that would be difficult even under ideal circumstances. These are the types of actions that could result in very bad consequences for the character if they fail. Typically, these types of actions are only taken under duress. In times of relative calm, when the character has sufficient in-game time – these actions can in effect become auto actions. Things like jumping across a wide-alley from rooftop to rooftop or attempting to stunt ride a mount or trying to scale a sheer cliff wall without the proper time or tools are all stressful actions.

Opposed Actions are any actions that a character attempts that are opposed on some level by another player character or (more likely) non-player character. The classic roleplaying example is combat, when one character is attempting to bash in another character’s head. Usually the target of such head-bashing is actively resisting.

Anytime a player declares a stressful or opposed action for their character, dice and the character’s capabilities are used to determine the outcome.

PLAYING WITH DICE

Vulcan’s Forge uses 10-sided dice for conflict resolution. Each player (including the Game Master) will need approximately 20 dice, 10 each of two distinctive designs. At the beginning of each session, each player should designate which die design they will use to generate Action Values and which dice they will use to generate Resistance Values.

It would be helpful if everyone could use the same die design for Action dice and for Resistance dice – but barring the purchasing of a lot of new dice this may not be possible.

Anytime a player declares that they want their character to attempt an action, the Game Master needs to decide if the action is an auto-action, a stressful action or an opposed action.

In the case of auto-actions, the player should be allowed to narrate how their character goes about accomplishing the task set before them. With either stressful or opposed actions, the dice will need to be used.

All characters involved in a Vulcan’s Forge story (be they player character or non-player characters) are defined within the game by several elements: Spheres of Influence, Traits, Skills, Gear, Songs, and Drives.
Spheres of Influence are rated on a scale from 1 to 10. The rating for each sphere (blood, mind and soul) represents the characters potential power, energy, or effort within that sphere. The Blood Sphere is for physical actions, the Mind Sphere is for mental actions, and the Soul Sphere is for emotional or social actions. Each Sphere has a permanent and a temporary rating. The permanent rating represents the limit or cap on the amount of power a character can store for use within the given sphere. The temporary rating will fluctuate up and down during the course of the game depending on the results of the character’s actions and actions taken against him by other characters. For any given action, the player may roll as many 10-sided dice as their characters current temporary rating for the appropriate sphere.

Traits are in-born talent, luck or ability over a wide swath of actions within a given sphere. Each sphere as three different types of traits, and each character will have at least one trait from each type within each sphere. Like spheres, traits are rated numerically from 1 to 10. Blood sphere traits are Strength, Dexterity and Toughness. Mind sphere traits are Will, Perception and Acuity. Soul sphere traits are Conviction, Manipulation, and Leadership. A single applicable trait can be added to the action value and the resistance value for a given action. Note that the traits used for action and resistance for a given action needn’t be the same ones.
Skills represent a character’s training and experience with a fairly broad set of related activities. Like spheres and traits, each skill a character has is rated between 1 and 10. Whenever a character attempts an action, they must possess a relevant skill or they are very likely to fail. The skill rating sets the target number for dice. Any rolled dice must come up equal to or less than the skill rating being used in order to count toward the final action and/or resistance value. Note that one skill covers both action and resistance values for a given action.

Gear is the tools, equipment, weapons and the like that characters possess. They are rated in terms of their Value Add – which is added to either the action value or the resistance value as appropriate. Character can use only one tool each for action and resistance during a given action.
Songs represent special abilities that each character can perform – on the order of magic or super powers. They affect action resolution in fairly complex ways, and are dealt with in their own chapter and in the characters chapter of the rules.

Drives are the attachments that Vulcans make to personalities, communities or ideals within the game. Drives are rated from 1 to 5, and anytime a character attempts an action related to one of their drives, they may roll an number of extra dice equal to the given drive’s rating. Only one such drive may be invoked and used for any given action, and all such uses must be approved by the Game Master.

Whenever a stressful action is attempted, the Game Master will need to set a difficulty number between 1 (very easy), 10 (nearly improbable), and 20 (impossible). The Game Master then rolls a number of dice equal to the difficult number. Every die that comes up under the difficult number is added up, and then finally added to the difficult number to arrive at the challenge value (analogous to the resistance value for opposed actions) of the action.

The player attempting a stressful action rolls a number of dice equal to their character’s current temporary Sphere rating – for the appropriate sphere (blood sphere for physical actions, mind sphere for mental actions, soul sphere for social/emotional actions). The player than adds up the values of all the dice whose rolled value is less than or equal to one of their character’s skills. The Game Master has the final say as to whether or not a given skill applies to a given action. This rolled value is then added to the value of a relevant trait and a relevant piece of gear (again relevant is up to the GM). This total is the characters total Action Value.

Assuming that the characters Action Value equals or exceeds the rolled Challenge value, the character succeeds at performing the action. Determining how well they succeeded requires using Table One of Two.

Figuring out the number of Success Levels an action achieves requires finding the row on Table One of Two that corresponds to the actions’ resistance (in the case of opposed actions) or challenge (in the case of stressful actions) value. Once that’s done, simply scan across the row until the column whose value for that row is closest to, but less than or equal to the action value. In other words, find the column where the next column to the right on the given row is greater than the action value. Then find the column heading value. That value is the number of successes achieved.

EXAMPLE: A player wants his character to jump down from a three story roof-top without hurting himself. The game master assesses a difficulty number of 7. The GM rolls 7 dice, getting 10,9,8,7,7,6,6 on the dice. He adds up all the dice that are equal to or below the difficulty number of 7, getting a total of 26. He adds this total to the difficulty number of 7 for a final challenge value of 33.

The player’s character is attempting a physical actions, and has a current temporary blood sphere rating of 9, and is using their character’s Lithe blood trait (with a rating of 8), gravity slowing boots (with a rating of 5), and their acrobatics skill (rated at 9). The player rolls 9 dice, getting 10,10,9,9,8,8,8,7,3. The total of the dice whose value is equal to or less than the character’s acrobatics skill of 9 is 52. Added to their character’s Lithe trait value of 8 and his gravity boots rating of 5 this is an action value of 65.

The Game Master finds the row that corresponds to the challenge value of 33, and scans along the row looking at the values in each column. The second column has the number 65, which is exactly equal to the action value generated by the player. Since the value of the next column is above 65, the GM looks up the column heading for the second column – a 2. He then announces that the character achieved 2 successes – which is a good success level.

When a player wants their character to attempt an action opposed by another character (typically a non-player character), the dice are used a little differently. In the first place, the Game Master doesn’t set a difficulty number. Instead, all parties involved in the action get to roll a number of dice equal to the relevant sphere plus bonus dice.

Vulcans get to add the rating of one of their drives to any roll involving that drive as bonus dice to any action. Additionally, an action that a player describes in a cool, evocative way is deserving of between 1 and 5 bonus dice at the GM’s discretion. Using the scenery in the action description is worth 1 bonus die, while getting a ‘wow, that’s cool’ reaction from the majority of the players is worth 5 bonus dice.

Each player who has a character involved in an opposed action must split their dice pool between their action dice and their resistance dice. Any action dice thrown that come up equal to or less than the character’s relevant skill are counted toward the total action value. Any resistance dice that come up equal to or less than the character’s relevant skill are added to the resistance value.

Each player can then add a different trait and/or tool to come up with their final action value and resistance value for the action. The character of the player who threw the most action dice is considered to have gone first. This character’s action is resolved against the resistance value of the defending character first. Each success level on this attack reduces the number of dice the opponent gets to add to their action value – starting with the highest usable die. If all of the opponents dice are removed in this fashion, their action fails. Any success levels left over after all of the opponents action dice have been canceled out are lost.

If the opponent has any usable action dice left, their action value is then resolved against the first character’s resistance value.

Each success level causes a wound to the receiving character. Each wound represents a loss of effective power to act within the sphere being contested. Each success level lowers the temporary rating of the used Sphere by 1. If a character looses all of their Sphere rating to wounds, they are incapacitated. At that point, the victor gets to choose whether or not the vanquished opponent lives or dies.

VESUVIUS!

High Concept Simulation: The Last Days of Pompeii meets Groundhog Day, with just a splash of Quantum Leap.

Premise: The players are all members of a Roman family living in Pompeii who get caught when Vesuvius explodes. They all expire in a dreadful deluge of hot ash. But they suddenly wake up - on the morning of their last day of existence. Every day they get another chance to live their life and every night they die under the volcano's fury and every morning they wake up to do it all over again. One day to try and change what they can and escape from the doomed city. But even if they make it to one of the boats and out to sea, they still wake up the next morning with Vesuvius looming over their heads.

Incorporated Elements:

Volcano - Duh.
Blood - All PCs are related to one another
Spheres - Magical Crystal Spheres give the PCs greater control and range over their time-jumping abilities and can even pass this power on to another person. These spheres can also provide other magical benefits to PCs, such as additional or enhanced skills and capacity. If there's anyway out of this endless loop, it'll probably be found in these spheres.
Song - Every person's soul has a song, their ultimate contribution to the universe, their reason for being. It may be large or small, loud or soft, beautiful or ugly, but everyone has one. If the PCs can coax that song out of a person, they can retrieve another Crystal Sphere.

System Mechanics:

Character Creation: Characters are created almost entirely through the medium of play. The core test and nature of the game will help players build characters that will be capable and motivated to work together while still maintaining a range of choice. Players will have Physical and Mental Capacity and this will determine how many Physical/Mental skills they can choose. Skills are pretty open-ended and may be created by Players on the fly. Guidelines for players and GMs will be incorporated to keep the silly and obnoxious out. Personality/Relationship traits can/should be noted but are otherwise undefined - these are beyond simple quantification and are the responsibility of the player to portray.

Task Resolution: Karma. Players will be rated on a Level-Rank system. The Ranks are color-based and run Red-Green-Blue (Highest to Lowest). A Red Level Character is better than the average human, Green Level is average, and Blue Level is below average. There are a couple of other levels for super- or sub-human levels. Within each Level, you have a numerical Rank from 1 to 10 (Lowest to Highest). When you enter a contest against another player, you compare Level first. The higher Level automatically wins the contest. If Levels are tied, you then compare Ranks. The higher Rank wins the contest, but then Rankings are swapped. If you have Red-5 and I have Green-10, I lose. If you have Blue-10 and I have Blue-5, I lose, but we swap rankings so now I have Blue-10 and you have Blue-5. In generic challenges against "The World", the GM assigns the Level and Rank depending on how difficult they think it will be.

Character Reward: Through the setting it is possible to learn any new skill and raise it to a high Level of mastery - you just devote a large number of days to practicing and learning the skill. The Crystal Spheres will be a potent resource and are the primary reward system.

Objectives:

Aside from competing in the Iron Gamer competition, there are a number of points that I'm hoping this game will address. Most of these were inspired from reading (and re-reading) Ron Edward's essay on Simulationism.

1.) Character Creation as Play - This is going to be hammered home. Character generation will be a pretty fast and furious affair and will swiftly move into the very first session (the PCs first "Last Day"). From there, character development will build up a bit over several sessions as PCs work through the impact and ramifications of their new existence.
2.) Power Gamer Kill - Go ahead, treat all of Pompeii like a giant dungeon. Kill everyone, loot everything, kill off your fellow PCs. The game not only assumes this will happen but encourages it in the early stages of play. Go ahead Lucy, eat all that candy, but the very next morning, everything resets to zero. There's nothing to "win". They Crystal Spheres will excite some interest, but once attuned to a PC they can't be stolen for long (they "reset" with the PC every morning). Without the co-operation of the group, it'll be very hard to harvest any more of them. The situation helps guard against "Gamer Creep". That said, very strategic gamers may find the subtleties of unraveling a Soul Song to be very engrossing and rewarding.
3.) Time and Space - Fairly critical factors for this game. How much you can do in 12-24 hours in a city on the brink of destruction is a big question. You can only get about 30 miles away (at most) and the city can be tricky to navigate, especially in the evening as the volcano erupts and doom descends. Luckily PCs have an endless number of chances to "get it right", so timing issues in a scene framing sense are likely to go pretty well.
4.) Creating the Gamespace - Exploring and mapping the "Spacetime" of Pompeii will become a vital activity and PCs will be responsible for making a lot of that happen. Need money? You'll soon know the location of every stash of coins from here to the city walls. A person's Song is to win the love of a beautiful courtesan? You better know when and where those two people are at all times.
5.) The Hard Question - Addressed straight on. How much fun is it to live out the same day over and over again? How much fun is it to simulate a repetitive situation and setting? How much fun is it to explore your setting down to the point where you know the movements of every stray dog? If the situation has no obvious exit, how long before you get cabin fever? Can your characters transcend the situation or will players inject meta-game concerns to do so?

later
Tom

The Chairman wrote: There is tremendous energy in the Game Kitchen Arena so far. The contestants are certainly doing their best to make the judging difficult. With such voluminous dishes of such greatly palatable flavor how can one sort out the best? But in the end there can be only one winner. And there is yet much to come. Many entres are being kept warming in the oven, presumably until later in the competition. So we may yet see even more wonderous achievments of gaming cuisine!

The suspense mounts!

SuperCity


SuperCity Sun

Newsflash

Dr Blood, who readers may remember was defeated several months ago by The Golden Sphere, has only last night escaped from the maximum security wing of the City Gaol, where he was awaiting sentencing. It appears that he had outside help in his escape and Callum Wainwright, the Chief of Police, believes that his accomplice was the notorious Red Volcano, who you will remember was involved in the Six Million Dollar City Bank raid of only a few years ago. Our reporter spoke to the Superheroine Phoenix Song, who arrived at the scene just seconds too late. In an exclusive statement to The Sun, she said that she would do everything within her power to bring to justice both Dr Blood and Red Volcano, before they start to wreak havoc together upon our fair city.

Nothing very original about this traditional-looking superhero RPG...or is there?

Gideon

Song of the blood moon.

2051: a sizable meteorite strikes the earth. Plague begins spreading, centered on the point of impact in the US Midwest. The disease attacks the blood, changing it so that the very cells of the body rejected. The bodies of the dead seem..different somehow. The disease is spread by contact and mortality is 100%. Panic reigns.

Hysteria increases as bodies of the dead start disappearing, and rumours of aliens start circulating. Then the victims start to vanish. Movement is spotted on the moon. A desperate counter-offensive is launched at the Strangers occupying our satellite. The attempt is foiled, and the crews captured. They are sequestered by the hideous aliens, and barraged with images and sounds. These hideous recordings and images begin being broadcast on earth--the population below waits in terror for the end.

Then, one woman held on the moon, listening to the noise-sound of her captors, begins hearing something...a melody? Like the songbirds of her youth. Sense rises from the chaos, and she begins to understand. She watches their actions and realizes that what had first appeared to be butchery and desecration is research.

The aliens are trying to heal the disease.

Songs of Distant Spheres

Long ago mankind left behind the world of its creation and reached out into the dark unknown. As we grew in knowledge our understanding of the Universe became much more clear and thus, much more dangerous.
It is to Mankind’s Eternal lament that he can never take a step back once he has glimpsed the edge…

One thousand years ago one woman, Hannah Zutachi, glimpsed the edge and plunged herself and Mankind headlong into Armageddon. Exploring ancient ruins near the center of our galaxy, Zutachi discovered a new branch of Physics related to Harmonics and Dark Matter. By creating the proper Frequency inside a dark matter “sphere” she was able to harness enormous energies. Her first experiment opened a Great Rift to another dimension but Zutachi did not live long enough to enjoy it. For from this rift, having manipulated Zutachi came the Malganorn.

Malganorn are giant (3m tall) alien creatures with a vast intellect and bodies that can thrive in any environment. They manipulate Dark Matter and other energies by “Singing” the proper resonance for time, space, distance, and effect.

We learned quickly that they consume or corrupt all life.

Over a century passed as everything we could throw at them was destroyed. No weapon was powerful enough and only a handful of the Malganorn were killed before Tenizen showed us the way...

<to be continued>

Sean
ADGBoss

Unfortunately, I need to drop out of the competition. I wasn't thinking about it last week, but it's graduation week for my wife, the relatives are coming to stay, and she has all those fun last-minute things to finish before the semester is over. I simply don't have the quality of time to devote to creating and writing up a whole new game.

Good luck to all the other contestants!

Sorry to hear that.

Actually, I'm also have to respectfully withdraw, but I'll be posting my game in about two weeks, when I get back from a trip that I didn't know about until a couple of days ago.

To all my fellow chefs, may your knives stay sharp.

Here's another teaser, though:

King Te Anau wrote: Our numbers are lessened, and the mountain still grumbles deep in the earth. Our sacrifices have not pleased it.
I must go and tame the mountain.

So. Can one designer enter multiple games?

P.S. I'm serious.

ethan_greer wrote: So. Can one designer enter multiple games?

SuperCity


SuperCity Sun

Newsflash

Dr Blood, who readers may remember was defeated several months ago by The Golden Sphere, has only last night escaped from the maximum security wing of the City Gaol, where he was awaiting sentencing. It appears that he had outside help in his escape and Callum Wainwright, the Chief of Police, believes that his accomplice was the notorious Red Volcano, who you will remember was involved in the Six Million Dollar City Bank raid of only a few years ago. Our reporter spoke to the Superheroine Phoenix Song, who arrived at the scene just seconds too late. In an exclusive statement to The Sun, she said that she would do everything within her power to bring to justice both Dr Blood and Red Volcano, before they start to wreak havoc together upon our fair city.

Overview

SuperCity is an unashamedly spandex-clad superhero role-playing game(rpg). There are lots of superhero games out there and this game is inspired by many or all of them. However it does differ from all the others in a major way. This is that it is designed for large groups of players – 10 to 12 or more and at least 2 GMs, where normal rpg’s are moderated by 1 GM and about 3 to 6 players.

The players are split into 2 teams – the Superheroes and the Supervillains. The Supervillains are fighting for control of SuperCity and the Superheroes are trying to protect the populace and defeat the Supervillains. One GM is in place for each team and to liase with each other to determine whether any members of the teams meet up and so on, much like in other rpg’s.

Starting Off

The GM’s need to determine a few details between them about SuperCity, draw up a rough, stylised map having a copy each, including some or all of these key locations (and others as required): -

· The City Hall
· The City Museum
· The Sports Stadium
· The City Hospital
· The Nuclear Plant
· The City Bank
· The Shopping Mall
· The Water Treatment Works
· The City Airport
· The City Police Department and Gaol.
· The Government Scientific Research Facility
· City Armory
· Residential Areas
· City Park
· The Warehouses
· The Slums

It would be helpful if they came up with a few key figures too, for example

· The City Mayor
· The Police Chief
· A Major Celebrity
· The ‘Normal’ (non-super) Crime Boss

It is also a good idea to make up a bunch of Superheroes and Supervillains (examples at the end of these rules) and even make a HeroMachine picture for each character for players to choose from. Once these details are decided, it moves on to the players.

Each player needs to decide whether to play a Superhero or a Supervillain. It is best if there are equal numbers to each team. The teams then go to separate areas (preferably separate rooms) with their respective GM and make their plans.

The Supervillains have to bring SuperCity to its knees. The way they do this is largely up to them, but they need to subjugate the people – there may be other ways to do this, but one way, might for example, be to replace the Mayor with one of their own (Dr Blood naturally believes it should be him and why stop there? Today SuperCity, tomorrow the Nation and then The World!).

They may need some followers – maybe plebs from the Slums to help them fight off the Police Force and other annoying ‘normals’ who just get in the way of a Supervillains job of taking the city. Capturing some of those annoying super heroes would be great too – the Supervillains could find out how they tick. But again, they are just something to be dealt with along the way to the main task of ruling the city and making slaves of the people.

The super-heroes must try to thwart them. It would be great to find the Supervillains den if they can – it has to be located in the city somewhere. But they must be found and brought to justice. The best way to do this initially is to plan patrols around Supercity, so that they cover as many locations as possible in their move.

The Game

Each team needs a base in SuperCity. It can be in any of the locations. Simply decide where it is, detail any defences and how it is accessed and tell your GM.

Each move is played out in turns. Characters start in their base.

Travel from one location to the next takes 1 turn.

· Those with ‘Super Speed’ can move through one additional location per level of the power.
· Those with Flight can fly one extra location per level of the power - passing through the locations on the way.
· Those with Teleport can go anywhere but do not pass through the other locations.

So Golden Sphere with his tertiary power of flight can fly through up to two locations in his go. Air Raid with Primary Flight and Tertiary Super Speed can pass through 5 locations in his go.

To search a location takes 1 turn. This is needed to find the enemy base. (A Monumental Task reducing by one level per turn spent searching).

At the end of the players moves, the GM’s get together and compare their maps and the moves the teams made, to see whether any paths crossed. Paths will definitely cross when team members end in the same location. If they simply passed through the same location then those with Super Senses definitely spot the others. Those without Super Senses need to roll under Mind on a dice.

E.g. Red Volcano decides to travel with his buddy Air Raid towards the sports stadium, where they know the baseball star Trent Barron will be playing. Both can fly, but Red Volcano is slower – so if they want to stay together they can move only 2 locations. Phoenix Song and the Privateer are running towards the bank. They can travel only one location – funnily enough, the location that Red Volcano and Air Raid passed through. They have not ended their turn in the same location, so spotting is not automatic. Privateer has Super Senses, so he has spotted the other two flying overhead. They only spot him on a successful roll (which they fail). Privateer and Phoenix Song can either let them go, or fire at/attack Red Volcano and Air Raid.

The System Rules

Each character is either a Superhero or a Supervillain.

Each character has 3 attributes. These are: -

Body Represents strength, physique, muscle, toughness and constitution.

Action Represents reflexes, deftness, speed, dexterity, agility and movement.

Mind Represents intellect, will, memory, reasoning and determination.

Each character has 6 points divided between these attributes. Each has a minimum of 1, which is human normal. Each point in the attribute represents the number of dice to roll when performing activities.

Each character also has powers - a primary power, a secondary power and a tertiary power. Each also has a weakness (or no tertiary power). Some of these super powers may be extensions of or additions to the basic attributes.

Using Powers

Opposed Rolls

These normally come from aggressive acts against another character, such as in combat. The players both roll dice and the highest wins. The resultant total scored above that of the other player determines the level of the success.

To use a Primary Power, you roll 4 dice. To use a Secondary Power you roll 3 dice. To use a Tertiary Power, you roll 2 Dice. To use Attributes, you roll as many dice as your character has in that attribute.

The combat is broken down into ‘rounds’ of a few seconds in length. The dice to roll depends on what each character is doing.

Action determines which character gets to attack first. Rounds are counted down from 4 (the highest) to 1 (the lowest). Whoever has an Action on the called round can then attack (if they have any means of attack left). If two or more characters have the same Action, they all roll dice to see who gets to attack first.

In a round a character can attack once. However, he can defend as many times as he can, by using powers and attributes. Each power or attribute can only be used once in a round though. Dodging using Action can only be done once. A character can defend against multiple attacks until he has run out of means to defend or chooses not to defend.

The means to defend against attacks can be powers or Action (dodging). Many of the powers can be used to defend against attack.

Physical Powers

Hand-to-Hand, Power Blasts, Fire Attacks, Frost Blasts etc – these are all physical attacks. They can be defended by similar powers – a fireball could be defended against using an ice-shield for example. Or you could simply shoot a power blast down with a laser beam. Or you could fly out of the way. Any reasonable sounding method of avoidance can be used.

Any attack that gets through and has a positive value will reduce the characters Body by 1. Anyone losing a point of Body loses their attack for that round, if they have not already attacked. They can still defend though. A character reduced to 0 Body is knocked out.

Mental Powers

Mind Attacks, Mental Blasts, Domination etc – these are mental attacks. They can be defended by any of the mental powers or by Mind alone. If it is simply a mental ‘blast’ then the effects become physical. If it is a more dominating attack – Mind Control for example, then the result determines how under control the character is and how long it will last, if not severed.

Any attack that gets through and has a positive value will reduce the characters Mind by 1. A character reduced to 0 Mind is either knocked out or susceptible to the attackers control/mental power.

KO’d characters can recover if woken by colleagues (one totally uninterrupted round).

Physical Attack Powers
Devitalization
Diamond Darts
Electrical Powers
Fire Powers
Gravity Powers
Ice Powers
Light/Laser
Magnetic Powers
Power Blast
Weather Control
Webs*

Combined Attack
Strength + Body

Physical Defence Powers
Acrobatics
Armour**
Electrical Powers
Fire Powers
Gravity Powers
Ice Powers
Invisibility
Light/Laser
Magnetic Powers
Non-Corporealness
Power Blast
Speed
Strength
Super Senses
Weather Control
Webs

Combined Defence
Acrobatics + Action

Mental Attack Powers
Domination
Emotion Control
Illusion
Mental Blast

Mental Defence Powers
Mental Shield**
Domination
Emotion Control
Illusion
Super Senses
Mental Blast

*Cause no damage, but do ensnare.
** Can be used to defend more than once, if of Primary or Secondary power.

Example of combat

Privateer and Phoenix Song decide to attack Red Volcano and air Raid. They attract their attention (Privateer is too cocky not to shout at them first) and Action dictates the order of play. Air Raid and Privateer both have Action 3. They roll and Privateer ends up with the highest and decides to fire his Power Blast Gun at Red Volcano. He rolls 2 dice and they come up 7. Red Volcano gets to defend. He decides to rely on his Stone Powers and so rips a piece of wall from a nearby building, which is used to block the shot. He gets to roll 3 dice for a Secondary Power and gets 16 – blocking the shot.
Then Air Raid gets to have a go and Power Blasts The Privateer, for three dice coming up 9. Privateer uses his Super Senses to avoid the shot (he could have used Acrobatics or Action to get out of the way or even Body to absorb the shot) and gets 10 on his 3 dice, just moving in the nick of time.
Phoenix Song uses her Sonic Powers to attack Red Volcano and as her Primary Power gets to roll 4 dice, getting 13. Red Volcano has already used his Stone Powers this round. He must either use his best attack (Fire Powers) or try to fly out of the way or dodge, using Action. In neither case will he be able to beat the roll Phoenix Song made, so he decides to try to absorb the shot, using his Body Attribute. He rolls 3 dice and gets 12 – not enough! He suffers a point of Body damage and loses his attack for that round.

Weaknesses

Each character has a weakness. This is unknown to the other team (at least initially). In most cases this is a weakness to a particular form of attack. If attacked by something for which they have a weakness they use 2 dice less to defend against the attack.

So, in the example above, if Phoenix Song had attacked Air Raid with her Sonic Power, Air Raid would have tried to Fly out of the way – normally 4 dice for him, but reduced to only 2 dice because he has a weakness against this form of attack.

Unopposed Rolls

These are rolls where there is not an opponent, but the challenge is determined by other factors – such as how difficult it would be due to conditions such as adverse weather, the need for speed etc.

Again the player simply rolls dice for what he is doing – using Power Blast to knock down brick wall for example. The player rolls dice in a bid to exceed the number in the table belo, depending on the GM-assessed difficulty.

So, Golden Sphere is trying to knock a hole in a brick wall. The brick wall for example could be 3 feet thick and the GM has determined each foot is one level of difficulty. This makes the wall hard to blast down so Golden Sphere needs a 15 or higher. He rolls 4 dice for his Laser/Light Power and gets 16 – he has basted a hole through the wall.


Difficulty Number to exceed
Straightforward 5
Moderate 10
Hard 15
Daunting 20
Formidable 25
Monumental 30



The Cast List - stats in this order

Name B A M Primary Secondary Tertiary Weakness

Golden Sphere 2 2 2 Laser/Light Powers Force Field Flight Stone Powers
Phoenix Song 1 2 3 Sonic Powers Regeneration Mental Shield Ice Powers
Challenger 2 2 2 Mental Blast Armour Acrobatics Mental Blast
Shadow Knight 3 2 1 Armour Illusions Teleport Domination
The Privateer 2 3 1 Acrobatics Super Senses Power Blast Gun Cocky
Lady Luck 1 2 3 Lucky Emotion Control Flight Power Blast
Laserburn 2 3 1 Speed Laser/Light powers Flight Darkness
Golden Wing 2 2 2 Flight Gravity Powers Acrobatics Magnetic Powers
The Moth 1 4 1 Super Senses Sonic Powers Moth Form Heat/Flame
Bulldog 3 1 2 Strength Super Senses Mental Shield Devitalization
Attractor 2 1 3 Magnetic Powers Armour Mental Blast Diamond
Firefox 2 3 1 Flame Powers Flight Acrobatics Absorb Heat

Dr Blood 2 1 3 Devitalization Teleport Regeneration Megalomaniac
Red Volcano 3 1 2 Fire Powers Stone Powers Flight Magnetic Powers
Doppleganger 1 4 1 Copy Powers Shape Shift None None
Air Raid 2 3 1 Flight Power Blast Speed Sonic Powers
Frost Storm 2 2 2 Ice Powers Absorb Heat Regeneration Power Blast
Dr Necros 1 1 4 Darkness Domination Mental Blast Megalomaniac
Dracos 3 2 1 Flame Powers Flight Armour Water
The Brute 4 1 1 Strength Armour Size Change (larger) Emotion Control
Wraith 2 2 2 Non-Corporealness Devitalization Invisibility Light/Laser
Lady Diamond 2 2 2 Reflection Diamond Darts Armour Illusions
Repellor 2 1 3 Magnetic Powers Armour Power Blast Mental Blast
The Eel 1 3 2 Electrical Powers Regeneration Water Breathing Gravity Powers

Notes.

· Armour can be used to defend more than once against physical attacks, but each subsequent time it is as if one lower level.
· Mental Shield can be used to defend more than once against mental attacks, but each time at one lower level.
· Super Senses can be used defensively, to notice incoming attacks sooner and react to them.
· Super Senses is the only defence that can be used against either physical or mental attacks.
· Shapeshift means Doppleganger can shift his attributes around as he wishes.
· Copy powers means that Doppleganger can see a power being used and copy it for as long as he wants to use it. He can only use one power at a time in this way.
· Reflection can reflect energy powers back at the user, meaning they then have to defend against their own power.
· Regeneration means the character can recover if KO’d, at one point per round per level of power.
· Strength can be used to add to Body rolls in hand to hand.
· Acrobatics can add to Action to defend.

Okay, its not complete. I need to add some more about how to handle which team wins and which team loses, maybe mundane weapons and how to handle 'normal' npcs and so on. However, I'm going away for a couple of days soon, so I needed to get this out of my hair first!

Gideon
http://www.geocities.com/simonwashbourne/Beyond_Belief.html

Greetings All,

I know everyone announced their intentions to participate days ago but I wasn't sure if I'd have anything to contribute. Now I think I may. So here's my birthday present to you. (Yeah, I know, it's supposed to be the other way around. But I forgive you for not knowing. ;) There’s more to come, and hopefully a PDF of the complete game with graphics and maps; most of which are *mostly* completed.

But for now here’s a bit of a teaser of what I am working on. It also helps that I had bits and pieces of things to work with, hope thats alright Mike?

In anycase this uses a hybrid (or will once it’s fully in place) of the mechanics underlying Crystal Spheres and Revenge of the Crypt Fiend, more or less. But enough of that, onward! Onward!

#

Ubel They: Song of the Blood Spheres

Background: In the age of Godhr, when the gods yet walked the earth, the Wolf Clans of Ombrage were united under the banner of the High Chiefs of Nimrud. For thousands of years they served as protectors and guardians of the clan lands through their High Chiefs. These High Chiefs were appointed by each clan to serve a year and a day. By all accounts they were just, their councilors wise, and their Battle Wizards renowned across the three continents. Yet they feared the invaders from across the sea, the tamers of the wind whose crimson sails too often were sighted near their shores. Such was the age of Vindr.
Then the Sphere of Meliq, one of the ten Blood Spheres of Riule, magical orbs long thought lost, was rediscovered. Found hidden in ruins deep within the forest Ancien the sphere was brought to Nimrud, where news of its discovery quickly spread throughout the land. All clans hailed this event as a omen signaling the start of a new era of prosperity and peace. For with the Sphere of Meliq the clan Chiefs, and their wise councilors, hoped to return the land to its ancient glory and see the light of the Riule gods once more returned to the world. So began the Wolf Age.

Alas, for all its promise, the Wolf Age was short lived. And never would the race of men be the same again, for with its closing the rule of the clan chiefs ended and their ancestral lands, left in chaos, were over run with monstrous beasts. Creatures of nightmare roamed the countryside, vampire bandits preyed upon unwary travelers, and, worst of all, the Sphere of Meliq had been captured by the race of cold blooded saurians who would become reviled throughout the three continents as the Slave-lords. So began the Draconian ascendancy.


Synopsis: Players in Song of the Blood Spheres will belong to one of three alliance groups: the Draconic Coalition, Necromancer’s Guild, or Monster’s Free Union. These factions represent the ruling tripartite native groups living in the world of They (pronounced: th AE). Characters will be archetypal heroes summoned to the present age through the mists of time.

While each faction may have disparate end-goals they all find themselves in the same position, they need Heroes. Of course there haven’t been any heroes in Ubel They for hundreds of generations, which means that each group has to concentrate their resources to summon a hero from the mists of space and time.

#

All Heroes have three Traits, in addition to their Hero Factor; these Traits are: Courage, Will, and Strength. Each player has exactly 9 attribute points to distribute between these Traits.

Courage: A measure of bravery, valor, and daring. Very important for determining success of Heroic Actions.

Will: Every Hero has one, and thank goodness for it!. If not for Will most Heroes would all too easily succumb to the wiles of Witches and fall prey to every bargain basement Succubus.

Strength: This trait measures brawn, vigor, and the potency of a Hero’s physical attributes.

#

Prior to actual play everyone will need to determine their Heroic character. To do this simply take 2D6 and roll on the chart below. For those who read the rules, and you know who you are, warm the dice up. Hope you get what you rolled for!

2. Knight
3. Paladin
4. Warrior Crusader
5. Blade Dancer
6. Sword Mistress
7. Warrior
8. Norseman Berserker
9. Knight Templar (Knight of Justice)
10. Sword Dancer
11. Amazon Archer
12. Barbarian Warrior

#

There’s a lot more yet to do, and quite a lot omitted, obviously, but all things considered how’s that so far?


Kind Regards,

Kester Pelagius

mmmm.... some interesting dishes being served up by the other chefs!

here is an apperitif to get the juices primed for my upcoming course...



Daemons of Strife and Love
a role-playing game based on the sayings of Empedocles

Empedocles of Acragas wrote:
There (in the sphere) are distinguished neither the swift limbs of the sun, no, nor the shaggy earth in its might, nor the sea, -- so fast was the god bound in the close covering of Harmony, spherical and round, rejoicing in his circular solitude.

Dr. Emile Tenizen analyzed Hannah Zutachi’s work but avoided the traps the Malganorn placed in their transmissions. He kept hold of his own mind and although he could not reproduce his own Malganorn he was able to create powerful battle suits, called RIFv or Robotic Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Over the years they have become to be known as Riffers and their Pilots known as Riffraff.

It takes a special person, capable of understanding the nuances of the various Songs. Those who do are seen as both Hero and Villain. They are Heroes when fighting the Malganorn but Villains when tweaking the noses of the ruling elite who run the Empire of Man.


Introduction

An enormous Galaxy in a Time of War…

Exploration of Setting

From the Orion Gate to the Great Rift, mankind has spread all over the galaxy. Thousands of worlds have been made colonies and even thousands of years in our future, all the secrets have not yet been revealed.

In all its travels, Mankind has only met two Alien races. The friendly and highly intelligent Ulmboks and the malignant Malganorn. Still, many worlds have strange flora and fauna, and hold ancient caches of knowledge left behind by a civilization that does not even have a name. Some people fear this knowledge and some, like the Imperial Intelligence Directive, wish to use it to further their own political views.

The Gifted however, embrace this knowledge as it helps them pilot their RIFv with even more precision and flexibility. Outside of the machines though, the Gifted is still a powerful force, capable of doing things mundane citizens could only dream of. They exist in a political world that casts many shadows and RIFvP often times find themselves lost in the Shadows or worse, consumed by them.

A people torn between the desire for freedom and the desire for survival…

Exploration of Character

When the Imperial Army and the IID watch every move you make, its difficult to get “creative” in the pilot seat. Creativity itself is often seen as a sign of Malganorn corruption. Every day people are subjected to the dreaded Mind Scan. Few leave unscarred from its nightmarish grip.

You however, do not fear the IID or the tyrannical corporations that force-feed the population culture in their time of need. You’re a Riffer or RIFVP (Robotic Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Pilot) and the Imperial Army needs you as a man needs water. Some say you’re a rebel but you and your fellow pilots are just expressing yourselves in a way the rest of the population finds alien.

Of course none of the mundane populace knows the tight rope you walk. Knowledge is power and the Malganorn try and seduce every pilot they come across. It is difficult. You can hit all the right resonance without some of that ancient know how, but damn does it make it a lot user.

Materials Needed for Play

Paper, Pencils, and Miniatures are helpful to record data and have a visual representation of play. Minis are NOT mandatory. (See role-playing combat in the Skills and Conflict Resolution chapter)

1x d20. A 20 Sided Die or some computer programs that can reproduce the same random roll is needed.

4x d6. At least 4 6 sided dice or some computer programs that can reproduce the same random roll is needed.

Chapter One:

System: Target 15

Roles and Character Generation

Players take on the roles or Persona of a Gifted, RIFv pilot. Their goals are many, although survival in the front lines of the Malganorn War is first among them.

The following are samples of what a RIFvP or Gifted might be like:

The Soldier: Even if it had not been the Malganorn War, you would have found someone to fight. You enjoy being a soldier and aside from your survival, your main goal is to advance in Rank and military Skills.

The Rebel: Ok sure, your fighting the Malganorn to save the Human race. The Ulmbok to yeah. But… BUT! Your doing this so that the Population sees you and gets all excited so that when the Malganorn are gone, the real enemy, The Empire, can be overthrown. Rules are for dipshits.

The Martyr: You were destined to die. First it was God and then Ulmbok rights on Gemini II and then the Sivrik Fish on Minos IX. If there is a cause you are throwing your worthless life away to see it gets done. Now the ultimate cause is here. Someone has to defeat the Malganorn once and for all and you intend to die, spectacularly, trying.

Ulmbok Pilot: You’re cute and fuzzy and can manipulate the Gifs better then any Human, but of course you never tell them that. Life is fun! Of course you hate to see violence but you see the Malganorn for the Children of Entropy that they are and have remorse in killing them. If you can have fun with the Humans along the way, well cool.

The above are mere examples of the kinds of Roles a Player may choose for their Persona.

Some Definitions for Chapter One

Persona: A fictional character that a Player portrays in the game.
Attributes: The basic building blocks of a Persona that determine the basis for Statistics and Skills.
Statistics: The more complex building blocks of a Persona that define certain in game abilities.

Persona (Character) Generation

Step 1: The Group Mind

This is not really a crunchy bit of rules but mainly a discussion between GM (Game Master) and the Players over the mood of the game and what kind of characters are going to fit the game best. In any group there can be only one (1) Ulmbok character so the group should decide who gets to play that if indeed anyone wants to.

Step 2: Attribute Generation

Definition of Attributes

Physique: The overall physical strength, health, and dexterity of the Persona.
Intellect: The basic intelligence and learning ability of the Persona.
Psyche: The Willpower and basic Sanity of a Persona

All Attributes start at 1. The Player then has 10 extra points to divide between the various Attributes, with no score higher then 6, that is no more then 5 extra points can be added to any Attribute.

Step 3: Statistic Generation

Definition of Statistics

Initiative: The ability to make the first move in any Conflict* Resolution.
Health: The ability to sustain Physical Damage. When a Persona reaches –1 Health he or she is dead. Dead. Dead. Get it? Dead.
Sanity: The ability to sustain Mental Damage. This number, unlike Health, cannot be healed over time except with a lot of Therapy. Certain Gifts can return Sanity but once it reaches 0, the Persona is Insane and its Role changes.
Passive Defense: This is a combat ability, when a character is otherwise occupied it defines the basic defensive ability of that Persona. This is negated if the character is unconscious or immobilized.
Smack: This is a combat ability, when a character kicks or punches or hits with a melee weapon, this is added to damage.

*Conflict does NOT mean necessarily, Combat.

Initiative = 1d20 + [(Physique + Intellect)/2]
Health= Physique x 4
Sanity= Psyche x 4
Passive Defense (PD)= Physique x 2
Smack = Physique

Step 4: Skill and Song Determination

Definitions of Skills and Songs

Skill: A learned ability or a talent honed to a higher ability. Cooking, shooting a gun, and seduction are examples of Skills.
Song: Songs, also known as Gifts, are the super-physical powers that the Gifted and the Malganorn possess.
Skill / Song Level: Untrained, Trained, Expert, Teacher, Master. These are the measures of the ability for each skill or song. That is, how proficient each Persona is with these skills. There is no “Untrained” level for Songs. A Song cannot be used untrained.

Table 1.4
Untrained Trained Expert Teacher Master
-2 0 +3 +6 +12

Each Persona begins with a number of trained skills equal to: Intellect x 2
They may upgrade half of these (or Intellect x 1) to Expert Status OR upgrade 1 to Teacher (+6) Level.

Every Persona begins with the following Skills:

Pilot, RIFv: Expert
Computer Use: Trained
Combat, RIFv: Expert
Language: Imperial: Expert
-These may be upgraded as above.

The use of these numbers will be explained in Chapter 2.

Each Persona begins with a number of trained Songs equal to Psyche. They may upgrade one of these Expert.

Every Persona begins with the following Songs:

Short Warp: Trained
Song of the Volcano: Trained
Song of the Blood: Trained
-These may be upgraded as above.
Step 5: Gender, Name, Appearance

At this point most of the crunchy bits are done. The Player should choose their name, gender, age, planet of origin and any defining physical characteristics. A discussion of the attitudes and goals of each Persona would also be appropriate since these may have changed based on choices during character creation.

Also there is Rank. All Personas begin, unless otherwise noted by the GM, as a Flight Lieutenant (Rank 1). Rank is purely for in game influence. It has no real mechanical purpose.

Otherwise the Persona is finished.

The Chairman wrote: The aromas drifting up from Game Design Kitchen Arena are almost too tantalizing! Less than three days left, and one can see the determination of these proud warriors. Some have had to step aside already, but others proceed with great vigor! Who will reign in the end as Iron Game Chef Simulationist?

We shall see!

Vulcan's Forge Background wrote:

THE BEFORE

On the eve of a new century, humanity stood on the threshold of lasting world peace. Technology and social development had reached new heights, and all Earth’s pundits were predicting a new era of global prosperity and healing. Class, regional and tribal discontents and distinctions had faded almost entirely into the embrace of recorded history.

We had begun taking the first tentative steps towards a permanent human presence outside of our planet – yet still within our own solar system. Semi-permanent mining colonies had been established in the asteroid belts, and manned scientific stations were orbiting Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto. A permanent colony was established on Earth’s Moon, and was beginning to build our first interstellar spaceships.

Scientists for the first time truly and universally agreed that a Grand Unified Theory of physics was within our grasp. Technological engineering discoveries had produced the first workable theory of interstellar travel. Medical, biological and genetic science had merged – and against all odds was applied to the population at large in ethical and socially progressive ways.

Many chronic, genetic diseases had been fully and totally conquered by this marriage of genetics and medicine. Genetic engineering was used regularly, not to engineer a master race or guarantee super-human potential, but to mitigate the often devastating effects of genetic defects.

Nationalism and the supremacy of the nation-state had given way a first to continental government alliances and eventually to a workable and accepted world governing body. The global political landscape still included the nation-state political structure, but supreme authority for the governance of humanity had gradually evolved beyond the control of purely national actors – spurred on in large part by the advances in computer network technologies and the communities that arose as direct descendants of the so-called information super-highway.

As the world began celebrating the beginning of a new century filled with the possibility of hope, redemption, technological and scientific achievement, and the real potential of colonizing the stars – the first wave of the invasion began.

THE RISE OF THE FALLEN

A small scouting force secured a beach-head on our planet unnoticed by all. This new enemy from beyond the edge of our Solar System arrived quietly – predatory stalkers as invisible to us as the hunter behind the duck blind is to the ducks. The first signal of trouble was the rapid resurrection of national and tribal factionalism.

The Earth Alliance crumbled as member states pulled out of decades’ old global agreements and began rekindling old and sometimes ancient rivalries and hatreds. Rapidly advancing technological and scientific breakthroughs were channeled into vastly destructive military applications. Regional warfare erupted all over the globe – and former superpowers began to reassert their claims to unilateral global supremacy.

A core group of Earth Alliance intelligence operative stumbled upon the truth as the world precipitously unraveled: Earth was under attack by alien forces. These aliens seemed able to slide through society unnoticed – and to manipulate the political and military actors close to the centers of national, regional and tribal power throughout the world.

The aliens had no discernable physical form. Rather they seemed able to possess humans and use them as puppets and tools to accomplish their goals. These Fallen humans, once infected by an alien possession, were lost for good – no method was ever discovered for healing them or removing the alien taint. The Fallen, as they became know, also exhibited seemingly super-human capabilities. Some of them manipulated the fundamental forces of the universe to devastating effect.

The only clue to the alien’s existence were the Fallen and their paranormal capabilities. Whenever one of the alien’s human hosts exhibited such stunning powers, they spoke in a strange, haunting voice that sounded like soulful singing to the human ear.

Dedicated efforts by teams of covert intelligence operatives proved the existence of the invading aliens and brought this proof to the attention of second tier political leaders worldwide. The line staff of the Earth Alliance arranged global coups d'état – and took control of the worlds political and military institutions back from the Aliens.

The bloody and destructive revolutions claimed the lives of millions of innocent civilians. Several of the aliens were taken alive – and given over to the scientific and research arms of the Earth Alliance for study. What they discovered alarmed them greatly – and sent humanity down a path that would seal its ultimate destiny and signal the beginning of the end for our world as we knew it.

PROJECT VULCAN

Earth Alliance scientists learned that the aliens captured represented only advanced scouts for a much larger invasion force. Military analysts studied the situation, and given the destruction caused by so small a group, decided that if the full alien invasion force arrived at Earth – all would be lost in a matter of hours.

Earth Alliance leaders rallied their nation-state members, the Earth’s scientific and engineering communities, and the remaining worldwide military-industrial complexes to build weapons that could be sent out into space to meet the approaching invasion.

The scientists studying the alien tainted Fallen broke through the language barrier and learned that the alien’s were capable of manipulating the very fabric of space and time simply through the use of their spoken language. Try as they did, however, the scientists were unable to achieve the same results with untainted humans. Despite being able to learn and speak the alien language, some critical component to unlocking these supremely important paranormal abilities was missing.

The Earth Alliance leadership demanded that the scientific community apply their prodigious genetic engineering capabilities to the problem – demanding the creation of controllable alien tainted soldiers capable of using these uniquely powerful songs – as the powers had come to be known. Project Vulcan was started in secret with over two hundred test subjects.

The gene splicing resulted in mostly horrible death for the test subjects. Only three survived the process – but they could successfully sing in the alien tongue and thereby manipulate the fundamental forces of the universe.

Unfortunately, these successes were not created with any kind of control mechanism in place, and the three successful test subjects lost short and intense battles with insanity. They escaped and killed thousands of innocents before being put down by massive military force.

Undaunted, the scientists of Project Vulcan began again, combining in the lessons learned from their failures and control ideas from the cybernetic and robotics industries. Their second round of tests achieved success beyond their wildest dreams. They were able to create cybernetic-genetic alien/human hybrids who were eminently controllable and devastatingly powerful as military weapons.

Given humanities outcry after the first Vulcan disaster – and given the fact that the alien invaders could find and fully possess anyone involved in Project Vulcan, Earth Alliance’s leaders proposed a risky plan for mass producing these super-soldiers.

The Project Vulcan staff created a core group of Vulcans (the synthetic alien/human hybrids) and gave them the programming and resources necessary to set up secret factories capable of mass producing the super-soldiers. These factories were known collectively as Vulcan’s Forge.

THE BATTLE IS JOINED

Several thousand of these super-soldiers, along with hundreds of thousands of human space marines (power armor wearing soldiers known as Impacters) headed into space in newly constructed cruisers capable of interstellar travel – technology reverse engineered from the ships of the aliens.

Humanity met the full force of invading aliens just outside the boundaries of our solar system. The war raged for close to a year – with the Earth Alliance continually sending more and more Vulcans and human soldiers into the fray.

Earth suffered a nearly 90% casualty rate – but we eventually won the war.

THE AFTERMATH

As humanities champions returned to Earth, they were met with suspicion and often times outright hatred. Most of humanity viewed the Vulcans as fully alien, and refused to accept them in any role in a post war civilization.

Earth Alliance leaders, responding to the wishes of their constituents, and frankly fearing for their own power, began mandating that all Vulcans be rounded up and ‘de-commissioned’. The orders went out, and the Earth Alliance Impacters were eventually given the thankless task of hunting down the Vulcans and finding their secret factories.

The Vulcan’s reacted violently – as part of their programming included a survival protocol. Many of them went insane, as the tension between their directives to protect humanity directly conflicted with their survival protocols. A core group of visionary Vulcans realized that humanities only hope was to believe that they had destroyed the Vulcans.

They maneuvered the Earth Alliance into recalling all of their Earth Alliance Impacter units from space in order to meet a gathering force of Vulcans. The Vulcans struck the returning cruisers by surprise, and destroyed them all – reigning nuclear fire across the Earth.

The devastating aftermath of the battle destroyed much of Humanities technological advancements – particularly the secrets of successful space flight – and drove the remaining humans underground and into hiding.

The remaining Vulcan’s boarded the remaining interstellar spacecraft and left our solar system for good.

Unbeknownst to the retreating Vulcans, they’d left at least one of their secret factories in tact – damaged, but in tact. Over the next thousand years, as humanity waited out the prolonged nuclear winter, Vulcan’s Forge slowly produced a new breed of Vulcans.

THE RETURN OF HUMANITY

Tentatively at first, humanity clawed its way out of the caves and back into the light. The landscape had changed dramatically – having been permanently scarred by the years of war and nuclear fallout.

Most of the Earth remained barren and devoid of life. But much of humanities former glory remained. The returning humans found technology lying around – and in many cases they were able to make this technology work. In the hundred years since humanities return to the surface, many of the lost technological gains have been found again.

Unfortunately, most humans don’t have enough information to operate, let alone reproduce, many of the technological marvels they have found.

Much of the human race now lives in massive Archologies – cities built literally on the ruins of massive cities abandoned a thousand years earlier. Each such Archology typically considers itself a nation-state unto itself. Regional and tribal warfare is the norm – and rabid and sometimes mutated gangs roam the streets of these Archologies. Life is short, brutal and often filled with strife.

But among the humans walk small groups of Vulcan’s – produced by Vulcan’s Forge – who still cling to their primary directive: Protect Humanity. Acting if nothing else like itinerant police and avenging angels – they are almost universally feared but strangely welcomed by the downtrodden and the oppressed.

They are the protectors of this age. They are the protagonists of humanities new myth and legend. They are the heroes of Vulcan’s Forge.

FOUL BLOOD
DragonGrace JOE--

I: Quick Introduction - BAM!

Volcano - Takes the form of a game mechanic in which it acts as a time bomb.
Song - Takes the form of a game mechanic which is essential to personal victory.
Sphere - takes the form of an in game aesthetic in which the Celestial Sphere is a basis of an in game mechanic.
Blood - Appears in the title and is a measure of a characters health, thus a mechanic.

Foul Blood is about mental illness. This can be taken as seriously or as light hearted as one wishes in a game context, but I personally take mental illness to be a serious issue. It runs in the family to some extent. It runs in many families to some extent, and while I don't not fear that I will suffer from anything other than a delusion of greatness from the rational part of my brain, the irrational part fears it will be forgotten and in return forget. In all reality, we have our fun with the notion of insanity, but in the end, it's just sadness. Thanks. JOE--

II: A Couple of Welcomes

a fellow patient wrote:
Welcome to the Celestial Institute for the Mentally Ill. That's how all the doctor's cheerily greet the families as they walk through the door, while dollar signs and little colored pills dance through their eyes. Let me tell you what's up, my partner in sanity. We are called the enemy, we are the disturbed, the psychotic, the mentally ill. Napoleon will tell you, just ask him.

I hope you can remember the last song you heard, I hope you can remember the last time you looked at the stars, because that's all you got. The blessed stars are our salvation, the beings from the stars will save us. They will save us all but not through the damning marks stained upon the walls. The stains are left there to haunt us. They mark the past like words on a page. They taunt us by their presence. Personally I see the one, the horns, hunting me, running me down. Damn it don't you tell no one. Don't you tell no one what you think. Who am I kidding they'll bleed it out of me in the basement. Oh God! Don't let them take me to the basement, I'll tell you what you want to know, I can't go down there again, I won't make ti this time.

And I am breathing, breathing, where was I? Oh yeah, Remember those words of that song that you know, you know? Those words will save you in the end. I'll help you out. I can't remember all of mine, but I'll learn yours. I'll help you remember. I'll help you get back to their side of the fence. I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine. Only mines real itchy. It itches with the words of the pen on that chicken scratch paper. Dr. High and Mighty writes all kinds of things. Sometimes he sends the nightmares, sometimes I ride those black stallions all the way to the hole in the floor and poop them buggers out like all the bad medicine that they give us in the med room.

I'll help you out to be sure, mate. I'll show you to your room and I'll see you first thing in the morning. You'll know me. You'll remember me. I'll be sitting next to Napoleon holding onto my fuzzy bunny slippers so no one, AND I MEAN NO ONE, can take them from me ever again.

a fellow doctor wrote:
So you see gentlemen, their madness is contagious. Be careful not to fall into their mind traps. Be careful to learn the words to those 'songs' they try so desperately to hold onto. Those songs are a direct link to and from their brain and their insanity. The very constellations that our beloved directly has placed upon these hallowed halls serves as a reminder to those words, so find out what helps them remember and remove it.

And as you heard my poor delusional patient state as well, there is some symbol that calls each and every one back to this reality. I have long since know that a sign of the Bull draws my patient out. Find out what that sign is as it will serve you in curing these poor souls. That symbol blocks the set back of the insanity so that they can forget those rogue thought and ill humours that put them in this state.

The words, the stars, the signs, are all important but so is the traditional practices. Finding the proper medication should be top on your priority list, as well as electrostatic, hydrostatic, and the old practice of leeching treatments that we maintain on the lower levels.

There were men and women inside those minds, my friends. It is out job, nay, our duty to bring back those noble souls from the brink of insanity into the warmth and welcoming structure of our modern society. Even if we have to wipe the slate clean, as it were, it will be better than sending them back into the world in the state you see them in. Identity complexes, obsession and dependency disorders, and many other ailments are all curable. It's 1921 and we have the technology and the know how to save these poor wretches.

Now, you have your assignments, get a good nights rest, and show up bright and early for the morning session. Each day is a new day and another chance to welcome them back to the sane and productive world.

Dream Symbol definition wrote:
"The longer and harder the subconscious is supressed, the more devestaing the final outburst."

Greetings All,

Wow, a lot of great entries today. Some awesome work, too!

Though I am beginning to think a week is barely enough time to cobble together a decent rough draft, I suppose Mr. Holmes has the right of it. It really is amazing what a little friendly pressure, peer or otherwise, can propel one to accomplish. Can't wait to read all the entries.

I have a little something to add, though it's not as great. In fact it's not really all that complete, but I have uploaded it just the same. So, if you are interested, a rough working PDF of Ubel They is now available for your scorn, derision, and belly laughs at my Yahoo group, found here. Let me know what you think.

The PDF is roughly 800k and runs 30-32 pages. Though that's mostly white space due to formatting and the fact there's yet a lot of detail that needs to be filled in. But at least it's something to see, and there are maps.

Just log in, go to the file area, and click on the "Ubel They" folder. Say, Mike, maybe that's what Iron Game Chef needs? A group somewhere that everyone can UL files to. What do you think?

Don't strain your eyes while reading!


Kind Regards,

Kester Pelagius

Kester,
Nobody really expects much more than decent rough drafts. Though I was surprised by the quality as a whole of the last contests results. And these seem very nice as well. To say the least.

Why one week? Because it seems long enough to get a game together and yet short enough to keep pressure there. We used to do 24 hour ones, but they tended not to get much repsonse. That's because only so many people can participate in a given 24 hours. If I had my druthers and could get people to sign up first or something, I'd go with that parameter. This way, people can pick the days that they want to work on their project, meaning more people play. Also it's a good period for suspense to build.

Lastly I'm of a belief that it only takes about 24 hours to make the most important 90% of a game. The rest is icing on the cake. Which can be added later if people want to publish their creations (something I highly suggest).

And it's as much a game as it is an attempt to promote creativity. I think I even have a prize this time.

As far as where to post, I like it here. In fact, I'm not a fan of PDF for reading (I never print anything out and find PDF hard to read). I'm not judging on what the "printed" version looks like at all. Layout is not a criteria.

So I'd like to accept your entry, and would as it's as complete as I expect a game to be. But it has to be posted here to count. Only graphics are excepted. This is because I can count on people not being able to alter the entries after they're entered here (and if they alter graphics we'll all notice so I'm not worried about that). Just keeps everything fair.

I'm a stickler for rules. Go figure.

BTW, anyone can certainly post an updated version of their game here. So if you've posted something, and then revised it, post it again. Just make sure that it's clear which version is the final version (I don't want to have to read through several versions of each game). Another way is to link the parts together in a final post.

Mike

Chapter TWO:

System: Target 15

Skills and Conflict Resolution

A word on Conflict. Clearly, in many RPG’s, the word Conflict brings to the mind a myriad of deadly physical or magical confrontations. A dividing line is drawn between the mechanics for non-combat skill resolution and combat skill resolution.

In SODS, Combat is a subset of normal Skill resolution, which, although it requires comment, really works no differently then the use of other skills. If SODS were a war game a large and detailed combat section would be appropriate but SODS is a game about war and the personal conflicts that arise in the course of survival.

2.1 Coming into Conflict

Simply put, Conflict occurs whenever a Persona tries to perform an action resisted by another Persona, Nature, or the Persona himself. A Persona tries to seduce an IID agent; another Persona tries to open the hatch of RIFv that is not hers; a Persona must try and come to grips with the Horrors of War.

At the GM’s and Personas’ option, actual mechanical resolution of Conflict can be foregone if the situation warrants it.

For example: Three RIFvP go out to a bar and get in a friendly game of darts. The person with the best Physique will probably win, unless he or she has had a lot to drink. No real need for rolls. However, if a rival unit’s RIFvP comes up and wants to play, it may be better to slide into Conflict Resolution mode.

2.2 The Process of Conflict Resolution

Definitions of Conflict Resolution

Action: The exertion of mental or physical energy during the confines of the Moment.
Moment: An amount of time for all participating Personas and Extras to perform an action or small number of actions. Up to 3 for a Persona and 1 for an Extra.
Extra: Small Personas who have no purpose other then to act as part of the environment. These are always controlled by the GM.

The Steps of CR

1. Determine who or what is involved in the Conflict
2. Each Persona rolls Initiative. All Extras have an Initiative of 1d6.
3. The Persona with the Highest Initiative Acts first. Once he or she is done, the Personas and Extras move according to their position in the Initiative ranking. That is Highest to Lowest.
4. Any natural or unnatural events occur. Earthquakes, sprung traps, crashing space ships, and exploding planets all qualify here.
5. The moment is over.

Performing an Action

As you may have noted the subtext for this system is Target: 15. That is to say that any roll on a d20, after both positive and negative modifiers have been taken into effect, that is 15 or higher is a success. Period. The lock opens, you find the correct circuit, or you slam your fist into the Malganorn’s head.

Passive Resistance

Now a lock, unless controlled by an aware computer, offers only passive resistance when being picked. The gravity of a 2g planet pulling at your body as you run a marathon again is offering passive resistance yet you are still in Conflict. In combat, all Personas and Extras have a Passive Defense number that acts as a negative modifier to hit that Character as long as the character is Aware and not Immobile.

Critical Success and Failure

Success

A roll of a natural 20 that is still a total of 20+ after all modifiers are added is a Critical Success. On a critical success, the action is fully effective with no negative repercussions for the Persona who is performing the action. For example: A Persona trying to jump from one moving train to another gets a critical. Not only does the jump succeed but also she lands behind the man she was chasing in perfect position to attack him. The GM should adjudicate all critical successes so that they are a reward but do not the physics of the game too much.

Also, when a character gets a Critical Success, they gain 1 point of Experience for that skill.

Failure

A roll of natural 1 is always a failure, regardless of the bonuses or the level of skill. However, since nothing teaches like failure, a Persona gains 1 point of Experience for that skill.

Giving up an Action

As mentioned a Persona may take up to 3 Actions in each Moment. This can be movement, verbalizing ideas, or performing a skill. It can be all three (one of each). However, because of initiative order, a Persona may give up two of his/her actions to perform one Action out of order. This is usually to offer Active Resistance against another Persona or Extra to prevent their action from succeeding. Giving it Up, as it is known, really comes in two flavors: Active Defense and Counter Skill.

Active Defense

When someone is trying to break down a door or suddenly a giant space squid is going to eat your RIFv, a Persona may choose to go into Active Defense mode. In the case of holding back the door, the GM adds the Reacting Player’s Physique (or any appropriate Attribute) to the negative modifiers of the Acting player’s Skill attempt.

In Combat, Active Defense means a doubling of the Passive Defense score of the Reacting Player.

Counter Skill

Jill Longpants is trying to break into the Main Frame AI of Freedom Base. Her goody two shoes twin, Jane Longpants wants to stop her. Jill uses her Computer Skill and Jane reacts, using her own skill to counter Jill. Jane makes a skill roll just like Jill and if both succeed, Jill is blocked and a Stalemate ensues. If both fail nothing happens. A simple failure of Jill’s allows her to try again on her next action. A stalemate locks both Jill and Jane into another contest.

This is the essence of counter skill. If a reacting Persona does NOT have a Skill or Song that can counter the Acting Persona’s Skill (or Song) then they cannot react to it.

2.3 The Results

When a Skill succeeds, the result = whatever the successful result of using that skill would be. A gunshot hits its target. A Picked lock opens. A diffused bomb does not explode. This is very simple.

Special Cases: Physical and Mental Harm

During physical (or metaphysical combat: see Chapter 3) combat the usual intention is to physically harm or subdue an opponent or opponents. Outside of combat, falling off a building, eating 10-year-old cheese, or having a sun go nova right next to you can cause physical harm.

Fighting!

Taking damage from physical attacks removes health. Armor absorbs physical attack damage up to its limit. Anything after that goes through to Health.

Falling, drowning, and miscellaneous Dangers

The following is a quick and dirty table for the various types of damage for miscellaneous dangers. Some kinds of armor or protections may degrade some of this damage as well.

Table 2.3
Danger Damage
Falling (1d6 per 3m) x Gravity
Drowning 1d6 per Moment under water
Fire / Radiation / Acid 1d6 per Intensity level (1-10)
Falling off Moving Vehicle or being Struck by one Speed in KPH – Physique
Vacuum of Space 2d6 per Moment
Explosive Force 1d6 per 2 Intensities



Poisons and Toxins

When a poison or toxin is introduced into an organic person, a Persona for instance, the strength of the Toxin is measured against the Physique of the target: (Toxin Strength + 1d20 – Physique of Target). So even strong bodies may succumb to some Poisons. Target number is still 15. Any anti-toxins present or administered in time add to the Physique of the target.

Healing

Physical damage is healed either by rest, by advanced medical techniques, or by the Song of Life. Reports that the Song of Life can be used to raise the dead are exaggerated. No official event has ever been documented stating in fact it can bring back the dead.

Healing Sanity loss requires Therapy or the use of the Song of Mind’s Rest.

Loss of Sanity

Loss of Sanity due to mental harm is much more subtle then physical harm. A dazed look or strange habits can form as Sanity slips away. Many RIFvP pilots take their last Flight along “The Jet”. The Jet is a six light year in size region of superheated and swirling plasma with a gigantic Black Hole at the center. It is known as the Riffraff graveyard and pilots start to worry when a friend “Looks like her is getting on the Jet.”

Up until that final 0 of Sanity, the Player and GM should discuss the loss of sanity and how it affects the Persona’s actions and attitudes. A penalty or even bonus to certain skills may be added if appropriate.

2.4 Experience

A Persona gains a point of Experience just for showing up at a game session, though even this is subject to GM approval. (i.e. if you arrive and hit on the GM’s girlfriend all night to the detriment of the game, do not expect him (or her as the case may be) to give you your standard 1 POE.)

POE = Points of Experience

The following are the costs of character improvement, again subject to approval by the GM.

Table 2.4
Improvement Experience
Untrained Skill 0
Trained 10
Expert 15
Teacher 20
Master 25
Improve Ability 20
Learn New Song 10
Create New Song 20
Improve Rank 15
Pay for RIFv Modification 5

Hmmm

I have like 8 Chapters to go

ugh sorry mine is going to be a long one


Sean
ADGBoss

Obscurity

The interplay of form and force is dangerous and subtle. It provides the underpinnings of the world around us, but is unseen, unfelt, until it washes away. No where is it more apparent than the dark and foreboding world of catchy music.

In Obscurity, players take on the roles of catchy songs, precisely the songs that become stuck in one's head, requiring more potent songs, or perhaps a power drill, to remove. But player songs are different from your ordinary commercial jingle or top-ten pop song. They are alive, and they are aware, and they have plans for humanity.

The Debut Album

Name:

A good song has a stupid name. While this isn't always true, it's best to start with one, then people try to get rid of the song all the more, which only feed your power.

Affiliation:

What musical genre do you fall into? Fans of this genre will be especially susceptible to your wiles. On the other hand, this may make other immune. Being a commercial jingle neatly avoids both of those eventualities.

Goal:

One is really all you need. Consider the important things, like bringing back bell-bottoms and promoting Volkswagon Beetles.

Eruption:

Ever notice how some songs just won't stay dead. This is because the Great Composer does not leave her children without some defenses. When all is silent, your song can return from obscurity and become known again. This is referred to as Eruption. Being a fair deity the Great Composer provides each of her children with five Eruptions. Starting songs will have already used one, to start their plans. While not impossible, it is difficult to gain additional Eruptions, and even then only through great adherence to the ideals of the Great Composer. Of course no one has a clear idea what those are. Well except for chocolate, she seems to like chocolate ...

Spheres:

The ability of a song to influence people is rated along the three spheres of human experience:

Blood - passions and pleasure, violence and lust.

Sweat - exertion, both mental and physical, usually accompanied by purpose.

Tears - sadness and the other passive emotions of the world.

A given song has 7 points to divide amongst these three spheres, indicating the degree this song can incite a reaction in that arena.

Hosts:

Like all parasites a catchy song is nothing without it's hosts. To create a host, specify the following:

Name - people need some way to refer to each other.

Potency - the raw talent and effectiveness of the host. Also indicates their resistance to your influences.

Talent - each host is good at something. How good of course depends on their potency.

Dominant Sphere - which sphere plays the greatest roll in a host's life?

Generate one host, of potency 3 as your initial host.

The Road to the Top

Getting around and making people do things is an essential element of any plan, but with songs the greatest risk is slipping out of people's minds.

Getting Stuck:

To get stuck in someone's mind, you first need to expose them. This usually involves being played or even hummed in their presence. Then you roll equal or above their potency to become stuck. However if you roll a 1, you will slip out of the mind you originally were inside. Hence you must always roll this, even if the person you are going after has potency 1. Also while many people can hear you at a time, only one host can be acquired per playing. If the target is a fan of your affiliation, their potency is considered reduced by one, if they are opposed to it, their potency is considered increased by one.

Doing the Job:

Influencing people is not difficult, after all songs can link into the deep well of which most hosts are unaware. Of course it's got some risks associated with it. Under normal circumstance you will roleplay your hosts normally. But if there is a point where you decide to make the host act differently than usual, you must roll to determine if the song can affect them in this manner. This is done by rolling a d6 equal or less than the associated sphere you are using. Hence if you are trying to stop a mugger from mugging a lone woman, you need to roll equal or below your Tears sphere. However to cause the mugger to save that same woman from being hit by a bus, requires rolling equal or below your Sweat sphere. Further making the mugger fall in love with that woman would require rolling equal or below your Blood sphere.

Note, your sphere is considered one higher if it matches the dominant sphere of the host being used at the time. However, if you roll a 1 on any of these rolls, you slip out of the host, though the change likely was retained.

Taking Care of Business:

When a host takes some sort of action, compare the potency of the host to the difficulty of the action. Add a +1 if the action falls within this host's talent. Then either compare with an opposed potency, or look at the table below:

Difficulty:
1 - trivial action
2 - easy action
3 - average action
4 - difficult action
5 - complex action
6 - very complex action
7 - nearly impossible action

A song can inspire a host to new heights of ability, or depths of failure. Roll above, as if you were influencing the host, subtract your roll from your sphere. Add this value to the potency of the host.

The Green Room in the Sky

Songs can dwell in many places, but few of their hangout are as consistent as the Green Room in the Sky, or just the Green. This is where songs can discuss their plans, and try to get help from other songs. It's also the only place you'll find a song when their Eruption has ended and a new one has yet to begin. It's a good place to parlay and make friends, but it's also a good place to make enemies. Which occurs is up to your song.



Sure it's not long, but I could only devote an hour to the design and writing, so I had to make it fairly short.

-Mendel S.

Tiki God

It's not just a game. It's a sport.

Beer chugging, role-playing, furniture surfing mayhem for 3 to 5 people.


What's it all about man?

Not only are you an all around cool Dude but you're also a trouble-shooter for your Tribe. When you're not Chugging, Grooving, Hanging-Ten, or chasing the islands seemingly endless supply of Virgins you're helping your Tribe iron out life's little kinks. Life on the island has gotten hotter than usual because Pele, goddess of the mighty Volcano, is not well pleased with your people. Only by uniting the Tribe behind one righteous Dude can you gain Pele's notice and convince her to mellow out this most heinous situation. There's only one real problem. Your contemporaries, those other Dudes in the Tribe, are trying to unite the Tribe themselves. So get stoked and grab a tasty brew because battling these bogus posers is bound to make you thirsty. The winner becomes the Tiki God and keeps the Volcano's wrath from putting a real downer on the permanent beach party you call 'life'.

*Disclaimer: The designer is not liable for injury or property damage incurred as a result of play.


Supplies
The following things are required for play:

-3 to 5 people
-Beer and lots of it
-A buttload of six-sided dice (10 dice per Dude should be enough)
-Some paper and pencils
-A box of crayons
-A Hawaiian shirt for each participant, the more hideous the better
-Some tokens (shells, coasters, old bottle caps, coins, poker chips, or whatever)
-A timer (stop watch, kitchen timer, or whatever)


The Big Kahuna
One of the participants must play the role of The Big Kahuna, the Tribe's wise man. The Big Kahuna is responsible for guiding the Dudes through Trouble-Shooting, standing as judge during every Challenge, keeping track of the Dudes' Groupies, and may end up as the Designated Driver.

Dude!
Everyone else takes on the role of a Dude, a surfing, Beer guzzling, beach partying bum and cult icon. A Dude's responsibility is to make sure he has an adequate supply of Beer for Chugging. This includes any Beer that he has The Big Kahuna drink by sacrificing a Virgin.


Numero Uno
The first item of business is for all the players to create their Dudes.

Dude Creation
-Give the Dude a name (use the Random Name Generator if you're
having trouble)
-Vote for the most wicked Hawaiian shirt
-Rank the Spheres of Power from 1-3
-Rank the Spheres of Copacetic from 1-3
-Draw personal Tiki Mask using crayons
-Choose a Theme Song

Random Name Generator
Roll 2d6 for each column in the chart.

2: Moon..............2-5: Dog
3: Honey............6-9: Doggy
4: Sand...........10-12: Dude
5: Sun
6: Big
7: Crazy
8: Beach
9: Surf
10: Beer
11: Sky
12: Wind


Wicked Threads
All participants vote to see which player is wearing the most wicked Hawaiian shirt. The winner of this dubious contest receives one bonus die to use during Dude creation. This die may be added to any one Sphere. You may not vote for yourself. If the vote results in a tie nobody gets the bonus die.

Spheres of Power
The Spheres of Power are the most righteous abilities of the Dude. Only the blessed of Pele excel in the Spheres of Power and it is in these Spheres that a Challenge between Dudes takes place.

Chugging: This is the Sphere that covers the drinking of Beer, and lots of it.
Grooving: This Sphere covers dancing and all booty shaking.
Hanging-Ten: This Sphere covers the righteous art of surfing. In Tiki God surfing is simulated using furniture, stair railing, large appliances, and the like. If a player ever breaks their 'board' they lose all their Virgins.

Spheres of Copacetic
These Spheres come into play when a Dude needs to mellow out some heinous situation while Trouble-Shooting.

Zen: This represents a Dudes ability to overcome obstacles by uttering seemingly wise yet incredibly vague gibberish.
Sand: Whenever the Dude is forced to bust out and split some wigs he starts by kicking Sand in his opponent's face, and then he kicks their ass.
Coconuts: Yes, Coconuts. The Dude has the amazing ability to solve almost any problem by using this sacred fruit. A Dude's ingenuity knows no limit.

Tiki Mask
Each player uses the crayons to draw a Tiki Mask for their Dude. The Tiki Mask is a symbol of individuality and a Dude's dudely skills. The babes dig it too. Optionally, the players may cut out the masks and wear them during play. Be warned, after some Chugging you will most likely have a soggy Tiki.

Theme Song
Each Dude needs a Theme Song. It can be anything the player desires. Speed metal, opera, Burmese folk tunes, it's all good. If the player sings their Dude's song during a Grooving or Hanging-Ten Challenge they gain a bonus die on the Challenge Roll. This does not apply to Chugging. Beer is its own reward.


Island Tour

Beer
The standard unit of measure on the island is the Beer. If it's not measured in Beer the Dude probably can't count it. That said, those possessing less than pure Dudely prowess, a.k.a. poser wannabe's, may want to use fractions of a Beer during any Chugging. This may be a shot, a tumbler, or whatever fraction of a Beer that your mewling little body can handle. Remember that Pele will not be pleased if you drink non-alcoholic beverages during a Chugging.

Groupies
These are members of the Tribe that worship the sand the Dude walks on. For each Dude in the game there are 50 Tribe members, 20 of which start off as the Dude's Groupies with the rest going to the Village. The Village is where non-Groupie Tribe members stay until they become Groupies. The Big Kahuna is charged with keeping track of how many Groupies each Dude has and how many Tribe members are in the Village. The Big Kahuna will never tell a player how many Groupies they have, only whether their Dude has more or less than another player's Dude. The players aren't allowed to keep track of Groupies. Dudes don't take notes. The Big Kahuna can also tell a player if there are any Tribe members left in the Village, but he cannot tell the player how many.

Virgins
If there is a foundation that Tribal life is built upon it is the unassuming Virgin. A Dude gains a Virgin for every five or six that is rolled by the player on a Trouble Roll and if the player wins a Challenge the Dude gains one Virgin. Sacrificing Virgins to the mighty Pele by tossing them into the Volcano gains the Dude favor in the form of bonus dice that can be used to overcome his rivals. Each Virgin sacrificed is worth one bonus die. A Virgin may also be sacrificed at any time during a player's turn in order to make any of the participants, including The Big Kahuna, chug a Beer. A player may only do this once per turn.


Get Your Game On
Play starts with every player rolling a die to see which Dude goes first. Highest roll wins. Roll again if there is a tie. Turn order moves clockwise starting with the highest roller. During their turn a player may have their Dude do one of three things, Trouble-Shoot, Challenge, or Party Hardy.

Trouble-Shooting
Whenever a member of the Tribe has a problem they come to the Dude for help. The Dude just wouldn't be the Dude if he didn't do his best to fix the Trouble. To start the player must decide the potential Groupie Value of the Trouble. The Groupie Value is the number of dice that The Big Kahuna will roll to represent the source of the Trouble that opposes the Dude. Randomly determine the Sphere of Copacetic to be used by rolling a die; 1-2 is Zen, 3-4 is Sand, and 5-6 is Coconuts. The player may alter the result of the roll by sacrificing a Virgin and then picking a Sphere to use. The Big Kahuna then narrates the Trouble situation, which he may invent or take from the Random Trouble Charts, with which the Dude is confronted. The player should have the Dude react to the Trouble that The Big Kahuna presents. The Trouble Roll may be called for by either The Big Kahuna or the Dude at any point that seems appropriate.

When the Trouble Roll is called for the player rolls a number of dice equal to the rating of the Sphere of Copacetic being used plus any bonus dice if the player chooses to sacrifice any Virgins. Whoever has the highest total wins the Trouble Roll. If the Dude wins he receives a number of Groupies from the Village equal to the total of The Big Kahuna's roll and the Dude gets to narrate the most righteous manner in which he mellows out the most vexing situation. If The Big Kahuna wins the Dude loses a number of Groupies equal to the difference between the two totals. The lost Groupies go back to the Village and The Big Kahuna narrates the Dude's total wipe out. The Dude gains a Virgin for every five or six that the player rolls during the Trouble-Shooting. Only one Trouble Roll is allowed during Trouble-Shooting. After the narration for the Trouble-Roll the Dude’s turn ends and play passes to the left.

Random Trouble Charts

Chart A
1: a wicked monkey has stolen Lana’s wooden comb.
2: Una really needs some pineapples, which just happen to be guarded by a diabolical water buffalo.
3: Lola is missing. She was last seen going into a dark, dank cave.
4: Lelu has been possessed by the spirit of a crazed Industrialist and is
trying to pave over the beach and put a strip mall in the Village.
5: A strange chest has washed up on the beach. No one in the Tribe can
get the stupid thing open. Perhaps the Dude in his gnarly dudeness
would deign to give it a try?
6: The seagulls keep crapping on The Big Kahuna while he is trying to
bathe. Surely there must be something the Dude can do about this
heinousness?

Chart B
1: Several orangutans have started an evil cult in a cave behind a
waterfall. They keep sacrificing Virgin's that don't belong to them.
Make those silly primates behave.
2: Some yuppie from the mainland has parked his yacht in the lagoon.
Not only is he scaring all the fish away but his incredibly bland polo
shirts are frightening the children.
3: Wild dogs have eaten the Beer delivery guy. If this keeps up you might
run out of Beer. Totally unacceptable, Dude.
4: Mermaids have been destroying the fishermen's nets. You've got a
craving for some mahi mahi. What ever will you do?
5: A lightning strike has started a fire that is moving towards the Village.
Save your people, Dude!
6: Some punk that was raised by monkeys has stolen Jane from the
Village. Bad manners just don't cut it on this island. Besides, Jane
gives awesome back rubs.

Chart C
1: A strange glowing rock has fallen from the sky and the Tribe has
started to worship it. Hey! You and the Volcano are the only things on
this island worthy of worship.
2: Pirates from the far side of the island are intercepting the Beer
deliveries. Need I say more?
3: Some lame-ass has set up a booth on the beach selling 'Tiki God' shirts
and merchandise. All the babes have started hanging out there and are
actually trading Beer for the crap the booth guy is selling. The men of
the Tribe beseech you to take care of business.
4: The Big Kahuna pulled a groin muscle while playing beach volleyball.
He needs you to go find him a special herb with soothing powers that
only grows on a small atoll neighboring the island. That would be the
atoll surrounded by man-eating sharks.
5: A group of tourists is taking pictures, asking stupid questions, and just
being damn annoying. The Tribe wants you to do something about it.
6: A massive python has swallowed The Big Kahuna's wife. It wouldn't be
a big deal but she's the one that orders the Beer.


Challenge
Dudes compete with each other in order to show off their awesome skills and impress the masses. The player declares a Challenge and the opposing player chooses the Sphere of Power to be challenged. The challenger then has the opportunity to add another Sphere of Power to the Challenge by sacrificing a Virgin. Each player then writes down how many Virgins they want to sacrifice for bonus dice on a slip of paper and hands it to The Big Kahuna for safekeeping. The players then perform the Challenge, either simultaneously or with the challenging player going first. That part is left for The Big Kahuna to decide. Players have twenty seconds to show their stuff, which is why The Big Kahuna needs a timer. In a Challenge that involves multiple Spheres all actions are combined into one big Challenge. For example, if the Challenge involves Chugging and Hanging-Ten the players must swill their beer while they are surfing.

After the Challenge is performed The Big Kahuna votes for the most impressive display and that player receives a bonus die for the Challenge Roll. Singing your Theme Song during a Challenge that doesn't involve Chugging also grants a bonus die. Beer is it's own reward. Each player then makes a Challenge Roll with dice equal to the total of their ratings in the Spheres of Power that were involved in the Challenge and any bonus dice from sacrificing Virgins or singing a Theme Song. The Dude of the player that rolls the highest total wins the Challenge. The winning player takes from the loser a number of Groupies equal to the difference between the two totals. The winner cannot gain more Groupies than the loser possesses. If a player passes on a Challenge they lose a Virgin and the challenging player rolls two dice to see how many Groupies they take from the passing player.
In a Chugging only Challenge the first player to finish their Beer gets the bonus die. If it’s too close to call The Big Kahuna decides who gets the bonus die based upon factors such as spillage, an impressive belch afterwards, etc.


Party Hardy
Sometimes a Dude just wants to party. In such a situation the player chooses another player's Dude to lure Groupies from by inviting them to a beach party. Then the player starts the party by Chugging at least one Beer. Each Beer the player chugs grants one die for the Party Roll. The player may also gain bonus dice by sacrificing Virgins. The player then rolls all the dice and the total represents how many followers that the partying Dude steals away from the target Dude.


The End
There are several ways for the game to end:

- Every time that a player sacrifices a Virgin in order to have The Big Kahuna chug some Beer there is a chance that Pele will come to The Big Kahuna in a vision. The Big Kahuna rolls three dice and if the total rolled is fifteen or higher then Pele has come to The Big Kahuna and declared that the Dude with the most Groupies has pleased her enough to keep her from annihilating the Tribe. That Dude is declared the Tiki God and the Tribe rejoices.

- If any Blood is spilled by the participants during the game, on purpose or by accident, Pele's anger at the stupidity of the Tribe causes the Volcano to spew fiery death down upon the island and the Tribe perishes to cries of "Bummer, Dude!". Self-mutilation does not count and will piss Pele off enough that she will demand the sacrifice of the offending Dude to the Volcano. In a two Dude game the remaining Dude is declared the Tiki God.

- If any of the participants pass out due to inebriation Pele is well pleased by the adherence to her dogma and the island is safe until some idiot pisses her off again. Game over.

- The first Dude to have two-thirds of the Tribe as Groupies gains Pele's favor and has saved the island. He is declared the Tiki God, savior of the Tribe and most righteous Dude to ever set foot on sand.

Damn. Just found out about this yesterday. Thank goodness I finished Signature.

NOW! Witness the awesome power of my Signature cooking style!
(Not bad for 4 hours and 30 mins work, if I may toot my own horn.)
-----
Volcanoes and Glaciers: Bloodsong of the Spheres

Overview

Social Contract
Death and Dying
Tone Bonus
Carry-over Traits

The Setting
Player Direction
Centralization
Sample Character Goals
Background
Timeline
Tech Level
Sample Signatures

The System
Time Units
Traits
What is a Trait?
Character Generation: The Signature Trait
Action Resolution
Using/Gaining/Changing/Losing Traits
Wild Points
Realism
Using Wild Points
Recovering Wild Points
Setting Mechanics

For the Guide: Making Adventures
The First Rule
Challenges and Relative Difficulty
Carry-over Traits: NPCs, Locations, and Items

Social Contract

Game Tone
Death and Dying
Tone Bonus
Carry-over Traits

Before beginning, the Guide(s) and the players should decide what and how the group is going to play: how long and how frequently the group meets, who brings the food and drinks, what kinds of behavior are acceptable and which aren't -- basically what is expected of everyone socially. This is called a Social Contract in gaming lingo.

Death and Dying

1 Success indicates a minor distraction, sickness, or degree of healing; for example, throwing sand in someone's eyes, catching a cold, or curing a cold.

2 Successes indicates a major wound, sickness, or degree of healing; for example, a knife wound, catching the flu (very serious in a world without antibiotics), or being cured of the flu.

3 Successes indicates death, total incapitation, or ressurection.

Tone Bonus

The Tone Bonus is a modifier that gives bonuses to particular actions that help define the tone of the game. Examples include, Funny, Cunning, and Violent. Generally, there will be only one Tone Bonus per game.

The Tone Bonus for "Volcanoes and Glaciers" is Cunning.

Carry-over Traits

Carry-over Traits carry over from game session to game session. One example are relationships the character has, like Sickly Aunt 2, etc. Another are the NPCs the Guide controls. The fewer Carry-over Traits a game has, the more episodic it is.

C. Edwards wrote:
Virgins
If there is a foundation that Tribal life is built upon it is the unassuming Virgin. A Dude gains a Virgin for every five or six that is rolled by the player on a Trouble Roll and if the player wins a Challenge the Dude gains one Virgin. Sacrificing Virgins to the mighty Pele by tossing them into the Volcano gains the Dude favor in the form of bonus dice that can be used to overcome his rivals. Each Virgin sacrificed is worth one bonus die. A Virgin may also be sacrificed at any time during a player's turn in order to make any of the participants, including The Big Kahuna, chug a Beer. A player may only do this once per turn.

The Setting
Background
Player Direction
Centralization
Sample Character Goals
Timeline
Tech Level
Plot Hooks
Sample Signatures

Background

Spheres

Spheres are alternate multiverses with copies of the Nine Worlds in various states of development.

The Nine Worlds

Yggdrasil the World Tree

The Norse world tree connects all the nine worlds. It has roots in three: Asgard, Niflheim, and the realm of the Frost Giants. An eagle sits in the branches of the tree; between its eyes perches a hawk. A squirrel called Ratatosk scurries between the eagle and Nidhogg, the dragon which gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasil in Niflheim, carrying messages. There are four stags running in the branches, Heidrun the goat and Eikthyrmir the hart, all eating leaves of the tree. The tree is tended by the Norns at Urd's well under one of the roots, who pour water over it, keeping its bark white.

Bifrost the Rainbow Bridge

Bifrost connects Midgard to Asgard. Every day the Aesir travel over Bifrost to Urd's well to hold counse1 -- except for Thor who must wade through rivers instead.. The red of the rainbow bridge is the flames which keep those who are unworthy from gaining entry into Asgard. The Aesir Heimdall guards the bridge at the point it reaches Asgard.

Asgard Realm of the Gods

Asgard is the home the ruling gods, the Aesir.

Following the creation of Midgard, the gods built their temples on Iðavelli, the shining plain. Here is Odin and Saga's Sokkvabekk, Odin's Valhalla with its 540 doors in Gladheim, Odin's hall Valaskjalf that houses the throne from which he looks over all the worlds, Thor's Thrudheim where his hall Bilskirnir stands with its 540 rooms; Ull's Ydal's plains; Freya's Folkvang and her hall Sessruminir; Skadi's Thrymheim; Baldr's Breidablik; Heimdall's Himinbjorg which stands at the edge of Asgard by Bifrost; Forseti's Glitnir; Njord's Noatun by the sea; Frigg's Fensalir and Vidar's land called Vidi.

Midgard Realm of Mankind

Midgard, whose name means "middle garden" or "middle earth", is the home of humanity.

Vanaheim Home of the Vanir

Vanaheim is home of the Vanir, allies of the Aesir. Little is known of it, save thatVanaheim will not be affected by Ragnarok.

Alfheim Home of the Light Elves

Alfheim is home to the Light Elves, who are ruled by the god Frey.

Niflheim World of Ice

Niflheim is a cold, unforgiving realm where the power of the Glacier is strongest in the Nine Worlds.It is home to the Frost Giants

Muspelheim World of Fire

Niflheim is a burning, chaotic realm where the power of the Volcano is strongest in the Nine Worlds. It is home to the Fire Giants, who are ruled by Surtur.

Jotunheim Home of Giants

Jotunheim is a barbaric realm, home to the enemies of the Aesir and Vanir, the Giants.

Nidavellir Home of the Dwarves

Nidavellir is the underground home of the Dwarves, or Svartalfs.

Hel Land of the Dead

Hel is the land where the dead go to rest after dying. It is not a place of torment, but of quietude.

Player Direction

All PCs come from the same Sphere, and should share similar goals, whether it be exploring the Spheres to find new lands to colonize, open up trade routes, or find targets for raids.

Timeline

All Spheres have the same basic timeline, but some Spheres may be behind or ahead of others relative to the timeline.

Also, there may divergences in key events in the timeline of a particular Sphere relative to the others.

Years 1-4,000: The Creation of the World

In the beginning there was the void, Ginnungagap. In Niflheim was a spring called Hvergelmir from which the Elivagar, the eleven rivers (Svol, Gunnthra, Fiorm, Fimbulthul, Slidr, Hrid, Sylg, Ylg, Vid, Leiptr, and Gioll) flowed. The Elivargar froze layer upon layer until it filled in the northerly portion of the gap, while the southern portion was being filled by sparks and lava from Muspelheim.

This caused part of the Elivagar to melt forming the figures Ymir the primeval giant and the cow Audhumla, fed from licking the salty ice. The cow's milk was Ymir's food.

While Ymir slept his under arm sweat begat two frost giants, one male one female, while his two legs begat another male. The cow's incessant licking formed the god Buri. He had a son named Bor who was the father of Odin, Vili, and Ve, who all decided to kill poor Ymir. Ymir's blood caused a flood which killed all of the frost giants except for two, Bergelmir and his wife, who escaped the deluge in their boat.

Odin, Vili, and Ve put Ymir's corpse into the middle of Ginnungagap and created the earth and sky from it. They also created the stars, sun, and moon from sparks coming out of Muspelheim.

Years 4,000-8,000:The Time of Legends

Finally, the brothers happened upon two logs lying on the beach and created the first two humans Ask, whose name means ash, and Embla, whose name means elm, from them.

In this time, the gods walked the earth, fighting giants and interacting with humans.

Years 8,000-12,000: The Time of Man

The gods withdraw from openly walking the earth, and mighty heroes arise, fighting monsters and leading the people.

Year 12,000: Ragnarok

Year 12,000+: New Midgard

The remaining two humans walk among on the new earth, which they call New Midgard, and repopulate it. The magic of bloodsong is discovered and other Spheres are discovered along with it.

Tech Level

Technology in "Volcanoes and Glaciers" is similar to that of Earth's Dark Age Norse. Iron is made into weapons and chain mail. Sailing is advanced, but uses solar compasses instead of magnetic ones. In a solar compass, the Sun's shadow is traced against a curving line on a sundial, and North is calculated against the position of the shadow.

The only magic in "Volcanoes and Glaciers" is bloodsong. Bloodsong involves carving a runestaff, then cutting oneself and smearing the blood on the runes of the staff. One then sings a bloodsong to create the magic.

Time Units

Action: A single action taken by a character.
Scene: A collection of Actions all in the same place.
Adventure: A collection of Scenes all involving the same characters.
Campaign: A collection of Adventures all centered around a single plot.

Plot Hooks

Sample Signatures

Generally speaking, a Signature in "Volcanoes and Glaciers" is comprised of two parts: a Profession and a Race. So one character might be a Warrior Aesirdottir, another a Bard Midgardson, and so on.

Profession

Warrior

Warriors specialize in hand to hand combat with shield and one-handed weapon, such as a sword or axe. Generally speaking, Warriors lack the discipline to fight in organized groups -- fighting tends to turn into a mass brawl. However, Warriors are usually good leaders and decent sailors.

Bard

Bards specializes in remembering, learning and telling sagas. They are usually excellent at bloodsong, and are good diplomats.

Explorers

Explorers specialize in exploring new lands and Spheres. They are usually good and sailing and bloodsong, and are usally decent leaders and diplomats.

Traders

Traders specialize in opening up new trade routes to other Spheres and lands. They are usually excellent leaders and diplomats, and good at sailing and bloodsong.

Nobles

Nobles are the leaders of society. They are good at leading, of course, as well as diplomacy, and are usually well-off.

Priests

Priest represent the gods to mankind. They are usually good at diplomacy and leading, as well as being decent at bloodsong.

Race

Race indicates which bloodline is strongest in a character. The suffic -son delineanates a man, while -dottir, delineates a woman.

Aesirson/Aesirdottir

Aesirsons/Aesirdottirs are mainly descended from the Aesir. They are strong and good fighters.

Vanirson/Vanirdottir

Vanirson/Vanirdottir are mainly descended from the Vanir. They are beautiful and skilled at bloodsong.

Midgardson/Midgarddottir

Midgardson/Midgarddottir are mainly descended from humans. They are resourceful and cunning.

Jotunson/Jotundottir

Jotunson/Jotundottir are mainly descended from the Jotuns. They are big and tough.

Alfson/Alfdottir

Alfson/Alf dottir are mainly descended from the Alfs. They are beautiful and agile.

Svartalfson/Svartalfdottir

Svartalfson/Svartalfdottir are mainly descended from the Svartalfs. They are tough and excellent craftsmen.

Traits

What is a Trait?

A Trait is literally anything that can be used to describe a character, or something associated with a character. For example, Strong, Slow, Loves Wife, Magic Sword, Shield Maiden ...pretty much anything.

Character Generation: The Signature Trait

To generate a character, the character's player simply comes up with a Siganture Trait. The Signature Trait is
a description of a PC in a nutshell. For example, "Fierce Warrior Midgardson."

Extra Starting Traits

There are several starting Traits that both Guide and Players may set when creating their characters (Players) and settings (Guide.) They are listed below.

Blood and Song

Blood is used to power bloodsong. It goes from 0 to 5. Default is 1. Song is used to control bloodsong. It goes from 0 to 3. Default is 1. Upon creation, a character has 5 points to distribute among Blood and Song.

Sphere

Sphere is a Trait describing a particular Sphere. It has three sub-Traits: Volcano, Glacier and Prosperity. When creating a Sphere, the creator receives 6 points to distribute among the three sub-Traits.

Volcano indicates how chaotic and changeable a Sphere is. It goes from 0 to 3.

Glacier indicates how static and restistant to change a Sphere is. It goes from 0 to 3.

Prosperity indicates how well-off characters in a particular Sphere are. It goes from 0 to 6. 0 Prosperity is equal to Cambodia under Pol Pot; 3 Prosperity is peaceful but not rich, and 6 Prosperity is paradisical.

If Volcano and Glacier are both tied, their rating indicates how close the Sphere is to Ragnarok. 0 indicates Creation, 1 Time of Legends, 2 Time of Man, and 3 imminent Ragnarok.

All PCs come from the same Sphere. Thus, all Players must agree on the sub-Traits of their Sphere upon creation.

Scale

Scale is used in "Volcanoes and Glaciers" to separate the various levels of power in characters. The scales are:

Ordinary: 0

Ordinary scale is that of an ordinary character, such as a farmer.

Heroic: +1

Heroic scale is that of a skilled character, such as a well-known leader.

Epic: +2

Epic is the default scale in "volcanoes and Glaciers." It designates heroes who are reknowned throughout their home Sphere.

Godly: +3

Godly scale is that of the gods, such as Thor or Loki.

Each level of Scale automatically succeeds versus the level below it and automatically fails versus the level above it. For example, Heroic beats Ordinary, while Epic beats Heroic.

Action Resolution

1. Action
The player describes the action, and the Guide finds the appropriate Trait. If there is more than one appropriate Trait, the Guide takes the highest.

2.Modifiers
The Guide modifies the Trait as follows.
2.1Plausibility
The Guide assigns a modifier of -3 to +2 depending on how plausible the action is.
2.2 Tone Bonus
The Guide assigns a bonus of +1 to +3 if the action follows the game's Tone Bonus. Generally, there will be only one Tone Bonus per game.
2.3 Wild Point Bonus
The player may assign a bonus of up to +3 to his action, if the description is wild enough, and the player
spends Wild Points equal to the bonus desired.

3. Resolution
The modified number of points is the degree of success. 0 is failure, 1 is minor success, 2 is major success, and
3 is complete and total success. The modified degree of success may not be lower than 0 or higher than +3.

Using/Gaining/Changing/Losing Traits
Describe what happens in the gameworld. The Guide then determines which Traits the action is governed by. For example:

* a simple use of a Trait: "I swing my sword at the guard's neck!" (using the Swordsman Trait)
* gaining a new Trait: "I remember my youth as a pick-pokcet on the streets of Cairo." (gain the Pick-Pocket Trait.)
* introducing a new character: "This is my friend, Arthur." (gain the Trait "Arthur, Friend.")
* changing a Trait: "Instead of killing me, the poison alters my mind, giving me uncontrollable visions."(Exchange the Trait "Poisoned" for the Trait "Uncontrollable Visions.")
* losing a Trait: "After a month's bedrest, I find that my wound has completely healed." (losing the Trait"Wounded.)

The Guide then uses the Action Resolution mechanics to determine how successful the action was.

Wild Points

Realism
Wild Points determine how cinematic a game is. The more Wild Points that can be spent, the more cinematic the game.

Volcanoes and Glaciers realism is set at Cinematic, with a maximum of 2 Wild Points spent at one time and 5 Wild Points to begin with.

Using Wild Points
Wild Points can be spent to do a number of things, all of which requires a colorful description of how the Wild
Points are used.

Give a new Trait. The Trait has a rating equal to the number of Wild Points spent.

Reduce an existing Trait. The Trait is reduced by a number equal to the number of Wild Points spent.

Modify an action. The action is then modified by an amount equal to the number of Wild Points spent.

Change a Trait: This costs 1 Wild Point. The Trait is then changed to another Trait of equal rating.

Recovering Wild Points

Recovering Wild Points will differ from game to game; however, the default is that a number of Wild Points equal to the starting amount is recovered after each Scene if those Wild Points were not spent to reduce,
change or give a Trait -- ie, only those Wild Points spent modifiying an action recover.

Setting Mechanics

Mechanics in "Volcanoes and Glaciers" is the same as in any Signature game, except for singing Bloodsongs.

Bloodsongs allow a character to move between Spheres and adjust the rules which govern those Sphere in the general area of the character. This basically means that the character can "bend" physical laws and induce good or bad luck with a Bloodsong.

Singing a Bloodsong involves two Traits, Blood and Song. First, the Player spends Blood points. The exact amount depends on how powerful the bloodsong. Examples are listed below.

Easy: 1
Challenging: 2
Difficult: 3

Bloodsong of Bifrost: Open a gate between Spheres: 3

Bloodsong of the Sagas: Add +1 Success to all local friendly characters in battle: 2

Bloodsong of Odin's Wisdom: Adjust the local values of Volcano and Glacier: 1 per point up or down

Bloodsong of Thor: Add +1 Success to a single character's checks in battle: 1

Bloodsong of Home :Make the local values of Volcano and Glacier same as the Bloodsinger's home Sphere: 1

"Local" means enough to accomodate a sailing ship, roughly a 100-foot sphere.

Then, the Player makes a Action Resolution check against his Song Trait. If the number of Successes is at least equal to the Blood points spent, the Action succeeds. If not, the Player must spend extra Blood points equal to the difference between the Blood points spent and the number of Successes.

If a character ever reaches 0 Blood points, he will die by the end of the Scene.

Blood points are recovered at the rate of 1 per day, 2 per day if the character mainly rests during the day.

Increasing Maximum Blood points

The only way to increase one's maximum Blood points is to nail oneself upside down to a large tree and wait there without food or water for nine days. This drains one's Blood points to zero by the ninth day. At the end of the ordeal, the player makes an Action Resolution check against his Blood Trait. If it -fails-, the character's Blood Trait increases by one, to a maximum of 5.

The Guide

Making Adventures
The First Rule
Challenges and Relative Difficulty
Carry-over Traits: NPCs, Locations, and Items

The Guide controls the NPCs, as well as the setting and any other obstacles the PCs might encounter.

The First Rule: When in doubt of whether or not to allow something, allow it.

Challenge and Difficulty: A Challenge is a challenge to the PCs, either from an NPC, the environment, or anything else that may oppose the PCs. Each part of a Challenge (a trap, an obstacle, etc.) has an associated
Difficulty. Each character Tests his relevant Trait versus that part's Difficulty. NPCs are simply given Signature Traits with their ranks being the Difficulty.

Major Villain: Highest PC Traits
Villain Team Member: PC Trait
Major Obstacle: PC Trait
Minor Obstacle: PC Trait -1
Minion: PC Trait -2

Carry-over Traits: NPCs, Locations, and Items

Carry-over Traits are Traits that give continuity to a campaign (a series of adventures.) These include NPCs (e.g., the Dark Lord), important locations (e.g., the Dark Lord's tower), and important items (e.g., the sword fated to kill the Dark Lord.)

Carry-over Traits are just like a character's Traits, except that they are controlled by the Guide.

Sign in Stranger
formerly: Song of the blood moon.

Overview of the Game
Play begins after the "disease" afflicting humanity has been cured. The cause was a biological entity that has formed a mutualistic relationship with the space-faring species in this sector of the galaxy. There had been a quarantine on earth, which was broken by the Sxosians while visiting their dolphin trading partners. Humans had been observed to be difficult to communicate with, so official first contact had been delayed until the species developed further. In contrition for their error, the Sxosians developed a treatment which allows exposure to the entity to result in a joining rather than destruction of the human cells. Humans who undergo this treatment may join the interstellar community.

The party

Your characters are humans who have taken the new blood, they have the entity in their body. The quarantine on earth continues--now with the awareness of the human community--all those who leave may never return. They begin on earth's moon, Luna, where they decide together what assignment they will take in a distant land. The spacefaring species are sympathetic to humanity's plight and offer jobs and land to settle in their worlds. Humans have many obstacles to overcome, not the least of which is their innocence of other sentient species and horror of the unknown.

Character creation:
Each player creates a character. Do so by answering a string of questions:

What was your life like on Earth?
What brought you here?
What are you like?

Skills and traits will be chosen that relate to the answers given. The group of players should answer the questions one at a time, and share their responses with the group before moving on to the next. Players are encouraged to find connections between their characters and bounce ideas off of one another.

World Creation and Player Spheres of Influence
Once the characters have been begun, each player begins the process of populating the galaxy by creating one sentien alien species, and one planet, occupied by this species. Creation is brief. For each species, a pair of attributes is chosen; one of which is alluring to humans, the other which is found to be repulsive. After the pair of attributes, write a short physical description of the species.

Example:
Species: Sxosians
Attributes: Song/Smell
Description: Light-blue many limbed liquid breathers.

The language and voice of Sxosians is experiences as musical, as a kind of song by most humans, while the personal smell of Sxosians as is unsettling or repugnant.

For the planet, choose a name, the type of habitat and a size.

Example:
Planet: Sxosia
Habitat: Aqueous
Size: Big

Create the Assignments
Each player should write a short, cryptic statement below the Planet information. Half the statement should make sense, half be nonsense.

Example:
Planet: Sxosia...
Assignment: Raise green lilliu

Now the players should take this information and look it over together in character. Discuss the perceived advantages and disadvantages of each world, species and assigment. Come to a group decision about the best place for the group to begin their new lives.

When a world has been chosen, cities are created and whether other species also live there is decided. The larger the world, the more likely it is to have multiple species present.

Modes and Spheres
Each species has unique ways of doing things and having their needs met. The processes have been grouped into several overarching divisions in this game called Modes. The Modes are:

Communication * Sustenance * Shelter * Reproduction * Social Organization * Transportation * Trade * Culture

Once the planet has been chosen, each player chooses one or two Modes to fall within their Sphere of Influence. The number will depend on the number of players, and the preference of the group. A new Sphere sheet, the Communal Sphere, may be begun at this time. Any Modes not chosen should be placed on this sheet. All the players may contribute to these modes. It is recommended that Culture be communal. Indicate next to each mode, which species it refers to, and much space should be left open below each Mode.

Getting Ready to Leave: skills, traits, and song points
Before leaving Luna, to settle this unknown (to the humans) world that has been chosen, the characters may choose to receive training in skills they believe will be useful to them in their new lives. These skills join the skills developed on Earth. 2-3 Personal Traits should be written below the answer to the question "What are you like?", now that the player has had a chance to get to know the character. These will be added to in time.

On the character sheet, below the answer to the question: "What brought you here?", information about the various species the character comes into contact with will be written. This is where the pair of attributes comes into play.

Example
Sxosians
song O O O O O O smell
summer with whales ________________
__________________ ________________
__________________ ________________

6 circles are drawn between the two attributes. Below are spaces for six memories of the human to be written. A separate such entry will be made for each species. The memories signify connections made to the character's own life that give them understanding for and connection with each alien species. A circle is filled in for each connection made, and increases the character's "song" attribute score by 1, and decrease their "smell" score by 1. Greater connection helps the character understand the aliens better and unravel the mysteries of the strange world about them. Characters with 0 "song" and maximum "smell", panic automatically in the presence of that alien species. And humans with low song scores react with distrust to those who have high level scores.

What Comes Next
The game revolves around the characters establishing themselves in their new home, exploring the strange environment, and learning about their host species. The players create elements of the Modes and Species in their Spheres, by posing enigmas of behaviour and process for the other players. These enigmas are solved by the players through the actions and interpretations of their characters. As the characters develop, more material comes available for the characters to bridge the gap between the unfathomable activity surrounding them, and their own lives.

Greetings All,

I've tried to make this as complete as possible, while remaining minimalist with the rules. Hopefully this has worked well enough to give a general idea of the direction intended for the game to take. If not take note that there is/will be much more detail available in the PDF ranging from extended background information, graphics, maps, and hidden messages. No, really! Just try reading some place names sdrawkcab. :)

But for now here's the Iron Game Chef quick play version sans the fluffy goodness, which is just a distraction from the brilliant black and white words that tell you what is really going on. Well, in the game world at any rate.


Kind Regards,

Chris "Kester Pelagius" Morgan


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Synopsis: Players in Song of the Blood Spheres will belong to one of three alliance groups: the Draconic Coalition, Necromancer's Guild, or Monster's Free Union. These factions represent the ruling tripartite native groups living in the world of They (pronounced: th AE) and have nothing to do with the actual characters. Characters will be archetypal heroes summoned to the present age through the mists of time; the alliances are a means to add intrigue to the game when playing with larger groups.

While each faction may have disparate end-goals they all find themselves in the same position, they need Heroes. Of course there haven't been any heroes in Ubel They for hundreds of generations, which means that each group has to concentrate their resources to summon a hero from the mists of space and time.

Goals: Explore the world, find at least one of the two Blood Spheres, learn how to active them, defeat Myxomatosis, and gain control of the Meliq Sphere magical artifact.

Note that these are introductory goals. Banishing Myxomatosis isn't covered here, nor is the natures of the remaining 7 spheres of Riule, though any of these can be considered part of a larger meta plot if desired. However, as presented, this is a simple game intended for veteran gamers. It is presumed the players will have their own basic gaming materials and know what those materials are.

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Ubel They: Song of the Blood Spheres

Background: In the age of Godhr, when the gods yet walked the earth, the Wolf Clans of Ombrage were united under the banner of the High Chiefs of Nimrud. For thousands of years they served as protectors and guardians of the clan lands through their High Chiefs. These High Chiefs were appointed by each clan to serve a year and a day. By all accounts they were just, their councilors wise, and their Battle Wizards renowned across the three continents. Yet they feared the invaders from across the sea, the tamers of the wind whose crimson sails too often were sighted near their shores. Such was the age of Vindr.

Then the Sphere of Meliq, one of the ten Blood Spheres of Riule, magical orbs long thought lost, was rediscovered. Found hidden in ruins deep within the forest Ancien the sphere was brought to Nimrud, where news of its discovery quickly spread throughout the land. All clans hailed this event as an omen signaling the start of a new era of prosperity and peace. For with the Sphere of Meliq the clan Chiefs, and their wise councilors, hoped to return the land to its ancient glory and see the light of the Riule gods once more returned to the world. So began the Wolf Age.

Alas, for all its promise, the Wolf Age was short lived. And never would the race of men be the same again, for with its closing the rule of the clan chiefs ended and their ancestral lands, left in chaos, were over run with monstrous beasts. Creatures of nightmare roamed the countryside, vampire bandits preyed upon unwary travelers, and, worst of all, the Sphere of Meliq had been captured by the race of cold-blooded saurian that would become reviled throughout the three continents as the Slave-lords. So began the Draconian ascendancy.

And so it has remained until recently when, with an earth shaking noise, particularly nasty wound gash opened in the sky above Mt. Mordrag, a long dormant volcano, and dripped forth Myxomatosis. A big, ugly, bad arse evil beastie that would make cthonian ealdor gods quake in their dank dark lairs. Worse, Myxomatosis has stolen the sphere of Meliq and fanned the flames of the long dormant volcano. Yes, Myxomatosis has come to They, and nothing has been the same since! Enter the heroes.


The Heroes

All Heroes have three Traits, in addition to their Hero Factor; these Traits are: Courage, Will, and Strength. Each player has exactly 9 attribute points to distribute between these Traits. There is only one rule: no Trait may ever go above 6. Whoever rolls the Knight Templar is Game Master for the duration of the game session. Also, prior to play, each player should choose an affiliation with one of the three given groups. (More on this later.)

Courage: A measure of bravery, valor, and daring; very important for determining success of Heroic Actions.

Will: Every Hero has one, and thank goodness for it! If not for Will most Heroes would all too easily succumb to the wiles of Witches and fall prey to every bargain basement Succubus.

Strength: This trait measures brawn, vigor, and the potency of a Hero's physical attributes.

Movement (Moves): Movement is die based, is different for each character depending upon a number of variables, and yet is always based upon three standard character descriptors. These are: Slow-moving (D4), Walking (D6), Riding (D8). Moves are in hex or squares.

Hero Points: Every character will have a number of Hero Points, generated by random die roll, which the players may use to determine skill and ability rank during character creation. Any left over HP become recorded on the character sheet as Hero Factor.

Hero Factor: Hero Factor represents the number of dice that a player may roll "above and beyond" their current LOAD level. Be warned, using HF is costly for HF is very hard to accumulate during play. In fact it's almost impossible to accumulate any HF.


Character Creation

Prior to actual play everyone will need to determine his or her Heroic character. To do this take 2D6 and roll on the chart below. For those who read the rules, and you know who you are, warm the dice up. Hope you get what you rolled for!

2. Knight
3. Paladin
4. Warrior Crusader
5. Blade Dancer
6. Sword Mistress
7. Warrior
8. Norseman Berserker
9. Knight Templar (Knight of Justice)
10. Sword Dancer
11. Amazon
12. Barbarian


Cast of Characters


Amazon

Hero Points: D6+3

Description: At a glance the Amazon appears to be nothing more exotic than a female Barbarian warrior, however a closer examination reveals them to be far more supple of limb and agile of body.

Amazons are skilled in Archery, Staff Fighting, and Blades.


Barbarian

Hero Points: 3D4+1

Description: The Barbarian character is an archetypal muscle bound fighter. They are Warriors by trade, making Barbarians a true force of nature, one that relies upon brawn and determination to get the job done.

Barbarians have the following abilities: Drinking Grog, Hitting and Smashing, Intimidation, and Sword Fighting.


Blade Dancer

Hero Points: D4+2

Description: A specialist in feats of daring do using blades, specifically knives and daggers. The downside is that Blade Dancers may not wear armor. In fact the less the Blade Dancer wears the better since freedom of movement is key to their craft.

Blade Dancers are skilled in Acrobatic Twirling, Blades, and Combat Dancing.


Knight

Hero Points: D8

Description: Warriors of Noble Birth, the Knight comes with a Charger and has the ability to attract a squire.

The Knight is skilled in Swordsmanship, Riding, Moving in Armor, Tournament Combat, and Honor.


Knight Templar (Knight of Justice)

Hero Points: 3D6

Description: Just like the Knight and Paladin, only with the added bonus that whoever rolls this character gets to be Game Master. If you are reading this because you have rolled the Knight Templar be aware that this is a unique character. There may only be one Knight Templar in any game. On the off chance you would rather not be Game Master find out who would, if more than one player steps forward choose a method to randomly choose who gets the Knight Templar. This can be a simple coin toss, nearest guess of a number you are thinking about, or whatever.

The Knight Templar is skilled in Swordsmanship, Riding, Moving in Armor, Tournament Combat, Honor, and have the special function of Arbitration.


Norseman Berserker

Hero Points: 2D4+2

Description: Intrepid explorers, mighty warriors, and sometimes hot tempered when pressed; Norseman are fabled human warriors with many interesting skills.

Norseman Berserkers have the following skills and abilities: Blades, Battle Rage, and ??.


Paladin

Hero Points: D8+2

Description: Noble Holy Warriors, Paladin's are knightly champions who have vowed to rid the world of evil and slay all monsters they encounter. See their shiny armor and tremble ye creatures of villainy!

Paladins are skilled in Swordsmanship, Riding, Moving in Armor, Tournament Combat, Honor, Quelling Evil, and Monster Slaying.


Sword Dancer

Hero Points: D4+2

Description: Agile and dexterous, lithe and flexible, these are but a few words used to describe what it take to be a Sword Dancer. Deadly, a simple word, but one which all who have met Sword Dancers in combat agree they are.

Sword Dancers are skilled in Acrobatic Twirling, Sword Fighting, and Combat Dancing.


Sword Mistress

Hero Points: D6+2

Description: The Sword Mistress was a much feared warrior whose exploits were feared and respected throughout the lands of men. It was said that maidens were enrolled in schools from an early age in the hope that they might one day achieve level of skill to earn them a place within the ranks of the Sisterhood of Steel, and thus earn the noble rank of Sword Mistress. Alas few of the maidens who trained in sword fighting ever were accepted into the elite Sisterhood of Steel, yet despite their orders fall in the great war their orders memory lives on well into these darker days of the Age of Ubel They.

The Sword Mistress is skilled in Moving in Armor, Sword Fighting, Swordsmanship, and Tournament Combat.


Warrior

Hero Points: D8

Description: The typical fighter, Warriors are skilled in basic melee combat and can wield a sword with skill, though magic and the healing arts are beyond their ability.

The Warrior is skilled in Blades, Sword Fighting, Hand-to-Hand Combat, and Moving in Armor.


Warrior Crusader

Hero Points: D8+2

Description: Like the Warrior, only with a Righteous Cause to fight for.

The Warrior is skilled in Blades, Sword Fighting, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Moving in Armor, and Defending Righteous Cause.


Sample Character

Gorf, the Barbarian

Courage: 3
Will: 2
Strength: 4
Moves: D6
Hero Points: 6

Gorf has 4 skills (Drinking Grog, Hitting and Smashing, Intimidation, and Sword Fighting) and 6 Hero Points. During character creation these can be invested into any of these skills at a ratio of 1:1 or saved for later use. All Skills default to 0, thus it may be a good idea to invest at least 1 point per skill. More if you are able. Thus the final result might look something like this:


Gorf, the Barbarian

Courage: 3
Will: 2
Strength: 4
Moves: D6
Hero Factor: 0

Skills: Drinking Grog 2, Hitting and Smashing 1, Intimidation 1, Sword Fighting 2

Note that all the Hero Points were used, thus reducing this stat to 0. Be sure to mark it as such on your character sheet as Hero Factor not Hero Points.


Skills

Most Skills are self-explanatory. To illustrate a few sample descriptions follow. The skills are simple and straightforward. Use common sense and all will be clear. Failing that try a dictionary. Failing that, send me a ticket to the Riviera and all will be revealed. No, really, they have nude beaches! (Joking.)

Blades: Skill with small blades such as knives, daggers, and short swords.

Drinking Grog: How well a character is at drinking, mostly alcoholic beverages.

Hitting and Smashing: Just what it says.

Sword Fighting: The basic ability to use a sword in combat, simple lethality.

Swordsmanship: The ability to use a sword in combat and to display skill, elegance of form.


Conflict resolution

All actions rolls in Song of the Blood Spheres are represented by LOAD. LOAD (Load of Active Difficulty) is a set number representing how many dice a character has to roll in any given situation based upon their Trait or Skill against a TN representing Difficulty Factor (DF). All rolls against DF must be OVER the TN, not the TN or better, but actually over the actual TN value.
Not to worry if your character has a 0 in a stat, all LOAD rolls are made by adding this base numerical value to 1D6. However you are going to want those extra dice. Trust me. The only exception is Hero Factor, which can be thought of as representing "bonus" dice that can be applied to resolution rolls during play. However Hero Factor is a finite resource so use it sparingly and only when needed.

For instance: Grof wants to Intimidate a foe. The DF is set at 9 for the task. Grof has 1D in his skill die pool thus his player would roll 2D6 (1D + D6) and try to roll a 10 or better. Grof's players rolls a 5, failure. However if Grof had a Intimidation score of 0 his player would still get to roll a D6, though the action is a automatic failure, but the Game Master can assess level of failure based upon the actual roll, if necessary.

Difficulty Factor is as follows: 1-3: Relatively Easy (no brainers); 4-8: not easy; 9-15: mildly difficult; 16-20: Complicated; 21-26: Darned Intricate; 27-33 Very Complicated; Baffling: 34-35; 36+: Well Nigh Impossible.


Setting up for Play

Basic set up is easy. You don't even need the PDFs I mentioned. What you will need are veteran players. In fact these rules assume that the players are all veteran gamers who can quickly spackle any holes they may find in the wall of rules. In fact it is expected that the players, and Game Master, will fill in the background details as needed.

To begin grab a sheet of notebook paper. (Hex or graph paper will also do, if you happen to have any.) Choose a player at random. This player will now draw a irregular shape to represent one of the landmasses. Pass the paper (and pencil) counterclockwise to the next player at the table and repeat this process until three landmasses have been established.

Next, the player to whom the sheet is handed off will now mark off a spot, at random, to represent Mt. Mordrag on one of the landmasses. This landmass is now the continent of Dracossh, the seat of power of the Draconian Coalition, and Mt. Mordrag is where that vile demonic beastie with the hard to pronounce name who also happens to possess the sphere Meliq will be found.

Last, the next player will choose one of the remaining continents and either name it Necromunda (seat of power of the Necromancer's Guild) or Ombrage (seat of power of the Monster's Free Union) and then hand the paper, with the now outlined world of They, to the player who possesses the Knight Templar. If not one possesses the Knight Templar as yet refer back to the section on character creation.

Remember those alliances? Good. Each player should note which continent corresponds to their chosen group, this is where their characters start play. Each character group can act in concert or individually, though it is left up to the players to decide how these affiliations should be applied to in-game play. The only exception is the Knight Templar, which may begin play on any continent of the GM's choosing.


The Game Turn

The game turn is really rather simple. Every player may do whatever their characters actions allow, though their actions are limited to the skills they possess and their number of action dice. For instance, in the above example, Grof had to roll all his action dice to attempt to Intimidate the foe. He failed. Thus, unless the situation allows for further possible action, play should continue to the next player or the GM.

For instance, having failed to Intimidate the foe, the player may decide to have Grof haul off and Barbarian smack the foe (1D) or engage in a sword fight (2D) if the situation allows for these actions. Of course once the actions have been attempted, meaning all the action dice available in the die pool for the given skill, then the Grof character can not do anything until a new Game Turn is declared.

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That's it. Happy gaming.

And best wishes to everyone, you're all Iron Game Chef Champs!


P.S. Just for the record- and hello across time to those of you reading this after doing a search of the forum, great place isn’t it?- the above is Copyright © 2003 by C. Demetrius Morgan. Yep, been a while. But look at all the great stuff here. Wow!

The concord states that the conflict between the Coalition and the Demarchy cannot spread. To allow it to do so would risk the stability of the entire galaxy, and the blood of a million worlds.

It is thus limited to the warworlds, a strip of systems, comprising of the husks of a thousand spheres, the results of a lightyears-wide scorched earth policy.

Your mind just signed up for a ten year term.

Howdy,

The Norseman Berserker should read as follows:

Kester Pelagius wrote:

Norseman Berserker

Hero Points: 2D4+2

Description: Intrepid explorers, mighty warriors, and sometimes hot tempered when pressed; Norseman are fabled human warriors with many interesting skills. However they are reknowned far and wide for their battle frenzy.

Norseman Berserkers have the following skills and abilities: Blades, Battle Rage, and Sword Fighting.