Nuclear Beasts

More Odds and Ends

• Making Avatara is much easier than creating new forms of life. Making a new form of life requires a roll against Lore: Biology and the more of a deviation it is from existing species the harder it is. Avatara, on the other hand, are sustained by the spell that created them and will die or go into suspended animation if the mana level gets too low to sustain it. Avatara can also look like almost anything, as they don't have a real metabolism. But they can't breed and they take up one of your enchantment slots permanently, so even gods don't make very many.
• Decros is a demon/sage lives in Hybris. Rumors say that he's been there longer than Evander, but if you ask the few people who know, he's a relatively recent arrival. Decros lives in a small, oddly formed building that apparently has a large subterranean section which he guards furiously. He works as a sage of sorts... demanding strange and terrible prices (often pointless, metaphorical stuff like killing your sister) in return for answering questions. But it's said that he can answer almost any question... although some rumors indicate that he actually goes underground and asks whatever it is that lives below his house, instead. Decros is a very demonic-looking avatar and behaves in a highly irrational manner. He never comes out of his home unless attacked. A few people claim that he's the last of the K'al T'al, but that's probably nonsense.

More History

1. Lalindiel the Wise unifies the realms into a single great empire. All realms are either full members or protectorates, save for a couple of demon-realms ruled by terrible dark gods. A recurring foe is the demonic army referred to as the K'al T'al.
2. He creates the Lendehar to be his chroniclers and historians.
3. Lalindiel gradually goes mad. His empire falls apart.
4. The War of Subjugation begins as Lalindiel emerges from his home realm of Choronos with a huge army and attempts to restore his empire. His irrational tactical choices cripple his forces, however, and they eventually retreat back into Choronos and fortify it.
5. Centuries of civil war ensue as the various forces fight for control of the crumbling empire. The K'al T'al are finally hunted to extinction by Xualia's forces as she pacifies a large chunk of the realms.
6. Without a foe to fight, Xualia seems to go mad herself as she starts forcing other deities to serve her or be devoured.
7. The pacifistic deity Benefor surrenders to Xualia, but his people suffer terribly under her rule.
8. Those deities not under Xualia's rule either unify into the pantheon known as the Lords of Light or seal off their realms.
9. Benefor abandons his pacifistic ways and becomes Xualia's lieutenant. He takes command of her war against the Lords of Light.
10. The Lords fight a defensive battle for half of a century, slowly losing ground.
11. Benefor slays a minor deity and seizes control of a stark but habitable realm that takes his fancy. He declares his independence from Xualia and renames the realm to Myros. Those members of his forces still loyal to Xualia are slain.
12. The Lords of Light get a breather as Xualia launches into an all-out war against her former ally. The two sides struggle endlessly, but are too evenly matched. The Lords of Light themselves encourage the fight to continue, secretly aiding whichever side seems to be losing and sabotaging any attempts at reconciliation.
13. Xualia and Benefor's struggle slowly saps the strength of their armies while the Lords of Light build up their forces. It soon becomes obvious that the Lords are just waiting for the right moment to destroy them both. Both deities reluctantly pull back to a defensive posture.
14. An era of relative peace passes as the Lords of Light become complacent, then corrupt. More and more of the sealed realms reopen their portals and engage in regular commerce again.
15. Xualia and Benefor's forces both become active again, forcing the Lords into a warlike posture once more. A three-way war breaks out but the major losers are the independent realms that don't want to join any of the sides.
16. Some of the Lords show signs of going mad themselves and are purged by their brethren. They either flee to a realm of their own or are slain by their fellows. Several small civil wars ensue and many Lords decide to simply leave the alliance and protect their own realms.
17. The minor realm of Hybris is first noted during this period when a handful of refugees discover one of its random portals. The only inhabitant is Evander, the Gray Man, who reluctantly allows them to stay.
18. The Lords of Light eventually get around to sending a battalion of troops to take Hybris, but the only stable portal that they can find is destroyed by the Gray Man before they can do so.
19. More random portals to Hybris are found, although most only last long enough for a handful of people to travel through. The Lords send the occasional agent through (usually disguised as a harmless refugee) to keep an eye on things.
20. The god Arthalkus, a Lord of Light in poor repute, flees to Hybris before his fellows can purge him and takes over the realm. The Gray Man surrenders all authority to Arthalkus and his angels. Arthalkus arranges for most of his followers to be brought from their home realm to Hybris.
21. Arthalkus sets up his palace/temple in one of the largest and grandest of the ancient buildings of Hybris. Worship of Arthalkus becomes mandatory along with military service in his army. Some of the refugees flee for other realms, but the unstable nature of Hybris's portals make it hard for them to evacuate without magical aid.
22. The mana level in Hybris suddenly plunges and strange lights fill the sky. Something apparently eats Arthalkus and everyone else in his palace. The majority of his angels rush to their lord's temple and are lost along with everyone else there. Only 3 refused to go.
23. The Gray Man immediately raises a militia which subjugates the remaining followers of Arthalkus and restores Hybris to his control. This happens so quickly that the Thalk Angel named Kabri is convinced that the Gray Man knew that it would happen all along.
24. Kabri takes the surviving followers of Arthalkus under his protection. He and Evander reach a peace agreement which allows the "thalks" to continue living in Hybris. The major deities of the realms are more worried about what killed Arthalkus.
25. The mana level in Hybris slowly builds back up to its normal level.
26. Hybris starts to attract more potent refugees, such as rogue avatara and powerful wizards who don't want to be conscripted into the war effort. Evander allows anyone to stay in Hybris provided that they don't make trouble and contribute to the city's defenses. Spies who are found out are thrown into one of the vortex portals that deliver them to a random realm.
27. The mind mages Olam and Parall offer to use their magics to help root out spies in return for the right to set up a college of magic in Hybris. Evander agrees.
28. Olam and Parall's college is short-lived as the two grow to hate each other. They separate and each found a rival school instead, one oriented around magic of Thought and one of Emotion. The original building was cursed during their struggle and still does strange things to the minds of anyone foolish enough to enter.
    Posted by Kiz at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)

Random Hybris Thoughts

• "Lord" Evander, the Gray Man, is the reluctant ruler of Hybris. It's clear that he resents "his" city being turned into a refugee camp for the flotsam of the realms, but his moral code forces him to accept them anyway. He's a decent Portal sorcerer, but his Knowledge and Intuition are not nearly as impressive as his superhuman Strength, Endurance and Drive. He's clearly a magical being, but no one knows who made him or why. He ages so slowly that he could well be centuries old. Certainly he's crotchety enough.
• Nahura, a goddess of the Natural Order, runs Arborelle, a realm of massive forests. She is served by pretty much everything there... plants, animals and people. The Sandilin (humans with blue skin and small, satyr-like horns on their heads) are her chosen and they dominate the local population. Outsiders can settle there, but will be second class citizens at best and had better be extra diligent in honoring the goddess.
• While Nahura is honored as good, benevolent and all-loving, she does have a habit of marking anyone who offends her with a red rune on their face (their actual skin color changes permanently) and exiling them. The exact rune varies according to the crime, but if you know Sandili you can tell.
• The official language of Arborelle is Sandili... a lilting, musical tongue better suited for song and opera than regular communication. Because of that, most folks speak Dielan as well. Pampered nobles in many realms learn Sandili just to better appreciate the fancy performances put on in that tongue.
• There aren't very many Sandili in Hybris and since most of them are bitter exiles they don't get along well with each other, either. As a result, they're regarded as troublemakers.
• Since Allassarra (a goddess of Nature and Fleshweaving) perished in Korth, her realm has been decaying. As her surviving worshippers grow ever more fanatical and intolerant, small families and clans have been forced to flee to neighboring realms. Several have ended up in Hybris, where, unfortunately, their tribal rivalries have continued. They tend to be insular and secretive and more likely to trust friendly foreign folk than other refugees from Korth.
• A small band of aggressive Korthian Giants came through to Hybris not long ago and tried to demand food and protection money from the locals. Evander came in person and broke their leader's arm with his bare hands. Now the giants are cowed and have become relatively mild and productive townsfolk. They practically revere the Gray Man, probably as a sort of substitute for Allassarra. Korthian folk tend to be nice folks while they have a purpose in the community (they love to feel useful) but they get into trouble if left idle.
• Kabri is a Thalk Angel, one of the few survivors after Arthalkus was slain by whatever lurks in Hybris. He rules over a small clan of Arthalkus worshippers and has made no secret of the fact that he blames Evander for his lord's fall. Officially, Kabri maintains that Arthalkus yet lives and will return if his followers are righteous, but he's the only one of the three surviving angels who still claims that. It's widely felt that Kabri knows darn well that his lord is dead and is merely claiming otherwise to reassure his followers and keep his tiny flock from dwindling further. The thalks are widely disliked and have to live in a fortified enclave, coming out only to trade. Evander has forbidden any further conflict with them and demands that folks trade with them, but he can't make the locals treat them well. The thalks are slowly dwinding and would probably have already broken up if not for Kabri's magical powers supporting them.
• Viali is a female Thalk Angel and probably Kabri's most hated foe. She maintains a home on the opposite side of Hybris from the thalk enclave and works healing magics for money. She is bitter and won't deal with anyone who accidentally or purposefully mentions Kabri, the thalks or their lost lord, but is perfectly civil to everyone else.
• There was a third surviving Thalk Angel after Arthalkus fell, but it's believed that he left Hyrbis and now works as a mercenary in the war. The other two refuse to speak of him, too.
• Hybris has a fairly stable portal to Infernus, one of the very few portals to Infernus still in existence, anywhere. The salamanders send folks through to keep an eye on things, listen to rumors and occasionally serve as mercenary troops in order to keep up their funds. They mostly import metal and carved stone, never anything flammable. Some salamanders become enchanted by the endless variety of life in the other realms (compared to the barren lifelessness of Infernus) and become wanderers. They are looked upon as perverse by their comrades, most of whom prefer their barren realm and are disgusted by all of the tiny creatures that exist in more habitable areas.

Magical Art: Natural Order

The art of the Natural Order is concerned with controlling plants, animals and, to a lesser extent, the weather itself.

Primary Effects:

• Control the actions of animals.
• Temporarily augment or reduce the abilities of animals.
• Influence the natural growth of plants.
• Predict or control the weather in the area.

Secondary Effects (-5):

• Animate and control the actions of plants.
• Control the weather in a very specific and detailed manner, such as making lightning strike a particular person or producing a localized fog.
• Make plants grow in an unnatural way, such as producing thorns on a plant which normally doesn't have them. This process is very slow (the plant needs time to grow the new parts) but tends to be permanent.
• Purging an area or a creature of toxins or diseases.
• Temporarily augment or reduce the abilities of willing, living, intelligent creatures, including their healing rate.

Tertiary Effects (-10):

• Subtly influence the behavior of intelligent living beings by altering their natural urges.
• Temporarily augment or reduce the abilities of an unwilling intelligent creature.
• Banishing Devourers.
• Make animals grow in an unnatural way, such as grafting wings onto an animal which normally wouldn't have them. This process is very slow (they need time to grow into the changes) but tends to be permanent.

What it can't do:

• Control or shape specific inanimate objects.
• Overtly compel intelligent beings.
• Affect magical creatures such as Salamanders, Undines or Golems.

Armor

Okay, armor has two main ratings...

First, the Armor Rating. This is how many points of damage it stops. This ranges from 1 point for tough clothing to 8 for metal armor, possibly up to 12 for enchanted super-armor.

Second is the Coverage Rating. This is how much of your body it covers. Your opponent can take a -X penalty to their attack if they want to bypass your armor, where X is equal to the Coverage Rating.

A breastplate gives a coverage of 2. Helmet +1. Arms +2. Legs +2.

Hm. What should be the bypass penalty for hitting someone in, say, full plate, and bypassing their armor? -10? -5 sounds a bit too easy. Let's go with -10 for right now. Then we can give full plate really crippling weaknesses (1 point of stun per hour worn, -5 to all Agility actions, -10 to swimming and climbing) and folks will still wear it if they have to.

Breastplate 4. Helm +2. Arms +2. Legs +2. Hm. Then a breastplate + helm would have a coverage of -6. That's probably too hard to bypass.

Hm. How about -5 for full-body coverage, -10 if it's particularly seamless.

So, 2 for breastplate, +1 for helm / arms / legs. If you have them all, it's 5. If it's got the "seamless" bonus, it's 10.

Weapon Damage Redux

Okay... swords/blades single die. Axes reduce the die by 1 step, add +1 damage. Spears get reach. Maces get 2 dice for a slightly higher base damage, but fewer crits.

Swords: d4, d6, d8, d12 (crit on 18-20)
Axes: none, d4+1, d6+1, d10+1 (crit on 18-20)
Spears: none, d6, d8, d12 (crit on 19-20, has reach)
Maces: d4, 2d3, 2d4, 2d6 (crit on 19-20)

Yeah, that could work. Totally arbitrary, of course, but what the hey. Good enough for playtesting.

So, with typical longsword damage being d8+2 (average 6.5) and a crit inflicing 2d8+2...

Actually I like the crit bonus being "add one more die". Then axes can be much cheaper than swords, but slightly less effective because their crit bonus isn't as much. Maces can get just as many crits (maybe even one more) but won't see nearly as much bonus. Axes could get more crits... they'd be weaker. Swords and spears would be best in the hands of the truly skilled, because they won't need auto-crits.

Swords: d4, d6, d8, d12 (crit on 18-20)
Axes: none, d4+1, d6+1, d10+1 (crit on 17-20, cheap)
Spears: none, d6, d8, d12 (crit on 19-20, has reach, very cheap)
Maces: d4, 2d3, 2d4, 2d6 (crit on 17-20, very cheap)

Strength requirements: no requirement (however, a negative strength will still reduce the effect), +2 (average), +3 (average if you use both hands), +4.

Strength is +1 when you use both hands.

Crits add another die to your damage done.
Maces have the best average damage, but their crit bonus is poor (they do happen 10% of the time, though).
Axes have normal damage, but get 4% more crits to make up for the fact that their crit bonus is less.
Spears get fewer crits than normal (3% fewer) but get reach and are cheap to make.

Reach: when opponents start out further apart than the longest weapon, person with the longest weapon gets +X to hit their opponent, where X is the difference in lengths. Big-ass spears depend on this. Hm. What about when attacking a target that doesn't have a weapon? Or who is fighting someone else? That doesn't really work. Perhaps range is enough of a bonus, since you can thwack first and at a distance that prohibits counter-strikes.

Crit Types

Perhaps a mix of D20 and Ironclaw. Weapons could offer various "crit types" that you could pick from. Only certain weapons would allow them. Here are some possibilities...

Solid Hit: maximum damage

Stunning Blow: target takes 1d6 Stun, too. Or perhaps, target must make consciousness check right now.

Impale: target takes maximum damage and weapon is left stuck in them if any went through. If you want, you can spend your next action to rip it free and do regular damage (ignores armor) or you can release it and leave it in them. Weapon can be surgically removed but still does 1d3 damage.

Rend: roll damage normally. If any gets through, target's armor is damaged, leaving a gaping hole. Coverage rating reduced by 1.

Precision Hit: double the rolled damage. Could be better than your normal max, could be worse.

Weapon Damage

Okay, bearing in mind that the typical damage bonus is +2...

Blades (crit is x2 damage)

• Dagger: 1d4, crit on 17-20
• Short sword: 1d6, crit on 18-20
• Long sword: 1d8, crit on 19-20
• Two-handed sword: 1d12, crit on 19-20

Clubs & Maces (crit is x1.5 damage)

• Cudgel: 2d3, crit on 18-20
• Mace: 2d4, crit on 19-20
• Two-handed Mace: 2d6, crit on 19-20

Hm. Maybe the crit should be phrased as "bump up the number of dice rolled by +1"? Then a 2H sword would do 2d12 on a crit, while a two-handed mace would have a slightly higher average damage (7 vs 6.5) but would only do 1.5x damage on a crit. That would leave strength off, of course.

Or one die could automatically roll maximum damage.

Axes

• Light Axe: 1d6+1, crit on 19-20
• Battleaxe: 1d8+1, crit on 20
• Two-handed battle-axe 1d10+2, crit on 20

As D20 showed, you can get a nice selection by allowing tradeoffs between:

• Base damage
• Chance of a critical hit
• How much extra a crit does

More crits == more easily controlled weapon. More flexible in combat.
More damage == heavier, more powerful weapon.
More effective crits == pointier, more precise weapon.

So, then... maces and clubs get the fewest crits (although really high skill can still score 'em left and right). Base damage is largely determined by its size... say small, medium, large and two-handed for most weapons. Spears get the best crit bonus, followed by swords, then axes, then maces.

Hm. Perhaps "more crits" should involve the number of pointy/spikey bits instead. Or a rough approximation of how many different ways you can use the weapon (e.g. - stabbing & slashing is better than just stabbing or just slashing).

Spear: +7 damage on crit
Sword: +5 damage on crit
Axe: +4 damage on crit
Ugh. Not sure I like that. Double or triple damage dice sounds better.

Big categories: spears, swords, axes, maces.
Most crits... swords, followed by axes and spears, then maces
Most damage... maces, followed by axes, then swords and spears.
Pointiest... spears, followed by swords, then axes, then maces.

shortsword: 1d6, crit 18-20, x2
spear: 1d6, crit 19-20, x3
axe: 1d6+1, crit 19-20, x2
mace: 2d3, crit 20, x2

How does D20 do it?

axe 1d8 (20, x3).
mace 1d8 (20, x2) [simple weapon]
sword 1d8 (19-20, x2).
scimitar 1d6 (18-20, x2).

bigger weapons tend to keep the same crit and multiplier, only their base damage increases.

Spear... better multiplier, rarer crits
Sword... good multiplier, good crits
Mace... better base damage, lousy multiplier, lousy crits
Axe...

Sword: 1d8, 17-20, x2
Axe: 1d8+1, 18-20, x2
Mace: 1d8+2, 19-20, x2
Spear: 1d8, 18-20, x3

Hm. Problem. Base damage should be based on weight. A two-pound sword hits just as hard as a two-pound mace... well, maybe not... the balance is a little different.

Let's keep it simple at first...

Sword: 1d8, 18-20, x2
Axe: 1d8, 19-20, x3
Spear: 1d8, 20, x4
Mace: 2d4, 19-20, x2

Hmph. I don't quite want D20's interchangable weapons... what about impales as a rule for damage bonus?

Sword: 1d8, x2
Axe: 2d4, x1.5
Spear: 1d8, fewer crits, x3

Eh, x3 just sounds like a bad idea. CoC kept to x2 and x1.5, I think. Actually, it looks like Elfquest used Maximum Damage and Double Roll, with the possibility of getting both. Double damage was the impale, and it left your weapon stuck in the foe.

Nepotism

Xualia has a spoiled daughter-goddess who has control of a minor, occupied realm. Rather than the region of total desolation that her mother generally creates, she's content to just set up a thoroughly decadent matriarchy based around her whims.

The only folks that don't have to obey her or perish are her personal bodyguard... Top-of-the-line Greater Fiends and Lesser Fiends on the verge of becoming greaters. They are charged by her mom with ensuring the daughter's safety even if it means ignoring what she says. So they try to maintain as much discipline as possible, but the corruption seeps in, even there...

The girl is also a fairly minor goddess and barely studied magic enough to manage to achieve godhood. She seems to have little real ambition... oh, she plans to take over the universe someday, but it's clear that she lacks the drive to actually do anything about it.

Elementals

• Salamanders have no god, and are kind of proud of that. They revere the sacred pillar of fire, Illiu, and many worship it, but it doesn't walk around or give orders.
• Undines have two gods: Ahmn and Mna, representing the male and female undines respectively. They are co-rulers and generally rule without overt conflict between each other.
• Illiu the Pillar of Flame is a mana font of great power (+10?). To date, no one has ever attempted to absorb it and lived. In fact, it produces so much heat and flame that it takes Legendary fire adaptation magic just to survive to get close enough to try. The salamander leaders guard the area carefully, lest some foreign god try to reach it.
• Outsiders in both Oceanus and Infernus exist at the sufferance of the locals, since it takes constantly maintained magic to keep normal folks alive there. Their guards are quite practiced at counterspelling adaptation spells, since it's the easiest way to kill foreign intruders.
• Oceanus is pretty much a water world with an unbreathable atmosphere on top and the civilization is all at the bottom of the ocean.
• Infernus is a volcanic wasteland covered in molten lava, with practially no oxygen left in the air and an ambient temperature high enough to kill normal folks.
• Both elementals have to be created with Legendary magic of the appropriate sort. They can't breed in the normal way. Salamanders are created by a council of elders who cast these spells near Illiu. Ahmn and Mna take care of it for undines, with Ahmn making "male" ones and Mna making "female" ones. Gender doesn't mean much for elementals and many assume a kind of genderless form instead.
• Because of the strength of Infernus, the mana level there is generally +1.
• Do they eat anything? They may well have to be like Golems and feed on raw magic. If so, it's a kind of recruiting scheme of magic... they're gifted with innate magic which makes it possible for them to eventually get good enough to make children.
• Both kinds send representatives to other realms to employ spies (keeping an eye on other deities who might try to attack them, however impractical that might be), to purchase goods that they can't manufacture, and to receive training in specialized knowledges (particularly magical arts other than their natural one). Both regard elementals who like the other realms as being weird and kind of unnatural.

My Races

Humans: All 2s.

Lendehar: Strength 0, Agility 1, Knowledge 4, Intuition 3, Drive 1 (total -1).
+5 to rolls to memorize or recall things. +1 to all Lore skills taken.

Brutes: Strength 3, Knowledge 1, Intuition 1, Drive 3.

Fiends: Strength 3, Endurance 3, Knowledge 1, Intuition 1.

Undines: Strength 1, Agility 3. Can only heal in contact with water. Survive in water. Innate Ocean Magic +2. -2 to all other magical arts. Shapeshifting. Vulnerable to fire.

Salamanders: Strength 3, Endurance 1, Intuition 1, Drive 3. Hemorrhage fire when wounded. Always armored (can't survive without it, -4 to Contortionist checks). Survive in fire. Vulnerable to drowning. Innate Inferno Magic +2. -2 to all other magical arts.

Golems: Strength 4, Endurance 4, Agility 1, Intuition 0, Drive 0 (total -1). Doesn't need to eat, breathe or sleep. Innate armor (-4 to Contortionist checks). Heals based on local mana. -4 to all magical arts.

D&D-style races

Just as an exercise, here are the D&D races in Hybris form...

Human: All 2s. +5 character points.
Dwarf: Endurance 3, Charm 1.
Elf: Agility 3, Endurance 1.
Gnome: Endurance 3, Strength 1.
Half-elf: All 2s. Some elven abilities instead of extra points.
Half-orc: Strength 3, Knowledge 1, Charm 1.
Halfling: Agility 3, Strength 1.

Yeah, that's pretty easy. The racial powers/abilities would require statting out as advantages and disadvantages, but most of the D&D races only get a +2/-2 adjustment... which amounts to a +1/-1 change when you get to the actual modifiers. Pretty minor, all things considered.

Martial Arts

Cinematic martial arts (like D&D monks) could be handled by making a special magical art. You'd still use your Brawling and Wrestling skills to take people down, but the spells of this art would boost you.

You'd generally either want to cast a scene-long boost or do a "cast & strike" where you cast a one-off spell (like Super Punch) at the same time as you swing at someone. This art might well have special rules reducing or eliminating the normal penalties for trying to do that sort of thing.

Its effects would cover all of the usual martial arts superhuman stuff... punches that shatter steel, super-jumps, innate armor, et cetera. But it wouldn't be able to boost or alter others except by touch and effects that work on other people would be secondary or tertiary.

Language and Culture

Okay, how do I want to handle languages / area knowledge?

• Two skills, standard cost. Still fairly cheap to acquire (1 point for +1) but very expensive to be really good at. Maybe I could offset the cost by giving free points in it over time.
• One skill, standard cost. A bit cheaper. We lump stuff like knowing the language and what folks there do together... might even be more realistic in a primitive world, where you probably can't just pick up a book on "Conversational Tzunichian".
• A single skill, but a narrow one. Your rating is doubled. So one point gets you a +2. Fifteen points gets you a +10. Very cheap to acquire (compared to other skills; PCs tend to hoard their points, though, and may still not think it's worth it). I'd have to come up with rules for identifying "minor" skills, though.
• Feat/Advantage/Edge. Basically, knowing a language would be a binary thing... you'd either know it or not. Area knowledge might well just be a Streetwise roll.

Attacks of Opportunity & other combat ideas

I'm thinking that attacks of opportunity (the free swing you get at someone who's leaving themselves wide open by turning their back on you or trying to run past you while you have a weapon out) should only work if you're wielding a Light weapon. A Heavy one (thinking Ironclaw-style here) can't be maneuvered into place in time, and so doesn't let you get attacks of opportunity.

Another interesting thought is saying that blunt weapons use Agility as their base stat, but you also get to add 1/2 of your Strength rating to the attack roll. They might use (Agility+Strength)/2 instead.

The Stranger

First, he needs a name. A central character needs a striking and appropriate name, and one that isn't too easy to make a joke out of.

Chacham? Hebrew for "wise one".

Adam? A good, "first man" name, and would give his mysterious background a little Biblical touch.

Adahn? A reference to Planescape as well as a cute name.

Aristeus? Greek for "the best".

Erebus? Erebos? Greek for "the personification of primordial darkness". Perhaps that's a better name for the Devourers? Or for the void they come from.

Evander. Descended from the Greek for "good man".

Jasthai. Semi-greek for "to heal".

Leander. Greek for "lion of a man".

Polemos. War.

Chamenos. Lost.

Hm. Evander looks best so far. It's a reasonable name, still used in modern times. Has an appropriate meaning and sounds a little foreign without being just random syllable slapped together.

Okay, let's start with that. Evander the Gray Man some of them call him. A grim, tough figure with blocky, square features and wild, unkempt hair. His eyes are orange. He's bulky and tough and fabulously strong. His age is unknown. He apparently settled in Hybris at least a couple of centuries ago. A few war refugees found one of the portals and came through; they eventually persuaded him to help bring their friends and family across safely. This started a steady progression... Evander is good at Portal magic and Hybris's wandering portals make it easy to open them up at specific locations in their target realm.

Evander gives the impression of a gruff, powerful warrior who has found himself stuck with all of these pitiful refugees and can't trust anyone else to run things. The portals can't bring across more than a few families at a time, but he feels compelled to rescue what few folks he can.

Hybris Government

Mage guilds love Hybris. It has magic, but no gods. So they can operate freely there... in fact, because they're powerful, they might well consider themselves the effective government.

In a city of war refugees, what kind of government do we have?

First, there's the Stranger, the really powerful warrior who originally led the first refugees here. Prior to that, Hybris had been completely closed and apparently abandoned. Either immortal or just really slow aging, the Stranger still rules a decent chunk of the city by force of arms and personality. He has a brigade of lieutenants who have pledged to his cause and help patrol the area. His rules are simple... don't make trouble and all actual refugees are welcome here, regardless of what side they were on. He insists on a strict neutrality, making it a crime to refuse to do business with someone.

He's afraid that, left on their own, the populace will break up into gangs until the largest one drives the others out. After that, Hybris will no longer be arguably neutral... instead, it'll be on one side or another and either that god will send troops to secure the city or one of the others will invade to wipe it out.

When Arthalcus seized Hybris as his new capitol, the Stranger agreed to publicly support their new lord to prevent bloodshed. When Arthalcus vanished and his whole temple was laid waste, he was quick to renounce that and retook control of the city overnight. A few people speculate that he had a plan all along and picked the spot for Arthalcus's temple... that he knew that there's some terrible Devourer or something else there that would eat the tyrannical deity. The Stranger refuses to comment.

I really need a name for this guy. There's no way he'd go by "Stranger", even if that's my conception of him. Really, he's the equivalent of the main character from Planescape: Torment, now sick of the blood wars. Without a Sigil to live in, he's making his own. A good name. Maybe just Adam. I think he used "Adahn" as his alias a lot... that might be kind of cheesy, though, especially if he resembles the main character in other ways (the belt of skulls will go, though).

Priesthoods aren't too welcome here. They're tolerated, but not loved, and open prostelytizing is seen as "making trouble". They mostly serve their followers and attempt to convert anyone who asks them about their church. In order to encourage that, the churches often offer services based on what sort of magic they can perform most easily. Getting the service often entails sitting through a sermon or other "hard sell". Several churches were established solely to keep an eye on Hybris for their deity, so their leaders tend to be more powerful and influential than you'd expect in a minor, backwater realm.

Basically, churches here were founded to 1) serve believers who fled here, 2) keep an eye on Hybris and lay the groundwork for a potential takeover or 3) keep an eye on the churches of type 2 and make sure that they can't pull it off.

The mage guilds are here because of the lack of gods, mostly. It's a good place for a powerful mage to come, since there aren't any gods here to boss them around. They bring apprentices, take on new ones, and build big, impressive abodes for themselves. The guilds vary as to how much they mess with local government. Some are very insular, and others are constantly meddling. Some pointless but very bitter rivalries exist between some schools, mostly ones that teach very similar arts. You might expect a school of Fire mages to hate Water mages, but they'd probably have more of a rivalry with a school of Heat mages if one existed.

Mind Magic

I see two primary colleges of mental magic. One based on thoughts and one on emotions. They're long-time rivals, founded by archmages who hated each other's guts. I'm thinking like Green & Purple magic before it united into one field.

The thought one has overt spells like paralysis, marionette, thought reading, etc., that are mostly resisted with Willpower.

The emotion college, on the other hand, prefers subtler magics that manipulate the emotions... effects like "Trust me", "Love me", and "Fear me." These are largely resisted with Insight.

They might even be closely related enough that they can cast each other's spells at -5 or -10. Hm. I don't want them to be too closely overlapped... perhaps they can cast each other's primary effects at -10 as a tertiary effect.

The overt house is big on free will and considers subverting someone's opinions to be a high crime. Of course, they're willing to intrude on your privacy with a mind-reading spell, but they don't consider that as bad as making you spill your secrets voluntarily under magical influence.

The covert house is probably a bit more prone to abuse and more subtle and secretive. They scorn actual paralysis and mind-reading as crude and overly violent. It doesn't hurt anyone to shift someone's emotions around a bit.

Hearts & Minds? Gizzard and Liver? They should sound similar, yet reasonably opposed. I don't want it to be impossible for a party to have one of each, or for a single mage to try and learn both.

Magical Art: The Black Art

The Black Art, as it is called, works by calling upon the hungry spirits that occupy the void between the realms. Since those creatures feed on both mana and life-force, they are extremely dangerous to deal with. The Black Art is concerned with calling them forth, commanding them, and banishing them again.

Primary Effects:

• Summoning Devourers.
• Commanding them.
• Binding them into corpses in order to reanimate the body as an undead creature.
• Banishing them back to the void.

Secondary Effects (-5):

• Loosely binding Devourers to a place, person or object so that they produce subtle effects upon it. Living beings may sicken or die, or be gripped by insane rages.
• Forcing material Devourers to become incorporeal or incorporeal ones to form a physical body.
• "Thinning" the barrier between the mortal world and the void so that an area becomes more vulnerable to Devourers and they become easier to summon there.
• Binding one to a physical location or object so that they cannot leave the vicinity.

Tertiary Effects (-10):

• Reducing the mana level in the enviroment by draining it into the void.
• Destroying objects or people by dropping them into the void.
• Enchanting a weapon such that it can hurt incorporeal Devourers.

What it can't do:

• Control or influence any creature which is actually alive.
• Control or influence ghosts, souls or other true spirits.

Skills

Strength: Laboring, Wrestling
Endurance: Hiking, Swimming
Agility: Acrobatics, Climbing, Contortionist, Melee Combat*, Riding, Stealth
Perception: Awareness, Ranged Combat*, Tracking
Intuition: Magic*, Psychology, Sixth Sense
Charm: Haggling, Persuade, Seduction
Knowledge: Craft, Lore*, Survival
Drive: Leadership, Resolve

Strength and Endurance add to your basic HP (in fact, it can be equal to your Toughness rating). Drive adds your Resolve skill, which enables you to keep going despite running out of HP (it also enables you to maintain more spells simultaneously). Agility, of course, has a big effect in melee as well as covering all of the general athletic feats that adventurers need.

Here, Endurance seems like the dump stat. No skills except for long-distance travel and swimming. Especially if most poisons go off of Toughness. Actually, Endurance probably works for healing checks. And 5+Endurance could be your "critical wound threshold".

Interesting idea: healing rolls are Endurance + Regeneration + 2d10... if you don't have Regeneration, you roll Endurance + 1d10 and botches are still backslides. Probably too crippling. Your base recovery might well be your Endurance rating in HP per X, though. If your Endurance is negative, you recover 1 point per X-Endurance.

Stats

I like the idea of having every stat contribute to one of the standard saving throws. The difficulty is finding one that Charm applies to, since it's purely social and I decided to divorce Willpower from it (the genre is full of charming, but weak-willed, con-artist types). How about a social save, though? For resisting subtle spells and con artistry? I'd need an 8th stat, though.

Social Save: Intuition and Charm. Makes sense. Intuition works for sensing that someone's betraying you, and Charm works because you have experience with this sort of thing.

Willpower Save: Knowledge and Drive. Drive, definitely. Knowledge is a little bit iffier, though. But before, honestly, Intuition was kind of iffy, too. Hm.

Reaction Save: Agility & Perception. Sensing something coming and reacting fast enough to do something about it. Could also be Intuition & Perception and drop the physical movement part entirely. But I don't really like that idea.

Toughness Save: Strength and Drive or Strength and Constitution? Strength and Size only works if there's a separate stat for Size and I'm thinking that it won't be a "true" stat since you can't increase it... it's based on your race.

Save like things I could use...

Noticing Lying: Intuition & Charm.
Noticing Danger: Perception & Intuition.
Toughness: Strength & Endurance.
Willpower: Knowledge & Drive.
Dodge/Reaction: Perception & Agility.

So, if I dump Noticing Danger, I've got all 8 used.

What all are the stats used for?

Strength: damage, strength checks, hit points, one or two skills. Possibly some style of attacks (ones that use brute force).

Endurance: hit points, endurance checks, one or two skills. Healing.

Charm: general charm/reaction rolls, several skills.

Knowledge: lots of skills, particularly magical arts.

Perception: ranged attacks, several skills.

Drive: one or two skills.

Intuition: a few skills.

Agility: many skills, dodging.

So far my "dump stats" look like Drive and Intuition. Charm/Knowledge could be dumped for fighter types, Charm/Strength for mages. Everyone wants Perception and Endurance and probably Agility.

What would Drive and Intuition be good for? Well, I can see several uses for both involving magic. In fact, I could take magical arts away from Knowledge and call them all Intuition skills... on the grounds that no matter how smart you are, you can't work magic without being sensitive to invisible forces.

Drive also helps determine how many spells you can maintain simultaneously, so it'll help there, too. As well as impacting your magic save and leadership. That might leave Knowledge as the dump stat, though. Hm. Perhaps, Ars Magica style, I might allow you to substitute Knowledge under certain circumstances? Or add both? I'll have to think about it.

Hm. How about...
Willpower (save vs overt mind stuff): Drive & Intuition.
Insight (save vs subtle stuff): Charm & Knowledge.
Reaction (reflex/initiative): Perception & Agility.
Toughness (fort): Strength & Endurance.

Hm. Well, this makes mages the best at resisting willpower stuff, but not so hot at resisting subtle stuff. How about putting Intuition back in Insight?

Willpower: Drive & Knowledge.
Insight: Charm & Intuition.
Reaction: Perception & Agility.
Toughness: Strength & Endurance.

Rules Writeup

I'm thinking that maybe I should set up a new Rules/Setting Blog for Hybris. I can dump formal rules there, like I was doing for Nuclear Beasts. I'd love to set up a system where I could just dump it to a webpage, but I'm not sure of a good way to do that... A wiki could work, I suppose, although those tend to be ugly.

If I had an easy way to edit the webpages via the net, that might work best... I want to be able to edit it over a browser. It's annoying. I don't want to have to use freakin' vi to edit stuff. But I don't really want all of the additional crap on the page and inability to cross-reference pages that you get with a blog. Maybe I should write all of the entries in a blog, then assemble them into a full webpage later... but I'd still like to be able to edit it with reasonable ease.

Tried Comcast's "edit your own home page" service, but it's incredibly lame. Useless for anything I'd want to do.

Shadows/Demons/Whatevers

I do probably want a more mysterious kind of magic. Something to do with malign spirits from beyond space & time, or at least, from a particularly weird dimension.

Basically, a good fantasy system should probably include undead, evil spirits, et cetera. Sure, there's plenty of room for villainous mortals (and we have the mortals-turned-into-monsters appearing as Fiends and Brutes), but it's kind of nice to support "formless horrors" and such.

Their existence would support monstrous undead (you summon one of these mindless, consuming spirits to animate the corpse). It would support terrible guardian spirits (although fleshweaving some sort of magically sustained critter would work, too). And plots about folks trying to unleash primal horrors into the realms.

A sort of magic that even the mad gods generally won't touch... they aren't stupid enough. It could be a simple art. It would cover animating corpses, statues, whatever... all by drawing spirits from beyond (or the "Outer Dark", as Conan would put it) and putting them in place.

The spell art could be called something like "The Black Art".

Trivial stuff calls up really minor spirits that can't do much except act as guards or make people nervous (trivial mental effects). Minor spirits can be used to animate corpses and make zombies and skeletons. Major spirits make superior ones... they can be slightly superior in every way or get a big boost to one area like super strength or ultra-speed.

Dramatic and Legendary spirits can create bodies for themselves out of shadow-stuff and are very dangerous to summon. Legendary ones are the sort that you have to negotiate with rather than command... like alien gods.

They do not use magic. They're incapable of it. But they can produce weird effects that are similar. Hm. Maybe they're manavores, like many magical creatures. That would make them automatic enemies of the gods, since they'd want to eat the gods. If a shadow eats a mana source, it probably becomes something strange and different and then fades out of our reality, taking the mana source with it.

In general, summoning, controlling and banishing them is all the same difficulty. They eat life-force and mana and aren't really intelligent so much as cunning. Even the most potent/intelligent of them have trouble communicating with living beings in any meaningful fashion.

Magical Art: Fleshweaving

The art of Fleshweaving concerns itself with altering the physical forms of living beings, often in permanent ways. Only the most skilled of practitioners can manage its greatest feat... the creation of new forms of life.

Primary Effects:

• Repairing damage to living beings.
• Inflicting damage on living beings.
• Altering someone's appearance.
• Altering someone's stats.

Secondary Effects (-5):

• Diagnosing and treating illnesses and poisons.
• Analyzing the nature of unknown creatures.

Tertiary Effects (-10):

• Performing Primary or Secondary effects on plants, fungi or other living non-animals.

What it can't do:

• Grant life to inanimate objects.
• Turn one kind of flesh into another (e.g.- turn a human into a plant).
• Affect non-living material, including the flesh of the undead.

Rules

Okay, I still need to fill in the blanks.

Rather than switch to base zero stats, I'm thinking I may stay with base 2. That way, the "stat+stat+2d10" saving throws still work. It'll also keep stats level with "minimal training". You'll have to be pretty awful at something before you have to start using negative numbers.

Defense ratings: I'm thinking that the difficulty to hit someone will be a set rating based on how they defend. Actually, it could easily be opposed rolls, too. I might need to try both. The 3 defenses are Dodge (Agi+Per), Parry (Agi+Weapon Skill) or Block (Per+Shield Skill+Shield Size). Parry and Block can only be used against attacks from the appropriate side, so if someone flanks you you'll have to use Dodge. If we use constant target numbers, we'll just add 10 to each rating. I ought to playtest both methods. Def+10 could certainly be faster... I just don't know if it's worth the trouble. I'll also have to decide whether or not defenders win ties.

Crits: if you beat the target number by 10+ or roll a natural 20, you get a crit. In combat, some weapons will crit on values lower than 20 as well... a small, quick and easily controlled weapon might crit on 17-20 (10%) instead of 20 (1%).

Damage: damage is a random roll (ala D&D, CoC and innumerable other systems) that gets doubled on a crit. Since most people have a strength of +2, it'll be rare for a hit to do less than 3 points.

Ties: if both folks get the same value, how about a 1/2 damage hit? Could be important for big, powerful foes.

Tradeoffs: I'm figuring on rating weapons in, say, 3 categories and using tradeoffs to make them different. Is the weapon big, penetrating and/or durable? Big bumps up the damage dice a bit, but requires a higher minimum STR. Small gives you +1 crit range. Penetrating is for blades and such... Hm. How about big, expensive, penetrating and/or durable? Expensive would allow me to have some weapons that are just plain better quality. Anyway, I want some tradeoffs... the simplest will probably just be that really small and light weapons crit on 17+, medium ones on 18+, heavy ones on 19+ and huge ones on 20. That's good enough to start. Damage dice will probably start at d6 and go up (d4 could be used for improvised weapons and fists). Rules for blunt weapons (if the target's armor isn't double the damage done, target takes 1 stun, too). Those are still up in the air, but I would like for maces to work differently from swords.

Armor: gives penalties to certain skills. Probably reduces Agi too. Note that certain combat techniques depend more on Str than Agi, so heavy weapon & shield wouldn't be penalized. Ratings will probably be in even numbers... that would make it easier to deal with things that ignore 1/2 armor. Dunno. Basically, I just want there to be circumstances where you'd rather be in heavy armor and other times when you'd rather be unencumbered.

Healing: roll 2d10+Str+Drv (or +Con if I use that stat) vs damage taken to heal 1 point. Crit failure makes you take 1d4 instead. Crit heals 2. Magic can grant +X points of healing per day or maybe just big bonuses to the roll. I'm not sure I want folks to be able to be wounded so badly that magic can't save them... reduces the survivability of PCs. There should also be a "delayed" stabilization spell that saves dying folks from bleeding to death (ala Lazarus Heart).

Ranged weapons use Per+Weapon Skill and their damage is often set (excess strength doesn't increase it). Cranks & pulleys let you load crossbows whose STR requirement is much too high for you, but increase the reload time.

Movement: um... haven't really thought about it. Let's see... I could use a simplified flat rate (where some races get bonuses and are thus always faster than others). I could have a Running skill so that you roll Agi+Running to outrun someone and your base move might depend on it too. Or it could be a stat. Or it could just depend on Agi (probably the easiest option). Size would probably increase it, as big races tend to be faster than you'd expect.

Magical Art: Harmony

Harmony magic is primarily concerned with healing and protection. Its practicitioners often follow a lofty moral code which forbids them to spill blood and demands that they offer aid to innocents in need. In practice, of course, many Harmony mages fall well short of that idealistic goal, but the credo is still widely taught.

Primary Effects:

• Speeding up the natural healing processes.
• Neutralizing diseases and poisons.
• Protecting targets from harm.
• Stabilizing dying people.

Secondary Effects (-5):

• Calming people who are in the grips of strong emotion.
• Detecting hostility and other "negative" emotions.
• Restoring lost capabilities, like curing blindness.
• Damaging undead creatures.

Tertiary Effects (-10):

• Lulling people to sleep or rendering them incapable of hostile action.
• Identifying deliberate lies.
• Banishing hostile spirits.

What it can't do:

• Affect or detect actual good or evil.

Resistance Tests

I'm thinking that to resist a spell you'll generally roll Stat + Stat + 2d10 vs 15. On a success, you take partial effect. On a critical success, you resist it completely.

However, your roll is penalized by how many points your opponent made their casting check by. So if they hit you with a Minor spell (diff 15) and roll a 19, you'll have to make a resistance roll at -4. So, the more powerful the spell that a mage chooses to cast, the easier it is to resist... but the more potent the effect it'll have if it works.

It'll probably take a bit of playtesting to see if 15 is a reasonable base difficulty to resist magic.

On the upside (for mages, anyway), the "partial effect" of a more potent spell might be just two levels reduced... so a Trivial or Minor spell that gets resisted goes away. A Major spell that gets resisted has a Trivial effect. A Legendary spell that gets resisted has a Major effect... and if you completely resist it, it might still inflict a Trivial effect.

In fact, we could say that for every full 5 points you make your resistance check by, the spell drops another step, dunno. It might be a pain to come up with reduced effects for all spells, though. Also, we might give a +1 or +2 casting bonus for resisted spells that don't have a partial effect... or give an extra penalty to that resistance roll (that would probably be better).

Magical Art: Inferno

Inferno magic concerns itself with Fire. Practicioners commonly refer to it as an "elemental" art, and consider Fire to be one of the basic building blocks of reality.

Primary Effects:

• Producing flame out of thin air.
• Controlling and shaping fire.
• Protecting things from the damaging effects of fire.
• Sensing the presence of open flames.

Secondary Effects (-5):

• Producing heat without light or light without heat.
• Extinguishing fires.
• Countermagic vs Ice or Water magic.
• Communicating through an open flame (making your image appear and speak in a particular fire).
• Enabling creatures to survive in a flame-filled environment despite extreme temperatures and lack of oxygen.
• Shrouding someone with an aura of flame that surrounds but doesn't hurt them.
• Cooling an area by draining away heat.

Tertiary Effects (-10):

• Creating fires that don't act like normal fires. For example, ones that only burn a particular substance or which don't consume anything at all.
• Scrying regular events by staring into an open flame.
• Transforming someone's body into a being of living flame.
• Healing burns.

What it can't do:

• Anything that involves metaphorical rather than actual fire.