Matching Systems to Settings - Worlds Posted on Realms of Chirak and the Systems they Work Best With

I've been scrutinizing other fantasy systems on the shelf with all this extra time spent in social isolation (well, not as much for me...I work in critical services for better or worse) but  it's turned into an interesting case of "find the game system that best fits the world." Or vice versa.

So far, here's where I am finding my campaign settings are landing:

World of Lingusia: With Pathfhinder 2nd Edition it's easy enough to convert any world designed with a D&D theme in mind. In revisiting some worlds, I've found that my Keepers of Lingusia campaign holds up as ever to the rigor of the D&D-esque mechanics and indeed, the more dangerous and low-key component of Pathfinder 2nd Edition gives the experience a somewhat old-school, high-risk tinge to the experience. So for the world of Lingusia, Pathfinder 2nd edition is a natural fit.

Enzada: When Pathfinder 1st Edition released I actually developed a whole new world for it: Enzada. The thematic behind Enzada boils down to these traits: non-western civilizations dominate; it's a world where there are too many gods for anyone, including the GM, to keep track of, and deep down nothing is really as it seems (but in a way that only lends to mystery rather than expose it). I did run some games in Enzada early on last year but alas while the fit is right, many of the non-western monsters and species of Pathfinder 1st Edition are not yet available in 2nd edition so it felt like a project to revisit at a later date. Sometimes a setting really needs its samsarans, catfolk, nagaji, vishkanya and other decidedly exotic races to make things work right, y'know?

Pergerron: this setting has convoluted origins. It started on the blog as a project to design a setting specifically using D&D B/X themes and monsters. In actual play I modified it for a Magic World campaign, and the thematics fit really well for what I wanted out of the setting. Later, when 5th Edition D&D arrived I ran a campaign for about ten levels which went fairly well, but by that point it felt a little off, because even though the starting intent was "a world for classic D&D" the result was something which benefits from the high risk, deadly nature of a BRP system like Magic World or Mythras. My last campaign in Pergerron was a short campaign using Mythras before it was retired, more or less. Could Pathfinder 2E handle it? Probably....but the idea of this setting's themes seem to mesh better with "risky, dangerous, sanity challenging fantasy," so I think BRP/MW should remain the system of choice.

Sarvaelen: Here's another one which was designed as a writing exercise for the blog, and as a result has a convoluted design history. At some point I decided to write up a setting idea for Tunnels & Trolls, but as it developed I started thinking of how this setting could work well with Magic World...Legend....Mythras.....then Fantasy AGE, which in fact became the first system I actually tried running Sarvaelen (that I can recall!). Thematically Sarvaelen is meant to be a dark, post-apocalyptic world facing a recent magical apocalypse, leaving a realm of haunted dominions behind, dominated by the concept of the Sullen Watch, rangers who protect against the badlands. Although my initial efforts with Fantasy AGE felt "off" I really feel like it's a system that could handle Sarvaelen well....if I take some time to really work on it. Time will tell....I recently picked up the Fantasy AGE Campaign Builder's Guide and it's got some good ideas in there.

Realms of Chirak: okay so at last we come to this one, the Big Daddy and the namesake of the blog. Realms of Chirak has always been about some key inversions of D&D elements, including a post-apocalyptic fantasy realm in which the gods are dead, elves are extremely rare and no longer superheroes (remember, Chirak was devised in the early nineties when elves were seriously overdone in AD&D 2nd edition!), and the idea was that mysteries abounded. For whatever reason, I still feel like D&D 5E is a good system for Chirak, probably because it allows for thematic largesse well enough.....but I ran Chirak in Pathfinder 1st Edition for a good number of years....I just don't feel like taking the effort to do tons of conversion work to PF2E, maybe; especially when I am still trying to update it to 5E first! That said.....these days, thanks to time limits and general life complexity, I could probably do plenty of conversion on the fly if I felt like it; but much like Enzada, Chirak has a lot of moving parts, pieces and bits, all of which are better supported by robust systems right now. D&D 5E has all the content needed for this; Pathfinder 2E probably will soon enough....by this time next year, when we have a Bestiary 2 and 3 out, and some in depth guidelines (pleaaaaase Paizo) on an Advanced Race Guide to cover the many ancestries currently absent from PF2E. Maybe then I'll consider it.

Oddly, I did work on one area of Chirak for conversion: I worked out extensive campaign details on the Sabiri Lands in, believe it or not, Cypher System. I have to say....the concept of Chirak as a Cypher Setting really has me intrigued; I may run it some day soon just to see how it all flows.

Worlds I haven't mentioned largely because I haven't posted about them on the blog include Ensaria, a setting that works best with Cypher System; Altavir (which has been posted here), a setting I think I'd like to use with 5E, T&T or Savage Worlds at some point; Eridu, my ancient Mesopotamia setting which is very specifically designed for use with Mythras; and my as yet-unrecorded on the blog exclusive new setting Oman'Hakat, the First World setting I've been running all adventures in with Pathfinder 2nd Edition for the last six months. As campaigns in that world start to hit their climactic points and spoilers become less of an issue I'll start posting some of that content soon.

Five of the Best Realms of Chirak Articles (according to the author)

I was poking through the years of this blog...like, 8 of them!....and realized I've got some good stuff floating around out there that I'd all but forgotten. Here are five of the cooler articles I unearthed and which I frankly am rather proud of.....

5. Adapting the Alien Universe to Traveller (May 2017)

A quick and dirty but very robust adaptation of the Alien franchise right up through Alien: Covenant. I feel like I should run this.

4. Senempar, City of Shadows for Pathfinder (March 2011)

This was the basis for a campaign I ran for about two and a half years, and the home city of the adventuring party that went from levels 1 to roughly 14. Many good memories, especially of taking down the enigma of the Red God!

3. Pergerron (Starting April 2014)

Now I'm cheating by linking to an Index, but of the various worlds built as exercises on this blog, Pergerron was especially interesting. The setting started as my tribute to classic B/X D&D and eventually morphed into something I used in actual play with Magic World and then D&D 5E. One of the best parts of the setting was the region of the Vosjin Wood, a haunted netherland bordering the mortal realm and the Primordial lands. A lengthy series of encounter write-ups (starting here) were some of the most fun I've had in setting up a weird forest.

Fun fact: I adapted the Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle to Pergerron!

2. Temple of the Whispering Dark (April 2012)

Dual-statted for BRP (Magic World) and T&T, this module remains one of the coolest scenarios I've written which I have never managed to run, mainly because I've never found a way to squeeze the world of Sarvaelen in to my gaming slots, nor decided what system I truly wanted to use for it. Still, it's a great scenario.

1. 28 Days in Savage Space (started February 2014)

You can find it all on the Savage Worlds site index, but before The Last Parsec arrived I was deeply inspired by the fast, furious and fun structure of the Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion to create a new setting from whole cloth....or in this case, I found a few dozen random cool picture on the internet and used them as the springboard for creating the Savage Space setting, which I have now used for three Savage Worlds SF campaigns. Definitely some of the most fun I've had writing on the blog, and something I must do again, soon.

R.I.P. Magic World

In Ab Chaos #25 (the Chaosium newsletter) it was announced that Magic World has been officially put out to pasture. Chaosium will continue to sell the books it has, and PDFs, but that's it. This is nothing (so far as I recall) that we didn't already basically know, it's just mostly closure. The official reasons: they are a small crew focused on other things, Magic World was very niche (I am sure it was) and they don't want to do "generic" fantasy (which is a shame that MW is considered generic fantasy; ain't nothing else like it in the fantasy RPG genre). There is also the more general feeling I get that Chaosium content from 1984 to 2014 has been wiped off the map for all practical purposes, and all projects associated with former Chaosium folk no longer in the mix. Okay, fair enough....one must expect that the current crew will focus on what they are most interested in (and what is presumably most profitable).*

But there is good news for the all the MW fans out there: Chaosium is indicating that they are open to licensing for Magic World, for any fans interested. There are definitely a few hardcore fans out there who've produced some impressive online supplements (check out basicroleplaying.com for examples such as the Big Damn Book of Monsters). Dustin Wright, unfortunately, is out of BRP entirely as of the last post I read from him over there so it seems unlikely we'll get any new content from the original author/compiler. It's also unclear to me if Chaosium would be open to a license in which someone produces an entirely new or revised rulebook (given they plan to continue selling the two books they did release in PDF, at least).

The other news in the email is that Mythic Iceland is nearing completion. I imagine this will sell well, both because many found it a great book, and also because this will be our first look at the new edition of the Runequest/BRP Essentials game system. I was never sufficiently excited by this setting to think of using it for gaming, but I am sure it somehow has it's place. It was, admittedly, one of the best sourcebooks for BRP to be released, so it's good to see it will continue to exist.




*And lets face it, Chaosium is practically the poster child for the cottage industry of gaming, where everything is already niche, so supporting a niche within a niche is just not a good idea. That said...is Mythic Iceland really that much better of a seller than Magic World was?

Runequest 6 vs. Magic World: A comparison and contrast

By popular demand I've decided to work up a list of differences between Runequest 6 (alias Mythras) and the BRP/Magic World game systems. In the latter case, I'm grouping them together as ultimately Magic World is essentially BRP powered, but with differences derived from the old Elric RPG mechanics. Where MW does something particularly different from BRP I'll mention it.

Character Creation:

There are lots of differences between the two systems here, but most are cosmetic. RQ6 provides a concise and straight method of character generation, as does Magic World. BRP provides a system littered with options and variants, but at its core can emulate character generation even more complex than the other two games, or as simple as Call of Cthulhu depending on which options you turn on and off.

Of the three, Magic World aims at the quickest and most streamlined character generation system. The net result is still functionally the same as RQ6 and BRP, but the goal is speedy and easy to use. It accomplishes this by defining how many skills to pick and at what value, and cuts out any optional rules that are not necessary. Despite being streamlined you still end up with a culture (defined by civilization size rather than RQ's cultural groups) and profession, as in Runequest. Magic World also restricts itself to a single magic system (unless you attach Advanced Sorcery or The Magic Book to it) which is based on the Elric! RPG sorcery system.

MW and RQ6 also differ in their morality systems. MW has a law/chaos axis defined as light and darkness (to de-Elricize it) with in-game effects based on behavior leading to purity or corruption. Runequest has a percentile-based passions system which was interesting and tries to codify a character's imperative in a mechanical way.

Combat:

This is really the biggest area where lots of little differences add up to a ton of trouble if you're not totally down with the rules differences (and where I felt the game dragged, albeit with the caveat that if we played long enough we'd probably all get used to it). Here's the differences:

Combat Styles:

RQ6 introduced combat styles, a "package" of typically 3-4 weapons all linked by one skill value, and reflective of a cultural combat style. Previous RQ editions still had each weapon with it's own skill value, and you could progress at different rates based on actual use. Go back to RQ3 and earlier and you still had attack and parry modifiers....so each weapon actually had two values! Combat styles also give you a special perk/maneuver option as well. The game is very tightly defined, except (strangely) for this part. Combat Styles are to combat what Passions are to personality/alignment....it's a weird spot where a holistic approach is applied to a game which otherwise is about to infodump serious effort into realistic combat.

Don't get me wrong, the concept works well. It is not really a bad approach, but it's hard for me to understand why there isn't more granularity in this part of the process when every other step of combat is highly granular.

By contrast, BRP lets you measure this from basic skill-per-weapon with default modifiers on up to the system Magic World uses, which is skill-per-weapon, but each weapon is part of a group which skill in one can affect skill in other weapons in the group. In BRP there are even options to "turn on" the old attack/parry style of RQ3 if you want that.

Strike Rank and Action Point Economy: 

I hate the way RQ6 handles strike rank and action points. HATES IT. Maybe I'm doing it wrong? My two veteran RQ6 players seemed to think the way I did it was fine, and even found out they had mistakenly been charging additional APs for special maneuvers (double dipping the cost).

So the Strike Rank is just a measure of initiative in RQ6, and it is where the MRQ/RQII/RQ6 mechanic jumped shark from the older RQ editions. The principle is sound: ditch the old strike rank system, which many found confusing and cumbersome in favor of a more delineated action point mechanic. You roll your strike rank initiative (SR, modified by an armor penalty, plus 1D10) and go. Each time your SR comes up, you can take an action, burning an AP. Each time you need to react, you can burn an AP. When you are out of APs, you are done...finito. The GM goes down the strike rank list, calling out until all participants in the round are out of APs to spend, then you go back to the top and start again. Sounds easy, right?

In practice, making sure the players track their APs correctly, and the GM tracks his APs correctly, is a micromanagement nightmare happening every single combat. There's no hard and fast rule on how to do it, other than to do the best you can to track each action and if you're in to this sort of stuff it might even be cathartic....but for me, it feels like work, every single time. Painful, unpleasant work that reminds me of how other games that are 98% identical to this one do it simpler and easier for the same effect. Never mind tacking on tracking each foe's injuries to the mix....more on that in a second.

To contrast: BRP lets you use a basic action economy where you go in order of dexterity, and everyone gets their movement and action (the CoC method, let's call it). Even better, BRP lets you mod the hell out of this if you want, to the point where you can reinstitute the complex and cumbersome strike rank/action system of old RQ2 and RQ3, which I won't elaborate on other than to say that if realism is your goal you should look in to it.

Magic World finds a fantastic, happy medium which ditches action points and goes with a variant of the strike rank system, but all using dexterity. So in MW you count down from your Dex score....you take action on our Dex, as the GM counts down. Every 5 increments (called Dex ranks) you have a chance at another action.....but every action comes with an increasing penalty, usually a -30% that is cumulative. So If Joe Elf with a Dex 18 acts on 18 to sprint to cover (2 MOV), then on Dex 13 he can strike at the orc, then on Dex 12 the orc tries to hit him so he makes his first parry (no penalty), and then on Dex 8 he decides to use his off-hand weapon to make a second strike (at -30%), and at Dex 3 he could in theory do more if the opportunity rises. Magic World avoids the action point economy by saying everyone gets an attack and parry at no cost, and every additional attempt (which requires a prerequisite, such as greater than 100% skill to make a second attack, for example, or an off-hand weapon) gets the cumulative penalty. So you can try to pull off more, or even avoid being killed more....but it's going to cost you. And best of all...when the GM hits Dex 1, the round is over and it all starts over again. You don't need to track anything; the flow of combat already did it for you. 

Injuries and Hit Locations:

RQ6 has a system where you have no overall hit point total...just locational hit points. You can get hit and wounded many, many times as long as you don't go negative in any one location, and if you do go negative, you're not at risk of death or dismemberment until you reach and exceed the negative of your HP total. I've seen this in action in RQII a lot, and now RQ6, and it makes for some interesting battles, especially against large and formidable foes like a minotaur. Everyone can be hitting them, but the damned thing won't go down. This, in and of itself, is totally cool.

However, try the following: 7 player characters are attacked by six soldiers, well armed and trained, with their leader and a minotaur. In D&D you need to know the AC, HP and what the creature does. You can capture most of that in a stat block easily enough. In RQ6 you are now tracking each wound on each location of each creature. Think about that for a second. While thinking about it, keep in mind you only have stat blocks if you create them, or stick to generic monsters....RQ6 has yet to release a convenient "Giant Book of statted NPCs" so maybe at best you can filch stats from prepublished modules (that is what I did, due to lack of time to stat everyone out). If The Design Mechanism ever does release a "Giant Book of Pre-Statted NPCs" I will buy that sucker for sure.

Now you have your action point/SR chart, your NPC roster, and a rolling hit locations chart. Better hope your NPCs drop fast! RQ6 does include rules for rabble and underlings...which are essentially NPCs with one block of hit points, to help alleviate the GM's job here. So...an acknowledgement that universally applying the hit locations can be extremely cumbersome in play.

BRP has all sorts of options, defaulting to the very basic hit point mechanic of Call of Cthulhu but also including rules for turning on all the complexity of hit locations circa RQ3. However, all such versions use a central hit point mechanic: you can take locational wounds, but two or three locational wounds can become a big deal when your main hit point total is depleted. BRP also uses the major wound threshold mechanic...when you take half or more of your HPs in one shot, you suffer grievous and lasting injuries. The latter is the default mechanic; you can use it with or without hit locations.

Magic World simplifies slightly, dropping hit locations entirely while keeping the hit point total and major wound threshold. In actual play I've found that MW PCs end up with just as many grizzly, debilitating injuries from an unfortunate combat as RQ6 characters do. Sometimes more! Magic World does offer an interesting heroic alternative, one where SIZ+CON become your hit point total (instead of SIZ+CON/2). This doubles your hit points and makes PCs much likelier to take risks and survive the results, on average. It's an incredibly simple way of keeping a realistic game system but making the PCs notably more epic.

Combat Specials:

RQ6 has them in spades: if you roll well, and your opponent doesn't, you get 1 or 2 special maneuvers you can call upon. It's a neat system in one sense, integrating cool combat tricks in to the process, and they are guaranteed to pop almost every time. But it's also a pain for several reasons, as follows:

1. You have a lot of maneuver options that make more sense if you're trying for them first, then succeed/fail. For example, it makes more sense to me that you declare an intent to hit a location first, get a penalty/modifier, and then succeed or fail on that. In RQ6 you attack first, maybe get a maneuver, and then if you want choose to hit a location.
2. Because there is not central hit point total bleed effects....more bookkeeping...are a necessity. In BRP they exist as an option for certain weapons, and in MW they have been more or less omitted as part of the streamlined mechanics. SO YMMV here.
3. Most of my players hit that moment when they had a maneuver option. The fastest resolution was for the RQ veterans to suggest what they did. But the RQ6 maneuvers are a very long list. I think it would go faster with memorization and experience, though....but even we vets were tripping up a bit. Rusty, I guess?
4. Here's my actual pet peeve: the specials detracted from the combat narrative. This is a huge YMMV type of complaint, because if you as GM are not in to narrative combat then a mechanical system which builds the narrative for you is probably going to look pretty cool. For me, though, it meant that injuries and situations were predetermined, and those were all post-hoc to the actual combat resolution. So in the end, all I did was "relay facts" without a lot of exposition. Maybe I've just played too much D&D, where most wounds are open to interpetation? I think this is very much a "it's just me" thing.
5. The complaint I feel is valid: too many choices and info "after the roll" led to a lot of slower combat situations, which was disappointing. I found myself less excited for combat to start as a combination of the combat specials conundrum, hit location tracking, SR/APs tracking and lots of fiddly bits in the process left each combat dragging. I remember in my RQII campaigns that the first game took about four sessions before we all started to "get it," and I almost quit running RQII by session two for this same reason......so my suspicion really is that practice makes perfect, here. But between the RQII days and RQ6, I discovered Magic World...and Magic World's combat system is streamlined, smoother, and so much easier while netting the same effective results. So sure, I could stick with RQ6 for a while longer until we all learn it well....but why bother, when I know I can get a faster but equally evocative system running immediately?

In BRP there are special effects, too. Bleeding and Impale are the most common, but they are very well defined over years of play, and are effects you expect from the weapons in question. As such, when specials happen their adjudication is quick. Magic World streamlines this: you don't have specials, getting extra damage or bypassing armor (or both) with you roll a special or critical.

Magic:

A word about the magic systems: this is one of the cooler elements of Runequest and BRP in general; there are about two dozen magic systems floating around now for the D100 systems, and all of them are equally interesting. RQ6 actually provides 5 magic systems in its main book and 2 systems in its Essentials book. Sorcery in RQ6 was regarded as sufficiently enigmatic that my players all agreed to ignore it. I have never liked how Theism worked in RQ, but it's easy enough to understand....just hard to master (and requires a lot of "time passes while I become a cult leader" moments in play). Folk Magic (alias Spirit Magic in BRP and RQ3/2) is the easiest magic system to understand. Shamanism....Animism in RQ6.....is the spirit combat/capture system, or as I call it "the original Pokemon minigame." It's familiarity to you depends heavily on what you get out of it, and when you first deployed it. I have found the presentation in RQ6 to be needlessly complex; compare to the system in older editions of Runequest and the BRP variant for a stark contrast. Magic World handles it simplest of all, offering some spirits to find in play with some very simple rules for what they do and why.

Something I didn't realize until I started comparing both systems: the descriptions of each spell in RQ6 don't always translate from the same spells in prior editions, or in The Magic Book, Magic World or BRP. This popped up when I noticed that the RQ3/Magic Book version of Demoralize is very clear in what it does, but not so much in the RQ6 edition. Weird!


Overall Style:

A lot of my issue with RQ6 boils down to a utility vs. expository presentation. If you are looking for a book that outlines the rules in a quick and merciless manner, then a system where the mechanics are clearly in one section and the exposition is clearly delineated for your leisure is very important. To give you an example, Magic World is, to me, a very utility-driven book; I can find most rules in its pages quickly and easily, with little muss or fuss; even BRP does a pretty good job, especially given what a toolkit approach it takes. RQ6 is a much chattier game, talking a lot of theory and exposition before getting to any rules when it comes to magic. This is in a sense good, because it really breaks from typical FRP game tradition, but it could really benefit from a 1-2 page cheat sheet for the magic systems, something which distills all the rules down to concise bits for quick access. Just my personal preference, though; another cohort of mine loves the RQ6 style and precisely because it is so laden with detail. For him (and to clarify, he's a single guy with a lot of free time!) finding the rules nuggets is not an issue. For me (a married guy with a company to run and a family to entertain) I just haven't got that sort of time. In fact it was the existence of Runequest Essentials that even gave me a sense I could feasibly return to RQ6 and try it out for this reason....the Essentials edition made it a cleaner package. It's also why the new Mythras Imperative will definitely be a system I run in the near future, albeit for a Sci Fi setting; I'll keep my fantasy with Magic World.

I have a final, petty complaint because as I was reading Magic World through again,* I realized that I wasn't wearing my reading glasses. Why? Because it has decent sized print for my middle-aged eyes. RQ6, unfortunately does not. Petty, I know! But I have the same complaint about Pathfinder. When you look at a lot of OSR games, I bet you'll notice that more, not fewer, use large font sizes, and I bet it's for this reason. (I won't even get in to the ligature issue, since Pete and Loz have identified that the next Mythras edition will get rid of it entirely).

What I think Runequest 6 could benefit from is as follows:
1. Some optional rules content, maybe a discussion on how to have a "basic combat system" and then layer on additional options for desired complexity.
2. Each of the core rules systems need a 1-2 page cheat sheet included which provides the flow-chart outline of how the systems work. A cheat sheet for the magic systems would go an enormous way to improving the utility of the book while leaving the expository text intact. Everyone wins, here.
3. I don't know what solution to offer on strike ranks/action points since they are pretty core to the RQ6 methodology. I'll have to brainstorm on ideas for how to make this process simpler,or at least easier to track.
4. Whatever comes out for Mythras next, I think they should have a Mythras Essentials to replace the RQ Essentials. Mythras Imperative is cool (and very, very utility-based), but it doesn't offer enough to do fantasy at all, and needs more content to do any genre justice.

And for BRP/Magic World:
1. Whatever Chaosium does with this, please keep any future BRP edition "moddable" like the current one. It should remain a toolkit at it's core. The new future BRP sounds like a skeletal framework on which specific settings will get their own stand-alone books, however, so I suppose my second request is just to keep the BGB in print.
2. Chaosium, please think about how you could revive Magic World. A second edition with errata fixes and expanded content (from the unpublished future sourcebooks we all knew about but never got to see) would be fantastic. Figure out a way to tie it to your new Runequest to boost sales. Like...call it QuestWorld 2E or something if you have to. Just please don't abandon it.




*I can re-absorb the whole MW book in about 2 hours but I still haven't finished RQ6. Go figure.

Magic World: The Big Damn Book of Monsters

Somehow I missed this, which was posted back at the end of January: a total conversion of all the Monster Manual I, II and Fiend Folio beasts in AD&D for Magic World by Chris Tooley. Head here to find it. The tome is impressive, and will likely make up for the fact that Chaosium has no plans to support Magic World anymore, so we won't see an official bestiary in the future, unfortunately. You might also find it useful as a point of conversion for your preferred flavor of Classic Fantasy campaign, too.

Especially useful for me as I've spent the last two weeks working with Runequest 6 on a 3-part mini campaign (with part three up next week) and it's been interesting to contrast the feel of RQ6/Mythras with my Magic World experiences. Magic World's streamlined design definitely appeals to me more, although I know that with RQ6/Mythras it's just a matter of persistence and time to get comfortable with it.* Still....being that I am pretty quickly coming to accept that I lean towards lighter mechanics these days, the prospect of a robust bestiary to support a longer Magic World campaign is very tempting.

*Also, my players keep correcting me when I make rules calls that are clearly ripped from BRP/MW and not technically part of RQ6/Mythras. Sigh.....devil in the details....and apparently I have BRP/MW very well memorized, enough to trip me up a lot when trying to run RQ6/Mythras.

Five Basic Roleplaying Sourcebooks I Would Really Like To See

With the recent changes at Chaosium, followed by the Big Ass Sale which has cleaned me out as I acquire all remaining BRP/CoC books I don't already own, it got me to thinking about what Basic Roleplaying still could use in the way of sourcebooks. Here are five tomes I would like to see in BRP's future, and maybe you would, too:

#5. BRP Zombies
We have GURPS Zombies which, like most GURPS books, works well as a sourcebook for any RPG (although 4E is slightly less useful in this regard than the old 3E sourcebooks, I admit). Sure, there are also dedicated zombie apocalypse games out there, but BRP's baseline "rules of realism" work exceptionally well for zombie apocalypses. I ran a BRP zombies campaign not too long ago that was an amazing experience, and introduced at least one new player to RPGs in general...it's a brutal genre, but an in-depth guide would be well worth exploring.

#4. BRP Bestiary
It goes without saying that one of the strengths of D&D is it's ability to produce copious quanities of creatures for adventurers to fight. Although your average BRP game is going to be about more than just slaughtering monsters and taking their stuff, that's a style of play that nonetheless resonates well, and having a large volume of monstrous foes to pick from has always benefited those games that need it...hell, look no further than Malleus Monstrorum for Call of Cthulhu to see an example of how this works for the horror genre.

#3. BRP Post-Apocalypse
Rubble & Ruin is a great monogaph but it is more like a taste of what we could have. I'd love to see a book for BRP that gets the Will McAusland treatment, but powered by BRP. Just imagine what that could look like...or even something robust enough to support an in-depth Mad Max styled campaign without any extra work on the GM's part. Rubble & Ruin was a good start: we need a glorious, full color finish! If we can get an amazing pirate book like Blood Tide, I think BRP Post-Apocalypse should be a no-brainer.


#2. BRP Cyberpunk/Transhumanism
Although the rules say you can construct cybernetics from the super powers rules, and having done so I would say yes, that is a reasonable work-around, it's still better to have a dedicated system (or extrapolation) on cyberware and wetware, along with a detailed world/setting guide that discusses the future cyberpunk dystopias and transhumanist singularities that we could build stories around. I'm thinking of more of a "world/setting creation book" than a premade setting....too often author bias makes the specific setting books of limited value. We need GURPS Ultratech and GURPS Biotech but for BRP, essentially....along with some glorious world design rules.

#1. Future World
This is the top dog....and it could even include the aforementioned cyberware/wetware rules. Magic World works as a great intro game because of its focus on fantasy. A SF-focused rulebook or even toolkit guide for SF gaming would be a much needed addition to BRP. Something which includes cusomized professions and skills, world generation, star travel, ship design, trade and commerce, exploration rules, alien design, cyberware, robots, androids, wetware and more. A "campaign design" book rather than a single setting book like we've been getting...something akin to Savage World's Science Fiction Companion, which as you all know is one of my favorite little toolkit books.

Tooley's Underwhelming Projects for Magic World

While at Basic Roleplaying I also found this, and....wow.....it's like a fountain of glorious water in the BRP desert:

Tooley's Underhwelming Projects for Magic World includes Monster Manual conversions for MW from the original AD&D, character generators, NPCs, psionic rules, scenarios and more......this guy has been busy!

Magic World Chronicler's Companion out by GenCon?

While perusing the Basic Roleplaying boards for tiny scraplets of info on potential future Magic World releases (yeah all of us D&D 5E gamers need to sit down and shut up when it comes to info on release schedules, m'kay???) I noticed this awesome bit posted by Nick Nacario that the Chronicler's Companion is conceivably going to exist this year. I am very happy....at this rate Magic World will be releasing product at a 1:2 ratio to D&D 5E. More money for me to spend on comics I guess, but I guess a book a year is better than none at all!

So from Nick's post:

Hey all,

I am currently laying out the Chronicler's Companion. It contains all of the material that Mr. Monroe stated earlier in this thread BUT with the addition of the Horsechester material that Mr. Richard LeDuc has written. The Horsechester material consists of a sourcebook detailing the village and environs of Horsechester as well as three scenarios that take place in and around the region.

Look for it in the next couple of months. I'm going to try to get it to GenCon.

Nick Nacario
Magic World Guy
Chaosium Inc.

CORRECTION: The scenario in the back of Horsechester is a three part scenario, NOT three scenarios. Sorry for the mistake.

Lands of Pergerron: the Lich Aruman

Back to Pergerron: Aruman is an ancient lich who has been both trapped within and protected by the Vosjin Wood. His schemes are far-reaching, however, and he promises profane occult lore to those who will do his vile bidding...

The Many Schemes of Aruman

Aruman is an ancient lich, once a man, who bears a great grudge against the city of Samaskar and the ruling king Damadis who betrayed him two centuries ago. Aruman’s key personality elements include a habit of never telling the same story the same way twice, never displaying remorse or regret, and strongly believing in the principles of the plague god of the undead Pulsragal, whom he personally ventured into the Outworld to find, in order to achieve his immortality.

He is at mortal odds with the Lich Xamorthas, whom Aruman once studied under and stole the requisite spells from to commune with Pulsragal. Two centuries ago, when King Damadis and Queen Aspara were feuding, Damadis consorted with the lich Xamorthas for aid, and in exchange all Xamorthas asked was that Damadis hand over Aruman. At the time Aruman was a venerable servant of the king, an agent of the court and a newly formed lich of great power; his betrayal of Xamorthas had been discovered at last.

Damadis did indeed hand over Aruman to Xamorthas, or attempted to. Aruman was able to escape, and was chased into the deeps of the haunted Vosjin Wood. Some claimed that not even Xamorthas and his hunters could find Aruman within the mysterious woods, but the truth is they did: the lich’s warriors tossed Aruman down a natural cistern after dismembering him. There, Aruman lay wounded but not dead due to his immortality as a lich, and he discovered a portal to the Outworld, which exposed the majesty of the hidden mountain of Sambador at the heart of the woods. Aruman petitioned dark spirits within to restore him, in exchange for insuring that Sambador’s temple be restored.

Today, Aruman dwells in a small villa built over the cistern and cavern he found which allowed for passage into the Outworld. He has continued his magical studies for two centuries, and has learned much in this time. The forest never allows him escape, for Lamia Queen Sukagras dislike him, but the two spirits of the wood-the White Stag and the Black Rook-have taken a liking to him.

Without an ability to leave the Vosjin Wood, Aruman must act through third parties to seek out new magic, discover ancient lore, and gain revenge upon the descendants of King Damadis. He ultimately seeks to escape the woods and gain revenge upon Xamorthas as well, but that is revenge he personally wishes to exact.

Aruman's hut

Ancient Tomes of Pergerron

Both of these books, or copies therof, are in the possession of Aruman:

The Tupsimatti Grimoire

This ancient tome is a treatise on the origins of the primordials, the rise of the elves in ancient Sar and the origins of the mysterious power that is the quintessence, the fifth element, of magic. Those who read it will find that the book is nearly endless; every month of study will reveal the following:

In Magic World it reveals 1D3-1 new spells, and allow the reader a chance to improve his or her Intelligence or Power scores (only one, and once a month).

In D&D 5E it reveals 1D3-1 new spells to the user each month of levels 1D10 (where 0 is a cantrip). The book can be used to swap out one prepared spell during a short rest with another from the book.

The Tome of Grol’Magog

This potent ancient tome contains the teachings of the outworld Demon Prophet Grol’Magog and includes a detailed discussion of the City of Chains where the ancient demon sorcerer dwelt. It provides planar gate magic, summoning magic, and names thirteen of Grol’Magog’s enemies’ true names. It contains dozens of useful spells, but the reader who learns it all risks madness and possession by Grol’Magog himself, who has imbued a portion of his demon spirit within the tome.

In Magic World, the user risks possession by Grol’Magog when reading the book (INT 21, POW 27; a resistance roll of POW vs. POW that leads to failure means the malevolent spirit is in possession of the sorcerer; this conflict may be rolled once per day after 8 hours of sleep, and each time the victim is possessed the spirit steals 1 POW from him or her). If the reader successfully fights off the spirit then one new spell is revealed and learned.

In D&D 5E, the spirit will take possession (similar to a ghost) which requires a DC 17 Charisma save to resist. Failure means the spirit retains total control of the reader for one day and a new save may be made after a long rest (yes, the spirit may intentionally deprive the victim of sleep to stay in control). A successful save means one new spell of choice (or random at the DM’s discretion) is revealed which the reader may then study and add to his or her spellbook. After the first time the reader is possessed, future saves are made with disadvantage.  

Lands of Pergerron: The Vosjin Wood

Located east of the city-state of Samaskar, and found only by those who look carefully for the path that leads from the stone-henge atop The Hill of Giants, lies the pathway to the Vosjin Wood, a demon-haunted forest of mystery in Pergerron....

The Vosjin Wood

The haunted Vosjin Wood is actually a landmark of the ancient war between the primordials and the Enkanneth, a landmark battle where the forces of the old Empire of Sar rose up against the Enkanneth and their armies, bolstered after the defeat of the primordials in the outworld. Using dire magics, an army of elvish blood knight vampires sought to destroy the human armies, but the goddess Suliversa called upon her divine magic and encased the army in a vast forest which rose up and grew around the armies of Sar. The trees captured all of the sundry monsters, blood knights and other creatures encompassing the last stand of the Saric armies and the primordial followers. To this day it is said that the trees of Vosjin feed on blood and that one can accidentally awaken a vampire (or worse), trapped in torpor, within the trees.

Getting to the forest isn’t easy: first you find the Hill of Giants, about ten miles north east of Samaskar, where an ancient stone henge rests along with the entrance to multiple tombs of old giants. Then the henge must align such that one sees a path into the wood. To do otherwise will lead the explorer only into the mundane Dreshani woodlands. Once in, escape is not so easy; the forest is enchanted, and no path is easily discerned save what the spirits of the wood desire you to see.

The forest has three spirits of great power which vie for control of the woods, and serve as protectors to the hidden portals which lead to the Outworld and the Mountain of Sahambla. The sole survivor of that ancient army of Sar was the Lamia Queen, Sukagra, and she was tasked with the goddess Suliversa with overseeing the great woods, to insure that the army within was never released; it is said that every time a creature is released from the woods, Sukagra must hunt it down or suffer terrible pain, or even death.

Sukagra

Sukagra has reformed much over the thousand years she has ruled the woods as warden. In this time she has come to recognize that the primordials and the old empire of Sar had grown corrupt with power, and that they brought their own downfall with the hubris they showed toward the young race of man. To this end she has accepted her role as a warden and protector of the Vosjin Wood. She has also changed in her very nature, becoming a champion of light and a purveyor of the ideals of the Enkanneth as a result.

The Black Rook, Spirit of the Vosjin Wood

The other two spirits were bound to the wood when the goddess forged the great expanse. Both were gatekeepers in their prior lives, spirits who held the keys to the portals to the Outworld locked within the woods: The White Stag knew the secret path to the Chasm, a bottomless rift in the ground beyond which the mountain of Sahambla rested. The Black Rook knew of the Portals within the earth and the Deep Passage, reached through the cistern beneath Aruman’s villa and other ways. The Black Rook was a being of pure shadow, a spirit spawned from the emanations of Pulsagral, and a interested party in entities like Aruman, which it likes to trap in the woods as playthings.

The White Stag, Servant of Sambador

The White Stag, by contrast, is a being of pure balance and empathy, and also a servant of the old god Sambador. Sambador was a primordial of neutrality, and the White Stag seeks to find champions who can pick up the cause to either awaken or avenge the primordial.

There are many who have sought the refuge of the magic wood, which by its nature obscures the path of those who enter such that no one leaves without the will of one of the three caretakers. The Saganyir Elves are one of the most notable denizens of the woodlands, a tribe of ancient wood elves who found the comfort of the magic wood and its access to Outworld to be to their liking. Led by the elder lord Vask’Tinorin, who may well have been a survivor of the ancient war and a young elf when the Vosjin Wood was created, these elves remember the old ways of Sar, but seek to learn where they fell in their hubris. They revere Sukagras almost like a goddess.

The Tymardiae are also frequent visitors to the Vosjin Wood. These gypsies of the east claim to have descended from the lineage of Suliversa, and have a blood relation to the enkanneth. This allows them freedom of movement in the magic wood, which allows them to enter the outworld as they wish, for the Tymardiae are indeed gifted with a sight that lets them see the bridges to the outworld, and to enter and leave the outworld as they wish.

One of the greatest threats of the Vosjin Wood is the green dragon Caldare. Caldare has resided in the forest for centuries now, and he is one of the few beings with the force of will necessary to leave against the wishes of the spirits of the wood. He hunts any who he wishes, and serves the whispering madness of the shadow as he sees fit. Sukagra would see him banished or slain but lacks the power to do so herself. There is some evidence that the secret cult to Hox Nagor is affiliated with Caldare, and may in fact regard him as a patron or even a lesser god to be worshipped, for Caldare claims to have descended from Hox Nagor, when the primordial lay with the dragon queen Cytarelle.

Of final specific note is the presence of the Ibixians, goat-headed beastmen of the Outworld who frequently arrive in the Vosjin Wood and seek to escape into the rest of the world to do much harm. The Black Rook lets them go, the White Stag tricks them into returning to the Outworld, and Sukagra seeks to hunt them down when possible.

Ibixians of Outworld

Next: Aruman, the Lich of Vosjin

Eyeballing Runequest 6 for the next alt-night Fantasy Campaign

Source!

Magic World has been on hold for a few weeks due to thw whole D&D 5E thing sucking up everyone's game time, but I am getting a serious itch to return to the split game nights, in which we rotate campaigns with D&D one week and "something else" the next. My plans currently are as follows: introduce the Wednesday night crowd to The Void, and expose the Saturday night crew to Runequest 6. The Saturday group has already got a decent Magic World campaign under their belts, but I think they are ready to graduate to the Big Boy of the BRP family of games now. This will open them up to the full range of exotic magic in Runequest, as well as the more tactical/maneuver based combat system which is where RQ6 has a definite leg up on MW.

Apparently Design Mechanism has been busy when I wasn't paying attention, because there's a short "Ships & Shield Walls" supplement out as well as a campaign setting book. I've ordered a copy of the former in print through frpgames, and the latter may be nabbed in the future, if only for the fun of reading it.

For many GMs, the question of "what campaign to run" is a matter of what resource you want to read, or whatever setting you devise in conjunction with your campaign. For me it boils down to which one one of my existing worlds I would like to exploit for my RQ6 campaign. Right now I'm using Enzada for my Wednesday D&D setting, Chirak for my Saturday D&D setting, and was using my newly created world of Pergerron for Magic World. Pergerron, being customized for MW already might be a very easy fit for RQ6, and could in fact benefit from the additional magic systems. However, if I were to run it, then I would have to explain why we were using RQ6 and not just continuing with the MW characters where they left off. So.....

There's my old venerable setting for Lingusia. The World of Lingusia has received so much weird attention from me in the last few years that it's timeline and setting details are all over the place now. I used it most recently for my 13th Age games, but decided that ultimately 13th Age is a little too epic and super-heroic for a world that was originally grounded in a mixture of AD&D 1st edition, T&T 5th edition and Runequest 2. So now, with my latest "update" to that setting I'm thinking maybe Runequest 6 would be a fine choice.

D&D 5E would be, too....but I don't want to just run D&D into infinity anymore. I was to keep it mixed up  a bit.

What I think I'll do going forward is devise the new setting (a revisionist timeline of Lingusia set in the year 2,090 AW for those actually familiar with the setting) with RQ6 as the focus. Make RQ6 the de facto engine for Lingusia going forward, essentially. Given how much I've used time traveling campaigns to revise the setting, this may be more than a little appropriate....and the grittier RQ6 mechanics will be more than sufficient to handle the Age of Strife era I am working on for the next iteration of the world.

So....goal now: try to develop this setting and campaign with RQ6 in mind, and sprinkle blog with liberal doses of both!

Magic World and the Teacher/Student Dynamic in Campaigns

My Saturday Magic World game continues in all its eldritch glory, but the campaign is taking a darker turn as the group at last has met the liche Aruman, and instead of taking the guy out (which the two lone human barbarian types in the group would like to do) everyone is instead bartering with him, offering to work for the liche in exchange for magical training. This is not unexpected, as there are six opportunistic spell-casters (or wannabe casters) in this group. It demonstrates a fundamental divide between D&D style storytelling and other types of fantasy RPGs....in Magic World, as with other BRP/Runequest systems you gain power, spells and skill through experience and training. As a result, it's important as the GM to account for the fact that players will need time in the campaign for their PCs to find growth opportunities. Now, the idea that they will happily aid the local evil liche in exchange for power is a clear sign that my campaign is rapidly moving toward an "all shadow, all the time" sort of campaign, but hey, that's okay....it seems to be what the players want.

What's interesting of course, is that D&D games will never, RAW, offer the players a direct incentive to negotiate a working relationsghip with the evil wizard in this manner, because D&D's leveling process has been largely divorced from its environment (at least since 1E, which had training costs, but not much else). Now yes, you could probably have the lich (for there is no e in the D&D analog) offer up spell scrolls in exchange for deeds, sure....but the PCs still gain more by just killing the lich, taking the scrolls and gaining the XP. In Magic World, killing the lich kills the mentor, and he's the one you need to train you...

Anyway, this did get me to thinking a bit about how the need to advance being an integral part of your course of action in a BRP/MW style game can have a decidedly significant impact on player character behavior, one which is rarely seen in D&D.

Index of Pergerron Articles

I've added a new index on Pergerron and the River Kingdoms of Anansis for those looking to see all articles in one spot. This setting is a hybrid monster with Basic D&D elements that eventually morphed into a Magic World setting which I currently use for my MW games.

I've also updated the Magic World portion of the index and the 13th Age article index.

Gaming Synergy - Savage Worlds, Magic World, D&D 5E

I've hit a weird gaming synergy lately. The current mix of D&D 5E (only just begun) with Savage Worlds and Magic World is having a rejvenating effect on my overall interest in RPGs. This is a good thing for someone like me, who has averaged two game nights a week for fifteen years now.

I have to say, Savage Worlds has proven to be a big boon. The system is quirky, and I worried about whether coming back to it in actual play would be problematic, but the mechanics held up very well and made for some exciting, fast-paced sci fi adventuring. Whenever the SF campaign closes I am going to propose we just keep doing Savage Worlds every other week, rotating to different settings. Next up would be Broken Earth, Zombpacalypse, Pirates of the Spanish Main or maybe a healthy dose of some straight up Supers with the new 2nd edition Super Powers Companion.

Meanwhile the decidedly non-D&D-like Magic World night continues to kick ass. I'm experimenting heavily in that setting, taking advantage of the copious resources for Basic Roleplaying to add in more than a little Dark Ages Cthulhu to my weird sword & sorcery setting. Magic World is proving even more enticing than Runequest 6, if only because it's level of accessibility is just right for my group.

And of course D&D 5E.....really though the Basic and Starter material is just a place holder. We need the real thing, all three core manuals ASAP. D&D as it used to be...the D&D I remember from back before it felt like a chore to run, is back. It's honestly hard to believe.

BRP - Enlightened Magic is out

Amidst all the furor over D&D 5E's release there is still other news out there. Yes! Hard to believe. One bit of news is Chaosium's recent reboot of their site...it's suddenly much nicer and easier to use. I just popped over and ordered the latest BRP sourcebook, Enlightend Magic. It looks good, hopefully will be just the book I need for my historical occult campaign that I'm always thinking about running....or even just a good resource to supplement my ongoing Magic World campaign, which admittedly has already got a cornucopia of coolness with the Advanced Sorcery book.

Once I get it (and I have a history of late order problems with Chaosium but hope the site change fixes that issue) I'll offer up a review....

Pergerron: The Vumaskans and Atakans of Ruined Gatana, and the Freeport of Kordalos

The inner city of Gatana shrouded in darkness beneath the great towers

Gatana was a vast and impressive city in ancient times, a monument to the power of the ancient civilization which worshipped the Primordials, though not part of the Empire of Sar, believed to be a frontier city along the westernmost border of an eastern empire sometimes called Striasha. As Sar is believed to have been populated by the ancient elves Striasha was said to have been the dominion of the now rare vumaskans, tall blue skinned half-giants of great strength and intellect. The vumaskans were noted for their six-fingered hands and feet as well as their exotic cobalt blue skin. Some say vumaskans were gifted with a third eye granting them mystical sight by the primordial Vos Kar, but that this gift was just as quickly stripped away by the enkanneth Suliversa. Today one in twenty vumaskans are born with the mystical third eye, which they can manifest or dispel at will; this orb manifests as an actual third eye upon their forehead.

vumaskans

The vumaskans are a sparse race, for their numbers were devastated in the old war between enkanneth and primordial; the purging magic of old bathed Striasha in eldritch fire and killed many of their kind. Today they are an unusual race of scholarly wanderers and nomads, plying their trade as merchants and explorers of the rare, unusual and occult. Wanderers….except for two locations: a vigilant tribe of vumaskans have made an unusual home out of the young Freeport of Kordalos, formed by the ataskan warriors who proudly follow their leader, Kord. Kord is an ataskan warlord and magician who claims that he is in communion with a young new god named Shuutol. Though some believe Shuutol is one of the primordial spawn, Kord claims that Shuutol is the first of a new generation of gods to rise to power, birthed centuries ago from an ataskan mother in virgin birth, he grew to full adulthood in one day and became a great prophet among his people for nearly two centuries before one day building a vast tomb for himself in the ruins of Gatana. There Shuutol entered, proclaiming that through his magic the path to true enlightenment lay at the end of the maze-like structure of the tomb complex beneath his pyramid. Those who were pure of spirit could enter, either in spirit after death or theoretically alive in the flesh and follow the true path to heavenly paradise; if, of course, you were truly enlightened. Kord is a high-priest and sorcerer dedicated to the Way of Shuutol, and his flock strives to follow the teachings of Shuutol as revealed through Kord’s spiritual communion with the demiurge.

Kord

When the atakan tribes following Kord arrived in the region twenty years ago they found that the city of Gatana, which had been occupied by atakans in Shuutol’s time, had since been overrun with serpent men, lizard men and other monsters who served another of The Ten, the demiurge Sibitsen Muukol. The atakans were strong but not numerous enough to drive out the monstrous squatters in the ruins, who had spent a great deal of energy erecting a great monument-pyramid to Sibitsen Muukol on the eastern edge of the city. They established the Freeport of Kordala, named after their leader, thirty miles south at the mouth of a tributary and formed a new community. It was only a few years later that the vumaskan nomads led by imperator Hamagas happened upon their growing community and asked for permission to settle in the region. In short order Kordala became the largest local city of primarily nonhuman citizens in the River Anansis region.

Two decades of hostilities, truces and periodic efforts at invasion have led to a constant state of conflict and tension between the river port of Kordala and the denizens of Gatana. Many human mercenaries have traveled to Kordala, driven by the prospect of easy money in service to Kord or Hamagas, and still others arrive with an eye to steal the guarded wealth of Gatana.

Where once there was a handful of atakan settlers there is now a prominent young city with great walls being constructed and farmland for miles around. Kordala today has a population of roughly twelve thousand atakans, 1,500 vumaskans and a medley of other races, including roughly four hundred elves from the Sybariti tribe which migrated into the area after the orcish raids out of Mt. Gol left them homeless, and a tribe of halflings called the Glimmerwrights, known for their staggering artisanal skills and intimate familiarity with the vast delta region of the coast. As is inevitable, perhaps five thousand human men and their families have migrated into the region, though they are required to acknowledge Kord as their proper ruler and swear fealty to no human king.

Western Gatana on a sunny day

A mere thirty miles from Kordala rests the ominous ruins of Gatana, a great and largely intact array of skyward-reaching ruins noted for their ancient, alien architecture and the immense earthenwork pyramid to the eastern edge of the city that appears to be under endless construction. The nominal rulers of Gatana are the serpent men priests of the ophidian demiurge Sibitsen Muukol. Their leader is the grotesque chaos hybrid called The Hydra of Draedas, a serpent man born of the taint of chaos, said to have been fathered by Sibitsen Muukol on the night of a blood red moon during a profane alignment of the stars. This serpent man stands taller than most and has three heads, each of which moves and speaks independently….and can cast spells independently. Rumors that his very blood is poisonous are told as well, that no one can strike him lest they succumb immediately to the vapors emitted by any wound upon his body.

Despite their dominance in the ruins, the serpent men willingly let other monstrous kin occupy the area, so long as they recognize the greatness of Sibitsen Muukol. The lizardfolk of the coast serve them as cheap labor and soldiers, while other monsters such as trolls, ogres and orcs occupy the city in some sort of tragic pantomime of reali civilization. The monsters of Gatanas seem decidedly primitive, even wild compared to their kin elsewhere; orcs can be very organized and even cultured (from a certain point of view) but the orcs of Gatanas are little better than wild men and thieves.

 

Serpent priest of Sibitsen Muukol

Gatanas holds many secrets, few of which have been plumbed. The two-century old pyramid of Shuutol is one, resting near the heart of the city alone in the center of a vast plaza. The pyramid is regarded as a dangerous place haunted by the spirits of the dead, and left alone by most monstrous denizens in the area. The immense ruins themselves, some of them creaking frameworks of ancient buildings that rose a hundred stories tall, loom large throughout the city like jungle-draped canvases of decay, suggesting that the power of the ancients was vast. The skeletal frames of these ancient buildings appears to have been made from some sort of material similar too but lighter and stronger than metal, and does not decay. Many of the monsters of Gatanas have built elaborate layered lairs using wood and other materials to stretch out between the girders of these skeletal ruins.

Artifacts always drive interest in the ruins, for both monsters, tomb robbers and the atakans of Kordala. The artifacts of the ancient people of Striasha were truly wondrous; weapons of great destruction, devices which no longer work but hint at unimaginable magic and the relics of other impressive devices clearly suggest a command of technology and magic far beyond modern understanding. Whether the ancient vumaskans were technomancers of the highest order or something else is unknown; not even the vumaskans, who while long-lived by human standards (up to 150 years old) remember much of their old ways, only that the fall from their peak of civilization was great, and when it was all said and done 99% of their people had perished, their history, lore, culture and technology all but lost.

Imperator Hamagas

How to make enemies of the local major wizard - a Magic World fable

My Magic World game on Saturdays was a hoot. The players had wrapped up the previous scenario and were spending some time purchasing goods in anticipation of their extended road trip plans, escorting a Vumaskan merchant to his home in Kordala, a lengthier journey than it needs to be since the vumaskan in question owes the harbormaster a princely sum and he is barred from access to the docks on pain of death....so he's going to hoof it to the freeport of Vespas to the south and then hire river transport from there. Yes, this is all in the Pergerron setting I've been sticking a lot of content about in my blogs recently.

Anyway, one of the stalwart adventurers, a city elf spellblade by trade with a keen interest in all things necromantic sought out a local scholar or mage who could help divine the secrets of her recently acquired evil-looking (and behaving) gems, the Eyes of Hox Nagor. This, as they say, ended up being a very enjoyable "plot derailment" moment in which the PCs charged off to aid her in what started as a "find the wizard and see if he can identify these" into a "help the wizard find his stolen book and missing apprentice, who may have run off with a local floozy or possibly a rival wizard." Evil bat-men, a tunnel to the underworld, the discovery of a dying apprentice who was then "parted out" by said necromantophile, a haunted cat said to be possessed by something which self-identified as a passion spirit (hint: it's much more than that) which taught them some magic in exchange for freedom of movement letting the spirit take control of the earlier aforementioned floozy....a displeased mage learning of the "parting out" of his former apprentice....a golem in the mix, sudden fire at the mage's house, stolen horses and a quick escape later and we had a full evening's entertainment. Yikes!

We left off with the adventurers following a spirit-possessed prostitute on stolen horses heading to the ancient haunted Hill of Giants, where they can find the landmark that marks the trail that leads to the ancient, evil hut of the legendary Lich Aruman.Because y'know, things happen.

It was a crazy evening.

I'm really starting to love my new setting, and Magic World is proving to be a stellar system for the unique flavor I wanted to achieve in Pergerron. I could (and would) use Runequest 6 for this world as well, and may do so in the future, limiting only theistic magic which has no place interestingly in Pergerron's weird cosmology, where all magic comes from one source. Whether the caster wants to think the power comes from the gods or not is entirely up to him...

The Witch of Galitath for Magic World

Continuing my adaptation of Pergerron to Magic World, I look next to the revision of the Witch of Galitath....

Terragia - The Witch of Galitath

STR         13

CON       16

SIZ          10

INT         21

POW      24

DEX        18

APP        20          

Move                                10

Hit Points                          26 (immortal/heroic HP)

Damage Bonus                  +0

Magic Points                      24 (plus staff)

Skills:                            Bargain 90%, Climb 40%, Dodge 50%, Insight 100%, Listen 70%, Hide 90%      Move Quietly 90%, Nature 95%, Physik 90%, Potions 110%, World Lore 90%

Armor:                          none, but she has 12 points of natural resistance against non-magical, unenchanted attacks

Attacks:                        by staff 85%, 1D8+1D6 damage plus special (see below)

Traits:                           Sorceress (see spells below), immortal, helm of technomancy, regeneration (1 HP/round)

Terrain:                       any area in the Barbarian Lands of Galitath

Staff Special: A Staff of Power (24 MP), +1D6 damage (1D8+1D6 total)

Helm of Technomancy: Terragia's decorative helm contains ancient technomagical secrets which let her speak with and control the meks (see killer robots, page 359 BRP, but no ranged weapons) who serve her so willingly. Her helm also allows her to ethereally cut a portion of the katra of willing target away, and implant it in the ether engine of a mek to power it. An unwilling target of this effect (which she can do once per day) must make a resistance roll vs. potency 20. The target loses 1D6 POW but gains 1D4% per point of POW loss in a skill of choice. The experience diminishes the spirit but the immaterial bond with the mek proves an enlightening experience. Once one's katra has been bonded to a mek, that mek will always behave as a friend and protector to the donor (so long as he/she lives).

Immortality: Like all demiurges, Terragia has a form of immortality, such that she can only readily be harmed by enchanted weapons and spells, and regenerates 1 hit point of damage per round. To slay her requires dismembering and burning her body. She will resurrect 1D6 months after being slain, appearing somewhere in the bramblewood of her homeland. The myths say that she can only be slain if one finds the exact crop of bramblewood she will regrow in and burn it down, then salt the earth.

Sorceress: Terragia is a gifted sorceress and commands a range of spells. She typically has the following spells prepared: Agony (2), Animal Friendship (3), Babble (1), Affliction (4), Cave Bear Shape (4), Bird’s Vision (1), Brazier of Power (4), Captive Slumber (3), Cloak of Night (4), Curse of Sorcery (4), Earth Walking (4), Hag’s Flesh (3), Heal (3), Itch (1), Midnight (1), Moonlight (1), Omen (3), Scry (4), Sorcerer’s Beauty (3), Sorcerer’s Void (3), Summon Elemental (1), Undo Sorcery (4), Summon Passion Spirit (1), Wrack (1)

Terragia, the witch of Galitath

Some call her the Bramble Queen, for she is said to haunt the thick, spiny woods along the foothills of the Askofar Mountains. Others call her the Lady of Sar, for she seems to have an uncanny familiarity with the mechanical golems of the ancients, the so-called meks. Those men of the Barbarian Lands who claim to have met her in person say she is at once cunning and mad, and surrounded....always surrounded....by the hideous brambles that spring up wherever she walks.

On one occasion, the regional hero known as Arabast the Cleaver said he met Terragia on a dark night, under the harvest moon after a particularly gruesome battle against a horde of orcs. She was sifting through the hundreds of corpses that had piled high in the battle when she came upon Arabast, wounded and recovering from a rattling blow to the temple. She offered Arabast a choice: to suffer his wounds, but in so doing, if he healed, he would be stronger than he could imagine. Or she could heal him and insure his health, but in exchange he must give of her a portion of his spirit, his katra, as the Galitath call it, a concept similar to but not quite the same as a soul.

Arabast considered her offer and decided he would have none of her withccraft. She left him to his own means, as her hulking mechanical giants carried off dozens of corpses. A year later he found himself ruler of the entire Northrender clan, ten thousand warriors under his banner. "She knew my destiny," he once said to his young wife Ezeta, "and she let me choose it. I could have been fodder for her machines....I think she steals the katras of men, and that the meks she commands are powered by those fragments of our spirits."

The truth about Terragia remains a mystery, but there are a few other facts worth mentioning:

She is a friend to the efreet that dwell in subterranean cities beneath the silt deposits on the coastal plains

Terragia is visited once a year along the coast by a contingent of priests and nobles from the Great City Phantomax to the distant west, often bearing strange concotions and tomes of eldritch lore in exchange for some of her fabulous meks

Terragia is shunned by the orcs, and her mere presence at an engagement is enough to send them routing

At least a few priestesses of Suliversa in Tordalis claim that Terragia is the bastard daughter of their goddess, from a tryst with Tokandros