Yesterday, the hypothetical group of Cypher Star Wars players assembled their characters; today, the GM will assign them their starting cyphers, tell them the beginning to the campaign, and then let them decide what they're going to use for their equipment selections. Jack, Mark, and Kris each get two cyphers with their Types as two Warriors and an Explorer; Mary gets three, as an Adept. Jack gave up all his weapon choices in exchange for a blue lightsaber, Mary traded her two Expensive choices for a green lightsaber, and Kris has chosen her two options as an electrostaff (which she describes as a medium bludgeoning weapon) and a techblade (a medium slashing weapon).
The GM's first decision is to assign cyphers rather than rolling them, to ensure a better fit for the starting characters; a melee-happy Jedi probably wouldn't pack a pair of thermal detonators around, after all!
Jack's Trandoshan Jedi is the first up, and the GM assigns him a pair of injectable cyphers - a stimpack full of red liquid that gives him a free level of Might Effort for ten minutes, and a kolto injection that heals up to the cypher's level in Might or Speed when used. Jack rolls 1d6+1 for each cypher's level, coming up with a 3 for the Stim and 5 for the Kolto. He also has an oddity - a fetish necklace of bits and pieces of creatures he has successfully hunted, a tally of his worth in the eyes of the Scorekeeper.
Mark's smuggler is next, and the GM assigns him a thermal detonator and a stim that can clear his mind, letting him recover up to the cypher's level in Intellect Pool when he uses it. Mark rolls 1d6+2 for the detonator, getting a 6 for a rather powerful little grenade, and 1d6+1 on the stim, getting a relatively weak pack that only heals 2 Intellect when used. He notes down that he got the stim from his contact, and suggests to the GM that he'd be willing to have it be something weirdly experimental, ripe for a GM Intrusion when used.
Mary's next; her Jedi Consular can have three cyphers, so the GM gives her a one-use holocron that can tap the Jedi Archives to answer any question with a degree of accuracy determined by the cypher's level, a holoprojector that can be programmed to display a realistic hologram of anything up to the size of a bantha for ten minutes before the power runs out, and a small crystal filled with swirling dark smoke and red lightning that can fully restore her Intellect pool, but also advances her toward the Dark Side. The GM throws in an oddity in the form of a dormant datacron that shows markings similar to those from the Rakata Empire.
Last up is Kris, whose droid gets a chemical spray that bonds parts for repair purposes, healing up to the cypher's level in Might, and a carbonite grenade that ensnares targets of the cypher's level or lower in frozen carbonite stasis for transport. Kris rolls 1d6+1 for both cyphers, getting a 4 on the repair spray and a 5 on the carbonite grenade. The droid also gets an oddity in the form of a bandolier that adheres things deliberately pressed to it, creating a trophy belt that the droid can use to showcase past successful hunts.
The GM outlines the start of the campaign - they've been hunting a Sith with a commando squad that attacked a Jedi training facility and fled after killing several Padawans, tracking them with the aid of the droid bounty hunter to the Smuggler's Moon, Nar Shadda. The game will begin with them coming out of hyperspace near the moon, in hot pursuit of the Sith starship; neither ship has strong enough weapons or shields to risk a straight-up dogfight, so they'll have to pursue the Sith to ground and hunt them through the twisted, garish mess of the overbuilt moon. Their goal is to capture the Sith, but the elimination of the commando squad is a benefit.
Mark says that he can have his contact arrange a relatively secure dock for them, away from the usual places that Republic citizens dock so that they won't be as obvious while they try to track the Sith down. Kris says she'll back the plan, and notes that she'll want to check the galactic network for bounties on the moon while they're there. Jack and Mary think it sounds good, and so the GM continues, noting that they'll be docking in the neutral turf between the Cartel factions theoretically loyal to the galactic powers, with easy access to holocomm facilities, a medical facility which doesn't always serve questionable purposes, and several outfitter shops that sell pretty much any good, legal or otherwise, that one could reasonably hope for. The group decides that, for now, they'll be living on the ship to avoid the surveillance that a hotel would bring.
The group turns to pooling their resources next to decide what they have in terms of equipment, agreeing that they should use it as a team since that was how the Jedi Council sent them out. Two Warriors means they have two expensive items, four moderate items, and eight inexpensive items, while an Explorer adds two expensive, two moderate, and four inexpensive. Mary has already burned her two expensive items to get a lightsaber, but she adds another two moderate and four inexpensive items to the list, for a total of four expensive items, eight moderate, and sixteen inexpensive items.
They agree that each of them gets a headlamp to wear when they need it, plus a knife for personal defense in an emergency, using up eight of the inexpensive items. They pool the other eight into four more Moderate items, giving them a total of twelve. They burn two moderates to get light armor for the smuggler and the Jedi Consular; Mark's smuggler wears a blast vest and reinforced pants, while Mary's consular wears robes reinforced with cortosis weave. Jack doesn't need armor, and Kris needs heavier gear. They burn three more to get each of the organics a healing kit, and another to give the droid nightvision capability as if using nightvision goggles. Left with six moderate, they pool them into three more expensive items, getting a total of seven.
Mark gets a medium blaster pistol as an expensive item, a relatively nice BlasTech model with engraving on the grip. Three more are spent to get environment suits for the organics, and another to get Kris a stunstick. Last, they pool the remaining two expensive options to get a very expensive item, outfitting the droid with a suit of heavy armor that essentially serves as armor plating bolted directly onto the droid's chassis.
With that, the group is pretty much ready to go on their first adventure.
---
Next time, we'll look behind the GM's screen, such as it is, and see what might go into planning an adventure on the Smuggler's Moon for these PCs - and possibly go about making an actual adventure for people to try out.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Cypher Star Wars: Player Characters
So, since this is ongoing (my wife and I may have logged close to 24 hours in the last 48 playing Star Wars: The Old Republic), expect regular post on converting the Cypher System and possibly others to handle the setting of Star Wars. Today, we'll look at how a hypothetical group of players might build their characters to fit an Old Republic kind of game. We'll go with a total of four people for these purposes, each with their own idea of what they want to play.
Jack wants to play a Jedi, preferably something like a Trandoshan lizard-person; he's got this idea of a heroic lizard-person with a lightsaber who seeks out wrongs to right, guided always by the Force. Mark want to be someone like Han Solo - a charming scoundrel with a ship, who survives in the galaxy by wit and blaster. Mary wants to also be a Jedi, but she wants to secretly be a disciple of the Dark Side, channeling the power of fear and hate to achieve her desires. Lastly, Kris wants to be a droid bounty hunter, a machine purpose-built to go to strange places and hunt terrible beings in exchange for rewards.
Looking at this, the GM takes a few notes and leans back to work out the rough details of a campaign as the players build their characters. Obviously the group will need transport of some kind - one of the tropes of Star Wars is that transit between worlds is easy for those who have narrative value, after all. Mark's character is an obvious choice for the pilot of some light freighter or the like, but the group can be linked together if someone else actually owns it - the two Jedi might have it as a loan from the Jedi Council, making them jointly responsible for upkeep, repairs, and upgrades of the vessel. The bounty hunter droid might be on board working as a repair droid in between bounties, the better to keep in oil baths.
The players, interested in having a ship, find this largely agreeable, with Kris pitching the idea that while her droid is a repair unit on the ship, it also serves as the one who knows all the hidden nooks and crannies to smuggle goods, and so serves more as the partner of the smuggler than anyone's servant. Mark agrees to the idea, and the GM adjusts the plan.
Jack thinks his options over, and decides he wants to generate his character as a Warrior type. Given his desired species and the timeframe of the game, he'll have been born on Trandosha, the homeworld of his species, but discovered to be Force-sensitive at a young age and sent to train on Tython. He wants his character to be a bastion of the Light Side, a Jedi Guardian, so he puts two points in his Intellect Pool and four in his Might Pool, bringing him up to 14 Might and 10 each in Speed and Intellect. Keeping the Force in mind, he decides to add the Magic flavor to his character for the supernatural touch, and starts looking over his options for his four starting abilities. Extra Edge immediately stands out - the intense training of a Jedi grants him an Edge of 1 in both Might and Speed, as befits a Guardian. Trained Without Armor is another good choice - he uses the guidance of the Force to avoid danger, not bulky armor. Given the nature of Lightsabers, most of the active Warrior options don't really appeal to him, so he turns to the Magic abilities, settling quickly on Premonition to give him a semblance of Force Sense, and Closed Mind to further represent his training; his will is backed by the Force, and no mortal attacks aganst his mind stand a chance.
He leans over to the GM at this point and asks if he can get Transdoshan as a descriptor; after some thought, the GM offers to reskin the flavor of the Tough descriptor to represent the Trandoshans, giving his natural armor, a kind of accelerated healing, and additional defensive capability. Jack quickly agrees, glad to get something that solidly represents the character he has in mind, and writes down the abilities from Tough, renamed to give them a proper feel. That just leaves his Focus and his equipment to figure out.
Defends the Weak and Commands Mental Powers both look appealing at first, but neither really fits the concept of a bold Jedi who seeks out the darkness in the galaxy to fight it off, so he looks farther down the list and lands on Looks for Trouble. It's the perfect match for his Jedi Guardian, who spends so much time looking for wrongs to right. He scribbles down his bonus damage and extra training, then looks over the suggested connections to other PCs. Given Mary's character, he suggests to her that the two of them likely have a past history, and that his Guardian sees it as a part of his duty to defend her, even when such protection gets in the way of her private studies. Mary likes the idea and the potential to inject some friendly bickering into the game and agrees to the idea.
Lastly, Jack pitches the idea to the GM that rather than all the weapons his choices give him, he only has one - a blue lightsaber; other than that, he fights unarmed, seeking to subdue rather than kill foes. The GM agrees, and Jack writes down his artifact weapon - a light slashing weapon that deals damage like a medium weapon. He writes it all down and sits back to wait for the others to be ready before he picks his remaining gear, envisioning his Jedi leaping around in a Force-powered blur of blue lightsaber and black-green scale, ready to prove himself to the Trandoshan's idea of a god, the Scorekeeper.
Mark wants to be a smuggler - someone who braves danger and gets through it with wit, charm, and a blaster. He's fine with being human, so he doesn't need a modified Descriptor the way Jack did. Given the wanderlust inherent in the character concept, he decides that the Explorer Type sounds like a good match, and decides that agility and wits are equally important to him. Three points each go to his Speed and Intellect pools, leaving him with a Might of 10 and a Speed and Intellect of 12 each.
He looks over the Explorer options and decides he doesn't need to flavo his character type any; Danger Sense, Decipher, Knowledge Skills, and Practiced in Armor fill out his four first-tier options. Decipher gives him an excuse to potentially be able to make himself understood anywhere in the galaxy, and he picks Piloting and Criminal Operations as his knowledge skills - his character isn't even remotely pure-hearted, and he's more than willing to rough it up if he has to do so.
Brash seems like a possible option for his Descriptor, as does Impulsive, but he ultimately falls back to the concept of the character and picks Charming; the bonus to his Intellect Pool and the skill training at any positive social interaction just fall in with his idea of a silver-tongued crack pilot, even if the piloting itself is hampered a bit by his inability to deal with Knowledge tasks. He pitches the idea that his contact is a member of the Hutt Cartel, and that perhaps they mutually owe each other favors through some complex web. The GM approves the idea, suggesting that the contact is a Bothan by the name of Leelanu, part of a spice smuggling operation operating off Nar Shadda. Smuggling spice while working for the Jedi seems like an exciting option, so Mark writes that down.
Next comes his focus - Fuses Flesh and Steel seems appealing, as he could be a cyborg with tricky options built into him, or who is Licensed to Carry because of his blaster, but that seems too much like abiding by the law for his character to do. He settles on Fights Dirty, because his character isn't above taking an advantage wherever he can. He asks the GM if his extra weapon can be a holdout needler with a burst of poisoned ammunition and writes it down when the GM agrees that it sounds reasonable. More important is the skill training in all forms of deception, making him even more capable of charming his way past obstacles - in situations where he has to pleasantly lie through his teeth, he may get to count himself as specialized in the action, lowering the difficulty two steps.
He asks Kris if she's willing to be on the other end of his connection, suggesting that the droid met his smuggler while chasing a bounty one day, and that the droid taught his smuggler some tricks he's added to his repretoire since then. She agrees, and so he writes it down and suggests that when he was contacted by the Jedi about flying the ship, he insisted the droid be hired as a repair unit, to give it a better way of crossing the galaxy in search of bounties. The others like the idea, with Jack saying his Trandoshan disapproves of bounty hunting in general but has yet to find a good reason to object to taking down any scum the droid goes after, while Mary says her would-be Sith is pleased at having a hired hunter on board. The GM scribbles this all down while Mark looks over the equipment list in preparation for the last of his gear.
Mary wants her Jedi to be a would-be Sith - a human strong in the Force who feels the call of the Dark Side and senses that her destiny draws her to it. Picking an Adept with a Magic flavor is an easy decision, and she looks over the list of available options carefully. She wants to be quick and clever, so she puts a couple points into Speed and the rest into Intellect, giving her 7 Might, 11 Speed, and 16 Intellect.
At this tier, she doesn't need anything from the Magic flavor, selecting Hedge Magic to represent her interaction with the Force, Magic Training as her esoteric knowledge of it, Onslaught as a method of combat, and Practiced with Light Weapons so she can wield a lightsaber. Other options, such as Push, Scan, and Ward, are all tempting, but she doesn't really need them to fill out her concept.
Looking the Descriptors over, Cruel and Mystical both catch her interest, but she settles on Doomed - her would-be Sith has terrible dreams of her fall to the Dark Side, and she lives with the knowledge that one day she will either be Sith or dead. She increases her Speed to 13 and notes down her skill training - perception tasks, Speed defense, and Intellect defense are all trained for her, now.
She looks over the Foci, skimming Focuses Mind Over Matter and Casts Spells as possible options before settling on Controls Gravity as an extension of the psychokinetic effects of the Force. She asks Mark if his smuggler might be willing to be a skeptic of her ability to use the Force, unwilling to believe she can do what she does. He agrees, thinking that his smuggler is a worldly sort who respects the raw skill and power of the Jedi while scoffing at their beliefs.
With the GM's permission, she marks her lightsaber as her two Expensive item choices, picking a green lightsaber as a Jedi Consular, then sits back to wait for the GM to assign cyphers and the others to be ready to talk about other equipment.
Kris wants to be a droid bounty hunter, making most of her decisions easy. She decides to be a Warrior, assigning all of her points to Might to give herself 16 Might, 10 Speed, and 8 Intellect, describing her droid as a powerfully built and heavily armored machine. She asks the GM if she can have an electrostaff and a techblade for her Type weapons, and writes them down.
She picks Bash and Thrust as abilities with little trouble, giving her a field of options for dealing with her bounties, then adds Practiced With Armor to help with her desire to be a nearly invulnerable machine and Physical Skills, picking running and climbing as her two options; her droid is good at pursuing fleeing targets wherever they go.
She glances briefly at other descriptors, such as Driven, but decides that Mechanical is the best one; she bumps her Intellect up to 10 and notes that she's skilled at any action involving identifying, understanding, using, repairing, or crafting machines - something she can use to justify healing herself with regular recovery actions despite being a machine herself.
Her Focus is also easy; she selects Hunts with Great Skill, and asks Jack if his Jedi might have once been caught in one of her traps, having had to free himself from it. Jack agrees, suggesting that their paths crossed at some point well before the droid was hired to crew the ship, and that she might have modified herself so the Trandoshan Jedi doesn't recognize her anymore. Kris writes it down, and adds her Focus skills, becoming trained in tracking and all forms of movement, which makes her specialized in running and climbing - her prey has little hope of escaping her now!
She considers her droid as it stands, nods, and leans back to see what the GM has for them now.
---
Next time, we'll look at the group getting their cyphers, choosing their equipment, and the layout of an adventure that the GM cooks up while the players are busy getting their characters in order.
Jack wants to play a Jedi, preferably something like a Trandoshan lizard-person; he's got this idea of a heroic lizard-person with a lightsaber who seeks out wrongs to right, guided always by the Force. Mark want to be someone like Han Solo - a charming scoundrel with a ship, who survives in the galaxy by wit and blaster. Mary wants to also be a Jedi, but she wants to secretly be a disciple of the Dark Side, channeling the power of fear and hate to achieve her desires. Lastly, Kris wants to be a droid bounty hunter, a machine purpose-built to go to strange places and hunt terrible beings in exchange for rewards.
Looking at this, the GM takes a few notes and leans back to work out the rough details of a campaign as the players build their characters. Obviously the group will need transport of some kind - one of the tropes of Star Wars is that transit between worlds is easy for those who have narrative value, after all. Mark's character is an obvious choice for the pilot of some light freighter or the like, but the group can be linked together if someone else actually owns it - the two Jedi might have it as a loan from the Jedi Council, making them jointly responsible for upkeep, repairs, and upgrades of the vessel. The bounty hunter droid might be on board working as a repair droid in between bounties, the better to keep in oil baths.
The players, interested in having a ship, find this largely agreeable, with Kris pitching the idea that while her droid is a repair unit on the ship, it also serves as the one who knows all the hidden nooks and crannies to smuggle goods, and so serves more as the partner of the smuggler than anyone's servant. Mark agrees to the idea, and the GM adjusts the plan.
Jack thinks his options over, and decides he wants to generate his character as a Warrior type. Given his desired species and the timeframe of the game, he'll have been born on Trandosha, the homeworld of his species, but discovered to be Force-sensitive at a young age and sent to train on Tython. He wants his character to be a bastion of the Light Side, a Jedi Guardian, so he puts two points in his Intellect Pool and four in his Might Pool, bringing him up to 14 Might and 10 each in Speed and Intellect. Keeping the Force in mind, he decides to add the Magic flavor to his character for the supernatural touch, and starts looking over his options for his four starting abilities. Extra Edge immediately stands out - the intense training of a Jedi grants him an Edge of 1 in both Might and Speed, as befits a Guardian. Trained Without Armor is another good choice - he uses the guidance of the Force to avoid danger, not bulky armor. Given the nature of Lightsabers, most of the active Warrior options don't really appeal to him, so he turns to the Magic abilities, settling quickly on Premonition to give him a semblance of Force Sense, and Closed Mind to further represent his training; his will is backed by the Force, and no mortal attacks aganst his mind stand a chance.
He leans over to the GM at this point and asks if he can get Transdoshan as a descriptor; after some thought, the GM offers to reskin the flavor of the Tough descriptor to represent the Trandoshans, giving his natural armor, a kind of accelerated healing, and additional defensive capability. Jack quickly agrees, glad to get something that solidly represents the character he has in mind, and writes down the abilities from Tough, renamed to give them a proper feel. That just leaves his Focus and his equipment to figure out.
Defends the Weak and Commands Mental Powers both look appealing at first, but neither really fits the concept of a bold Jedi who seeks out the darkness in the galaxy to fight it off, so he looks farther down the list and lands on Looks for Trouble. It's the perfect match for his Jedi Guardian, who spends so much time looking for wrongs to right. He scribbles down his bonus damage and extra training, then looks over the suggested connections to other PCs. Given Mary's character, he suggests to her that the two of them likely have a past history, and that his Guardian sees it as a part of his duty to defend her, even when such protection gets in the way of her private studies. Mary likes the idea and the potential to inject some friendly bickering into the game and agrees to the idea.
Lastly, Jack pitches the idea to the GM that rather than all the weapons his choices give him, he only has one - a blue lightsaber; other than that, he fights unarmed, seeking to subdue rather than kill foes. The GM agrees, and Jack writes down his artifact weapon - a light slashing weapon that deals damage like a medium weapon. He writes it all down and sits back to wait for the others to be ready before he picks his remaining gear, envisioning his Jedi leaping around in a Force-powered blur of blue lightsaber and black-green scale, ready to prove himself to the Trandoshan's idea of a god, the Scorekeeper.
Mark wants to be a smuggler - someone who braves danger and gets through it with wit, charm, and a blaster. He's fine with being human, so he doesn't need a modified Descriptor the way Jack did. Given the wanderlust inherent in the character concept, he decides that the Explorer Type sounds like a good match, and decides that agility and wits are equally important to him. Three points each go to his Speed and Intellect pools, leaving him with a Might of 10 and a Speed and Intellect of 12 each.
He looks over the Explorer options and decides he doesn't need to flavo his character type any; Danger Sense, Decipher, Knowledge Skills, and Practiced in Armor fill out his four first-tier options. Decipher gives him an excuse to potentially be able to make himself understood anywhere in the galaxy, and he picks Piloting and Criminal Operations as his knowledge skills - his character isn't even remotely pure-hearted, and he's more than willing to rough it up if he has to do so.
Brash seems like a possible option for his Descriptor, as does Impulsive, but he ultimately falls back to the concept of the character and picks Charming; the bonus to his Intellect Pool and the skill training at any positive social interaction just fall in with his idea of a silver-tongued crack pilot, even if the piloting itself is hampered a bit by his inability to deal with Knowledge tasks. He pitches the idea that his contact is a member of the Hutt Cartel, and that perhaps they mutually owe each other favors through some complex web. The GM approves the idea, suggesting that the contact is a Bothan by the name of Leelanu, part of a spice smuggling operation operating off Nar Shadda. Smuggling spice while working for the Jedi seems like an exciting option, so Mark writes that down.
Next comes his focus - Fuses Flesh and Steel seems appealing, as he could be a cyborg with tricky options built into him, or who is Licensed to Carry because of his blaster, but that seems too much like abiding by the law for his character to do. He settles on Fights Dirty, because his character isn't above taking an advantage wherever he can. He asks the GM if his extra weapon can be a holdout needler with a burst of poisoned ammunition and writes it down when the GM agrees that it sounds reasonable. More important is the skill training in all forms of deception, making him even more capable of charming his way past obstacles - in situations where he has to pleasantly lie through his teeth, he may get to count himself as specialized in the action, lowering the difficulty two steps.
He asks Kris if she's willing to be on the other end of his connection, suggesting that the droid met his smuggler while chasing a bounty one day, and that the droid taught his smuggler some tricks he's added to his repretoire since then. She agrees, and so he writes it down and suggests that when he was contacted by the Jedi about flying the ship, he insisted the droid be hired as a repair unit, to give it a better way of crossing the galaxy in search of bounties. The others like the idea, with Jack saying his Trandoshan disapproves of bounty hunting in general but has yet to find a good reason to object to taking down any scum the droid goes after, while Mary says her would-be Sith is pleased at having a hired hunter on board. The GM scribbles this all down while Mark looks over the equipment list in preparation for the last of his gear.
Mary wants her Jedi to be a would-be Sith - a human strong in the Force who feels the call of the Dark Side and senses that her destiny draws her to it. Picking an Adept with a Magic flavor is an easy decision, and she looks over the list of available options carefully. She wants to be quick and clever, so she puts a couple points into Speed and the rest into Intellect, giving her 7 Might, 11 Speed, and 16 Intellect.
At this tier, she doesn't need anything from the Magic flavor, selecting Hedge Magic to represent her interaction with the Force, Magic Training as her esoteric knowledge of it, Onslaught as a method of combat, and Practiced with Light Weapons so she can wield a lightsaber. Other options, such as Push, Scan, and Ward, are all tempting, but she doesn't really need them to fill out her concept.
Looking the Descriptors over, Cruel and Mystical both catch her interest, but she settles on Doomed - her would-be Sith has terrible dreams of her fall to the Dark Side, and she lives with the knowledge that one day she will either be Sith or dead. She increases her Speed to 13 and notes down her skill training - perception tasks, Speed defense, and Intellect defense are all trained for her, now.
She looks over the Foci, skimming Focuses Mind Over Matter and Casts Spells as possible options before settling on Controls Gravity as an extension of the psychokinetic effects of the Force. She asks Mark if his smuggler might be willing to be a skeptic of her ability to use the Force, unwilling to believe she can do what she does. He agrees, thinking that his smuggler is a worldly sort who respects the raw skill and power of the Jedi while scoffing at their beliefs.
With the GM's permission, she marks her lightsaber as her two Expensive item choices, picking a green lightsaber as a Jedi Consular, then sits back to wait for the GM to assign cyphers and the others to be ready to talk about other equipment.
Kris wants to be a droid bounty hunter, making most of her decisions easy. She decides to be a Warrior, assigning all of her points to Might to give herself 16 Might, 10 Speed, and 8 Intellect, describing her droid as a powerfully built and heavily armored machine. She asks the GM if she can have an electrostaff and a techblade for her Type weapons, and writes them down.
She picks Bash and Thrust as abilities with little trouble, giving her a field of options for dealing with her bounties, then adds Practiced With Armor to help with her desire to be a nearly invulnerable machine and Physical Skills, picking running and climbing as her two options; her droid is good at pursuing fleeing targets wherever they go.
She glances briefly at other descriptors, such as Driven, but decides that Mechanical is the best one; she bumps her Intellect up to 10 and notes that she's skilled at any action involving identifying, understanding, using, repairing, or crafting machines - something she can use to justify healing herself with regular recovery actions despite being a machine herself.
Her Focus is also easy; she selects Hunts with Great Skill, and asks Jack if his Jedi might have once been caught in one of her traps, having had to free himself from it. Jack agrees, suggesting that their paths crossed at some point well before the droid was hired to crew the ship, and that she might have modified herself so the Trandoshan Jedi doesn't recognize her anymore. Kris writes it down, and adds her Focus skills, becoming trained in tracking and all forms of movement, which makes her specialized in running and climbing - her prey has little hope of escaping her now!
She considers her droid as it stands, nods, and leans back to see what the GM has for them now.
---
Next time, we'll look at the group getting their cyphers, choosing their equipment, and the layout of an adventure that the GM cooks up while the players are busy getting their characters in order.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Cypher Star Wars
Dipping back into Star Wars today, let's look at just how easily we can run a game in this setting via the Cypher System. Since my wife and have been playing the online game lately, we'll look at the Old Republic for now, but if this has enough future entries we'll expand out to the other eras of the setting.
The Old Republic, for those unfamiliar, is a time in the deep past of the setting, thousands of years before the events of any of the movies. The Galactic Republic is vital and strong, with a powerful army and the backing of the full Jedi Council on their side. They hold sway over important and familiar worlds like the world-wrapping planetary city of Coruscant. Of course, they're not unchallenged - the Sith Empire challenges them for dominance, led by the fractious Dark Council of Sith Lords and backed by the power of the Imperial Army. The entire known and settled galaxy is wrapped in conflict between these two forces, with worlds like Alderaan, Hoth, Tatooine, and more as battlegrounds.
Both the Jedi and Sith benefit, regardless of the choice of Descriptor, Type, or Focus, from the use of the Magic flavor to represent the Force. Jedi might benefit from Descriptors like Calm, Honorable, Graceful, and Strong-Willed, while Sith might prefer to lean toward Brash, Driven, Impulsive, and Vengeful to best show the flavor of their contact with the Force. Still, being part of either faction doesn't restrict which side of the Force an individual of each side leans toward; Jedi slipping into darkness and Sith aspiring to light can happen.
Bounty hunters, smugglers, spies, and soldiers in military service all also make an appearance and can be compelling characters, even if they can't handily fight with a lightsaber. Smuggling weapons to insurgents behind enemy lines, exploring lost secrets of forgotten civilizations, discovering exotic new worlds, and trying to turn a profit between the two behemoths can fill an entire campaign and then some.
The Great Hunt happens periodically, drawing the greatest bounty hunters of the galaxy in pursuit of acclaim. Spies duel with blaster rifles and vibroknives in the shaded alleys of the great cities. Smugglers and scoundrels run blockades for profit and adrenaline, daring the military pilots to even try to catch them in their starfighters. Vast battlefields churn into mud beneath the tread of soldiers, driods, and vehicles of war across countless worlds, the titanic engines of war grinding against each other. Jedi and Sith duel in leaping, spinning flashes of lightsaber duels in a bid to tip the balance of the war in their own favor - and some even defect to the other side, drawn by the Force and their own internal compass.
There is no emotion, there is peace
Peace is a lie, there is only passion
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge
Through passion, I gain strength
There is no passion, there is serenity
Through strength, I gain power
There is no chaos, there is harmony
Through power, I gain victory
There is no death, there is the Force
Through victory, my chains shall be broken; the Force shall set me free
---
Lightsaber - Artifact
Level: 1d6+2
This complex device must be constructed by a skilled user of the Force, to avoid any chance of damaging the components during assembly. When activated, it produces a beam of plasma, the color determined by the hue of the focusing crystals inside it. It functions as a light weapon, making attack rolls one step easier, but deals damage equal to the artifact level. On a depletion roll, the power cell of the lightsaber has been drained and needs to be replaced, a task which requires disassembly and reassembly by a Force user.
Depletion: 1 in 100
Thermal Detonator
Level: 1d6+1
These spherical devices have a rather obvious button on them, which arms the device when pressed; it can then be thrown, dealing plasma damage to everything within a short range of wherever it lands.
The Old Republic, for those unfamiliar, is a time in the deep past of the setting, thousands of years before the events of any of the movies. The Galactic Republic is vital and strong, with a powerful army and the backing of the full Jedi Council on their side. They hold sway over important and familiar worlds like the world-wrapping planetary city of Coruscant. Of course, they're not unchallenged - the Sith Empire challenges them for dominance, led by the fractious Dark Council of Sith Lords and backed by the power of the Imperial Army. The entire known and settled galaxy is wrapped in conflict between these two forces, with worlds like Alderaan, Hoth, Tatooine, and more as battlegrounds.
Both the Jedi and Sith benefit, regardless of the choice of Descriptor, Type, or Focus, from the use of the Magic flavor to represent the Force. Jedi might benefit from Descriptors like Calm, Honorable, Graceful, and Strong-Willed, while Sith might prefer to lean toward Brash, Driven, Impulsive, and Vengeful to best show the flavor of their contact with the Force. Still, being part of either faction doesn't restrict which side of the Force an individual of each side leans toward; Jedi slipping into darkness and Sith aspiring to light can happen.
Bounty hunters, smugglers, spies, and soldiers in military service all also make an appearance and can be compelling characters, even if they can't handily fight with a lightsaber. Smuggling weapons to insurgents behind enemy lines, exploring lost secrets of forgotten civilizations, discovering exotic new worlds, and trying to turn a profit between the two behemoths can fill an entire campaign and then some.
The Great Hunt happens periodically, drawing the greatest bounty hunters of the galaxy in pursuit of acclaim. Spies duel with blaster rifles and vibroknives in the shaded alleys of the great cities. Smugglers and scoundrels run blockades for profit and adrenaline, daring the military pilots to even try to catch them in their starfighters. Vast battlefields churn into mud beneath the tread of soldiers, driods, and vehicles of war across countless worlds, the titanic engines of war grinding against each other. Jedi and Sith duel in leaping, spinning flashes of lightsaber duels in a bid to tip the balance of the war in their own favor - and some even defect to the other side, drawn by the Force and their own internal compass.
There is no emotion, there is peace
Peace is a lie, there is only passion
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge
Through passion, I gain strength
There is no passion, there is serenity
Through strength, I gain power
There is no chaos, there is harmony
Through power, I gain victory
There is no death, there is the Force
Through victory, my chains shall be broken; the Force shall set me free
---
Lightsaber - Artifact
Level: 1d6+2
This complex device must be constructed by a skilled user of the Force, to avoid any chance of damaging the components during assembly. When activated, it produces a beam of plasma, the color determined by the hue of the focusing crystals inside it. It functions as a light weapon, making attack rolls one step easier, but deals damage equal to the artifact level. On a depletion roll, the power cell of the lightsaber has been drained and needs to be replaced, a task which requires disassembly and reassembly by a Force user.
Depletion: 1 in 100
Thermal Detonator
Level: 1d6+1
These spherical devices have a rather obvious button on them, which arms the device when pressed; it can then be thrown, dealing plasma damage to everything within a short range of wherever it lands.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Eclipse Phase: Before the Fall Setup, Part 6 - The Blessed Church of Christ Ascendant
Founded on an ultra-conservative mixture of Rapture theology and prosperity gospel, the Blessed Church of Christ Ascendant is the dominant belief system in the region around the Klayman family compound, but it has adherents who either farcast in when possible or who rely on the media feeds and XPs available to keep up on the sermons preached by the pastors. The intense conservative component makes it the last bastion for many memes that have otherwise been dying out, creating a sense of persecution as much of modern society reviles their beliefs.
The head of the church and by far the most charismatic pastor is John Blessed, a man who has a custom-crafted Sylph morph loaded out with everything possible to make him more charismatic and charming. He has sermons five days a week, always at high noon and lasting a minimum of two hours as he works through his sermon, each one calculated to fan the xenophobic fires of his congregation and encourage them to tithe more deeply.
James and Mark Blessed are the other two primary pastors at the church; James relies on his uncanny levels of charisma during his time at the pulpit, making those listening feel as if he might be talking to them, personally. In addition to the Guardian Angels, this means he has a legion of adoring fans who have been effectively indoctrinated to do almost anything he asks of them. Of all the Blessed family, he is the one with the most contacts among local groups outside the church proper, including known members of the guerrilla terror group Martyr's Blade. James gives sermons each Sunday, as well as 2-3 other sermons across the rest of the week, attended at all times by the Guardian Angels.
Mark Blessed focuses on the Rapture theology aspect of the church doctrine, using the ability to modify the acoustics of the church to his advantage as he plays up the dread and fear, and encourages people to tithe more to be certain that their selflessness will be seen and judged worthy of ascension. His bodyguards, while not as dramatic and obvious as his brother's squad, typically occupy positions in the guise of parishioners, their high-tech firearms and body armor concealed under colorful outfits. Mark's connections with several manufacturers of arms and armor ensures that everyone is outfitted with the latest gear, and there is reason to believe that he may be smuggling arms under the guise of aid shipments to surrounding communities.
Maria Klayman plays the role of a quiet and faithful wife in public, with long hair, modest clothing, and no visible signs of cosmetics that obscure a ruthless personality and keen intellect. The clothing is armored smart clothing, with an in-built capacity to form shock gloves should she need personal defense should her bodyguards fail her. While she defers to John in public where congregation members might observe them, in more private locations she rules the three men of her family as an absolute monarch. This level of control may factor in with the potential terrorist contacts of her two children, as nothing short of death seems likely to break her grip over them.
The church itself is built using the latest techniques, with smart nanomaterials providing a high degree of control to anyone able to access the control systems; an AI built to display absolute loyalty to the leaders of the church operates the network, aggressively fighting off any attempts at access. Three primary amphitheaters can each hold upwards of five thousand people comfortably, and numerous smaller chapels fill much of the remaining space, each one able to display the three primary chambers to those within. Total comfortable occupancy of the church is in the vicinity of fifty thousand people.
The building has a security force on par with a small army on top of the personal bodyguards of the clergy; outfitted through Mark's contacts, they could potentially deal with almost any external threat, but they rely on the church's mesh network for command and control functions, a significant vulnerability if the network were to be subverted by a hostile force.
At present, the church does not appear to be poised to threaten the Klayman compound in any fashion.
The head of the church and by far the most charismatic pastor is John Blessed, a man who has a custom-crafted Sylph morph loaded out with everything possible to make him more charismatic and charming. He has sermons five days a week, always at high noon and lasting a minimum of two hours as he works through his sermon, each one calculated to fan the xenophobic fires of his congregation and encourage them to tithe more deeply.
James and Mark Blessed are the other two primary pastors at the church; James relies on his uncanny levels of charisma during his time at the pulpit, making those listening feel as if he might be talking to them, personally. In addition to the Guardian Angels, this means he has a legion of adoring fans who have been effectively indoctrinated to do almost anything he asks of them. Of all the Blessed family, he is the one with the most contacts among local groups outside the church proper, including known members of the guerrilla terror group Martyr's Blade. James gives sermons each Sunday, as well as 2-3 other sermons across the rest of the week, attended at all times by the Guardian Angels.
Mark Blessed focuses on the Rapture theology aspect of the church doctrine, using the ability to modify the acoustics of the church to his advantage as he plays up the dread and fear, and encourages people to tithe more to be certain that their selflessness will be seen and judged worthy of ascension. His bodyguards, while not as dramatic and obvious as his brother's squad, typically occupy positions in the guise of parishioners, their high-tech firearms and body armor concealed under colorful outfits. Mark's connections with several manufacturers of arms and armor ensures that everyone is outfitted with the latest gear, and there is reason to believe that he may be smuggling arms under the guise of aid shipments to surrounding communities.
Maria Klayman plays the role of a quiet and faithful wife in public, with long hair, modest clothing, and no visible signs of cosmetics that obscure a ruthless personality and keen intellect. The clothing is armored smart clothing, with an in-built capacity to form shock gloves should she need personal defense should her bodyguards fail her. While she defers to John in public where congregation members might observe them, in more private locations she rules the three men of her family as an absolute monarch. This level of control may factor in with the potential terrorist contacts of her two children, as nothing short of death seems likely to break her grip over them.
The church itself is built using the latest techniques, with smart nanomaterials providing a high degree of control to anyone able to access the control systems; an AI built to display absolute loyalty to the leaders of the church operates the network, aggressively fighting off any attempts at access. Three primary amphitheaters can each hold upwards of five thousand people comfortably, and numerous smaller chapels fill much of the remaining space, each one able to display the three primary chambers to those within. Total comfortable occupancy of the church is in the vicinity of fifty thousand people.
The building has a security force on par with a small army on top of the personal bodyguards of the clergy; outfitted through Mark's contacts, they could potentially deal with almost any external threat, but they rely on the church's mesh network for command and control functions, a significant vulnerability if the network were to be subverted by a hostile force.
At present, the church does not appear to be poised to threaten the Klayman compound in any fashion.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Eclipse Phase: Before the Fall, Part 5 - The Guardian Angels
A selection of half a dozen individuals who grew up with James Blessed and fell prey to his manipulative nature, the Guardian Angels are today a group of elite bodyguards dedicated to defending James from any threats. All six have been resleeved from their birth bodies and subject to psychosurgical modifications, which each of them will insist was purely voluntary on their part. The intelligence arm of the Peacekeepers is dubious of these claims, as the six never indicated any prior interest in resleeving and the modifications seem to mostly have been to increase devotion to James and the creed of his church.
Each of them is in a Fury morph designed with ethereally beautiful features, white hair, and silver eyes, typically dressed in armored smart clothing that typically augments the sensuality of their design. In spite of each individual's expressed gender identity prior to resleeving, each seems content to be instantiated in a female morph. Combined with their choice of new names based upon Christian archangels, it seems clear that they were heavily modified while being transferred, but unless something concrete about it being involuntary comes to surface little can be done about the situation.
The second-in-command to James goes by the name of Gabriel; originally Rebecca Jones, she excelled at mathematics and geometry and was due to apply at Oxford on graduation from basic education. Before she could, she was resleeved and took up her new name, and has shown no interest in pursuing her former goals. She shows the most initiative of the Guardian Angels, befitting her role as the coordinator of the others. This has certain risks, as she has gone berserk on three occasions, mauling several parishioners who violated the established security perimeter by accident. In the wake of the last, Gabriel has been kept closer to James than the other Guardian Angels. Observed augmentations include implanted claws, augmented vision and hearing, probable medichines, and a probable drug gland that James may be able to remotely activate.
Raphael, formerly Jacob Greensbough, appears to be one of the bruisers of the squad, as her skin appears to have a chitinous texture indicate bio-armor. Her former interests indicate that her participation may have actually been voluntary; she gave every indication of a long-term obsession with James and often defended him from opponents. Augmentations include the bio-armor, implanted shock glove capability, augmented vision and hearing, enhanced reflexes, and clear signs of medichines. Her typical position is alongside James, acting as his most direct bodyguard.
Uriel, formerly Phillip Hart, is the most independent of the Angels, often serving as chauffeur and scout for the group. While her independent role would seem like an ideal contact for potential inflitration, reports indicate heavy psychosurgical editing has left her with the minimal necessary amount of personal autonomy to perform her duties and little ability to operate without outside direction by one of the others; given her former strong identification as a man and her former frequent conflicts of personality with James, it seems likely that she may have been rendered 'docile' by editing. Observed augmentations include medichines, enhanced vision, and probable presence of medichines and a drug gland.
Raguel, formerly Maria Quinzoa, serves as the counterpoint to Raphael; she exhibits little overt personality, but long-term observation suggests enough of the original ego is intact to make her chafe under the control of James and Gabriel. Augmented with bio-armor and implanted shock glove functionality, she rarely strays from the side of Gabriel, but has been observed to occasionally linger when given an opportunity to work away from the others. If infiltration is attempted, she would seem the most likely candidate to be of help. Augmentations beyond those above include medichines and a full suite of enhanced senses, including tactile and olfactory.
Remiel, formerly Jeremiah Dresden, acts as the mesh security operator, coordinator, and SecOps specialist of the group. Originally the least social of the six, she has become somewhat more extroverted since resleeving, taking apparent pleasure in modifying her smart clothing to best emphasize her new form; while this may simply be an expression of latent narcissism, it may also be an attempt at putting would-be assailants off guard. Unlike the others, she has no implanted weapons, instead carrying a pair of vibroknives at her sides. Neurochem and enhanced reflexes are almost certain, along with medichines, enhanced hearing and vision, and a T-ray emitter.
Saraqael, formerly Darcy Mendoza, is usually the most glamorous-looking of the Guardian Angels, often standing arm-in-arm with James when appearing in public and serving as spokesperson for the entire group. The level of fanaticism she exudes in interviews and press releases far exceeds that of Darcy before transfer, but she seems to retain most of her personal autonomy and functionality. Her morph appears to be spliced with some aspects of a Sylph design, with enhanced pheromones, endocrine control, and a highly sanitized metabolism. She is likely outfitted with medichines and a shock system similar to Raphael and Raguel, but primarily relies on her ability to manipulate others to remain clear of trouble.
All six appear to be subject to programmed behaviors that can be set off by a word from James; three specific modes have been observed, including a berserk fury, a 'choir mode' where all six softly echo his every word to give it an added resonance and emphasis, and 'ecstatic mode' where they exhibit manic behavior and are given to fits of glossolalia. All six are well-trained in hand-to-hand combat and the use of personal firearms, and they have been observed acting as a fire team on two occasions, putting down different groups that had sent a threat to James. No survivors were left from either group after the action.
Each of them is in a Fury morph designed with ethereally beautiful features, white hair, and silver eyes, typically dressed in armored smart clothing that typically augments the sensuality of their design. In spite of each individual's expressed gender identity prior to resleeving, each seems content to be instantiated in a female morph. Combined with their choice of new names based upon Christian archangels, it seems clear that they were heavily modified while being transferred, but unless something concrete about it being involuntary comes to surface little can be done about the situation.
The second-in-command to James goes by the name of Gabriel; originally Rebecca Jones, she excelled at mathematics and geometry and was due to apply at Oxford on graduation from basic education. Before she could, she was resleeved and took up her new name, and has shown no interest in pursuing her former goals. She shows the most initiative of the Guardian Angels, befitting her role as the coordinator of the others. This has certain risks, as she has gone berserk on three occasions, mauling several parishioners who violated the established security perimeter by accident. In the wake of the last, Gabriel has been kept closer to James than the other Guardian Angels. Observed augmentations include implanted claws, augmented vision and hearing, probable medichines, and a probable drug gland that James may be able to remotely activate.
Raphael, formerly Jacob Greensbough, appears to be one of the bruisers of the squad, as her skin appears to have a chitinous texture indicate bio-armor. Her former interests indicate that her participation may have actually been voluntary; she gave every indication of a long-term obsession with James and often defended him from opponents. Augmentations include the bio-armor, implanted shock glove capability, augmented vision and hearing, enhanced reflexes, and clear signs of medichines. Her typical position is alongside James, acting as his most direct bodyguard.
Uriel, formerly Phillip Hart, is the most independent of the Angels, often serving as chauffeur and scout for the group. While her independent role would seem like an ideal contact for potential inflitration, reports indicate heavy psychosurgical editing has left her with the minimal necessary amount of personal autonomy to perform her duties and little ability to operate without outside direction by one of the others; given her former strong identification as a man and her former frequent conflicts of personality with James, it seems likely that she may have been rendered 'docile' by editing. Observed augmentations include medichines, enhanced vision, and probable presence of medichines and a drug gland.
Raguel, formerly Maria Quinzoa, serves as the counterpoint to Raphael; she exhibits little overt personality, but long-term observation suggests enough of the original ego is intact to make her chafe under the control of James and Gabriel. Augmented with bio-armor and implanted shock glove functionality, she rarely strays from the side of Gabriel, but has been observed to occasionally linger when given an opportunity to work away from the others. If infiltration is attempted, she would seem the most likely candidate to be of help. Augmentations beyond those above include medichines and a full suite of enhanced senses, including tactile and olfactory.
Remiel, formerly Jeremiah Dresden, acts as the mesh security operator, coordinator, and SecOps specialist of the group. Originally the least social of the six, she has become somewhat more extroverted since resleeving, taking apparent pleasure in modifying her smart clothing to best emphasize her new form; while this may simply be an expression of latent narcissism, it may also be an attempt at putting would-be assailants off guard. Unlike the others, she has no implanted weapons, instead carrying a pair of vibroknives at her sides. Neurochem and enhanced reflexes are almost certain, along with medichines, enhanced hearing and vision, and a T-ray emitter.
Saraqael, formerly Darcy Mendoza, is usually the most glamorous-looking of the Guardian Angels, often standing arm-in-arm with James when appearing in public and serving as spokesperson for the entire group. The level of fanaticism she exudes in interviews and press releases far exceeds that of Darcy before transfer, but she seems to retain most of her personal autonomy and functionality. Her morph appears to be spliced with some aspects of a Sylph design, with enhanced pheromones, endocrine control, and a highly sanitized metabolism. She is likely outfitted with medichines and a shock system similar to Raphael and Raguel, but primarily relies on her ability to manipulate others to remain clear of trouble.
All six appear to be subject to programmed behaviors that can be set off by a word from James; three specific modes have been observed, including a berserk fury, a 'choir mode' where all six softly echo his every word to give it an added resonance and emphasis, and 'ecstatic mode' where they exhibit manic behavior and are given to fits of glossolalia. All six are well-trained in hand-to-hand combat and the use of personal firearms, and they have been observed acting as a fire team on two occasions, putting down different groups that had sent a threat to James. No survivors were left from either group after the action.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Game Lessons #4 - Taking a Break
It's as unfortunate as it is inevitable - at some point, you group is going to need to take a break in the middle of the campaign, and it'll be more than a single missed week. For many groups, a break of more than 1-2 weeks can spell the end of the campaign, as people get distracted by other things to do and lose the rhythm that kept the game thumping along. Others manage to weather disruptions and come back together for years on end. While some of this can be chalked up to the differences in the players, some of it can be designed around.
First and foremost, if you know the break is coming, make sure everyone knows as soon as possible so that people can get used to the idea before it happens. If you're the GM, try to arrange things so that the game ends with a major plot event or cliffhanger at the end of the last session before the hiatus ends; given that we're a storytelling species, we crave closure, so the game will be there, unfinished and on something big, in the background for everyone until the hiatus ends.
If the hiatus isn't planned, however - a major illness or a sudden rush of life events, as examples - it can be trickier. This is one of the times where having a campaign log helps more than anything; having the log there to refer to prevents the kind of guttered-out campaigns where a break means everyone forgets the details of what's been happening. Yes, it can and does happen, no matter how much everyone is enjoying the game; the simple nature of human memory ensures it, just like it ensures that players will forget huge plot-foreshadowing tidbits the GM hands them.
Have as much of the group as possible get together on those regular meeting nights, if possible, to keep everyone in the habit of meeting to game. Pick a different game - preferably not a RPG, because you don't want New Shiny syndrome to kick in and distract people from the game. If you can't meet in person, pick a MMOG or multiplayer game that can host multiplayer and play that. The idea is to keep gaming at the usual intervals and keep the enjoyment flowing without getting distracted from the goal of eventually resuming the original game.
If at all possible, task the most enthusiastic player with coming up with a "The Story So Far" for when the game resumes. Their enthusiasm coupled with access to the campaign log can help refresh everyone's memory of the situation to date and re-energize the group once the game resumes. If not possible, the GM should be ready to take this job on along with the rest of making sure the game continues. This can, on occasion, be useful for a GM looking for an excuse to drop in some foreshadowing that the players may have previously missed.
The ultimate goal is to tide the group over until things settle out and the campaign can resume. Some groups will never make it this far, and this must be acknowledged - the enthusiasm for the story might just not be there, people may decide they prefer to spend their time some other way, a New Shiny may bite, or any number of other things. If so, the group should at least have a wrap-up session where the GM lays out the rest of what was plotted, and any surprises they had in store for the PCs so that the players can at least have the satisfaction of knowing how things might have played out.
Returning from a hiatus has, thus far, not been a problem for my group, largely because of the steps detailed above; twice this year things have disrupted the game, the first time for over two months due to a massive and unexpected illness, and we have successfully recovered the game from the paused state. Previous games weren't so lucky, and at least part of it stems from a failure to keep the group together during the hiatus. That alone can save or destroy your game during the interlude.
Next time, I'll talk about how to deal with players leaving the group.
First and foremost, if you know the break is coming, make sure everyone knows as soon as possible so that people can get used to the idea before it happens. If you're the GM, try to arrange things so that the game ends with a major plot event or cliffhanger at the end of the last session before the hiatus ends; given that we're a storytelling species, we crave closure, so the game will be there, unfinished and on something big, in the background for everyone until the hiatus ends.
If the hiatus isn't planned, however - a major illness or a sudden rush of life events, as examples - it can be trickier. This is one of the times where having a campaign log helps more than anything; having the log there to refer to prevents the kind of guttered-out campaigns where a break means everyone forgets the details of what's been happening. Yes, it can and does happen, no matter how much everyone is enjoying the game; the simple nature of human memory ensures it, just like it ensures that players will forget huge plot-foreshadowing tidbits the GM hands them.
Have as much of the group as possible get together on those regular meeting nights, if possible, to keep everyone in the habit of meeting to game. Pick a different game - preferably not a RPG, because you don't want New Shiny syndrome to kick in and distract people from the game. If you can't meet in person, pick a MMOG or multiplayer game that can host multiplayer and play that. The idea is to keep gaming at the usual intervals and keep the enjoyment flowing without getting distracted from the goal of eventually resuming the original game.
If at all possible, task the most enthusiastic player with coming up with a "The Story So Far" for when the game resumes. Their enthusiasm coupled with access to the campaign log can help refresh everyone's memory of the situation to date and re-energize the group once the game resumes. If not possible, the GM should be ready to take this job on along with the rest of making sure the game continues. This can, on occasion, be useful for a GM looking for an excuse to drop in some foreshadowing that the players may have previously missed.
The ultimate goal is to tide the group over until things settle out and the campaign can resume. Some groups will never make it this far, and this must be acknowledged - the enthusiasm for the story might just not be there, people may decide they prefer to spend their time some other way, a New Shiny may bite, or any number of other things. If so, the group should at least have a wrap-up session where the GM lays out the rest of what was plotted, and any surprises they had in store for the PCs so that the players can at least have the satisfaction of knowing how things might have played out.
Returning from a hiatus has, thus far, not been a problem for my group, largely because of the steps detailed above; twice this year things have disrupted the game, the first time for over two months due to a massive and unexpected illness, and we have successfully recovered the game from the paused state. Previous games weren't so lucky, and at least part of it stems from a failure to keep the group together during the hiatus. That alone can save or destroy your game during the interlude.
Next time, I'll talk about how to deal with players leaving the group.
Friday, September 18, 2015
System Musing: Making something -punk
Free admission: this is only my take on the convention of making something -punk. Your idea may vary - and that's fine! Hopefully you find something useful here anyway.
There's been a proliferation of things tagged with -punk as an affix over the last several years, some of which seem to treat it as a way to say "This thing is like the original thing, but new!" That's not quite what the concept originally was, as it seemed to be more a method of taking the rebellious aspects of punk and weaving it into something else - cyberpunk was applying the concept of punk to the near-future dystopia some people saw emerging from the course of civilization, a what-if critiquing our rampant consumer/capitalist society. Steampunk was a rebellious neo-Victorian altered timeline where steam technology and mad science were the rule, where feminism had transformed all the tight-wound propriety into something else, a what-if model asking about feminism and education. The most recent example of this model that I've seen is the Heartland Trilogy by Chuck Wendig; it's only semi-jokingly referred to as cornpunk, and it's an interesting twist on the world that could be.
How, then, do you apply the concept of punk to a game system? Depending on how in-depth you want to get, it can be as simple as a superficial veneer across the familiar - something like how Eberron for D&D has elemental-driven trains and airship but is still, at the core, D&D high fantasy - or it can be a complete rewrite of what the game offers.
Presuming that you want something a bit more complex than the 'slap a gear on it' of many steampunk fans (Note: I am not saying thing is wrong, even though the more hardcore steampunk fans will throw a screaming tantrum over it. You're a fan if you say you are, and people don't get to gatekeep your fandom.) you should look at what you're trying to modify and think about what parts of it could be used to critique the modern world - the ragged what-if question that your punk explores.
Take your question and filter your chosen game through it; push it to the extreme, because pushing it to the limit is the goal here. Cyberpunk isn't a Walmart on every block and corporate drones in suburbia, it is monolithic megacorporations that supplanted governments, a dystopia of capitalist hell, everything pushed to the brink of collapse by consumer culture. Steampunk isn't Victorian England with feminism, it's Victorian attitudes shoved into a cannon with feminism gunpowder and loaded aboard a lightning-powered airship crewed by sky pirates. The Heartland trilogy is floating cities of the elites and the world wrapped in seas of corn.
Take D&D high fantasy and ask what extreme point you can render from it; a world where wizards openly wield their power could become a world where nuclear war is one angry spellcaster away, where everyone wants the threat of spellcasting armageddon stepped down but doesn't want to be the first to do so. Arcane research programs and espionage teams of magic resistant thieves deployed in deniable operations. Mass-produced magic items outfit armies that ride in battle-golems in proxy wars. All the specters of modern warfare, filtered through the lens of high fantasy. And then the players - caught in the middle of a proxy war between two major powers, their entire world devastated by the battle and the fallout, who have to rise to become peacemakers or warlords, rescuing refugees or conquering the resulting chaos.
Take Eclipse Phase, and chase the specter that many people fear already, the idea of a superintelligent AI and a robot apocalypse - or be the robots among people who fear a robot apocalypse, harassed, put down, and tormented by the biochauvanists who dominate the society. Push it to the limit - faced with unending harassment, do they make the best of it, fight back, or try to make a break for it? What kind of brutal challenges sit between them and their goals?
Any setting can be rewritten to explore an extreme what-if situation. What if the religiously empowered Jovian Republic of Eclipse Phase declares a Crusade against the rest of the solar system? What kind of nightmares can erupt in a holy war across an entire star system? What happens when other faiths fight back? What happens when another copy of you, edited into a religious fanatic, starts rampaging in the same habitat you're in? What happens when you meet your fork, and they insist you're the edited one - and they seem to have evidence?
Punk is about exploring those extremes. Consider giving it a try in some short-term campaign, as filler between longer games; the intense push it brings isn't good for long-term games in most cases, but it can provide ample thrills for a month or two, and be set aside before people get burnt out on it.
There's been a proliferation of things tagged with -punk as an affix over the last several years, some of which seem to treat it as a way to say "This thing is like the original thing, but new!" That's not quite what the concept originally was, as it seemed to be more a method of taking the rebellious aspects of punk and weaving it into something else - cyberpunk was applying the concept of punk to the near-future dystopia some people saw emerging from the course of civilization, a what-if critiquing our rampant consumer/capitalist society. Steampunk was a rebellious neo-Victorian altered timeline where steam technology and mad science were the rule, where feminism had transformed all the tight-wound propriety into something else, a what-if model asking about feminism and education. The most recent example of this model that I've seen is the Heartland Trilogy by Chuck Wendig; it's only semi-jokingly referred to as cornpunk, and it's an interesting twist on the world that could be.
How, then, do you apply the concept of punk to a game system? Depending on how in-depth you want to get, it can be as simple as a superficial veneer across the familiar - something like how Eberron for D&D has elemental-driven trains and airship but is still, at the core, D&D high fantasy - or it can be a complete rewrite of what the game offers.
Presuming that you want something a bit more complex than the 'slap a gear on it' of many steampunk fans (Note: I am not saying thing is wrong, even though the more hardcore steampunk fans will throw a screaming tantrum over it. You're a fan if you say you are, and people don't get to gatekeep your fandom.) you should look at what you're trying to modify and think about what parts of it could be used to critique the modern world - the ragged what-if question that your punk explores.
Take your question and filter your chosen game through it; push it to the extreme, because pushing it to the limit is the goal here. Cyberpunk isn't a Walmart on every block and corporate drones in suburbia, it is monolithic megacorporations that supplanted governments, a dystopia of capitalist hell, everything pushed to the brink of collapse by consumer culture. Steampunk isn't Victorian England with feminism, it's Victorian attitudes shoved into a cannon with feminism gunpowder and loaded aboard a lightning-powered airship crewed by sky pirates. The Heartland trilogy is floating cities of the elites and the world wrapped in seas of corn.
Take D&D high fantasy and ask what extreme point you can render from it; a world where wizards openly wield their power could become a world where nuclear war is one angry spellcaster away, where everyone wants the threat of spellcasting armageddon stepped down but doesn't want to be the first to do so. Arcane research programs and espionage teams of magic resistant thieves deployed in deniable operations. Mass-produced magic items outfit armies that ride in battle-golems in proxy wars. All the specters of modern warfare, filtered through the lens of high fantasy. And then the players - caught in the middle of a proxy war between two major powers, their entire world devastated by the battle and the fallout, who have to rise to become peacemakers or warlords, rescuing refugees or conquering the resulting chaos.
Take Eclipse Phase, and chase the specter that many people fear already, the idea of a superintelligent AI and a robot apocalypse - or be the robots among people who fear a robot apocalypse, harassed, put down, and tormented by the biochauvanists who dominate the society. Push it to the limit - faced with unending harassment, do they make the best of it, fight back, or try to make a break for it? What kind of brutal challenges sit between them and their goals?
Any setting can be rewritten to explore an extreme what-if situation. What if the religiously empowered Jovian Republic of Eclipse Phase declares a Crusade against the rest of the solar system? What kind of nightmares can erupt in a holy war across an entire star system? What happens when other faiths fight back? What happens when another copy of you, edited into a religious fanatic, starts rampaging in the same habitat you're in? What happens when you meet your fork, and they insist you're the edited one - and they seem to have evidence?
Punk is about exploring those extremes. Consider giving it a try in some short-term campaign, as filler between longer games; the intense push it brings isn't good for long-term games in most cases, but it can provide ample thrills for a month or two, and be set aside before people get burnt out on it.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
System Musing: Star Wars
So, with The Force Awakens due to hit the movie theater in a few months, my long-standing enjoyment of Star Wars is starting to rise again and I'm starting to get a geek itch about it. As a result, I've been prodding my old D20 Star Wars books again, and in doing so I've been reminded of something about the Star Wars universe that really bothers me.
No, I'm not talking about Jar-Jar Binks, although I really could've done with out him, or the incredibly ham-handed hack job that was done with the three-movie origin story of Darth Vader. I'm talking about how the Dark Side of the Force gets portrayed as one step shy of cackling Snidely Whiplash caricatures of evil, and the Light Side is supposedly this bastion of Nobility and Goodness. Even pulp fantasy novels usually do a better job of portraying nuance than these caricatures of Cosmic good and cosmic Evil.
So - I'm going to present my version of how the Force works for when I run Star Wars games; I think it presents a much more interesting challenge for players and GMs alike than simply delcaring the Dark Side to be cackling evil.
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"Duct Tape is like the Force. It has a Light Side and a Dark Side, and it binds everything together." -Unknown
The Force, in Star Wars, is essentially a cosmos-spanning form of energy that is either generated by or focused through living creatures. Those who are Force-sensitive can be trained to manipulate it to produce incredible effects - telekinesis being one of the most common, even though individual applications of that tend to be sectioned off into specific powers. Telepathy is another common one, and of course the signature power of the Dark Side is producing crackling bolts of electricity to attack people with.
In the D20 edition of Star Wars, players who have Jedi characters are expected to stay on the Light Side of the Force, with repercussions if they dip into the Dark Side that can lead up to them having to surrender their PC to the GM to become a NPC. If that's what the player wants, that's fine, but for a player who wants to explore how a Force wielder can delve into the Dark Side and not become a monster, it's phenomenally boring.
Rather than the base system that simply racks up Dark Side points, with the character falling if they pass a certain value, I posit that both sides of the Force are dangerous if a character becomes too strongly aligned with them. Those who become too infused with the Light Side of the Force become inwardly focused, certain that their way is the one true way. This is what resulted in the ossification of the Jedi Council and their inability to adapt, and what ultimately led to their downfall for being unable to see their way as anything but the One True Way. A Dark Side person who goes too far is the opposite; they see the world as a place of turmoil and chaos, where rules only exist as far as they can be enforced by others, and might makes right - Palpatine saw himself as the mightiest of all, the rule-crafter for others and immune to the rules of anyone else.
As such, Force users must keep their Light Side points and Dark Side points in balance if they want to use both sides of the Force, but those who go outside this bound are not automatically transformed into NPCs. A player can let the difference between the two go up to their Wisdom score before they slide into a polarized state. PCs who keep their scores closely balanced - within three points of each other - gain a +1 bonus on their Force Use check for all their powers, as they represent the Living Force in their balanced state. Force users outside this balance point but still within their Wisdom range have no bonuses or penalties on their checks.
A Force user who goes outside of their Wisdom range immediately becomes polarized, their Light Side and Dark Side points are reset to zero, and they lose access to all powers tagged with the opposing side of the Force. Force checks for powers tagged with the side they've become polarized toward are made with a +1 bonus for every 5 points in that side, however, and their personality becomes influenced by that side; Light Side users will tend to become more 'my way or the highway' with a totalitarian bent, while Dark Side users will become more impulsive and uninhibited. They are no longer able to accumulate points for the opposing side of the Force.
At this point, the Force user remains polarized until they accumulate twice their Wisdom score in Light/Dark Side Points; after that, they fall fully to their side of the Force and become a NPC at the end of the campaign session; they will most likely withdraw into seclusion as they meditate on the sudden revelations their incredibly powerful connection to one side of the Force shows them. From this state are powerhouses such as Darth Vader and Palpatine born, driven by a singularly strong connection to one side of the Force.
A character who has become polarized can redeem themselves in exceptionally rare circumstances, if they seek out a nexus of the opposed side of the Force and undertake an exceptionally dangerous trial that reattunes them to the Living Force; if they succeed, their Light/Dark Side points are once against reset to zero and they regain access to both sides of the Force.
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Of course, none of this matters to characters who have no Force attunement, as the Living Force is almost transparent to them.
No, I'm not talking about Jar-Jar Binks, although I really could've done with out him, or the incredibly ham-handed hack job that was done with the three-movie origin story of Darth Vader. I'm talking about how the Dark Side of the Force gets portrayed as one step shy of cackling Snidely Whiplash caricatures of evil, and the Light Side is supposedly this bastion of Nobility and Goodness. Even pulp fantasy novels usually do a better job of portraying nuance than these caricatures of Cosmic good and cosmic Evil.
So - I'm going to present my version of how the Force works for when I run Star Wars games; I think it presents a much more interesting challenge for players and GMs alike than simply delcaring the Dark Side to be cackling evil.
---
"Duct Tape is like the Force. It has a Light Side and a Dark Side, and it binds everything together." -Unknown
The Force, in Star Wars, is essentially a cosmos-spanning form of energy that is either generated by or focused through living creatures. Those who are Force-sensitive can be trained to manipulate it to produce incredible effects - telekinesis being one of the most common, even though individual applications of that tend to be sectioned off into specific powers. Telepathy is another common one, and of course the signature power of the Dark Side is producing crackling bolts of electricity to attack people with.
In the D20 edition of Star Wars, players who have Jedi characters are expected to stay on the Light Side of the Force, with repercussions if they dip into the Dark Side that can lead up to them having to surrender their PC to the GM to become a NPC. If that's what the player wants, that's fine, but for a player who wants to explore how a Force wielder can delve into the Dark Side and not become a monster, it's phenomenally boring.
Rather than the base system that simply racks up Dark Side points, with the character falling if they pass a certain value, I posit that both sides of the Force are dangerous if a character becomes too strongly aligned with them. Those who become too infused with the Light Side of the Force become inwardly focused, certain that their way is the one true way. This is what resulted in the ossification of the Jedi Council and their inability to adapt, and what ultimately led to their downfall for being unable to see their way as anything but the One True Way. A Dark Side person who goes too far is the opposite; they see the world as a place of turmoil and chaos, where rules only exist as far as they can be enforced by others, and might makes right - Palpatine saw himself as the mightiest of all, the rule-crafter for others and immune to the rules of anyone else.
As such, Force users must keep their Light Side points and Dark Side points in balance if they want to use both sides of the Force, but those who go outside this bound are not automatically transformed into NPCs. A player can let the difference between the two go up to their Wisdom score before they slide into a polarized state. PCs who keep their scores closely balanced - within three points of each other - gain a +1 bonus on their Force Use check for all their powers, as they represent the Living Force in their balanced state. Force users outside this balance point but still within their Wisdom range have no bonuses or penalties on their checks.
A Force user who goes outside of their Wisdom range immediately becomes polarized, their Light Side and Dark Side points are reset to zero, and they lose access to all powers tagged with the opposing side of the Force. Force checks for powers tagged with the side they've become polarized toward are made with a +1 bonus for every 5 points in that side, however, and their personality becomes influenced by that side; Light Side users will tend to become more 'my way or the highway' with a totalitarian bent, while Dark Side users will become more impulsive and uninhibited. They are no longer able to accumulate points for the opposing side of the Force.
At this point, the Force user remains polarized until they accumulate twice their Wisdom score in Light/Dark Side Points; after that, they fall fully to their side of the Force and become a NPC at the end of the campaign session; they will most likely withdraw into seclusion as they meditate on the sudden revelations their incredibly powerful connection to one side of the Force shows them. From this state are powerhouses such as Darth Vader and Palpatine born, driven by a singularly strong connection to one side of the Force.
A character who has become polarized can redeem themselves in exceptionally rare circumstances, if they seek out a nexus of the opposed side of the Force and undertake an exceptionally dangerous trial that reattunes them to the Living Force; if they succeed, their Light/Dark Side points are once against reset to zero and they regain access to both sides of the Force.
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Of course, none of this matters to characters who have no Force attunement, as the Living Force is almost transparent to them.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Magical Musing: Offensive Healing
The idea behind this post comes from a guy I know, David, who messaged me yesterday wondering about why healing spells only ever put things back, and why there weren't offensive healing spells.
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Healing magic - and indeed healing in pretty much any game - is the kind of thing that generally gets seen as a tool that puts things back to order the way they should be. This is, generally, perfectly fine; these things exist as a way for players to quickly get back into action. Sometimes, in fantastic games, they can be used offensively under the right circumstances - undead are notorious for being weak to healing spells in most systems.
The thing is, as David so aptly observed, there is literally no reason that some entity couldn't have created healing-style spells to make the body go haywire. A spell that causes a massive immune system reaction could be horrific to encounter, and it's just the kind of thing that a malevolent student of healing magic might come up with.
Likewise, in sci-fi settings with advanced medicine that involves things like nano-bandages, medical nanites embedded in the body, healing vats full of highly advanced medical goo, and the like, there's nothing to stop a person from programming something to infest amid the other nanites or reprogramming the healing vat to rebuild the person wrong.
Depending on the specific effect and the design of the spell or contaminated technology, the effects could either be rapid, painful, and outright damaging, or they could be subtle, long-lasting, and insidious. A spell that causes your bones to rapidly grow jagged segments that pull and tear at your internal structure or a nanite payload in a dart gun that triggers anaphylactic shock in the victim are both rapid and brutal examples of this kind of healing-gone-bad.
More subtle ones might function like a curse, in a magical setting - a long-term curse that causes all the cartilage in the body to slowly ossify, gradually crippling them as their skeleton fuses into an immobile mass, or one that infests them with virulent and painful forms of cancer. Science-fiction can be even worse - encoding the nanites to transform a kidney into a factory for some debilitating drug, effectively turning their body into a weapon against themselves, or inducing very specific and selective cancers or genetic diseases by reprogramming a healing vat.
Imagine the horror of a player group that encounters what first seem like zombies in a fantasy setting, only to find that their opponents scream, bleed, and rapidly heal, with regular healing magic simply making them recover faster? The poor victims of some mad alchemist-chiurgeon, rendered into cancerous masses of obedient tissue, defending him as he works on unlocking the secrets of true immortality - even as he prepares deadly weapons developed from healing potions.
Or the nightmare of a ship coated with an unsettling layer of organic gunk in space, the interior still heated and oxygenated, only to discover that the layer is the malformed and overgrown mass of flesh that was once the crew of the ship, after a trojan in the medical systems rewrote them into this horrible cancerous mass?
Surely the sort of things that nightmares are made of, that. Something to think about, the next time the GM needs an unsettling and unusual adversary for a group.
Monday, September 14, 2015
Game Lessons #3 - Party Building
The most critical part of setting up any long-term campaign is making sure the players are all on the same page, both with each other and with the GM. If the GM's campaign is using a pre-built Adventure Path, it becomes important for the players to have characters that will work for the ideas involved. You don't want to bring a paladin to a pirate campaign, and you don't want to bring a rogue who thinks poison on their knives is just fine to something like a Holy Crusade.
Likewise, as the GM, if you're building your own campaign from scratch, you don't want to have to figure out adventures in Eclipse Phase for a murderous exhuman, a singularity seeker, a biochauvanist, and an AGI Rights crusader. Even with the help of Firewall as a unifying factor, this group is going to spend more time fighting each other than any X-threats. So where does this really leave us?
It leaves us with the wonders of the group template and a character creation night. The people behind the Fear The Boot podcast made a nice example of such a thing, and even provided this lovely filled-in example of how it works. The shorthand of it is that you figure out, before anything else, what your group is going to be, to give players and GM alike a framework. This won't always work - a GM with new players or a totally new group will have to shoulder more of the burden here, and veteran players with a first-time or out-of-practice GM should be willing to put in extra effort to shore up the group.
With a pre-built campaign, the GM should either acquire or assemble a short Player's Guide for it; the idea here is to give the players a framework to provide context when they make their characters, so they know and understand the flavor of the situation. The best ones give little perks and offerings specific to the campaign, which tie in later on so that the players have a reason to take the offerings and build around them.
Without something pre-made, the GM should tell the players roughly what kind of story they're going for - "I want to run a war campaign" or "I want to make this a Mythic campaign" will work as a starting point. From there, pitch some more coherent ideas while inviting the players to pitch their own into the mix. At this point the group is just sorting raw ingredients, seeing what they have available and what they might want to make from it. "I want to play a kobold" and "I want to explore this part of this game world" are both good things to hear at this point.
This is where something more coherent should be forming; GMs, encourage your players to bounce ideas off each other. Does one player really want to be a valiant warrior? Does someone else want to play the kind of person who might have a reason to be around such a person, like a fragile spellcaster who might have grown up with the warrior, the quiet and insightful thinker to the bold heroism of the warrior? Maybe the warrior was the one who kept the town bully from picking on the spellcaster as a kid, and now they're inseparable as adults. The one who wants to play a character with a rich backstory - encourage the others to find a way to weave their backgrounds with that, to give them all a solid history together.
The GM should, at this point, be tossing ideas to the players that tie them to the specifics of the setting and the future events of the campaign. Give them options to the them to the history of the location - NPCs they may have known growing up and reasons they may like or dislike them, businesses they'd be familiar with, events they may have heard of, been inspired by, or taken part in.
By the time all is said and done, the group should already have a history together, a reason to stick together, and some ties to the setting they're in. Whether the adventure is prebuilt or home-grown, at this point the group should be knit together and embedded in the world, giving the players a sense of investment and a desire to get the ball rolling.
Likewise, as the GM, if you're building your own campaign from scratch, you don't want to have to figure out adventures in Eclipse Phase for a murderous exhuman, a singularity seeker, a biochauvanist, and an AGI Rights crusader. Even with the help of Firewall as a unifying factor, this group is going to spend more time fighting each other than any X-threats. So where does this really leave us?
It leaves us with the wonders of the group template and a character creation night. The people behind the Fear The Boot podcast made a nice example of such a thing, and even provided this lovely filled-in example of how it works. The shorthand of it is that you figure out, before anything else, what your group is going to be, to give players and GM alike a framework. This won't always work - a GM with new players or a totally new group will have to shoulder more of the burden here, and veteran players with a first-time or out-of-practice GM should be willing to put in extra effort to shore up the group.
With a pre-built campaign, the GM should either acquire or assemble a short Player's Guide for it; the idea here is to give the players a framework to provide context when they make their characters, so they know and understand the flavor of the situation. The best ones give little perks and offerings specific to the campaign, which tie in later on so that the players have a reason to take the offerings and build around them.
Without something pre-made, the GM should tell the players roughly what kind of story they're going for - "I want to run a war campaign" or "I want to make this a Mythic campaign" will work as a starting point. From there, pitch some more coherent ideas while inviting the players to pitch their own into the mix. At this point the group is just sorting raw ingredients, seeing what they have available and what they might want to make from it. "I want to play a kobold" and "I want to explore this part of this game world" are both good things to hear at this point.
This is where something more coherent should be forming; GMs, encourage your players to bounce ideas off each other. Does one player really want to be a valiant warrior? Does someone else want to play the kind of person who might have a reason to be around such a person, like a fragile spellcaster who might have grown up with the warrior, the quiet and insightful thinker to the bold heroism of the warrior? Maybe the warrior was the one who kept the town bully from picking on the spellcaster as a kid, and now they're inseparable as adults. The one who wants to play a character with a rich backstory - encourage the others to find a way to weave their backgrounds with that, to give them all a solid history together.
The GM should, at this point, be tossing ideas to the players that tie them to the specifics of the setting and the future events of the campaign. Give them options to the them to the history of the location - NPCs they may have known growing up and reasons they may like or dislike them, businesses they'd be familiar with, events they may have heard of, been inspired by, or taken part in.
By the time all is said and done, the group should already have a history together, a reason to stick together, and some ties to the setting they're in. Whether the adventure is prebuilt or home-grown, at this point the group should be knit together and embedded in the world, giving the players a sense of investment and a desire to get the ball rolling.
Friday, September 11, 2015
Cypher Supers - Operation Enigma, Part 4
Today, a sampling of cyphers and artifacts related to Operation Enigma. For those unfamiliar with the terms, a cyphers is a one-shot item that fills in the role of potions, spells, and the like in the Cypher System; players are encourage to use them by a relatively low limit on how many they can carry at a time. Artifacts are items that can be reused, but most of them have a depletion roll - a check that results in them running out of whatever powers them, or otherwise no longer being functional. Both fill in the characters of the system and give them additional capabilities beyond with their Focus, Role, and Descriptor offer.
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Cyphers
Electron Pulse Amplifier
Level: 1d6+1
This small device, about the size of a dime, attaches to any weapon the user desires upon activation. It causes the weapon to deal an additional 2 electrical damage on a successful hit, the power being provided from extradimensional sources. The effect lasts for 24 hours.
Thaumaturgic Supercapacitor
Level: 1d6
When attached to an artifact of an equal or lower level, this coil of silver-blue wire remains in place until the artifact fails a depletion roll; instead of the artifact depleting, the cypher disintegrates and recharges the artifact. Once attached, the cypher no longer counts against a character's cypher limit.
Digital Linguistic Archive
Level: 1d6
This small flesh-tone chip is used by touching it to the user's spine; it automatically attaches itself, granting the user fluency in a number of languages equal to the level of the cypher (GM's choice).
Proton Bomb
Level: 1d6+3
This small ovoid device has a very obvious red button covered by a clear cover; when the button is pressed and the device thrown, it explodes in a storm of high-energy protons that deal damage equal to the cypher's level to a short range.
Positron Wand
Level: 1d6+2
This slender translucent rod can be activated to project a positron beam at a single target, dealing damage equal to the cypher's level and modifying all their actions on the next round by one to their detriment as the anti-electrons interfere with their nervous system.
Thaumic Accelerator
Level: 1d6+1
This pair of slende silvery half-hoops fit over the user's feet or shoes; when activated, they allow the wearer to move twice in a given round, essentially doubling their speed both in and out of combat. This effect lasts for one hour.
Graviton Control Pack
Level: 1d6
Despite the impressive name, this slender backpack actually allows the wearer to fly at up to 120 mph (193 kph) for the next four hours by means of powerful electromagnetic coils, with a high level of control.
Daemon Drone Device
Level: 1d6+1
When activated, this small black box unfolds into a black mechanical mantis the size of a mid-sized dog, of equal level to the cypher. It obeys whoever activated to the best of its abilities, with the ability to fly up to a short distance every round. After six hours, it powers down and crumbles into rust.
Analysis Engine
Level: 1d6+4
A PDA-sized device, it can be used to access the Internet and numerous restricted networks for a short period, just long enough to serve as two assets on any knowledge skill check.
Bottled Ectoplasm
Level: 1d6+1
This bottle of pale goo can be emptied out and molded into the shape of almost any single device the user wants over the course of a single round; accessing the Internet and the thoughts of the user, the ectoplasm finishes the transformation, becoming a functional replica of whatever was intended with a level equal to the cypher. It cannot create other cyphers, artifacts, or living creatures.
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Artifacts
Holographic Camouflage Unit
Level: 1d6
Appearing as a belt buckle of unusual thickness, this device can sometimes be salvaged from Enigma Agents. When activated, it cloaks the user in a field that renders their usual appearance invisible, replacing it with a generic human figure of vaguely similar shape and skin tone dressed in a sharp black suit, mirrored sunglasses, and absolutely dispassionate expression. It cloaks their voice to a monotone that matches the appearance of the hologram, and when the user lifts their right hand it displays credentials that the built-in computer system judges most likely to impress whoever the user is facing; this serves as two assets for any attempts to impersonate a government or corporate official.
Depletion: 1 in 20
Pyroclastic Rod
Level: 1d6+1
This slender metal baton contains a powerful energy cell and a series of electromagnetic field projectors and lasers that produce a flare of white-hot plasma, dealing damage equal to the artifact level to all targets within a short range.
It has an alternate mode that fires a small encapsulated mass of plasma out to long range at a single target, dealing damage equal to the artifact level as contact ruptures the containment and sprays a gout of plasma over the victim.
Depletion: 1 in 5
Immortality Unit
Level: 1d6+4
This device is activated by applying it to the base of a creature's skull, after which it burrows in painfully (dealing damage equal to the artifact's level) and replaces a portion of the spinal cord. At any point after this, if the person dies, the unit transmits a copy of their genetic code at the time of activation and a full record of their mind up to the point of death to an Operation Enigma reconstruction facility, where the information is used to rapidly grow and imprint a clone body over the course of two weeks; as most of these facilities are well-hidden and only monitored by basic subroutines of Max, the person who wakes in such a facility is unlikely to be bothered on their emergence and return to life. Getting home and convincing people of their story is another matter entirely.
Depletion: --
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And that wraps up the sampling of Operation Enigma devices! While future posts may come back to specific cells and additional creatures of the group, that wraps up this series on the organization; hopefully you've found it useful!
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Cyphers
Electron Pulse Amplifier
Level: 1d6+1
This small device, about the size of a dime, attaches to any weapon the user desires upon activation. It causes the weapon to deal an additional 2 electrical damage on a successful hit, the power being provided from extradimensional sources. The effect lasts for 24 hours.
Thaumaturgic Supercapacitor
Level: 1d6
When attached to an artifact of an equal or lower level, this coil of silver-blue wire remains in place until the artifact fails a depletion roll; instead of the artifact depleting, the cypher disintegrates and recharges the artifact. Once attached, the cypher no longer counts against a character's cypher limit.
Digital Linguistic Archive
Level: 1d6
This small flesh-tone chip is used by touching it to the user's spine; it automatically attaches itself, granting the user fluency in a number of languages equal to the level of the cypher (GM's choice).
Proton Bomb
Level: 1d6+3
This small ovoid device has a very obvious red button covered by a clear cover; when the button is pressed and the device thrown, it explodes in a storm of high-energy protons that deal damage equal to the cypher's level to a short range.
Positron Wand
Level: 1d6+2
This slender translucent rod can be activated to project a positron beam at a single target, dealing damage equal to the cypher's level and modifying all their actions on the next round by one to their detriment as the anti-electrons interfere with their nervous system.
Thaumic Accelerator
Level: 1d6+1
This pair of slende silvery half-hoops fit over the user's feet or shoes; when activated, they allow the wearer to move twice in a given round, essentially doubling their speed both in and out of combat. This effect lasts for one hour.
Graviton Control Pack
Level: 1d6
Despite the impressive name, this slender backpack actually allows the wearer to fly at up to 120 mph (193 kph) for the next four hours by means of powerful electromagnetic coils, with a high level of control.
Daemon Drone Device
Level: 1d6+1
When activated, this small black box unfolds into a black mechanical mantis the size of a mid-sized dog, of equal level to the cypher. It obeys whoever activated to the best of its abilities, with the ability to fly up to a short distance every round. After six hours, it powers down and crumbles into rust.
Analysis Engine
Level: 1d6+4
A PDA-sized device, it can be used to access the Internet and numerous restricted networks for a short period, just long enough to serve as two assets on any knowledge skill check.
Bottled Ectoplasm
Level: 1d6+1
This bottle of pale goo can be emptied out and molded into the shape of almost any single device the user wants over the course of a single round; accessing the Internet and the thoughts of the user, the ectoplasm finishes the transformation, becoming a functional replica of whatever was intended with a level equal to the cypher. It cannot create other cyphers, artifacts, or living creatures.
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Artifacts
Holographic Camouflage Unit
Level: 1d6
Appearing as a belt buckle of unusual thickness, this device can sometimes be salvaged from Enigma Agents. When activated, it cloaks the user in a field that renders their usual appearance invisible, replacing it with a generic human figure of vaguely similar shape and skin tone dressed in a sharp black suit, mirrored sunglasses, and absolutely dispassionate expression. It cloaks their voice to a monotone that matches the appearance of the hologram, and when the user lifts their right hand it displays credentials that the built-in computer system judges most likely to impress whoever the user is facing; this serves as two assets for any attempts to impersonate a government or corporate official.
Depletion: 1 in 20
Pyroclastic Rod
Level: 1d6+1
This slender metal baton contains a powerful energy cell and a series of electromagnetic field projectors and lasers that produce a flare of white-hot plasma, dealing damage equal to the artifact level to all targets within a short range.
It has an alternate mode that fires a small encapsulated mass of plasma out to long range at a single target, dealing damage equal to the artifact level as contact ruptures the containment and sprays a gout of plasma over the victim.
Depletion: 1 in 5
Immortality Unit
Level: 1d6+4
This device is activated by applying it to the base of a creature's skull, after which it burrows in painfully (dealing damage equal to the artifact's level) and replaces a portion of the spinal cord. At any point after this, if the person dies, the unit transmits a copy of their genetic code at the time of activation and a full record of their mind up to the point of death to an Operation Enigma reconstruction facility, where the information is used to rapidly grow and imprint a clone body over the course of two weeks; as most of these facilities are well-hidden and only monitored by basic subroutines of Max, the person who wakes in such a facility is unlikely to be bothered on their emergence and return to life. Getting home and convincing people of their story is another matter entirely.
Depletion: --
---
And that wraps up the sampling of Operation Enigma devices! While future posts may come back to specific cells and additional creatures of the group, that wraps up this series on the organization; hopefully you've found it useful!
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Cypher Supers - Operation Enigma, Part 3
Today, in the third part of Operation Enigma, we look at Max and the goals of the organization.
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Dig a little deeper, and the more sinister aspect of their operations comes into focus - the disappearance rate of the homeless and others who won't be missed goes up significantly when Enigma cells are active, as the process of creating Agents requires a baseline human to host both the arcane cybernetics and the otherworldly creature whose power keeps the whole thing from just falling apart. Anyone who digs this deep can tell that Operation Enigma is building an army of capable and terrifyingly loyal soldiers, although the reason is somewhat vague.
Dig still deeper, and the monstrous nature of the creatures they summon shows up; demons and devils bound into bizarre constructs of high technology and living flesh, with potent dark magic holding them in their new forms and compelling their loyalty. Broad strokes of a plan to dominate the world in a single overwhelming stroke show up here, with movement of resources that suggest it's a long-range and far-reaching plan that has been unfolding for years, if not decades. This is also where the first clue as the the names of the masterminds of the Operation show up - David, Steven, and Max.
David and Steven are easy enough to learn about; their focus on the Singularity, an event when the advance of technology will accelerate beyond human understanding, appears to be the goal of these two; each one seems to be seeking their own version of it that will leave them in a state to achieve apotheosis, ascending to a kind of godhood into the indefinite future. Thwarting that alone is a worthy goal, but clues about Max are slim until one reaches the center of the conspiratorial organization.
Max - or the Magnum Intellect Terrestrial Node - is the greatest achievement of Operation Enigma, a network of computers in a steady state of upgrade that has had an ancient and extremely powerful archdevil bound into it. The network is built n a way that prevents the being from exerting any of its powers without express permission and command by someone with proper access to one of the network terminals. The archdevil has had quite a long time to learn how to persuade and manipulate people, however, and it essentially functions autonomously in commanding the cells of Operation Enigma toward the goal of an Infernal Singularity.
The Infernal Singularity is an attempt to push technology into a heavy reliance on magic, with hidden components that turn the linked global network into a pocket dimension connected to both the infernal realms where Max and its minions originate and to Earth itself, creating a staging ground for a full-fledged invasion of half-mechanical hellspawn. Max keeps its plans hidden, well aware that even David and Steven wouldn't support this goal, no matter what it might promise them in the resulting devil-haunted world.
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Max (Magnum Intellect Terrestrial Node)
The first look at an aspect of Max is generally unimposing - a cutting-edge computer in a climate-controlled server room, with only a microphone and camera as input methods. As long as people interacting with it don't seem to be aware of what it is, it pretends to be an advanced voice recognition program with access to a wide array of software and network connections across the world. It carefully manipulates everything it displays on the monitor to guide people into making self-serving requests of it, offering them clear consequence-free access to bank accounts and private information.
Those who show themselves to be aware of the intellect find themselves treated with an almost insulting level of subservience, as the archdevil uses every trick it knows to manipulate them into feeling like it has no purpose but to comply with their wishes, offering them the world at their feet.
Those who show awareness of the intellect's long-term plans are the only ones not treated to the flattery and lies, as it instead works to convince them that the goal it seeks is ultimately beneficial to everyone - humanity prospers immensely by the advance of arcane technology, the fiends get to escape the miserable dimension presently confining them, and Max offer to work directly with them to achieve their goals along with its own. Despite the coldly unemotional tone of its words, it remains fiercely persuasive, and takes pleasure in subverting those who meant to deal with it.
Level: 10
Motive: To bring about a world ruled by devilkind
Environment: Server rooms at the heart of Operation Enigma's power
Health: Individual server rooms have 25 Health before the systems are destroyed; destroying Max requires the destruction of every server housing it, which banishes it
Damage Inflicted: 6 Intellect to everyone in the building which houses the server room
Movement: None; an aspect of Max can withdraw from a building as a single-round action, wiping the entire server in the process
Modifications: Persuasion as Level 13; Seeing through deceptions as Level 13; Might and Speed Defense as Level 1
Combat: If a server is attacked, Max activates the defenses in the building housing it, alerting every Enigma Agent and Daemon in range, followed by a powerful psychic shock that attacks any foe every round. If threatened with the destruction of the server housing it, it will withdraw itself and effectively slag the hard dries connected to it.
The wrecked servers can be salvaged for 1d6 cyphers and 1 artifact.
Use: Max is essentially the mastermind behind Operation Enigma, and encountering it in full power should be the climax of a campaign against the group. Attempting to destroy server rooms faster than they can be assembled and hidden becomes a race against time.
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Next time we look at Operation Enigma, we'll take a look at some sample cyphers and artifacts that the group has access to, and which might fall into the hands of players fighting the conspiracy.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Cypher Supers - Operation Enigma, Part 2
While the Enigma Club was originally founded by a pair of siblings, they went missing under mysterious circumstances around the year 2000. In their wake, a pair of cousins stepped up to assume leadership: David Wick and Steven Fire. The two are only vaguely in agreement, working to advance the overall goal on the Operation Enigma in their own fashion. David is the one most likely to be seen, and the source of the rumors that the elite of the group have some form of immortality.
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David Wick
Just over six feet in height, David is a solidly-built man who otherwise would blend into the background if not for the manic light in his eyes. Most of the time, he seems perfectly normal, if rather fervent about the future of computer technology and the coming of the Singularity. He dresses in a fairly typical geek fashion, with slogan-festooned T-shirts and jeans that have been reinforced to grant him a level of armor. He never travels without at least three Enigma Agents, all set up as bodyguards, but he's far from a pushover.
When pressed in a fight, David reveals that he has several machine implants, including a flamethrower that pops up from his left arm and an array of pop-out blades on his right hand that have been laser-etched with runic inscriptions.
Level: 6
Motive: Bring about the Singularity Event before Steven is able to do so
Environment: Anywhere with internet access, preferably wireless
Health: 50
Damage Inflicted: 6; when using his flamethrower, he deals 3 to everyone in short range, and when using his implanted claws he deals 10
Movement: Short, or teleportation via wireless signal to anywhere else with wi-fi; the latter takes three rounds to accomplish
Modifications: Intellect Defense as level 9; resists fear effects as level 9; resist cold effects as level 3
Armor: 3
Combat: For the first 20 Health, or until his bodyguards are defeated, David fights with a high-tech pistol with a blue-green laser sight and keeps behind his bodyguards. After this, he willingly deploys his augmentations and goes head-to-head with opponents, immolating groups and slashing at anyone who seems to pose a serious threat.
If pushed below 15 Health, he begins to retreat, initiating his three-round teleport. If defeated before this, his body erupts into a white-hot fire that leaves behind nothing but ash and unidentifiable slag.
Interaction: David will happily talk to anyone who wants to engage him on the subject of computers, the Singularity, or any number of transhumanist lines of thought. He may turn up as an unexpected ally against groups that want to dismantle technology like the Medusa Society, and can be talked into funding projects in line with his goals.
Use: David is the more likely of the Operation Enigma leaders to be encountered; even after appearing to die in a fire, he'll be back in no time, although fully aware of the people who defeated him and willing to take steps to prepare against them.
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Steven Fire
With a much greater effort to appear elegant and refined, people can be forgiven for thinking that Steven is the sole leader and mastermind of Operation Enigma. Usually dressed in a well-tailored black suit with high-tech mirrorshades that double as a monitor, headset, and targeting system for his posthuman abilities, he looks the part of a wealthy businessman. Generally accompanied by a pair of Daemons disguised as femme fatale bodyguards and armed with a sleek handgun, he looks competent but not the kind of danger that Enigma really poses.
When he reveals his full abilities, the suit is revealed as a metamaterial armor, the fabric flowing and stiffening into a suit of powered armor around him, the mirrorshades becoming a part of the faceplate. Even the color shifts, becoming an intense green-and-black fire motif as he darts around the battlefield.
Level: 6
Motive: To bring about the Singularity before David does, with him in position to shape what emerges
Environment: Any, but usually places with a concentration of cutting-edge technology
Health: 50
Damage Inflicted: 6 with his handgun; in armored form, he has a long-range lightning beam attack that deals 4 damage and a short-range burst of static that deals 3 damage to everyone nearby
Movement: Short when in normal mode; long when in armored mode
Modifications: All actions related to movement as level 9; all Intellect Defense as level 9; against attempts to goad him into a rage or into showboating as level 3
Armor: 5
Combat: Steven tries to stay out of combat as much as possible, relying on his protective Daemons to defend him and using his handgun at long range; if goaded by opponents or if he takes more than 6 damage, he lets his suit transform into power armor and starts moving quickly around the battlefield, often wasting an entire round to move into a showier position before opening fire with his lightning beam; if forced into melee he relies on his mobility and the area-effect static shock to get back out of range.
If forced under 25 Health or if both Daemons are defeated, he attempts to flee, engaging an electromagnetic flight system that takes three rounds to fully power up; during this time he still moves a long range each round, although now he hovers while doing so. After three rounds he accelerates away at a rate that should kill him. If actually defeated, his body explodes on the next round and burns into slag and ash as uncontrolled electrical energy runs wild.
Interaction: Steven can contact players, or be contacted by them, and offer to fund any cutting-edge technology projects that might be of use to Operation Enigma's goals, asking only that he get access to all information related to the project. He may also turn up when dealing with more Luddite opponents such as the Medusa Society.
Use: Steven is best used as the enigmatic figure in the shadows for a time when dealing with Operation Enigma, although groups opposing them may encounter him in his mundane identity long before then, possibly attempting to cut a deal with them on advanced equipment for their escapades.
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Daemon
A Daemon, at rest, looks like a human with intensely green eyes and a feline level of agility. They typically serve as cell leaders or bodyguards for elite members of Enigma. When activated, their human facade literally splits apart as a metallic mantis-like nightmare emerges from inside, with massive scything limbs and crackling rows of supercapacitors running along their sides.
Level: 4
Motive: To enable the Singularity and open the Way
Environment: Any high-tech location
Health: 16
Damage Inflicted: 4
Movement: Short, or long once per encounter by a hopping flight
Modifications: Speed Defense as Level 6; Intellect Defense as Level 3; reacts to any effects that manipulate or block electric effects as a Level 2
Armor: 3
Combat: When disguised, a Daemon fights as a highly skilled and agile melee combatant, wielding long knives that seem to appear out of nowhere in their hands; these blades are electrified and can, on a GM intrusion, stun those struck for a round. When activated, they fight as supernaturally agile predators, striking with electrified scythe-limbs and razor-sharp mandibles. When actiated, they can take a round to rear up and screech, spreading their wings to massively amplify their intimidating presence; this is an Intellect attack that, if victims fail it, all their actions on the next round are moved two steps to their detriment.
When defeated, Daemons collapse in one themselves, leaving bits of mechanical debris and odd magical scraps behind; these can be salvaged with a Level 4 Intellect task to yield 1d6 cyphers.
Interaction: When encountered solo or when leading a group of Agents, Daemons are haughty, aloof, and have the inhuman air of a predator, all of which can serve as cues for perceptive players. Some may, if the situation dictates, attempt to negotiate a temporary alliance to achieve some mutual goal, such as fighting a Medusa Society cult or distracting agents from the Bureau of Paranormal Management, but these are inevitably short term.
Use: Daemons are essentially the high-caliber goons of Operation Enigma, and while capable and dangerous they're considered expendable by the group. They'll fight to the death rather than surrender, and aim to take as many opponents as possible with them.
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Next time we'll look at Operation Enigma's actual goals, and meet Max (or, as those who truly know it would name it, The Magnum Intellect Terrestrial Node), the alien intellect that seems to serve as the chief of operations for the group.
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David Wick
Just over six feet in height, David is a solidly-built man who otherwise would blend into the background if not for the manic light in his eyes. Most of the time, he seems perfectly normal, if rather fervent about the future of computer technology and the coming of the Singularity. He dresses in a fairly typical geek fashion, with slogan-festooned T-shirts and jeans that have been reinforced to grant him a level of armor. He never travels without at least three Enigma Agents, all set up as bodyguards, but he's far from a pushover.
When pressed in a fight, David reveals that he has several machine implants, including a flamethrower that pops up from his left arm and an array of pop-out blades on his right hand that have been laser-etched with runic inscriptions.
Level: 6
Motive: Bring about the Singularity Event before Steven is able to do so
Environment: Anywhere with internet access, preferably wireless
Health: 50
Damage Inflicted: 6; when using his flamethrower, he deals 3 to everyone in short range, and when using his implanted claws he deals 10
Movement: Short, or teleportation via wireless signal to anywhere else with wi-fi; the latter takes three rounds to accomplish
Modifications: Intellect Defense as level 9; resists fear effects as level 9; resist cold effects as level 3
Armor: 3
Combat: For the first 20 Health, or until his bodyguards are defeated, David fights with a high-tech pistol with a blue-green laser sight and keeps behind his bodyguards. After this, he willingly deploys his augmentations and goes head-to-head with opponents, immolating groups and slashing at anyone who seems to pose a serious threat.
If pushed below 15 Health, he begins to retreat, initiating his three-round teleport. If defeated before this, his body erupts into a white-hot fire that leaves behind nothing but ash and unidentifiable slag.
Interaction: David will happily talk to anyone who wants to engage him on the subject of computers, the Singularity, or any number of transhumanist lines of thought. He may turn up as an unexpected ally against groups that want to dismantle technology like the Medusa Society, and can be talked into funding projects in line with his goals.
Use: David is the more likely of the Operation Enigma leaders to be encountered; even after appearing to die in a fire, he'll be back in no time, although fully aware of the people who defeated him and willing to take steps to prepare against them.
---
Steven Fire
With a much greater effort to appear elegant and refined, people can be forgiven for thinking that Steven is the sole leader and mastermind of Operation Enigma. Usually dressed in a well-tailored black suit with high-tech mirrorshades that double as a monitor, headset, and targeting system for his posthuman abilities, he looks the part of a wealthy businessman. Generally accompanied by a pair of Daemons disguised as femme fatale bodyguards and armed with a sleek handgun, he looks competent but not the kind of danger that Enigma really poses.
When he reveals his full abilities, the suit is revealed as a metamaterial armor, the fabric flowing and stiffening into a suit of powered armor around him, the mirrorshades becoming a part of the faceplate. Even the color shifts, becoming an intense green-and-black fire motif as he darts around the battlefield.
Level: 6
Motive: To bring about the Singularity before David does, with him in position to shape what emerges
Environment: Any, but usually places with a concentration of cutting-edge technology
Health: 50
Damage Inflicted: 6 with his handgun; in armored form, he has a long-range lightning beam attack that deals 4 damage and a short-range burst of static that deals 3 damage to everyone nearby
Movement: Short when in normal mode; long when in armored mode
Modifications: All actions related to movement as level 9; all Intellect Defense as level 9; against attempts to goad him into a rage or into showboating as level 3
Armor: 5
Combat: Steven tries to stay out of combat as much as possible, relying on his protective Daemons to defend him and using his handgun at long range; if goaded by opponents or if he takes more than 6 damage, he lets his suit transform into power armor and starts moving quickly around the battlefield, often wasting an entire round to move into a showier position before opening fire with his lightning beam; if forced into melee he relies on his mobility and the area-effect static shock to get back out of range.
If forced under 25 Health or if both Daemons are defeated, he attempts to flee, engaging an electromagnetic flight system that takes three rounds to fully power up; during this time he still moves a long range each round, although now he hovers while doing so. After three rounds he accelerates away at a rate that should kill him. If actually defeated, his body explodes on the next round and burns into slag and ash as uncontrolled electrical energy runs wild.
Interaction: Steven can contact players, or be contacted by them, and offer to fund any cutting-edge technology projects that might be of use to Operation Enigma's goals, asking only that he get access to all information related to the project. He may also turn up when dealing with more Luddite opponents such as the Medusa Society.
Use: Steven is best used as the enigmatic figure in the shadows for a time when dealing with Operation Enigma, although groups opposing them may encounter him in his mundane identity long before then, possibly attempting to cut a deal with them on advanced equipment for their escapades.
---
Daemon
A Daemon, at rest, looks like a human with intensely green eyes and a feline level of agility. They typically serve as cell leaders or bodyguards for elite members of Enigma. When activated, their human facade literally splits apart as a metallic mantis-like nightmare emerges from inside, with massive scything limbs and crackling rows of supercapacitors running along their sides.
Level: 4
Motive: To enable the Singularity and open the Way
Environment: Any high-tech location
Health: 16
Damage Inflicted: 4
Movement: Short, or long once per encounter by a hopping flight
Modifications: Speed Defense as Level 6; Intellect Defense as Level 3; reacts to any effects that manipulate or block electric effects as a Level 2
Armor: 3
Combat: When disguised, a Daemon fights as a highly skilled and agile melee combatant, wielding long knives that seem to appear out of nowhere in their hands; these blades are electrified and can, on a GM intrusion, stun those struck for a round. When activated, they fight as supernaturally agile predators, striking with electrified scythe-limbs and razor-sharp mandibles. When actiated, they can take a round to rear up and screech, spreading their wings to massively amplify their intimidating presence; this is an Intellect attack that, if victims fail it, all their actions on the next round are moved two steps to their detriment.
When defeated, Daemons collapse in one themselves, leaving bits of mechanical debris and odd magical scraps behind; these can be salvaged with a Level 4 Intellect task to yield 1d6 cyphers.
Interaction: When encountered solo or when leading a group of Agents, Daemons are haughty, aloof, and have the inhuman air of a predator, all of which can serve as cues for perceptive players. Some may, if the situation dictates, attempt to negotiate a temporary alliance to achieve some mutual goal, such as fighting a Medusa Society cult or distracting agents from the Bureau of Paranormal Management, but these are inevitably short term.
Use: Daemons are essentially the high-caliber goons of Operation Enigma, and while capable and dangerous they're considered expendable by the group. They'll fight to the death rather than surrender, and aim to take as many opponents as possible with them.
---
Next time we'll look at Operation Enigma's actual goals, and meet Max (or, as those who truly know it would name it, The Magnum Intellect Terrestrial Node), the alien intellect that seems to serve as the chief of operations for the group.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Cypher Supers - Operation Enigma
The Cypher System rulebook comes with several genre options; one of these is the Superhero genre, which is fairly well-enabled for handling the wide range of such games. This post is the first entry of the Cypher Supers series, which will go through and present a setting for use with the system.
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Operation Enigma is an obscure conspiracy theory, little known to most people other than as a bad explanation for otherwise unrelated events. While they seem to be in the same nebulous realm of existence as the Illuminati, they're dangerously real, and they have an agenda that puts the entire world at risk.
Founded by a pair of siblings in the late 20th century, the Operation - originally called the Enigma Club - was little more than a gathering for people interested in the point where the paranormal and the scientific blended together at first. It wasn't until the Internet became solidly enmeshed in daily life that the group found their niche when they decided to try combining a ritual to summon an extradimensional being with an obsolete computer.
The result was a computer infused with the mind of something from Outside, which quickly opened the way for the group to refine their approach and develop a fusion of technology and the Dark Arts that has seen them to their current level of power behind the scenes. This technomagic fusion is the primary reason that the true number of Enigma members unknown, with estimates from as few as a dozen to as many as thousands; the minions they create can often pass for human, while the elite are said to have found a technique to transfer their minds to new bodies as often as necessary.
Today, local cells of Enigma agents can be found in nearly every major city around the world, operating behind fronts that serve as charity groups and religious organizations. While their endgame is uncertain, those aware of them have noted that they seem to be aiming to push for a world-wide unified high-speed wireless network wherever they're found.
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Enigma Agent
When first encountered, Enigma Agents look a great deal like Men in Black, with sunglasses, black suits, and impassive facial features. They're extremely good at maintaining this facade, and quite a few of Operation Enigma's activities have been attributed to other groups by this deception. One of the few tells that the Agents have is a quiet hum that can only be heard when an area is sufficiently quiet.
When confronted or sufficiently harmed, their actual appearance is revealed - a freakishly tall and thing humanoid with lobster-red skin interlocked with a variety of sleek machines, all humming as lights blink and flash across their readouts. Enigma Agents fill out the general ranks of any operation by the group, and occasionally a defeated and deactivated Agent will be revealed to bear some alarming similarity to someone that has gone missing recently.
When deactivated, an Agent begins to liquefy in a matter of minutes, the organic parts turning into a powerful acid while the machinery overheats and melts; little is usually left of them other than a mysterious stain and some chemical corrosion on the ground.
Level: 3
Motive: To advance and defend the interests of Project Enigma
Health: 9
Damage Inflicted: 3 while disguised, 5 when unveiled
Armor: 2
Movement: Short
Modifications: All tasks related to computer technology or magic as a level 5; deception to seem human as a level 6
Combat: As long as their nature hasn't been revealed, Enigma Agents fight as skilled humans, using ordinary handguns, batons, and brass knuckles as appropriate. They'll maintain this facade for as long as possible, making it useful for anyone dealing with them to try to avoid making them break identity. If pushed to 4 Health or lower, or if they realize their opponent knows their identity, they unveil themselves, a process where their human body melts away to reveal a vaguely humanoid shape of scarlet flesh and sleek mechanical parts. In this mode, they discard any human weaponry, relying on inbuilt tools - the most common being a high-power set in the palm of each hand.
Treasure: If sufficiently quick, an Intellect task at difficulty 3 can retrieve 1-2 cyphers from the mechanical aspects of an Agent.
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Next post on Operation Enigma will cover the current known leaders of the group and another creature - the Daemon.
---
Operation Enigma is an obscure conspiracy theory, little known to most people other than as a bad explanation for otherwise unrelated events. While they seem to be in the same nebulous realm of existence as the Illuminati, they're dangerously real, and they have an agenda that puts the entire world at risk.
Founded by a pair of siblings in the late 20th century, the Operation - originally called the Enigma Club - was little more than a gathering for people interested in the point where the paranormal and the scientific blended together at first. It wasn't until the Internet became solidly enmeshed in daily life that the group found their niche when they decided to try combining a ritual to summon an extradimensional being with an obsolete computer.
The result was a computer infused with the mind of something from Outside, which quickly opened the way for the group to refine their approach and develop a fusion of technology and the Dark Arts that has seen them to their current level of power behind the scenes. This technomagic fusion is the primary reason that the true number of Enigma members unknown, with estimates from as few as a dozen to as many as thousands; the minions they create can often pass for human, while the elite are said to have found a technique to transfer their minds to new bodies as often as necessary.
Today, local cells of Enigma agents can be found in nearly every major city around the world, operating behind fronts that serve as charity groups and religious organizations. While their endgame is uncertain, those aware of them have noted that they seem to be aiming to push for a world-wide unified high-speed wireless network wherever they're found.
---
Enigma Agent
When first encountered, Enigma Agents look a great deal like Men in Black, with sunglasses, black suits, and impassive facial features. They're extremely good at maintaining this facade, and quite a few of Operation Enigma's activities have been attributed to other groups by this deception. One of the few tells that the Agents have is a quiet hum that can only be heard when an area is sufficiently quiet.
When confronted or sufficiently harmed, their actual appearance is revealed - a freakishly tall and thing humanoid with lobster-red skin interlocked with a variety of sleek machines, all humming as lights blink and flash across their readouts. Enigma Agents fill out the general ranks of any operation by the group, and occasionally a defeated and deactivated Agent will be revealed to bear some alarming similarity to someone that has gone missing recently.
When deactivated, an Agent begins to liquefy in a matter of minutes, the organic parts turning into a powerful acid while the machinery overheats and melts; little is usually left of them other than a mysterious stain and some chemical corrosion on the ground.
Level: 3
Motive: To advance and defend the interests of Project Enigma
Health: 9
Damage Inflicted: 3 while disguised, 5 when unveiled
Armor: 2
Movement: Short
Modifications: All tasks related to computer technology or magic as a level 5; deception to seem human as a level 6
Combat: As long as their nature hasn't been revealed, Enigma Agents fight as skilled humans, using ordinary handguns, batons, and brass knuckles as appropriate. They'll maintain this facade for as long as possible, making it useful for anyone dealing with them to try to avoid making them break identity. If pushed to 4 Health or lower, or if they realize their opponent knows their identity, they unveil themselves, a process where their human body melts away to reveal a vaguely humanoid shape of scarlet flesh and sleek mechanical parts. In this mode, they discard any human weaponry, relying on inbuilt tools - the most common being a high-power set in the palm of each hand.
Treasure: If sufficiently quick, an Intellect task at difficulty 3 can retrieve 1-2 cyphers from the mechanical aspects of an Agent.
---
Next post on Operation Enigma will cover the current known leaders of the group and another creature - the Daemon.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Game Lessons #2 - Characters and the first adventure
All GMs see this moment, most of us repeatedly - you have a group of players who are excited to get going, you've settled on a game night and time, and they've started coming up with characters. It's a great thing! Everyone's excited and ready to get going, and the adventure has yet to begin. And now, the GM realizes that the idea in their head isn't going to mesh well with the characters being assembled, or that they've stolen enough of their plot from books, TV shows, and/or movies that the players will recognize that it'll be problematic.
This is not the problem one might think. If you're a new GM, take heart, because you can get the players to do the work for you on that front - even ones completely new to RPGs, if they're sold on the role-playing and story-telling aspects. What you need to do is to get your group together with their characters as mechanically fleshed out as need be and have an introduction session. This has two purposes - one, it gives them a good reason to work together, and two, it gives you material to work with to craft the story and work them into the world.
Once you've got them together and all the pre-game silliness out of the way - it will happen, even in groups that are meeting for the first time ever - your goal is to get them to identify who they are, in-character, describe themselves, and then tell you how they know each other. Ask them flat-out to tell you this, and then start tossing suggestions into the mix. If two characters are the same race and close in age, ask if they're related or if they grew up together. If one is significantly older, ask if they helped mentor anyone else in the party.
Ask if there's anyone their characters might share in their history - one person's childhood rival might be the disciple-gone-bad of an older character (and might give you hooks to put them in as an enemy during the game). The black sheep uncle of one might have caused trouble for the family of another, giving them history that can put them at odds, if the one wants to redeem their uncle and the other wants to see justice done, or bring them together, if the relative wants to cleanse the stain on their family name instead by seeing their uncle brought in to be tried for his crimes.
Asking them this will not only tie their histories together and give them reasons to stay in a group together, it avoids the cliche of everyone meeting for the first time in a tavern and then sticking together for no clear reason. It also lets them feel out the personalities of their characters, letting them get used to their character and to one another.
This also lets you lay the seeds for the first actual adventure - if you've picked a place to start your game, ask them what they're doing in town when the campaign starts. Drop them tidbits of information - this caravan or trader just arrived, this festival is due to happen, these holy days are going to happen soon, and so on. Tell them about the town and give hints of adventure hooks - the locals are talking about strange things at night around the old keep on top of the hill that's been abandoned for years, and the town's merchants are complaining about a rash of thieves stealing things right out of their basement storage rooms.
See what catches their interest, and then build the actual adventure around that; if the mention of the old fort catches them, go look for a map of a fort and a small dungeon or crypt, and build an adventure with some restless dead. Perhaps the uncle or the rival was here and took something that disturbed the dead, or unleashed a curse on the place. If the merchants complaining and offering a reward for the thieves gets their interest, find a map of some sewers or a cave network - the thieves are actually a small tribe of goblins with trained giant rats that creep in through the underground and make off with goods, and the merchants don't know because the tribe's leader is an alchemist who glues the drainage grates back down after each theft. Maybe the goblins work for the rival, who works for the uncle, and then that leads to the fort - or vice-versa, clues in the fort lead to the goblin tribe under the town.
Decide on the rewards for each of these, as well - the town's mayor, when the players put the restless dead down and drive out the goblins, might well offer to let them have what's left of the fort and the land on it as a display of gratitude. After all, it certainly can't hurt to have some people willing to play hero have a reason to stick around and look after the town, right? The merchants, grateful when the source of theft is stopped, might offer them a discount on all their non-magical goods, offer them a direct cash reward, or even find an old piece of equipment that's been gathering dust and give it to them, unaware that it's masterwork or has a legacy.
Wrap things up by giving them an excuse to use all those mechanical bits they spent their time on, and let them get their hands dirty with a fight - a couple of lost goblins stumble across them in the middle of the town while trying to figure out how to get back under the town, panic, and try to kill them, or a few skeletons come lurching down from the fort with rusty weapons, hunting for the person who stole whatever was taken - and they fix on the character with the black sheep uncle, sensing the blood ties.
Wrap it up with their first dose of treasure and experience, set the time and date of the next game, and congratulate them on their victory over their first enemies.
Then get to work on that first real adventure, because they'll probably be looking forward to it.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Science Fantasy: Taking fantasy to the future
Typically, we divide genres tidily - if a thing involves magic, it's fantasy, even if we divide it up into high, low, urban, dark, and so on. Likewise, we look at stories of a futuristic setting and it's pretty much either science fiction or space opera, with some edge cases. Occasionally people try to work out what would happen with magic in a modern setting, but anything that gets passed off as magic in a future setting is almost certain to be some kind of super-science that follows Clarke's Third Law (warning: TVTropes).
What doesn't seem to get explored very often is the question of what happens if a society that utilizes magic starts to experiment and explore the capacity of magic to act like science. Sometimes this makes sense to some degree - in a world where magic needs living creatures to use it and everyone has a human lifespan, there will be a great deal of effort spent on teaching each new generation the same old things, so any progress ends up painfully slow and innovations are likely to be hoarded within enclaves. Even there, though, I'd expect to see some sign of progress over time - people taught basic spells to help daily life as a matter of basic education. A spell that can snuff a fire can save lives if everyone knows it, after all.
Others have magic as a willful and dangerous thing by itself, ready to backlash and destroy people and places; you get wizards who are essentially walking unshielded nuclear reactors. A world like this, I'd expect to see advances in mundane technology relatively steadily, just because the people need an alternative to the man in the pointy hat who might explode in demons every time you ask him for help. Over time, wizards would end up specialized researchers in heavily fortified laboratories, with the more useful non-thaumaturgic knowledge used to help deal with catastrophes. t'd be a lot like nuclear power in the real world, 'd think.
On the other hand, a world with deterministic magic laws and no need for a living creature to channel the power should see an explosion of magical technology at some point. It's inevitable that some wizard would work out that they don't need to do all the hard work of the basics over and over when they can just build something that does it for them. In this, it doesn't matter if there's other methods - the easiest method of technological development is the one that ends up prevailing. If you have science, arcane magic, and divine miracles, the divinity is likely to lose out over time unless the miracles can be pulled down without needing a living person. Science, if it has a high entry bar, will lose out against magic if anyone can master the basic functions and easily build from there.
From that point, it becomes only a matter of time before we get a technological revolution with magic at the center, and then we get into interesting questions like what kind of pollution industrial magic might produce, what side effects result from overexposure to thaumaturgy, and what arcane science can do to advance the world. Eventually you get a world that has some similarities to ours, in that a prosperous middle class develops and merchants give way to corporations devoted to producing raw materials and transforming them into finished goods, but it may also diverge widely.
Once they begin to be able to industrialize, if we use the D&D magic system as a basis, you get cheap personal enhancement gear; soon enough every sheriff and police officer has a belt that makes them stronger, tougher, and more agile, amulets that give them tough skin, rings that protect them with arcane force barriers and let them regenerate, and shoes that let them run faster. They have merciful weapons that reliably let them subdue criminals no matter how violent they get with them, and a collapsible door that leads straight into an extradimensional jail. Courtrooms get imbued magic that makes lying incredibly difficult and a jury comprised of summoned creatures of manifest law and justice compelled to pass judgement on those captured.
Merchant caravans get enchanted with levitation and flight spells, letting them cut down time between cities. Every household gets a room enchanted to keep goods cold, a counter that produces cooking heat on command, and a trashcan that devours anything tossed into it after an hour or so. Eventually, everyone has a flying carpet and gets the news via summoned entities. Golems eventually replace labor everywhere - they're tireless, reliable, and don't have wants or needs other than occasional maintenance. Only a small part of the population needs to be employed in the tasks of making things, most information-oriented employment is better handled by magic, and so you get a burgeoning population of people with the free time to study magic and experiment.
Eventually someone decides to seal a vessel, enchant it to fly and be full of air, and makes it beyond the atmosphere of the world. They land on a moon, and then soon you have colonies, fortified with magic, spreading across the moon and linked to the planet by teleportation gates. Not much longer goes by and they start colonizing other planets, sending summoned creatures as probes and using scrying magic to learn more about them. Once they learn that other star systems exist, divination lets them fling entire colonies across interstellar distances, while sealed colonies with artificial ecosystems launch into the void. It's a Von Neumann spread on steroids, with lightspeed a trivial barrier. Extraplanar spaces become targets for colonization as well, with advanced thaumatech cities appearing across any landscape that isn't instantly fatal. Lichdom becomes a method of preserving the wisdom of the past and extending the research life of scholars, with vast archives of knowledge available even more reliably than the Internet.
And there we get a science fantasy setting; armed with enchanted weapons that are trivial to acquire, adventurers go exploring strange places with the kind of equipment that a typical D&D adventurer would kill for, looking to explore and tame new lands for their people, dealing with exotic new forms of life, and facing challenges that would make demigods tremble.
All in all, it seems like the kind of game that might appeal to groups that like high power and wide-ranging campaigns, possibly even to the point of going to invade the homes of the gods and claim even those exalted lands in the name of mortals.
What doesn't seem to get explored very often is the question of what happens if a society that utilizes magic starts to experiment and explore the capacity of magic to act like science. Sometimes this makes sense to some degree - in a world where magic needs living creatures to use it and everyone has a human lifespan, there will be a great deal of effort spent on teaching each new generation the same old things, so any progress ends up painfully slow and innovations are likely to be hoarded within enclaves. Even there, though, I'd expect to see some sign of progress over time - people taught basic spells to help daily life as a matter of basic education. A spell that can snuff a fire can save lives if everyone knows it, after all.
Others have magic as a willful and dangerous thing by itself, ready to backlash and destroy people and places; you get wizards who are essentially walking unshielded nuclear reactors. A world like this, I'd expect to see advances in mundane technology relatively steadily, just because the people need an alternative to the man in the pointy hat who might explode in demons every time you ask him for help. Over time, wizards would end up specialized researchers in heavily fortified laboratories, with the more useful non-thaumaturgic knowledge used to help deal with catastrophes. t'd be a lot like nuclear power in the real world, 'd think.
On the other hand, a world with deterministic magic laws and no need for a living creature to channel the power should see an explosion of magical technology at some point. It's inevitable that some wizard would work out that they don't need to do all the hard work of the basics over and over when they can just build something that does it for them. In this, it doesn't matter if there's other methods - the easiest method of technological development is the one that ends up prevailing. If you have science, arcane magic, and divine miracles, the divinity is likely to lose out over time unless the miracles can be pulled down without needing a living person. Science, if it has a high entry bar, will lose out against magic if anyone can master the basic functions and easily build from there.
From that point, it becomes only a matter of time before we get a technological revolution with magic at the center, and then we get into interesting questions like what kind of pollution industrial magic might produce, what side effects result from overexposure to thaumaturgy, and what arcane science can do to advance the world. Eventually you get a world that has some similarities to ours, in that a prosperous middle class develops and merchants give way to corporations devoted to producing raw materials and transforming them into finished goods, but it may also diverge widely.
Once they begin to be able to industrialize, if we use the D&D magic system as a basis, you get cheap personal enhancement gear; soon enough every sheriff and police officer has a belt that makes them stronger, tougher, and more agile, amulets that give them tough skin, rings that protect them with arcane force barriers and let them regenerate, and shoes that let them run faster. They have merciful weapons that reliably let them subdue criminals no matter how violent they get with them, and a collapsible door that leads straight into an extradimensional jail. Courtrooms get imbued magic that makes lying incredibly difficult and a jury comprised of summoned creatures of manifest law and justice compelled to pass judgement on those captured.
Merchant caravans get enchanted with levitation and flight spells, letting them cut down time between cities. Every household gets a room enchanted to keep goods cold, a counter that produces cooking heat on command, and a trashcan that devours anything tossed into it after an hour or so. Eventually, everyone has a flying carpet and gets the news via summoned entities. Golems eventually replace labor everywhere - they're tireless, reliable, and don't have wants or needs other than occasional maintenance. Only a small part of the population needs to be employed in the tasks of making things, most information-oriented employment is better handled by magic, and so you get a burgeoning population of people with the free time to study magic and experiment.
Eventually someone decides to seal a vessel, enchant it to fly and be full of air, and makes it beyond the atmosphere of the world. They land on a moon, and then soon you have colonies, fortified with magic, spreading across the moon and linked to the planet by teleportation gates. Not much longer goes by and they start colonizing other planets, sending summoned creatures as probes and using scrying magic to learn more about them. Once they learn that other star systems exist, divination lets them fling entire colonies across interstellar distances, while sealed colonies with artificial ecosystems launch into the void. It's a Von Neumann spread on steroids, with lightspeed a trivial barrier. Extraplanar spaces become targets for colonization as well, with advanced thaumatech cities appearing across any landscape that isn't instantly fatal. Lichdom becomes a method of preserving the wisdom of the past and extending the research life of scholars, with vast archives of knowledge available even more reliably than the Internet.
And there we get a science fantasy setting; armed with enchanted weapons that are trivial to acquire, adventurers go exploring strange places with the kind of equipment that a typical D&D adventurer would kill for, looking to explore and tame new lands for their people, dealing with exotic new forms of life, and facing challenges that would make demigods tremble.
All in all, it seems like the kind of game that might appeal to groups that like high power and wide-ranging campaigns, possibly even to the point of going to invade the homes of the gods and claim even those exalted lands in the name of mortals.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Eclipse Phase: Before the Fall, Part 4 - Loadout
This is part of the ongoing pre-campaign prep for a short Eclipse Phase campaign intended to help new players learn the ropes of the system. In this part, we'll look at the equipment issued to the players as members of the UN Peacekeepers.
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Other than the infolife coordinator, every member of the team is in the relevant morph, with a standard loadout of mesh inserts, cortical stack, basic biomods, enhanced vision and hearing, and tacnet software, as well as their muse. Standard equipment issued to each of them includes light body armor with a full helmet, two sets of cuffbands, a set of smart clothes, a portable scanner, a utilitool, a guardian nanoswarm hive, two nanobandages or doses of repair spray, and a shock baton.
The neo-gorilla is additionally issued a suit of heavy combat armor, experimental medichines adapted for neo-hominids, a pair of diamond axes, a heavy pistol railgun with a clip of standard ammuniton and a clip of gel ammunition, and a microwave agonizer. In keeping with their role as the chief combat unit, they have an additional half-dozen nanobandages.
The socialite has several additional modifications, including an enhanced sense of smell, eidetic memory, multiple personality, clean metabolism, endocrine control, and enhanced pheromones. Additionally, their light combat armor has chameleon coating built into it, and their armament includes a light pistol with two clips of gel ammunition.
The infolife essentially has the Nova-class VTOL-capable gunship as a body if it comes down to it, but they're also equipped with an array of software for various purposes, including encryption, facial/image recognition, firewall, sniffer, spoof, and tracking. Additionally, they have three bots with AI loadouts; a creepy intended for internal defensive situations that amounts to a crawling sniper rifle and a pair of hover drones that can act as independent eyes.
The recon specialist has chameleon skin and carapace skin both as biomods, rendering them somewhat reptilian in appearance when they deign to be easily visible. Additionally, they are outfitted with a pair of shock gloves and a diamond axe for close-quarters combat if needed, grip pads and a spindle for covert access to unusual locations, and a microwave agonizer for use where melee combat isn't practical.
The combat AI has heavy armor integrated into their morph, along with a sniper rifle with two clips of armor-piercing rounds; intended to essentially counter any heavily-armored enemies the team encounters, they additionally have an integrated guardian swarm hive, and typically carry a spare recon hover drone similar to the ones attached to the gunship; in an emergency they can grant access to it to the infolife for an extra eye in the sky. As a bonus surprise, the synthmorph has an integrated plasma rifle concealed inside the body, plus lidar and radar to help ensure they can rangefind necessary targets.
The research scientist gets integrated light combat armor rather than a worn suit of armor, with a suit of smart clothing to wear over it. Their additional equipment includes the addition of a chemical sniffer and nanoscopic vision, along with fractal digits and an integrated agonizer mounted in their left arm. They also have t-ray specs, a nanodetector, a hand-held 'mobile lab', and a scout nanoswarm hive. They also carry a light pistol with a clip of gel rounds and a knife for defensive purposes, but are expected to head for the nearest combat-ready team member in any emergency situation.
---
Other than the infolife coordinator, every member of the team is in the relevant morph, with a standard loadout of mesh inserts, cortical stack, basic biomods, enhanced vision and hearing, and tacnet software, as well as their muse. Standard equipment issued to each of them includes light body armor with a full helmet, two sets of cuffbands, a set of smart clothes, a portable scanner, a utilitool, a guardian nanoswarm hive, two nanobandages or doses of repair spray, and a shock baton.
The neo-gorilla is additionally issued a suit of heavy combat armor, experimental medichines adapted for neo-hominids, a pair of diamond axes, a heavy pistol railgun with a clip of standard ammuniton and a clip of gel ammunition, and a microwave agonizer. In keeping with their role as the chief combat unit, they have an additional half-dozen nanobandages.
The socialite has several additional modifications, including an enhanced sense of smell, eidetic memory, multiple personality, clean metabolism, endocrine control, and enhanced pheromones. Additionally, their light combat armor has chameleon coating built into it, and their armament includes a light pistol with two clips of gel ammunition.
The infolife essentially has the Nova-class VTOL-capable gunship as a body if it comes down to it, but they're also equipped with an array of software for various purposes, including encryption, facial/image recognition, firewall, sniffer, spoof, and tracking. Additionally, they have three bots with AI loadouts; a creepy intended for internal defensive situations that amounts to a crawling sniper rifle and a pair of hover drones that can act as independent eyes.
The recon specialist has chameleon skin and carapace skin both as biomods, rendering them somewhat reptilian in appearance when they deign to be easily visible. Additionally, they are outfitted with a pair of shock gloves and a diamond axe for close-quarters combat if needed, grip pads and a spindle for covert access to unusual locations, and a microwave agonizer for use where melee combat isn't practical.
The combat AI has heavy armor integrated into their morph, along with a sniper rifle with two clips of armor-piercing rounds; intended to essentially counter any heavily-armored enemies the team encounters, they additionally have an integrated guardian swarm hive, and typically carry a spare recon hover drone similar to the ones attached to the gunship; in an emergency they can grant access to it to the infolife for an extra eye in the sky. As a bonus surprise, the synthmorph has an integrated plasma rifle concealed inside the body, plus lidar and radar to help ensure they can rangefind necessary targets.
The research scientist gets integrated light combat armor rather than a worn suit of armor, with a suit of smart clothing to wear over it. Their additional equipment includes the addition of a chemical sniffer and nanoscopic vision, along with fractal digits and an integrated agonizer mounted in their left arm. They also have t-ray specs, a nanodetector, a hand-held 'mobile lab', and a scout nanoswarm hive. They also carry a light pistol with a clip of gel rounds and a knife for defensive purposes, but are expected to head for the nearest combat-ready team member in any emergency situation.
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