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.
Showing posts with label Conversions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conversions. Show all posts
Friday, September 18, 2015
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.
---
"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.
---
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.
---
Of course, none of this matters to characters who have no Force attunement, as the Living Force is almost transparent to them.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Fate of Exiles: The Duelist
Equally at home in a one-on-one duel over honor, the gladiatorial arena against a gang of thugs, or in the urban jungle of a city, the Duelist might seem out of place in Wraeclast at first glance. Often suave, charming, debonair, and as skillful at cutting people with their words as with their blades, they're perhaps the character with the most social backstory in Path of Exile, other than the Scion. Still, they shouldn't be discounted by any measure; becoming an expert in the art of combat means they have the lean strength and agility necessary to survive the dangers the cursed land can throw at them.
Halfway between the warrior might of the Marauder and the agile grace of the Ranger, the Duelist rarely cares for magic unless it can hone their skill as a warrior. Whether they began as a noble looking for sport, a commoner blessed with natural gifts of physical speed and power, or someone who tries to fall back on the sword only when their tongue fails to get them out of trouble, Duelists rarely back down from a fight.
Sample Duelists include the Noble Gladiator, who took up the art of the duel to find a way to enliven their life; the Dancer, who came from a life of poverty and won fame and fortune with charm and lethality; and the Charming Vagabond, who prefers to charm people first and resort to violence only when their charm fails to get them their way. Plenty of others exist, of course, but Duelists will generally be people familiar with the ways of civilized bloodshed common to the upper echelon of Oriath's society.
High Aspects will reflect the origin of a Duelist and the reason they fight; Thrillseeker With A Sword or Honor's Grand Champion might fit a Noble Gladiator. Grace With A Razor's Edge or Steel Ribbon-Dancer might fit a Dancer kind of character. Silver-Tongued Stranger or Just Another Charming Knave might fit the Vagabond.
Troubles will tend to be things that the Duelist brings upon themselves; a Noble Gladiator might have My Family Spoke Against Me At Trial or Fallen Into Disgrace, a Dancer might have A Magpie's Eyes or Gracelessly Debauched as possibilities, and a Vagabond might have something like Running From My Past or Manners Like A Drunken Goat as a difficulty.
Only The Finest Blade, Captain Of My Own Soul, and Born With A Silver Spoon all work as possible added Aspects for a Gladiator, while Quicker Than The Eye, I Don't Know Nuffin', and As Wary As An Alley Cat all work for a Dancer, and A Winestain Birthmark, Widely-Traveled Heathen, and I Always Cut Deep make appropriate options for a Vagabond.
Fight is a given as a prime skill for a Duelist, along with Physique and Athletics. Rapport, Empathy, Provoke, and Deceive are all useful skills for the charming Duelist who prefers to try to talk more intelligent foes down, strike up conversations with those creatures who can talk, or harass a potential foe until they lash out and given the Duelist an advantage in the resulting fight. Contacts, Notice, Will, and Stealth are all good additional choices, depending on the flavor of the Duelist.
Stunts will tend to echo a Duelist's focus on wit and skill. In Honor's Name might grant an additional two shifts once per scene on a successful Fight roll against an enemy with an Aspect indicating they're dishonorable. On The Razor's Edge grants a +2 on Athletics rolls when moving along dangerously narrow places, like tightropes and narrow ledges. Clever As A Raven grants a +2 when using Provoke to annoy someone into attacking the Duelist while making it look as if the Duelist is blameless.
Duelists are a good choice for anyone who likes the idea of a charming rogue who isn't afraid of a fight, whether they're going to be the gung-ho sort who demands a duel to satisfy honor at the drop of a hat, a showy actor who thrives on adulation, or the disarmingly friendly stranger who only reluctantly strikes opponents down.
Next time, we'll look at the Shadow, the next to last of the class options from Path of Exile - a character somewhere between a thief and an assassin, as complex as the shades of moral grey that fill their world.
Halfway between the warrior might of the Marauder and the agile grace of the Ranger, the Duelist rarely cares for magic unless it can hone their skill as a warrior. Whether they began as a noble looking for sport, a commoner blessed with natural gifts of physical speed and power, or someone who tries to fall back on the sword only when their tongue fails to get them out of trouble, Duelists rarely back down from a fight.
Sample Duelists include the Noble Gladiator, who took up the art of the duel to find a way to enliven their life; the Dancer, who came from a life of poverty and won fame and fortune with charm and lethality; and the Charming Vagabond, who prefers to charm people first and resort to violence only when their charm fails to get them their way. Plenty of others exist, of course, but Duelists will generally be people familiar with the ways of civilized bloodshed common to the upper echelon of Oriath's society.
High Aspects will reflect the origin of a Duelist and the reason they fight; Thrillseeker With A Sword or Honor's Grand Champion might fit a Noble Gladiator. Grace With A Razor's Edge or Steel Ribbon-Dancer might fit a Dancer kind of character. Silver-Tongued Stranger or Just Another Charming Knave might fit the Vagabond.
Troubles will tend to be things that the Duelist brings upon themselves; a Noble Gladiator might have My Family Spoke Against Me At Trial or Fallen Into Disgrace, a Dancer might have A Magpie's Eyes or Gracelessly Debauched as possibilities, and a Vagabond might have something like Running From My Past or Manners Like A Drunken Goat as a difficulty.
Only The Finest Blade, Captain Of My Own Soul, and Born With A Silver Spoon all work as possible added Aspects for a Gladiator, while Quicker Than The Eye, I Don't Know Nuffin', and As Wary As An Alley Cat all work for a Dancer, and A Winestain Birthmark, Widely-Traveled Heathen, and I Always Cut Deep make appropriate options for a Vagabond.
Fight is a given as a prime skill for a Duelist, along with Physique and Athletics. Rapport, Empathy, Provoke, and Deceive are all useful skills for the charming Duelist who prefers to try to talk more intelligent foes down, strike up conversations with those creatures who can talk, or harass a potential foe until they lash out and given the Duelist an advantage in the resulting fight. Contacts, Notice, Will, and Stealth are all good additional choices, depending on the flavor of the Duelist.
Stunts will tend to echo a Duelist's focus on wit and skill. In Honor's Name might grant an additional two shifts once per scene on a successful Fight roll against an enemy with an Aspect indicating they're dishonorable. On The Razor's Edge grants a +2 on Athletics rolls when moving along dangerously narrow places, like tightropes and narrow ledges. Clever As A Raven grants a +2 when using Provoke to annoy someone into attacking the Duelist while making it look as if the Duelist is blameless.
Duelists are a good choice for anyone who likes the idea of a charming rogue who isn't afraid of a fight, whether they're going to be the gung-ho sort who demands a duel to satisfy honor at the drop of a hat, a showy actor who thrives on adulation, or the disarmingly friendly stranger who only reluctantly strikes opponents down.
Next time, we'll look at the Shadow, the next to last of the class options from Path of Exile - a character somewhere between a thief and an assassin, as complex as the shades of moral grey that fill their world.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Exile's Cypher: On Descriptors
Descriptors - the 'adjective' part of the one-sentence character description at the heart of an Cypher System character - come in a wide range of flavors and effects. They can be positive - things like Charming, Fast, Intelligent, Perceptive, or Tough - negative - such as Craven, Doomed, Impulsive, Mad, or Tongue-Tied - or simple flavorful - Exiled, Jovial, Mystical, or Weird. All of them have statistical impacts that help define the way your character is unique in contrast to a 'basic' version of whatever Type you choose.
Descriptors can impact whether you have training or an inability with a kind of skill, modify your stat pools to some degree, grant some small but helpful ability or a lasting effect the GM can use to invoke to bring your character into problematic situations, grant extra equipment or remove resources, and - perhaps most importantly - suggest ways to tie your character to the initial events of a game session or campaign.
As such, it might be helpful to touch on a few additional Descriptors (and modified versions of the core book ones) that are particular to the lands of Wraeclast. Modified descriptors are Doomed, Exiled, Spiritual, and Weird; additional ones are Cursed, Forgotten, Outcast, Pious, and Touched. As you might expect, given the cursed nature of the world these are helping describe, each one has downsides to go along with the benefits they offer.
Modified descriptors will just have their differences from the core versions noted, while new ones will be detailed in full.
Cursed
You're condemned and you know it. You were born under an ill sign, touched with dark powers and fated to come to an ill end of some kind. Your entire life has been lived under this cloud, leaving you waiting for the other shoe to drop. Of course, there's always the danger that the curse doesn't mandate a bad end for you, personally, but for those who'll have to deal with what you may become.
Fatalistic Reserve - You gain a +2 bonus to your Might Pool.
Dark Lore - You are trained in religious knowledge, history, and knowledge related to Virtue Gems and magic.
Inability - Your resignation makes you slow to react to threats; all initiative and Speed Defense rolls are modified by one level to your detriment.
Condemned Fate - Every other time the GM uses an Intrusion on you, you gain one XP to give away to someone else, but none for yourself. You are allowed to spend XP to refuse the intrusion still.
Burdened - Your curse takes precedence over all other ills against you; any time something attempts to place a long-term negative effect on you, rolls involved in it are modified one level in your favor.
Cosmetic Effect: You have some visible mark or item you can't be rid of that signifies your curse.
Doomed
Inability - Effects that would grant you a lasting benefit have all their rolls modified one level to your detriment.
Voices - You hear the call of the closest voices of death; you can spend a minute studying a choice ahead of you to sense which one has the stronger taste of doom about it (in game terms, the GM gives you a vague idea about what way ahead of you leads to the highest-level opponents.)
Exiled
Bond of Wraeclast - You are trained in all tasks related to Virtue Gems.
Forgotten
Your exile included a condemnation from the Arch Inquisitor himself, commanding that your name be struck from all records and that all who knew you must never speak of you again. Your deeds are gone, your past erased, your course wrenched from the path that fate had laid in for it. Even the auguries of your birth no longer apply to you.
Flexible - You gain +2 to a Pool of your choice.
Raw Talent - Your newfound freedom has forced you to become better at looking after yourself. You become trained in running, jumping, and survival.
Inability - Being wrenched out of the world has wrenched it from you, as well; everything outside your life since the condemnation is a blur. Any rolls involving lore and history not directly related to you is modified by two steps to your detriment.
Outcast
Your crimes, whatever they were, are the stuff of whispered legend; where others were condemned to exile or cursed to be forgotten, you have been cast out. In the eyes of those who once knew you, you are no longer human - no longer anything but a terrible beast, a danger to all around you. Perhaps the crimes you were cast out for were true, perhaps not; it doesn't matter. On the cursed shores of Wraeclast, you have no choice but to become what you have been accused of being, if you want to live to see another day.
Enduring - Add +2 to each Pool.
Survivor - You are trained in all survival skills.
Outcast's Mark - All social skill are modified by two levels to your detriment.
Pious
Even in Wraeclast there is grace and glory, and you know that you have been touched by it. Whether you came here voluntarily to see to the needs of the exiles or you were unjustly exiled by rivals jealous of your blessed state, you are one of the few that the land's stain cannot tarnish. Of course, this makes you a magnet for the corrupt minds that linger in the darkest parts of the continent, as your grace is a burning light to them.
Piety - Add +4 to your Intellect Pool.
Purity - You are wholly unable to use any item of Vaal origin, as the corrupt nature of it burns you.
Sanctity - Any attempt to deceive others is modified by one level to your detriment.
Sacred Ward - The blessed nature of your being gives you +1 Armor.
Spiritual
Spirit-Talker - You are trained in all social interactions with ghosts and other spiritual beings, including the strange things raised by the Vaal.
Touched
While not exactly stained by the curse of Wraeclast, since you woke up on the beach there's something not quite right about the way your mind works. You know you think differently than others, but whether or not you try to hide that fact is up to you. It does give you some small advantages on these shores, even if you've got a hard time trying to understand the concerns of other exiles.
Flexible Mind - Add +2 to your Intellect Pool.
Distracted - You have trouble picking up cues of danger; initiative rolls are modified one step to your detriment.
Scrambled Thoughts - All skills related to knowledge are modified one step to your detriment, as you can't collect your thoughts into a form that you can express.
Altered Insight - You are considered trained in all perception actions.
Causeless Effect - You have trouble connecting effects to causes at times; whenever a GM Intrusion would be triggered by something you directly did, you can't spend XP to refuse it. You do gain XP as normal, however.
Weird
Rather than an affinity for the supernatural, you are attuned to the presence of the Vaal; replace all mentions of the supernatural with Vaal.
Gemling - You are considered trained with all Virtue Gems and Vaal items.
---
Next time we visit Exile's Cypher, we'll start looking at Foci, seeing what existing ones will work in Wraeclast, which need tweaked, which need removed, and what new Foci might be available.
Descriptors can impact whether you have training or an inability with a kind of skill, modify your stat pools to some degree, grant some small but helpful ability or a lasting effect the GM can use to invoke to bring your character into problematic situations, grant extra equipment or remove resources, and - perhaps most importantly - suggest ways to tie your character to the initial events of a game session or campaign.
As such, it might be helpful to touch on a few additional Descriptors (and modified versions of the core book ones) that are particular to the lands of Wraeclast. Modified descriptors are Doomed, Exiled, Spiritual, and Weird; additional ones are Cursed, Forgotten, Outcast, Pious, and Touched. As you might expect, given the cursed nature of the world these are helping describe, each one has downsides to go along with the benefits they offer.
Modified descriptors will just have their differences from the core versions noted, while new ones will be detailed in full.
Cursed
You're condemned and you know it. You were born under an ill sign, touched with dark powers and fated to come to an ill end of some kind. Your entire life has been lived under this cloud, leaving you waiting for the other shoe to drop. Of course, there's always the danger that the curse doesn't mandate a bad end for you, personally, but for those who'll have to deal with what you may become.
Fatalistic Reserve - You gain a +2 bonus to your Might Pool.
Dark Lore - You are trained in religious knowledge, history, and knowledge related to Virtue Gems and magic.
Inability - Your resignation makes you slow to react to threats; all initiative and Speed Defense rolls are modified by one level to your detriment.
Condemned Fate - Every other time the GM uses an Intrusion on you, you gain one XP to give away to someone else, but none for yourself. You are allowed to spend XP to refuse the intrusion still.
Burdened - Your curse takes precedence over all other ills against you; any time something attempts to place a long-term negative effect on you, rolls involved in it are modified one level in your favor.
Cosmetic Effect: You have some visible mark or item you can't be rid of that signifies your curse.
Doomed
Inability - Effects that would grant you a lasting benefit have all their rolls modified one level to your detriment.
Voices - You hear the call of the closest voices of death; you can spend a minute studying a choice ahead of you to sense which one has the stronger taste of doom about it (in game terms, the GM gives you a vague idea about what way ahead of you leads to the highest-level opponents.)
Exiled
Bond of Wraeclast - You are trained in all tasks related to Virtue Gems.
Forgotten
Your exile included a condemnation from the Arch Inquisitor himself, commanding that your name be struck from all records and that all who knew you must never speak of you again. Your deeds are gone, your past erased, your course wrenched from the path that fate had laid in for it. Even the auguries of your birth no longer apply to you.
Flexible - You gain +2 to a Pool of your choice.
Raw Talent - Your newfound freedom has forced you to become better at looking after yourself. You become trained in running, jumping, and survival.
Inability - Being wrenched out of the world has wrenched it from you, as well; everything outside your life since the condemnation is a blur. Any rolls involving lore and history not directly related to you is modified by two steps to your detriment.
Outcast
Your crimes, whatever they were, are the stuff of whispered legend; where others were condemned to exile or cursed to be forgotten, you have been cast out. In the eyes of those who once knew you, you are no longer human - no longer anything but a terrible beast, a danger to all around you. Perhaps the crimes you were cast out for were true, perhaps not; it doesn't matter. On the cursed shores of Wraeclast, you have no choice but to become what you have been accused of being, if you want to live to see another day.
Enduring - Add +2 to each Pool.
Survivor - You are trained in all survival skills.
Outcast's Mark - All social skill are modified by two levels to your detriment.
Fallen Virtue - All tasks involving resisting temptation are modified by one level to your detriment.
Hunted - Even in Wraeclast, your past haunts you. Someone has followed you to these cursed shores, or another exile has decided you are too dangerous to let live. GM Intrusions involving you will sometimes involve this foe's appearance, or at least indirectly be the work of their hands. If another player is also Outcast, this may be the same foe or two different ones who may work together or be at odds.
Pious
Even in Wraeclast there is grace and glory, and you know that you have been touched by it. Whether you came here voluntarily to see to the needs of the exiles or you were unjustly exiled by rivals jealous of your blessed state, you are one of the few that the land's stain cannot tarnish. Of course, this makes you a magnet for the corrupt minds that linger in the darkest parts of the continent, as your grace is a burning light to them.
Piety - Add +4 to your Intellect Pool.
Purity - You are wholly unable to use any item of Vaal origin, as the corrupt nature of it burns you.
Sanctity - Any attempt to deceive others is modified by one level to your detriment.
Sacred Ward - The blessed nature of your being gives you +1 Armor.
Spiritual
Spirit-Talker - You are trained in all social interactions with ghosts and other spiritual beings, including the strange things raised by the Vaal.
Touched
While not exactly stained by the curse of Wraeclast, since you woke up on the beach there's something not quite right about the way your mind works. You know you think differently than others, but whether or not you try to hide that fact is up to you. It does give you some small advantages on these shores, even if you've got a hard time trying to understand the concerns of other exiles.
Flexible Mind - Add +2 to your Intellect Pool.
Distracted - You have trouble picking up cues of danger; initiative rolls are modified one step to your detriment.
Scrambled Thoughts - All skills related to knowledge are modified one step to your detriment, as you can't collect your thoughts into a form that you can express.
Altered Insight - You are considered trained in all perception actions.
Causeless Effect - You have trouble connecting effects to causes at times; whenever a GM Intrusion would be triggered by something you directly did, you can't spend XP to refuse it. You do gain XP as normal, however.
Weird
Rather than an affinity for the supernatural, you are attuned to the presence of the Vaal; replace all mentions of the supernatural with Vaal.
Gemling - You are considered trained with all Virtue Gems and Vaal items.
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Next time we visit Exile's Cypher, we'll start looking at Foci, seeing what existing ones will work in Wraeclast, which need tweaked, which need removed, and what new Foci might be available.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Exile's Cypher: Welcome to Wraeclast
The cursed land of Wraeclast changes somewhat when put through the lens of the Cypher System; where Fate focuses on how to render it into a story-format that provides everyone with building blocks to create the story, the Cypher System tends to be more freeform; outside of the characters and their defined abilities, everything in the Cypher system comes down to a thing's level and the set dressing hung on that detail.
Characters in the Cypher System are comprised of three parts - an adjective (descriptor), a noun (type), and a verb (focus) that are strung together to form a description of the character. For Exile's Cypher, there's a need for special attention to the first and last of those components, to allow for the nature of the setting to be played out as players see fit. Interestingly, while each of Path of Exile's character classes has a decided flavor, you can thematically construct them with any of the Cypher System's four character types, even though the flavor varies significantly with each.
Descriptors are essentially single words that serve as an adjective to make a given character more unique, modifying the basic statistics of a given character by providing extra skills, equipment, features, and flaws to shape how the character interacts with the world. A Brash character who has the same Type and Focus as a Quiet one will interact with the world very differently, much less in comparison to one who is Cursed or Forgotten.
Types are one of the four things that function as the closest thing the system has to a character class. Coming in flavors of Warriors, Adepts, Explorers, and Speakers, each one can offer something as the base for building a PoE character; some obviously make more sense than others (a Marauder makes more sense as a Warrior than as an Adept, at first glance), odd-looking combinations can be fruitful ground (a Speaker built as a Marauder may persuade the spirits to aid them, and talk the more intelligent foes down from hostility, while a Warrior built as a Witch may be an elemental force of destruction, smashing through all who oppose her in wrathful fury.)
Foci are the real workhorses of the game system, providing a tremendous amount of flavor and specialized capability to each character; this is where the power of a given class will come into play, and is the component most likely to have several posts fleshing out versions for use n Wraeclast; each of the varieties of character can be described through Foci in the form of a verb statement such as Communes With Spirits or Commands The Elements.
Put together it forms a complete one-line description that gives a concise feel for what the character is like; a Brash Warrior who Commands The Dead is a warlike Witch who wades into battle alongside their raised minions, heedless of personal danger, while a Cursed Adept who Fires Runed Arrows is a Ranger whose very existence draws the attention of the lands of Wraeclast.
The next post in the Exile's Cypher line will look at Descriptors, and how much the existing ones need added to or modified for the purposes of this campaign.
Characters in the Cypher System are comprised of three parts - an adjective (descriptor), a noun (type), and a verb (focus) that are strung together to form a description of the character. For Exile's Cypher, there's a need for special attention to the first and last of those components, to allow for the nature of the setting to be played out as players see fit. Interestingly, while each of Path of Exile's character classes has a decided flavor, you can thematically construct them with any of the Cypher System's four character types, even though the flavor varies significantly with each.
Descriptors are essentially single words that serve as an adjective to make a given character more unique, modifying the basic statistics of a given character by providing extra skills, equipment, features, and flaws to shape how the character interacts with the world. A Brash character who has the same Type and Focus as a Quiet one will interact with the world very differently, much less in comparison to one who is Cursed or Forgotten.
Types are one of the four things that function as the closest thing the system has to a character class. Coming in flavors of Warriors, Adepts, Explorers, and Speakers, each one can offer something as the base for building a PoE character; some obviously make more sense than others (a Marauder makes more sense as a Warrior than as an Adept, at first glance), odd-looking combinations can be fruitful ground (a Speaker built as a Marauder may persuade the spirits to aid them, and talk the more intelligent foes down from hostility, while a Warrior built as a Witch may be an elemental force of destruction, smashing through all who oppose her in wrathful fury.)
Foci are the real workhorses of the game system, providing a tremendous amount of flavor and specialized capability to each character; this is where the power of a given class will come into play, and is the component most likely to have several posts fleshing out versions for use n Wraeclast; each of the varieties of character can be described through Foci in the form of a verb statement such as Communes With Spirits or Commands The Elements.
Put together it forms a complete one-line description that gives a concise feel for what the character is like; a Brash Warrior who Commands The Dead is a warlike Witch who wades into battle alongside their raised minions, heedless of personal danger, while a Cursed Adept who Fires Runed Arrows is a Ranger whose very existence draws the attention of the lands of Wraeclast.
The next post in the Exile's Cypher line will look at Descriptors, and how much the existing ones need added to or modified for the purposes of this campaign.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Fate of Exiles: The Flood Passage and the Old Crab
The three glyphs that the party finds after defeating the Necromancer prove to fit depressions in a rock wall in a narrow cleft canyon at the far edge of the Mud Flats; clearing the cliff face reveals a wide sheet of dull stone embedded in the rough cliff, untouched save for the mineral accumulation from years of sea-spray. Slotting the glyphs into place causes the ground to tremble underfoot, with the nearby pool draining to reveal a passage into unrelenting darkness.
Exploration of these passages reveals numerous dangerous creatures - more of the Drowned Dead, these so soaked as to have an additional Aspect of Too Wet To Burn, as well as crablike creatures that spit gravel with Shoot (+2), Stealth (+1), two stress boxes, and Living Rocks as an Aspect, and horrible squid-like monsters with a vaguely human aspect that hurl seem highly agitated by the draining of their home. These last have Virtue (+2), Fight (+1), Notice (+1), two stress boxes, and Swarm Predator and Shaken Dry as Aspects.
The passages themselves are long, Dark, Cold, and Dripping Wet. As such, much of this section is more of an investigation interspersed with bursts of struggle as the players try to find their way from the Lower Passages to the Upper Passages - with a detour to the Flooded Depths along the way, as the massive Old Crab comes scuttling up to attack before retreating back into the dim glow of the luminescent-slime-strung Flooded Depths.
The Old Crab is a monstrously large example of the gravel-spraying crablike creatures. With Shoot (+3), Notice (+2), Physique (+2), Provoke (+1), Will (+1), three stress boxes, a mild consequence, As Hard As Bedrock, Born From The Dark And Damp, and a Stunt that permits it to spend a Fate point for a Physique roll against a Difficulty of (+4), with success spawning a smaller crab-creature with only one stress box but otherwise identical to the others in the caves, with an additional spawn for each shift of success. When first encountered, it should be in the Lower Passages, attacking what looks like an unfamiliar but easy meal. Obviously leaving a threat like that on the loose where it can crawl out isn't in the cards, so the second encounter in the Flooded Depths is to the death. (Players who shrug and let it go can be asked to go off it after it attacks the Fort during the dark a few days later.)
The Upper Passages are drier than the Lower, but still full of the same nasty creatures; up here, though, Investigation checks can find etchings under the mineral accumulation on the walls, revealing this to be a passage created by the lost Empire; it was designed to be flooded to keep any invaders out while Gemling warriors could be called up from the reserves or sent straight to the Mud Flats wayshrine. It seems that the system still works, but whatever threat caused them to flood it the last time didn't leave anyone to come drain it again.
The Upper Passages open out on a winding cliffside path - to be detailed the next time, along with the segments after as the exiles continue to look for a better way to survive than huddling in the decrepit ruins of a fort.
Exploration of these passages reveals numerous dangerous creatures - more of the Drowned Dead, these so soaked as to have an additional Aspect of Too Wet To Burn, as well as crablike creatures that spit gravel with Shoot (+2), Stealth (+1), two stress boxes, and Living Rocks as an Aspect, and horrible squid-like monsters with a vaguely human aspect that hurl seem highly agitated by the draining of their home. These last have Virtue (+2), Fight (+1), Notice (+1), two stress boxes, and Swarm Predator and Shaken Dry as Aspects.
The passages themselves are long, Dark, Cold, and Dripping Wet. As such, much of this section is more of an investigation interspersed with bursts of struggle as the players try to find their way from the Lower Passages to the Upper Passages - with a detour to the Flooded Depths along the way, as the massive Old Crab comes scuttling up to attack before retreating back into the dim glow of the luminescent-slime-strung Flooded Depths.
The Old Crab is a monstrously large example of the gravel-spraying crablike creatures. With Shoot (+3), Notice (+2), Physique (+2), Provoke (+1), Will (+1), three stress boxes, a mild consequence, As Hard As Bedrock, Born From The Dark And Damp, and a Stunt that permits it to spend a Fate point for a Physique roll against a Difficulty of (+4), with success spawning a smaller crab-creature with only one stress box but otherwise identical to the others in the caves, with an additional spawn for each shift of success. When first encountered, it should be in the Lower Passages, attacking what looks like an unfamiliar but easy meal. Obviously leaving a threat like that on the loose where it can crawl out isn't in the cards, so the second encounter in the Flooded Depths is to the death. (Players who shrug and let it go can be asked to go off it after it attacks the Fort during the dark a few days later.)
The Upper Passages are drier than the Lower, but still full of the same nasty creatures; up here, though, Investigation checks can find etchings under the mineral accumulation on the walls, revealing this to be a passage created by the lost Empire; it was designed to be flooded to keep any invaders out while Gemling warriors could be called up from the reserves or sent straight to the Mud Flats wayshrine. It seems that the system still works, but whatever threat caused them to flood it the last time didn't leave anyone to come drain it again.
The Upper Passages open out on a winding cliffside path - to be detailed the next time, along with the segments after as the exiles continue to look for a better way to survive than huddling in the decrepit ruins of a fort.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Fate of Exiles: The Templar
The Templar is an unexpected individual in the cursed lands of Wraeclast; a truly faithful person dedicated to their holy order, firm in their conviction and devotion to God - or at least they were firm in that conviction. While most such exiles will remain secure in their faith, certain that this is, perhaps, a test of their faith, or a task given from on high, some will stumble and find their faith shaken.
Standing between the Marauder and the Witch, a Templar is a warrior with a flair for mystic power, although most will tell those who ask that their magic is holy, granted by God to fight the dark magic of the wicked. That the outcome looks identical means nothing; a Templar knows the truth. Of course, a fallen Templar may recognize that despite their ruined faith, their power remains, and question the true source of it.
The sample Templar here will include the Questor, a Templar who feels that they have been given a trial from God to prove their devotion; the Crusader, who sees Wraeclast as a land in need of a sacred warrior to cleanse it; and the Fallen, who has seen the face of the enemy closely enough to recognize it as their own. Others certainly exist - the number of things a Templar can find as a sacred charge or a way to prove the absence of God are as limitless as the threats of the land itself.
High Aspects will tend to echo what the Templar feels their mission to be; even Fallen Templar have a difficult time not placing what they believe at the center of their being. A Questor might have Warrior On A Holy Mission or Penitent Soldier as High Aspects; a Crusader might have Champion Of The Righteous or Holy Knight; and a Fallen Templar might have Hero Without A Cause or Rebel Against The Angels as theirs.
Troubles will tend to directly echo what the Templar's personal mission is. A Questor may have On A Mission From God, while a Crusader may have The Only Champion In The Land and a Fallen Templar may have Under Siege By My Own Doubts as theirs. Given their nature as (possibly former) holy champions, Dreaming Of The Darkness is certainly a fitting trouble for any Templar.
Questors will like have additional Aspects such as As Steady As The Rising Sun, I've Seen Hell And Fought On, and I Hold My Faith Close. Crusaders may have ones like My Strength Is The Might Of The Righteous, Armored By Faith, and Driven By Zeal as Aspects, although they may also trend toward a somewhat more bloodthirsty angle depending on the Crusader in question. Fallen Templar will tend toward Aspects such as My Faith Is Broken But My Will Is Strong, I Answer To None Save Myself, and I Believe In My Own Strength, echoing their fall from grace and newly discovered self-reliance.
Skill for all Templar will tend to include Virtue, Physique, Will, and Fight as primary skills; Lore and Rapport will tend to be high for those who wish to spout about their faith or who want to use their knowledge to tear down the walls of faith around them. Notice is always useful, and those who want to build a new bastion of faith in this land - or simply to prepare their defenses against the darkness they know is out there - wouldn't be amiss to take Craft. Some rare Templar who feel that preemptive strikes are justified may find value in Shoot or Throw, as well.
Stunts will echo the divine nature of the Templar's beliefs, even for the Fallen. Aegis Of Faith grants a +2 on Physique checks to resist zone-wide attacks that include them, Divine Fire allows a Fate Point to be spent to inflict Fire damage across an entire zone as holy fire rains from the skies, and Unstoppable Force allows the Templar to spend a Fate Point to move across up to two zones, attacking a single enemy at the end with a +2 bonus without having to worry about anyone in the way.
Templar are warriors with a powerful will, and even the fallen among them remain a force to be reckoned with - perhaps even moreso without their beliefs keeping them in check. Those who wish to play someone with strong personal conviction and a powerful force of will could do worse than trying out a Templar as a model for the creation of their character.
Next character conversion will be the Duelist, a nimble warrior who combines personal strength and dazzling agility with charm and charisma.
Standing between the Marauder and the Witch, a Templar is a warrior with a flair for mystic power, although most will tell those who ask that their magic is holy, granted by God to fight the dark magic of the wicked. That the outcome looks identical means nothing; a Templar knows the truth. Of course, a fallen Templar may recognize that despite their ruined faith, their power remains, and question the true source of it.
The sample Templar here will include the Questor, a Templar who feels that they have been given a trial from God to prove their devotion; the Crusader, who sees Wraeclast as a land in need of a sacred warrior to cleanse it; and the Fallen, who has seen the face of the enemy closely enough to recognize it as their own. Others certainly exist - the number of things a Templar can find as a sacred charge or a way to prove the absence of God are as limitless as the threats of the land itself.
High Aspects will tend to echo what the Templar feels their mission to be; even Fallen Templar have a difficult time not placing what they believe at the center of their being. A Questor might have Warrior On A Holy Mission or Penitent Soldier as High Aspects; a Crusader might have Champion Of The Righteous or Holy Knight; and a Fallen Templar might have Hero Without A Cause or Rebel Against The Angels as theirs.
Troubles will tend to directly echo what the Templar's personal mission is. A Questor may have On A Mission From God, while a Crusader may have The Only Champion In The Land and a Fallen Templar may have Under Siege By My Own Doubts as theirs. Given their nature as (possibly former) holy champions, Dreaming Of The Darkness is certainly a fitting trouble for any Templar.
Questors will like have additional Aspects such as As Steady As The Rising Sun, I've Seen Hell And Fought On, and I Hold My Faith Close. Crusaders may have ones like My Strength Is The Might Of The Righteous, Armored By Faith, and Driven By Zeal as Aspects, although they may also trend toward a somewhat more bloodthirsty angle depending on the Crusader in question. Fallen Templar will tend toward Aspects such as My Faith Is Broken But My Will Is Strong, I Answer To None Save Myself, and I Believe In My Own Strength, echoing their fall from grace and newly discovered self-reliance.
Skill for all Templar will tend to include Virtue, Physique, Will, and Fight as primary skills; Lore and Rapport will tend to be high for those who wish to spout about their faith or who want to use their knowledge to tear down the walls of faith around them. Notice is always useful, and those who want to build a new bastion of faith in this land - or simply to prepare their defenses against the darkness they know is out there - wouldn't be amiss to take Craft. Some rare Templar who feel that preemptive strikes are justified may find value in Shoot or Throw, as well.
Stunts will echo the divine nature of the Templar's beliefs, even for the Fallen. Aegis Of Faith grants a +2 on Physique checks to resist zone-wide attacks that include them, Divine Fire allows a Fate Point to be spent to inflict Fire damage across an entire zone as holy fire rains from the skies, and Unstoppable Force allows the Templar to spend a Fate Point to move across up to two zones, attacking a single enemy at the end with a +2 bonus without having to worry about anyone in the way.
Templar are warriors with a powerful will, and even the fallen among them remain a force to be reckoned with - perhaps even moreso without their beliefs keeping them in check. Those who wish to play someone with strong personal conviction and a powerful force of will could do worse than trying out a Templar as a model for the creation of their character.
Next character conversion will be the Duelist, a nimble warrior who combines personal strength and dazzling agility with charm and charisma.
Friday, July 24, 2015
System Design: Motivations
Alignment is a common system in many games, thanks to the design of the first RPGs; the idea of codifying a handful of concepts into a matrix to codify your actions and present an objective moral-ethical framework for the purposes of the game works well enough, as long as no one pushes on it too hard. Naturally, there's usually someone who wants to push on it too hard - most often the person trying to claim a Chaotic Neutral alignment while following any whim in their head, but sometimes the person who tries to claim a Good alignment and pass it off with subjective morality to justify whatever functionally evil act they perpetrate. Most of us are familiar with arguments about things like the question of whether or not paladins can be assassins, I think, and how ridiculous those arguments get.
Later systems either tried to simplify things - distilling alignment down to a single continuum of a character's humanity, for example, or just getting rid of the concept entirely - or tried replacing alignment with the idea of allegiances. Rather than being a Lawful Good paladin or a corrupt Lawful Evil customs official or whatever, characters were devoted to specific things. A paladin had an allegiance to his faith, a corrupt official to wealth, a vigilante to justice. The more complex versions usually had players pick one to three of these allegiances, ranked in order of importance in case of conflicts. It's a fairly good system for the most part, but it tends to remain ultimately simplistic.
Then there's my favorite system answer to the question of how to show what drives a character's ethics and morals while providing hooks for game mechanics, the Motivations from Eclipse Phase. In it, players choose three motivations that drive their character - but those motivations come in positive and negative formats. A character who has a positive motivation toward Personal Freedom is going to see their interactions with a controlling corporate organization in the light of what advances those freedoms best, while one who has a negative motivation toward Authority will interact with them with an eye toward harming the organization without worrying if it hurts others.
It works perfectly well for any game genre and provides a significant level of complexity, where players who agree one one motivation - like a positive toward a shared faith - being at odds on some other concept. One might be positive toward wealth, another positive toward asceticism, and a third negative toward the wealthy, creating a case where all of them have strong and opposed views on a single subject without any of them being able to claim that they're being 'good' or 'evil'.
This system works fairly well in almost any framework - in traditional D20-derived fantasy games, references to good, evil, law, and/or chaos simplify down to 'detect aligned/opposed motivation' - a group of goblin warriors who have a negative motivation against humans and other typical allied races would show up as 'evil' in the context of a human priest or holy warrior to detect it - but the same would be true for a goblin priest casting it in respect to humans. Holy weapons would work equally well for either side - or you could treat the weapons as having a special purpose, as per intelligent weapons, dedicated to specific motivations.
Even outside of that framework, the motivation system works magnificently, as you can hook any in-game rewards you want to players striving to fulfill their character's motivations; Eclipse Phase rewards players by letting them regain Moxie, which essentially serves as a kind of luck, and there's no reason similar ideas can't be tied elsewhere. In games with Hero Points or Action Points or the like, fulfilling a Motivation can award one or more points; in games that simply have XP, the motivations can be worth XP if actively pursued.
Combined with the depth the system encourages players to give their characters, the benefits of using motivations instead of alignment or allegiance is fairly significant. I encourage you to give it a try the next time you have a downtime game between longer campaigns to see how it works and decide if it works for you and your group.
Later systems either tried to simplify things - distilling alignment down to a single continuum of a character's humanity, for example, or just getting rid of the concept entirely - or tried replacing alignment with the idea of allegiances. Rather than being a Lawful Good paladin or a corrupt Lawful Evil customs official or whatever, characters were devoted to specific things. A paladin had an allegiance to his faith, a corrupt official to wealth, a vigilante to justice. The more complex versions usually had players pick one to three of these allegiances, ranked in order of importance in case of conflicts. It's a fairly good system for the most part, but it tends to remain ultimately simplistic.
Then there's my favorite system answer to the question of how to show what drives a character's ethics and morals while providing hooks for game mechanics, the Motivations from Eclipse Phase. In it, players choose three motivations that drive their character - but those motivations come in positive and negative formats. A character who has a positive motivation toward Personal Freedom is going to see their interactions with a controlling corporate organization in the light of what advances those freedoms best, while one who has a negative motivation toward Authority will interact with them with an eye toward harming the organization without worrying if it hurts others.
It works perfectly well for any game genre and provides a significant level of complexity, where players who agree one one motivation - like a positive toward a shared faith - being at odds on some other concept. One might be positive toward wealth, another positive toward asceticism, and a third negative toward the wealthy, creating a case where all of them have strong and opposed views on a single subject without any of them being able to claim that they're being 'good' or 'evil'.
This system works fairly well in almost any framework - in traditional D20-derived fantasy games, references to good, evil, law, and/or chaos simplify down to 'detect aligned/opposed motivation' - a group of goblin warriors who have a negative motivation against humans and other typical allied races would show up as 'evil' in the context of a human priest or holy warrior to detect it - but the same would be true for a goblin priest casting it in respect to humans. Holy weapons would work equally well for either side - or you could treat the weapons as having a special purpose, as per intelligent weapons, dedicated to specific motivations.
Even outside of that framework, the motivation system works magnificently, as you can hook any in-game rewards you want to players striving to fulfill their character's motivations; Eclipse Phase rewards players by letting them regain Moxie, which essentially serves as a kind of luck, and there's no reason similar ideas can't be tied elsewhere. In games with Hero Points or Action Points or the like, fulfilling a Motivation can award one or more points; in games that simply have XP, the motivations can be worth XP if actively pursued.
Combined with the depth the system encourages players to give their characters, the benefits of using motivations instead of alignment or allegiance is fairly significant. I encourage you to give it a try the next time you have a downtime game between longer campaigns to see how it works and decide if it works for you and your group.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Fate of Exiles: Shoreline Tasks - The Necromancer's Bane
The Mud Flats and Fetid Pool are locations where the second quest offered in Lioneye's Fort will lead people; the former is infested with the living dead and a large number of aggressive flightless and armored birds. The latter is filled with nothing but the dead, save for a single living being – the Necromancer that Tarkleigh is concerned will come for the fort if not dealt with soon.
The Mud Flats is an area with a pair of Aspects; first and most importantly, it has Ancient Waygate, an Aspect that indicates the presence of the first activated waypoint device crafted by the people who lived in the now-lost Empire as a method of swift travel. The most obvious use of this is to allow people to travel quickly back to the fort if they need to do so, but it could be used for any number of clever tricks and boosts. The other is Sucking Mud, which will most often be compelled by the GM to make life harder for players as the soggy mess of the flats drags at anyone moving across the slick, soft surface.
Rhoas - the aggressive birds that live in the Mud Flats - have two stress boxes, Fight (+2), Notice (+1), and Object In Aggressive Motion as an Aspect. They're fond of charging targets, relying on their sharp beaks and armored skull and shoulders to let them run things over. They often come as a mob of three to five, fighting until at least half have been downed before fleeing.
The Drowned Dead will drag themselves out of the ground when they sense living creatures near; they have one stress box, Fight (+1) and Slow And Steady as an Aspect. They tend to exist in mob-like numbers and serve mainly to harass and slow down players save for the occasional lucky effort.
The Fetid Pool has Foul Fumes, Rushing Water, and Pervasive Gloom as Aspects, each one masking a different sense and making it hard for people to find things in what appears to be a large cavern chewed out of the rock by the waterfall that spills down the wall at the back. Numerous bones litter the floor - some truly dead, some merely waiting until someone comes close enough for them to be able to strike before revealing their animate status. The Necromancer itself - a figure wrapped in rags and twisted by the dark arts it practices until it barely resembles a human at all.
The Restless Dead have a single stress box, Fight (+1), Stealth (+1), and the Nothing But Air And Bones Aspect, as well as a stunt that grants them a +2 on Stealth as long as they're laying still on the ground. They'll lay harmlessly until someone enters the same zone as them, after which they'll move - often in a large swarm - to attack anyone unfortunate enough to be in reach of their jagged, broken fingertips. Killing them near the Necromancer is a somewhat futile task, given its primary strength, but they all collapse like abandoned puppets when it dies.
The Necromancer has three stress boxes and a mild consequence slot, Virtue (+3), Lore (+2), Notice (+2), Fight (+1), Acrobatics (+1), and Throw (+1). It has One Foot In The Grave, The Might Of The Damned, and Wracked By Cannibal Hunger as Aspects, as well as a stunt that allows a Virtue roll against a +4 Difficulty to return a single dead body in the same zone to a semblance of life, essentially creating another Restless Dead. Each shift it achieves above this allows it to bring another body to unlife.
The Necromancer isn't afraid to try to run, but it has positioned itself unwisely, with the only way out being the one the players enter through. As such, it isn't likely to escape - but if it does, it may return at a later date with more power and an army of the undead to try to conquer Lioneye's Fort. Regardless, taking it down means the small cache of gathered treasure is left to be found, which contains a few Virtue Gems (left to the GM to determine as suits the players) and a trio of strangely-shaped gylphs.
Defeating the Necromancer earns Tarkleigh's respect, and he can identify the glyphs as matching impressions in a small cleft in the cliffs that surround the Mud Flats - but he cautions that going there may be too dangerous, as a monster of a spitter-crab lives in the flooded passages of the area, and it's grabbed more than a few exiles in the past.
With this quest complete, Lioneye's Fort gains a new Aspect for players looking to improve their new home: The Seeds Of Hope Are Sown, representing how the other exiles are looking up to the example of the players and starting to feel that there might be a future for them in this place. It's a small change, but the effect will reverberate through the rest of the campaign conversion.
The Mud Flats is an area with a pair of Aspects; first and most importantly, it has Ancient Waygate, an Aspect that indicates the presence of the first activated waypoint device crafted by the people who lived in the now-lost Empire as a method of swift travel. The most obvious use of this is to allow people to travel quickly back to the fort if they need to do so, but it could be used for any number of clever tricks and boosts. The other is Sucking Mud, which will most often be compelled by the GM to make life harder for players as the soggy mess of the flats drags at anyone moving across the slick, soft surface.
Rhoas - the aggressive birds that live in the Mud Flats - have two stress boxes, Fight (+2), Notice (+1), and Object In Aggressive Motion as an Aspect. They're fond of charging targets, relying on their sharp beaks and armored skull and shoulders to let them run things over. They often come as a mob of three to five, fighting until at least half have been downed before fleeing.
The Drowned Dead will drag themselves out of the ground when they sense living creatures near; they have one stress box, Fight (+1) and Slow And Steady as an Aspect. They tend to exist in mob-like numbers and serve mainly to harass and slow down players save for the occasional lucky effort.
The Fetid Pool has Foul Fumes, Rushing Water, and Pervasive Gloom as Aspects, each one masking a different sense and making it hard for people to find things in what appears to be a large cavern chewed out of the rock by the waterfall that spills down the wall at the back. Numerous bones litter the floor - some truly dead, some merely waiting until someone comes close enough for them to be able to strike before revealing their animate status. The Necromancer itself - a figure wrapped in rags and twisted by the dark arts it practices until it barely resembles a human at all.
The Restless Dead have a single stress box, Fight (+1), Stealth (+1), and the Nothing But Air And Bones Aspect, as well as a stunt that grants them a +2 on Stealth as long as they're laying still on the ground. They'll lay harmlessly until someone enters the same zone as them, after which they'll move - often in a large swarm - to attack anyone unfortunate enough to be in reach of their jagged, broken fingertips. Killing them near the Necromancer is a somewhat futile task, given its primary strength, but they all collapse like abandoned puppets when it dies.
The Necromancer has three stress boxes and a mild consequence slot, Virtue (+3), Lore (+2), Notice (+2), Fight (+1), Acrobatics (+1), and Throw (+1). It has One Foot In The Grave, The Might Of The Damned, and Wracked By Cannibal Hunger as Aspects, as well as a stunt that allows a Virtue roll against a +4 Difficulty to return a single dead body in the same zone to a semblance of life, essentially creating another Restless Dead. Each shift it achieves above this allows it to bring another body to unlife.
The Necromancer isn't afraid to try to run, but it has positioned itself unwisely, with the only way out being the one the players enter through. As such, it isn't likely to escape - but if it does, it may return at a later date with more power and an army of the undead to try to conquer Lioneye's Fort. Regardless, taking it down means the small cache of gathered treasure is left to be found, which contains a few Virtue Gems (left to the GM to determine as suits the players) and a trio of strangely-shaped gylphs.
Defeating the Necromancer earns Tarkleigh's respect, and he can identify the glyphs as matching impressions in a small cleft in the cliffs that surround the Mud Flats - but he cautions that going there may be too dangerous, as a monster of a spitter-crab lives in the flooded passages of the area, and it's grabbed more than a few exiles in the past.
With this quest complete, Lioneye's Fort gains a new Aspect for players looking to improve their new home: The Seeds Of Hope Are Sown, representing how the other exiles are looking up to the example of the players and starting to feel that there might be a future for them in this place. It's a small change, but the effect will reverberate through the rest of the campaign conversion.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Fate of Exiles: Shoreline Tasks - The Medicine Chest
For exiles who reach Lioneye's Watch, there are more than enough tasks that need strong arms, quick wits, and nimble feet to achieve. This post will detail one of the options available to people looking for something to do other that gives Wraeclast a more complete, living feel.
Lioneye's Watch is a place in poor repair, with filth and sickness running rampant. Nessa has medical skills, but she can only do so much with what little the other exiles have managed to bring in - brackish water boiled over a smoky fire and handfuls of half-rotted plants that might or might not retain some medicinal value, plus whatever rags they can clean and dry out for bandages. Bestel has a solution, but he's in no shape to do it, and the only other exile who might stand a chance - Tarkleigh - has enough on his plate just keeping the place safe from nearby trouble. Bestel happily tells the party of the medicine chest that was in the ship he was on - he'll claim it was his ship, the Merry Gull, while the others will tell the group that he scooped the captain's hat off the corpse when it shipwrecked.
The medicine chest not only has supplies that would let Nessa treat the sick in the fort, it has tools to prepare more ingredients from raw materials; collecting it would make life in the ruined fort far safer. There's a catch, of course - two feral, cannibalistic Karui have amassed small tribes that control the shoreline between the fort and the wreck. Fire Fury is a Karui shaman corrupted by Wraeclast who controls the shoreline itself, his tribe consisting of people he's terrorized into serving and feeding him in exchange for him using his fiery magic to defend them from the wild beasts and living dead, while Hailrake is a castaway turned cannibal who has taken ownership of the wreck, fancying it a throne as his tribe of violent cannibals raid the fort and the other tribe in equal measure, relying on his command of cold and wind to keep retaliation at bay. As it happens, Hailrake has found the medicine chest, but lacking the education to recognize the value of it, he simply uses it as a footrest.
Many of the tribefolk under Fire Fury are little more than one-hit minions who might form up into mobs against players, but the majority can be talked or threatened into not interfering with the PCs. Fire Fury is a coward at heart, and more than willing to flee if a fight is going against him. He tends to be over-reliant on his two Virtue Gems - one of which can call down a rain of fire across an entire zone, the other letting him hurl blasts of fire at individuals. Defeating him will caused the rest of the tribe to scatter, with some showing up at the door to the fort, pretending to be freshly lost exiles in hopes of avoiding reprisal for their part in the raid on the fort. Fire Fury has Bonded By Fire, Soul-Eating Glutton, and Burning Up Inside as Aspects, and Virtue (+2), Notice (+1), and Acrobatics (+1) as skills.
The tribe under Hailrake is a tribe of unrepentant cannibals who view the murderous man as their kind, happily attacking anyone who tries to get close. Most are one-stress minions, easily taken out, but a few lieutenants might have two stress boxes, Fight (+2), and Notice (+1). Winning past them with diplomacy can be tricky, but doable for sufficiently clever players. Of course, Hailrake is a great deal harder to fool and quite willing to resort to violence to get a bite to eat. His Aspects are Cold King Of The Wreck, Cold-Blooded Beast, and Frozen Heart And Soul, while his skills are Virtue (+3), Notice (+2), Physique (+1), and Fight (+1), with Virtue Gems that let him produce a blast of icy spikes that attack everyone in the zone with him and a multi-target cone of biting wind and icy shards.. He has one mild consequence and two stress boxes, making it possible for him to become a recurrent foe if players don't take him down quickly enough. If pressed, he'll leap into the sea, using his cold and wind magic to create an icy raft that carries him away.
Returning the medicine chest to the fort produces a rise in spirits that soon sees the fort getting scrubbed clean of grime as best the exiles can manage, as Nessa turns the healthy to the task of preparing an area to treat the ill. She'll happily help any players recover from injuries suffered in the effort to claim the medicine chest, while Bestel starts composing a song in their honor.
Of course, the biggest 'reward' is that Tarkleigh seeing that they're capable will lead him to come to them with another urgent task, one too far out for him to deal with it while continuing to defend the fort - a necromancer has been sighted in the mud flats, raising the bones of dead beasts to fight for him.
That quest will be the next installment in the line of quest conversions, serving to lay the thread deeper into Wraeclast for players to follow.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Fate of Exiles: The Witch
The witch is perhaps the darkest figure in all of Path of Exile's lore; blessed or cursed with magic even without the power of the Virtue Gems and exiled for the simple fact of her power being frightening. Able to bend the elements to their will, raise the dead into servitude, and inflict debilitating curses, witches are powerful - but fragile, relying on the arcane for their defenses, as the need to focus on their intellectual strength rarely leaves them time to hone their physique.
Their powers - or perhaps the fearful reactions to those powers - tends to leave them somewhat strange and grim, more comfortable among the dead than the living. The descriptive speech from the online game indicates that the Witch was exiled when, after fearful villages tried to kill her by burning her home, she retaliated by burning them. As such, even the most heroic Witch is likely to have a dark theme running through their Aspects.
The themes of the Witches tend to be tied to the kind of power they choose to focus on; on Wraeclast, this divides up into curses that debilitate the weak and boons that augment themselves and allies nearby, necromantic powers that raise the dead to create minions in the form of zombies, skeletons, and ghosts, and the ability to call on the three raw elemental forces of the world - fire, ice and lightning.
Witches thus will tend to have High Aspects like Banecrafter, Corpse Singer, or Weather Witch. Their Troubles will likely reflect that, as far as everyone else is concerned, even the most virtuous of them draw their power from dark and terrible sources. Weighted By An Albatross, Alone Among The Damned, and Tongue Of The Elements are all flavorful and thematic Troubles that can cause no small amount of grief for any Witch.
Other Aspects may include things such as I Am The Judge And Jury, I Craft Shackles From Words, and The Blessings Of The Damned for a Witch who uses Curses and Boons; Just Another Bag Of Bones, I Walk The Valley Of Death, and Shunned By The Light for a necromantic Witch; and Fingers Blackened By Fire, I See The Truth Frozen In The Ice, and Swift As The Thunder for an elemental Witch.
Virtue, Lore, Notice, and Will are all skills of import to any Witch; Virtue moreso to those who intend to do Stunts that have dramatic effects like creating reliable minions or devastating entire zones with fire or lightning. Witches used to looking after themselves might find Acrobatics useful for Defense purposes, but otherwise the field of skills depends entirely on what flavor a player wishes to impart to their character.
Stunts built of Virtue can include things like Call Forth the Dead, letting a Witch spend a Fate point to call forth a number of one-stress undead servants equal to her Virtue skill once per scene to Fight for her, Fire Nova allowing her to strike everyone in her zone and adjacent zones with a storm of raging flames using her Virtue skill, or Curse of Brittle Bones to place a Brittle Bones Aspect on any given target for a time, making them easier to deal with in a fight.
All in all, a Witch is a power in their own right, haunted by the source of their powers but determined to harvest the corrupt might of Wraeclast so that they can't be threatened by those who fail to understand them ever again. No matter the form of their powers, they wield them with the precision of long practice and have no pity for those between them and their goals.
Next class: The Templar, a mixture of warrior and spellcaster soaked in a devotion to the divine.
Their powers - or perhaps the fearful reactions to those powers - tends to leave them somewhat strange and grim, more comfortable among the dead than the living. The descriptive speech from the online game indicates that the Witch was exiled when, after fearful villages tried to kill her by burning her home, she retaliated by burning them. As such, even the most heroic Witch is likely to have a dark theme running through their Aspects.
The themes of the Witches tend to be tied to the kind of power they choose to focus on; on Wraeclast, this divides up into curses that debilitate the weak and boons that augment themselves and allies nearby, necromantic powers that raise the dead to create minions in the form of zombies, skeletons, and ghosts, and the ability to call on the three raw elemental forces of the world - fire, ice and lightning.
Witches thus will tend to have High Aspects like Banecrafter, Corpse Singer, or Weather Witch. Their Troubles will likely reflect that, as far as everyone else is concerned, even the most virtuous of them draw their power from dark and terrible sources. Weighted By An Albatross, Alone Among The Damned, and Tongue Of The Elements are all flavorful and thematic Troubles that can cause no small amount of grief for any Witch.
Other Aspects may include things such as I Am The Judge And Jury, I Craft Shackles From Words, and The Blessings Of The Damned for a Witch who uses Curses and Boons; Just Another Bag Of Bones, I Walk The Valley Of Death, and Shunned By The Light for a necromantic Witch; and Fingers Blackened By Fire, I See The Truth Frozen In The Ice, and Swift As The Thunder for an elemental Witch.
Virtue, Lore, Notice, and Will are all skills of import to any Witch; Virtue moreso to those who intend to do Stunts that have dramatic effects like creating reliable minions or devastating entire zones with fire or lightning. Witches used to looking after themselves might find Acrobatics useful for Defense purposes, but otherwise the field of skills depends entirely on what flavor a player wishes to impart to their character.
Stunts built of Virtue can include things like Call Forth the Dead, letting a Witch spend a Fate point to call forth a number of one-stress undead servants equal to her Virtue skill once per scene to Fight for her, Fire Nova allowing her to strike everyone in her zone and adjacent zones with a storm of raging flames using her Virtue skill, or Curse of Brittle Bones to place a Brittle Bones Aspect on any given target for a time, making them easier to deal with in a fight.
All in all, a Witch is a power in their own right, haunted by the source of their powers but determined to harvest the corrupt might of Wraeclast so that they can't be threatened by those who fail to understand them ever again. No matter the form of their powers, they wield them with the precision of long practice and have no pity for those between them and their goals.
Next class: The Templar, a mixture of warrior and spellcaster soaked in a devotion to the divine.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Fate of Exiles: Lioneye's Watch
The first hub area - a place without combat, where players can meet up, sell off their loot, and stash their belongings - in Path of Exiles is a place called Lioneye's Watch, the ruins of a fortress where a man called Lioneye commanded a legion of the Empire to defend the Outer Empire and the coastland. He was destroyed by the Karui when they invaded, and the fortress fell into ruin over the passing years.
When Oriath started casting exiles onto the shores of Wraeclast, many of them found the ruins of the old fortress to be the safest and most defensible place against the horrors of the wild lands. It didn't take long before a rough society formed, with a few key individuals holding things together against the odds. Some have come and gone; others still linger, determined to make the best of the fate they've been given.
Lioneye's Watch is a decrepit ruin patched up with driftwood and salvaged debris, safe enough against the monsters that lurk along the shores but no match for anything stronger. Only one person in the place isn't either an exile or stark mad - Nessa, a woman who survived a shipwreck. She looks after the others here with an almost motherly air, doing what she can to tend to the sick and injured and keeps spirits up. The others will do almost anything to keep her safe. The others also look up to Tarkleigh, a man who seems to know a little of all trades - including fighting and making weapons. The last notable soul is Bestel, the maddest madman in Lioneye's Watch, rescued from a shipwreck and prone to random poetry. Where the others revere Nessa and admire Tarkleigh, most of them hold a grudging pity for Bestel - even when the madman's rambling sometimes proves prophetic.
The Aspects on the area speak to the desperate nature of this supposed safe haven. The first is A Filthy Cesspit of Exiles - the fort could do with repairs well beyond anything the new inhabitants can hope to accomplish, with the dangers that lurk on the coastline, and so it remains cold, unpleasant, and filthy on the good days, riddled with disease and despair. Still, exiles tend to be ingenious, and everyone here has the cleverness of the desperate and the damned; players can tap the Aspect if they need a little help from a friendly local, in some form or another, while the GM can compel it to make things harder by having the living dead break a flimsy barricade, threatening the players with diseases, or even just having the cleverness of the locals turn against them in a moment of need.
The fort is also Built From The Ruins Of Empire - even if the walls are shot, the foundation remains, and the debris that shores up much of it is scavenged from other ruined areas. The stonework of the old Empire is still strong, even if the mortar has long since given way, and anyone with a need for solid stone or looking for a hidden secret from the past could do worse than to search in the rubble to see what they can turn up. Of course, where there's hidden treasure, there may well be hidden threats, and it would certainly be within the GM's purview to invoke such threats.
Finally, the ruins are a source of Safety In Numbers, which works to the advantage of players in ensuring they have a safe place to fall back on when threats prove too much for them. Extra hands, even if they're only armed with the rude patchwork of scraps and wreckage that Tarkleigh can assemble, are the biggest advantage the place has in keeping the ruins safe. Of course, the same safety in numbers means that everyone is loathe to leave the safety of the fort, and they'll often try to coax others into staying behind unless the situation gets too desperate and it starts to look like cannibalism might be in the near future.
Over time, if the players remain here long enough, these Aspects can be adjusted; players willing to give up a milestone can redefine one of the existing Aspects, or add an additional one to add a new theme. Undertaking missions for the other inhabitants, scavenging better materials, and thinning out the threats to the fort can improve the mood, allow the locals to clean things up, and reduce the pressure that makes it so easy for disease to spread. Given enough effort, the old fort might even be rebuilt, gaining an Aspect like Hope Of The Exiled in recognition of what the players accomplish.
Of course, to do that, both Hillock and the siren Merveil would need properly dealt with - and there are plenty of dangers for anyone seeking to deal with the latter threat.
When Oriath started casting exiles onto the shores of Wraeclast, many of them found the ruins of the old fortress to be the safest and most defensible place against the horrors of the wild lands. It didn't take long before a rough society formed, with a few key individuals holding things together against the odds. Some have come and gone; others still linger, determined to make the best of the fate they've been given.
Lioneye's Watch is a decrepit ruin patched up with driftwood and salvaged debris, safe enough against the monsters that lurk along the shores but no match for anything stronger. Only one person in the place isn't either an exile or stark mad - Nessa, a woman who survived a shipwreck. She looks after the others here with an almost motherly air, doing what she can to tend to the sick and injured and keeps spirits up. The others will do almost anything to keep her safe. The others also look up to Tarkleigh, a man who seems to know a little of all trades - including fighting and making weapons. The last notable soul is Bestel, the maddest madman in Lioneye's Watch, rescued from a shipwreck and prone to random poetry. Where the others revere Nessa and admire Tarkleigh, most of them hold a grudging pity for Bestel - even when the madman's rambling sometimes proves prophetic.
The Aspects on the area speak to the desperate nature of this supposed safe haven. The first is A Filthy Cesspit of Exiles - the fort could do with repairs well beyond anything the new inhabitants can hope to accomplish, with the dangers that lurk on the coastline, and so it remains cold, unpleasant, and filthy on the good days, riddled with disease and despair. Still, exiles tend to be ingenious, and everyone here has the cleverness of the desperate and the damned; players can tap the Aspect if they need a little help from a friendly local, in some form or another, while the GM can compel it to make things harder by having the living dead break a flimsy barricade, threatening the players with diseases, or even just having the cleverness of the locals turn against them in a moment of need.
The fort is also Built From The Ruins Of Empire - even if the walls are shot, the foundation remains, and the debris that shores up much of it is scavenged from other ruined areas. The stonework of the old Empire is still strong, even if the mortar has long since given way, and anyone with a need for solid stone or looking for a hidden secret from the past could do worse than to search in the rubble to see what they can turn up. Of course, where there's hidden treasure, there may well be hidden threats, and it would certainly be within the GM's purview to invoke such threats.
Finally, the ruins are a source of Safety In Numbers, which works to the advantage of players in ensuring they have a safe place to fall back on when threats prove too much for them. Extra hands, even if they're only armed with the rude patchwork of scraps and wreckage that Tarkleigh can assemble, are the biggest advantage the place has in keeping the ruins safe. Of course, the same safety in numbers means that everyone is loathe to leave the safety of the fort, and they'll often try to coax others into staying behind unless the situation gets too desperate and it starts to look like cannibalism might be in the near future.
Over time, if the players remain here long enough, these Aspects can be adjusted; players willing to give up a milestone can redefine one of the existing Aspects, or add an additional one to add a new theme. Undertaking missions for the other inhabitants, scavenging better materials, and thinning out the threats to the fort can improve the mood, allow the locals to clean things up, and reduce the pressure that makes it so easy for disease to spread. Given enough effort, the old fort might even be rebuilt, gaining an Aspect like Hope Of The Exiled in recognition of what the players accomplish.
Of course, to do that, both Hillock and the siren Merveil would need properly dealt with - and there are plenty of dangers for anyone seeking to deal with the latter threat.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Fate of Exiles: The Ranger
Previously: The Marauder
The Ranger is the pure Dexterity class of Path of Exile; they excel at ranged combat and emphasize getting out of the way of danger, rather than simply soaking it up or blocking it with a mystical shield. In terms of lore, Rangers are poachers, thieves who steal from the nobility, and have little care for the proper way of civilized society. Exiled to Wraeclast when captured by those offended by having their excess trimmed for the survival of others, a ranger is well-suited to the dangerous wilderness to be found here.
Crafting a Ranger in Fate Core is simple, on the surface of things. Stealth, speed, and guile are fundamental to their nature; a familiarity with the wilderness and skill with traps is always helpful, as is a certain ruthlessness that softer hearts might find troubling. While the Karui Marauders are furious and loud, a Ranger is silent and often patient, well aware that many battles are won by controlling the field rather than by raw force. Atlhetics and Acrobatics are both central skills for any Ranger, as is Shooting. Beyond this, ranger diverge on their personal sense of how to do things.
Where Marauders simply fail to feel fear, secure in the knowledge that Death walks with them and that their ancestors shield them, Rangers are creatures of the wild; fear is part of what makes them who they are, and what guides their actions. Even the Rangers who carve out a place in Wraeclast are cautious and wary, more than willing to give up ground to a foe when it means they can leave traps behind them that make the next encounter lean in their favor. Rangers know Death, and regard him as the most cunning of foes, to be fought and tricked at every turn. Every day survived is a day where the Ranger has beaten Death at its game.
Stalker-style Rangers will benefit from skills like Stealth and Notice, with lesser slots perhaps going to things like Provoke, Physique, and Will. They'll also likely rely on Shoot and Stealth for their stunts, with trick shots and ambushes to ensure that they control the field of battle even as they bring the fight to their enemies. Less aggressive rangers may benefit from Notice and Crafts over other skills, with a lesser emphasis toward Stealth and other complementary skills. Crafts-based stunts to produce traps on the fly to ensure they remain in control when others are surprised by the horrors that lurk in Wraeclast's corners. Last, there may be some who, by use of the Virtue Gems, become a kind of arcane archer, using their Physique and Will to ensure their survival while their Virtue stunts allow them to do otherwise impossible tricks, like firing a single arrow into the sky and having a zone-wide rain of arrows fall to the earth.
Aspects for Rangers will tend to reflect the way that Rangers are wary survivalists at heart. High Aspects might be things such as Canny Hunter Of The Wilds, Trapsmith of the Webbed Woods, or Unseen Archer-Mage. Troubles will tend to reflect the paranoid and withdrawn behavior Rangers tend to have, with things like Words Can't Be Trusted, Think Thrice Before Acting, or Wild Magic In A Wild Spirit.
Other Aspects will round out the nature of the specific Ranger; the aggressive hunter might have I Can Smell You Coming, Ally Is Just A Nice Word For Bait, and My Law Is The Law Of The Wild. A trapsmith might round out with Ruler Of My Domain, I Live Behind The Shadows, and As Patient As The Trees. The arcane archer might use Aspects like My Will Is A Piercing Arrow, I Hear The Words Of The Wind, and I Can Track The Spirits.
Aggressive Rangers will want to favor Stunts that make the most of their Shoot and Stealth skills, letting them get the drop on others, slink between areas without being observed, and make the most of each shot they get. A trapsmith might favor Crafts stunts that permit them to sow the area with traps they fashion on the fly, forcing those who face them to advance through zones altered to the Ranger's advantage to get near or delaying them while the Ranger escapes to fight another day. An arcane archer will tend to favor Virtue stunts that grant them uncanny skills with their bows, making it rain arrows, making single shots split into multiple shots, or causing shots to be wrapped in lightning or fire.
Ultimately, the Ranger is a class that can be used as a model for anyone who wants to play a world-wise hunter, cautious and careful as they traverse the cursed lands of Wraeclast. They let others take the lead to play the hero while ensuring that their tracks are covered and anything foolish enough to hunt the hunter will find nasty surprises that leave them too hurt to be a threat. Rangers know fear quite well, but they aren't ruled by it - it's just one more tool in their fight to keep Death hungry for another day.
Next conversion post: The Witch, the pure-Intelligence class that commands the dead, the elements, and holds dominion over terrible curses.
The Ranger is the pure Dexterity class of Path of Exile; they excel at ranged combat and emphasize getting out of the way of danger, rather than simply soaking it up or blocking it with a mystical shield. In terms of lore, Rangers are poachers, thieves who steal from the nobility, and have little care for the proper way of civilized society. Exiled to Wraeclast when captured by those offended by having their excess trimmed for the survival of others, a ranger is well-suited to the dangerous wilderness to be found here.
Crafting a Ranger in Fate Core is simple, on the surface of things. Stealth, speed, and guile are fundamental to their nature; a familiarity with the wilderness and skill with traps is always helpful, as is a certain ruthlessness that softer hearts might find troubling. While the Karui Marauders are furious and loud, a Ranger is silent and often patient, well aware that many battles are won by controlling the field rather than by raw force. Atlhetics and Acrobatics are both central skills for any Ranger, as is Shooting. Beyond this, ranger diverge on their personal sense of how to do things.
Where Marauders simply fail to feel fear, secure in the knowledge that Death walks with them and that their ancestors shield them, Rangers are creatures of the wild; fear is part of what makes them who they are, and what guides their actions. Even the Rangers who carve out a place in Wraeclast are cautious and wary, more than willing to give up ground to a foe when it means they can leave traps behind them that make the next encounter lean in their favor. Rangers know Death, and regard him as the most cunning of foes, to be fought and tricked at every turn. Every day survived is a day where the Ranger has beaten Death at its game.
Stalker-style Rangers will benefit from skills like Stealth and Notice, with lesser slots perhaps going to things like Provoke, Physique, and Will. They'll also likely rely on Shoot and Stealth for their stunts, with trick shots and ambushes to ensure that they control the field of battle even as they bring the fight to their enemies. Less aggressive rangers may benefit from Notice and Crafts over other skills, with a lesser emphasis toward Stealth and other complementary skills. Crafts-based stunts to produce traps on the fly to ensure they remain in control when others are surprised by the horrors that lurk in Wraeclast's corners. Last, there may be some who, by use of the Virtue Gems, become a kind of arcane archer, using their Physique and Will to ensure their survival while their Virtue stunts allow them to do otherwise impossible tricks, like firing a single arrow into the sky and having a zone-wide rain of arrows fall to the earth.
Aspects for Rangers will tend to reflect the way that Rangers are wary survivalists at heart. High Aspects might be things such as Canny Hunter Of The Wilds, Trapsmith of the Webbed Woods, or Unseen Archer-Mage. Troubles will tend to reflect the paranoid and withdrawn behavior Rangers tend to have, with things like Words Can't Be Trusted, Think Thrice Before Acting, or Wild Magic In A Wild Spirit.
Other Aspects will round out the nature of the specific Ranger; the aggressive hunter might have I Can Smell You Coming, Ally Is Just A Nice Word For Bait, and My Law Is The Law Of The Wild. A trapsmith might round out with Ruler Of My Domain, I Live Behind The Shadows, and As Patient As The Trees. The arcane archer might use Aspects like My Will Is A Piercing Arrow, I Hear The Words Of The Wind, and I Can Track The Spirits.
Aggressive Rangers will want to favor Stunts that make the most of their Shoot and Stealth skills, letting them get the drop on others, slink between areas without being observed, and make the most of each shot they get. A trapsmith might favor Crafts stunts that permit them to sow the area with traps they fashion on the fly, forcing those who face them to advance through zones altered to the Ranger's advantage to get near or delaying them while the Ranger escapes to fight another day. An arcane archer will tend to favor Virtue stunts that grant them uncanny skills with their bows, making it rain arrows, making single shots split into multiple shots, or causing shots to be wrapped in lightning or fire.
Ultimately, the Ranger is a class that can be used as a model for anyone who wants to play a world-wise hunter, cautious and careful as they traverse the cursed lands of Wraeclast. They let others take the lead to play the hero while ensuring that their tracks are covered and anything foolish enough to hunt the hunter will find nasty surprises that leave them too hurt to be a threat. Rangers know fear quite well, but they aren't ruled by it - it's just one more tool in their fight to keep Death hungry for another day.
Next conversion post: The Witch, the pure-Intelligence class that commands the dead, the elements, and holds dominion over terrible curses.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Fate of Exiles: The Marauder
The Marauder, in Path of Exile, is a strength-oriented class. In terms of the game lore, a Marauder is a warrior from the barbarian Karui tribes, captured by the people of Oriath to be enslaved and then sent into exile, fetching up on the coast of Wraeclast. Tempering raw physical power with magic of the blood and ancestral power, there's little more directly fearsome among mortals than one of these warriors rushing at a person, bellowing a war cry.
In order to create a Marauder using the Fate Core system, we have to look at what makes the Karui barbarian differ from a simple sellsword. People with a deeply spiritual core, the Karui engage in worship of their ancestors, relying on the blessings and power of those who came before them to augment their formidable strength and stamina. Most Marauder character concepts will fall in one of three formats - a raw physical warrior, blessed with incredible strength (Physique), combat prowess (Fighting), and mental fortitude (Will); a shamanistic warrior-priest of the ancestors, whose strength and combat ability are augmented by wisdom from the ancestors (Lore) and the ability to call upon their power (Virtue-based stunts); and a berserk warrior who draws upon their own lifeblood to drive them beyond simple mortal capabilities (reflected best by Aspects and Stunts).
A Marauder knows death intimately; raised from a young age to be a warrior, they've fought wild beasts, hostile tribes, and the soldiers of the civilized parts of Oriath to hone their skills. They know that death always walks at their side, and they're not afraid to feed it the lives of others if the situation makes it necessary. Many refer to death as their dark brother, who will one day take them to meet the ancestors.
Most Marauders will tend to specialize in a particular kind of weapon, focusing on perfecting their ability to fight and kill with that implement, but some take a more general approach, preferring to rely on raw strength and speed to turn whatever they hold into a deadly implement. A few - mostly the most shamanistic of them - might even turn to the more magical forms of weaponry like wands to help augment the powers given to them by the ancestors.
Priority skills if building a Marauder will always be Physique and Fighting; the Karui have had a long time to get good at warfare and killing, after all. Most will also have a good Will, representative of the mental fortitude and personal discipline they have. The shamanistic type of Marauder who relies on the blessings of the ancestors will tend to be good with Lore, Virtue, and Notice. Those who rely heavily on the powers they can wield will need a high Virtue, as well.
Aspects will tend to reflect the savage nature of the Marauder; high concepts might include things such as Death's Dark Brother, Herald of the Ancestors, or Outcast Champion, depending on what flavor you want to give the character. Troubles can include things like Ruin Follows In My Footsteps, I Hear the Whispers Of The Dead, or Fire Fills My Blood.
Other Aspects should be shaped to fit what you want the Marauder to be. A savage berserker who has Death's Dark Brother and Ruin Follows In My Footsteps might also have Doors Or Bones All Break, I'll Rest When I'm Dead, and Even The Dead Fear Me as additional Aspects. A shamanistic Marauder whose High Concept is Herald of the Ancestors and whose Trouble is I Hear The Whispers Of The Dead might have Descendant of Kaom the Lost, Guide of Lost Souls, and I Bear the Burden of the Forgotten as added Aspects.
Some sample stunts might include things built off of Fighting or Physique for any Marauder; other stunts might be built off of Lore (for shamanistic Stunts that call upon ancestral totems) or Virtue. The Outcast Champion might have a Virtue stunt that permits them to create an Aspect of Burning on opponents they strike in melee combat, or Death's Dark Brother might have one for raising the dead as temporary allies.
Ultimately, Marauders should be physical powerhouses who know little of the meaning of fear, at least when they first wash up on Wraeclast's cursed shores. Whether empowered by brute fury, ancestral blessings, or the dark power of the Virtue Gems, they're a force to be reckoned with, able to bring the fight to almost anyone.
Next class conversion: The Ranger, a class built around agility, ranged combat, and animal cunning.
In order to create a Marauder using the Fate Core system, we have to look at what makes the Karui barbarian differ from a simple sellsword. People with a deeply spiritual core, the Karui engage in worship of their ancestors, relying on the blessings and power of those who came before them to augment their formidable strength and stamina. Most Marauder character concepts will fall in one of three formats - a raw physical warrior, blessed with incredible strength (Physique), combat prowess (Fighting), and mental fortitude (Will); a shamanistic warrior-priest of the ancestors, whose strength and combat ability are augmented by wisdom from the ancestors (Lore) and the ability to call upon their power (Virtue-based stunts); and a berserk warrior who draws upon their own lifeblood to drive them beyond simple mortal capabilities (reflected best by Aspects and Stunts).
A Marauder knows death intimately; raised from a young age to be a warrior, they've fought wild beasts, hostile tribes, and the soldiers of the civilized parts of Oriath to hone their skills. They know that death always walks at their side, and they're not afraid to feed it the lives of others if the situation makes it necessary. Many refer to death as their dark brother, who will one day take them to meet the ancestors.
Most Marauders will tend to specialize in a particular kind of weapon, focusing on perfecting their ability to fight and kill with that implement, but some take a more general approach, preferring to rely on raw strength and speed to turn whatever they hold into a deadly implement. A few - mostly the most shamanistic of them - might even turn to the more magical forms of weaponry like wands to help augment the powers given to them by the ancestors.
Priority skills if building a Marauder will always be Physique and Fighting; the Karui have had a long time to get good at warfare and killing, after all. Most will also have a good Will, representative of the mental fortitude and personal discipline they have. The shamanistic type of Marauder who relies on the blessings of the ancestors will tend to be good with Lore, Virtue, and Notice. Those who rely heavily on the powers they can wield will need a high Virtue, as well.
Aspects will tend to reflect the savage nature of the Marauder; high concepts might include things such as Death's Dark Brother, Herald of the Ancestors, or Outcast Champion, depending on what flavor you want to give the character. Troubles can include things like Ruin Follows In My Footsteps, I Hear the Whispers Of The Dead, or Fire Fills My Blood.
Other Aspects should be shaped to fit what you want the Marauder to be. A savage berserker who has Death's Dark Brother and Ruin Follows In My Footsteps might also have Doors Or Bones All Break, I'll Rest When I'm Dead, and Even The Dead Fear Me as additional Aspects. A shamanistic Marauder whose High Concept is Herald of the Ancestors and whose Trouble is I Hear The Whispers Of The Dead might have Descendant of Kaom the Lost, Guide of Lost Souls, and I Bear the Burden of the Forgotten as added Aspects.
Some sample stunts might include things built off of Fighting or Physique for any Marauder; other stunts might be built off of Lore (for shamanistic Stunts that call upon ancestral totems) or Virtue. The Outcast Champion might have a Virtue stunt that permits them to create an Aspect of Burning on opponents they strike in melee combat, or Death's Dark Brother might have one for raising the dead as temporary allies.
Ultimately, Marauders should be physical powerhouses who know little of the meaning of fear, at least when they first wash up on Wraeclast's cursed shores. Whether empowered by brute fury, ancestral blessings, or the dark power of the Virtue Gems, they're a force to be reckoned with, able to bring the fight to almost anyone.
Next class conversion: The Ranger, a class built around agility, ranged combat, and animal cunning.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Fate of Exiles: Skills
Skills are at the heart of Fate Core; the default list often needs tweaked a bit to fit a given setting, so we'll be going through the list and modifying them to fit the cursed land of Wraeclast. Some may also get a tweak to how they function in terms of the four actions, and we'll be calling back to this list when looking at the various classes and how they could be rendered for Fate of Exiles.
Athletics - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Burglary Theft - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Contacts - Overcome, Create an Advantage,Defend
Crafts - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Deceive - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Drive - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Empathy - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Fight - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack, Defend
Investigate - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Lore - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Notice - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Physique - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Provoke - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack
Rapport - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Resources - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Shoot - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack
Stealth - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Will - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
One skill's name changed, one skill altered in function, one skill removed. Why? Because Theft makes more sense as a skill concept here - you're not going to be burgling in this game, you're going to be doing snatch-and-dash, opening old chests, and trying to palm things; behavior of a sneak-thief in an alley, not a burglar.
Contacts loses Defend as an action because in this setting, your contacts aren't allies our a social network; they're the other exiles, the ones who are scared to leave the dubious protection of the hiding-holes they've found. They can get you supplies and information, letting you overcome and create advantages, but they're not going to be there to watch your back against anyone else.
Drive is just gone; the only way from A to B is by foot. Getting from B back to A can be easier - portals and the ancient wayshrines provide methods of getting back to what passes for civilization that are a great deal easier than slogging along back through miles of mud and rotting corpses.
In addition, we'll be adding a few skills.
Acrobatics - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Throw - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack
Virtue - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Acrobatics is a skill intended to be complementary to Athletics; where Athletics read as a skill of strength, stamina, and speed, Acrobatics becomes a skill of raw agility, dexterity, and physical grace. It can be used to dodge hazards, set the character up in strange and advantageous locations, and enable them to bob, weave, and dive out of harm's way.
Throw is meant to complement Shoot, the latter being a skill of bows and crossbows while the former speaks of throwing knives, hand axes, javelins, and the like. Simple uses of throwing might include hurling knives to make handholds, which could either Overcome an obstacle or Create an Advantage; create an Aspect like Sliced Across the Hamstring on an opponent; or simply be used to hit people in other zones.
Virtue is a skill that serves as a base for the effects of the active skills of Path of Exile, the Virtue Gems. Ranks in this skill indicate the character is an accomplished user of the Virtue Gems, with a wider range of unusual options than someone who simply relies on their skill at arms or their quick wits to get them out of trouble.
Other than these changes, the skill tree from Fate Core remains intact; the specific effects of the Virtue skill will come in a later post talking about the Gems, their use, and how to mimic those effects in Fate with extras and stunts.
Athletics - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Contacts - Overcome, Create an Advantage,
Crafts - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Deceive - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Empathy - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Fight - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack, Defend
Investigate - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Lore - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Notice - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Physique - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Provoke - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack
Rapport - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Resources - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Shoot - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack
Stealth - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Will - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
One skill's name changed, one skill altered in function, one skill removed. Why? Because Theft makes more sense as a skill concept here - you're not going to be burgling in this game, you're going to be doing snatch-and-dash, opening old chests, and trying to palm things; behavior of a sneak-thief in an alley, not a burglar.
Contacts loses Defend as an action because in this setting, your contacts aren't allies our a social network; they're the other exiles, the ones who are scared to leave the dubious protection of the hiding-holes they've found. They can get you supplies and information, letting you overcome and create advantages, but they're not going to be there to watch your back against anyone else.
Drive is just gone; the only way from A to B is by foot. Getting from B back to A can be easier - portals and the ancient wayshrines provide methods of getting back to what passes for civilization that are a great deal easier than slogging along back through miles of mud and rotting corpses.
In addition, we'll be adding a few skills.
Acrobatics - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Defend
Throw - Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack
Virtue - Overcome, Create an Advantage
Acrobatics is a skill intended to be complementary to Athletics; where Athletics read as a skill of strength, stamina, and speed, Acrobatics becomes a skill of raw agility, dexterity, and physical grace. It can be used to dodge hazards, set the character up in strange and advantageous locations, and enable them to bob, weave, and dive out of harm's way.
Throw is meant to complement Shoot, the latter being a skill of bows and crossbows while the former speaks of throwing knives, hand axes, javelins, and the like. Simple uses of throwing might include hurling knives to make handholds, which could either Overcome an obstacle or Create an Advantage; create an Aspect like Sliced Across the Hamstring on an opponent; or simply be used to hit people in other zones.
Virtue is a skill that serves as a base for the effects of the active skills of Path of Exile, the Virtue Gems. Ranks in this skill indicate the character is an accomplished user of the Virtue Gems, with a wider range of unusual options than someone who simply relies on their skill at arms or their quick wits to get them out of trouble.
Other than these changes, the skill tree from Fate Core remains intact; the specific effects of the Virtue skill will come in a later post talking about the Gems, their use, and how to mimic those effects in Fate with extras and stunts.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Hillock, the Brutal Giant
Hillock is the first boss-like monster encountered when playing Path of Exile; in the Twilight Strand where the exiles awaken, he has to be defeated for the door into the outpost to be opened. He's a hulking brute of a zombie, delivering powerful blows that make a hit-and-run strategy almost a necessity. In Fate of Exiles he can become something far more - a powerful but simple-minded adversary to harass the players until they can put his monstrous unlife to an end once and for all.
By the game lore, Hillock was born large and never really stopped growing, becoming a hulking behemoth of a man who found work as a smith; when he killed his first victims, he found a taste for killing that matched his taste for ale and food and took to slaughtering anyone who crossed him. When he was eventually slain and his corpse thrown into the sea, everyone hoped that would be the last of it; unfortunately for those sent into exile, his massive corpse washed ashore on the cursed land of Wraeclast and was given a new and terrible life.
I'll present two version of Hillock here; one is merely a powerful zombie who can be fought and put down by the players, much as the online game has him. The other is Hillock as a villainous NPC, a cunning predator that plagues Lioneye's Watch and makes any gleaning efforts far more dangerous than they might be otherwise.
First up, we have the simple opponent.
Name: Hillock the Brute
Aspects: The Bigger They Are, Hits Like A Glacier
Skills: Fighting +3; Physique and Notice +2; Will and Deception +1
Stunts
Just A Dead Man - At the start of any scene, Hillock can make a Deception check with a +2 bonus to pretend to just be a dead body lying in the surf. If he succeeds, he gains a free boost on his first action.
Brutal Blow - If Hillock succeeds with style on a Fighting attack, he gains an additional shift.
Stress Track: This version of Hillock has three stress boxes before being Taken Out.
This version of Hillock is a simple and violent opponent - a mountain of half-rotten flesh that looks like an unusually large corpse laying at the edge of the beach, as inert and harmless as can be. When someone enters the same zone as him, however, he springs into action, making a surprise attack at the closest person and pursuing them relentlessly until his victim is dead, he's dead (again), or he loses track of them. He's huge, and he packs an incredible punch, but he's literally mindless and not very fast. Smart PCs should have little trouble once they understand what they're up against.
And then there's the more dangerous version of him.
Name: Hillock the Destroyer
Aspects: Cunning Like A Rabid Beast, Powered By Rage, Cursed By The Land
Skills: Fighting +4, Physique +3, Notice and Will +2, Deception +1
Stunts
Brutal Blow - If Hillock succeeds with style on a Fighting attack, he gains an additional shift.
Necrophage - Once per scene, Hillock may spend a Fate point to consume any corpses in the same zone as him; he recovers an amount of stress equal to the number of corpses consumed this way.
Stress Track - This version of Hillock has four Physical stress and two Mental stress.
This version of Hillock is a feral creature, a predator that thrives on causing fear and suffering. He's much quicker and more dangerous in this version, with enough cunning to set up ambushes and arrange corpses nearby to enable the use of his Necrophage stunt. He's smart enough to retreat when he's being beaten, and driven by his hatred and anger to hunt anyone who bests him. He can easily becoming a recurring threat as exiles attempt to explore Wraeclast, appearing at inopportune times and forcing them into fights where the odds are against them.
This version can make life exciting for the unfortunate souls of Lioneye's Watch, forcing players to deal with him before they can go any farther in their explorations, lest they either get ambushed by him or return to find the outpost in shambles after he attacked it.
One intriguing idea is that when the exiles first arrive on Wraeclast, they have to face Hillock the Brute; his destruction at their hands serves as a catalyst, destroying what was left of his humanity and leaving the corpse a vacant shell for the cursed power of the land, letting him rise anew as Hillock the Destroyer. Putting him down the second time becomes a risk not only because of his new strength, but also because of the threat that he might rise a third time, even deadlier.
By the game lore, Hillock was born large and never really stopped growing, becoming a hulking behemoth of a man who found work as a smith; when he killed his first victims, he found a taste for killing that matched his taste for ale and food and took to slaughtering anyone who crossed him. When he was eventually slain and his corpse thrown into the sea, everyone hoped that would be the last of it; unfortunately for those sent into exile, his massive corpse washed ashore on the cursed land of Wraeclast and was given a new and terrible life.
I'll present two version of Hillock here; one is merely a powerful zombie who can be fought and put down by the players, much as the online game has him. The other is Hillock as a villainous NPC, a cunning predator that plagues Lioneye's Watch and makes any gleaning efforts far more dangerous than they might be otherwise.
First up, we have the simple opponent.
Name: Hillock the Brute
Aspects: The Bigger They Are, Hits Like A Glacier
Skills: Fighting +3; Physique and Notice +2; Will and Deception +1
Stunts
Just A Dead Man - At the start of any scene, Hillock can make a Deception check with a +2 bonus to pretend to just be a dead body lying in the surf. If he succeeds, he gains a free boost on his first action.
Brutal Blow - If Hillock succeeds with style on a Fighting attack, he gains an additional shift.
Stress Track: This version of Hillock has three stress boxes before being Taken Out.
This version of Hillock is a simple and violent opponent - a mountain of half-rotten flesh that looks like an unusually large corpse laying at the edge of the beach, as inert and harmless as can be. When someone enters the same zone as him, however, he springs into action, making a surprise attack at the closest person and pursuing them relentlessly until his victim is dead, he's dead (again), or he loses track of them. He's huge, and he packs an incredible punch, but he's literally mindless and not very fast. Smart PCs should have little trouble once they understand what they're up against.
And then there's the more dangerous version of him.
Name: Hillock the Destroyer
Aspects: Cunning Like A Rabid Beast, Powered By Rage, Cursed By The Land
Skills: Fighting +4, Physique +3, Notice and Will +2, Deception +1
Stunts
Brutal Blow - If Hillock succeeds with style on a Fighting attack, he gains an additional shift.
Necrophage - Once per scene, Hillock may spend a Fate point to consume any corpses in the same zone as him; he recovers an amount of stress equal to the number of corpses consumed this way.
Stress Track - This version of Hillock has four Physical stress and two Mental stress.
This version of Hillock is a feral creature, a predator that thrives on causing fear and suffering. He's much quicker and more dangerous in this version, with enough cunning to set up ambushes and arrange corpses nearby to enable the use of his Necrophage stunt. He's smart enough to retreat when he's being beaten, and driven by his hatred and anger to hunt anyone who bests him. He can easily becoming a recurring threat as exiles attempt to explore Wraeclast, appearing at inopportune times and forcing them into fights where the odds are against them.
This version can make life exciting for the unfortunate souls of Lioneye's Watch, forcing players to deal with him before they can go any farther in their explorations, lest they either get ambushed by him or return to find the outpost in shambles after he attacked it.
One intriguing idea is that when the exiles first arrive on Wraeclast, they have to face Hillock the Brute; his destruction at their hands serves as a catalyst, destroying what was left of his humanity and leaving the corpse a vacant shell for the cursed power of the land, letting him rise anew as Hillock the Destroyer. Putting him down the second time becomes a risk not only because of his new strength, but also because of the threat that he might rise a third time, even deadlier.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Game Conversion: Path of Exile - Beginning
One of the wonderful things about modern video games is how easily some of them convert to tabletop purposes. The downside to this is that many of them either give you a world and no useful plot-related material, or such a narrow band of plot that there's no world to go and explore. Middle ground, where a solid plot exists but is fluid enough to leave room for exploration in other forms without too much effort on the part of a GM, is relatively rare to find.
Thus why this conversion comes to Path of Exile, a massively multiplayer instanced online game where players take the role of people exiled from one land, cast ashore on a continent that actively hates all who walk upon it. With seven classes each with three thematic branches, there are a lot of options for converting the game to a dice-using format. I'll be focusing on two specific game systems in this conversion effort - Cypher System and Fate Core.
I'll be doing this in two sets, one for each system; posts for Fate Core will be tagged with Fate of Exiles and Cypher Systems posts will be tagged as Exile's Cypher.
We'll look at converting classes; With Fate, the posts will have suggestions on building the various classes in ways that both fit their themes and also harness the flexible power of the Fate system, then Cypher, with a look at how each Cypher class aligns with the classes of PoE and a selection of Foci for each class to reinforce the thematic aspects of the available selections on the skill trees.
Further posts will look at the primary NPCs and the roles they occupy, and how they can tie in for a tabletop RPG experience; I'll provide a system conversion for each such NPC in the relevant post, as neither system is the sort of heavyweight mechanically that a D20 system is. Also included will be some suggestions on how to work plot hooks into each of them to lure players in.
We'll also look at locations around the land of Wraeclast and how to use them for game purposes, ways to detail the eerie and hostile nature of the land, and the ways to introduce the things that each region holds for itself. Special detail will be given to the three hub areas and how to turn an encampment of reluctant exiles and suspicious natives into a base of operations for player characters without falling back too much on the digital game's structure. The hideouts available as part of the game will be looked over, giving an idea of how to let players create their own personal base of operations, letting them stake a permanent claim to a portion of Wraeclast itself.
Attention will be given to the enemies of Wraeclast, covering them in rough detail and giving suggestions for how to use the basic creature types and how to modify them to give an increasing level of threat and danger as exiles explore deeper into the ruins of the Eternal Empire and the nightmarish ruins left behind by the Vaal. A special series of posts will cover the bosses and elites, with suggestions on ways to vary each to ensure they provide a challenge to players. Other Exiles - the tabletop equivalent to the named enemy Exiles who appear in the game - will be covered in posts similar to those on the primary NPCs, with notes on their personalities, motives, and tactics.
Throughout the entire series, there will be a series of posts on the items and powers of Wraeclast, on ways to codify things like the Virtue Gems and the various unique and exotic items in the world, plus posts on the lore of the game relevant to a given section.
By the end, playing in this world via either the Cypher System or Fate Core will hopefully be easy for any experienced GM, and provide a framework for converting the game to any other systems they might desire.
Thus why this conversion comes to Path of Exile, a massively multiplayer instanced online game where players take the role of people exiled from one land, cast ashore on a continent that actively hates all who walk upon it. With seven classes each with three thematic branches, there are a lot of options for converting the game to a dice-using format. I'll be focusing on two specific game systems in this conversion effort - Cypher System and Fate Core.
I'll be doing this in two sets, one for each system; posts for Fate Core will be tagged with Fate of Exiles and Cypher Systems posts will be tagged as Exile's Cypher.
We'll look at converting classes; With Fate, the posts will have suggestions on building the various classes in ways that both fit their themes and also harness the flexible power of the Fate system, then Cypher, with a look at how each Cypher class aligns with the classes of PoE and a selection of Foci for each class to reinforce the thematic aspects of the available selections on the skill trees.
Further posts will look at the primary NPCs and the roles they occupy, and how they can tie in for a tabletop RPG experience; I'll provide a system conversion for each such NPC in the relevant post, as neither system is the sort of heavyweight mechanically that a D20 system is. Also included will be some suggestions on how to work plot hooks into each of them to lure players in.
We'll also look at locations around the land of Wraeclast and how to use them for game purposes, ways to detail the eerie and hostile nature of the land, and the ways to introduce the things that each region holds for itself. Special detail will be given to the three hub areas and how to turn an encampment of reluctant exiles and suspicious natives into a base of operations for player characters without falling back too much on the digital game's structure. The hideouts available as part of the game will be looked over, giving an idea of how to let players create their own personal base of operations, letting them stake a permanent claim to a portion of Wraeclast itself.
Attention will be given to the enemies of Wraeclast, covering them in rough detail and giving suggestions for how to use the basic creature types and how to modify them to give an increasing level of threat and danger as exiles explore deeper into the ruins of the Eternal Empire and the nightmarish ruins left behind by the Vaal. A special series of posts will cover the bosses and elites, with suggestions on ways to vary each to ensure they provide a challenge to players. Other Exiles - the tabletop equivalent to the named enemy Exiles who appear in the game - will be covered in posts similar to those on the primary NPCs, with notes on their personalities, motives, and tactics.
Throughout the entire series, there will be a series of posts on the items and powers of Wraeclast, on ways to codify things like the Virtue Gems and the various unique and exotic items in the world, plus posts on the lore of the game relevant to a given section.
By the end, playing in this world via either the Cypher System or Fate Core will hopefully be easy for any experienced GM, and provide a framework for converting the game to any other systems they might desire.
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