The Last War in Heaven (MURPG Hack)
Nov 16, 2014 14:37:13 GMT -5
OurLadyWar, Manticore, and 3 more like this
Post by dorkknight23 on Nov 16, 2014 14:37:13 GMT -5
In humanity's forgotten infancy, the Gods overthrew their Titanic parents in the great Overworld War and imprisoned them in the Underworld. The Gods helped elevate humanity to great heights, but withdrew from the World and their worshippers to avoid becoming further ensnared by Fate. The Gods have mostly abandoned the World, only occasionally sleeping with mortals and siring half-human half-divine hybrids known most generally as Demigods. Centuries go past, humanity develops, and the ancient gods have become just stories, just mythology.
The Titans strain at their chains, and the first cracks appear in the Underworld. The dead leak out, and those monsters still loyal to the Titans begin to sneak out and wreap havoc. The first shots are fired, and a new war begins, a shadow war between agents of the Gods and Titans for control of all existence. The agents of the Titans are growing restless, war is on the horizon, and you've been drafted to the front lines for the Gods. It turns out you're a demigod yourself, or you're another legendary being loyal to the gods and the current order (alfar, yokai, dragon, you name it, or even part-legendary being, requiring GM approval). The gods are slowly returning to the world, but their direct energies are required in the greater war with the Titans. They grant you gifts and powers and send you out to route out evil, but you're not alone. You've been grouped together as part of a larger bipartisan bit of divine politics, you're representing the interests of both yourselves and your parent's pantheon against a greater evil. Sometimes, though, politics is less than bipartisan, and some of the gods have agendas of their own for surviving what might be a bleak future. Fate, however, might be pulling you deeper into the black heart of a disastrous war, a war where friends may become enemies, good may become evil, and heaven might have to fall after all.
Welcome to the End of the World. Your enemies are primordial evils from before the dawn of time, and they are looking to kill you or, worse, recruit you. Everything is coming apart at the seams, you've been given little more than a shovel and a pat on the back by your Divine parents. As if to say, "Go forth, and be epic."
**********
This game is heavily inspired by White Wolf's Scion, but after spending a while evaluating whether the rules would be the best for a play-by-post format (while I like them for a more live setting, I think they might not be perfect for play-by-post). The tone of the game is going to be a bit in the “dark and edgy” territory, but with a tendency to paint with a broad stroke, mix and link multicultural mythological references, and a certain bit of dark tragedy under the whole thing.
So, because I'm lazy and it's a shared rules base we're ostensibly familiar with, I'm going to run this in a sort of variant of MURPG. Basically, tweaked versions of Abilities, Actions, and Modifiers, plus one more category, Fatebindings. The Cost Levels and D&R tables should more or less be applicable through all of this. I'll state any differences below when they come up.
Abilities represent your characters physical and mental limitations. Intelligence, Strength, Agility, Speed, Health, and Legend. Health represents your characters White Stones of Health, and is cost=AN, Legend represents both a character's energy pool (3xAN) and his energy regeneration rate (AN/panel). It costs 2xAN. Intelligence-based energy is not an option. A character's Strength, Agility, Speed, and Health stats are restricted by his Legend score, Intelligence can be at the most 2 higher than the Legend score at any time (so, for example, at Legend 3, the maximum Intelligence you can have is 5, at 4 is 6, so on and so forth.) Intelligence, Strength, Agility, and Speed work pretty much the same as they do in the Core Rulebook. Healing Factors don't improve energy regen rate. Mortals will use the linked Durability, but, this is restricted to NPCs primarily.
You are restricted to nine Actions. These include the normal ones from the MURPG core rulebook (Close Combat, Ranged Combat, Ninja, Black Ops, Thieving, Gambling, Social Skills, General Knowledge, Leadership, etc. etc. etc.). Actions are NOT restricted by Legend in any way, except for Magic, explained below. For Demigods, I'd like to see “skills” here primarily (with divine powers covered under Purview, explained below), while Legendary Beings will get more access to powers like Flight, any outlandish physical powers will require GM approval and are intended primarily for Legendary Beings. Demigods can fake powers through judicious use of Purviews and Magic. I'd recommend most Demigod “powers” come from Relics or Equipment, many other powers necessitate the “Non-Human Appearance” challenge.
ONE BIG CHANGE: I'm not a big fan of the RAW Mastery of Magic, not only that it doesn't fit the setting I'm going for. So I'm going to use.
Phenomenal Cosmic PowersMagic
Cost Level=AN+4
Magic is the ability (usually a combination of innate talent and training) to manipulate reality. Mortals can call on Magic to a limited degree, but Gods and Legendary Beings can use it to its fullest heights. Magic is restricted to your Legend score, and can be used to mimic any non-Intelligence-Ability or Action at AN-2 (of a total modified cost of the current AN or less, for example, a demigod with Magic AN 3 could use it to fly around at Speed 1). In addition, at each AN, you gain a Specialty with a power-type action or modifier that lets you use it at full AN (for example, that same Demigod could use his second specialty to add Flight as a specialty).
Example: Jason, Son of Zeus, has Magic at AN 3. He has three Specialties: Substitute AN for Strength, Flight, and Electric Force Blast (2x damage). Combined with his Purview (Thunder) he can be a literal force of natural like his father (although on a considerably smaller scale).
Options:
-1 Thematic Focus: your powers have to convey to a one-word theme (some examples off the top of my head: Water, Enchantment, Necromancy, Runes, Voodoo). You gain an additional specialty each AN, but you cannot use Magic to perform anything besides your specialties.
-1 to cost level if you're a demigod who's divine parent is known for sorcererous power or skill (some obvious examples off the top of my head are Isis, Thoth, Hermes, Odin, most of the Voodoo Loa, etc. Ask me first.)
Commentary:
Magic is designed to be incredibly versatile and dangerous at high AN's, but at lower AN's it can still be used to pull off a variety of effects, limited only by the creativity of the player.
Combining Magic and Purviews (described below) might be a relatively straightforward way to describe larger than life attacks or effect (hint hint hint).
Modifiers and Wealth function as normal, and also generally restricted by Legend. There's one Special Modifier I'm custom-adding to the game that is, though:
Purview (IDEA)...
CL=MN+3
Purviews are basically the domains the gods (and other supernatural beings) control, be it a physical thing the Sky or Sea, or concepts like War or Love. Emphasis is chosen when the modifier's purchased. Basically this is a sort of catch-all positive modifier you can add to anything that you can justify adding it to your action. A Goddess of War could apply this modifier to all combat actions, for example, or a Trickster God could use it to a Socal Skills roll to trick someone. I'd also like to openly encourage you to think of ways to use, and if you describe a cool way your purview can apply, then all the better. You can stack these modifiers, but burden is on the play to apply them all in a cool way so they can all apply.
Options:
(Demigod only) -1 to cost level if the title is associated with your parent god in some way. For example, if you're a child of Apollo, you'd get a -1 discount to pick up Purviews like Archery, Sun, Prophecy, or Healing. Apollo would not have War or Trickster as favored purviews though, so the young demigod would have to pay full price for them. Ask the GM first if you're not sure (or even if you are, be prepared for me to be a butt about it)!
(Demigod or Legendary Being) -1 requires Relic. You require a certain Relic to use your Purview, whether you spew fire from your zippo lighter or call down thunder from your hammer, or whatever.
Demigods cannot have more titles than your Legend AN, while Legendary Beings can only have a number of Purviews 1/2 their Legend AN. Neither cannot have a MN higher than your Legend AN (for example, a God with a Legend of 10 could have 10 of these modifiers at MN 10)
Equipment is normal, except for a specialized category of Equipment called Relics. These special magical items or creatures your Scion has as a resource. Prices are approved by the GM, but general MURPG equipment costs apply. Will apply some sort of price break for creatures (still figuring this out). Players can also buy mundane equipment with Wealth, though I'll limit them generally to +3 or less to reflect the danger more powerful Titanspawn pose.
One additional category exists: Fatebindings. Fatebindings are created when the GM grants the player an additional character creation stone and connects the character to a moral, legendary being, or Titanspawn (of the GM's choosing), who the character is fated to be involved with. They might be a tragic love, an archenemy, or a best friend, it's up to Fate (and the GM) to decide. When the player plays to that Fatebinding (like battling their archenemy) they gain a positive situation modifier, but when acting against it (like trying to befriend the enemy) it acts as a negative sit mod. After a Fatebond has been created, the player can opt to increase it himself to gain additional stones, but can only improve each by 1 at a time, and improvements generally have to happen between stories (unless it's appropriately dramatic). Fatebindings vary in intensity from 1 to 5 stones.
(I'm also going to steal an idea from Andrew and grant white stones as experience in this game to improve characters. Credit where it's due, though.)
Character Creation
*30 stones+max 5 in challenges. You may also have a single additional chargen stone by accepting a 1-stone Fatebinding, either to another player (after I've selected players, natch,) or to another NPC at my discretion.
*Looking to see Legend score somewhere between 2 and 4, ideally, for start of play. You could invest in higher legend now, but it would be to your detriment.
*Choose one of the following paths:
DEMIGOD: Demigods pay double for Legend, as described above. Demigods can gain a discount to Purviews that are linked to their divine parent (also as described above). I'm generally assuming demigods are going to be the default mode of play here, but I'm predicting the outlying “DK, I want to play a dragon/faerie princess/minotaur” and giving the option...
LEGENDARY BEING: You are a young legendary being loyal to the Gods, something like a Sidhe fae, a dragon, a tanuki or other yokai, a dryad, a minotaur, what have you. Legendary Beings pay triple the AN for Legend (instead of double cost like demigods). Legendary beings, however, can exceed their Legend by 1 additional AN/MN on certain Abilities, Actions, or Modifiers (this is up to the GM and the player to iron out, players should expect me to be stingy here. I might give you a list of what I'd consider “acceptable” for this). They can also have access to more esoteric actions (or at least I'll whine less when I see them if they make sense, like a Tanuki having a disadvantage-laden Invisibility action “Turn Into a Statue” action, for example). Legendary beings are encouraged to have additional challenges like Non-Human Appearance (or Can Appear Human), Elemental Sensitivity, or Extreme Compulsions.
Other Comments
*I'm looking for 4-6 players, will run this with 3, won't run it with 7. I'll take submissions for the next week and some change. I'm setting a soft deadline for a week from today (November 23rd, 2014) at 12 noon PST, but depending on things I might extend it depending on my work schedule, how my novel's going, and so on.
Questions, comments, etc.? PM's work great for me, but if it's something you think needs clarification I'd be happy to answer it in here too!
The Titans strain at their chains, and the first cracks appear in the Underworld. The dead leak out, and those monsters still loyal to the Titans begin to sneak out and wreap havoc. The first shots are fired, and a new war begins, a shadow war between agents of the Gods and Titans for control of all existence. The agents of the Titans are growing restless, war is on the horizon, and you've been drafted to the front lines for the Gods. It turns out you're a demigod yourself, or you're another legendary being loyal to the gods and the current order (alfar, yokai, dragon, you name it, or even part-legendary being, requiring GM approval). The gods are slowly returning to the world, but their direct energies are required in the greater war with the Titans. They grant you gifts and powers and send you out to route out evil, but you're not alone. You've been grouped together as part of a larger bipartisan bit of divine politics, you're representing the interests of both yourselves and your parent's pantheon against a greater evil. Sometimes, though, politics is less than bipartisan, and some of the gods have agendas of their own for surviving what might be a bleak future. Fate, however, might be pulling you deeper into the black heart of a disastrous war, a war where friends may become enemies, good may become evil, and heaven might have to fall after all.
Welcome to the End of the World. Your enemies are primordial evils from before the dawn of time, and they are looking to kill you or, worse, recruit you. Everything is coming apart at the seams, you've been given little more than a shovel and a pat on the back by your Divine parents. As if to say, "Go forth, and be epic."
**********
This game is heavily inspired by White Wolf's Scion, but after spending a while evaluating whether the rules would be the best for a play-by-post format (while I like them for a more live setting, I think they might not be perfect for play-by-post). The tone of the game is going to be a bit in the “dark and edgy” territory, but with a tendency to paint with a broad stroke, mix and link multicultural mythological references, and a certain bit of dark tragedy under the whole thing.
So, because I'm lazy and it's a shared rules base we're ostensibly familiar with, I'm going to run this in a sort of variant of MURPG. Basically, tweaked versions of Abilities, Actions, and Modifiers, plus one more category, Fatebindings. The Cost Levels and D&R tables should more or less be applicable through all of this. I'll state any differences below when they come up.
Abilities represent your characters physical and mental limitations. Intelligence, Strength, Agility, Speed, Health, and Legend. Health represents your characters White Stones of Health, and is cost=AN, Legend represents both a character's energy pool (3xAN) and his energy regeneration rate (AN/panel). It costs 2xAN. Intelligence-based energy is not an option. A character's Strength, Agility, Speed, and Health stats are restricted by his Legend score, Intelligence can be at the most 2 higher than the Legend score at any time (so, for example, at Legend 3, the maximum Intelligence you can have is 5, at 4 is 6, so on and so forth.) Intelligence, Strength, Agility, and Speed work pretty much the same as they do in the Core Rulebook. Healing Factors don't improve energy regen rate. Mortals will use the linked Durability, but, this is restricted to NPCs primarily.
You are restricted to nine Actions. These include the normal ones from the MURPG core rulebook (Close Combat, Ranged Combat, Ninja, Black Ops, Thieving, Gambling, Social Skills, General Knowledge, Leadership, etc. etc. etc.). Actions are NOT restricted by Legend in any way, except for Magic, explained below. For Demigods, I'd like to see “skills” here primarily (with divine powers covered under Purview, explained below), while Legendary Beings will get more access to powers like Flight, any outlandish physical powers will require GM approval and are intended primarily for Legendary Beings. Demigods can fake powers through judicious use of Purviews and Magic. I'd recommend most Demigod “powers” come from Relics or Equipment, many other powers necessitate the “Non-Human Appearance” challenge.
ONE BIG CHANGE: I'm not a big fan of the RAW Mastery of Magic, not only that it doesn't fit the setting I'm going for. So I'm going to use.
Cost Level=AN+4
Magic is the ability (usually a combination of innate talent and training) to manipulate reality. Mortals can call on Magic to a limited degree, but Gods and Legendary Beings can use it to its fullest heights. Magic is restricted to your Legend score, and can be used to mimic any non-Intelligence-Ability or Action at AN-2 (of a total modified cost of the current AN or less, for example, a demigod with Magic AN 3 could use it to fly around at Speed 1). In addition, at each AN, you gain a Specialty with a power-type action or modifier that lets you use it at full AN (for example, that same Demigod could use his second specialty to add Flight as a specialty).
Example: Jason, Son of Zeus, has Magic at AN 3. He has three Specialties: Substitute AN for Strength, Flight, and Electric Force Blast (2x damage). Combined with his Purview (Thunder) he can be a literal force of natural like his father (although on a considerably smaller scale).
Options:
-1 Thematic Focus: your powers have to convey to a one-word theme (some examples off the top of my head: Water, Enchantment, Necromancy, Runes, Voodoo). You gain an additional specialty each AN, but you cannot use Magic to perform anything besides your specialties.
-1 to cost level if you're a demigod who's divine parent is known for sorcererous power or skill (some obvious examples off the top of my head are Isis, Thoth, Hermes, Odin, most of the Voodoo Loa, etc. Ask me first.)
Commentary:
Magic is designed to be incredibly versatile and dangerous at high AN's, but at lower AN's it can still be used to pull off a variety of effects, limited only by the creativity of the player.
Combining Magic and Purviews (described below) might be a relatively straightforward way to describe larger than life attacks or effect (hint hint hint).
Modifiers and Wealth function as normal, and also generally restricted by Legend. There's one Special Modifier I'm custom-adding to the game that is, though:
Purview (IDEA)...
CL=MN+3
Purviews are basically the domains the gods (and other supernatural beings) control, be it a physical thing the Sky or Sea, or concepts like War or Love. Emphasis is chosen when the modifier's purchased. Basically this is a sort of catch-all positive modifier you can add to anything that you can justify adding it to your action. A Goddess of War could apply this modifier to all combat actions, for example, or a Trickster God could use it to a Socal Skills roll to trick someone. I'd also like to openly encourage you to think of ways to use, and if you describe a cool way your purview can apply, then all the better. You can stack these modifiers, but burden is on the play to apply them all in a cool way so they can all apply.
Options:
(Demigod only) -1 to cost level if the title is associated with your parent god in some way. For example, if you're a child of Apollo, you'd get a -1 discount to pick up Purviews like Archery, Sun, Prophecy, or Healing. Apollo would not have War or Trickster as favored purviews though, so the young demigod would have to pay full price for them. Ask the GM first if you're not sure (or even if you are, be prepared for me to be a butt about it)!
(Demigod or Legendary Being) -1 requires Relic. You require a certain Relic to use your Purview, whether you spew fire from your zippo lighter or call down thunder from your hammer, or whatever.
Demigods cannot have more titles than your Legend AN, while Legendary Beings can only have a number of Purviews 1/2 their Legend AN. Neither cannot have a MN higher than your Legend AN (for example, a God with a Legend of 10 could have 10 of these modifiers at MN 10)
Equipment is normal, except for a specialized category of Equipment called Relics. These special magical items or creatures your Scion has as a resource. Prices are approved by the GM, but general MURPG equipment costs apply. Will apply some sort of price break for creatures (still figuring this out). Players can also buy mundane equipment with Wealth, though I'll limit them generally to +3 or less to reflect the danger more powerful Titanspawn pose.
One additional category exists: Fatebindings. Fatebindings are created when the GM grants the player an additional character creation stone and connects the character to a moral, legendary being, or Titanspawn (of the GM's choosing), who the character is fated to be involved with. They might be a tragic love, an archenemy, or a best friend, it's up to Fate (and the GM) to decide. When the player plays to that Fatebinding (like battling their archenemy) they gain a positive situation modifier, but when acting against it (like trying to befriend the enemy) it acts as a negative sit mod. After a Fatebond has been created, the player can opt to increase it himself to gain additional stones, but can only improve each by 1 at a time, and improvements generally have to happen between stories (unless it's appropriately dramatic). Fatebindings vary in intensity from 1 to 5 stones.
(I'm also going to steal an idea from Andrew and grant white stones as experience in this game to improve characters. Credit where it's due, though.)
Character Creation
*30 stones+max 5 in challenges. You may also have a single additional chargen stone by accepting a 1-stone Fatebinding, either to another player (after I've selected players, natch,) or to another NPC at my discretion.
*Looking to see Legend score somewhere between 2 and 4, ideally, for start of play. You could invest in higher legend now, but it would be to your detriment.
*Choose one of the following paths:
DEMIGOD: Demigods pay double for Legend, as described above. Demigods can gain a discount to Purviews that are linked to their divine parent (also as described above). I'm generally assuming demigods are going to be the default mode of play here, but I'm predicting the outlying “DK, I want to play a dragon/faerie princess/minotaur” and giving the option...
LEGENDARY BEING: You are a young legendary being loyal to the Gods, something like a Sidhe fae, a dragon, a tanuki or other yokai, a dryad, a minotaur, what have you. Legendary Beings pay triple the AN for Legend (instead of double cost like demigods). Legendary beings, however, can exceed their Legend by 1 additional AN/MN on certain Abilities, Actions, or Modifiers (this is up to the GM and the player to iron out, players should expect me to be stingy here. I might give you a list of what I'd consider “acceptable” for this). They can also have access to more esoteric actions (or at least I'll whine less when I see them if they make sense, like a Tanuki having a disadvantage-laden Invisibility action “Turn Into a Statue” action, for example). Legendary beings are encouraged to have additional challenges like Non-Human Appearance (or Can Appear Human), Elemental Sensitivity, or Extreme Compulsions.
Other Comments
*I'm looking for 4-6 players, will run this with 3, won't run it with 7. I'll take submissions for the next week and some change. I'm setting a soft deadline for a week from today (November 23rd, 2014) at 12 noon PST, but depending on things I might extend it depending on my work schedule, how my novel's going, and so on.
Questions, comments, etc.? PM's work great for me, but if it's something you think needs clarification I'd be happy to answer it in here too!
