The ninth session of Carrion Crown
Derek @seizethegm
Marty @mhooie
Joe @joe_rpg
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Music is “Dark Times” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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The FASERIP System has a great way of dealing with Battlesuits and high tech heroes in the High Tech Heroes origin option! Barracuda is a concept I return to in different settings with an underwater specialist, including a Shadowrun build of him but that is a different series of posts. Here, I am going to connect the story to some of the other stories in the previous iteration, and reflect how the 1990’s would chain origins off established characters.
Origin: High Tech. High Tech Heroes are just what they sound like – characters with powers hat come from equipment and tech exclusively. This could include characters who use magical equipment but otherwise it is an important distinction of all being external to the character. The range of ranks for their Abilities are much narrower range with the maximum of Remarkable. They do however get the advantages of better resources, the battlesuit opportunity to modify abilities, a two rank increase in Reason, and more. I have a fondness for them but I would doodle battlesuits for hours as kid.
Primary Statistics: As a reminder, this is the FASERIP of the FASERIP System – Fighting; Agility; Strength; Endurance; Reason; Intuition; and Psyche. The following shows the rolls, the Rank, and the Rank Number for Chimera
Not bad for a normal human. Absolutely brilliant and potentially one of the top minds in the world but a physically rather normal character. I am going to go ahead and show what happens with Battlesuits. If a High Tech Hero has the Body Alteration – Defensive power of Body Armor, it can be made into a Battlesuit that hosts all of the powers. The Battlesuit also provides for modifications on the FASE Abilities so you have a different Health in your suit. There is another column to roll that provides these shifts and here is what the Barracuda suit has:
The suit very clearly has some response increases and is plugged into the neural pathways of our operator and it reduces the fatigue generated but is not built for lifting. Definitely a recon and exploration suit.
Secondary Statistics: These include Health and Karma that are generated by adding FASE and RIP respectively, Popularity that is built from a standard base with some optional changes from the character’s history, and Resources which starts at Typical and is modified by a random roll.
Special Abilities are rolled to create a range of powers, talents, and contacts. There is a minimum number available, but a character may sacrifice Resource ranks for additional powers, talents, or contacts up to the maximum shown.
Powers – A roll of 27 means a result of “3/4”. This is one of the times I am going to choose the power list partially to fit the overall theme and partially to show off the Battlesuit option:
One thing we have not yet discussed is how Body Armor works – If an attack does not exceed the Body Armor (or Force Field) rank when it attacks, it does no damage. There are special modifications that can happen, like energy attacks have an inherent ability to ignore 10 points of body armor and some talents to let you get around them, but it just flat out stops the damage. Life Support and Swimming make sense and if there had been more powers to start, enhanced senses would make the clear choice.
Talents – a Roll of 81 means a result of “3/4” so at least 3 Talents, which are trained abilities, and up to a maximum of 4 if Resource ranks are sacrificed. I’m not going to sacrifice any resources and will stick with 3. As a High Tech hero, one Talent MUST be a Scientific or Professional Talent. Since I have already been choosing items for the Powers, I’ll continue that here to show a more designed result.
Barracuda isn’t that great in a fight, with his limited strength but instead of worry about making him more competent with Talents, I wanted to lean into the backstory for why he builds, repairs, and is kept around in the Science side of things. Engineering seems to be the best fit for him while Tinkering/Repair provides an even better bonus and his specific knowledge of Oceanography makes sense for an underwater explorer. Yes, I realize this has some similarities to Marvel’s existing character Stingray as I am getting this finished up, but c’est la vie.
Contacts – a Roll of 62 means a result of “2/4” and as I don’t want to sacrifice any Resources, that will be 2 Contacts. One of those contacts must be the organization somehow related to the High Tech powers and equipment. The overall organization, is going to have some shadowy name that sounds like it could be a governmental or military black book operation – Section Gamma. For the other one, I am connecting his history to the Atomic Avenger from when we looked at Mutants & Masterminds so Dr. Chandler, Atomic Avenger, will be the second.
Weakness – Using the optional rules from the Ultimate Powers Book, a good achilles heel for a hero is always useful. For Barracuda, though, it is mostly covered by being a Battlesuit and a not overly powerful Battlesuit. I will still give him a bit of a psychological response to sensory overload partially from his traumatic experience in the origin story. It isn’t an attempt to model Post Traumatic Stress, but at the Judge’s discretion, a Psyche FEAT will be needed to avoid being overwhelmed.
Life always came easily to Peter Siden. His teacher’s called him a once in a generation mind – a child prodigy who could piece together the classroom assignments without so much as a second thought. It made school far too easy and far too short. It meant that he was a bored teenager and bored teenagers get into trouble.
One way to solve some of the problems of a rebellious youth, even one who has an IQ that is far superior to his teachers, parents, and mentors, is to send the kid off to learn some discipline. In all fairness, it was Peter who made the decision after the he turned 18 to enlist. He saw that making improvised pranks and science experiments at home wasn’t going to get him anywhere but trouble and the new battlesuits that were flying through the air of the 1980s inspired him. The military saw immediately that it had a useful and talented person. It was indeed an opportunity to work on the burgeoning military-industrial complexes battlesuit programs. Peter was never the most physically capable of enlisted men but he was fit enough to make it through basic training and then the military needed something to do with him. He was sent asea to work on the Navy’s submarines both because he was a skilled mechanic and because it meant there were fewer ways for him to get into trouble underwater.
After one of his tours onboard the submarine, Peter was sent as a liaison and researcher to a joint Defense-Energy project here Dr. Anthony Chandler was working to develop an advanced self-contained battlesuit. Peter wasn’t the only person dispatched from the military to contribute and keep an eye on Dr. Chandler, and to his surprise it was the first time that he was around a group of people who were as smart as he was and as out of sorts as he was. While his love of the ocean and underwater wasn’t as immediately useful, his expertise in life support systems helped make several improvements along the way.
The history of the Atomic Avenger is mostly known now, though the public thinks it was grad students, not military engineers involved, but the sabotage of the lab resulted in an explosion. One of the other assistants, seduced by power or possibly money, stole a working version of the suit in the process to become Fireflight while Dr. Chandler escaped to stop him in the original Atomic Avenger suit. Peter woke up in a private room and was debriefed by Section Gamma.
Section Gamma has never made things entirely transparent about where their funding comes from, but the crisp look and feel of a military program is apparent and his paychecks kept flowing into a bank account far more rewarding than before. Most of the research was lost in the explosion, almost entirely about the power generation protocols Dr. Chandler used, but several rough frames were saved and Peter set about creating a battlesuit that fit him and the ocean – Barracuda was effectively born.
Section Gamma has been busy in the past few years, with Gun Bunny falling into their laps and to avoid the interstellar incident it would create keeping it quiet as well as the mystical golem like Brique. Peter was given the leadership role to train them and make sure that if needed, they would be ready for “whatever task we have for you, Mr. Siden.” You already heard how Chimera crashed into the warehouse on the docks where they were and not Nightblade became a real thing at that point…. But as the New Millenium Patriots repeatedly show up in their sights, Peter has grown suspicious of his benefactors in Section Gamma and what secrets they hold.
Nightblade and FASERIP overview here
Barracuda Character Sheet here.
Character Designs done on Hero Machine 3
This evening we sat down and chatted about the new Kickstarter going on from Evil Hat.
We had in addition to the normal miscreants we also had Sophia Lagace and Ed Turner.
FATE of Cthulhu takes a unique look at the Cthulhu mythos in role-playing and provides tables a new way to approach the existential horror of Great Old Ones rising through a science-fiction lens and 5 different takes on trying to avert the apocalypse!
You can find the Kickstarter here.
You can find Evil Hat here.
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And you can find Ed online at the following: Twitter; Website
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Show- Email, Instagram, Patreon, Twitter, Facebook
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As we keep looking over the characters possible from the Marvel FASERIP system, we now turn to Mutant origins. Akasha is a character that I didn’t have any inkling for before rolling up the random results and fitting him into this world. Clearly, there are some kinds of powers that have shown up as implied by Autobahn’s story in the previous write up. I looked at Akasha to fill the role of holding the team onto their good origins and also having a quasi outsider stance.
Origin: Mutant. Mutants carry a lot of baggage in the system, partially because this models the 1980s Marvel comic books of mutants being feared and hated. This origin includes the inborn powers that are not a result of being an alien and so can be quite broad when using it in different contexts. Each Origin has a different table for the range for their statistics which helps create some balance – Mutants use the same chart as Altered Humans as described in Chimera’s write up. As a Mutant, Akasha will get an extra power up to a maximum of 5 powers, his Endurance will be increased by one rank but his resources will be reduced by one rank; his Popularity starts at 0 and he has a harder time gaining popularity; and the powers should be mostly inborn and can be affected by devices and powers about mutant abilities.
Primary Statistics: As a reminder, this is the FASERIP of the FASERIP System – Fighting; Agility; Strength; Endurance; Reason; Intuition; and Psyche. The following shows the rolls, the Rank, and the Rank Number for Chimera
That’s a pretty impressive set of statistics! I like that the Fighting and Agility are so high as this means that Akasha will have a lot of Health and I like that the hopeful positive person is hard to put down in a fight.
Secondary Statistics: These include Health and Karma that are generated by adding FASE and RIP respectively, Popularity that is built from a standard base with some optional changes from the character’s history, and Resources which starts at Typical and is modified by a random roll.
Special Abilities are rolled to create a range of powers, talents, and contacts. There is a minimum number available, but a character may sacrifice Resource ranks for additional powers, talents, or contacts up to the maximum shown.
Powers – A roll of 53 means a result of “3/4” but as a mutant, Akasha will start with 4. Using the random tables, here is what results we get:
I don’t like that second Energy Control. It seems out of place. I am going to replace it with a different power:
That fits better for a cohesive theme in the power set. Air Control provides one free power stunt to start, so I am going to go with Flight so that Akasha can fly about especially as an invisible trouble maker. The overall power levels of these powers are low, but that also means that it will be much easier in advancement to even them up as going from a starting Good (8) to an Excellent (16) is about the same amount of karma as it takes for a starting Monstrous (63) to get to Monstrous (65). That also balances out some of the rather exceptional rolls for Primary Abilities we had!
Talents – a Roll of 27 means a result of “2/5” so at least 2 Talents, which are trained abilities, and up to a maximum of 5 if Resource ranks are sacrificed. Using the random tables, the results are:
Acrobatics is helpful since Akasha has no armor or other ability to soak damage, unless he learns some power stunts later, so the +1CS to evasion and dodging is helpful. Chemistry … okay. He needs a day job and being a low level chemist works.
Contacts – a Roll of 22 means a result of “1/4” so a single Contact up to a maximum of 4. Someone friendly to Akasha, but for the fun of character development, and in the spirit of comic books, it will be a contact only for his Secret Identity who is unaware of his heroics and may not support him if they knew. His mentor from college sounds like a good one. A Professor bugging him to get to graduate school or do more with his life… actually his low resources make a good case to be a graduate assistant and work with the Chemistry Talent.
Weakness – Using the optional rules from the Ultimate Powers Book, a good Achilles heel for a hero is always useful. Darkforce or shadow energies should be his downfall. It is a good oppositional set up that works well in comic books! This is an energy allergy or weakness so his powers don’t work against it creating the classic light versus dark set up.
Navin’s parents were good people and they raised their son to be a good person. Navin grew up knowing that his parents wanted not only the best for him but the best for all of the world, even if they kept a secret or two from him. What good parents wouldn’t keep something about the world back from their kids?
One thing they skipped over, though, was that Navin came from a long line of powered individuals and that that history carried its own weight. The world was still trying to make sense of what was or was not true – powers that originated before Doughboy just lead to questions and distrust. To what extent did our past get shaped by these powers, and to what extent are they even human? Being alone in the 90s in the U.S. saw a great deal of opportunity for Navin’s parents, but also a great deal of stress. They constantly fought between the idea of hiding because of their past but also establishing their identity – an immigrant’s dilemma.
The one thing they did not question was the way they encouraged and pushed Navin to get an education. Education was the silver bullet, it was what would let Navin make his own path and way. Navim was bright, maybe not the brightest in his class but diligent and applied himself. He was in many ways a leader in his high school, and college proved no exception. Sure, he may have had his own moments like Gyges, even Plato asked what an invisible man would do, but he was by far a good person.
The problem is that Navin is restless and unsure. He could lead his students, make friends, and was otherwise a character almost from central casting playing sports, studying, being well liked … but his hidden powers gnawed at him. Instead of taking his undergraduate work in chemistry and going out into the wide world, he decided to stay in school and prolong having to make that choice. He became a graduate assistant, enrolled in post-graduate work, and instead of sleeping started to practice with his powers.
Dumb luck can only described what happened next – He was on the docks, practicing flight and pushing the winds around when the New Millenium Patriots cashed through the building across the docks. Chasing Chimera, they had managed to make a bigger mess of things then they wanted as the warehouse they smashed had a trio of powered individuals ready to leap to Chimera’s aide. Barracuda, Brique, and Gun Bunny wasted no time laying into the attacking NMP Blanks. Navin couldn’t stand by – the call to adventure roused in him … and he joined the fray.
Christened Akasha afterwards, he has been working with Nightblade to opposed the NMP and other factions at the behest of whoever is giving Barracuda his instructions … and funding. They have some ties to the college Navin still attends, but Dr. Simonson is getting suspicious. Akasha is the voice of moderation and reason often, somewhat of an “All-American” kid in their oddball bunch and that sometimes leaves him feeling more alone than ever before in his life.
Nightblade and FASERIP overview here
Akasha Character Sheet here.
Character Designs done on Hero Machine 3
Regency Fantasy, Military, Political,
Thrusting the party into a larger conflict is often the nature of a campaign. Dragons, deities, and ancient legends take work and effort to defeat. But what of conflicts more on the mortal scale? When nations wage war the party can find themselves acting as agents of the crown; spying, being diplomats, or just trying to be disruptive to supply lines. Where they fit in during a country’s conflict can lead them to glory, or doom.
Baroness Honora Bierkas
Person
The land bearing the title of Bierkas has been in the family’s hands for eight generations. As the kings and queens have passed the throne, the Barons of Bierkas have served them with their magical talents. Honora was no exception to the family’s legacy and spent her youth mastering the arcane arts at the capital before returning home. Now, decades later she sits at the head of the line, oathbound Baroness to protect her the sworn land her family has been granted and to protect the region from those looking to invade.
Baroness Honora Bierkas is a strong woman who upholds the nation’s traditional values. Loyalty to her oath, her station, and the schooling has brought her prestige along the eastern annex of the kingdom’s border. The Bierkas region profits from her knowledge of the seasons, her instinct in recognizing the mystical properties of the lands her forebearers protected, and now profits from her green craft in the woods. Many a spy has been caught from her tree sentries, and more spirits of the wood join her cause daily.
But the Barony lies far from the capital and the wonders of the court. Though the Bierkas are loyal and good servants of the crown, Honora’s influence ends at the territory of the Earl guarding the border to the north and south of Bierkas. This stifled growth has prevented the region from growing as large and influential as the Baroness’ dreams, and rumors have sprung up that the magic the Baronness weaves into the land is to do more than just protect the kingdom from invaders. Some say she’s bonding it to her entire line so that it can never be taken from her.
Fitting Baroness Honora Bierkas In
The Baroness of Bierkas is a watchful ruler. She’s very protective of her lands and her people. Though she does not have the royal ear, she does everything she can to protect her family’s investment in the land. This includes creating points of synergy within the region to focus her and her family’s magical power. Consider any building of importance to the region as giving Honora and any other Bierkas a natural boost to appropriate magical skills and attributes. Honora is concerned with anyone coming to her Barony from the capital, and will take great measures to ensure visitors will be guided to her estate. Once in her possession, she will draw out their reasons for their interest in her lands before allowing them to proceed. Royal decrees do not impress her this far out from the capital.
The War of the Glass Dragon
Conflict
A war of succession, the conflict between the two siblings of house Coelmunr began when the elder child gifted their parents with the Dragon of the Midnight, a sculpture crafted from raw mage stone. It’s shimmering glass like surface hid the gift’s true purpose; to serve as a magical focal point for mages loyal to the elder child’s claim of succession. When the statue ruptured in the middle of the high court, dozens of the loyalists to the crown perished, as did several of the elder Coelmunr’s parents and several siblings. Only the youngest child survived by being ferried out of the country. Both children bear their father’s name of Nazerai.
Now the younger Nazerai stands with a foreign army at his back ready to invade the kingdom. Lords within the realm are taking sides and territories are being accounted for. The conflict promises to be violent and disrupt the lives of the average citizen. Already the king has ordered all magic users with elemental prowess to the capital to join the ranks of the new rifled soldiers. Mystical goods for aid and growth are being rationed as the new medics began to brew their tinctures for the expected injuries and death of war. It is said even the demons of the dark realms have inched closer, eager to cross the borders of the world with the growing smell blood and conflict.
Fitting The War of the Glass Dragon In
This is a conflict of two advanced powers clashing in open warfare. It’s a time of rising technologies during the age of the line infantry and smooth bore firearms mixing with the ancient arcane arts that once were the determined power in the land. The players, especially those with magical talent, will be expected to join sides in the conflict if they’re in any way involved with the politics or business of the kingdom. Magical characters that show combat capabilities may be granted small titles and land if they promise to serve the kingdom and aid in protecting the new line soldiers. Conjurers and elementalists are specifically sought out as the barrier between the realms have thinned after the destruction of the Glass Dragon artifact, and demons and elementals can make quick work of those not gifted with magic.
Shards of the Wyrm
Thing, Artifact
They say the Glass Dragon rested above the throne of the first kings, a symbol of their control of the supernatural world and ability to bring peace to the kingdom. But like the names of those kings the sculpture passed into myth and legend for over a millennium. When it was discovered deep in the crypts of the fallen god many doubted it was the genuine article, but it was enough to convince the great lords who sought to change which king was sitting on the throne. When the statue shattered and killed all those who claimed the crown that day, its legend became clear as the protection is offered was lost to the land.
The barrier between worlds is thin and portals can be easily opened to draw in denizens of other realms. Now these portals linger once opened, and creatures not bound to a summoner are slipping in. That is, unless the ritual involves a shard of the Wyrm. The shards still hold properties of the Glass Dragon, and can be used to seal gateways between the realm and the others. Further, as embodiments of the magic of the kingdom, they offer spikes in magical energy to those who have called these lands home for generations. In the hands of Barons, Earls, Dukes, and Counts, even those without the gift of magic in their line find themselves touched by the gifts of the mystical realm.
The trade of the shards has begun to get violent. Mages seek them to adorn themselves with the shards as rings, pendants, or tokens on the ends of wands and staves. The market has grown dangerous and even the most cut throat thieves have begun to avoid it. Only the desperate or blind still take work involving the remains of the statue.
Fitting Shards of the Wyrm In
The remains of the sculpture are powerful. Their innate ability to lock out a region from extra-planar beings alone makes them a useful magical token. But the power they grant someone of the blood of the kingdom is far more dangerous. If the players are foreigners to the land, letting them have a shard is a good way of drawing them into the events of the kingdom. They’ll find themselves hounded after by mages and members of the court looking to gain power or prestige from possession of the artifacts. Play up the insane drive these people have for the tokens; make the players fear the idea of letting it be known to others they have even the smallest shard. If the players are members of the kingdom, be careful how much of the sculpture you let them have. The shards are powerful in the hands of those of the blood, especially royal blood.
Using Shattered Crown
The Whole Block
The Shattered Crown scenario is a about a bloody conflict of succession between siblings of the line of Coelmunr. The event that started the war occurred ten years ago, with the destruction of the Glass Dragon sculpture within the main court. Many great houses lost their leaders, and the destruction of the literal and symbolic protector of the realm has had terrible repercussions. The barrier between the worlds is thin, and a bloody black market has been born with the trade of the shards that might help seal the land again. The distant nobility, the Barons, Counts, and Earls along the border, deal with the initial invaders as well as serving host to the standing army of King Nazerai the Fourth. These men and women have become desperate as the crown’s conflict destroys their lands and brings ruin to their fortunes.
It’s a good place for adventurers to find work. Both sides of the conflict will have use for spies, diplomats, and soldiers. Both sides also want the shards of the Glass Dragon to help prove their claim to the throne. Setting a campaign around getting their pieces could serve as a good plot device wrapped around the war. Keep in mind this campaign is designed to be set during a regency era campaign. Knights and robed wizards have given way to musketeers, privateers, and nobility wielding arcane arts under formal doctrines.
The eighth session of Carrion Crown
Derek @seizethegm
Marty @mhooie
Joe @joe_rpg
If you want to you can also help us out here Support Me on Ko-fi
Music is “Dark Times” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Support us on Patreon as well.
Normally, you look at the leaders first, but for this Card Catalog, as I am making one of each of the kinds of origins for the FASERIP system, I am just going to go down the order they are listed! Chimera is a character that ended being a really good connection to some of the larger metaplot of the world you have seen in the previous write up with Mutants & Masterminds and showed a classic Altered Human Origin. In working on my 1990s design and feel, I made sure to have a character like this lacking a costume, but with fatigues and bandoleers. Expect more pouches moving forward.
Origin: Altered Human. Altered Humans are one of the broader origin types in the FASERIP book. While the obvious origin includes things like human experiments it can also be anyone who was a normal human who came in contact with something larger – magical training or weapons, cyborgs, and more can all be Altered Humans. Each Origin has a different table for the range for their statistics which helps create some balance. Altered Humans can range from Feeble to Amazing to start with 60% of the potential results ranging from Good to Remarkable. As an Altered Human, Chimera will be able to raise any one primary ability by one Rank at character generation. The other origins have more complications.
Primary Statistics: As a reminder, this is the FASERIP of the FASERIP System – Fighting; Agility; Strength; Endurance; Reason; Intuition; and Psyche. The following shows the rolls, the Rank, and the Rank Number for Chimera
Well, the dice rolls certainly clustered there around the 61-80 result for Remarkable. This makes all 4 of those, and then the Incredible, very much past the abilities of normal humans which works for the origin I have in mind. To make her into more of a Generasupe, I am going to raise her Endurance from Good to Excellent so that she excels around the board.
Secondary Statistics: These include Health and Karma that are generated by adding FASE and RIP respectively, Popularity that is built from a standard base with some optional changes from the character’s history, and Resources which starts at Typical and is modified by a random roll.
Special Abilities are rolled to create a range of powers, talents, and contacts. There is a minimum number available, but a character may sacrifice Resource ranks for additional powers, talents, or contacts up to the maximum shown.
Powers – A roll of 53 means a result of “3/4” so Chimera starts with 3 powers and may decide to sacrifice some Resources to get up to 4 maximum powers. Using the random tables, here is what results we get:
Now you see where the Chimera concept came from. Chimera’s Altered Human origin with shapeshifting and the generally superior primary abilities mark her as a good candidate for genetic splicing, unstable genetic splicing at that which is why the shapechanging is so strong. The Distance Attack could be out of place, and I don’t think I want wads of shapechanging flesh tossed at opponents, but instead of rerolling I am going to make that equipment based. Shape Shifting is also a great power to have to develop Power Stunts if we revisit how to advance characters with karma.
Talents – a Roll of 27 means a result of “2/5” so at least 2 Talents, which are trained abilities, and up to a maximum of 5 if Resource ranks are sacrificed. Using the random tables, the results are:
Martial Arts B is the catchall coverage of offensively minded styles like Boxing or other striking disciplines providing a Column Shift (CS) to her FIghting when making attacks. I like that for Chimera, but I am not sure about journalism. I think I am going to go with something else. I like the Artist talent because the idea of a lost shapechanger finding meaning in artistic expression is a good one.
Contacts – a Roll of 37 means a result of “1/4” so a single Contact up to a maximum of 4. For this, I am going to make a choice of a Criminal World contact for Chimera. This bridges the gap between her Origin and experimentation and where the story picks up to form the Nightblade.
Weakness – There is a provision for weaknesses and triggers in the Advanced Players Manuel because every good player needs something to help round out the character. I think there is a good psychological weakness here where if Chimera is being restrained or constrained, she could lose her cohesion – a kind of claustrophobia that triggers her powers in an unpredictable way.
Chimera doesn’t know any other name for herself. She can remember only flashes of childhood, only bits and pieces of something left behind. The closer she gets to today, the better she remembers, but there are times she wishes she didn’t. Experiments don’t usually let their subject remember them but she can.
She doesn’t know why they chose her. She doesn’t recall what set her apart, if anything. What she does know is that they changed her. She is stronger, faster, and sharper than most humans. She has the ability to do great things, but that wasn’t enough. Whatever they did to her helped her become a true chimera – stuck between different forms. Her ability to shift her shape wasn’t something they expected. That was what helped her escape – and what helped her start running.
She learned, as she ran and hid, that she was being chased by a group called the New Millenium Patriots. This shadowy group had, in one form or another, been trying to manipulate the world affairs for the last century. The Global Commonwealth Agency had stepped further into the light with the new Argonauts, but that didn’t cover the darker corners of the world, and that is where Chimera was hunted. She found a bit of protection from her hunters working as hired muscle in organized crime circles – it helped to cloak here in someone else’s power and to this day, she can call on Golden Eagle from when they spent time hired together – yeah he’s an amoral mercenary with a battlesuit but he is good to his friends.
Chimera’s luck did run out. The New Millenium Patriots rushing towards the new millenium had hastened their attempts to capture her and they nearly succeeded. Crashing through the docks and warehouses as hired super powered thugs came after her, the NMP’s Populist Majority Troopers, she managed to stumble onto Barracuda, Brique, and Gun Bunny. It was all dumb luck that a lost amnesiac shapeshifter would stumble into a secret government project that helped fight back and save her. Akasha heard to commotion and showed up to save lives … the hopeful fool her is.
Since then, Nightblade is being sent on missions that seem to run into NMP far too often for Chimera’s tastes. Barracuda receives the missions from his liaison though they have more latitude than it seems. Something about these missions is fishy as they are almost always overseas when the NMP had never seemed to focus that much around the globe before.
Chimera Character Sheet
Nightblade and FASERIP Overview Here
Character design done on Hero Machine
Welcome back to Card Catalog where we hope not to see the same sort of service interruption again!? The non Seize the GM portion of life has been calming back down, so it is time to delve into more games and builds! This time around, we are looking back at Superheroics like we did with Mutants and Masterminds, but will be using a legacy system we hinted at in the Star Frontiers write up – the Marvel Super Heroes FASERIP system from TSR!
FASERIP is the acronym for the 7 primary attributes used in the system – Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche. Before we get much further, it is important to note that TSR loved the underlying system concept so much, they were going to start using it for other games like Star Frontiers! It has an elegance in play that is hard to match, but sadly it didn’t survive to modern day as a formally supported game ….
But the fan community did not let it go! There is a robust level of support out there for the TSR Marvel Superheroes Game at websites like Classic Marvel Forever including ongoing ports of other supers. I may have to also dig out the Mayfair Games DC Set after listening to a bit of a back and forth between the two on the Hero Points Podcast! But enough of the side story – this is a system about playing superheroes designed in the 1980s specifically for Marvel Super Heroes and published by TSR – the golden ages of gaming and comics colliding here!
The system is both elegantly simple, but with some deceptive complexity. Every test is resolved by rolling a pair of d10s as a percentile roll. This is compared against the success chart that comes from the strength of the attribute, talent, or power being used! There is even an easy color coded shorthand to explain how well you succeed. The levels of these attributes, talents, and powers are descriptive, with a specific numerical backbone. In the basic set, there was only one value in each of the descriptions, but the advanced set adds some more granularity mainly for the purposes of advancement. The ranks and their average values and starting values are are:
This value determines the column for your rolls, which is why modifiers in this system are called Column Shifts. Each column shows an array of color coded results for your percentile roll creating a rather straightforward and understandable chance of success in the roll. The main attributes are:
Then you have secondary attributes including Health, Karma, Popularity, and Resources. Health is pretty self explanatory, Karma serves as both experience to use for advancement and also for heroic agency like adding to your die rolls and not killing an opponent. Popularity & Resources both have tangible benefits in the game world! The Resources attribute was the first time I remember seeing wealth as a stat that you could grow and repeatedly use including rules for trying to use it too often too quickly, taking out loans to increase your current resources, and more. Popularity served to help determine how the public would react to you and it could matter! Do the police defer to you because of your heroic reputation, are you pretty much unknown, or do you have a reputation that could include active warrants for your arrest? It acted to simulate the comic book experience in a cohesive manner. The use of Resources and Popularity was a groundbreaking concept when I read it back in the day and it was certainly well ahead of its time.
Characters are mostly defined by their Powers but don’t overlook Talents and Contacts. Most of the character generation is done by random rolls but you can allow some selection to design a character rather than just roll one up. A house rule I’ve used is to allow one reroll or choice per category if something just doesn’t fit. That came up at least once in this generation set.
There are 5 different possible origins in the system, with different implications on which table you roll your Attributes on and how strong they can be – Altered Human, Mutant, High Tech, Robot, and Alien. Since I am going to make one of each, I’ll go into more details about each Origin in the subsequent characters. The list of powers is decently long in the Advanced Player’s Guide, but the Ultimate Power Book has a dizzying and near exhaustive array of powers that existing in comic books in the 1980s. For the purposes of this Card Catalog, I’ll keep with the core book for simplicity. One of the rather neat features of the system is how your character can develop a new power stunt. Using the power in a new and interesting way, or pushing the description to apply in a novel manner requires you to spend karma, 100 per attempt, for the first 10 attempts until it is considered learned. This rewards players to find new uses for their powers, maintains a dramatically appropriate chance at failure while learning, and prevents loophole arguments about the logical conclusion of a power’s description – don’t have tha listed, spend your karma and try to do it as a new stunt! While 1000 Karma may sound like a lot, it takes 10 x new rating to increase the power, so an Excellent (16) power takes 170 karma to get to Excellent (17) and it isn’t until you get to 26 that you crest into Remarkable, and that takes an extra 400 karma.
That forms the basics of the system and generation – random rolls for attributes on a percentile chart that varies per origin, roll for powers, talents, and contacts, and maybe have some degree of choice but for the most part this will be a loosely guided series of character creations.
You make a percentile roll with a pair of d10s and compare your result to the Universal Table under the column that shows the power level of your power, talent, or attribute you are using. Simple and straightforward. There are very few opposed rolls,for example in Slugfest (hand to hand) combat, you roll on the Table for your Fighting Attribute to see whether you hit. Instead of opposing, the other character may choose to make a roll of their own, such as choosing to block which has the blocker roll on the table for their Strength attribute to determine how much “body armor” will cut down on the damage. It is a fast and proactive system encouraging players to take actions.
There are specific subsystems and details for things like magic and building items or gear but those are deep dives that may require a follow up card catalog post. The magic system is wrapped around the existing power system, but it allows characters to pick up FEATs easier than if they were non-magical characters with a balance in the role playing and setting constraints characters would usually have for example.
Karma is earned and can be used for multiple purposes over the course of a story including character advancement but it also is used to manipulate the rolls! As far back as the 80s, you could spend your Karma before you rolled to increase the result. You also could reduce the rating of some attacks by spending karma because killing anyone resulted in a loss of karma that wasn’t already banked to advancement. A mechanical reflection of the state of the time the game was made!
Our little trip into the 90s of the comics era will use starting characters and mostly random rolls. A house rule I like is that you can reroll or choose one item in each category if it is just an odd ball out to make a more cohesive character.
This is the same setting as you saw in the Mutants and Masterminds write up. A bit of indulgence perhaps for my own wholecloth superhero world, but that is what we do here at Seize the GM from time to time – make up stories.
Noone is quite sure how or why powers started popping up in human, much less when they started. What is clear is that the rate of powered humans, aliens, and magical beings showing up on Earth is increasing at an alarming rate. It had been a hundred years since the modern era had started with these extraordinary beings stepping onto the battlefield of World War I including the likes of Doughboy and Janissary. The 1960s saw the worldwide spread of these special people like Slugger and Der Kommissar which continued through the 1980s revival of battlesuits even as Slugger founded a third political party in the U.S. reshaping the global power structure. When a self proclaimed “Demon Lord” made itself known collecting a coterie of villains to challenge the status quo, the planet couldn’t sit back anymore.
With less likelihood of full scale conflicts, but a heightened frequency of small skirmishes between nation-states, the Global Commonwealth Agency, which replaced the League of Nations after World War I, was empowered to establish a peacekeeping force and to specifically deploy powered beings to counter threats found across the globe. It was the birth of the Argonauts.
It was in the shadow of this rebirth of heroes in the 1990s that Nightblade came together. In the era of extreme actions, lots of pouches, and an edgier kind of hero, this seems natural. Backed by a shadowy government organization, or so it appears, the Nightblade are the mix of public and secret in their work. The public activities of many of them help to insulate the secret work they do for their benefactors behind the scenes. As the GCA has formed the Argonauts with Espionage in a rather ostentatious manner, the Nightblade are being sent on far more proactive tasks. Backed by a government agency, or so it seems, Barracuda acts as a liaison for their direct action role, sometimes skirting the Argonauts or even coming into conflict with them. They are not the Heroes of yore, but are perhaps the heroes that the 1990s deserved.
The New Millennium Patriots have been a repeated thorn in their side so much so that perhaps there is more to this story than we know. Ever since the NMP chased Chimera into a warehouse where Barracuda, Brique, and Gun Bunny were training, they have been a constant presence.
Chimera
Mysterious Altered Human Metamorph
04/23/19
Chimera is in a lot of ways the person who put things in motion for Nightblade – her appearance spurred the creation of Nightblade as well as the longstanding enmity with the NMP. Chimera doesn’t know why the NMP are after her or what she is to them, but what she does remember is the faintest memories of the lab where she was subject to experimentation. She shows is clearly a metahuman from her physical capabilities, before she starts changing her shape. That shape changing is where her name comes from, sometimes stuck between two forms when she can’t quite control her powers. It is her running from the New Millenium Patriots that caused Nightblade to really gel, and Barracuda, Brique, and Gun Bunny were in the right place at the right time. Though her name, as Chimera is all she remembers, is may hold more truth than anyone realized at the time.
Akasha
Legacy Mutant Elemental Controller
04/30/19
Akasha’s codename means sky, or sometimes what you might call aether. His powers reflect his family’s long association with the powers to change the air and light, once seen as possibly something divine now seen as a curse – his parents believed in rebirth and in transcending that cycle but the more these powers show in the family line the less they saw that happening. Navin keeps his Identity Secret to protect his immediate family, but an innate desire to do good keeps him from being unsung and unseen. It was just that chance moment, when the New Millenium Patriots literally crashed through a building chasing Chimera that sprung him into action. Since then, he has tried to help temper some of his teammates who have become friends, especially as the NMP are now after him as well.
Barracuda
High Tech Connected Underwater Hero
05/07/19
Barracuda, or Peter Siden, spent time serving in the United States Military, and showed remarkable aptitude for mechanics and the ocean. The Navy transferred him to research labs to work on experiments, and eventually he entered into a dual status working with contractors and the government. He was sent to work with Dr. Chandler in a joint funded program, but that is a story that everyone now knows as the birth of the Atomic Avenger. What they may not know is that parts of the design were salvaged, especially around the core physical components of the suit, and Barracuda is one such derivation from that research. It may lack the raw power source and energy manipulation capacity of the Atomic Avenger suit, but it is well suited to underwater and reconnaissance work.
Brique
Magical City Earth Golem
05/14/19
Sometimes, life appears at the strangest moments. In the first battle between Demon Lord and what would become the Argonauts, magical energy was unleashed like the world had not seen. While Demon Lord was beaten back, the energy that mingled between its power and the hero’s power left a pinpoint crack to somewhere else. Brique came through, or at least the energy that formed into Brique came through. It took years to develop sentience, creating a body from the brick, concrete, and asphalt of the city, but slowly a mind formed. It is clear Brique is not from here, but for now Brique seems content to explore this tangible reality and do what needs to be done to protect it. It seems Brique knows something is coming, but won’t say what that is . . .
Gun Bunny
Pouch Wearing Alien Weapon Master
05/21/19
For all that the world has seen superhuman powers, battlesuits, and demons, aliens seemed to be the last thing on anyone’s mind. Sure, there were likely aliens that were hidden amongst the populace, and I do mean actual extraterrestrial from another planet or even another galaxy aliens, but there wasn’t a big deal about it. Until the 1990’s when it seems that first contact was the name of the game every week. L’prd’onia slipped through the cracks here as other species made their first contact scenarios. She landed and hid, found by the same shadowy organization that Barracuda works for and agreed to help out when Chimera crashed into their world. Covered in fur, with some relationship to the Leporidae family, or Rabbits, her facility with firearms left her the moniker “Gun Bunny”. She hasn’t cared to correct anyone since. Something about the NMP raised her hackles
Fillable Character sheets found at Classic Marvel Forever.
Character Designs done on Hero Machine 3.
We talked about world building before, but now we will take the suggestion from you, our listeners, and look at how to create a campaign for your games.Before we dive too deep, we thought we would take the chance to make two or three episodes out of this topic, but that means defining terms first! Bear with us and we will explain what parts of a campaign we think you have to at least be aware of when designing (and next time, we will take a hand at some actual design practice!) A campaign not only fleshes out and enlivens a world that you’ve built, but it will be centered around an idea or theme. The idea or theme could be internal or external, but it provides a “through line” in the session. Think of a campaign like a season of a TV Show, and a theme for a campaign like the Big Bad the campaign is leading up to or revolving around – In Angel, the theme for one season was that the worst place in the universe, the place that held the most torment was here, which wasn’t revealed until a single scene at the end of the season. Other times, you have an external theme like the literal Big Bad Evil Git that has been pulling the strings, like The Founders in Deep Space Nine behind the Dominion War.
You should ask whether the Campaign will be event driven or character driven, or more accurately how much of each you want to use. I don’t like the idea that character driven is in opposition to events or world building, but I know that is a way people want to see the axis. Each of the styles described below can be used for character driven or event driven campaigns and some of that returns to the question of internal versus external focus for your table. Which is going to bring more motivation or movement for the characters? An event driven campaign may go from scene to scene and event to event in a fairly linear manner, but that is not to say personal growth doesn’t happen just that it is framed in respect to the events. Conversely, a character driven campaign may not use the events as milestones so much as the backdrop against which personal moments and growth happen.
How you get to that Theme is a question and here are a few of the styles of Campaigns we will discuss in the upcoming episodes:
From that theme, you can then work on the building blocks of the campaign that may not be finished from your world building, or that may be your world building – who, when, and where in particular. Next time, we will look at one or two of these campaign themes and show how to use it to build out an example campaign! Or two.
Zendead- Draks
So what happens when a protoplasmic slime interacts with a living entity? Wait let’s’ rewind a bit. A protowhat? I hear you say, yes it is proto meaning before. See I knew you would questions for me about this substance. What is it and where did it come from being foremost in your mind. Well both of those questions are not possible to answer as of right now. See we are still working them out ourselves. I can give you are bit of history about them. Shortly after the quakes that struck the planet where settling back down. People where trying to figure out what had happened, they started showing up at the epicenters of the disasters. This grey green slime was present and didn’t make any sense it should have been ash and lava and rock not a strange slime. Samples were taken of the slime. That is when things, as the saying goes, went off the rails.
The first samples didn’t seem to have any strange characteristics. It was a semi fluid liquid at room temperature. It didn’t have a chemical reaction to the containers it was stored in. One day it was being transferred to a new lab and some of the material came into contact with a petri dish that had a culture of E. Coli growing on it and the slime then became for nothing better alive. It enveloped the culture. Then the true horror began. The E. Coli that had contact began to change what it became we are not sure. We couldn’t get it sequenced fast enough. The long and short of this part is that it changed the bacteria into something else, and fast. The rate of mutation was in the million of times faster. Evolution at a rate unseen before or since. Needless to say it got out of the dish.
What we had not been able to see was that the local animals near these epicenters had found out that the slime was able to do that in the wild and was changing the local wildlife. It was adapting to a world that wasn’t present now but was on its way. The species barrier was not present at all. Then it found a human. After the change rewrote the genetic makeup of a person they were different. After the first human contact things spread fast people could be carriers at least at first. Like a small group of terraformed people they were a few hundred at first but the population never got very big and the first ones after a few tests were found to have an extra pair of nucleotides that nothing on this planet had. One feature they all have now is a growth that changes the shape of the skull pulling it back and giving them a scaled appearance to their smooth skin. Which is why we call them Draks.
Joules-The Infernal Phone
*gling*
“You can’t keep it a secret. They all know”
The phone vibrates in your hand. You’ve been getting strange messages for the past month. Cryptic warnings. Subtle threats. Disturbing images.
You kept trying to throw the phone away. But for some reason it always kept reappearing. Like rings in the old fairy tales. And you couldn’t ignore it. Some strange compulsion forces you to look at communications. To re-live all your past transgressions. To exist in a state of anxiety. Every time you start to relax, you hear that familiar chime.
*gling*
“You know what you did to that old man.”
You remember being at the train station, yelling on phone to your subordinate about some perceived transgression. You got your first message that night. The next morning you heard that your subordinate threw himself out of his office window. You’ve been getting similar messages ever since. Torturing you every time you hear that chime. Destroying bits of your soul till the end of time itself.
And as the last of your essense fades, you realize where you are.
*gling*
“Your hands will never be clean”
You see, the world modernized. Mobile data and constant electronic surveillance and endless swaths of data stored in the cloud. Technology infusing every aspect of life. What humanity didn’t know is that hell was upgrading as well. Humanity still saw hell as this otherworldly place of fire and sulfur, filled with the eternal screams of the damned. So, with Hell using the ubiquitous tools made by man to mete out punishment in the afterlife, you didn’t know that you were in hell. Humanity’s past sins and shames are repeated to them through the technology they used every day. And with all the stories of Anonymous and other hacker groups, man is able to delude themselves, thinking that they’re still alive. Making the punishment all the more sublime. Hellish tools like the infernal phone have become standard tools for punishing the wicked. Man is now unwittingly creating the tools of his own torment.
*gling*
“Do you know where you are?”
nulloperations- A Ring of Storms
It’s an art piece, to be sure. A golden ring interlaced with sapphire flecks and leaves of silver. It is large enough for an average ring finger, but fits comfortably on a larger pinky or smaller thumb. But wearing it as a ring doesn’t matter as it is functional no matter the distance from its owner. Once bound it cannot be unbound until death.
The ring is a focus, a fetter for a bound entity of lightning and rain. The storm spirit will manifest itself only when the wearer experiences intense emotions. Fear will bring mountains of dark clouds and heavy rain. Anger will bring thunder, fury, and cutting winds. Loss and pain will bring cold shadowy downpours that never seem to end. Love will bring a soft and warm summer rain with rainbows swept through the mist. The spirit feels all that the its master feels. It lives only as the master lives.
Ownership of the ring is a lifelong affair. An unbound ring will not obey until it feels the touch of intense emotions, and once bound the ring will not transfer to another until its master has passed beyond. If the ring is taken violently then hurricane forces gales will sweep the land and send the ring travelling. If the ring is taken by accidental demise, the spirit will weep the master’s last pains. And should the ring’s master come to a quiet death in their slumber, the spirit will bring fog to the land for a year and a day until it has finished mourning.
Guard-a-Manger
The Siren’s Cosmic Call, or How I stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Imprecision
It can be as simple as a one way street sign pointing the way under the brightest street light this side of June & Hospice. It can be as subtle as the repeating refrain of a songbird just a month too early to be heard. Sometimes, the universe will tell you to wake up and pay attention – you have been called to service. Why?
Sometime, long ago, the universe realized that it needed help, or at least antibodies within the vastness that is. You have been chosen. You have been called. You have an ability to stop the infection that seeps into our world. How?
That is a question that is harder to answer. You find the others, called like you, coming to the same place like you, holding a quizzical look like you. Each different, but also with similarities. The universe made a team. The universe chose people to come together, perhaps at its most pure form, to be a kind of family. This is no closer to how, though.
If it isn’t an accident, what do you hold that sets you apart? Do you fly through the air? Have you found some remarkable insight into the nature of this world? Or do you just have an imagination?
There is no instruction booklet, only flashes and glimpses of insight in your disparate heads. There is no guidance, only guesswork. You could be nothing more than disposable accidents of creation, hearing something not meant for you; is that a better option than the universe actively using you like flotsam and jetsam to discard at the earliest point.
Is it about the betterment of all over your own comfort … or is it something more that these other people here have kept hidden? There is but one way to find out, and so you commit yourself to uncovering this mystery or perhaps to collapse of old age and in that singular moment see the infinite glory you believe you have been protecting.
Cyclopean adjective
cy·clo·pe·an | \ ˌsī-klə-ˈpē-ən , sī-ˈklō-pē- \
Definition of cyclopean
1 often capitalized : of, relating to, or characteristic of a Cyclops
2 : HUGE, MASSIVE
3 : of or relating to a style of stone construction marked typically by the use of large irregular blocks without mortar
Etymology of cyclopean
“of or characteristic of the legendary Cyclopes of Greek mythology,” 1640s, from Latin cyclopeus, from Greek kyklopeios, from kyklopes (see cyclops). Especially in reference to having a single eye in the middle of the forehead; also “vast, gigantic,” and in reference to a style of ancient masonry, irregular or unhewn, fabled to be the work of a gigantic Thracian race (1822).
First Known Use of cyclopean
1582, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Look-up Popularity
Bottom 30% of words
Zendead- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Good to read to your kids and to draw minor ideas from. Good for introducing kids to fantasy and reading.
Joules-Crap Guide to D&D
nulloperations- Space Engineers: Minecraft in Space
Guard-a-Manger- Stranger Things. The Season 3 trailer dropped, and I have not been doing a great deal of reading lately, but it reminds me of how effective theme building can be and how evocative the creators are with their design elements.
Music is courtesy of The Enigma TNG you can find his music on YouTube or on Bandcamp
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Zendead- Email, Twitter, Facebook
Joules- Email, Twitter, Facebook
Nulloperations-Email, Twitter, Facebook
Guard-a-manger- Email, Twitter
And Thanks to Merriam-Webster and online Etymology Dictionary for our Lexicon segment
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Sci-Fi, Raypunk, Noire
Big heroes, big legends, and big adventures are all part of what make the pulpy genre of Raypunk fun. But every tale has got to have a place to let the plot roll forward, and with noire being a close cousin, the underworld of smoky dice tables, an illicit bar, and scheming card sharks make this space bound casino a welcome stop in the players’ story.
The Rambling Star
Place, Casino
Neon everything, bright fuzzy carpets, the smell of too much cheap perfume and too many cheaper cigars, and the constant flow of whatever hooch and chemical altering substances that can be shipped in defines the Rambling Star. It’s parked somewhere just beyond the normal legal space lanes this month, and it’ll be towed somewhere else next month once this week’s protection money doesn’t show up. The place is dangerous, filthy, and loaded with cash as they drain ever spacer’s wallet that dares to step beyond the faux gold-plated doors.
The casino is built on an asteroid that used to house a mining colony’s dormitory. The rock’s been outfitted with a huge movement thruster and countless maneuvering rockets to let the vessel turn around to stop its momentum. The dorms have been converted to far more expensive than they’re worth hotel rooms with a little space left over to house the organic staff. Parking space is always available as the rock has ports to handle over 90% of most ship to ship connectors. Everyone else can maglock and just float on in.
No one knows who owns The Rambling Star. It changes hands often enough; sometimes because it makes too much money, but mostly because it burns too much of it. The staff rarely change as the bulk of them are either programmed to stay or just don’t have enough money left over from their worthless pay checks. The few that do usually escape to become crew on passing ships, or just stowaways.
Fitting The Rambling Star In
The Rambler is a good place to start a raypunk campaign or a place to pick up a late joining PC crew member. The table games are watched carefully, and big winners are quickly comped, suggested to spend their winnings, or quickly thrown out of an airlock if they won’t. Machine games are heavily rigged in the house’s favor. Players shouldn’t look to get rich here from playing at the casino aspect of the Rambling Star, and stack games of chance against them including having the house cheat and cheat hard. Lure the players here with promises of information or meetings, and play up the atmosphere enough that they’re discouraged from wanting to join in the danger and underlying darkness of the place. The bright lights hold nothing but lies.
Ace of Thirty Kings
Person, Robot
Robots are built for a purpose, and if you ask Ace, he’d tell you he was built to be an annoying jackass. Loud, bold, and in need of maintenance on his joints and personality, Ace of Thirty Kings is a recent arrival at the local watering hole. His frame was once painted a brilliant deep sapphire that seemed to absorb the light of the room, but now the paint is worn and only a few patches still show off the glittered specks in between the deep blue void of his design. The robot now wears a large black jacket with silver and gold lining in a checkerboard pattern. Fake jewels stretch along the stitching of the jacket, although these are dull and damaged from his countless quick departures from casinos and bars. Turns out there’s some bouncers strong and angry enough to pick up his heavy frame and show him the concrete outside.
Ace of Thirty Kings is a swindler and a card counter. He’s got enough software in him to get any dice he picks up to always roll whatever he wants, when his arm isn’t acting up. He memorizes the smallest details of cards of other players, and know exactly what he’s playing against every time. That’s not to say he wins every time. Too suspicious that way. He’ll mostly lose, but in the end, he’ll come out on top.
He’s bored, mostly. Mastering the gambling arts, he hasn’t quite found something worth betting his own life on yet. For now, he goes from casino to casino, table to table, pulling in just enough extra credits to get by, waiting for that big score he’s been dreaming of all these years.
Fitting Ace of Thirty Kings In
Ace should be a nuisance to the party, the npcs, even the GM should find him annoying after a while. He’s a robot who doesn’t quite know when to shut up, but always knows when it’s time to fold a hand. There’s no better gambling machine than him as his software is loaded with every conceivable cheating mechanism. This also means almost nothing escapes his notice, and he’ll be perceptive on what the party is up to often long before they even realize it themselves. While he’s annoying, he should be played smart, and like any good card shark he’ll know when to get up and walk away from a bad situation. His need for the party should scale by how well he’s doing financially. While he wins a lot, if he’s caught cheating those winnings seem to always magically turn into debts, and favors are the most valuable of currencies.
The Luck Virus
Thing, Macguffin
The infection starts small; little things like finding a few credits on the ground, catching a dropped glass that should have been out of reach, or finding a door unlocked they expected to have to break down. Things then start to get odd; every traffic light seeming to go their way, an extra magazine of ammo in their kit, the dealer’s shuffle seeming to give them the card they need a dozen hands in a row. Then the barely missed speeding car, the well-timed door opening that knocked out the guard chasing them, or the tripping hazard that made the hit-man’s bullet miss. Somehow it just feels like the universe loves them.
The infection is ancient tech; nanites from a civilization long dead. The tiny machines were made to help those infected survive in the hyper-science culture that had existed long ago. The strain was meant to die when the host infected passed on, but somehow they took on a life of their own. Now they pass from host to host, sharing their ability to manipulate physics and odds in the favor of the being they love.
But luck can come and go, and those who become too wise to the infection’s gift tend to earn the luck virus’s ire. An infected can find danger lurking around every corner as the universe seems to try to correct the bubble of blessings that surrounded them.
Fitting The Luck Virus In
In games where luck is an attribute or stat, the luck virus should act as a bonus or an extra die. For games where luck is an economy item of player agency, toss them random plot points, edges, or other tokens to suggest that things are just going their way for some reason. But log these gifts, because just as luck gives, it takes. The virus is semi-sentient, and knowns when it’s being abused. The virus’s goal is to help it’s host survive, not to help them lie, cheat, and abuse. Those that do will find themselves drained of luck and good fortune, and find their worlds crashing down on them.
Using Bless Your Lucky Star
The Whole Block
The Bless Your Lucky Star scenario can be a good entry point into a campaign, or serve as a point of interest in a Raypunk or other sci-fi setting. The casino’s ownership is always in question, and wealthy heroes or villains make for good customers. Ace of Thirty Kings should set the tone of how loud and boisterous the rest of the npcs should be. Everything should be loud, bright, and always have the undercurrent of a threat. The Luck Virus itself offers a way of throwing chaos into the casino. So many patrons would be attempting to use their newfound luck to scam the Rambling Star, and the virus would find itself jump from host to host to find someone worth protecting in the den of thieves. If the npcs of the Rambling Star know about or realize what the legendary Luck Virus is, they may want to hunt down any PCs that take it from the Casino. Ace can make a good antagonist for such escapades or serve as the means to informing the PCs of just what they have.
