Now that I am, how do I have? (or, Stuff) <- More rules.

Now that I am, how do I have? (or, Stuff)



Oh Yeah.  Throw in a mask, and I'll drive it off the lot !

If you need something that isn’t permanently linked to your character, you need to roll enough successes, which vary by the value & scarcity.  The career you use is citizen, unless your adventuring career would be more appropriate. As a guide, your social class is defined by your CITIZEN career.

Night Train Rockafeller,
Millionaire Hobo
(rejected player character)

Class                                         CITIZEN

·        RICH                                   5

·        UPPER                                 4

·        WORKING                             3

·        POOR                                   2

·        BUM                                     1

·        DESTITUTE                         0

 

Forobtaining  stuff, determine how many successes it costs from the table below:

·        If your CITIZEN is greater, you have it (until it gets blown up) !

·        If your CITIZEN is equal, you can be assumed to be renting it, but have to make a single success citizen roll each adventure to keep it.  If it is blown up, you now have a new hobby –paying it off !

Ha !  Thought you were safe up here !
Luckily I have
MY VERY OWN HELICOPTER !

·        Otherwise, roll the above number of dice, adding the citizen rating to each.  Yes, the rich can have it all.   As ever, each 7+ is a success.  If you have enough successes, you have it till you don’t

You can only roll if it is possible to succeed.  However,  if the item requires more successes than possible, a player can gain one free success before rolling by reducing your Citizen by one . Two successes requires lowering it by  TWO levels. OUCH ! If you get it, you lose it between adventures, but regain your CITIZEN points.  

While lots of common stuff is bought using your CITIZEN skill, career specific stuff can be different.  Any time you need to roll for an item, instead of your CITIZEN, you can use an appropriate CAREER . The adds are still the citizen rating, but the number of dice rolled is determined by the career.  Thus, a BUM (1) would normally  be unable to obtain a pistol (cost 2) as he can only roll one dice at +1 (CITIZEN dice +CITIZEN) ; however, an ex Army (3) BUM rolls three dice for +1 (ARMY dice +CITIZEN).  Two successes and hes a Hobo with a pistol !

NOTE that in a major pinch, you can reduce the career you substitute as if it was CITIZEN.

If you have NATURE instead of CITIZEN, your effective CITIZEN is BUM.  Use careers where you can, Tarzan.   In his case “RICH BASTARD HEIR” turned out to be his career.

Cost of stuff with some examples, or, everything has its price, sweetheart !

NOTE: that Items rated at 6+ require either being WEALTHY, or reducing you CITIZEN or CAREER, or being an NPC villan or patron, who can have a citizen higher than 5. Characters, never.

Free/dumpster divings      0             Rags. Old butts.  Ketchup and chickenbone soup. Squirrel.  Shank. Club. Beano.

Cheap/Ubiquitous               1            Old clothing, gum, shiv, smokes, Poison Liquor. flop

Inexpensive/common           2            Zip gun, , Cheap Booze, Old Car. hardscrabble, apartment

Affordable/uncommon         3            Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun Sm House, Car,  good stuff Booze, farm    

costly/Unusual                    4            Lg House, fancier car, sm airplane,country estate Military arms (BAR, Grenade) top                                                               shelf Booze:

Luxury/uncommon               5            Mansion,Yacht, fighter, race car, lab, big/new plane, tank, plantation,  best Booze

Ruinous/Rare                      6            Secret base, rocket, flying yacht/HQ

Priceless/Unique               7+           Hope Diamond, The Mona Lisa, Battle cruiser, Spy army

Examples of transport:  match with value (hints: one is 0, one is 6)

 

 

The year is Nineteen -Thirty-Nazi !

 

Basic Adventure Game System

BAGS is a game for bags, written by bags.  As such, the design goals were to be:

·        Simple

·        Short

·        easy,

·        simple

·        short

The inspiration was a boardgame and lots of random cards to create adventures, perils, villains, treasures, etc.  Plus, Pete wasn’t ready for the western game, and this got thrown together. See: Baggishness.

Setting ?  This setting is PULP ADVENTURE, set in Nineteen-thirty-Nazi.  You are playing a character in a roleplaying game. I am running it.   If you don’t know what a roleplaying game is, get the hell out of my house.  Come back when you don’t have a life, okay ?

"Nineteen-thirty-Nazi"? That ill defined period of time for pulp adventures which includes:

• Nazi Germany  as a source of mooks and plots and bizarre occult investigations (either as an actual government or just nearly about to be);
• Airships, flying boats, the last of the biplanes, and no rockets, jets or flying wings
• Less Rays, no RAdio Detection And Ranging apparatus. *
• Revolvers, shotguns, rifles, Thompson guns, Styr SMG's, BARs
• Big fast mobster type cars and motorcycles with sidecars
• Cool diesel & tube (valve for purists) crazy science, often in the service of the New occult….
• Unexplored and poorly mapped Pacific and African wilderness with big game hunting, lost tribes, cities and treasures; often forgotten by time.
• Maybe starting to recover from the Great depression, maybe post prohibition, but still lots of gun running, rum running, and Mobsters.
• Revolutionary ferment, Banana Republic wars, Anarchy vs Communism vs Fascism....
• Less commandoes and rangers, more international spies & Comintern
• A world at peace, just running up to, but not into, world war two actually just yet. 

How do I play this?  What do I do ? Where is My Butt?  I’ve used both hands and I can’t find it !!   Okay, here is the topline: You pretend to be a someone else having a bad day, otherwise called a HERO having an ADVENTURE. 

·        Since adults argue even more than five year olds playing cowboy (got ya !  Nuh UH!) we have numbers and rules to make decisions asy and (sorta) impartial. 

·        To do stuff you roll dice to see if what you want to do works, and how well.  The better you are at stuff, the more dice and higher numbers you generate –which is good, because harder stuff needs bigger results.

·        When you screw up, bad things can happen, like when you fail to jump a chasm (you fall to your doom), or fail to not be punched (you get ouched).  In which case, since no one here is very creative, usually this means you get hurt or lose cool stuff. Sometimes you die.  Again, we have numbers and rolls to determine when or if this happens (see: playing cowboys).

·        Players work together , dealing with a scenario designed and run by a referee.  Everyone says it isn’t player vs GM, but we all know the truth after our first game.

·        If you make a point of doing well, you can get better at what you do, or learn new things. Plus, you get to keep cool stuff, especially when the bad guys “don’t need it any more”.

·        Got all that ?

How would some online academic wannabe describe the game: Dice pool resolution, stat and skill, task numbers & opposed rolls. D6 only.  Rules-lite.  Minimalist chargen, stats as skills.  Retro-Stupid.  Gamist. Genre simulation, non-narrative, screened (gamemaster controlled, low player agency). 

While we are answering questions, what is all this about “Bags” ? If you have to ask, consider yourself blessed.

Who is this “Pete” (or “Joel”) of whom you speak ? See above.

Some last thoughts on the T5 Kickstarter

Well, it broke 2000 backers and $250,000; as has been posted elsewhere, to the grump all this proves it that it is mindless peer pressure and fanboi lack of critical thinking (1) ;  a somewhat questionable assumption, but perhaps they know best.  However, reading one reasonable complaint (2), I realized why I chipped in, and it has little to do with critical thinking (of the kind that weighs everything in terms of what fungible value it gets for me right now)

Here's my thought on the matter:

Honestly, I could not care less [about where the money raise over and above producing the promised product if there is any] . Seriously, I get a product I already like the beta version of, in a format that is, by todays expenses, worth the basic retail price: 75$. If the extra money goes to Marc and FFE for their 501K, no problem for me. plus, consider how much of the final price of any gaming product does not go tho the actual author - I can easily see it as helping him getting a better than 20% return for each dollar you spend on his product when it goes thru normal production. Basic wholesale is 30 -40% of cover -and ask Matt how much of that gets lost due to every other damned thing before the owner gets paid.

See, I like RPGs, I appreciate the work and passion that goes into them, and the ways they enrich my free time and friendships. Assuming even 75% of the money is over and above the upgraded version that the stretches represent, amortize it over 40 years of RPG design for Marc, and it is a small annuity indeed.

Frankly, too, of the main designers of my favorite hobby, a distressing number of them can hardly be said to have profited by their efforts; and if one of them gets a bit of a bump at the end of his career, well, okay by me. Perhaps that will encourage the next generation when faced with the choice of making a decent living from not doing RPG design work or following their muse, and thus making my life more entertaining. In fact, it represents about a $ 2.50 per person per year 35 year subscription for the 2000 backers alone. Not a bad deal for 35 years of traveller fun; especially given the number of crappy movies and books I've plopped down more than 2.50 (or even 25.00) for in any given year, each of those years.

Honestly, for what we give to creators vs what get, we have a great deal going; and I'm speaking of the whole industry here.

Life imitiates art; and bad art, at that.

In the wake of my (apparently) popular post of an RPG lampooning online game criticism and commentary, I thought I'd prove that I'm immune to irony and post a response I made to an involved, and interesting, but ultimately (as I'll point out) moot discussion about the Traveller trade , economic and technology system, and its relevence (if any) to the real world. 

---BEGIN RANT MGTFORUM05122010 ELECTINT[89%]------------------

The problem you point out is one of those odd issues that seems to be part and parcel of RPG worlds -SF or fantasy; insanely old cultures with absolutely static societies and technology. Why ? Literary bias, I think -simply because most seminal works had them, so does everyone. Relevance to topic ?

Well, this: Traveller is at its heart and intent, emulating a literary school - and one which has all those same issues. Partly because the stories, or at least their inspirations were written before the time of accelerated change, and by people who weren't economists, or, even if they were, were uninterested in that level of detail. It didn't help. So honestly, any overlap with "the real world" is just gravy.

The 800lb gorilla then, is this. There are thousand year societies because Piper, and Asimov, Anderson and Heinlein had them, and no other reason. There are trade systems that are only face valid (if that) in the real world but are there explicitly to create play situations like those of Van Rijn and the Foundation Traders. They create a play structure that emulates that style of fiction. If it doesn't work for you, do what authors like Gibson did, and strike out in a new direction; lots of the dystopian SF is a direct contrast to the golden age stuff, and it's available in RPG form in such SF systems as (hold on) 2300 and its cousins, the cyberpunk genre. I would argue that while they often have similar underpinnings, systems like CT and 2300 produce a very different play experience, simply and precisely because they are emulating different genres.


From my point of view, the level of detailed criticism (in the negative sense) presented above, and its opposition, are about as productive as population demographics based criticism of the lord of the rings; or, actually, criticizing traveller for failing to include Tom Bombadil, or original D&D for failing to address issues of implied FTL in spellcasting. The points are basically valid, but they really don't matter in terms of what is being presented. Grafting cyberpunk and information technology onto the foundation series makes it something very different (as we see with the later books in the series, attempting to explain Foundation society and stories IRL terms. )


I think that this level of "based on the real world" modeling will always fail and has always failed for traveler, is because it was (and, IMO, is) irrelevant at such a detailed level. I'd reject many of the very gritty Trade and cartography systems (including those of later CT and MT) not because they are wrong, but because they don't help.

I think that this level of "based on the real world" modeling will always fail for traveler and is why it still hasn't been resolved after 30 years, far more than just the usual observation that times and econ theory changes with it. It wasn't part of CT simply because it was (and, IMO, is) irrelevant at such a detailed level to what is being produced. The literature does not support that level of examination, so one should not expect the emulation to do so. 

---------------------END RANT---------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Next up:  I thought I'd alienate my current readership by posting my rant on thieves in OD&D, or, If You Think That Thieves Were Bad for Old Style D&D then you Don't Understand Old style D&D, and , lucky you, I'm here to tell you why you are wrong and should change your mind."

Bwaaaa- haaa ha !

Got some more work done on adventurer; both clean up and ....the Universal Dungeon Profile ! Size, wealth, threat,type,theme and probably one more !!!!

There is nothing that cannot be pounded into hexitraveller notation. NOTHING ! AHHHH HAH HAHAHAHAH !

broken mechanics in new spells.....

heh. Who is a nerd ? I'm a nerd. Y'know why ? I woke up in the midddle of the night with the clear thought running through my head: "the rules for the new alchemy spells are broken because difficulty modifies effect, and taking a high difficulty means taking a lower effect, so why bother." Granted I didn't shout it out loud, waking wife and kids, nor did I dash to the keyboard in unstockinged feet; but I did jot it down on the notepad by the bed, the existance of which, I admit is further proof of my nerdiness.

So, I'll be fixing the rules presented in the last post. Stay tuned.

Goetry and selected spells thus far.

Summon Animal/Familiar
This spell allows the spell caster to summon either a normal animal of any size, or a small animal with human intelligence.

Summon Animal.
This summons an animal to fight for the caster. It is of normal intelligence for its type, but will willingly obey any commands given by the caster as if it could understand speech. It remains for one hour, or until killed or banished (either by another spellcaster, or the owner). Only one such animal may be summoned at any one time.
The effect determines the size of the animal which must be native to the local area, although it need not be common.
When the spell is successfully cast, add 1d6 to effect value, and use this result on the creatures size table. The caster can choose to take a smaller animal instead of a larger one, and in cases where a specific type is needed, such as a flier, this is likely required. While it is possible for the spellcaster to then roll out the values for the summoned creatures, for speed and ease of play, it is recommended that the GM or player develop a list of animals, one per size (up to 12) that can be summoned on land or on sea, with preset values for STR, DEX and END. If the ecosystem supports such, at least naturally occurring flyer should be included in land or sea lists. In general, the summoned creature should be an average example of its species.

Regular earth animal mishmash summoning table
effect+
roll Size Example/choose one.

1 1 Rat, Bat,Giant land snail
2 3 Meerkat/Pangolin/Goliath frog/Parrot/raven
3 6 Large hare,Cat,Huge Owl
4 12 Tasmanian Devil/badger/monkey/swan/Huge Eagle
5 25 Wild dog/baboon
6 50 capybara/Lynx/Wolf/Chimp/Emperor Penguin
7 100 Cougar/Leopard/Hyena/Warthog
8 200 Tiger/Lion Gorilla/Anaconda
9 400 /Wild Boar
10 800 Large Bear
11 1600 Hippo/Auroch/salt water croc
12 3200 Rhino,

Crazy Fun Lost world megafauna summoning table
effect
+roll Size Choose from:
1 1 Archaeopteryx/Microraptor
2 3 Procompsognathids
3 6 Compsognathus
4 12 Velociraptor/Repenomamus robustus
5 25 Pteranodon/Oviraptor
6 50 Troodontids
7 100 Deinonychus/Quetzalcoatlus
8 200 Gallimimus
9 400 Protoceratops
10 800 Megalosaurus
11 1600 Stegosaurus/Allosaurus
12 3200 Ankylosaurus/Albertosaurus



next up: Familiars !

Swords, sandals and sestercii ! Equipment ! Link to lists !

Campaign Economics


Money and Equipment
Even a short perusal of the actual historical literature on item costs will show that it is extremely hard to know what items cost in ancient societies, let alone what their value was. Also, one finds a plethora of coinage systems, differing from realm to realm, and often city to city. In order to make such a mess somewhat playable, much has been abstracted, and some has been invented.
That said, I tried to keep a few constants in setting prices. First is that ratios were more informative than any statement of coinage value, especially given that it is not always able to clear about what coinage is referred to. The second is that what items are available is sharply defined by social class as much as location. In general, each of the main social classes had their own level of currency, with some overlap, and luckily enough they correspond somewhat to the types of money used.
Finally, I decided to adopt a standard similar to that of Augustan Rome, both for flavor reasons and documentation, which was a mix of official documents and private documents (often graffiti), which provides both a theoretical/official viewpoint of what things should cost, and what things cost to the actual consumers.

Coinage
In adventurer, it is assumed that while all realms and many cities have their own coinage, that basic market forces will allow us to define a common set of coins which can be spent to buy stuff. For Adventurer, there are four basic coin types: Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold.
The poor and the peasant tend to use copper, the laborers and common workers bronze; merchants and professionals silver, and the wealthy and the governments, Gold. For flavor reasons I’ve named them as follows

Copper Aes,
Bronze Sesterces,
Silver Denarius, and
Gold Solidus.

Their relative values are as follows:

1 Solidus = 25 Denarii =100 Setercii, = 400 As.

Partial and multiple value coins of all the denominations exist, especially at the lower end of the scale. To give some context, an As is about the price of a 1lb loaf of bread, a sesterces is a half days pay for the lowest paid workers, or a sit down common meal, 1 Denarius is a days pay for a semi-skilled laborer or low grade soldier, 2-4 denarius is a days wage for skilled worker (stonemason, carpenter) or skilled soldier (Legionary); a Solidus is a good draft animal such as an Ox, or an acre of unremarkable farmland.
Items are assigned to lists based on coinage type more than function; thus, some have a fairly large value in one list, and this indicates that while they could be bought with a higher grade currency, that they are more appropriate to the social class that uses that list. Conversely, they are less likely to be used by other social classes that use other lists. This mainly works in the upward direction: a peasant is unlikely to want (or need) to buy armor (generally on the Solidii list), whereas a rich man may well buy a 1lb loaf of bread; the difference is that the rich man can also buy 1lb of stuffed hummingbirds for lots more than 1 As if he wants.

Availability:
Given the above concepts, a limitation on availability is how many of the given social class exist in a given city, and access to sufficient coinage of the proper type. . In general, an entire list will be available or not, largely for simplicity. The simplest determination is to look at the lower of wealth or population rating on the below table. Any given city has that list and all lower.

Item List Minimum
As 1
Sestercii 3
Denarii : 5
Solidii 7

Generally a list can be assumed to be available for barter at one level lower. (Denarii items can be traded for at a city with a population or wealth rating of 4.

One could add a list of modifiers for location and situation, but as this is a game of heroic adventure, not ripping accountancy that is left to the GM to decide.

New Stuff: Alchemy Spells 2

Binding of the arcane essence.
Cost: See below table
Duration: instant/as per spell
Life: base 1 day+1 week per allocated effect point.
This allows the Alchemist to bind standard spells into alchemical compounds. The spell must be either known by the alchemist, or be provided during formulation by a capable spellcaster. The spell must be successfully cast, and the final effect recorded and allocated as appropriate to the spell description. Once the bound spell is cast, the alchemist must succeed in an Alchemy task check, modified by the difficulty of the bound spell.
Success indicates the compound and spell are successfully bound. Extra effect points may be allocated to effective life and limitations as per Enhancement of the material form. Otherwise, the default life of the compound is one day, with no limitations.
If the roll fails, the compound (and costs) are lost, and the bound spell immediately takes effect as if cast at the Alchemist and helpers. Assume that all working on the formulation are within 3’ of the spells point of effect, allow all but the casting Alchemist a DEX test to jump to cover and take ½ effect.

Cost of compounds are based on the school of the spell to be bound.
Cantrip/Chant2d6 gold coins or Solidii
Dweomer/Blessing 10 x 2d6 gold coins/Solidii
Sorcery/Prayer 100 x 2d6 gold coins/Solidii
Wizardry/Miracle 1000 x 2d6 gold coins/Solidii

In addition, any costs associated with the bound spell must be paid up front, and any physical effects upon the caster occur as listed to whoever provided the bound spell.

When consumed (or used –one could bind a spell into some odd ointment) the user may and must immediately cast the bound spell. The user of the compound does not suffer any effects related to casting the spell. Cool, huh ?

New version of character rules, including revision of Reputation rules.

Some stuff to be in the newest version for y'all.

Part I:
Swordsmen and Sorcery

In which we learn how to create a character and how magic works.
Adventurer, as with traveler, is about bold individuals who push off from normal careers and seek fame and riches in the wide world. Their past gives them the skills they will need to succeed, and their wits allow them to succeed when their skills fail or insufficient. A typical Adventurer is far from a callow youth beginning his first trip from home; and yet, he is not yet a mighty and renowned hero (or wizard) sung of in epics. He is a skilled and competent master of many different skills, yet it is deeds that bring success and fame. A character then has a history, and a list of skills and traits with which to seek fortune; these are abstracted by the career system of traveler.
A character begins at age 14, with rolled stats (as standard), and chooses a career to attempt to enlist in.
Characteristics
Every person and creature in Traveller has several characteristics that describe their base mental and physical potential. All but one are standard to traveller, Reputation, which will be discussed in more detail. All other are generated as per the Mongoose Core traveller rules, and have the same limits. Note that currently, there is no table for +/-modifiers due to high or low characteristics. This is simply because dice modifiers based on characteristics was largely an artifact of post three book D&D; the goal here is to model the initial version of D&D, no more, no less. Nonetheless, while not providing a direct plus (or minus) to skill and task rolls or tests, different values do allow characters to (for example) use differently effective weapons or tools, have more skills (or less), or be more or less capable in tests depending on ones characteristics.

Strength (STR): A character’s physical strength, fitness and forcefulness.

Dexterity (DEX): Physical co-ordination and agility, reflexes.

Endurance (End): A character’s ability to sustain damage, stamina and determination.

Intelligence (INT): A character’s intellect and quickness of mind.

Education (Edu): A measure of a character’s learning and experience as well as how familiar they are with the rules and traditions of the society they live in.
Social Standing (Soc): A character’s place in society.

Reputation: (Rep): A characters fame and influence.

New characteristic: Reputation.

Reputation describes a characteristic which might becalled fame or mass appeal in a modern or SF game.

Unlike other characteristics, reputation ranges from 0-6, and is not generated as per other characteristics. At start, it is equal to 0.
One aspect of S&S fiction that is somewhat lacking in later historical genres is that of advancement or growing fame.

The Barbarian starts as an unknown boy, who becomes known at home as a hardcase after a battle; he then kills a perilous giant boar and becomes known locally as a renouned fighter –when he goes to the city, he is once again noone, although those from home know him. As time goes on, and if he survives, his reputation will grow –not always for the better (when he tries his hand at theft) but people do know of him, make way, look to gain his favor and such. Eventually, his fame is such that newcomers to the city have heard of him, and so on.

In Adventurer, it is a measure of a characters success, for good or evil, and as a result, how well known and admired (or feared) the character is. Unlike SOC, REP is what one earns for oneself, above and beyond what fate has granted you at birth.
In general, it can be used to increase social standing, modify the roll on attempts to intimidate or charm, and add to the effect when a socially based roll is successful.

How it works:
All fame is local, but the size of the locality is what varies. The higher ones reputation, the farther from one’s home it can be used. Note that the amount of rep levels is the same throughout this area. This is because of the nature of fame – a little fame is meaningless, and if they have heard of you at all (in terms that would matter) they’ve typically heard the best stuff possible. Plus, it makes it more heroic, and easier to implement in play. Thus, a higher reputation gives one more benefit over a larger area, with no reduction –until suddenly you are a nobody, because you’re not as interesting as more local heroes.
Also, there is little differentiation between a good and a bad reputation, or between good or evil. Reputation is designed to represent that nebulous but powerful element that all mythic heroes possess and strive for. It is not simply being seen or heard about by lots of people. It is what poets and bards sing of, and opponents quail at while simultaneously attempting to steal.

There is no unskilled use of reputation; these modifiers only apply to a character with a reputation greater than 0.

Effective range
Reputation may be used if one is within the following number of hexes* from the characters home, or main base (or current base, see optional rules)

Reputation Distance Rule of Thumb area
1 1 City /Barony/shire
2 2 Province/county
3 4 Principality/Duchy
4 8 Kingdom
5 16 Empire
6 32 Continent/Epic/you win
*this assumes use of the hex size suggested in the campaign rules.

All distances are measured in 1 week hexes beyond the home hex. Thus, a distance of 1 is the home hex and one hex around it. .

REP can and will change in play, generally upward, with the caveat that it may not always be the same reputation, nor always wanted. A wel known monster hunter who decapitates the Mayor will probably be more well known afterwards, and not for his previous deeds.

REP can be increased before play by career resolution and mustering out. Finally, a character may forgo a roll on the money benefits table to increase a REP from 0 to 1. Thereafter, see the section on increasing characteristics for details.

Uses of Reputation
When within the range of ones Reputation, add the reputation level to the characters SOC for all uses; note that this may not affect foreigners or newcomers, or characters of thecharacters modified SOC or higher (Parveneu upstart !)

When attempting to intimidate, recruit or use streetwise or courtly graces, use the reputation level as if it were a skill. While this may be subtracted in some cases (Jeffery Dalmer looking for a job in supermarket, for instance), do recall that a reputation as an unstable sociopath will often get people to do you favors as much as a reputation as a noble philanthropist.

In all other interactions involving social skills (bribes, favors, discounts), add the level of reputation to the effect of a successful roll. In extreme cases of bullying and fear, subtract the level from an unsuccessful roll.

The effects of REP are not optional. A character attempting to keep a low profile either thru disguise stealth or dmisdirection within an area effected by REP will roll as normal, but the characters REP is subtracted from the final roll if the roll fails. Thus: “Hey – someones sneaking out the back door of that tavern ! hey Its HIM !”


General comment: Note that a general who is the SOC 15 emperor’s cousin might have a SOC of 12 or 13; if he starts getting famous, his effective SOC may come to exceed that of the emperor –with obvious consequences in both direction. (If curious, look up the relationship between Belisarius and Justinian in Byzantine history)

Your Gonzo May Vary, or Heptarchian races as players:

This is entirely a function of your own gonzo quotient. Arduinites will no doubt have the lot, plus extras ; others, not so much. I was going to make a comment about D&D DMs being tightest about keeping the races near human, but I realize that that isn't the case any more, and hasn’t been for a while….like since a year or so into 3E ? I mean, really, what is the conceptual differnece between a half-Deodant dark star adept gladiator and a Tiefling dragonblooded swashbuckler swadowblade ?

Not sure if the “humans are the preferred type of character in the D&D world” line even survived 2E. Oh well. I have no opinion, per se, other than to note that the old Arduinesque “seven players of different alignments, classes, and biological Phyla” has become the norm……

But, I digress.

Me, what I’d allow is this:
Newcomers (obviously, for those low personal gonzo quotient players..);
Pets: Tower Dwellers and Showpets; ;
Thralls: all domestic thralls, and probably only the Peltasts from the war thralls.

Or this:

All newcomers, all coming over together from the continent, hired as cannon fodder by one of the kingdoms. For extra giggles, they can do a classic “Hengst and Horsa”, and bring their families over to homestead, too – start with a (pathetic) stronghold you have to worry about immediately rather than in the endgame when you are high level…

”Hey Pa, come quick ! Ma’s done being wailed on by a monster agin’…”
”I rekon I kin do that, but Damn Boy, this wood aint gonna chop itself “.…

Add in the above local races as players die (and they will. Oh yes…..)

Again, your gonzo may vary……

Races and Subraces , Part 2

Game effects and character modifications:

Pets
There are three main subtypes of Pets.
Tower Dwellers are descendents of the pampered humans kept for companionship and to relieve boredom, or to boss Thralls and may become mages or clerics. All have Notable SOC but weak END and distinctive appearance.

ShowPets Kept for status, fashion, competition and/or entertainment Characters may choose two different characteristics to be notable, but must take one that is weak. All are feral and have bizarre appearance. Alternately, one trait may have Notable apply twice, but a second (and different) weak trait must be taken. May become mages

Journeymen are the descendents of Pets that were taught magic by the Fey. They may become mages and have a +2 to enlist as a Magic user All have weak STR , Notable INT , distinctive appearance. A character may opt to have the traits Magical , Fast Metabolism , weak END and Bizarre appearance

Thralls
All thralls are physically altered humans, and generally breed true to their subclass, although they are seldom able to crossbreed ; and even within their subtype, they are less fecund than normal humans or the Pet descendents. Thralls were modified to be specialized appliances and labor saving devices for the Fey, who, not being stupid, bred in instincts to make them safe to use. As a result, all Thralls have to make a 3d INT test to ever directly damage or otherwise harm a Fey. Originally, a lifelong and inheritable Geas was cast on all Thralls, requiring a similar 3d roll to disobey or refuse to obey a Fey or a Fey appointed overseer. Since the rebellions, this has mostly been purged or faded out, paticularly as the surviving Fey are now few, far between, and far away.
There are many varieties of Thralls – below are some of the most common

Domestic Thralls did all the scutwork and mindless day to day labor for the Fey. Now, most of the Thrall descendents still do similar work, there are not-unusual exceptions. In fact, many thralls still take it as a mark of pride to do something that their hated masters didn’t breed and twist them for. No Thrall race can be a Magic User, but due to the cultural skills developed in the second rebellion (against the Journeymen) they have a +2 to enlist in the Priest profession.

Drones Drones are the most numerous and least altered of the Thralls, but still have been bread for distinctive appearances to indicate ownership, as well as the ability to work long hours in the fields or to perform repetitive and often mindless tasks. Drones are Feral, with Notable END

Porters Porters were bred for brute strength,strong backs, and weak minds. In part, they were bred to replace Troll slaves, who were much less tracable, if more resilient. They are essentially human forklifts and bulldozers, but also riding mounts where speed or looking cool was less important. They have the traits Feral , Large , Notable STR, slow metabolism and Weak DEX

Runners Runners were couriers and messengers. Traits are small, fast metabolism, Notable END weak STR, no fine manipulators
Tinkers Tinkers were bred to fix things, work metal and wood, cook, sew, weave and generally provide skilled craftsmanship that are too common or boring for the Fey. Notable DEX , fast metabolism and small

War Thralls were used to defend the realm, but also, and far more commonly, to resolve the disputes of the petty nobility amongst the fey, of for gladiatorial games. Details next time.