When You're In the Mood for "D&D," Just Not Specifically D&D - Mythras Classic Fantasy, Fantasy AGE, Cypher System And Other Weird Variants

 I've had lengthy times where I grew tired of D&D and wanted a break from fantasy, which then led to me running other game systems in different genres such as Mothership, Call of Cthulhu, Savage Worlds and so forth. More recently I have been facing a stranger issue: a desire to run something D&D-like, just NOT actual D&D. I mean, I am running and enjoying D&D....but I know it is less because of the current edition rules at this point than it is because of the campaign I am running, and the sundry plots and characters; the game is succeeding despite itself, not because of itself. Indeed, I realize that my main problem with D&D 5.5 (2024 edition) is that it's frankly just more of the same....lots of noteworthy changes, but none of them shake it up mechanically beyond being a horde of slight iterations. It is like they patched D&D 5E, and you notice the improvements, but ultimately also notice its still just the same game. To run with a video game analogy: they added in ray tracing an patched a loot exploit so it looks cooler and plays more smoothly, but its still the same game you've already played to death.

This has gotten me looking in to other options for a fantasy fix which mix up the mechanics sufficiently that I can feel a breath of fresh air even if I am still running some archetypal adventuring campaigns. I've explored Tales of the Valiant and while I am eager to test it out as a GM, it's still got the same problem D&D 5.5 does; it's just a variant on the thing we've been playing for the last ten years already. Pathfinder 2E Remastered is also good at "D&D like" so it's a bit closer to what I want....but in many ways it is the closest direct competitor to D&D, and has its own unique range of issues when it comes to applying it to classic D&D-ish fantasy without being D&D. 

This leads me to a few other systems I've considered, as follows:

Mythras Classic Fantasy - this just recently received a huge upgrade with the new Mythras Classic Fantasy Unearthed expansion. If you don't know what this is, it's a hack of the Mythras Fantasy RPG (which is itself a valid alternate to D&D) in which it retools the game's chassis to accomodate classes and a very "D&D like" level structure, along with a D&D-derived magic system and plenty of monsters and magic items. It is Mythras at core, but reframes everything to feel like D&D. Specifically it feels like an emulation of AD&D 1st edition, just now powered by a BRP-derived game engine with lots of skills, D100 mechanics and an extra heap of lethality. Cool stuff. 

Pros: Classic Fantasy is a very robust reimagining of D&D style play in a more gritty chassis powered by Mythras; it is well supported with a bunch of modules, main books, the Classic Fantasy Imperative (a ORC-license restatement of the rules as a stand along product, though note you will still want the original Classic Fantasy book for Mythras as it holds all the monsters and more goodies), and the new CF Unearthed book. Plus, you can use all the other Mythras material with it, it's fully compatible.

Cons: I always run into a stumbling block with Classic Fantasy, which evokes for me two things: AD&D and Mythras. I then leave myself wondering if this mix of chocolate and peanut butter really work, or if it makes more sense for me to simply play straight Mythras or straight AD&D. I also prefer BRP Itself, over Mythras, another issue entirely. Also, the special attack rules for Mythras can lead to player decision paralysis, a very common issue I encounter when running Mythras.

Fantasy Age 2E: Green Ronin quietly released Fantasy Age 2nd Edition last year and I am not sure anyone noticed. It's since released a Cthulhu Mythos and Technofantasy expansion on Drivethrurpg, and the 2nd edition is largely backwards compatible with prior books. Fantasy Age, if you did not know, is derived from the Adventure Game Engine (AGE), originally created for the Dragon Age RPG, and this is a full-on iteration designed for use in whatever setting you want. It is class and skill based (though they use focus and talent terms), and is in many ways similar in structural design to D&D with leveling up, escalating hit points and lots of fast paced, hard hitting magic. The latest edition is more robust than the 1st edition Basic Book, too.

Pros: You get a similar experience to D&D but will find Fantasy AGE allows for a lot of design flexibility; its a great system to make unique looking characters, and is pretty easy to GM as well. It has ample support material and the core book is pretty robust.

Cons: Some people find the high starting hit points take getting used to; combats will last longer, sometimes when you don't expect them to. The stunt system unique to Fantasy AGE can lead to a bit of decision paralysis for players, but I find that a few sessions will get them very used to it. Also, because its core design was meant to emulate a video game, it can sometimes feel a tad video-gamish.

Cypher System - Godforsaken and Others: Cypher System has had a lot of expansion into the realm of fantasy gaming in the last several years. The Revised Cypher System rules have plenty of content, but if you add Godforsaken and the Cypher Bestiary you have all you need for a robust D&D-ish campaign but powered by the deceptively simple point-pool system of Cypher. They also have the Planebreaker setting, a new Diamond Throne update and the Ptolus City Setting out for Cypher, most of which were originally settings for D&D 3rd edition or later 5th edition, so its got support for D&D-like campaigns baked in.

Pros: Cypher System is a resource pool game system with player-facing die mechanics which is incredibly easy for the GM to run, and you can simultaneously make very archetypcal D&D-themed characters and also go as off the rails in PC design as the GM is willing to let you. It de-emphasizes a lot of the nitty gritty mechanical elements of D&D, but with the cost advantage of making story and collaborative engagement top priority.

Cons: Cypher System, despite being so cool, can be hard for classic RPG enthusiasts to wrap their heads around, as the pool resource mechanic is counterintuitive to more simulationist rules systems like D&D. Cypher System also works best for GMs (and players) who enjoy improvisation and ad hoc developments, and the game really shines when this is leaned into, but flounders badly if you rgroup does not embrace it.

There are some other ones to consider too! In brief:

Basic Roleplaying, Runequest and Magic World: BRP has a nice new edition update out, and it just got a GM's screen. It's plus is BRP is the best system ever, but its downside is they don't have a single unique modern resource for providing fantasy gaming content. The core book has some material, but its not robust enough. A few years ago before Chaosium changed ownership they published Magic World, which does do exactly that, but its only available in PDF and POD (and had a lot of errata). It's not a bad option, but it is a shame that BRP's latest edition does not have more setting/genre resources out for it, and it continues to get neglected in favor of Runequest. Runequest, in turn, is a great alternative to D&D if you want to really experience something different in the world of Glorantha, but a difficult setting for most to parse out and make their own. If you just want a system to power your own creation, Runequest will disappoint. 

Dragonbane: This is a hybrid reimagining of what the original BRP Magic World of the 80's (from the Worlds of Wonder Boxed Set) became in Sweden, also called Drakar och Demoner, and it was brought back with a Free League flourish, now based on a D20 mechanic instead of a D100 mechanic. It's actually a really neat alternative to OSR D&D gaming, but it needs a bit more support to serve as a broader tool set for enterprising gamers. It also has a problem of looking and feeling like a D&D alternative, but in fact being much closer to its BRP roots and therefore being rather deadly to any game group which plays it like a straight up D&D dungeon crawl. I'm keen on trying this one out eventually, but it's not going to scratch the "D&D but not D&D" itch for me.

Savage Worlds Fantasy and Savage Pathfinder: actually these would work pretty danged well for scratching the "totally D&D feel but not D&D at all" itch. Pathfinder for Savage Worlds brings in classes and themes modeled from Pathfinder 1st edition and is not so wed to Golarion that you can't hack it for your own thing. Add in the SW Fantasy Companion (revised for SWADE) and you have essentially all you need to do everything I've been talking about. The top reason it might not be as ideal is because Savage Worlds excels at being multigenre, and I have found that I enjoy it a lot more in a modern or SF setting than fantasy....though that said, Savage Pathfinder rocks hard. The other problem with Savage Worlds is if you associate hit point bloat and long, protracted combats with the D&D experience, then Savage Worlds may not work for you! It's too fast.

There are others I have not mentioned....GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and the reissue of The Fantasy Trip both come to mind, for example. 

One of my game nights needs a change of system soon. I think it's probably going to be Pathfinder for Savage Worlds, but I might talk them in to a short campaign in Dragonbane just to see how it feels. I am super keen on Fantasy AGE at some point as well, but I really want to absorb the nuances of the system to feel comfortable with it, first....and that requires time I rarely have these days!

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.

Fantasy AGE Session Three

This weekend we tackled session three of Fantasy AGE. I toyed with the idea of shifting to a different system, but as luck would have it we had a smaller group and I decided what the heck, let's just stick with it for a while. I've found that after decades of gaming it's hard to really get a sense of a game's overall pace and potential until about five sessions. Sure, sometimes glaring errors pop out right away, but for me as a GM I usually know if a game's going to "do it" for me after about five sessions.

This is session three of the current game (not counting my prior attempt ages ago) and this time around I specifically approached it from the following angles, answering the following questions and getting the following results:

1. Combat seemed tedious and overly long in session two. How does that get fixed in this session, and do I have to engage in a houserule or optional rule from the Companion to do so?

2. My preferred style of play is more free-range and I like the ability to move in directions unanticipated in prep. If the players head out yonder on the map and explore the strange dig site that was supposed to be a minor stop over, will Fantasy AGE let me flex with the rules and cover some ad hoc content if I need to?

The combat solution worked out as follows: with fewer players making it to the game we decided to keep with the default rules, so no special combat or health reductions. I also want to read up on Modern AGE a bit and see how they developed that element in those rules. The net result was the following bits which I observed.

Perhaps due to its origins as a game system for Dragon Age, Fantasy AGE seems to work exceedingly well when there is only one or maybe a handful of opponents for the players to battle. My session two mistake might have been making the mistake of keeping the orcs at full health, when I should have treated them like half-health minions. Either way, combat against a single tough enemy or maybe 2-3 average enemies plays out very comfortably. Large groups work much, much better with a lot of minions.

The free-range flexibility question really boiled down to, "does this system push me to frame the scenario within its defined limits (mechanically), or does it act as a spring point for what I need for the game/story/scenario?" And of course, "When we get off track, is ad hoc play too difficult due to the mechanics?"

The answer to both is: absolutely yes, just fine. I ran the game Saturday night like I was running Cypher System, and it worked just fine. The group encountered multiple monstrous beings (two of which were distinct foes) but the ability to reskin content or fill out unanticipated stat blocks from a reasonable expectation of what was needed. Aside from one stat block in the Bestiary that I used with a distinct reskin, the other encounters were very easy to fill in on the fly.

Issues that I continue to mull over, but which will become more evident with time, include the fact that the game still feels a bit underwheming and low key when it comes to the magic, but I am curious if we will notice it that much over time. Compared to Cypher System or D&D, though, it feels like most magic in Fantasy AGE is very "low level" in effect and design. I am fine with this myself, but it does mean that the overall tone of the campaign will be less fantastical, at least from the angle of player ability over time. We'll see if that's an issue for the players.

There remain some oddities, but these feel to me like bits and pieces of a game system that maybe needed a bit more playtesting, and possibly a decent second edition to fix things down the road. Time will tell if Fantasy AGE has been popular enough for Green Ronin to take on such a task, though. With The Expanse, Modern Age and Lazarus in the works, the idea of a "Fantasy AGE Definitive Edition" would be a nice future surprise, and that edition could take advantage of the development to the system from Modern AGE and onward.

Still, we had fun, and I did enjoy the feel of the system. I'm looking forward to doing more.

Observations about Fantasy AGE in Actual Play

We've played a couple sessions of Fantasy AGE now, and as you know there's nothing like actual play to spot some rules oddities!

Here's what we've noticed so far:

No Unarmed or Martial Arts Rules

Yes, it turns out Basic and Companion rules don't really provide a set of rules for unarmed combat, grappling, or anything else. You can houserule (as I did) but apparently this is not something that went unrecognized as an issue, since I see martial artists are a thing in Modern AGE.

The good news is, you can probably port the Modern Age martial arts rules over to Fantasy AGE easily.

(EDIT: there is an unarmed skill that plays off Accuracy, and a damage value for fists....so it's not bereft entirely, but that's it. So when in game session one player wanted to throw down and disarm a foe it was entirely improv at that point.)

Health Point Inflation is Still A Thing (but...the Companion)

Okay, the problem here is dependent on subjective notions of what sort of damage you are dealing against a target, and what that target can soak. It also depends on what the GM's expectation is on how to build an encounter. Fantasy AGE provides loose rules on this, but after yet another game where I threw a batch of average difficulty monsters against the players I (yet again) felt that weird sensation that combat was going on too long.

Admittedly, we had 8 players against 18 orcs, so you might say, "what did you expect!?!?" but hear me out. I'd expect a combat like this to take a long time (and prove lethal) in Mythras. It would reasonably take an hour or so for D&D 5E, and I am sure it would take a similar amount of time in Cypher System. But Fantasy AGE's session ran about 3.5 hours for one combat, and that's not even with much downtime from people refreshing or learning the rules. Most of it was with the fact that the system, as currently designed, defaults to health points which are definitely inflated beyond "normal" limits. By this I mean: there's an expectation that if a sword strikes you for a lot of damge, you should have a reasonable chance of being killed in one hit. Mythras does this as the core conceit. D&D does this as levels 1-3 for most battles, and then escalates damage (and hit points) as you advance. Fantasy AGE? It seems impossible even with a 6 on the stunt die to do enough damage to take out a foe in one hit at starter levels and health without the GM deliberately reducing health. You either use a minions rule to cut health in half, or use the Companions book to modify how health and/or damage works.

For this test campaign I wanted to run the system straight up, first, to see how it felt in default mode. The experience has been that the only way to assume orcs and other 30+ health point monsters function is that they are really, really tough.

Whether this is a problem or not depends on what you expect a game to run like when a fight like this pops up. For some, this is fine. For others....it's a tedious length of time for what is supposed to be a shorter fight. I guess that's why the Companion offers up a bevy of alternative rules to make health or combat shorter and deadlier.

Given the Health Totals Magic Seems Really Weak

This impression may change with time, but right now, given most arcana don't have more than four spells in Basic (and maybe a few more in the Companion), the spell progression feels like a system built around the equivalent of 1st to 2nd level magic in D&D. There are insanely few examples of what I would call "role play" or non combat spells, but very few spells that are frankly all that impressive. Except penetration spells. Those are badass, even if they do minimal damage, because armor points are a bitch in this game!

Try buying an animal or a horse

Just try! You can do it in Dragon Age RPG, but somehow despite having a very comprehensive equipment list, and even having mounted and flying combat rules, Fantasy AGE is still missing purchasing costs for mounts and animals. Given that the equipment section in the book is clearly derived from the one in Dragon Age, it feels like more of a glitch and omission in error and less choice or oversight.

....Okay, my observations for now. I plan to run this at least 1-3 more sessions but I am debating pausing the game and just accepting Cypher System as my God of Games forevermore. ALso, maybe, tempted to talk everyone into trying Symbaroum next....!

2018 RPGs in Review

This was a strange year for gaming in my household. Notable this year was my son's reaching an age where gaming "clicked" for him; dad reached a unique level of gaming burn-out even as son hits his first stride; all of my top gaming discoveries this year were older games for the most part; and I significantly reduced my game collection earlier in the year via ebay.

Wrestling with what has felt to me like close to a year of burn-out has been tough. Part of me is certain the burn-out is tied to the exponential increase in my responsibilities at my business, which does indeed take much more time out of my life than it ever has before. Some of it is a more general genre burn-out, and discovering a game like Cypher System which let me break out of the D&D box a bit actually framed just how long I had been running D&D, and perhaps how uninspired I was now feeling as a result.

However, I have a great crew of long time friends and family I can game with, and that alone makes it all worthwhile. I have (due to work and other issues) taken more time off than usual this year on gaming nights, but with any lucky 2019 will be less arduous and I will rekindle my creative juices.

So in looking at 2018 in review, it's hard to pick out five or six things to address that are topically new. Instead, I'll do a "this was important to me this year" list instead.

#5: Starfinder

This year I tried running Starfinder multiple times, managed a campaign on an off day for a few months, and got several stalled games running that I wish could have gone further. The general consensus is that Starfinder has a great premise and style, and manages to pull off a fun game in a Pathfinder frame. However, due to my difficulties this year it has been very hard to remain committed to Starfinder for the lengthy period that it deserves.

#4: Call of cthulhu 7E

My campaign for 7E CoC wrapped earlier in the year, and it was a truly spectacular event. Call of Cthulhu's latest editions has captured my attention and this was a highlight of gaming for me in the last two years (the campaign started in 2017). I definitely need to run more CoC in 2019.

#3: Dungeons & Dragons 5E

Despite being burned out on it, D&D 5E remains an important staple for me in gaming. Two events keep me inspired going in to 2019: first, my son has active characters (see an earlier post on this) and we are really enjoying this very simple, very straight-forward 5E game. I actually hope it will help me to start enjoying the game more generally again. I am also inspired by the Ravnica setting which WotC released. This is the first genuinely new setting for D&D in a very long time, and I hope it does well; D&D needs new and innovative going forward; it's got the "classic stuff" well covered already, perhaps too much so.

#2: Numenera

I haven't run it yet, but Numenera as a setting is one of the single most unique and fun settings I have encountered in a long time. It's material is inspirational for any fantasy or SF setting, and I have pilfered from it for my Cypher System games. I hope to finish reading through Discovery and Destiny (the new edition of the game) and have a a campaign lined up for this next year.

#1: Cypher System

Discovering and then figuring out Cypher System was a major revelation to me. Just as I found myself getting tired of the old classics (or 5E's version of the game genre), while finding myself without the time or energy to wrangle the more sophisticated modern offerings (Pathfinder, Starfinder) or the dedication to learn new and unfamiliar things (Genesys Core), Cypher System arrives just in time for me. A game designed to be player-facing, loaded with things for players to tinker with while being written specifically with the time-limited or lazy GM in mind who wants to use RPGs for creative release but maybe isn't too interested in the stat block mini game, Cypher System is the best game find I've discovered in the last twenty years.

...So, going in to 2019, I realize I have some interesting things to consider. I want to keep running Cypher System, for both my fantasy-SF campaign I designed for it as well as my super hero setting and more I am working on. But I also want to run Numenera (same game system, so doing this is all about absorbing the volumes of content for the Ninth World), and really want to get back to Call of Cthulhu. I frequently feel a desire to return to Traveller, or something like it....and a couple oddities such as the Everywhen RPG and Fantasy AGE still command my interest.

It is possible, outside of my family game, that I might actually be able to stay away from D&D for a while. We'll see....a few more books like Ravnica and I will probably cave and dive back in.

Games not yet released, or games I am in the process of reading and thinking about using, could finally get some time next year. I still would like to run Cold & Dark, for example. I'd like to experience Elite Dangerous RPG, which looks really interesting in a "totally like yet not Traveller" way. Kult will eventually show up in print one day, and that is a game I very much enjoyed back in it's 1st and 2nd edition days.

A couple new games next year: the "new" Fantasy Trip, for example, deserve attention. Cypher System 2nd edition, of course! Over The Edge 3rd edition. I could easily get derailed with any of these three. But beyond this? I think I may be set, honestly. Such is life as an older gamer....getting stuck in my rut, if you will!

Prepping for Fantasy AGE, and a Brief Intro to Ensaria

I'm back home after a mini-vacaction to visit family for Thanskgiving, and I've come to a conclusion:

It's time to dive in to Fantasy AGE.....for reals, this time!

I have no excuses....everything that I felt was absent on release with the Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook has since been squared away with the Bestiary and Companion books. The game now sports 35 archetypes and 10 playable species out of the gate, plenty of optional rules to customize to the preferred play style, more spells, and lots of interesting options to make the game one's own. Also, you can borrow and crib from Modern AGE RPG as well if you want.

This isn't entirely without some competition. I am still delving in to Numenera: Discovery & Destiny, the immense two-volume revised rulebook for Cypher System's far future setting. It's a great setting and system, but I know it will take me a long time to plow through it....and it may still not win out over me simply doing what I feel like with Cypher System's generic version, anyway.

Despite several new books for D&D in Waterdeep and some place called Ravnica, I find myself almost palpably unable to consider D&D as my mainstay any more. I never thought I'd reach this point....but I really do need a break from D&D. A prolonged break. I want fantasy gaming, 100% for sure, but I need it to be a little different from "classic D&D." Unfortunately D&D 5E does "classic D&D" so well that I feel like it is a game about well trod territory. Totally nothing wrong with that....but for me, I want something these days which gives me tools to work with that are new and different. I want a game which directly supports weird, exotic and different concepts, things which you don't find in D&D.*

I'm sure after a break I will be back, though.

It was also a close call with Mythras. But I think Mythras will wait a little longer while I take time to explore some of the sourcebooks available and settle on one to run straight up as-is (either Mythic Rome, Mythic Constantinople, After the Vampire Wars or Luther Arkwright). So, something to look forward to later in 2019, maybe.

But....for now, anyway, it's going to be Fantasy AGE. In thinking about choice of setting I've considered but ruled out my "old faithfuls," because unfortunately they tend to be very much worlds which were built within the parameters of D&D settings, and that's the sort of thing I want to get away from. I want worlds that fundamentally do not assume "D&Disms" on various levels.

I considered taking my long-running blog project, the world of Sarvaelen, and finish it off for proper use at the game table, but I am just as likely (maybe more so) to keep exploring the weird world of Ensaria which I developed at the start of this year for a five part Genesys Core campaign, migrated to a Cypher System campaign that is after 16 sessions still going strong, and have also explored with some random games in Pathfinder 1.0. The core conceit of Ensaria (which I have not posted much about on the blog yet) is as follows:

There are cultures with a belief in gods and there is ancient history but nothing is quite as it seems; Ensaria is at its core a secret "lost colony" of an ancient star empire which was cut off due to an ancient war, which the orcs may or may not have precipitated. The world (called Ansaere) was cut off abotu 27,000 years ago, but it was only the start of the planet's strange history.

The main region of Ensaria (the eponymous culture of same name) are a cluster of city states united by a common cultural pride and a dedication to three orders known as the "Wrotes," which are ancient magical guilds/schools that carry the traditions of ancient magic along with a moral and political ethos. They stand in opposition to other realms such as the Kalazat, a militant, fanatical theocracy dedicated to a monotheistic deity, but torn apart into multiple factions itself about how to revere that deity.

Most species of the world are either humans, human-like beings who may have been uplifted entities from the lost star empire of the old days, or other-dimensional refugees or invaders who got stuck here (orcs and elves notable for this). Some are aliens from other worlds who also ended up trapped her as well.

The planar realms of this world are composites of the "Interstitial Realms" which are sometimes also called the Bleed Between Worlds. It's a space of infinite possibilities and strangeness, through which the actual universes of existence can be reached. Most perceived gods are actually beings from this "space between universes," or from those other universes.

There is a lot more of course, but this is a basic overview of the key bits that make this setting different from other fantasy realms. I think Fantasy AGE could support "weird fantasy with sci fi elements" quite well --see Titansgrave for example; but with the concession that Cypher System does this almost by default! I'll plan to post more soon....and possibly even with dual stats for Cypher System and Fantasy AGE.


*I may write more about what I mean by this in a future blog. But safest to say that it's the tropes of D&D are what has me tired of it right now. 

Fantasy Age Companion out in PDF and Pre-Order Status!

More on this as I read through it, but I am very excited to at last have the next Fantasy Age book: The Fantasy Age Companion. Green Ronin has a pre-order special here where you get the PDF for an extra $5 if you order the physical product.

Fantasy Age Companion is Actually Planned for 2018

So I'm going to claim I was using reverse psychology, but truth is it looks like the Fantasy Age Companion really is on track for 2018. Yay!

I'm looking forward to this book and seeing what it has to offer. Consensus among my group has been that we should give Fantasy Age a try (again) soon, as the right combo of players and interest seems to be in the mix now.

Also of interest is the Modern Age book, due out some day (right)? and the Lazarus adaptation which I know nothing about other than it ties in to an Image comic (I think), as well as the planned supplement for Dragon Age, which remains intriguing because honestly I think that the tabletop RPG for Dragon Age is a better successor to the original computer game than every other CRPG sequel to be produced so far.

Reviewing the 2017 Gaming Predictions

Back in December 29 of last year I made some gaming predictions/analysis about where things ought to go for 2017....so how did it stack up?

1. A Companion Book for Fantasy AGE

--NOPE!!!

As it turns out, Green Ronin got Blue Rose out this year, announced a Modern AGE (though that will probably not come out until sometime in 2018) and that was about it.

2. WotC Releases a Player's Tome for D&D 5E

--YEP!!!!

Sure enough, the did it: Xanathar's Tome is also for DMs, but contains plenty of new archetypes for players, new background details, and loads of little bits that D&D 5E needed. I wish they'd do this every year, but understand that the game's focus is on less splat...so maybe 2018 will give us a new monster book, instead.

3. Starfinder support for straight SF

--NOPE!!!!

Starfinder is fun, but it's pure fantasy space opera of the Nth order. I still contend it needed to be a broader toolkit, but for what it does set out to do, it does very well. So I suppose this is a wash. Given how saturated the market has become with SF game options, though, I would suggest that Starfinder probably is doing fine by distinguishing itself with its fantasy-based Pact Worlds universe and this was probably a smarter move on their part than directly competing with Star Wars, Star Trek, FrontierSpace, a re-release of Star Frontiers in POD, Traveller, Coriolis, and probably two dozen others I haven't mentioned, never mind all the generic systems with SF support. So yeah.

4. Swords & Wizardry goes mainstream

--NOPE!!!

The new edition came out but it doesn't appear to have changed S&W's saturation in the market. If anything the OSR seems to be dominated by the more innovative titles which are better described as "inspired by" as well as a slew of weird "we are going to repurpose the fuck out of B/X D&D" releases on rpgnow that are all over the place. So no mainstream OSR title.

5. GURPS Returns

--YEP!!!

Hell yeah it did. Dungeon Fantasy has re-energized GURPS, and then Steve Jackson Games got GURPS on to rpgnow which was a bold decision on their part, but brings it back in to the "view" of most gamers who don't frequent e23. They are looking to a future of new stand-alone, Kickstarter-funder releases similar to Dungeon Fantasy, and lastly Steve Jackson also regained control of his content for The Fantasy Trip, which was GURPS's predecessor, which based on his comments on the GURPS forums he plans to re-release as-is, meaning a very "lite" version of the system which inspired GURPS will be available again soon.

SJG could move too slowly on future plans, but for 2017 at least GURPS got some much needed love and attention.

6. Pathfinder 2.0 

--NOPE!!!

They could be quietly working on this, but they didn't announce it. There are lots of streamlined design decisions in Starfinder, but I feel many of those are designed to suit the space fantasy laser gun elements of the setting and may not be so ideal for straight fantasy gaming. There's a planned release schedule that suggests no 2.0 announcement for 2018, either....and judging from the diehard dislike of the Wilderness Adventures book's shifter class, the Pathfinder core will not be happy with anything that isn't fully public in playtest, so I suspect no 2.0 is in the works right now, or the foreseeable future.

So...2 out of 6! About par for the course with any good fortune teller, in other words....

Green Ronin and Fantasy AGE Plans in 2017

Well, as news on this year's plans trickle out we have some details on various publishers to consider. This year Green Ronin announced a number of planned releases, although not quite as exciting as last year's announcement....key among the releases is a Ashes of Valkana campaign book which would be more exciting if I was in to Titansgrave. Fantasy AGE will get its own crowd sourced "dmsguild" this year some time, which I imagine will be a way to fill out some of the much-needed absent content from the game as it currently stands. It's a shame that this appears to be the direction RPGs are going now to handle the desire for new content among gamers vs. the skeletal release rates of books these days, but I suppose when in Rome....get used to PDFs.

Blue Rose is also releasing this year, for those who are interested. I'm not really the target demographic, but I did find the original an interesting concept in the under-appreciated romantic fantasy genre.

There's also a hint of Dragon Age content to come, but mired in the license approval requirements.

So......a bit bare this year, unfortunately, and it sounds like instead of an "Advanced" rulebook for Fantasy AGE we will instead get a community content portal instead.

2015 Gaming Year in Review Part I: Green Ronin & Paizo

As 2015 goes away I thought I'd look at the highs and lows of the year, followed by some predictions.....and in 2015 for tabletop gaming there were more than a few!

HIGH: Green Ronin finally released Fantasy AGE and completed Dragon AGE.

...long in coming, this was a book everyone was waiting for, literally, for years. The first Dragon AGE boxed set released in 2010, and fans had been waiting very patiently for five years to see a playable "generic" edition as well as the completed Dragon AGE set, letting you at last run campaigns all the way to level 20. Fantasy AGE was so well received it blew through it's first print run and had to get an entire second print run to meet demand.

The high point was only offset by the low point....

LOW: Green Ronin's Mystery Setting Announcement Was...???

In January Green Ronin released a news piece about the first Fantasy AGE setting, suggesting it would be talked about for a long time to come. I provided my own biased suggestions for what sort of setting would be worthy of such monumental impact. As it turns out, Green Ronin actually only announced two settings this year: a Blue Rose Kickstarter and the Titansgrave "Ashes of Valkhana" book that was the initial companion campaign to the Fantasy AGE rulebook. Neither of these were worthy of the implied shock and awe that Chris Pramas implied, although I suppose one could imagine (based on the announcements written about it) that they had the strongly inclusive Blue Rose RPG in mind. The problem, of course, is that not that many people were all that excited about Blue Rose; it's a setting which has it's fans, and they are happy....but for the rest of us, it was more of a "okay, cool, so what's the shock and awe setting?" moment. And Titansgrave is, while fun, not even remotely newsworthy unless you have some weird fascination for Wesley Crusher.

....So, no setting announced worthy of the hype, unfortunately.

HIGH: Pathfinder keeps chugging along

We received the really cool Bestiary 5 this year, the complex and dense Occult Adventures (which was something I was very intrigued about but my group has found to be relatively difficult to actually get in to), even more interesting but impenetrable Pathfinder Unchained, and lots of other stuff. Pathfinder is holding its base, which is good since there are enough people to keep it going. This demonstrates that the market has room for a range of complexity in fantasy gaming: from ultra simple OSR games to the mid-tier D&D 5E to the top-of-the-heap Pathfinder.

LOW: Goblinworks and Pathfinder Online

I saw an end-of-year announcement from Lisa Stevens that Goblinworks had found a mystery backer willing to foot the bill for the completion of the game (or something to that effect). This could be good news, because the big deal in 2015 was that they had to lay off almost all staff and go into maintenance mode for the title, as they admitted they had fallen short of about 75% of their necessary funding to complete the game. Pathfinder Online remains a perplexing title for many....it's a game, and there may be a niche market for the kind of game it is, but it's not a Pathfinder game in the sense that most people would think of it, and not something Pathfinder fans like myself would be interested in. That, coupled with horrible animations, a current playable version that feels like a crude alpha build, and the general suck level of the Unity engine means that any backer stepping up will hopefully have the oomph to completely revise this project....but I suspect that's not its ultimate destiny.

PREDICTIONS: I expect Green Ronin to announce more content for Fantasy AGE in 2016, hopefully an "advanced set" with more player content and a GM's book and/or more robust bestiary. My worry is that we'll see more Blue Rose and Titansgrave and not much else. My dark fear is that this is Green Ronin and we won't see any of the desired content for another year or two....but I think that's a bit unfounded; the only real delay they experience is with licensed properties.

For Pathfinder I will be surprised if we don't see an announcement by close of 2017 that involves a possible rules expansion, but I doubt we'll see a "Pathfinder 2.0" under discussion. The 3.X engine it is built on is a contentious beast to redesign, as WotC itself has learned, twice. If Pathfinder Unchained was an effort at illustrating future directions for Pathfinder, then I suspect the road to 2.0 will be steep and treacherous.

Goblinworks meanwhile will probably be gone before close of year, unless this new mysterious backer is actually some real publisher with some teeth....but in the state the Pathfinder Online game is in I see no way it can survive 12 more months without serious cash and a new direction. Still.....a game like Alganon Online continues to exist (and on Steam, too!), so I could be wrong. My wife and I were playing it years ago before our son was born and marveling at the hidden promise buried beneath mounds of suck....although in Alganon's defense it's still more polished and playable than Pathfiner Online.

NEXT! Kickstarters And Stuff

Death Bat's Top Five Tabletop RPGs for 2015

Now for the paper, pencil and dice side of the equation! In keeping with the computer gaming awards I'll give categories to each of the five.

#5. Best OSR Game: Beyond the Wall and Other Tales

I wrote about it already, and concede this game has been around longer than 2015, so I'll just point to the Further Afield source book and say it's enough justification. Beyond the Wall is like only a handful of other OSR RPGs on the market, of which I include Dungeon Crawl Classics and some source books like a Red and Pleasant Land: these are brilliant, unique tomes that take the core of classic D&D and spin it in directions you really want to play. Beyond the Wall does this by modeling the fictional realms of Lloyd Alexander, Ursula K. Le Guin and other young fantasy authors to recapture a feel and style I had all but forgotten I loved, then codified it in the unique playbook and scenario pack mechanics which make gaming on the fly easier than ever, and also provides a technique for teaching GMs (old and new) how to run improvisational games using the scenario packs. Fantastic books, get both the core book and Further Afield.

Runner Up: Everything publish to date by New Big Dragon Games.

#4. Best Fantasy RPG: Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls is the definitive, fantastic "ultimate edition" to the second RPG to come out after the original D&D. Now with tons of extra content, rules options and world details...yet still compatible with older editions. A must have if regular gaming is hard for you to find, thanks to T&T's long line of solo adventures, or want to learn about Troll World, or just want the best pickup-and-play beer-and-pretzels RPG to exist, period.

Runner Up: Luther Arkwright is an amazing multi-dimensional modern fantasy setting (with sci fi trappings) for Runequest 6 (alias the Design Mechanism Engine) and is well worth checking out. Based on a series of graphic novels it gives you all the tools you need to engage in modern gaming with the RQ6 engine.

#3. Best Horror RPG: Chill 3rd Edition

If you missed the days when Chill was a thing, now's your chance to experience it again, in a modern format with what is very much still the same core rules and setting intact, a rarity for so many games these days. Chill is about monster hunting, exploration and stopping great evil as an agent of S.A.V.E. which works to protect mankind from ancient horrors. The newest edition has the right lineage of design and does a great job of bringing Chill back to life. My suggestion is to splurge for the deluxe premium color POD edition.

Runner Up: I was really impressed with Silent Legions from Sine Nomine, which includes a unique sort of "create your own mythos" mechanic.

#2. Best Science Fiction RPG: The Last Parsec for Savage Worlds

Written for use with the Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion (which I went gaga for last year), the Last Parsec is a multi-tome setting and campaign aimed squarely at big-concept SF in the modern tradition of the fiction and films which inspired it. If you get the four core books you'll have enough immediate scenario content to run several years without exhausting what has been provided. The writing, imagination and graphics are all top-notch.

Thanks to my wife who recently ran a Last Parsec scenario which I got to play in!!!

Runner Up: Retrostar, the RPG of 70's era science fiction. This amazing book precisely captures the style of SF in the delicate years of 1970-1979, a time when SF was experiencing a revolution in interest and imagination, limited only by the crappy budgets most TV series labored under.

#1. RPG Book of the Year: Fantasy AGE

Green Ronin finally released the AGE System as a stand-alone rule set, immediately creating a unique contestant for the otherwise crowded fantasy game corner of the market. Fantasy AGE introduces mechanics which put it in direct competition with both D&D and Runequest, while retaining its own unique style of play that focuses on the epic story and quest over the more mundane. It only has one sourcebook out there right now (Titansgrave), but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Fantasy AGE gets a lot of new content for 2016.

Runner Up: Out of the Abyss for D&D 5E. This is not only a cool module but the first one they devised which I feel is relatively easy to adapt to other world settings, and adds themes and elements distinct in flavor that set it apart from the last two years of official adventures. Fans of the Underdark must check this one out.

Honorable Mention

I'd like to point out that a lot of good RPGs came out this year, and a few worth investigating that I didn't mention include:

White Star: takes the core conceit of the Swords & Wizardry Whitebox edition and applies it to SF (EDIT: given how much fun I am having with this one in 2016, I think it will be my 2016 OSR game of the year....unless someone comes along with something even more impressive....)

Class Compendium: Barrel Rider Games' compendium of classes for classic-era B/X style D&D is an invaluable resource to old school gaming.

Cypher System: possibly the best new multigenre RPG out there the only reason it didn't make my top five list somewhere is that it's got a set of core mechanics that are taking my brain a bit of time to adjust to. The book itself is presented as a robust toolkit and well worth investigating, especially if you like Monte Cook's other titles.

Peril on the Purple Planet: this boxed set is the first truly distinct setting/module set for Dungeon Crawl Classics to emphasize the weird settings that the game is most suited for.

Nonhumans of Sarvaelen in Fantasy AGE

In working out details on the nonhumans of Sarvaelen I decided to skew as closely as possible to the core book, both for ease of access for my players and to avoid spending a lot of time on specialized race details that are at best minor in difference compared to the core. The only exception is the Abashan, the dark elves of Sarvaelen. 

Nonhuman Races of Sarvaelen

There are a handful of deminhuman races in Sarvaelen, and their numbers have been growing in the two centuries since Camrinal’s fall. Among these demihumans are:

The Ilmarain Elves

The elves of Ilmarain are a secretive, suspicious race. The Ilmarain herald from their dominion in the Realm of the Faerie where they claim to belong to the Summer Court. Their disdain for men and love of cruelty is only slightly less than that of the Abashan, the dark elves. Their Queen of Air and Water is the ruler of the Summer Court. The term Ilmarain apparently is also the name of the elven city from which most elves enter the mortal world.

Unlike elves of other realms, Ilmarain are strongly affiliated with their realm of the fey, the Faerie Court. This tether makes it possible for them to slip between worlds into the beautiful but deadly and maddening fairie lands when they sense a weakening of the veil that separates their realm from the mortal world.

Ilmarain Characters: use the elf template in Fantasy AGE, with one additional special trait:

·         Ilmarain elves receive a unique focus: perception (weave). Like all elvenkind, the Ilmarain are indelibly tied to the Faerie Realm, sometimes known as the Weave. Any elf has a natural affinity for the places in the world where this region is weak, and a perception (weave) check will help pierce the veil between worlds and allow them to move between the two realms. The strength of the opening in the veil determines whether they can bring people with them, and how difficult it can be to detect.

The Abashan Dark Elves

The elves of Abashan are counter to the Ilmarain. They are dark of skin, seeped in shadow and darkness, and servants to the Winter Court. Their ruler is Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, a destructive immortal of pure power. The Abashan are most comfortable in shadow and seek out the darkest corners and depths of the earth in which to manifest. They are inimical to mortals, and treat them as playthings at best, cattle at worst.

Like their fair kin, the Abashan have a profound connection to the land of shadow where the Winter Court presides, and can innately sense and manipulate weak spots in the veil to traverse into the realm of shadow.

Abashan Characters:

·         Dark elves gain +1 to dexterity

·         Choose one focus from dexterity (stealth), communication (deception) or strength (intimidation)

·         The dark elves have darksight out to 40 yards instead of 20

·         Dark elves start knowing only Abashan Elvish; dark elves disdain the languages of other races.

·         Dark elves start with a speed of 12+dexterity (minus any armor penalties)

·         Abashan dark elves gain a unique focus similar to Ilmarain: perception (shadow), which allows them to pierce the veil to the realm of shadow, tethered to the dominion of the Winter Court. The ability to bring others along as well as spot the veil of shadow depends on the strength of the veil in that area.

·         Abashan get two rolls on the following benefits:

Abashan Dark Elf Benefits

2D6      Benefit

2          +1 Communication

3-4       Focus: intelligence (arcane lore)

5          Focus: perception (hearing)
6          Weapon group: light blades

7-8       +1 fighting

9          Weapon Group (bows)

10-11   Focus: Dexterity (initiative)

12        +1 Accuracy

The Orcs of Sugante and Aphoros

The orcs of the Lower Kingdoms are an ancient force unmeasured, for their presence in the world is new. It is not known if they are a recent manifestation, perhaps born out of the incalculable destruction of Camrinal or something more ancient, waiting for the wane of human rule to allow their species passage to conquest. Their rise in numbers has forced many dwarven enclaves to escape closer to the surface realms to avoid destruction.

Sugante and Aphoros Characters: both orcish groups can use the standard Fantasy AGE orc stats for character creation. Orcs of aphoros have a strange connection to the Weave, and may opt to learn the Focus: perception (shadow) because of this mysterious connection as a racial focus instead of the standard choices.

The Dwarves of the Lower Kingdoms

The stout dwarves are elemental sons of the earth, and they revere the Old God Satarnas as their creator, from whom they rose out of the earth in the wake of his steps in the caverns of the deeps. The dwarves dislike surface dwellers and rarely come out of their caverns save out of necessity. In the last century the rise of the orcs and other monsters in the darkness have forced the dwarves to seek passage out of their dark lands and to even call upon the aid of humans.

Dwarven Characters: the dwarf in the core rules can model dwarves of the Lower Kingdoms.

The Gnomes of Rekaras

The gnomes are a race similar to the dwarves and some claim a similar origin, created by the Old Gods though the gnomes insist that they are something different. They have some cities, such as Rekaras, on the surface world but many gnome tribes still dwell hidden in deep caverns and dark forests. The gnomes are a pernicious lot, inventors and madmen who have the logic of the fey, suggesting a connection to the Other World.

Rekaras Gnome Characters: use the standard gnome template in the core rules.

The Halflings of the Western Shores

Remote communities of halflings thrive north west of Emon. The haflings call themselves the True Folk, and claim to have been around when men were a new race in the world. Haflings are rare but for their lack of adventuresome spirit, and keep to themselves mostly. Halflings can and do disappear in times of war, and their ability to burrow into the earth and hide in the depths of the forests and mountains serve them well in dark times.

Halfling Characters: Western Shore Halflings can be made using the core rule Halfling as default.

Sarvaelen in Fantasy AGE: The Emoniae as a PC race

I've been working on lots of Sarvaelen conversions for Fantasy AGE. Here's the Emoniae, the human race with elemental taint that dwells in the far west, and once comprised one of the larger forces in revolt in the old civil war against the Empire of Camrinal which also survived the devastating purge of the emperor that destroyed everything....

This race has a bloodline taint which I have left as an optional aberration, although I considered modeling it as a specialization...problem with that is if I do, then emon can't also choose from a specialization. Ultimately the taint is a powerful trait which eventually corrupts the emon's humanity, swallowing it whole....enough, perhaps, to weigh out the advantages knowing that too many elemental traits will turn the PC into a dangerous NPC.

The People of Emon

Also known as the Emoniae, the people of this distant land exist far in the west, beyond the ruined expanse of the wastelands of Camrinal. Emon was the greatest independent threat to Camrinal in its era of rule, and the Emoniae were a culture of sorcerers much like the Empire. When the Final War erupted, their lands were devastated, and the Empire sought to exterminate their greatest rivals as quickly as possible. When the conflict ended with the destruction of Camrinal, most of Emon’s warriors were caught in the destruction, and destroyed. Still, there were plenty of survivors back home, now mostly dwelling in ancient, deep enclaves within the vast Adasatrak Mountains where they stood guard against the outside world.

Today the Emoniae are still driven by magic as a way of life and such arts find a greater acceptance within their mountain fortresses than anywhere else. The Emoniae remain isolated and tend to mistrust the young eastern kingdoms that have arisen from the ashes of the Final War. It is also the only land where the study and worship of the Old Gods is still permitted.

Elemental Taint: Emoniae revere the elemental old gods, and still worship them. There is a chance that any emoniae has some elemental heritage in his or her bloodline. The immediate effect is an innate basic understanding of the elemental tongue and an affinity for that element, which means that they tend to be regarded favorably by elementals of like type that they meet (at GM's discretion a +2 reaction modifier; see below for other features this taint induces).

The Emoniae As a PC

Many emoniae have a talent for magic, and are most commonly mages by class. Emoniae are, like pureblooded of Camrinal, prone to attracting the attention and interest of demons, spirits, elementals, old gods and other beings from the Elemental Realms. Elves have an abnormal fascination for them, and as a result it is more common to run into half-elves of mixed elvish and emoniae blood than any other combination. Emoniae are a special type of human, with the following racial traits:

·         Emoniae gain +1 in intelligence or +1 in Fighting.

·         Emoniae may choose Focus: intelligence (arcane lore) or Focus: intelligence (natural lore) to start.

·         Emoniae move at a speed of 10+dexterity like other men.

·         Emoniae learn the common (Aeronostic) tongue as well as Emonish, their cultural language.

·         Emoniae roll on the following benefits table:

Emoniae Benefits

2D6      Benefit

2          +1 Intelligence

3-4       Focus: intelligence (writing)

5          Focus: communication (persuasion)
6          Weapon group: staves or light blades

7-8       +1 communication

9          Focus: intelligence (elemental affinity)

10-11   Focus: willpower (self-discipline)

12        +1 Willpower

Emoniae Focus: elemental affinity (choose one elemental type)

This focus lets the emon mage add his focus bonus to elemental attacks of the same type (i.e. fire, air, water, earth, shadow). Gaining this focus also means that the emon has elemental taint (see next), can speak the elemental language of choice, and may gain the focus bonus on positive reaction rolls with elementals.

Elemental Taint

An emon who chooses to be a mage and also gains the elemental affinity focus gains elemental taint. The first time this happens, usually at level 1-3 (the GM can roll randomly to determine when),

he or she begins to manifest a sign of elemental corruption, usually in the form of a glow or emission from the skin, and a slow but certain "change" on the skin that seems to be a manifestation of that emon's elemental taint (stone-like skin, persistent water running from pores, smoke, or a misty fog following the emon). This first manifestation is cosmetic and can be suppressed with concentration (a TN 11 vs. willpower (self-discipline) check).  Once the emoniae reaches level 4 and chooses a specialist discipline, each rank of proficiency thereafter the emoniae must make a check against willpower (self-discipline) at TN 12 (novice), TN 16 (expert), and TN 21 (master) to avoid manifesting new taint effects. This roll becomes harder (-2 penalty) if the elementalist specialization is taken.

Roll each time to see what manifests:

Emoniae Elemental Corruption Chart

1D6      Elemental Corruption Type

1-3       Elemental resistance: take half damage from the elemental type you are tainted by; if you roll this a second time gain immunity to that elemental type damage.

4-5       Gain power to summon an elemental of your corruption type for 1 hour. Requires 5 minutes of concentration to summon and 5 MP to cast. The second time you roll this you learn to summon a larger elemental for 8 MP, and the third time a huge elemental for 12 MP.

6          gain permanent emission of elemental type: stone skin (gain 5 AR), fire erupts from flesh (immune to damage from it but deals 1D6 to all on touch), air (gains levitate at will at your speed), or water (emits water permanently, gains water breathing). These traits are very difficult to disguise and require a willpower (self-discipline) check of TN 18 to supress for 1 hour. The second time you roll this effect you become a true elemental being. The form changes noticeably to be "more" of the elemental type and the emon's humanity becomes suppressed. Breathing is no longer necessary. The third time you roll a 6 the emon gains the ability to plane shift to his elemental plane of appropriate type at will for 6 MP. The fourth time the emon rolls 6 on this chart he becomes a true elemental and departs the material plane, becoming an NPC at the GM's discretion.