Men & Magic & Castes

Happy Friday boon companions, here is another sneak peak at STARCRAWL for your consideration:

MEN & MAGIC & CASTES In this STARCRAWL BASIC System, there are three groupings of classes or CASTES; human caste, humanoid caste, inhuman caste.

Humans are the most widespread of all known races. Their mercurial adaptability, rough and ready toughness, sharp and biting cunning, and fanatical courage have led them to settle most of known space, therefore most characters in a given campaign will belong to one of the human classes.  The core human classes described in these rules are the Fighter, Mage, Cleric, Rogue, Cyborg, Psyker, Machinist, and Freelancer.  Human caste characters gain two bonus proficiencies.

Human Fighter, Psyker, Thief, and Cleric

Compared to humans, humanoids, also known as demi-humans, are rare and generally more specialized than the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve.  Demi-human classes are defined more by their race than their training.  The basic humanoid classes described in these rules are the Khazadil Vault-Guardian, Aeldari Spellsword, Hobbesling Sneak-Scout, Mandroid Exoframe, Abhuman Mutoid, Entwifin Amazon, Beorling Panzerborn, and Sylvanir Ranger.  Humanoid caste characters gain one bonus proficiencies.

Sylvanir Ranger

Beorling Panzerborn

Finally, inhumans or xenoi are the true alien outsiders, belonging neither to the teeming masses of the human sphere, nor the ancient and cryptic alliances of the demi-humans of Valinor Space.  As scions of previous aeonic cycles of creation and destruction, outside of the known causal chain and composed of mysterious variant pseudomatter and protoenergy, such inhuman xenoi are most strange and highly divergent in mind, body, and spirit from human norms, having little in common with the Children of Adam.  The basic inhuman classes described in these rules are; the Kthanid Mastermind, Draugyr Flayer, Urukim Freebooter, Dvergar Grey-Face, Mantid Kreenoid, Khai Hunter, Yuggothim Scientist, and Gnophkhim Centacorn.  Inhuman characters start with the default number of proficiencies.

Urukim Freebooter

Yuggothim Scientist

Star Crawl Basic

Still working on things, as time and employment and life permits.  As I get words on page, a voice starts to emerge, just to give a sample:

CREATING A CHARACTER Listen up you primitive screw-heads!  My designation is Drill-Kommisar Zim, but as far you xombies are concerned, my first name is 'Drill' and my last name 'Kommisar'.  You’ve taken the first step on the big-damn adventure your lying recruiters sold you, void-dogs, but you are all still 0th level humanoids to me! Don’t despair maggots, because you WILL graduate to 1st level when you decant your first character from the spawning tank and progress, or you WILL die messily trying! To create a character, follow the twelve step program below, that is, if you degenerate space-monkeys can count that high:

I'm considering splitting the project into a rules-set, 'Star Crawl Basic' and a setting gazetteer, 'Star Crusades Chronicle'.  Obviously, if I don't go mad before then, at some point this would be followed up with 'Star Crawl Expanded' or something like that.

Anyway how about some pics.  Humanoids, also known as 'demi-humans' are the human-related peoples hailing from Valinor Space.  Just how and why the Humanoids and Humans are so closely related so as to be able to breed amongst themselves remains a mystery, some radical scholars suggest that this relation points to common origins lost to the mists of time.

A Khazadi Vault Guardian and his retainers.  Khazadi are vanishingly rare outside of their high gravity fortress vaults, buried under mountains, but occasionally, a young Vault Guardian may be seen progressing on his coming of age journey, unable to return home and take up his birthright without a 'fortune' recovered from the wilds. 

Hobbesling Footpads are prized by human-sphere mercenary groups as scouts, infiltrators, snipers, and expert light infantry.

Mandroid Exoframes are often confused for Human Cyborgs, which in general is good for most Mandroids, because if the common people understood Mandroids to be Noospheric Uploads of Human Minds living as Machine Spiritis in prosthetic bodies, angry mobs would ensue.

Aeldari Spellswords often serve as functional ambassadors for their kind in the human sphere as these outcasts often end up working as mercenaries and pirates.  No one said good ambassadors.

Work Continues

Ping.

We are still alive here at the Void Chapel, and work continues on our version of ACKSF.  Several events have delayed or otherwise interrupted my work.  We took a week's family vacation in July, several time-consuming vidya games came out or went on sale during this summer; Battletech, Inquisitor:Martyr, Stellaris 2.0, and Armageddon (panzer general + 40k is a very workable formula btw).  But despite all the distractions and daily duties, progress is being made.

I am currently creating a master document that splices together the ACKS core with SWN, where appropriate.  From SWN we are taking Psionics, Skills, Backgrounds, Equipment, Starships, cyber and mecha and the other purely SF components.

At this time everything from core ACKS is in, and the goal is compatibility with the existing ACKS material.

I am also reaching out and grabbing pieces from Hulks and Horrors and Terminal Space and many other bits and bobs.

Here's a rough outline of what I'm conceptualizing as ACKSF:

7 Ability Scores: STR, INT, DEX, CON, WIS, CHA, TEC
7 Primary Classes: Fighter, Mage, Thief, Borg*, Cleric, Esper*, Machinist*

*The Borg isn't based on anything at this time, and will require the most work, but will have augmentation slots per level, modified by CON like the magic users' spells known is modified by INT.
*The Esper is based on the SWN psychic class.
*The Machinist is based on Scientist and Technology User from Hulks and Horrors and Terminal Space and will represent the combat hacker/drone operator/engineer archetype.  All characters will have access to omnitools and can run programs equal to the tool's rating + the character's INT modifier, but Machinists will have additional hacking, drone, flash-fab, and programmatic actions based on their TEC modifier.

The Psionic Skills of SWN will become Proficiencies as in ACKS, so choosing your starting Proficiencies will determine your starting pool of abilities.

Backgrounds ala SWN provide some (3) initial skills.
Homeworlds ala Dark Heresy et all modify (+2 favored, -1 disfavored) two ability scores and grant a single skill.
Remaining skills are chosen with your class from a list of 'class skills'.

At some point I'm going to look at the nu-SWN concept of Foci and the ACKS concpet of Proficiencies with an eye to merging them conceptually even if not word for word.

And borrowing from Classic Traveler; 'Hit Points' explicitly are not wounds or tissue damage beyond surface battering and bruising, but rather the reserve of luck and skill used to avoid taking real wounds.  When 1) HP are reduced to zero or 2) an attacker rolls a natural 20, the damage is applied directly to the character's ability scores as 'wounds' which reduce the current score and can change the effective ability score modifier.  When any one Ability Score is reduced to zero, the character is mortally wounded and must save versus death, if successful, the character is alive but bleeding out at -1 CON per round until stabilized.

In addition to ACKS classification groups of Human and Demi-human classes, I am considering adding an Inhuman Classes group to cover the very alien archetypes like Hovering Squids, Draugr (definitely not mind-flayers), Malkwen (not-Drow, no sir), Dvergar (not greys, nope), Mantids, Yautja and the like.  Inhumans will have significantly lower max levels than the other two.

Anyway, that's where my head is at currently. wishing everyone a cool summer and good gaming, Cheers!

Toward a Psionic Class and Abilites

I had a fruitful conversation with a fellow Dungeon Master at holy hour Sunday-last regarding my upcoming campaign, and the conversation turned toward how to model psychic powers.  In the course of the conversation I nearly convinced myself to KISS and make psychic abilities another type of spell casting similar to Arcane and Divine casting. 

Why reinvent the wheel?

This seems to beg the question how do my fellow gonzo grognards do psionics in your own campaigns?

- Do you do a Skill Based system?

- Or a Power Points fueled ESP?

- Mentalism Spell type casting?

- Something else altogether?

pic related.

A Science-Fantasy Visual Grammar III

Mutation: the enemy within.  On worlds that have been infected with the Chaos of filth-darkness, filth-strain mutation often subtly infects and corrupts nearly the entire population.  Sometimes the mutations are hidden and undetectable to the untrained eye; but those mutants that 'pass' can be even more sinister as they spread their taint undetected via the space-lanes.  Mutant cults will bide their time, breeding ever more concentrated filth-mutants until the time comes to raise the bloody rag of revolution with the loathsome cry; 'There are no Gods but the Great Old Ones and Morgoth Xothulhu is their Priest and Prophet!'

The Human Sphere, especially in the Old Republic's Core and Inner Territories, is speckled with grim and wasted ruins, like pustules on a plagued man's face; where the

Collapse of the Old Republic, the Succession Wars, and the Interregnum have left entire arcology-worlds abandoned or even regressed in technology and population.  These ebon bones of once gleaming spires contain both treasures and terrors within their bosom.  Those foolish or perhaps brave enough to prospect and salvage there, those who rob the tombs of the ancients are often called 'Venturers.

Many of the treacherous ruined arcologies that foolhardy 'Venturers brave to forage for riches are guarded by the remnants of the Old Republic's Machine Legions, Omnicidal Abominable Intelligences faithfully following the last directive of the overthrown Technomancer Oligarchs of the Old Republic to purge their Hegemony of Treasonous Life.

No one knows from whence come the Terrible Frogmen, only that they spread the Darkness-Filth wherever they go, like carriers of plague and serve Warlocks and the Chaos Cults that grow around them like poisonous mushrooms.  Some say they serve the Qlippothim of Yuggoth, others the Lords of Carcosa, yet others insist they serve the Domination of Xothique.  Only the pestilent Frogs know for sure and they rarely speak of their origin.

A Khazad Iron Golem patrols deep within the underworld tunnels of the Lords Under the Mountains.  Of all the demi-human races of the Valinor Alliance, the Khazad are perhaps the most mysterious.  They rarely leave their underground hold-fasts or interact with other races.  Even when they do it is often by drone-proxy.  They are regarded as master makers and techno-wizards of legend however and many seek out their services for one great-making or another.  Those who fail to show the proper ritual respect seldom return.

It is known that the Frogmen commune with Terrible Things from the Deeps, purchasing their aid with Blasphemous Oaths and sacrifices of Maiden-Flesh.  Just who these Deep Ones are, or whom they serve is if anything, more mysterious than the Frogs themselves.  While several Sword Lords of legendary status have purified underwater infections of these Deep Ones, none of these pustules have proven to be their source and some say they intrude in the middle geometry from somewhere else.

An Iron-Man Skin-Walker, once the dreaded secret-police of the Technomancer Oligarchs of the fallen Old Republic, now their corrupted runtimes drive them to replace their decaying and necrotic flesh so that they might again possess the faces of men.  Ambitious techno-mancers have been known to attempt to bargain for services of such Abominable Intelligences, but the price is often more than originally bargained for.

'An Estate on the Rim' is usually considered something of an white-elephant gift for Sword World Nobility; kitting out a Landing-Keep and enticing settlers to the frontier-marches often consumes a landed noble's other rents and is often the work of generations.  Of course this is often the purpose of overlords granting such fiefs in the first place.  On the other hand, for a mercenary man-at-arms with no pedigree or patented family-name, such a grant is the goal of a life's work and the gateway to elevated status otherwise unreachable.  And for the landless man of noble breeding, with a good-name, a cyber-charger, and war-plate but no fief of his own, something is always preferred to nothing.

Some say that not all of the Vile Technomancer Oligarchs of the Old Republic, or their red-robed Maitreyan Order lackeys, died in the Rebellion of the Priests and instead retreated to secret Tower-Palaces somewhere out in the deep-black, far from civilized known-space and prying eyes.  The Clerical Order of the Universal Church of Light takes these rumors deadly seriously and often sponsors expeditions to seek out whatever truth may lie behind such.  Ominously, some expeditions never return. 

Life for the Common Man on the Periphery of the Sphere of Man is a constant struggle to win new lands for the Cosmos of Order in the Middle Geometry, to re-kindle the Light against the Creeping Dark.  The Peasant Life is also its own Inner-Crusade and the Wind of their Prayers is what holds the Chaos-Darkness of the Filth-Tide back from the Worlds of Men.

An heirloom Lost-Tech suit of War-Plate with Powered-Harness, layered with ablative coatings and enchantments to preserve the warrior encased within.  On far-flung Dark-Shadowed worlds where Star-Crusades have failed many such suits still yet stand erect as mute statues; holed and frozen tombs and tributes to the glorious fallen heroes of ages past.  

An Inquisitorial Kill Team of the Clerical Order in action against a Chaos Cult caught in the act.  As the Stars Fade and the Light becomes a memory of a dream, Unspeakable Cults give themselves to the Dark in Despair.  Remember; Defeatism leads to Despair, Despair leads to Chaos, Chaos leads to Filth, Filth leads to Darkness!  Be Vigilant!  Praise the Light of Order!  

ACKSF Core Classes II - Getting the Science into the Fantasy

So last time we discussed what our core classes would be, to recap;

1. Fighter
2. Mage
3. Cleric
4. Thief
5. Borg
6. Esper

One each for the Prime Attributes, the ACKSF six-man band if you will.  So right away there are two new classes to stat up and balance with the existing ACKS classes, thankfully the ACKS Player Companion will help greatly in this, although I will be on somewhat shaky ground with new(ish) powers/abilities, or at least powers new to ACKS.  Thankfully even here I shan't be reinventing the wheel, as there plenty of wheel shaped objects to steal, er rip off n' duplicate, errrr draw inspiration from.  What?  I work in IT, this is what we do darlin', this is what we do...

Anyway, what specifically can we do to add the mechanically crunchy peanut-butter to the phantasmal chocolate?

The first possibility is to add to the existing Proficiencies System already built into ACKS.  Immediately I would rule that the free Adventuring Proficiency granted to all starting characters includes the basics space 'venturing; donning space-suits, checking pressure seals, patching suit tears, sealing hull breaches, routine maintenance, basic null-grav proofing, basic EVA, etc.

Additionally, powered-armour training is enough of a game-changer to deserve its own proficiency pick, the larger question is whether to restrict it to fighters or to add it to the general pool.  Perhaps we should break it into basic and martial versions with the one being general and allowing wearing and basic manoeuvres, while the other allows the wearer to fully benefit from stat-boosts in combat and restricted to fighters.

Whereas Fightercraft, Armoured Vehicle, and Wanzer Fighting are all obviously the domain of the Fighter class only.  Adding to the general list we can add space related professional proficiencies like Able Bodied Spaceman, Steward, Master of Arms, and all the other Traveller ship's pay-ratings deserve to be proficiencies that tie into the starship operations/trading rules.  And that's just for starters, so SF proficiencies, there's crunchy peanut-butter right away.

The second possibility is a skills system.  I realize that this is highly controversial territory, but the grand old OG of SF tabletop gaming, Traveller had skills, so I answer the anti-skill OD&D grognard thusly; It's tradition!  Nyahh :P

More seriously, one of my personal weaknesses in campaign-design has been to attempt grand sweeping rationalizations and impose rigid frameworks onto the organic growth of the tabletop campaign, 'tis one of the flaws of those who came of age during the era of 'unified task resolution' and 'point build' systems.

Thus I have to guard against this temptation carefully, for example it would be both unnecessary and counter-productive to re-conceive the Thief's Class Skills in a 2d6 plus ranks framework.  First of all, that wheel already exists and to remake it at this point is just gilding-the-lilly at best (if I do it well) or 'fixing' what ain't broke and breaking it in progress, at worst.

Also, despite the name, 'skills', the thief's class skills are actually class abilities, and not really describing the same thing as Traveller's non-combat skills.  Admittedly this is a larger change from RAW ACKS, but I think it could be profitably done, and well, in order bolt-on SF subsystems onto ACKS where there is a need for mechanics different than those of the existing proficiencies while providing for granular improvement.  At this point I'm still on the fence, but at the moment it seems legit for subsystems that don't yet exist properly in ACKS framework.

The third possibility is the most drastic, new Primary Attributes.  Originally I had wanted to add three new characteristics; Willpower, Perception, and Perception, which was a part of a half-baked idea to re-jigger the mechanics of magic and other spell-like abilities, as well as ranged combat.  I have since reconsidered this, no, frankly I have decided to set it aside as a bad idea; hey brain, stop, fixing, what, ain't, broken.

But looking at Terminal Space, I am somewhat taken by the idea of Technology Level as another Primary Attribute.  Which would be perfect to incorporating a new Core Class, the Technical Specialist?  Hacker?  Techie?  Specialist?  Tech-Priest?

Anyway, the class would cover the gadgeteer, combat-hacker, drone operation, Mr. Fixit, MacGyver, etc.  This seems workable, but perhaps a dangerous precedent to set.  If I allow myself to tinker this far, how much more will I be tempted?  What about the Social Standing stat and the Noble class?  That doesn't sound so bad actually...

See what I mean?

ACKSF Core Classes

Ok, this is a bit of a planning post, as the lion's share of the detail-work remains to be done, but things have solidified enough for me to see a definite path forward.

So, the Core Classes in ACKS are:

Class    |  Prm Req |
Fighter  |  STR     |
Mage     |  INT     |
Cleric   |  WIS     |
Thief    |  DEX     |

Now these are all grand old archetypes, and will work just as well thematically in Science-Fantasy as they do in any other kind of Fantasy. 

Fighters are trivially easy to see in Science-Fantasy; Boba Fett, Johnny Rico, Prince Colwyn, Master Chief, Doomguy, Adeptus Astartes, etc.  The Fighting-Man's mastery of all weapons and armor is even more important in a Science-Fantasy setting given the variety of kinetic and energy guns and powered armor.

Mages might at first glance seem out of place in Outer-Space, but this quickly falls apart when examined.  The Lovecraft Mythos is full of Sorcery and Sorcerers from Outer-Space, including magic space-beer, the quaffing of which protects the imbiber from the effects of vacuum exposure.  Also the world of Comic Books has no problem with getting the Chocolate of Fantasy in the Peanut Butter of Scifi.  Example Mages include: Stardust, Nemesis, Doctor Strange, Maal Dweb, Mum-Ra, Titus Crow, and the Green Lantern Corps.

Clerics, as Militant Priests, are somewhat more difficult to place in Science-Fantasy than Mages, although after a moments thought, not much more.  While examples of Arms-Bearing Pastors are not extremely common in the common media corpus, they can be found here and there; after all, what else is an Astartes Chaplain?

Thieves are no problem at all, there's Malcolm Reynolds, Han Solo, the Stainless Steel Rat, the crew of the Raza, and pretty much every Traveller party ever has included at least one character of criminal background who can fence the party's ill gotten gains.

Once cannot help but notice that there is one Core Class for each of STR, INT, WIS, and DEX.  What about CON and CHA?  Once upon a time, these were domain of the Dwarf and the Elf respectively, and while I heartily endorse Race as Class, in my Campaign Law, the Core Classes should all have human archetypes.

So what Science-Fantasy archetypes would fit with CON and CHA as their Prime Requisite?

Let's go back to the Attribute Descriptions, in ACKS, Constitution is defined as:

 Constitution is a combination of general health and vitality.  Apply the Constitution bonus or penalty to each Hit Die rolled by the character.  Note that a penalty here cannot reduce any Hit Die roll to less than 1 point.  

Immediately what springs to my mind is Cybernetic Prosthetic Bodies, the implantation of which must be limited by the health of the recipient, lest the drastic surgeries and drugs necessary kill the recipient.  And while Characters of any Class would benefit from limited implants gained during play (limited quite like magic items), the extreme modification of the Full Conversion 'Borg deserves to be its own archetype and this is easily seen in the source material: Cyborg, Robocop, the Six Million Dollar Man, Briareos Hecatonchires, Major Kusanagi, Battle Angle Alita, Adeptus Mechanicus, the Omar, Adam Jensen, and of course, the one and only Tinman.

Now, what about Charisma?

 This is the ability to influence or even lead people; those with high Charisma are well-liked, or at least highly respected. Charisma is a prime requisite for bards. Apply the Charisma bonus or penalty to the character’s reaction rolls. Charisma also determines the maximum number of henchmen the character may employ, and modifies their morale.  The number of henchmen a character may hire is equal to 4 plus the Charisma bonus or penalty (and therefore ranges from 1 to 7); the average morale of any such henchmen will be 0, modified by the character’s Charisma bonus or penalty.

Immediately the term 'Animal Magnetism' springs to mind, which associates quite naturally with 'Mesmerism'.  Why, we have found the Prime Requisite for our Psychic class!  And make no mistake, the Psyker, the Psion, the Esper, the Mentalist, the Teep deeply deserves his own space as a Core Archetype, as seen in such classic characters as; Alfred Bester Psi-Cop, the Lensmen, The Adeptus Telepathica, River Tam, Vulcan Mind Melds, Tetsuo and Akira, Newtypes, Jean Grey, the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Thoat-Riders of Barsoom, Gil of ARM, and of course The Jedi Order.