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?

Principles of Science-Fantasy I

My Dear Readers, by now you may have noticed that I placed the descriptive term 'Science-Fantasy' front and center of my description of this campaign setting.  There is indeed a reason for this, and a good one.  Science-Fantasy is the heart of that which I wish to portray at the table.

While this may be old-hat to many now that the retro-classical moment seems to arrived in the kultural zeitgeist, with the Sad and Rabid Puppy, Pulp Revolution, Appendix N, and OSR movements re-popularizing the stories, tales, and images that I grew up with for a new generation, still, I should explain what I mean by this term.

Le-Wick defines 'Science-Fantasy' as:

 A science fantasy is a cross-genre within the umbrella of speculative fiction which simultaneously draws upon and/or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy.[1] It also sometimes incorporates elements of horror fiction.[citation needed]

 ^ Malmgren, Carl D. (1988). "Towards a Definition of Science Fantasy (Vers une définition de la fantaisie scientifique)". Science Fiction Studies. 15 (3): 259–281. JSTOR 4239897.

Which is about as tautological as we could get.  I answer the mouth-breathing academic sophists thusly; 'Science-Fantasy' is a negation of the false dialectic between 'Scientific Fiction' and 'Fantastic Fiction'.  The Science-Fantasist refuses to consider any false distinctions between the internal logic of 'scientifically plausible' and 'fantastically plausible', he recognizes that the speculative nature of such story-telling benefits in no way from the building of iron-curtains between what are really the same thing. 

All attempts to cordon off 'hard science fiction' from 'soft science fantasy' are actually just evidence of the dead and rotting rationalist-skeptic, materialist-determinist mentality, and deserve to pass away, un-mourned and unremembered, upon the midden-heap of history.

Because Dear Readers, allow me initiate you into this secret, 'Science' and 'Magic' are actually subsets of the same category.  You see, what we now refer to as 'Science' was once known as 'Natural Philosophy'.  And 'Natural Philosophy' was once known as 'Natural Magic'.  Chemistry really does emerge from Alchemy, and Astronomy from Astrology, and the first use of the Mechanical Arts was in the Deus Ex Machinae of the Temple Cults. 

For you see, Dear Readers, that we may reduce reality to two solution sets; either there is One Truth, one singular reality, one whole cosmos, one Logic, one Logos by which we may apprehend the whole, or there is no such thing as Truth, and all is as sound and fury, a tempest in a teapot, signifying nothing.  And if we are not all madmen talking to ourselves in a sea of Crawling Chaos, then there cannot be such a thing as a Double (or more) Truth.

Let me give you an example; consider the well-known third axiom of Sir Clarke:

 3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

This seems like fine wisdom indeed, we may easily dismiss any rumors or legends of the preternatural world (never-mind the supernatural), of magic and mystery, by invoking this law and assuming that the root cause of this story is some advanced scientific act or device and gullible rubes. 

But let us simply reverse the statement and we find:

 -3. Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

So you see Dear Readers, that these things we call 'magic' and 'technology' are one and the same, the only difference being how we approach them, our own mentality, our weltanschauung.  Your pocket computer and horseless-carriage are magical items, and the hermetic magician summoning that which must not be is a technological act of applied science. 

What is the difference between a Witch using her Glamour to illicitly bed the hero and bring about tragedy, and a painted trollop wrecking a home for her own gain?  Vocabulary.

Now what does this mean for our implied setting in StarCrusade!? 

First of all, we will none of the silly and overdone 'Magic and Technology War' themes that are the usual temptation for those mixing the peanut-butter of Scientific Fiction with the chocolate of Fantastical Romance (I'm looking at you Shadowrun and Rifts).

Second of all, both Magic and Technology are but tools, with no inherent morality to them, both may be used for good or ill, and either, if used irresponsibly or ignorantly, can lead to corruption and a fall to darkness, despair, and Chaos.  Neither can be called 'unnatural' in and of themselves, rather, it is the ends to which these means are directed that such means are called one or the other.

Technomagic and MagiTek are definitely things in the setting, and Computational Demonology too.  AI is basically outlawed by all sane peoples, because the process of creating such an Abominable Intelligence is indistinguishable from summoning a demon (Butlerian Jihad very much in the background).  These limitations are worked around by the creation of Machine Spirits by way of ritual, and the liberal use of criminal minds sentenced to Penitence Engines.

Why do warriors in the far-future use swords?  Because somethings need to be killed with swords.  Also because armor has caught up with firearms and Dune-style personal-shield fighting.  And because in a feudal society swords are also bigtime markers of status and rank.  But mainly because the Jabberwock will laugh at your BFG 9000, but the ole' trusty Vorpal Blade goes snicker-snack, and off with it's head you go galumphing back.

"Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age."